The InBizness Blog

FAQ: New Sales Order From Clients - InBizness 2.8

2010-12-28T10:35:00.000-08:00

QUESTION: Quick question regarding entering a new sales order record, the Client Id or Company field in the Bill Address Info tab don't appear to be drop down boxes and I'm not sure how to search for existing Clients. I reviewed the movies but I was unable to see the steps for creating a new sales order record and searching for the Client Id. Can you give me a quick review?

ANSWER: You can go about it a number of ways. The way I do it is to find the client in thejavascript:void(0) clients module and then click the sales order button in the “Create New” bank of buttons.

A READER ASKS: Email Correspondence Integration Products

2010-03-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright PMP
Certified FileMaker 10, 9 & 8 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright
YOUTUBE: FileMakerThoughts

A READER ASKS (and owner of a number of our InBizness products)
Email as part of Correspondence module. What would you suggest as an email sender-- a plug-in or what? Do you like the program from Proof group that lets you send mass HTML emails, or is this overkill given that fundamental correspondence tracking for letters, etc is already built in to InBiz CRM. I definitely want to do email marketing.

-------
DWAYNE RESPONDS
I don’t feel there is a single correct answer for this one. The SeedCode / fmSpark FileMaker Mail Merge product isn’t something I’ve used yet. I have looked at the six minutes of instructional videos on their web site but haven’t downloaded the demo. Their FileMaker Mail Merge products seems way too heavy for most of my customers needs. Thing is, if you have heavy email / mail merge needs, this certainly looks like the best product on the planet to address those needs.

A link to their product below ...
http://www.seedcode.com/cp-app/ste_cat/fmSpark

That is the rub isn’t it? What are the requirements of the database in regards to correspondence? Another thing to consider is what is your audience willing to do? If you look at the two minute introduction video of fmSpark, you will see well over two dozen mouse clicks. That is pretty heavy but again each of those clicks is leading up to an impressive end result. Will your customers / users take on that much overhead for correspondence? Are they already doing that much overhead manually today?

If you are considering using the fmSpark product with InBizness for your customers needs, I’d recommend this simple thing. When you are sitting with the customers, pull up the two overview videos and look at them together. If the customer is pretty jazzed about what they see, you have your answer. If they are not jazzed about it, I wouldn’t suggest trying to sell them on fmSpark.

I wouldn’t point them to the web site but go over the video together. This helps facilitate the discovery process of needs analysis and ultimately the product acceptance criteria. I would try to go over this with the sponsor and some of the end users. It is a wonderful product but don't let its impressive feature set dissuade you from good old needs analysis interviews!

In regards to email plug-ins, incremental enhancements to FileMaker have really reduced the need for email plug-ins for sending email. They haven’t done a thing for receiving emails into a database and that might be something to consider. If you have a need for receiving emails, then you might consider a plug-in for both tasks. If you are considering a plug-in implementation, download the demos first. Some of the plug-ins you see recommended by developers out there, I would NOT recommend for the casual FileMaker developer. Although these products are powerful, their documentation is sparse, confusing and time intensive to consume.

Personally, I’ve had good luck with mailit from Dacons LLP.
http://www.dacons.net/fmplugins/mailit4/
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2010 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

ADVERTISEMENT ==================
Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html

A Bunch Of Customization Inquiry About InBizness Property Manager

2010-03-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

I left you a voicemail and thought that I would also send you a email of what I am looking for in a program.

Your "Open Business Empowerment Tools" demo designed in FileMaker Pro looks great and it may possibly be what I'm looking for.

Here is what I'm hoping this product has the ability to do:

Database
Tenant Info
Owner Info
Building Info
Vendor Info
Work Orders
Invoices
Estimate/Bids
Staff Info

Accounting System
Payables
Receivables
Registers
Budgets

Reports
Owner's Property Cash Flow (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)
Owner's Property Profit & Loss (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)
Owner's Property Income & Expense Statement (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)
Owner's Property Tenant Registry (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)

Overall Combined Cash Flow (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)
Overall Combined Profit & Loss (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)
Overall Combined Income & Expense Statement (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)
Overall Combined Tenants (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)
Overall Combined Owners (Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly)

Tracking
Owners
Tenants (Payments, Work Orders, Notices, Activities, etc.)
Vendors (Invoices, Estimates, Payables/Receivables, etc.)
Staff (Emails, Timecards, HR, Background checks, etc.)
Budget
Contacts (Cold calls, prospects, etc.)
Transactions

Organization
All of the above - Real Estate, Property Management, Accounting
User Friendly
Administrator privileges
Capabilities to add additional features designed for our business
Calendar capabilities
Management forms
Scan documents & payments into individual records

Sharing
Going Green - no more printing and mailing reports.....
I would like individual property owners to "view only" their property online maybe thorough a link on my website or I could set up a server for this purpose.
Each owner and each property/building would need to have security password access to "view only" their property/building.

Does your product include the - also the cost for you product:
Basic CRM
SOHO
Classic
Property MGR
Real Estate
Money

It sounds like a lot but from looking at your demo most of this is covered in your demo program. I am currently working out & bouncing between a few different softwares to achieve most of the above. It would be much easier if I had a program to handle it all in one, but because of the cost involved in most of the software that I have looked into I needed to go this route.

=============

DWAYNE RESPONDS
Sorry about missing your call, I am a bit hard to find these days. I'm glad you took the time to write your question down though because it gave me a better opportunity to go over it in detail. Out of the box, InBizness Property Manger does not have all the features you mentioned. Since it is sold as an open FileMaker framework application, the missing pieces can be added. Better yet, they can be added in such a way as to best met your individual business needs. Here is a listing of what is NOT currently in the current version of InBizness Property Manager ...

Database
Invoices & Estimates / Bids

Note: Variations of these can be found in the other InBizness products. Depending on your needs, it wouldn't take that much to add this functionality.

Accounting System
None of these features are currently available in this version of InBizness Property Manager. We could add these features in or build a conduit to QuickBooks that would allow you to leverage these features there.

Reports
None of these reports are currently available in InBizness Property Manager. They all could be added as customizations. If you were considering connecting to QuickBooks, it would make sense to leverage the reports they have there. We can add the reports that are not in QuickBooks in FileMaker.

Tracking
I'm not sure what you are defining here but I suppose it is a set of saved searches per modules. These can be easily added and this is something users can do as well via FileMaker 10 Saved Finds.

Organization & Sharing
Many of these features are available, can be customized in or purchased to work with other FileMaker framework products. For example using 123Sync from SolutionMakers for QuickBooks integration or the calendaring applications from SeedCode. That is the wonderful thing about using FileMaker to power your business, the options are practically endless in regards of getting the business tool you need.

Want An Estimate For Customization?
What I would suggest is to narrow the list down or organize it by your priorities. Remember, we can customize the database in a series of elaborations over time. For example, adding the missing database elements and the reports would run about $500. We can then setup a timetable for the other elaborations. You can hire local developers to do some work for you as well. Again, this product is an open environment development tool for your business.

FAQ: About InBizness

2010-02-23T09:19:00.001-08:00

QUESTION FROM A READER:

I've been looking at InBizness and have a few questions about it:

1- Is inbizness a locked solution in any way, is there a limit to customization?

2- Would your solution work with IWP/CWP? If so, how well does the experience translate?

3- Do you have to physically ship inbizness?, (we are located in Barcelona...) :-)

ANSWER:

Thanks for your interest in InBizness. InBizness is not locked in any way. All elements are open for your individual customizations. None of the InBizness packages are designed for the web. So you would need to review what your web needs are, what the FileMaker limitations on the web are and then customize InBizness accordingly. In some cases, this is minor and in some case time consuming. None of these changes are that challenging technically, it is just layout and script tweaks to make the experience web compatible. InBizness is small enough to ship as an email enclosure, so delivery is almost instant!

InBizness Property Manager 3.0

2010-02-07T07:50:00.000-08:00

InBizness 3.0 has a number of enhancements including a new fees module integrated with the payment system and a significantly upgraded tenants module. This is a third update in the last six months and this just illustrates the power and flexibility of the FileMaker database environment.

TENANT MODULE UPDATES
The tenant module has received a number of user interface and operational changes with this update. The tab bar has been updated to be more effective and streamlined. The Deposit / Move Out tab has been renamed Rental Details. Two new tabs were added as well Tenant Details and Fees.

So the tab bar for tenants now reads General, Income, Rental Details, Tenant Details, Activities, Payments, Fees, Files and Background. The addition of tenant details allowed us to move some of the tenant data from the top area to this dedicated tab. So the top area now contains just the name and phone number of the primary and secondary tenants.

The tenant details tab now has a wider array of fields supporting information of both primary and secondary tenants. This includes phone numbers, email address, SSN / EIN id numbers, drivers license, date of birth and age.

The renamed Rental Details tab contains a new collection of fields to support tracking insurance information including the company, phone number, policy number, voucher start and end dates.

The new Fees tab allows the assessment of fees (most likely late fees) to a tenant record. These assigned fees can then be easily added to payment records that go along with or independent of rental payments.

THE NEW FEES SYSTEM
The fee system is tied directly to the tenants, unit and payments modules. The user interface to access fees is available only from the tenants module.

You can add a new fee to the system by clicking its associated button.

Fees are paid via the payment system. You will see this change in the payment dialog box where unpaid fees are shown and can be added to that payment.

DEVELOPER RELATED CHANGES
Since the system is getting more robust with additional data relationships integrated within the system, the relationship graph has been updates to be easier to read and access.

InBizness Property Manager 2.0

2010-02-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

The following is a list of updates that were added to InBizness Property Manager 2.0.

TENANT RELATED CHANGES
Added new table called TenantIncome to facilitate better tracking of multiple levels of tenant income.

Added new tab in the Tenants module called Income.

Added a new field called Annual Household Income which displays the entered monthly income by twelve.

Removed the phone 2 fields and added fields for a second tenant name and phone info
Deleted employee related fields and added that functionality back into the Tenant Income table.

Added new fields of Household Size, Household Income, Date Last Certified For Income Eligibility.

Added new list view layout that focuses upon the household income data
Tweaked the list button so it gives you a choice of the general list or the household income list.

Tweaked the button in the rentals portal to bring up a choice dialog box so you can go to the rental details or directly to the unit information.

Added field to track insurance voucher information in the Tenant form view in the Deposits / Insurance / Move Out tab.

TENANT / UNIT LINK CHANGES
Made changes to the dialog box that is used to link a tenant to an available unit. Primarily, it has more logic to automatically set the status of the unit when it is rented for the first time.

DEVELOPER RELATED CHANGES
Added a developer related script that preps the database for a new installation by deleting all records in all tables

InBizness Basic CRM

2010-01-11T15:25:00.001-08:00

What makes InBizness Basic CRM different than the other FileMaker CRM products on the market currently? For starters, it is designed specifically for the small to average size organization in terms of price, features, flexibility and ruthlessly simple open architecture. How about we briefly discuss each of these points.

ABOUT THE PRICE
InBizness Basic is sold to you for $299.00 US. There isn't a different price if you have one user, ten users or fifty users. There isn't a different price if you want to run it on a machine to machine network (called pier to pier), on an office server (using FileMaker Server) or on an worldwide LAN. InBizness Basic CRM is a FileMaker 10 based product, so you will need to purchase the correct FileMaker licenses to support your users but InBizness Basic CRM is only $299.00. (period)

ABOUT THE FEATURES
We put in the most basic features of supporting companies (clients / leads / vendors), invoices, purchase orders, inventory, correspondence, department staff and activity management. There isn't any overly complicated calendar tool, just the ability to create linked activities from almost every module. The idea is to forego complicated click intensive calendar views, just simple point and click operations so that things get done.

ABOUT THE FLEXIBILITY
We never intended to put dozens of modules into this product but we wanted to support those of you that do. We didn't add every possible feature to every module but we wanted to support those of you that do. This means you can add just what you need to support your workplace and have a streamlined elegant system.

We do have a unique feature that allows users to group common activities and add those group activities to a module with a click of the button. This coding can be easily lifted and added to other modules you might want to add to your database.

ABOUT THE RUTHLESSLY SIMPLE OPEN ARCHITECTURE
We have not added any technology other than pure basic FileMaker design. If you have read and understand the $99 FileMaker Training Series manual, you should have no problem modifying all aspects of InBizness Basic CRM.

HOW ABOUT INCLUDED SUPPORT?
Yes, we include 2 hours of support or even customization with each copy of InBizness Basic CRM. Any additional design support is only $85 a hour (or less with a prepaid support bundle purchase).

Want to know more, check out the included video tutorials and feel free to contact us with any questions.

