In my last post, I chronicled The Saga of the Inventory Software.
In this post I will explain how I resolved it.
To refresh your memories, finding BUSINESS accounting software that runs on a MAC that does not cost a hefty penny; does inventory; and works well is a very rare thing BUT after much Googling I located Express Accounts and Inventoria which are both my NCH Software.
I won't go into the evaluation process but let me just say that after working with each for a week I was convinced that they would meet my needs. I was fortunate enough to hit this right as they were having a software sale so I bought both.
IF you want to do just inventory management then Inventoria alone will suit your needs. You can set up suppliers, customers, inventory categories and sub-categores, unit of measure. Create orders and receive parts as well as Invoices for items you sell, as well as reports for costing. If you want to track COSTS and what your business is doing money wise, then Express Accounts is for you. AND in Express Accounts you can do some basic Inventory Management too. So it comes down to basic double entry accounting; purchasing, selling and reporting. A basic knowledge of accounting is required. For either package I will not teach you how to do all of this but their website will help you if you have further questions on it.
Once I had bought the software, I now had to move everything I had done in Bead Manager Pro (BMP) and export it so I could import it onto the new system. Yes this would take time but starting over from scratch would be even longer. The ace in my pocket to do this was my many years of experience working with and installing this type of software. FYI in big business the entire suite is called Enterprise Resource Planning "ERP" and this covers Sales driving Manufacturing which drives Purchasing and Recieving and the Accounting that ties it all together. I was in my element even though I would have preferred not be there.
From BMP, I exported my suppliers and I also did separate exports of each category of parts; these I set aside. In Express Accounts I set up the chart of accounts and imported my suppliers. Next I massaged the parts exports to give me lists of parts and categories which I could then import in the software world this process is called a data conversion. It took a few tries to get the files setup so I could import each portion of the data but working with just one or two lines of data allowed me to eventually import over 166 different items in inventory along with their costs and quantities (wire, sheets of metal, disks, jewelry components, stones, etc.) an for those items that did not export from BMP (about 20 items) those I hand entered. This was all done in Inventoria.
Then I had to do journal entries to take care of the dollar amounts in Express Accounts. For items like hammers and other equipment that is not tracked in a normal inventory, I had put them into BMP so I could track the costs. I just had to find the totals, in BMP for these categories and make the appropriate journal entries. I then did journal entries for the inventory categories.
Afterwards, I did a quick reconciliation which is just bean counter speak for make sure it all totals and I was done.
In 3 days I had moved out of BMP and into my new system.
I would not recommend this for the faint of heart or if you don't know how to do it; but I did and I could so it is now done.
What can you learn from all of this.
Don't do a quick evaluation
Test everything! In the past I would have, doing this on a paid job but I admit I was lazy this time around
Don't be afraid to say "This won't work" and ...
Quit while you are a head, not when you have a head ache.
I hope I have helped you.
In this post I will explain how I resolved it.
To refresh your memories, finding BUSINESS accounting software that runs on a MAC that does not cost a hefty penny; does inventory; and works well is a very rare thing BUT after much Googling I located Express Accounts and Inventoria which are both my NCH Software.
I won't go into the evaluation process but let me just say that after working with each for a week I was convinced that they would meet my needs. I was fortunate enough to hit this right as they were having a software sale so I bought both.
IF you want to do just inventory management then Inventoria alone will suit your needs. You can set up suppliers, customers, inventory categories and sub-categores, unit of measure. Create orders and receive parts as well as Invoices for items you sell, as well as reports for costing. If you want to track COSTS and what your business is doing money wise, then Express Accounts is for you. AND in Express Accounts you can do some basic Inventory Management too. So it comes down to basic double entry accounting; purchasing, selling and reporting. A basic knowledge of accounting is required. For either package I will not teach you how to do all of this but their website will help you if you have further questions on it.
Once I had bought the software, I now had to move everything I had done in Bead Manager Pro (BMP) and export it so I could import it onto the new system. Yes this would take time but starting over from scratch would be even longer. The ace in my pocket to do this was my many years of experience working with and installing this type of software. FYI in big business the entire suite is called Enterprise Resource Planning "ERP" and this covers Sales driving Manufacturing which drives Purchasing and Recieving and the Accounting that ties it all together. I was in my element even though I would have preferred not be there.
From BMP, I exported my suppliers and I also did separate exports of each category of parts; these I set aside. In Express Accounts I set up the chart of accounts and imported my suppliers. Next I massaged the parts exports to give me lists of parts and categories which I could then import in the software world this process is called a data conversion. It took a few tries to get the files setup so I could import each portion of the data but working with just one or two lines of data allowed me to eventually import over 166 different items in inventory along with their costs and quantities (wire, sheets of metal, disks, jewelry components, stones, etc.) an for those items that did not export from BMP (about 20 items) those I hand entered. This was all done in Inventoria.
Then I had to do journal entries to take care of the dollar amounts in Express Accounts. For items like hammers and other equipment that is not tracked in a normal inventory, I had put them into BMP so I could track the costs. I just had to find the totals, in BMP for these categories and make the appropriate journal entries. I then did journal entries for the inventory categories.
Afterwards, I did a quick reconciliation which is just bean counter speak for make sure it all totals and I was done.
In 3 days I had moved out of BMP and into my new system.
I would not recommend this for the faint of heart or if you don't know how to do it; but I did and I could so it is now done.
What can you learn from all of this.
Don't do a quick evaluation
Test everything! In the past I would have, doing this on a paid job but I admit I was lazy this time around
Don't be afraid to say "This won't work" and ...
Quit while you are a head, not when you have a head ache.
I hope I have helped you.
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