mark l. cooper

Hi all,

We've given up hope on converting our hand-rolled Clipper S87 accounting
system sometime in this millenium. We're also beginning to think the usual
commercial packages just aren't up to the job.

I've been authorized to put out a request to see if anyone here has a system
for sale that does:

1. Multi-state, multi-union payroll that ties into job-costing, along with
salaried payroll with 401K, bonus, etc

2. Job costing

3. Inventory control with sales outright to customers, shipments to job
sites, drop shipments direct from factory to customer, bypassing our
warehouse

4. In-shop repairs and manufacturing

5. Customer job site projects, project management

6. Payables, receivables, GL

7. Tool costing and tracking, equipment rental.

8. Have several levels of security. Some users will be able to post, edit,
void transaction, while some may only be able to view transactions. That
type of thing

9. We'd like to ultimately be able to track Request For Quotations, Bids,
Bid worksheets, etc by customer. We'd ultimately like to scan vendor
invoices and attach to jobs. We'd ultimately like to attach MSDS with stock
items, to be printed along with packing lists. Another possibilty is to have
all e-mails concerning a job be attached to that job.

We are located in central Ohio and our territory is pretty much east of the
Mississippi. Some jobs are 2 day jobs. Some are 6 month jobs.


We found one package that came really close, but the deal breaker was
shipped inventory was not subtracted from warehouse inventory until an
invoice was created. We have a fleet of trucks that may take several days to
get to a job site, then once the truck is unloaded, it may take several more
days before the stock is actually used on a job. Then, we may invoice a
partially completed job or we may wait til the job is complete before
invoicing. Stock could be gone 2 weeks from the warehouse before it's
actually invoiced. Many of our stock items have a shelf life. It would be
nice to know when time is running out.

Anyone having anything close, please contact me.

Thanks,
Mark


--
Mark L. Cooper
Junction City, Ohio USA

stephen quinn

Mark

If language (development type) doesn't make a difference then have a look at
BS/1 Accounting - Delphi source available so you can RYO
http://www.dbsonline.com

HTH
Steve

johan nel

Mark,

You can also look at TurboCash, it has been released under open source

http://sourceforge.net/projects/turbocash/

I am not 100% sure, but if I remember correctly the database is stored in
Paradox files, so easy to access the db with VO and add your own
enhancements/reports.

HTH,
--
Johan Nel Pretoria, South Africa.
"Mark L. Cooper" <mlcooper54_no_spam_@aol.com> wrote in message news:3ak1poF6cfcsvU1@individual.net...

stephen quinn

Johan

Yeah - I'd forgotten about that one (I have the source here to look at).

CYA
Steve

jose zouain

Mark

Look at my website, it is VO code 2.5b3, going to 2.7b soon.
It does 90% of what you want, I will send you a private mail with
my phone so we can discuss further.

It does repair and rental and all other things you want,
we don not have payroll.


--
Best regards

José Zouain
Zeta Concepts, Inc.

Zeta Pro - Inventory Management System
www.zetaconcepts.com

geoff schaller

Mark,

Why? Converting 300,000 lines of Clipper code is roughly a 3 month job
if you already know the source and the clipper code is "reasonable". It
sounds like there is a quite a degree of customisation in your
accounting package and our experience is that other packages, regardless
of how good or close they might be, cause you just as many hours of
fiddling to get the format right.

Also there is the issue of backward compatibility. If you convert your
clipper code you can bring your existing clients directly in to your VO
solution and offer them a significant degree of conformity and
familiarity. That is worth a lot in convincing your clients to upgrade.

We've been through some seriously large clipper conversions recently and
are about to start yet another so we have a lot to say on the matter if
you wish to contact me.

Just some thoughts...

Geoff

dave francis

Mark,

I'll second Geoff on this.

Assuming it works, what you describe sounds like it fits the business like a
glove. When you have an old system like yours, you can become blind to the
detail and it seems easier to jump ship. Remember the people who have to use
the system - they just want it to work and don't care if it runs on an
abacus. If the thought of conversion is daunting or you have given up, buy
in some fresh blood to get you through it. Whatever you do, don't alienate
the users.

A conversion does allow for a phased changeover and a better chance of
managing the risk successfully.

OK, I don't know the details - this is just my experience talking. Good luck
with whatever you decide.

Dave Francis

johan nel

Mark,


And I will second both of them.

What you will have to do is basically re-write the front-end. All your
business logic will easily convert, provided that you are not too dependent
on 3rd party libraries, but for most of them there are VO matches.
Even switching from DbXXX() to DbServer for file handling is not too much
work, or for that matter switching to a RDBMS environment.

There are some speed improvement that can be obtained by the strict typing
available in VO, but that will not make your system unworkable if you do not
implement it immediately.

Fresh blood, I would be interested in providing some of that<g>


luck

I had a huge Clipper Data-driven environment that I converted to VO and I
must say it went almost like a dream when I had my mind changed to start
thinking event-driven. The whole process took about 3 months, of which most
was with sorting out the change from TBrowse to DataBrowser and replacing
the GetNew() functionality with appropriate datawindows.

HTH,

--
Johan Nel
Pretoria, South Africa.

jose zouain

HeyJohan

Your took only 3 month, that is very good
my took 2 years, I don't know how big is yours but
mine is a complete ERP system.


--
Best regards

José Zouain
Zeta Concepts, Inc.

Zeta Pro - Inventory Management System
www.zetaconcepts.com

geoff schaller

Its all relative José - and of course how much detail is completed
before you accept the term "finished". But in broad terms 100,000 lines
of code for 1-2 people is a reasonable target. A lot depends on how well
or bad the Clipper code was in the first place <g>.

Geoff

PS - and is code really ever finished anyway? In the job we did for
Harvey Norman in Australia, the "conversion" is still going on 6 months
later but now they are really fixing things that were on the Clipper
backs as "To Do" from way back.