FAQ: InBizness In Peer To Peer Setting

2010-01-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

QUESTION:
I just found your web page and the Basic CRM solution might be something for my 2/3 persons company.

Am I correct in assuming that I can run the file on a peer-to-peer network (I have 1 FMP 10 and 1 FMP 9) and that I would have full access to the source code ?

ANSWER:
There is some specific FileMaker 10 code in the database, so I would recommend having all the machines running FileMaker 10. FileMaker has some great upgrade prices for you, so I would recommend checking that out.

It should do just dandy on a peer - to - peer network because it is a classic FileMaker file. So any of the limitations FileMaker has in peer - to - peer it would have. Any of the conditions that FileMaker recommends for FileMaker Server (like backups / lots of records / etc...) would apply to this product as well. Yes, it is sold open for modification, so you can edit the source code to meet your needs. In fact, that is what it is really designed for ... customization! T

InBizness Quiz 1.4 Update

2009-12-31T22:55:00.000-08:00

InBizness Quiz is a unique learning experience for the FileMaker developer. What you get is access to a quiz library of over 1,600 questions in both a random or targeted quiz session formats. You even get some great choices in how you access your quiz sessions from FileMaker, a web browser (via FileMaker IWP) or via the iPhone (via the Safari browser). So you can take a new quiz just about any time and anywhere.

ABOUT THE RANDOM QUIZ ENVIRONMENT
Random quizzes are a great way to evaluate where you are in your FileMaker knowledge. With each new release we have upped the ante on our random quiz environment. We have eight different options on random quizzes with include five different experience level options.

Here you can see the main access screen for your random quizzes. (click picture to expand)

ABOUT THE TARGETED QUIZ ENVIRONMENT
If you thought that eight different options for random quizzes, you are really going to like having fifteen different options for targeted quizzes. These targeted quizzes are great for any areas in which you feel that you could do better. But it isn’t about the score, it is the process that pays the dividends.

Here you can see our current targeted quiz options. (click picture to expand)

ABOUT YOUR QUIZ QUESTIONS
The questions appear in a classic multiple choice setting and are pretty straight forward. We didn’t spend a lot of effort coming up with trick questions or obtuse situation scenarios.

Here you can see one of the quiz questions. (click picture to expand)

ABOUT YOUR QUIZ RESULTS
After taking the quiz, you will see a scrollable list of the questions you missed. You will see the question ID number, the question, your incorrect answer choice and the final correct answer choice. You can also view your quiz history at any time.

Here you can see the quiz result screen. (click picture to expand)

Here you can see your quiz history so you can measure your results.

Coming Soon InBizness Basic CRM - Yet Another FileMaker CRM Database

2009-12-27T16:21:00.001-08:00

Lately, I’ve been creating new databases by harvesting a lot of code from my previous projects. Literally, I’m choosing the “New Database” command from under the File menu, tossing out the default table and pasting in pieces from my other projects. I tend to design with “recycle” in mind but I’m surprising myself these days. This is an InBizness CRM database but has a few different twists to it.

MORE EMPHASIS ON THE ACTIVITY AND ACTIVITY GROUPS
I introduced the Activity Group with InBizness Real Estate but this version is a bit different. First off, an activity group can be assigned to many different modules including Companies, Products, Invoices, Purchases and Staff.

PREFERRED PRODUCTS / PRICES FOR COMPANY RECORDS
Added in an option where you can setup default products (with default pricing) for a company and then quickly invoice from there.

INVOICE BACKORDER LOGIC
The invoice module has a backorder logic where you can create a new invoice based upon what was not shipped from a previous one.

CONSOLIDATED LINE ITEMS TABLE
Not a biggie but I always have a separate table for invoices and purchase orders. In this database, they are combined.

FILEMAKER 10 FEATURES
Lots of small script trigger features including a quicksearch, quick date range and pull down menu field navigation.

Entering In Work Order For An Apartment Unit

2009-12-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

A work order is a repair event that may consist of multiple activities and each activity may be assigned to a different staff member. For work orders that reoccur, you may consider creating an activity group for future use. In this set of instructions, we are looking at a one time repair work order for an apartment unit.

The first thing you want to do is to locate the apartment unit the work needs to be done for. The next thing you want to do is click the "Add Work Order" button on the top part of the Unit modules form view.

From here, you can enter in the work order fields until you get to the addition of activities. Each activity can have different start dates, categories and assignments.

WANT TO SEE THE MOVIE?
We did create a quick movie on the topic and you can view it by clicking here!

Getting Started With FileMaker Based InBizness Property Management

2009-12-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

The checklist for setting up your copy of InBizness Property Manager for the first time.

STEP 1: Duplicate the copy of the database we provided to you. You will want to keep this copy on hand in case you want to rollback to a pristine version.

STEP 2: Delete the example data. Go to each main module and delete all the records in each one. This will help keep you from getting confused from demo data and your real world data.

STEP 3: Add in your buildings data in the building module. This is important before adding any other data.

STEP 4: From the buildings module, add all the apartment rentals units that belong to that building. You can add rental units that are not linked to a building but that is only recommended for rentals that are the only rental for a building.

STEP 5: Enter in your tenant related information.

STEP 6: Assign each tenant to the appropriate apartment unit. Remember that you can only assign apartment units are not available. So make sure that you have updated your apartment status records to help the unit pick list stay up to date.

STEP 7: Add in your staff members into the staff module. This will be necessary so you can assign activities to them. If they are going to be accessing the database, make sure they have their own database accounts, passwords and access levels set properly.

WANT TO SEE THE MOVIE?
We did create a quick movie on the topic and you can view it by clicking here!

InBizness Property Manager

2009-12-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

Seattle Washington - dwaynewright.com is excited to announce the immediate availability of InBizness Property Manager! As with our other InBizness products, when purchased, you can customize InBizness to meet your individual business needs by using FileMaker Pro 10. That means you can add small tweaks to large redesigns for all layouts, relationships, scripts, tables, value lists and security schema.

THE MODULES
InBizness Property Manager is designed to have just the right modules needed to do your property management tasks and these include the tracking of buildings, apartment units, tenants, work orders, activities, rent payments, work orders and more!

For more information regarding InBizness Property Manager, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/propmgr/index.html

Dwayne Wright
dwaynewright.com
Snohomish, Washington 98296
info@dwaynewright.com

InBizness Quiz (filemaker edition) 1.2 Release

2009-10-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

Last month (September 2009) we released our InBizness Quiz product with an edition focused upon the popular database product FileMaker Pro. During the last month we have been working on capturing feedback from users for features to include in future versions of the product. We also added almost 200 new questions to the quiz library and now is the largest repository of FileMaker quiz questions on the planet.

Almost all the revisions were made for the $7.50 a month paid subscribers. The only exception is a tweak to the process of selecting random quizzes to increase performance. This really wasn’t an issue when the quiz only had 200 questions but became more noticeable as the quiz content library grew and grew.

We decided that the main screen of the paid subscribers needed an update. We wanted to make it easier to take targeted quizzes and we wanted to make the interface more web friendly. We added a top bar of buttons to view your quiz history, view high scores or to make changes to your user profile.

Quiz history got a minor updates as well and I’m looking to add new features here in forthcoming updates. This can include filters by topic or perhaps a tab panel that breaks down results by difficulty level. I’m also considering adding an interface that shows how many questions you have viewed from the overall number of questions in a particular topic.

High scores got a small tweak as well. You can now see high score quiz results for various topics.

Finally, we added FileMaker Instant Web Publishing support for paid subscribers. All you need to do is click the following link (click here), type in your account name / password, choose the database and you are off to the races!

New InBizness Demo Launcher

2009-08-19T18:52:00.000-07:00

Since January of 2008, we stopped sending out demo files of our FileMaker framework products. What we do is host them on a shared FileMaker Server and send prospects a launcher file to open the networked demos. This is really helpful because we don’t want older demo versions of our software out there. Up to this point, I would send out a different launcher file for each product.

CLICK IMAGE PICTURE ABOVE TO ENLARGE

So now that we have four different applications in the InBizness family, I decided to build a unified demo experience for those interested in our products. I ended up adding more features to this launcher than I planned to do. This is the first version of the file and I’m sure that I’ll be tweaking it over time.

I recorded a very quick tutorial movie for the launcher file if you want to check it out. Here is the link,
http://www.dwaynewright.com/videos09/InBizLauncher.mov . If you are interested in a demo trial period for an InBizness product, please send us an email at info@dwaynewright.com.

Many thanks,
Dwayne Wright

InBizness Classic Coming Soon

2009-08-18T17:48:00.000-07:00

I received an email recently about InBizness 2.0. Evidently, I had the link for the product still LIVE and they were not interested in the complexity or additional expense of InBizness 2.8. I decided to take this older FileMaker 8 version as a shell for a new low end product InBizness Classic. I’ll have a link with more information soon, look for InBizness Classic to be available by September 1st, 2009.

Here is another small banner ad we are looking at using. At the very least, this is how it will probably look at the solutions link on www.dwaynewright.com.

InBizness Real Estate 2.0 Goes Live!

2009-07-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

July 6, 2009; Seattle Washington - dwaynewright.com is excited to announce the immediate availability of InBizness Real Estate 2.0! This latest release of an open FileMaker framework solution has two new modules and a number of enhancements to the existing contact, property listing and activity modules.

ACTIVITY GROUP MODULE (NEW)
Added a new module called activity groups, this allows the user to create groups of activities and quickly add these activities to a property record. Navigation to this module can be accessed from under the navigation menu.

DRAG AND DROP CREATOR (NEW)
Currently compatible with Macintosh computers only and uses the Troi File plug-in, allows you to leverage drag and drop desktop features for adding files and photos to property files. Optionally, you can also store these files / photos on the remote hosting service JungleDisk.

OVERALL MODULE CHANGES
Added a pop down field to give quick navigation from one module to the next

ACTIVITY MODULE CHANGES
Added “Cancel” as a value list choice option for Activity status.

CONTACT MODULE CHANGES
Added logic and custom function to create batch correspondence from a found set of records using a template.
Added the ability to link files to contact records for the contact form screen.
Added the ability to print an envelope from the contacts module from under the contact menu.
Added the ability to print a set of Avery 5160 labels from the contacts module from under the contact menu.
Added the ability to export found set of records as an Excel file from the contacts module from under the contact menu.

CORRESPONDENCE MODULE CHANGES
Added logic to create a related activity (tied to the contact) when a correspondence record is printed.
Added the ability to print an envelope from the correspondence module from under the correspond menu.
Added the ability to print a set of Avery 5160 labels from the correspondence module from under the correspond menu.
Removed the “print found set button” users found them confusing. This option is still available under the Correspondence custom menu.
Added a delete button in the correspond template dialog box for deleting template letters

PROPERTY MODULE CHANGES
Combined the File and Photo tabs together to save space and to better unify their common purposes.
Added a tab to show only the activities in open status and another tab to show all the activities related to a property.
Added validation to the SIR# and MLS # to insure they can only contain unique values.
Added a custom menu option under property listings to cancel any open activities for a viewed property.
Added contract date to the listing info section
Moved the agent info data fields to under the Other Info tab, made room for contract date field in its place.
Added the subdivision field to the main listing info area

More information is available by visiting http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/realestate/index.html

InBizness Real Estate Coming Soon

2009-05-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, I get a client that is interested in my InBizness product but they don’t need an office database that is so large in scope. Just over a month ago, I had a real estate professional contact me about a FileMaker CRM need focused to his business needs. He liked the setup of InBizness but had no need for 60 % of the modules. Right out of the gate, he only needed the contacts, staff, events and correspondence modules. He also needed a new module to track property listings and have it linked operationally to the other modules.

Now it is possible to invest in a copy of InBizness and the remove the navigation to modules that you do not need. The code for those modules is still there, ready to be used if necessary but users are not distracted with buttons that take them to modules unneeded to accomplish defined company objectives.

Instead of selling this customer a copy InBizness 2.8, I offered them a quote of a new database designed from scratch but using selected parts of the latest unreleased version of InBizness. Yes, there is always an unreleased copy of InBizness and I have no idea when this latest version will come to market. Instead, you will probably see mini modules of the overall product released this year. InBizness Money was the first mini module that was pulled from the code of its larger InBizness brother and now InBizness Real Estate is the second smaller scope release.

ABOUT FILEMAKER 10
InBizness Real Estate will require each FileMaker user to use FileMaker 10, the latest release of the product by FileMaker Inc. At this time, we have not built in a web or mobile feature set for InBizness Real Estate but will embrace the opportunity to do so (if or when a client requests these features). For more information about FileMaker 10 and upgrade options to this cutting edge product release, please visit http://www.filemaker.com/ or contact us at info@dwaynewright.com.

