Several people asked for a summary of responses concerning my invoice
tracking software question. See below. We currently use DBTextworks,
but it is not perfectly suited to our needs. We need to be able to
track invoices by practice group. Some invoices are allocated to
various groups, so we really need a software that will calculate these
allocations. So far, I have not heard of a good and easy way to do
this. John Kristelli has kindly offered to help me fine tune my current
set up to more easily track these items. Thanks John!
SUMMARY:
We use Microsoft Access, but you can't search two fields at once like
you could in Paradox.
I use a very inexpensive program written by Cindy Chick, editor of LLRX
and a librarian for Latham & Watkins in California. Someone told me that
Cindy had written a program that allowed searches by title,
publisher, invoice number and date, account number, department, office,
etc. I called her and she sent me a disk with the program to try. If I
liked it, I could pay her the $250 asking price, if not, I should delete
the program. It generates reports and allows me to check the history of
prices by publication, etc. The program I use is DOS, but there is a
Windows version now. She can send it to you electronically if you
contact her. It's not perfect, but it fits the information I need to
track and I haven't really seen anything else that's better.
I use the same DB/TextWorks I use for the catalog. I track all invoices
for item, ledger code, classification, type of purchase, etc. I then
sort and
report however I want. The hard part is transferring the totals to Excel
for drawing up the annual budget. But it still works well for me.
Several years ago, I used Access to develop a database of invoice
information. It was really nice because so many different reports could
be generated based on what I needed to know. I set up fields for title,
author, publisher, account #, invoice number, supplement, cost, contact
tel # and/or web site and a notes field, etc.. The notes field was
really great for historical research when a vendor kept billing for
something already paid or returned. You could also include a field for
location and practice group.
It's a fair amount of work to set up initially but once it's
established, zowee!
I use Inmagic/DBTextworks. Have since 1985 at 3 different firms, mainly
because I use it for a variety of databases. We track our costs by
office, publication type, and I have tracked by practice group in the
past. I use the following fields:
ID (arbitrary number 1,2,3, etc.)
TITLE
AUTHOR
PUBLISHER
COST
INVOICE NO.
DATE OF INVOICE
ACCOUNT NO.
SECTION (OFFICE)
TYPE (OF PUBLICATION)
CK NUMBERCHECK DATE
PAID (1-12 so I can quickly sort by month paid)
BUDGET (supplements, new, online, file charge, etc.)
DATE SENT (date I sent to accounting; date mailed)
NOTES
Will be glad to answer specific questions or if you are familiar with
Inmagic would send copy of data structure. I use a "print" format /
display format which "totals" the cost field so I can quickly add up
expenditures in a variety of ways (by office, by publication type, by
budget code, etc.)
I used a database called DB/Textworks to create a textbase with two
fields for the two codes and a dollar field for the charges. I could
sort by either code and issue reports with totals. It was also good for
evenly applying discounts offered by some vendors.
You could use another textbase to plug in department or project names,
so reports have more info about each line item. You could have a report
that shows pending budget items or invoices just by date sorting.
John Kristelli (john@kristelli.com)
We use an Access (originally a DBase II) database we developed
ourselves. I have trained 4 assistants to enter and track data. They
have all found it easy to learn and use. I have never found any library
software I liked better.
I use Microsoft Access.
I haven't used it here yet, but have in another position: InMagic's
DBText software is great for all management functions. When I had the
simple
DBTextWorks edition, each record had a field for the department code and
a field for the unit code (it was a government agency). I could sort by
code to determine who requested what, and print customized reports. The
only thing I couldn't do was make it add things up. I haven't fully
rolled out my new WebPublisher system. But, I know it has features
beyond the DBTextWorks. You might want to give the InMagic sales people
a call. They might be able to help you. (800) 229-8398 x228
Personally, I like Inmagic.
Wendy L. Gramza
(937) 886-9172 PHONE
(937) 886-9173 FAX
wgramza@bowlesrice.com
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