System for a small business

[igana]

Hi guys, so me and my friends started a new business and I wanted to have a system for it. I don't know yet where to start and I'm not very good at programming but I'm willing to learn if this system will ease our jobs a little. So, I wanted to have a system where we put all our expenses and sales, and weekly or monthly, we could generate a report from it. We might also need a POS. My question is, where do I start? Can I just use MS access for the database? What should I learn first?

[Danp2]

Sounds like you need an accounting system, which I wouldn't recommend writing from scratch. Take a look at Wave or Quickbooks

[mLipok]

@igana 

to  forum.

As @Danp2 said you should use one of already developed, maintaned, by other companies.
It is not recomended to write such project from scratch.

Also this two mentioned by @Danp2

43 minutes ago, Danp2 said:

Take a look at Wave or Quickbooks

could not fit to your needs, as they are related to country-specific accounting rules.
 

You have not specified in which country you conduct your business activity.
And here, rather, no one is a tax and accounting specialist.... I suppouse even you are not .

 

For example I use:
https://www.faktury-ok.pl/mr-faktury-pro

Also I have many things in EXCEL and in TeamViewer management console.
For this reason in few cases I automate them with AutoIt.

But it would be very unwise to create a separate financial and accounting system from scratch.

[caramen]

19 hours ago, mLipok said:

It is not recomended to write such project from scratch.

I totally disagree. 

Start a project for his own business is a "must", if he wants to grow his skills to make more complicated things later without the need of spend money for it.

But I will add a precision... 

It depends on if you want to do your own spreadsheet. 

 

To answer, I recommend you to simply use office as all enterprise do.

And then if you do so, to learn water's UDFs to understand how to manipulate office with AutoIT. 

And how to manage data Output and post process them. But it's not logic to make a tool to make stats with office, if office is a tool to make stats. 

 

But if you want a start :

-Try to make a simple GUI.

-To read data into Office.

-And how to calculate what do you want. If office can't do it already for you.

 

Water's UDF are well documented. Watch my signature.

[Earthshine]

Don’t write it yourself get professional software that’s premade as mentioned above. You do not have time or resources to sink into software development at this point

[mLipok]

21 hours ago, mLipok said:

It is not recomended to write such project from scratch.

 

22 hours ago, Danp2 said:

I wouldn't recommend writing from scratch.

 

45 minutes ago, Earthshine said:

You do not have time or resources to sink into software development at this point

 

As I said buy already developed solution to Invoce, raporting system,
EDIT/ADDED: You should buy one which will fit to your needs.

If you need you can Automate them with AutoIt.

 

Edited October 25, 2020 by mLipok

[argumentum]

1) Hi guys, so me and my friends started a new business and I wanted to have a system for it.
2) I don't know yet where to start and I'm not very good at programming but I'm willing to learn if this system will ease our jobs a little.
3) So, I wanted to have a system where we put all our expenses and sales, and weekly or monthly, we could generate a report from it. We might also need a POS.
4) My question is, where do I start? Can I just use MS access for the database? What should I learn first?

ok, so, you can not code point 3 without prior experience. For point 2 I recommend reading the help file, run the examples and modify them to gain experience.
If you read on SQLite from the help file, you'll answer point 4.
As for point 1, is better to go with some industry standard due to the lack of know how, that in the end will give you the experience to come up with your own if so you wish.

The learning curve for coding can reach years for proficiency.

You have not shared the business type or country or ages of you and your friends, but regardless, the above is my answer  

[Nine]

Nah, pencil and paper are the best method.  Just kidding.  First, take advice from your accounting consulting firm.  They will tell you what is best for you.  Forget about the technology, focus on your business strategy and marketing.  To be honest, if you require help from this forum to guide you thru your startup, well...I'd say good luck.

[Confuzzled]

It is all about managing resources.

You will find you need the following:

1. Money

2. Time

3. Experience

4. Enthusiasm

All of which when you are starting out you do not have much of (except point 4).

Best surround yourself with expertise and focus on what you are best at - the business, and leave the backroom stuff like programming to the experts that have been there before, solved the problems you are about to encounter, and focus on maximising point 1 and point 3 will come with passage of 2. Point 4 will possibly fade if the previous 3 are overwhelming.

If you wish to save money by coding your own software to run your business, the software will eventually become your business, and you will not have any time to actually work towards your business goals, and the money will dry up. Getting experienced people on board will save you the grief of learning from your own mistakes as they have learned from other people's mistakes and can bring that knowledge to benefit you.

Comment: Cashflow is king. Always pay yourself first. Pay good money for good people. Always listen and continue to ask questions. Your workers are an asset, not an expense. Lawyers and accountants are expensive, but not using them is vastly more expensive.

At the risk of being shouted down in these forums, writing accounting and database packages in AutoIT is not an efficient use of resources. In a business environment, it is useful for wrapping around other mature packages to make them jump through hoops, but not as fundamental software to perform large data processing needs.

Best of luck.

Edited October 26, 2020 by Confuzzled

[jchd]

11 minutes ago, Confuzzled said:

Always pay yourself first.

I disagree: always pay yourself last! That will keep you away from financial disaster.

[seadoggie01]

I agree, don't make your own accounting system. As you learn what your processes are, write them down somewhere, and break them down into small steps. Eventually, try to automate the small steps. Since our accounting is busiest at the end of the month, those tasks were the hardest for me to automate due to time constraints. For the first year, I made sure to take a few minutes extra minutes each time I ran them to automate them a little more. Now everything I do is nearly completely automated and I have extra time to finish the remaining tasks.

[Confuzzled]

On 10/27/2020 at 3:10 AM, seadoggie01 said:

Now everything I do is nearly completely automated and I have extra time to finish the remaining tasks.

 

Beware you don't automate yourself out of a job! Bread on the table is always more important than a nice layout on a financial report.

[seadoggie01]

Ha! I won't be able to do that. (Most of) Everyone refuses to run my programs so I run them instead. And my boss is extremely supportive of me and my work. She wants me to automate her job as well