Simply put, the recent addition of script triggers within FileMaker 10 has the potential to propel our products to heights that cannot be gained otherwise. Although there are other great features in FileMaker 10 as well, script triggers are too important of a feature to invest time and effort in designing backwards compatibility. For this reason, InBizness 2.8 and InBizness Money 1.2 will stay on the market for quite some time for FileMaker 9 users. All new product releases will require an investment in FileMaker 10.

MOVIE TIME
I’m a big fan of creating computer tutorial movies for presentation and for illumination. Here is a collection of the movies I produced to cover the initial release of this product.

The Main Menu
The New User Interface
The Contacts Module Explored
The Property Listing Module Explored
The Staff Module Explored
The Activities Module Explored
The Correspondence Module Explored

Adding A Deposit To A Finance Account

2009-04-17T18:29:00.001-07:00

I just uploaded a new movie about adding a deposit to one of the finance accounts within InBizness. I also take a small detour in explaining what the Bank Deposit module does. This module is used to make creating bank deposit statements a little easier to handle but doesn’t link directly to the Finance module itself.

Here is the link ...
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/04172009/CheckDeposit.mov

Two New How To Movies Uploaded

2009-04-16T12:01:00.001-07:00

I just produced a couple new tutorial movies for the different ways to create new purchase order and vendor bill records. Here are the links ...

Create New Purchase Order
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/04162009/NewPO.mov

Create New Vendor Bill
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/04162009/NewVB.mov

FILEMAKER: FileMaker Blog Wrap Up For March 2009

2009-04-02T10:41:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

Here is a quick listing of FileMaker related blog posts that I did for the month of March 2009.

BUSINESS
Sales Rep Twitters In A Web Viewer
Walled Garden Web Enabling For Clients View

FOUND SET
QUICK TIP: Year Searches
Saved And Recent Finds Explored
FileMaker 10 Saved Finds And Custom Menus
FileMaker 10 Saved Finds (Constrains And Extend Routines)
Follow Up - FileMaker 10 Saved Finds And Custom Menus
Table Creation On FileMaker Data Import Explored
Matching Record Imports Explored
LINK: Series Of Posts For FileMaker Google Like Searches

FUNCTIONS
The Calculation Literal Explored
EXAMPLE: Aggregate Across
LINK: Great Description Of Function Recursion In Action

LAYOUTS
Reorder FileMaker Layouts Explored

RANDOM THOUGHTS
2009 FileMaker Developers Conference Breakdown (intro)
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 9:00 AM Breakdown
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 10:30 AM Breakdown
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 1:30 PM Breakdown
DEVCON 2009: Friday Session 3:15 PM Breakdown
Back Into The 360WORKS Email Saddle Again
Ode To The Define Menu
Some More FileMaker Tweets From The Twitterverse
Subset Of Data Ideas For Code Organization
A READER ASKS: FileMaker Based Real Estate Information
A READER ASKS: Add To In A Replace
Free VTC FileMaker 10 Training For 30 Days
FileMaker Pro 10 And The METROLOGIC MS9500 Bar Code Scanner
WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE: Tooltip Button In Specify Button Dialog
WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE: Easier Way To Comment Scripts
WHAT I’D LIKE TO SEE: Tabs With Layout Memories

RELATIONSHIPS
A READER ASKS: FileMaker Relationship Graph Documentation
EXAMPLE: Multiple Table Occurrences

REPORTS
WAREHOUSE TWEAK: Clients By Group ID (part 1)
WAREHOUSE TWEAK: Clients By Group ID (part 2)
Warehousing Data Lightly Explored

SCRIPTING
FileMaker Script Debugger Introduction
Debugger Pause On Error
EXAMPLE: FileMaker 10 Script Triggers And People Pickers
LINK: Faster, Maintainable FileMaker Scripts with Variables

SECURITY
Substantive Privileges Explored

TERMS
Constant Relationship
Extend Found Sets
Highlighting
Handle
Insert From Index
Implementation
Individual Stage Plan
Matching Record Imports
Menu Item
Modifier Key
Mathematical Operators
Operational Databases
Substantive Privileges
Subset Of Data
Script Debugger
Script Result
Table Creation On Import
Technical Reviews
Mailing Lists Explored
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

ADVERTISEMENT ==================
Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html

FAQ: Role Based Value List Filtering

2009-03-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: The Sales Rep ID in the sales order module needs to be changed to a pull down like the Staff ID field.

ANSWER: OK, this does work like that but it has a bit of a twist. It is a good twist, so let me run this by you. The pull down list for the Sales Rep ID is filtered to show only the staff members assigned to Sales. You haven’t assigned anyone to sales in the staff file yet, so the current state of this value list, for you, is empty. As soon as you assign a staff member to sales, it will then show up in the value list.

This list option is great unless you have staff members that wear multiple hats. The security within InBizness (as well as many of the value lists) are role based. So I can reassign the Sales Staff value list to be a general staff member list (not role specific).

If you have staff members that wear multiple hats, we might want to create a role for them specifically.

New “Under The Hood” Movie For InBizness Relationship Graph

2009-03-15T11:35:00.001-07:00

There is a related movie on this topic! CLICK HERE!

FAQ: Can You Sell Me Modules Of The Overall Solution

2009-03-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: Is it possible to purchase InBizness per module?

ANSWER: I don't sell the InBizness product by module but that is an interesting notion for the future. If you want a lighter version of the InBizness product, just let me know. I'm sure we can work things out. I have done this for customers in the past. In fact, the InBizness Money product was born out of someone just wanting the Finance modules from InBizness 2.5.

It would be quite possible to extract the campaign or proposal modules and make them a free standing solution. You could extract the leads, events and staff module to make a light lead tracking solution for example.

So if you are interested in something like that, please do not hesitate to contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

Back Into The 360WORKS Email Saddle Again

2009-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

Sometime during the third week of January (2009), my business simply exploded. I sold numerous copies of my InBizness FileMaker CRM product and most of those customers purchased customization services as well. My time for daily blogging simply vanished and I'm still under the gun. Before the deluge happened, I was working on a series of posts about the 360Works email plug-in and it has bothered me that I haven't made incremental progress on those. Today I reached an action item in which one of my clients wants to have InBizness automatically import email receipts from their online shopping cart and build sales orders from them.

It has been a couple months since I worked with the 360Works email plug-in and that is one great acid test for a plug-in. How difficult is it to pick up the ball again and start running with it? For me, I spent more time finding the example file I was working on, than it took to wire it up to my clients email address. You can see a series of links about my example file at the end of this post.

In order to test the plug-in with my clients email account ... I simply plugged in the email server address, the email address and the password. Hit the button that I had built back when the current year ended with an eight ... and ... it worked! I tweaked a few other things about the example file but then realized I had real work to do! I need to take this and integrate it into InBizness for my client. This is also a feature that I'll want to include in the next update of InBizness.

SO WHAT ABOUT FILEMAKER 10?
All my active development for the next release of InBizness is being done in FileMaker 10 and all my client work is being done in FileMaker 9. That will change soon because I have a client that really needs the script trigger and active report features of FileMaker 10. Right now, I'm using a Macintosh that is running FileMaker 10 and FileMaker 9 at the same time. My development version of InBizness is the same one that I use to run my business. So all my client timecard tracking is done there. Besides my timecard tracking, there is another benefit to this step. I can copy and paste code between the two versions of FMP9 and FMP10. So I tend to prototype new features in my FileMaker 10 development version of InBizness and test it there. Then I copy the code over to my clients version of InBizness, test it and then release that version to my clients. Works pretty well but I wondered about the 360Works compatibility with FileMaker 10.

CRUISING OVER TO THE 360WORKS WEB SITE
So my version of the email plug-in is 1.81 and I need to see what the current version is. I navigate over to the page dedicated to the email plug-in (found here) and in the right hand side I see that the current version is 1.86. So I've missed out on five updates and I'm thinking I might need to follow this a little closer. If I release this plug-in with my product, that may be a very good idea. I wonder what 360Works has in regards to notifying their customers of plug-in updates. I went ahead and clicked the link for the users that own a license and about to give it a go.

Here you can see what was downloaded.

Being the curious sort, I opened up the ChangeLog.txt file and found the following about the updates I missed.

Version 1.86
* Improved unicode support for attachment names when attachments are stored as container references.

Version 1.85
* Improved unicode support for plain-text messages with accent characters, foreign characters.

Version 1.84 (1/28/2009)
* Fixed compatibility issues with running on Server 10 and IWP

Version 1.83 (1/13/2009)
* Explicitly sends a sent-date header, to address complaints from SMTP servers about missing DATE header
* Added "count" option for EmailReadMessageValue, this returns the total number of messages fetched from the server. Useful for progress bars.

Version 1.82 (12/28/2008)
* Fixed IMAP message retrieval by uid for gmail servers, bug which caused incorrect uids to be used. Update to this version is you are using UID-based IMAP fetches!

The last two updates don't have a date attached to them but it still looks like an update has been rolling out every couple weeks or so. Only two of them seems to address a fix and only one of them is remotely FileMaker 10 related. I'm not going to use the plug-in with IWP yet, but good to know they are on the ball with updates for that feature! Everything else seems to be a set of self actualization improvements, that is good to know as well!

POPPING THE PLUG-IN INTO FILEMAKER 10
I quit out of FMP10 and cruise over to my FileMaker 10 folder to install the plug-in. Here I get a little freaked out about what I find. I have multiple copies of extension folders where my plug-in is supposed to go. What the heck is up with that? The five copies of the extensions folder are all empty, so I make a command decision to delete them.

Here you can see my extension folder seems to have replicated itself on January 9th, what weird mojo went on that day?

My example file has my license information within it for startup, so I close it from my FileMaker 9 application and open it up in FileMaker 10. I wander over to the development tab in the example file and see if my registration was successful on startup. This is logic I copied directly over from the 360Works example file. Houston, we DO NOT appear to have a problem. The plug-in reports that my registration was successful and verifies that I have the latest version! That is about as smooth of a process as you can expect for a plug-in experience.

Here is something that continues to be funny to me. I open up my example file in FileMaker 10 and get annoyed almost immediately. My thoughts are "Why did this open with the status area missing?" and I click the show status area button. Then realize this is FileMaker 10, I don’t have the benefit of a status area, click the button again and proceed to my FileMaker 10 arch enemy (the status bar). Yes, I'm firmly entrenched in the "hate it" camp for all things status bar related but what is a poor developer to do? In my case, my only option is to mutter a “dab nab it” and travel all the way up to the top of the monitor for everything I need to do.

Back to the discussion about the plug-in compatibility ... sorry about the mini rant ... I click the button to download the emails and it works like a charm! It worked exactly the same as the FileMaker 9 experience and mentally I stand up and do a quick snoopy dance. Next up, integrating the 360Works plug-in into InBizness. I'm going to start on that right after taking a Wii Fit yoga break.

Here are some links to other posts that might be of interest in regards to this topic...
External Functions Registering Your Plug-in
Custom Function - Name On Email
A Friday Afternoon With The 360Works Email Plug-In
Constant Relationship Portals And Tab Panels
Looping Script To Clean Email Addresses
Extraction, Transformation And Loading Process Explored

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

ADVERTISEMENT ==================
Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html

FAQ: Protecting Credit Card Data Information

2009-02-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

QUESTION: What is the most straight forward to remove access within InBizness for a majority of the users to clients credit card data?

ANSWER: The most straight forward way is to remove the field access permissions to the credit card related fields in the Clients module. This is done for each privilege set that corresponds to the business role of a staff member.

First up, open up the privilege set dialog box for one of the privilege set.

Under the records data access settings, choose the Custom Privileges option.

Next we want to choose the "limited" option for field access for the CLIENT table. This will allow us to target options for fields in the Client module.

From here, we want to remove the access for the privilege set for the credit card field. In the case of InBizness, these fields are have a prefix of cc_ .

So when you are done, it should look something like this.

Google And MapQuest Directions For InBizness

2009-02-19T05:56:00.000-08:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

A while back (January 27th 2009, to be exact) a custom function popped up on briandunning.com to allow you to do MapQuest directions for a FileMaker record. At that time, I did what many of us do, mentally filed it away as something to check out during the mythical free time moments. About a week later, someone emailed me and they wondering about how to integrate google maps into a FileMaker record. I passed them the custom function link for the MapQuest function, recommended they search there for google map features as well and again filed the topic away for later review.

As fate would have it, on Saturday morning, I received 27 new feature requests from a client that purchased my FileMaker based CRM product called InBizness. The first item on the list was integration of service calls module to google maps so that technicians could print out map directions to call locations.

