[Cleaner Windows]

Is there a way of importing a list of customers from microsoft excel into "george" ?

the customer list is literally just one page of customers (over a hundred rows)
im not good enough with excell to use it to my advantage, and now my round is growing its becoming to hard to manage this way, so i thought i'd give george a whirl, ive just tried to look for an import button or something like that but cant see one   :

[xpskwindowcleaning]

There isn't any way I know of to import into George, only to export out. You might be better off trying something like Round Tracker, which works within Excel anyway so you'll be able to copy and paste across, and offers much the same fuinctionality as George. For a tenner, it's good value.

http://www.windowcleaningresources.co.uk/html/round_tracker_.html

[Cleaner Windows]

ahh thanks mate, that sounds perfect! is it easy to use? or does it take long to get used to?
thanx

[Paul Coleman]

Is there a way of importing a list of customers from microsoft excel into "george" ?

the customer list is literally just one page of customers (over a hundred rows)
im not good enough with excell to use it to my advantage, and now my round is growing its becoming to hard to manage this way, so i thought i'd give george a whirl, ive just tried to look for an import button or something like that but cant see one   :

Do you have MS Access on your system?  It's the database that comes with MS Office (part of the suite of programs that contains Excel).  Alternatively, you could use MS Works database.  I'm not saying these are better than George but it would be a lot easier to copy and paste data from one to the other.
You say you are "not good enough" to use the software.  It can be a learning curve but is very doable.
I had trouble setting the MS Works software up at first but there is an abundance of free help on the newsgroups.

[Cleaner Windows]

thanks, i might try that too i think ive got the progs you mentioned! 

[Feen]

It took me quite a while to enter all my customers into George, but it was worth it. Superb programme. Simple to use. Now all that's needed is to enter any new customers and update it as you do the work.

[Paul Coleman]

It took me quite a while to enter all my customers into George, but it was worth it. Superb programme. Simple to use. Now all that's needed is to enter any new customers and update it as you do the work.

I would suggest that even if he decides to enter all his customers into George manually, that he should also keep a list elsewhere in case he wants to change tack later and make it easy to copy/paste into another program.  George does export as a .csv file so it's not critical to do so but would potentially make things easier.

[Feen]

Shiner, I take your point. However, it's not practical to keep two sets of records. Should he enter the new job at No.45 in both programmes and make a note of when all the jobs he has just done are next due? Keep a backup of whatever programme you are using and if you decide to change, well then you have some work to do, but at least you have all the info available.

[Paul Coleman]

Shiner, I take your point. However, it's not practical to keep two sets of records. Should he enter the new job at No.45 in both programmes and make a note of when all the jobs he has just done are next due? Keep a backup of whatever programme you are using and if you decide to change, well then you have some work to do, but at least you have all the info available.

I only meant that the customer list could be kept that way.  No need to worry about record numbers as a database will quickly sort that out if a sort is required.

For instance, in my MSWorks database I have the following fields (amongst others):-

<title>,<firstname>,<lastname>,<address1>,<housename>,<housenumber>,<roadname>,<town> .

If I want to sort them into order I use the sort parameters <town>,<roadname>,<housenumber>

Doing something like that completely alters the record numbers anyway.

The other main sorts I do are called <nearlydue> and <moneyowed> which are self explanatory.
If the time and effort is put into setting up a database at the start, it can make life a lot easier as the business grows.  Of course if extra things are needed, more fields can be added later.  I have 23 fields in my main database which do a number of different jobs.  It sounds complicated but I wouldn't want to return to the way I used to do things as it's fairly simple to maintain if updated for a few minutes at the end of a days work.  Those 23 fields were not there from the start.  Many have been added as I have adjusted the way I do things.  Indeed, some of them are rarely used.

[SWCP]

Shiner
You make it sound so easy 
How do you go about keeping track of dates done and dates due?
I'm sure it's just a case of knowing the ins and outs of databases - is there and easy way of picking this up?
Matt.

[Paul Coleman]

Shiner
You make it sound so easy 
How do you go about keeping track of dates done and dates due?
I'm sure it's just a case of knowing the ins and outs of databases - is there and easy way of picking this up?
Matt.

I use 4 fields for keeping track of work.  They are <lastvisit>,<interval>,<nextvisit>, and <countdown>

lastvisit is the date which I enter manually after doing the job.  Interval is the gap between visits in days (most of mine are set at 42 as I do 6 weekly).  Nextvisit has the formula  =SUM(lastvisit+interval)  which adds the interval to lastvisit thus giving the target date of the next clean.  Dates are automatically treated as raw numbers by the software.  Countdown has the formula    =NOW()-nextvisit  which takes todays date and subtracts the date of the next visit from it.  This returns how many days there are to the next visit.  This is useful if I want to print out the jobs due over say the next three days because I just set up a filter to only show which jobs have a countdown value between 0 and -3 .
It does sound complicated but the only complicated bit is in setting it up.  Once that is done, it can make things a lot simpler PROVIDED you update your records when you get in from work.  I have found that if I leave it too long I struggle to remember it all so I don't do that now.  With a few clicks I can print out a list of all money owed and by whom or all the work due in the next few days (and when).  In fact, I can tweak it pretty much any way I wish.  This is all done in a program that came free with the computer.

[* mike RH]

I use Round Tracker and that's pretty much what it does.

You tell it when the job was done and then it tells you when its due again. Resheduling is easy enough too.

A bit of Excel knowledge is helpful but once you have the knack, as said earlier for a tenner its good value.

[Cleaner Windows]

my round tracker v3 cd was delivered  but there was no-one here to sign for it so I gotta pick it up today from the PO, looking forward to being able to manage my round properly

[supernova77]

I think it would be worth your while investing in George and just spend a rainy morning or afternoon entering all your details into it.

I've used it for over a year now... I also use Pocket George - I wouldn't be without them!

Andy

[Cleaner Windows]

I'm not chucking my £10 worth of roundtracker away Andy  Ive been told it does the same sort of things anyway so for a tenner...it cant fail really lol

[Wrekin C S]

How much is the george program? What does it do exactly?
Where do I buy it from?
Could someone give me the links to the george and round tracker program please?

Thanks
Andy

[Cleaner Windows]

http://www.windowcleaningresources.co.uk/html/round_tracker_.html


http://www.georgesystems.co.uk/


there ya go matey
they both track and manage your round, should make life a bit easier!

[Wrekin C S]

Cheers pal