Office Administration Software

[Brad805]

I dont know exactly where to post this, so I will give the corporate success area a try.

We currently have our own software for tracking clients and project information, but a recent microsoft update prevents us from updating the source code to use this in Win 7. We are going to need a new software package for this, and I was interested to see what others use.

We already have accounting software, but it's client/project tracking is not great for engineering.

Thanks
Brad

 

[KENAT]

We use SAP for our ERP.

It seems accountant types love it, everyone else at best lives with it, or in some cases loathes it.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[zdas04]

I wrote my own in Microsoft Access. Been using it for 8 years (one-man shop) and it is getting a little bit cumbersome as the number of records increases, but it still works really well. I looked at several packages, and hated them all. I guess the big issue was the need to include a daily activities page on invoices (I have a diary functionality in the dataabase that I relate a number of hours to a project and a description). I think that commercial software calls that "journaling" or some made up word like that, but the implementations seemed really lame to me.

What I'm trying to say is that if you have functionality that works for you you have two options--don't implement Windows 7 (which is the choice I took and XP is working quite well for me thank you), or write a new one that is compatible with Windows 7. I'm thinking that if you are happy with home-grown software you won't be happy with one-size-fits-noone commercial software.

David

 

[jmw]

Whatever happened to "future proofing"?


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I think your problem may be that your old package worked with 32 bit computers and will not work with Win7 at 64 bits.

That said, you can tell your new computer to run this program as a 32 bit. HOWEVER, I don't know how to do that but if you go over to TEK-TIPS.com - a sister site to this one - they can tell you.

 

[robertib]

The following works in Windows XP

If you right-click on the executable file and select properties, you can go to the Compatibility tab & select a different version of Windows.

The same tab may be useful in Win 7.

 

[MintJulep]

Maybe if you gave some details of what you actually need to accomplish you would get some more specific suggestions.

"Office Administration" and "Tracking clients and projects" are pretty broad targets to shoot at.

 

[Brad805]

I am not a fan of trying to keep old XP software going. We already have dualing systems trying to keep old XP and Win 7 components working, and it will only get worse as time goes by. It gets tricky for our tech to keep all the old/new things working. Eventually the crafty hardware/software suppliers will stop producing drivers, and then you have no choice. We already have an old HP 750 Plotter that we cannot get win 7 or Vista drivers for.

I surf using the virtual XP system, and it is less than perfect.

Our tech happened to be the programmer, and he also writes software for a living (far more complex things than this). I am sure that when he says it is not possible to upgrade to win 7 without re-writing a lot of code, that is the truth. It seemed to be a simple case where windows is no longer supporting the main programming application that was used 15yrs ago to create the program.

The current software basically keeps track of client numbers, addresses, and the various projects we work on for them. It is also used to create the invoices and keep a running total. It does not have any project management features such as microsoft project, nor does it need any. It is not a complex package by anymeans, but it sure is handy to find old projects from 20yrs ago.

Thanks guys.
Brad

 

[MiketheEngineer]

What language is the source code??

 

[Brad805]

Mike, I don't recall. We invested $13k into developing this software 20yrs ago, and I don't want to re-visit it. I imagine there are much better options out there and I have staff that can re-enter the info into a new package so we can get on board with the current times. I am confident when my tech says it is a big job to change over, it is.

Brad

 

[SWComposites]

sounds like Quickbooks might be what you need.

 

[Brad805]

SWC, we already have and use simply accounting for keeping track of accounts. Accounting software is not very useful for tracking what building we did for them, where it is, what we were doing, when we did it,.... I have clients we have been working for more than 15years, and have done multiple buildings for them.

I am starting to think there is not a lot of great software options out there still. That is why my predecessor had his own made just like David did.

I know contractors have great programs for this, but they do a lot of things we simply do not need.

Brad

 

[jmw]

We invested $13k into developing this software 20yrs ago, and I don't want to re-visit it.

A bargain. That's $650 a year.
I'd say time to invest again.
Plus a 20 year old system probably creaks a bit by now.



JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

We have our own home-brewed system in our department, basically a web-based system comprising loads of PHP code and a database. It handles all of our business practices. The corporate people are gradually unrolling SAP onto everyone else. This will be at least the third system I've seen in my 20 years here. Questions are being asked as to how and when we will integrate with this. We are holding our own.

- Steve

 

[konjos0]

Hi Brad,
If you are after a simple cloud based project/resource tracking software - I suggest CLARIZEN. We use it at our company to track various projects, timelines, etc - although we are an IT company, I believe this is what you are after.

Cheers,
JK