Well, I could no longer keep this topic in the “check out someday” file, so I cruised over to the briandunning.com site and did some poking around. I came up with the following ...

GOOGLEDIRECTIONS
Added GoogleDirections from briandunning.com (http://www.briandunning.com/cf/724 ) and submitted by Chris Pye, Mactec, http://www.mactec.com.au. Takes two addresses and returns text formatted as a URL to display a Google Map with directions. This can be used to open a URL or Web Viewer window.

MAPQUEST_DIRECTIONS
from briandunning.com (http://www.briandunning.com/cf/959 ) and submitted by Robert Schaub, Starr Data, http://starrdata.com. Use your start and end address fields from you database or enter your custom find.

I tested both of these out and they seemed to work OK. The google map function seemed to have a problem when there is a comma in the street address. So I thought I’d warn my client about that and see if they want me to program around the possible issue.

ADDING AS A WEB VIEW IN A LOWER TAB PANEL
The first thing I tried was adding the feature as a web viewer within a lower tab in the tab panel. This worked OK but I still had the classic web viewer problem. The web viewer is like an oversized dresser that never really fits in the bedroom. You can move it around and around but it still never fits snugly.

You will need to click on this image to see it in detail. This is the tab panel setup I went with. You can see that I have an opening tab that explains the process, directions for both Google & MapQuest and then tab for maps of the location (sans the directions). These are setup to auto resize with FileMaker 9 but the Web Viewer still takes up a lot of screen real estate.

Pondering how to use the power of the Web Viewer, you may consider ripping out a wall to resolve the issue (and in FileMaker, that is what you do sometimes). However you realize that is a real pain and a huge productivity whole. You consider bringing up a new layout window with the web viewer viewer only but that also is a productivity hole and doesn’t net you much more than what you can do with the Open URL script step.

FYI ... The Open URL Script Step opens a specified Internet URL address or performs other specified URL protocol commands. This means that you can have a combination of web and FileMaker actions within a script that you use in your database solution. Here are some links to other posts that might be of interest in regards to this topic... The Open URL Script Step and EXAMPLE: Open URL Via Portal Records.

COMBINATION PLATE APPROACH FOR THE MAP TAB IN SERVICE
Since custom menus are so flexible and functional, I decided to use this method for utilizing similar mapping features across multiple modules. Of course, this would be much faster for me to implement if FileMaker would support copy and paste features for entire custom menus but that feature hasn’t been added as yet. (hint - hint - hint)

As I mentioned, I started off by implementing this feature in the Service/Support module of my InBizness product. I then added the Google/MapQuest directions Go To URL (via a custom menu) feature into the Clients module using my current set of recycling techniques from my tool bag. I found a couple tweaks that I needed to go and quickly implemented those changes. Now I have the map direction features in two InBizness modules (Support & Clients). Next up, I wanted to do a test to see how long it would take me to add this feature to another module. So I started the timer for the implementation into the Leads module.

I started at 7:58 AM and finished up the implementation at 8:06 AM. So within 8 minutes I was able to duplicate / edit existing script steps for leads, build the two custom menus for leads, test, troubleshoot, tweak and test again. I did run across a problem with the MapQuest function in that it did not like the entry of “United States” for the country data. A quick change of the county value list to “USA” fixed the problem and seemed to play well with Google Maps as well.

SUMMING THIS UP
InBizness (as with most robust CRM packages) has many independent modules that work together in concert. Using a modular design method, you can implement a feature in one module and invest the normal amount of development time. Written properly, the underlying code can quickly be implemented into multiple modules and this has multiple benefits (the least of which is a consistent feature set across modules that users can leverage during the business day).

ADVERTISEMENT ==================
Help support this blog by considering a donating to its ongoing growth. For more details, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/donate.html

Thank You For Your InBizness Money Purchase

2009-02-11T07:45:00.000-08:00

I’m still evolving what I send to customers that purchase my framework products but don’t hire me to do the customizations. Here is a quick peek at my last quick message to a recent purchase of InBizness Money. If you have any suggestions about things I should add, I would love to hear from you!

**********

Thank you for your order. Here is a copy of our FileMaker framework application InBizness Money. As with most framework applications, this one ships without any data (so that you can add your own data, of course). There are some value lists that look for data, so you may need to create a few records to build this up or change the value lists to be in a typical list format. There may be a few other things that might seem unfamiliar, please feel free to email me with any questions you might have.

After You Have Purchased InBizness

2009-01-29T12:44:00.001-08:00

When you purchase a copy of InBizness and you want customizations, we recommend that you allow us to host your new "under construction" customized version of InBizness on our web site. We offer this as a no charge service for the first 60 days. If you want to continue to use a hosting service, we recommend you investigate any number of the current hosting providers such as thedroolingdog.com.

ITEMIZE THE CUSTOMIZATIONS YOU WANT TO INBIZNESS
Before we get started, be sure to have a list of the customizations you would like to have for your new InBizness solution. It is best if this list can be hosted on an internet service, that way we can work on this together. Some customers like something as basic as Google Docs and some like something more robust like BaseCamp.

LISTING OF USERS YOU WANT
In order to hit the ground running, please be sure to send me a list of the users you want to test the solution. It would be best if we have the full name of the user and their email address. Then we can automate the process of sending them the access settings for the file and the testing goals.

THE LAUNCHER FILE
When we upload the database, we will send you a FileMaker file called a launcher. This file will open the hosted InBizness solution using embedded settings and then close itself. This way you do not have to memorize a series of steps to open the hosting InBizness file.

CHANGING PASSWORD ON FIRST LOGIN
When you open your new InBizness solution, the first thing it will want you to do is to change your password. If you forget the password you changed, let us know. We cannot tell you the password but we can reset it to a different value. You can then change the password on your next login. If you don't want users to be able to change passwords, let us know and we can remove that ability.

YOUR NEW INBIZNESS SOLUTION MAY BE EMPTY
Unless you are wanting us to migrate your existing database data, InBizness will be an empty shell. So do not be alarmed when you cannot perform some actions because there are no records in the file to perform them.

FAQ: InBizness CRM Hosted Performance

2009-01-28T09:37:00.000-08:00

QUESTION:
We’ve been testing remote hosting with one of our own solutions with appalling results – over 3 minutes to open the main file – it’s a separation model database. Your solution, on the other hand opened smartly and seemed quite quick to use.

My first question is ..... is this the speed we could expect from inBiziness in a production environment or have you kept the file(s) particularly small? Lots of relationships seem to be one factor in our slow responding solution. Even when loaded our solution is very slow when moving between layouts while yours seems to be quite quick, and yes, we have kept graphics to an absolute minimum. I’m quite happy to admit here that your programming skills may well outshine ours!

ANSWER:
These are all great performance related questions and my answers might seem a little bit rambling. This is similar to my experiences with FileMaker performance issues, the causes sometimes seem to ramble. In fact, I’ll probably break up my answers into multiple blog posts because I really want to share my thoughts to you in these areas.

ABOUT INBIZNESS DEMO SPEEDS
There isn’t anything different about the demo from the production database system. I simply take the production version, use FileMaker Advanced to protect its code and upload it to the server to host it. It doesn’t have an extensive amount of data in it but it does have data in almost every table. As a company adds thousands of records, there may be areas that may need to be tweaked for performance issues. Since InBizness is simply a single FileMaker file that has optimized for customization, performance hurdles should be somewhat easy to fix (if and when they may arise).

InBizness does have a lot of relationships and that can be a red flag for future performance (but not really). InBizness uses Anchor / Buoy religiously and this walled garden approach pays huge dividends for performance and customization. In my experience, a lot of relationships isn’t so much of a problem as the other factors that might ride shotgun in the same vehicle. Things that come to mind are ...

- lots of relationships that interact among multiple table occurrences
- lots of relationships that have complex operators or calculated match fields
- lots of data in those table occurrences (this is basically a multiplier)

I utilize “walled garden” techniques everywhere inside of InBizness and always look for more opportunities to do so. If I have a customer that will not use some of the InBizness modules, I quickly delete them from their copy. It may take me a hour or so to clean up the table occurrences, layouts, value lists or scripts. After I’m done, I run it by BaseElements to see what schema dust bunnies I might have left behind. After I clean out those dust bunnies, I run BaseElements again and repeat the process until BaseElements reports “looks pretty trouble free to me”!

SO ABOUT THE SPEED
I haven’t ever had a complaint about InBizness speed in a core implementation. However, I’m quite prepared for it. Speed issues should be approached with a surgical approach and my walled garden approach supports that very well. The place I would expect a problem to come up is when going from one client record to another. This is because I’ve added too much functionality there and I’m OK with that. Again, after doing a needs analysis with a client, I can quick customize the client module for the best of both worlds (speed and power).

ABOUT THE SEPARATION MODEL
The separation model has advantages and disadvantages. I did a full separation model for InBizness a couple years ago and never brought that product to market. It just didn’t have the payoff that made the extra coding overhead worthwhile. Since then, I’ve done smaller versions of the separation model, using just the tables that made sense. For example, the leads module is something I’ve separated for some customers. This is because of the sheer number of records it may contain, the rather limited amount of schema needed to support it and because the customer wanted to have the leads module available on the outside web.

Go To Layout By Using A Custom Function

2009-01-18T07:56:00.001-08:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

I'm beginning to add more logic to my InBizness package to handle found set a bit better. This type of granular control would likely be "a touch" too much for consulting projects (that bill out at standard rates of $100 + per hour). However for open framework applications such as InBizness or in house projects, these tweaks have a better return on the time invested to build them.

In this particular point, I want scripts that go to found sets to have the logic to ...

- show an error message if there are no records in the found set to go to and exit gracefully
- go to the form view layout if there is only one record in the found set
- go to the list view layout if there are more than one record in the found set

Now InBizness has over 50 tables and many of them have both form and list views (there are a few join tables that I can ignore for these purposes). Manually coding each decision branch would be a bit overwhelming. On the surface, using the feature to go to a layout by a calculated value seems the way to go. I could choose to go to the layout by its name or by its position in the layout order. Now going by the layout order is not an option in a database that is under constant construction and InBizness is definitely one of those. Manually typing in the layout name again and again and again for each script step that will use this found set option is also not an option because of the time involved to create and maintain.

Here you can see the top of the specify options for the Go To Layout script step.

Here are some posts about the Go To Layout script step that you mind find interesting, if you are unfamiliar with the various aspects of it.

The Go To Layout Script Step
EXAMPLE: Go to Layout Example
Go To Layout - Via Account Name

Any Go To Layout script step that uses the layout name in the calculation has an element of danger involved. If you ever change the name of the layout, the script step will be broken. This is one reason why I have stayed away from this method in my open framework products. In an open framework, I sell the package open to modification by the owner. So it is quite possible they might get themselves into a problem by doing something as seemingly innocent as changing a layout or table name. I wanted to have one place were we can synch things up if these names are changed.

So I decided to create a custom function that will look at the found count of records, then look at the base table and then return the layout needed. Here is a small sample of the custom function I wrote ...

Case(
Get ( FoundCount ) = 1 and Get ( LayoutTableName ) = "Campaign"; "FORM_Campaign";
Get ( FoundCount ) > 1 and Get ( LayoutTableName ) = "Campaign"; "LIST_Campaign";
Get ( FoundCount ) = 1 and Get ( LayoutTableName ) = "Client"; "FORM_clients";
Get ( FoundCount ) > 1 and Get ( LayoutTableName ) = "Client"; "LIST_clients";
etc...
"")

The actual calculation had over 50 lines and will likely grow when I integrate a planned manufacturing module to InBizness. I should also note that this function has even one more element of danger because it looks at the name of the table occurrence (not the table name itself) that is assigned to the layout. I wouldn't have even tried to do this if I wasn't working with a solution that totally embraces the Anchor / Buoy relationship design method.

Now it is challenging to maintain a rock solid naming convention for a robust database that has been evolving for well over a decade. That being said, I would feel comfortable that my InBizness product would compete quite well against any similar robust CRM product. In my case, I had only one thing that would drive the anal television detective Adrian Monk crazy. Sometimes I named my tables singular and sometime I named them plural. Does this matter to any degree from a database performance aspect, certainly not. However, it did require an extra 30 minutes while I checked and tweaked my custom function.

Now you might wonder how I'm going to handle the advance notice of no records in the found set. Well, this is going to be something I address in the header (a name often given to script steps at the top of a script) of the overall script itself. I try to add that as a posting later on.

That being said, my calculated go to layout script step will be at the bottom of the script. This is because I will have to go to the appropriate layout first and then analyze what my base table occurrence is and what my found set count is.

So I'm going to wrap up this blog post for now but I'll try to update you on the overall progress of this implementation plays out.

