Inventory Software

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Larry Berman on December 8, 2011 at 8:01pm

Hi Ruth,

It sounds like you need to look at software jewelry manufacturers use.

If you can't find existing software that does what you need, you need to look at relational data base software. File Maker Pro is usually behind programs that do what you want to do. It's available for the MAC and PC. Access is the Microsoft equivalent for the PC only. If you're on a PC and have any version of Office Professional, Access is included. But then you need to write the queries that give you the answers you're looking for.

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

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Permalink Reply by Barry Bernstein on December 8, 2011 at 8:09pm

Let me be the first one to congratulate you on doing a cost analysis of your work so you know exactly what it costs you to create a piece.  A lot of people use Excel to keep track of things. I always used Access.  What I think you need is a relational database.  When we had a gallery, there wasn't one created that was specific to what I needed.  And, it was expensive to have someone create a custom one.  You could do that.  You could have someone make you a custom database that does exactly what you want.  Or, you could do as I did and create your own using Microsoft Access.  It took me a couple of weeks because I knew nothing about creating a database. I bought one of those how to books from Microsoft to learn what to do. When I was done, I could tell you anything you wanted to know about our inventory, our artists, our customers, our sales and many other things that related to our inventory.

Having said that, I think you could do the same thing with Quickbooks. Another suggestion, although I don't know if this exists or what your specific variables are, is to look in the jewelry magazines in the ads section and there might be someone who has already written a database for jewelery artists.  If there is one, I would think that's where you would find it.

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Finkenbiner on December 8, 2011 at 11:09pm

Barry - great idea, I have tried using Access and I'm sorry to say that while I can make Excel do "tricks" after 16 years in Finance / Accounting role, I'm worthless with Access, my brain doesn't function that way.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Parker on December 8, 2011 at 8:46pm

The best place to start is to do what software developers do: write a requirements document. Briefly, write down everything you think you need in your program. Get input from your husband. Once you think you have all the requirements on paper, prioritize them: very important, somewhat important, not so important, nice to have. Then look at the requirements from a dependency standpoint. What features require other inputs or datasets in order to function? Sometimes you find that features that seem simple require complicated back-end calculations in order to be really useful. You must boil ALL of the requirements down into three camps: Must Have, Nice to Have, Don't Need. Without a good requirements document, you will constantly keep reinventing the wheel. Don't forget future needs, either. Do you need to be able to scale your application? Will you be buying in bulk, and getting tiered discounts? How about contract labor? Only you can raise the questions, and answer them. 

Can your application be built in a phased approach? Sometimes creating the whole thing is so daunting that you never start. On the other hand, if you build something and find two years later that you missed an important connection, it may be impossible to go back and retrofit it into an existing application. Keep in mind that it is way easier to plan on paper than it is to build on top of a faulty foundation.

This is a very complicated equation. It requires a good knowledge of database design to make it work well. IMO, Filemaker is easier to develop with than Access. Filemaker is available on both Windows and Mac platforms, and can be used as a mobile application, either with Filemaker Go (on iPad), or as a web application, accessible via browser. I carry my entire inventory with me to shows on a FMP database synced to my iPad -- I can look up any item to see how many products I have in inventory, and where they are stored.

But speaking from experience, my application was developed as a flat database, and desperately needs to be rewritten as a relational database. I have many functions built in, but I spend too much time keeping the data up to date. I do some of it in Excel, then duplicate the effort in FMP. This comes from building it without a clear picture of what I really needed. At the time, it made sense. Now, I have a much better idea of what it COULD be, but I don't have the time to spend to redevelop it.

You will find that there are commercial products that get you 80% there. Getting that last 20% will be difficult without custom programming, or compromising on your feature set. Full fledged manufacturing software will likely cost too much. Paying a developer will likely cost too much. Shareware applications may be sufficient to give you an idea of what's possible, but I guarantee you that nothing will include all the features in your requirements document. 

Good luck!

Jim Parker

http://www.parkerparker.net

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Permalink Reply by Larry Berman on December 8, 2011 at 8:55pm

Jim had a good idea. If you can write exactly what you need, and I mean exactly, you can probably get something written for you from a web site like:
http://www.elance.com

I've had two complicated web sites built for a very reasonable amount of money from another similar web site:
http://www.planet-source-code.com

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Finkenbiner on December 8, 2011 at 11:11pm

Thanks Larry

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Finkenbiner on December 8, 2011 at 11:11pm

Thanks Jim, I'll look at Filemaker, as I mentioned to Barry, I've tried Access but relational databases and my brain just do not function the same way.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Parker on December 9, 2011 at 6:08am

You can do quite a bit with Excel and lookup tables, if you cannot master Filemaker. For example, I do a sales summary sheet after each show. I log each sale and Excel uses a separate table to look up the cost of the item. Then the summary sheet calculates net sale after sales tax and COG. The main drawback to this approach is that it doesn't take into account the fluctuation in the cost of raw materials or quantity discounts obtained on a specific lot. I decided long ago that it didn't matter to cut it that finely. But my materials lookup table is several years out of date. And changing it will change old lookups, if those sheets are updated. You can ignore the relinking of data in Excel as an option.

But it's hard to generate reports from many summary sheets in Excel. And tracking customers is a whole other set of requirements. When you group your functions together, it quickly becomes obvious that a relational database is a better choice. You can separate cost of materials from sales, for example. You can build a separate dataset of customers, preferences and use that to market from, while still keeping it linked to your sales data. And you can create reports as you go, as the need arises.

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Permalink Reply by Barry Bernstein on December 8, 2011 at 9:01pm

Larry, the queries are the fun part.  Jim, once you build your database program with the properties you want, all you have to do is enter the data and you can run queries and reports on anything you need to know.  The key word is "relational," vs a simple database. We had MS Office, so, that's what I used.

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Permalink Reply by Karole Bowlds on January 22, 2012 at 8:41am

Ruth-

there is a Jewelry Maker Pro software out there...I'm not sure if it is what you need, but I believe it is. Just google it.

I see ad banners for it all the freaking time.  I believe it's an inventory, raw materials, and cost control system all in one, and will alert you when you are getting low on materials, or product, and helps you "price" your finished goods. 

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Permalink Reply by Ruth Finkenbiner on January 23, 2012 at 6:51pm

Karole - is this the software you were thinking about?  Looks like it might be a great fit for what I'm wanting.  Thanks!!

http://jewelrydesignermanager.com/products/pro.aspx

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Permalink Reply by Suzanne McNenly on January 24, 2012 at 11:25am

I used it for a long time....good program....but doesn't run on a mac.  I had to run it with parallels, which was ok, but just bugged me.  Finally switched to another, but think JDM has the most flexibility.

Sue

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