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2009 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

ADVERTISEMENT ==============================
Looking for a robust FileMaker CRM template to manage your business? Check out the InBizness product line at http://www.dwaynewright.com/solutions.html.

FAQ: Can Barcodes Be Implemented Within InBizness?

2009-01-13T09:58:00.001-08:00

QUESTION: Can Barcodes Be Implemented Within InBizness?

ANSWER: I’ve implemented barcode scanning many times within FileMaker solutions in the past. Since InBizness is simply a robust and well written FileMaker database, barcode integration should be a snap.

FAQ: What are the differences in events and support calls modules?

2009-01-13T09:53:00.000-08:00

QUESTION: What are the differences in events and support calls modules?

ANSWER: That is a great question? A support call is a business event, so it can be a little confusing. I guess you would think of events as smaller action items that might be included within an event. For example, say a laser printer has stopped working and the support call record is created to fix it. It is possible that support call could have many smaller events that need to be handled by different staff members such as ...

- verify the printer is under warranty
- if not under warranty, make sure client know they are responsible for the repair bill
- if possible, get a warranty extension from the laser printer vendor
- pick up the machine from the clients onsite address
- fix the machine in the office
- deliver the machine back to the office

So it is possible that there is a one to many relationship between a support call and events.

FAQ: Can recurring event items be added or linked to staff?

2009-01-13T09:46:00.001-08:00

QUESTION: Can recurring event items be added or linked to staff?

ANSWER: By all means, yes it can be added as a feature within InBizness. These would be daily recurring events and initialize when the database loads for the first time in a day. I would need to know more about the specifics of your recurring event needs but I don’t see any problem adding that feature at all.

Can We Import Orders From Emails Sent From Our Web Site?

2009-01-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

We receive emails from our oscommerce website site, Amazon and google. Can an import be setup to import from several different emails directly into the orders module?

By all means yes, we would need to analyze the format of the incoming emails. Then we can use a plug-in such as the 360Works email plug-in to automatically download the emails into the database, parse the information within the email and then create the order records. One thing we will need to be sure to keep an eye on. Occasionally, both Google and Amazon may change the way the emails are formatted. If this happens, we will need to tweak the script to bring the messages in and parse them correctly.

Why Do You Need A Time Card Button On The Client Screen?

2009-01-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

The timecard button on the clients screen serves a similar purpose as the invoice button. It allows you to create a new timecard record and automatically link it to that client. By default, it will also attach that timecard record to the staff member that clicked the button. In your workflow, it might make more sense to create the timecard record first and then assign it to the appropriate client.

How Does A User Go Back To The Main Screen / Dashboard / Clients

2009-01-13T09:05:00.001-08:00

In the past, many FileMaker solutions had a button for everything. This has a large overhead in the time it takes to produce and update FileMaker layouts. For quite some time, FileMaker has offered one alternative to this in the form of custom menus. Custom menus can be created very quickly, easily customizable and can be laid out in a precise grid across the solution.

So much of InBizness still has buttons to navigate to other areas and perform actions. It also has a robust set of custom menus and that is the primary method of navigating from one record to another.

Here is a peek at the current navigation menu.

So we can add buttons to all the layouts to perform basic navigation but if you can train your users to embrace custom menus, it will save on the overall cost of migrating into InBizness.

Now there are some interesting possibilities with the recent release of FileMaker 10. The new Script Trigger feature can allow for all kinds of keyboard trigger options. I'm still researching (like most professional FileMaker developers) all the opportunities script triggers provide.

FAQ: Current State Of FileMaker QuickBooks Integration With InBizness

2008-12-31T06:25:00.001-08:00

QUESTION: I saw on the blog that there may be QuickBooks integration. Curious how that is going and what the integration looks like? We are an avid Enterprise QB user.

ANSWER: Unfortunately, all the plans we had in line for QuickBooks integration are on hold and we don’t have any immediate plans to revisit the integration. We had planned on using a third party plug-in product that has since been bought out by a competitor and the technology we had researched will not be supported any longer by its new owners.

QuickBooks integration with InBizness should be as easy or easier than with any other FileMaker database, that hasn’t changed. You can implement any proven QuickBooks to FileMaker technology out there and InBizness with be just fine. Simply because InBizness is a well written FileMaker database product and you have full access to all levels of coding when you purchase InBizness.

Looking back and forward

2008-12-28T07:24:00.000-08:00

Originally created back in 1992 using FileMaker 2.0. InBizness was a multiple flat file solution based upon my experiences of building software packages for various Macintosh mail order companies located out of Austin Texas. When FileMaker 3.0 came out, InBizness was completely rewritten to take advantage of FileMaker 3.0 new relationship features. Made many modest updates to the system until 2004, when FileMaker 7 came out. To take advantage of the single file / multiple table features in FileMaker 7, another complete rewrite of the system took place.

In January of 2008, I found myself without a full time job and looking forward to having more control of the FileMaker design muscles I used on a day in / day out basis. I decided to look back at my almost two decades of experiences and roll out a collection of smaller and controlled updates to the package. So in 2008, seven updates rolled out for the InBizness product which included the introduction of many new modules, a new user interface and extensive documentation in the form of blog posts and tutorial movies. Also applied for and was granted FileMaker Small Business Application status, which allows me to bundle FileMaker 9 and FileMaker 9 Server for customers needing these products.

VISION GOING FORWARD
With the exception of a manufacturing element, I have most of the modules in place for the future. Some of the modules I have in place are not as robust as they could be and I think smaller incremental updates to these modules is still the way to go. At this stage, I think InBizness is in good shape to start leveraging the power of others. This includes including features provided by third party plug-ins, instant web publishing and external data sources such as SQL tables. I would like to take the documentation of the product up another level as well. I feel committed that documenting the solution is still the best quality assurance process for products such as this.

The Expenses Module

2008-12-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

During the business day, staff members may encounter expenses in which the company needs to reimburse. Using traditional methods of entering an expense report can be time intensive and then doesn’t provide a digital copy of the transaction within the system. The Expense module in InBizness is linked directly to a tab in the staff module. This allows for quick data entry for the expense and allows for custom programing to help automate the expense tracking process.

Here is a movie that shows off the introduction to the Expense module.
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/update28/Expenses.mov

Here you can see the list view for the expenses module.

Here you can see the expenses tab within the staff module.

The Correspondence Module

2008-12-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

There are times in which you want to create a letter or fax for a client quickly and easily. Along those same lines, you may want to have a record of that correspondence available for historical reference and make that correspondence available to everyone in your business workgroup. The correspondence module for InBizness is design to do just that.

Now you can quickly create correspondence to the contacts within your clients, leads and vendor records. Data entry is quick and smooth and the print outs can even use letterhead information you store within InBizness!

Here is a movie that shows off the introduction to the Correspondence module.
http://www.dwaynewright.com/inbiz/movies/update28/Correspond.mov

InBizness 2.8 Feature List

2008-12-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

Seattle Washington - dwaynewright.com is excited to announce the immediate availability of InBizness 2.8! Below is a comprehensive listing of the changes in this upgrade. A series of movies explaining these updates is available from the dwaynewright.com web site.

NEW MODULE: CORRESPOND
So I finally needed to write a letter to someone that was in my version of the InBizness database. I've done this type of integration for dozens of clients throughout the years and somewhat surprised that I've waited this long to add this feature within InBizness. This isn't a feature rich implementation this time around but the foundation is certainly there for growth!

NEW MODULE: EXPENSES
Needed a way to quickly add expenses and thought it would be something most staff members would do from their staff record. Now later on, this will need to be more robust but I've made it ruthlessly simple in this update. So the data entry is done from the Admin tab in the Staff module but you can navigate to the Expenses module (now only available in list view) and do data entry there as well.

NEW REPORTS UNDER THE REPORTS MENU
inventory Module: Received Product By Date Range

OVERALL FEATURES: Added To The System
Added First and Last buttons for record navigation
Added a Dashboards sub menu to the Navigation menu to go directly to a specific dashboard

CHANGES TO THE SEARCHES MENU
Tweaked the Searches Menu to have module specific sub menus
Most modules now have a module specific searches menu under their custom menu ... Campaigns Menu has Campaign Searches
CAMPAIGN: Working Status
CAMPAIGN: As Needed Status
CAMPAIGN: Holding Pattern Status
CLIENTS: Active Clients Without A Follow Up Date
LEADS: Need Follow Up
STAFF: Active Only
TIMECARD: Today's Cards
VENDORS: Active Only

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Call Client"
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Called Me And Left Message"
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Follow Up In 7 Days"
Needed an exclusive tab for timecard records and made this change
Rewrote the timecard payment process to use a join file, better accountability, have to manually add paid invoices to the list
Added two more client timecard tabs for timecards (need billing) and timecards (billed)
Rearranged the form layout some to consolidate Alternates
Added the ability to assign a client to a staff sales rep
Added three fields for sales rep follow up (last followup date, interval and next followup date)
Added 6 fields within a new Sales Staff tab for a sales rep to do their own specific data entry type
Changed the name of the Email / Events tab panel to now say Email / Events / Correspond
Added a tab panel and portal to view related correspondence to a client and created a custom menu to create those linked records

CONTACT MODULE CHANGES
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Call Client"
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Called Me And Left Message"
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Follow Up In 7 Days"
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Create A Related Timecard Entry"
Added a custom menu item under clients "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Export Record To A VCard file"

CREDIT MEMO MODULE CHANGES
Added a tab panel and associate related fields to view the invoice that may be linked to a credit memo record

DASHBOARD SALES CHANGES
Added a tab panel and associated portal to see a sales reps clients with a rolodex style alpha character filter
Added a tab panel and associated portal to see a sales reps clients via a billing address state filter
Added a tab panel and associated portal to see a sales reps invoices, sales orders, quotes and proposals
Added a portal on the main tab that shows clients and leads that require followup
Added a preferences tab to allow a sales rep to customize portions of InBizness for their specific needs

DASHBOARD MANAGER CHANGES
Added a portal that shows the staff members that have been linked to a particular manager
Added a new tab and associated portal for a manager to view the timecards of their staff by a date range

EVENTS MODULE CHANGES
Added "Constrain Found Set: Omit Complete" as a custom menu item for the Events menu

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Added a sales rep id field so that a record can be linked to that sales persons dashboard
Added a field called IsPosted for 123Sync QuickBooks Synchronization
Added an invoices Saved Searches sub menu for invoices with a balance due.
Added new tab panels called Customer Sat and it contains a tab panel with related info from credit memos, returns and support calls.
Added the ability to create related credit memo, return and support call records from the Invoice custom menu

LEAD MODULE CHANGES
Added a new green button labeled call, which automatically creates a new event and auto enters it as a call
Added a custom menu item under leads "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Call Lead"
Added a custom menu item under leads "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Called Me And Left Message"
Added a custom menu item under leads "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Follow Up In 7 Days"
Added three fields for sales rep follow up (last followup date, interval and next followup date)

PROPOSAL MODULE CHANGES
Updated the print out for the proposal record to have the new header format that was added to the invoice module in the 2.7 update.
Added a button called lower in the dialog box for proposal milestones. This is used when you paste content into the proposal milestone description that is in upper case. This allows you to make the entire section lower case and then you can clean it up accordingly.
Added a sales rep id field so that a record can be linked to that sales persons dashboard

PURCHASE MODULE CHANGES
Made the previous listing of purchase order searches a sub menu under the purchase menu.
Updated the printed purchase order layout to a more streamlined look and feel

QUOTE MODULE CHANGES
Added a sales rep id field so that a record can be linked to that sales persons dashboard
Added a quotes Saved Searches sub menu for open and closed quotes.

SALES ORDER MODULE CHANGES
Added a sales rep id field so that a record can be linked to that sales persons dashboard

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added an option for staff members to be automatically taken to their staff record and events tab when first opening InBizness.
Added a manager id field to assign a staff member to a manager (which is also a record in the staff table)

TIMECARD MODULE CHANGES
Reorganized the Timecard form view to have a more streamlined look and feel.
Added button and associated script to add incremental, this allows you to preserve the daily timeline but associate the new time card record with a different client / campaign.
Added a button and custom menu option to rename the window pane equal to the title of the timecard record. This allows you to be able to keep multiple timecard record windows open and know which is which.
Added a script and custom menu option that is used to edit a timecard with auto enter data in critical fields for reports. I created this for my selfish needs like recording my daily blog posting time but it can be edited for your own business needs.

VENDOR MODULE CHANGES
Added a custom menu item under vendors "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Call Vendor"
Added a custom menu item under vendors "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Called Me And Left Message"
Added a custom menu item under vendors "AUTO ENTER EVENT: Follow Up In 7 Days"
Added a tab panel and portal to view related correspondence to a client and created a custom menu to create those linked records

VENDOR BILL MODULE CHANGES
Updated the printed vendor bill layout to a more streamlined look and feel

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION CHANGES
Added CF_ListToCommas, a custom function from Nick Stockbridge downloaded from briandunning.com
Added ProperSentence, a custom function that David Head of UlearnIT helped me out with.
Added SuperTrim, a custom function from Debi Fuchs downloaded from briandunning.com

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM MENU CHANGES
Added Dashboard as an option from under the Navigation menu, goes to the appropriate user role dashboard

UNDER THE HOOD - VALUE LIST CHANGES
Tweaked the Event Type value list to include the options of Called In, Called Out and Follow Up.
Added a value list that only shows staff members that are in a manager role

FAQ: How Customization Affects Upgrades

2008-12-18T21:44:00.001-08:00

QUESTION: If I have you customize the software how does that affect upgrades?

ANSWER: There is no effective way to automate significant FileMaker structure changes between file versions. We do the best we can to fully document what has changed between each version of InBizness and what customization we do for our customers. We focus on a modular design method in every thing we do and that is helped in a large part by the features available in FileMaker Pro Advanced.

So customers that have previous customized versions of InBizness can take a look at what has been offered in the latest update. If there is a number of “must have” features in that update, they can purchase that version and then integrate that code into their customized version. In some cases, those new features can be added into their version within minutes. In all cases, the integration time is a fraction of the effort of building those features from scratch.

If you navigate to the movies section of my web site (http://www.dwaynewright.com/movies.html), you can see a series of movies on the philosophy of the design that supports these integration goals.

FAQ: What is your upgrade policy for future releases?

2008-12-18T21:13:00.001-08:00

QUESTION: What is your upgrade policy for future releases of InBizness?

ANSWER: Most upgrades need to be handled on a quote basis. A rule of thumb is that owners of previous versions of InBizness can purchase the latest version for the difference between the two versions. I do have three bundles that include free updates of InBizness for a period of time. Unlike most shrink wrapped products, we can negotiate customized upgrade policies to best support your business in its future growth.

The InBizness Relationship Graph Read Me

2008-12-18T06:37:00.001-08:00

I recently tweaked the relationship graph for the upcoming InBizness 2.8 release of InBizness. I thought I’d go ahead and include a draft of the read me document that is within the graph itself and include a snapshot.

-------------------------------------
Thank you for investing in InBizness by dwaynewright.com! InBizness is a very robust FileMaker CRM product and has a very intense relationship graph to support all the connections within the database. We decided to implement the classic Anchor / Buoy design methodology for InBizness. If you are unfamiliar with Anchor / Buoy design, there are multiple resource articles on the internet including articles on our FileMaker Relationships Explored blog.

The graph itself is currently organized into three large vertical columns. The first is dedicated mostly to the staff and staff dashboard related features. This area will be growing significantly over time. The second column will contain base table anchors starting with the letter A through the letter H and is organized into alphabetical order. The third column will contain base table anchors starting with the letter I through the letter J and is organized into alphabetical order. You can quickly navigate to a base table by using a type ahead feature. For example to quickly jump to the base table occurrence anchor for the Leads module, simply start typing L E A and you will see the relationship graph quickly lead to that associated table occurrence.
------------------------------

Click this image to get a larger view of a small portion of the relationship graph.

InBizness 2.7 Feature List

2008-12-11T16:56:00.000-08:00

Seattle Washington - dwaynewright.com is excited to announce the immediate availability of InBizness 2.7! Below is a comprehensive listing of the changes in this upgrade. A series of movies explaining these updates is available as well by clicking here.

NEW FEATURE: Role Based Dashboards
Added Manager Role Based Productivity Dashboard
Added Accounting Role Based Productivity Dashboard
Added Sales / Marketing Role Based Productivity Dashboard
Added Customer Service Role Based Productivity Dashboard
Added Information Tech Role Based Productivity Dashboard

DASHBOARD MODULE CHANGES
The role based dashboards were rolled out with minimal features but here are some of the features included at initial rollout
Information Tech Dashboard:Tab and Portal to show staff user log in activities and filtered by date range

OVERALL FEATURES: Added To The System
New Searches custom menu to automatically take you to a saved search in an InBizness module.
To help support more role based features, added fields to track what privilege set created and modified records in each table.
Added the ability to click the icon in form and list views to quickly install the FileMaker menu set for Full Access users
Added a global field that has the company address information on one line, without any carriage returns
Added a button and script to allow the printing of topics from the InBizness help module
Added a new custom function from briandunning.com / Ilya Shuvalov called IsWebClient
Added a table and process to capture staff user session log in data

NEW REPORTS UNDER THE REPORTS MENU
Invoice Module: Fiscal Quarter Report In CrossTab format
Timecard Module: Billable Timecards By Month / Week Report
Payments Module: Payments By Month / Type
Payments Module: Payments By Day / Type

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Added the ability to link an existing contact record to the currently viewed client record
Added a tab for Batch Email actions to link contact records to campaigns
Added a new Timecard tab With filtered ranges between a start and end date
Added a sub tab panel inside of the Background tab and added a QuickBooks related subtab

CAMPAIGN MODULE CHANGES
Added a tab for Batch Email actions
Added a portal to see linked batch email contacts
Added a link / portal / tab from a campaign record to lead contact records
Added a button to send one email to all batch contacts via a BCC setting
Added Create Related Timecard to the Campaign custom menu
Consolidate the tabs Linked Files / Products, Emails & Invoices as a sub tab in a new Linked Records tab

EVENTS MODULE CHANGES
Added button "Add Similar Event" to the Events dialog to create events with the same linked client / campaign
Added a text button next to the event details in the event dialog layout to insert from the last record visited

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Updated the printed invoice layout to a more streamlined look and feel
Added button and custom menu option to save an invoice as a pdf document and allows you to store the document location

LEADS MODULE CHANGES
Added the key id for a campaign to create a link from a lead to a single campaign
Added the ability to create a new quote from a lead record
Added a tab and portal to show quotes that have been placed into the system for a lead
Added the ability to link an existing contact record to the currently viewed lead record
Added the + button next to the contact name field in the address info section to quickly add that person to the related contacts table
Added a script / button to automatically create 8 follow up events for a lead record

PROPOSAL MODULE CHANGES
Discovered a need to build proposals that do not have a dollar amount assigned to any of the listed milestones. This helps lead the way to creating a type of requirement proposal to list milestone needs before assigning a dollar value to them. I updated the proposal to zero out any reference to a dollar amount in those situations.
Added the ability to flag a milestone from a proposal as a template, these can then be found in the new template tab. You can copy a template milestone and paste it directly into the currently viewed proposal.

QUOTE MODULE CHANGES
Added custom menu, buttons and associated scripts to convert a quote to a sales order
Added a link from quotes to leads, now leads can create quotes, because of this ...
Instead of showing related client address information, created address fields that auto enter either lead or client address information
Updated the printed quote layout to a more streamlined look and feel
Added button and custom menu option to save a quote as a pdf document and allows you to store the document location

SALES ORDER MODULE CHANGES
Updated the printed sales order layout to a more streamlined look and feel
Added button and custom menu option to save a sales order as a pdf document and allows you to store the document location
Added a field that signifies if that staff member goes to the main screen or the dashboard on open

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added a button in the events & timecard tabs to set the date range to yesterday

SUPPORT MODULE CHANGES
Added the list view for support records and column sort for issue date, customer and status
Added the ability to create linked events from a support record and a tab to see related events

TIMECARD MODULE CHANGES
Added buttons and associated scripts to view related Campaigns, Staff and Events from a Timecard record

VENDOR MODULE CHANGES
Added the ability to link an existing contact record to the currently viewed vendor record
Reorganized the vendor form view layout to have the large horizontal tab format
Added relationship to vendor bills from vendor record with new tab panel and associated portal record

VENDOR BILL MODULE CHANGES
Add a button / script that will automatically carry over the line items from a purchase order to a new line item on a vendor bill

UNDER THE HOOD - VALUE LIST CHANGES
Added a new value list called Contact_type that has the options of client, lead or vendor.

InBizness 2.7 Now Available

2008-12-08T15:06:00.000-08:00

Seattle Washington - dwaynewright.com is excited to announce the immediate availability of InBizness 2.7! This incremental upgrade to the popular open framework FileMaker CRM solution contains a number of enhancements including ...

Support For New Business Role Based Dashboards
New Saved Searches Custom Menu
Four New Reports That Can Be Executed From The Reports Custom Menu
Shared Contact Records Can Be Linked To Multiple Clients, Vendors Or Leads
Updates Look And Feel To Printed Invoices, Sales Orders And Quotes
Additional Support For Proposal Template Milestones
Enhanced Linking Between Vendor Bills And Purchase Orders
And Much More

When purchased, you can customize InBizness to meet your individual business needs. That means you can add small tweaks to large redesigns for all layouts, relationships, scripts, tables, value lists and security schema. InBizness has one of the largest entity modules including clients, contacts, vendors, leads, staff, proposals, quotes, sales orders, invoices, invoice payments, inventory, campaigns, media library, timecards, purchase orders, vendor bills, finances, credit memos, returns, support calls and more!

For more information regarding InBizness, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/solutions.html

Dwayne Wright
dwaynewright.com
Snohomish, Washington 98296
info@dwaynewright.com

FILEMAKER: Startup Script That Branches Based On Privilege Set

2008-12-02T06:49:00.001-08:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

I recently made an update to a client database and I thought I’d share this to you via this blog. I have an InBizness customer that wants their clients to have access to a small piece of their data. So we created a separate file and have it hosted on thedroolingdog.com. This file has FileMaker Instant Web Publishing turned on and it setup to only allow these clients to see their own records. The main InBizness system will periodically synchronize data with this web based file.

In the main InBizness file, we have a script setup to allow the data entry person to setup their web account access. This script will use the “Add Account” script step to create the credentials in the web version of the file and then email the client the account name / password credentials.

Then in the web file, the startup script detects if the user that just signed in is assigned to the ClientContact privilege set. If so, it goes to the contact layout, does a find for their account record and hides the status area.

FILEMAKER: Report Custom Menu Reorganization

2008-11-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

There is a related movie on this topic! CLICK HERE!

Well, the time finally has arrived in my InBizness product evolution to put my reports in sub folders under the Reports custom menu. It really didn't take me as long as I thought. I simply took the previous report that had all the reports in it, duplicate it and then remove the report custom menu items that I don't want.

Here you can see the previous reports custom menu for InBizness.

Here you can see the new reports custom menu for InBizness.

I was even able to add the module specific report sub menu to the modules custom menu.

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

InBizness 2.7 Changes For Sales Orders, Invoices, Support and Vendor Bills

2008-11-11T06:30:00.001-08:00

SALES ORDER MODULE CHANGES
Added button and custom menu option to save a sales order as a pdf document and allows you to store the document location.
Updated the printed sales order layout to a more streamlined look and feel.

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Added button and custom menu option to save an invoice as a pdf document and allows you to store the document location.
Updated the printed invoice layout to a more streamlined look and feel.

SUPPORT MODULE CHANGES
Added the list view for support records and column sort for issue date, customer and status.
Added the ability to create linked events from a support record and a tab to see related events.

VENDOR BILL MODULE CHANGES
Add a button / script that will automatically carry over the line items from a purchase order to a new line item on a vendor bill

InBizness 2.7 Changes For Quotes

2008-11-11T06:26:00.000-08:00

QUOTE MODULE CHANGES
Added custom menu, buttons and associated scripts to convert a quote to a sales order

Added a link from quotes to leads, now leads can create quotes, because of this ...

Instead of showing related client address information, created address fields that auto enter either lead or client address information.

Added button and custom menu option to save a quote as a pdf document and allows you to store the document location.

Updated the printed quote layout to a more streamlined look and feel.

InBizness 2.7 Changes For Proposals And Leads

2008-11-11T06:18:00.001-08:00

PROPOSAL MODULE CHANGES
Discovered a need to build proposals that do not have a dollar amount assigned to any of the listed milestones. This helps lead the way to creating a type of requirement proposal to list milestone needs before assigning a dollar value to them. I updated the proposal to zero out any reference to a dollar amount in those situations.

Added the ability to flag a milestone from a proposal as a template, these can then be found in the new template tab. You can copy a template milestone and paste it directly into the currently viewed proposal.

LEAD MODULE CHANGES
When first introduced, the leads module didn’t have a very robust set of options but it continues to gain more speed with each new release. Here is a listing of the changes made for leads within InBizness 2.7.

Added the key id for a campaign to create a link from a lead to a single campaign.

Added the ability to create a new quote from a lead record and added a tab and portal to show the quotes that have been placed into the system for a lead.

Added the ability to link an existing contact record to the currently viewed lead record.

Added the + button next to the contact name field in the address info section to quickly add that person to the related contacts table.

Added a script / button to automatically create 8 follow up events for a lead record. These events can be staggered over time and can include by phone call and email activities.

InBizness 2.7 Changes For Campaigns, Events, Staff And Timecards

2008-11-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

CAMPAIGNS
The campaign module had a number of changes added for version 2.7 and working with campaign events has never been more powerful.

BATCH EMAILS TO RELATED CONTACTS
Added a tab within the campaign module to facilitate sending Batch Email actions to contacts that are related to that campaign record.

After selecting the contacts you want to link, you can type in an email subject, message and even include a file enclosure. You can click a single button to create one email with all the contacts email addresses in the BCC field and transfer that email to your FileMaker compatible email application.

EVENTS
The events module had a few smaller updates, mostly to make the process of entering data a little easier and more productive.

Added button "Add Similar Event" to the Events dialog to create events with the same linked client / campaign.This is very similar to a duplicate record command but allows you to change some of the key fields.

Added a text button next to the event details in the event dialog layout to insert from the last record visited. This can be quite useful when you are entering a batch of events that are very similar in nature.

STAFF
The event and timecard tabs in the staff module allow you to see those related records via a date range. There are a number of buttons that allow you to quickly set the start and end dates. For version 2.7, we added a button in the events & timecard tabs to set the date range to yesterday.

TIMECARDS
Timecard records can be linked to almost every module within the InBizness system. For version 2.7 Of InBizness, we added buttons and associated scripts to view related Campaigns, Staff and Events from a Timecard record.

Contact Module Updates For InBizness 2.7

2008-11-10T15:54:00.001-08:00

In the InBizness 2.7 update, there is only one change made to the module overall.

LINKING ONE OR MANY CONTACTS TO A CAMPAIGN
Added a tab in the contacts module that allows you to link a current client or the entire found set of contacts to a particular campaign record.

Client Module Updates For InBizness 2.7

2008-11-10T15:38:00.000-08:00

In the InBizness 2.7 update, we added a number of smaller enhancements within the Clients module to link even better with other InBizness modules.

LINKING TO AN EXISTING CONTACT
A contact may be involved with many clients vendors and even leads. With InBizness 2.7, we added the ability to link an existing contact record to the currently viewed client record.

Clicking the Add Existing Contact button will bring up a dialog listing of current InBizness contacts. From the list, click an Add button and that contact will be linked to the original client records.

CLIENT TIMECARDS BY A DATE RANGE
We already had a tab that allowed you to see the timecard records associated with a client record. In the InBizness 2.7 update, added a new tab & portal that allows you to see the client timecard records between a start and end date range.

The Reports Menu Continues To Evolve With Inbizness 2.7

2008-11-03T15:48:00.000-08:00

This is probably going to be a staple for many a future update because we continue to uncover the needs for more and more reports over time. Sometime in the near future, I expect we will introduce sub folders by module but we are not quite needing that yet.

Invoice Module: Fiscal Quarter Report In CrossTab format
This report allows you to see a year at a glance and each quarter is broken down by quarter in four rows.

Timecard Module: Billable Timecards By Month / Week Report
This report allows you to view timecards that are billable broken down by month. It is further broken down by weeks of the month. Many weeks are spit across two months, so it is possible you will see two lines for week 23, if that week is broken across two months.

Payments Module: Payments By Month / Type & Payments Module: Payments By Day / Type
These reports allow you to see payments broken down into month or day and by type. The monthly report is more for analysis and the daily reports can be helpful in reconciling daily deposits.

FAQ: Blending Into An Update

2008-11-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

QUESTION: How do I incorporate my changes in the version of InBizness I purchased with a new version that comes out? Are you sure my changes will be compatible with your new features.

ANSWER: A FileMaker Developer that offers open FileMaker solutions, has a more difficult enhancement path than others. That is because our users probably have already implemented design changes of their own. Their changes may not work well with our enhancements. We don’t have the ability to easily integrate the changes our clients have made to a previous version. There is no easy way around this problem.

As an open framework developer, all I can do is try to explain what is within each update. If you decide to purchase the update, there will need to be a blending of the two. In most cases, users have a copy of FileMaker Advanced and they harvest the code from the update and place it within their version of InBizness. After doing the appropriate testing, they roll out this new blended version to their users.

InBizness 2.7 Non Module Specific Overall Updates

2008-11-02T05:51:00.000-08:00

Overall changes are not module specific and sometimes are not that grand on first look. This includes custom menu changes, value list updates, custom menus, global fields and the like. Again, not that grand but can have a huge benefit to the overall system.

New Searches custom menu to automatically take you to a saved search in an InBizness module. In the 2.7 update, we only added the saved searches for the purchase order module but that is just the tip of the iceberg and this feature is sure to grow over time.

Added the ability to click the icon in form and list views to quickly install the FileMaker menu set for Full Access users. So you don’t have to use the FileMaker Advanced custom menu option to get back to the standard FileMaker menus.

Added a new value list called Contact_type that has the options of client, lead or vendor.

Added a global field that has the company address information on one line, without any carriage returns. This was used in the reworking of many of the transaction printouts.

To help support more role based features, added fields to track what privilege set created and modified records in each table.

Added a new custom function from briandunning.com / Ilya Shuvalov called IsWebClient. This hasn’t been used within InBizness 2.7 but I imagine you can see where this is going in a future update. FileMaker Instant Web Publishing is a great feature but it has a few odd quirks that would likely require a unique layout for each module to support web enabling features. So being able to determine in a quick method if a user is using FileMaker or a web interface can become key in many of the navigation operations.

Added a button and script to allow the printing of topics from the InBizness help module.

Added a table and process to capture staff user session log in data.

================
HERE ARE SOME SNAPSHOTS OF THE ABOVE LISTED UPDATES
================

Here you can see the new custom search custom menu.

/>Here you can see the icon in the header in form and list views. This is now a button that will install the standard FileMaker menu set verses the InBizness custom menu set.

Here you can see the contact type value list. This helps you identify contacts based upon what module they are currently associated with.

Here you can see the new single line address global field that is used in the revised printouts for invoices and other transaction based modules.

Here you can see the fields we are using to track what privilege sets created and modified a record.

Here you can see a quick look at this new custom function for tracking the current client session.

Here you can see that we actually have printing capability to help topics. This would be used more for your internal help documentation for your customized version of InBizness. Most help information about InBizness (the framework application) is online.

Here you can see the table that we use to capture staff log in and log out history. This snapshot is from the IT dashboard.

InBizness 2.7 Role Based Dashboards

2008-10-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

Database dashboards are not a particularly new thing and independent developers have been adding them to their solutions for years. This may be the first appearance of a FileMaker framework application that has this sort of implementation. In this implementation, you can assign a role to your staff members via the staff module and you can select if they open automatically to their dashboard or the traditional InBizness main screen.

In the InBizness 2.7, we have added dashboards for Customer Service, Sales Staff, Accounting, Information Technology and Workgroup managers. Traditionally, when we introduce a new module within InBizness, we try to not overload it with features you may not want. As we release each following update, these modules get more and more customer requested features. This is also the case with the InBizness role based dashboards. For the most part, each dashboard has its own layout and that layout is designed to have multiple tables for role based views. In these tabs, you can add buttons and portals that are specific to that business role. On exception in this update was for the Information Technology Dashboard. Here we included a Tab and Portal to show staff user log in activities and filtered by date range.

CUSTOMER SERVICE DASHBOARD
Designed for growth and to eventually show customer service members alerts that pertain to support calls, products that need to be returned and credits that might need to be issued to customers. We foresee this screen to interface mostly with the clients, contacts, invoices, payments, events, credit memo, return merchandise and customer support modules.

SALES STAFF DASHBOARD
Designed for growth and to eventually aid sales professionals to see the leads and quotes they need to follow up upon. Can be used to show saved searches to target what they need to do in their business day. We foresee this screen to interface mostly with the clients, contacts, leads, quotes, sales orders invoices, inventory, campaign, events and support modules.

ACCOUNTING DASHBOARD
Designed for growth and to eventually to aid the accounting related actions such as deposits that need to be done, breakdown of income by type, QuickBooks integration status and more. We foresee this screen to interface mostly with the clients, contacts, vendors, invoices, payments, inventory, purchase orders, finance, bank deposit, events and credit memo modules.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DASHBOARD
Designed for growth and to eventually aid the in house technology support professional including some of the technical management needs of InBizness itself. We foresee this screen to interface mostly with the staff, media and support modules.

WORKGROUP MANAGER DASHBOARD
Designed for growth and to eventually to aid managers in the support of the members of the workgroups they manage. This can include views of timecard records, tasks, correspondence and much more. We foresee this screen to interface mostly with the staff, clients, contacts, leads, quotes, sales orders invoices, inventory, campaign, events and support modules.

User Sessions Table

2008-10-26T07:09:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

A User Sessions Table is used to log when a user opens a database file or closes a database file. This is usually accomplished with the help of scripts that activate on open or close of a database. When the scripts activate, they navigate to a layout that allows for a creation of a new record and attach the necessary information.

This is what I wrote when I added the term User Sessions Table into the FileMaker Term Of The Day blog. I then realized that I really wanted to go the extra mile, add this to my InBizness 2.7 release and write a more robust article for the FileMaker Security Explored Blog. So here goes ...

When I decided to implement a User Sessions Table, I already had some of the necessary code in place. I had a staff table that is tied to my user accounts and privilege set information. The staff file is used to add user accounts to the system and I setup the roles field in staff to correspond to the privilege set information that FileMaker uses. Also, I had setup a global variable to capture a variety of information on startup. The name of the global variable is $$session and the included calculation is ....

"LANGUAGE:" & cfTab & Get ( ApplicationLanguage ) &
"¶APP VERSION:" & cfTab & Get ( ApplicationVersion ) &
"¶LAST LOG IN:" & cfTab & Get ( CurrentTimeStamp ) &
"¶DESKTOP PATH:" & cfTab & Get ( DesktopPath ) &
"¶DOCUMENTS PATH:" & cfTab & Get ( DocumentsPath ) &
"¶EXTENDED PRIV:" & cfTab & Get ( ExtendedPrivileges ) &
"¶PRINTER:" & cfTab & Get ( PrinterName ) &
"¶PRIV SET:" & cfTab & Get ( PrivilegeSetName ) &
"¶SCREEN DEPTH:" & cfTab & Get ( ScreenDepth ) &
"¶SCREEN WIDTH:" & cfTab & Get ( ScreenWidth ) &
"¶SCREEN HEIGHT:" & cfTab & Get ( ScreenHeight ) &
"¶SYSTEM DRIVE:" & cfTab & Get ( SystemDrive ) &
"¶SYSTEM IP:" & cfTab & Get ( SystemIPAddress ) &
"¶SYSTEM LANGUAGE:" & cfTab & Get ( SystemLanguage ) &
"¶SYSTEM NIC:" & cfTab & Get ( SystemNICAddress ) &
"¶SYSTEM PLATFROM:" & cfTab & Get ( SystemPlatform ) &
"¶SYSTEM VERSION:" & cfTab & Get ( SystemVersion ) &
"¶USER NAME:" & cfTab & Get ( UserName ) &
"¶DATABASE NAMES:" & cfTab & DatabaseNames

FYI ... cfTab is a custom function to put the appropriate number of tab characters between the label for the captured data and the data itself. So the next step was to create the Users Session Table itself and my version has the following fields ...

Next up was to add some logic to my startup and shutdown scripts to record those activities to my user sessions table.

Finally, in version 2.7 of InBizness, I’m incorporating role base dashboards as an alternative to the main screen. One of these dashboards is for the companies information technology staff members. Showing startup and shutdown sessions is a natural place to show this information. So here is a peek at what I have setup.

Here you can see one of the tabs in the information tech dashboard. This tab allows me to see the log in and log out information of users within the system. You can click this picture to expand your viewing of the image.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: How Difficult To Create Batch Events For Leads

2008-10-22T07:20:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: Specifically: I have established an eight step "campaign" process, whereby each targeted business will be the subject of eight sales communications (phone/fax/email), each of which is pre-scheduled to follow the previous contact a pre-defined number of days later. Each "contact" (call/email/fax) of the campaign is date calculated back to the first contact date (or campaign start date).

Can you tell me whether my sales campaign scheduling ("templating"?) can be "easily" incorporated into InBizness, either by myself, or by you as customization I will gladly pay for.

ANSWER: Well, as odd as it may sound, I decided to go ahead and add this feature in my upcoming release of InBizness 2.7. As I was adding the script, I wrote an article about the process for the FileMaker Scripting Explored blog. Here is a link to the article ... http://tinyurl.com/6emdvn

You can click on either image to view it better.

Here you can see the Leads layout and highlighting some of the key data that is brought over to the newly created events.

Here you can see the newly created and linked events.

Virtual One On One Sessions Using Yugma

2008-10-20T10:58:00.001-07:00

We use a variety of tools to share screens with users as we go over FileMaker solutions in our Virtual One On One sessions. If you are a Macintosh user with an iChat account, we can use iChat. For Windows users, the one we use most is called Yugma and it is free to our clients.

HOW TO GET STARTED WITH YUGMA?
You will want to visit Yugma.com and setup a free account. This is usually done by clicking the link for Get Yugma. Enter in the information and click the Sign Up Now button. After the sign up is done, it is pretty much smooth sailing from there. Yugma does have a conference call number but I rarely use that. I have had some lack luster results with it and most of my sessions are one to one anyway. So feel free to call me at 360-863-3021 when ready to start the session. This way we can work out any connection issues we are having at the moment.

If you have a session scheduled, let me know when this is complete and I will send you a link via email to start our session. Here you can see how Yugma tells us the we have a session going.

Here you can see a look at how the email invite looks like.

After we get connected, you will be seeing my screen. In most cases, we will want to switch the access so that you are the presenter. This is done by one of the blue buttons about the Yugma tool bar. After this is done, you will need to click the large blue button to change begin sharing. Then I can see your screen. If you want me to interact with your screen and your FileMaker database, you will want to click the blue button to give desktop control.

The Change Presenter button with the tooltip for it showing as well.

Here you can see the big blue Begin Sharing button.

Here you can see the desktop control button.

FAQ: Editing Global Field Data

2008-10-15T15:11:00.001-07:00

QUESTION: When creating an invoice and then clicking the "print current record" button, your name and address appear on the from line. I can change the address manually for each instance, but I can't figure out how to change the global so that it defaults to our address.

ANSWER: Most of the preference data is stored in global fields. Global fields are session specific when FileMaker is being hosted. So to edit globals, take the database off of the server, make the edits and then put the changed database up for hosting.

Main Module Preferences Tab - General

2008-10-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

The preferences tab in InBizness is an effort that continues to evolve over time. This update includes the updates up to version 2.6. The Preferences tab includes the three sub-tabs of General, Invoices and Purchase Orders.

The general preferences tab contains settings that can appear in many modules or control InBizness operations in diverse ways.

Here you can see the settings for the General preferences area.

The General sub-tab contains the ability to enter in company name and address information that will appear in many printouts that InBizness uses. It also contains the ability to enter in an email address for security updates. This is used when someone edits the sign in credentials via the staff module. Another setting is the ability to determine what month is used in Fiscal Year reporting.

Here you can see a snapshot from a printed invoice and the area in which the company and address information set in the preferences area appears.

Here you can see the security tab in the staff module. This allows you to navigate to a staff members record and update their sign in creditentials for InBizness. This means a user doesn’t not have to navigate to the Manage Accounts and Privileges menu because these security settings are scripted within InBizness.

Here you can see the Reports menu and the Fiscal Quarter Sales Report selected.

Customer Relationship Management With InBizness SOHO

2008-09-24T07:20:00.001-07:00

Well the term of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can cover a lot of ground and is definitely open to interpretation. InBizness SOHO is a framework application for business owners. InBizness SOHO is a very comprehensive package and open for customization using FileMaker Pro, an Award-winning, easy-to-use database software for Windows, Mac and the Web

Chances are, your business is an elaborate balancing act between fulfilling customer requests, managing projects, interacting with inventory and much more. InBizness SOHO was designed to an enabling resource that records and unifies the dizzying amount of data that comes in and goes out each business day.

This means you can combine information such as client management, invoicing, inventory, task management, finances, customer support and even media materials such as manuals, spreadsheets and reports. View client information, linked incoming and outgoing emails, view linked activities ( calls, meetings, to do ), view related purchases and even view related files such as pdf documents, excel spreadsheets, word documents and more!

Although InBizness has almost 50 tables, it is broken down into the six main sections of People, Sales, Projects, Purchases, Finances and Support. So you can see, it really isn’t that complicated. Here is a breakdown of each of the main sections ...

People - Clients, Contacts, Vendors, Staff and Leads

Sales - Proposals, Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices, Payments and Inventory

Projects - Campaigns, Events, Emails, Timecards and Media Files

Purchases - Purchase Orders and Vendor Bills

Finances - Finance and Bank Deposits

Support - Credit Memos, Return Merchandise Authorizations and Support Calls

Each section and each module within a section can be cross linked. So you really can get that 30,000 foot in the air view of your business as well as what is happening at ground zero.

Introducing The Support Module

2008-09-23T17:57:00.000-07:00

The support module is used for documenting the customer support experience for a company. It can be used by multiple staff members to record the possible multiple steps in a problem resolution.

Key Features Of The Support Module
- Ability to record support issues from clients
- Can link to a contact and staff record
- Can link to a campaign record
- Can link to a vendor record
- Ability to link to media files

Introduction To The Returns Module

2008-09-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

The RMA module is design to record instances where a customer was issued a confirmation to return a product for repair or return. You can record what we returned via line items (just like the line items on an invoice). You can even link a return to an invoice and you can quickly view all the returns given to a client from their client record. This is available via a customer satisfaction tab found within each client record.

Key Features Of The Returns Module
- Ability to record returns from clients
- Ability to record technician comments
- Ability to record receiving comments
- Ability to link returns to media files

Introduction To The Credit Memo Module

2008-09-23T17:51:00.001-07:00

The credit memo module is design to record instances where a customer was issued a refund. You can record what we returned via line items (just like the line items on an invoice). You can even link a credit memo to an invoice and you can quickly view all the credit memos given to a client from their client record. This is available via a customer satisfaction tab found within each client record.

Key Features Of The Credit Memo Module
- Ability to record credits to clients
- Ability to link credits to media files

Key Features Of The Clients Module

2008-09-23T13:59:00.001-07:00

Key Features Of The Clients Module

- Ability to link to multiple modules
- Ability to set default payment methods
- Ability to see multiple linked aspects of Sales / Marketing
- Ability to see multiple linked aspects of Customer Satisfaction
- Ability to see multiple linked aspects of Events and Emails
- Ability to see multiple linked staff time cards
- Ability to see multiple linked media file records
- Ability to see linked web site information
- Limited data auditing on record changes
- Multiple client related report activities

Version 2.5

2008-09-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

Version 2.5
I'm adding this post when InBizness SOHO is on version 2.6 but wanted to have this information available for reference.

NEW BANK DEPOSIT MODULE
Added a new module for quickly creating deposit slips for customer check payments.

NEW SUPPORT CALL MODULE
Added a new module for documenting the customer support experience for a company.

MAIN MODULE CHANGES
Added a sub tab to the Version History tab to document the changes in version 2.5
Removed The Emails And Events buttons to make room for new modules.
These two buttons are still in the Take Me To screen and the navigation custom menu.
Added a sub tab panel to the Preferences tab in the Main module including General, Invoice and Purchase Orders
Added a global field (in preferences) to help tailor the message on email invoices about how to make balance due payment

CAMPAIGN MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Campaigns To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Added a button called "List These" that does a GTRR to related records and show them in a list view. This button can be used to show related invoices, sales orders, quotes, proposals, campaigns, credit memos, returns, emails and events.
Tightened up the bottom tab order to show more data and be organized into logical group tabs.
Combined Emails And Events into the same tab and added this data as a subtab.
Added a relationship from Clients To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.
Added A Support Call portal in the Customer Satisfaction Primary Tab
Added button and custom menu to create a new linked support call record from the clients module.
Added a pull down list of countries for the billing country and shipping country fields
Added a country code field for shipping and billing that uses a custom function to auto entry the code to correspond to the country
Added another subtab within the Emails/Events/Time tab called Timecard billing, which can be used to calculate and communicate consulting billing timecard entry.
Tweaked the Web Viewer tab panel to become Media Files / Web and added a sub tab with a portal to see linked media files

CONTACT MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Contacts To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.
Added a tab for viewing linked media files, added portals to view the files, added GTRR for access and button to create new linked media records.

EVENTS MODULE CHANGES
In many modules, you can see a related event in the Events Dialog box (a smaller layout linked to the Events module). I added a button on that dialog layout to go to full screen view of the event record.

FILES / MEDIA MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Files To Contacts and a magnifying glass icon to GTRR the related contact

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Added a button in the payments tab to automatically add a payment that is equal to the balance due for the invoice.
Turned off the validate always selection for the invoice number field because it was interfering with importing legacy data
Added a customization options area in the text invoice tab to allow for customization options for each invoice that might be emailed.
The first text invoice customization allows for including balance due information on outgoing invoices.
Tweaked the text invoice information to include a message about how payments can be made for invoices with a balance due.

LEADS MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Leads To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.
To be consistent, the lead contact field has been broken up into a first and last name fields.
Added the ability to create a proposal from a lead and added a tab with portal to see related proposals for a lead

PROPOSAL MODULE CHANGES
Added a button and custom menu option within the Proposal module that will convert the proposal record to a new campaign record. The proposal milestones become campaign events and everything is attached to the related client.
Shortened the tab name Terms Agreement to Terms and added a Products tab
Added a tab for products and now you can add products from inventory to a proposal
Made Background a master tab with the sub tabs of Background, Research and Objectives
Removed the main tabs of Research and Objectives and made them sub tabs within the Background tab
Added a Questions tab / field in the Statements tab, this allows you to include proposal questions about areas within a proposal draft

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added a new sub tab in the Events tab titled "Range / Working / Date Sort". It allows a staff member to set a start and end date range to see all their events in "Working" status. Added a large number of buttons to help set the range including Today, This Week, Last Week, Next Week, This Month, Last Month, Next Month and YTD. I also added a button to set all the events that have working status before the current date for a staff member to the current date. Also added the Set Previous Working feature as a custom menu for the Staff menu.
Added summary fields to the Timecard tab for overall timecard time (by range), overall billable time and billable amount.
Added New Timecard light gray button in the top button row, not sure how I missed that until now.
Added a tab for viewing linked media files, added portals to view the files, added GTRR for access and button to create new linked media records.

TIMECARD MODULE CHANGES
Updated the client id field to auto enter via a lookup to an associated campaign record
Added a button next to the timecard email field to send timecard information to the linked client

UNDER THE HOOD - BaseElements Error Free
I acquired a copy of BaseElements 2.0 and used it to evaluate InBizness SOHO 2.5. There wasn't any major problems but there were reports of a lot of smaller issues and warnings. At this release date, InBizness SOHO 2.5 has no reported errors or warnings.

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION ADDITION (insert_commas)
Added the custom function of insert_commas, which inserts commas before every third digit before a decimal point. Uses recursion to handle any number, including negative values and decimals. This allows me to have a calculated number in a text calculation field and still show the commas. So a calculated value of 2,000 will look that way instead of 2000. The name of the function is insert_commas and I got it from the briandunning.com web site. The credits for uploading this function to that site are noted as Matthew Stetson, Antidote Solutions (http://www.antidotesolutions.com)

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION ADDITION (_cf_Country_Letter_Code)
This is a list of countries (sorted partially by their first letter) and their equivalent letter code. The name of the function is _cf_Country_Letter_Code and I got it from the briandunning.com web site. The credits for uploading this function to that site are noted as Edward Souza, Duana A. S. Designs.

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM MENU CHANGES
In the Staff module, added the custom menu of Set Previously Working Events To Today.
In the Proposal module, add a custom menu to covert a Proposal (with milestones) to a Campaign (with events).
Removed all aspects that allowed general FileMaker users to install standard FileMaker menus vs custom menus

UNDER THE HOOD - LAYOUT CHANGES
Went through and renamed all layouts to a new centralized naming convention
Went through and reorganized all layouts by module name and purpose

UNDER THE HOOD - SCRIPTING
Added a new naming convention for all scripts so they can uniquely identify what module they focus upon

UNDER THE HOOD - RELATIONSHIP GRAPH CHANGES
I had my Relationship Graph in very good shape for my InBizness SOHO product. However, I have never made sure that it printed perfectly. This is a large task because InBizness SOHO 2.5 has over 200 table occurrences for the 45 tables it currently has. So now, all those table occurrences are in synch with the Page Guide grid. I know that many of my competitors in the FileMaker framework business market could never print all the relationships for their solution from one place and it all fits into the printable grid. All TOGs are sorted alphabetically, fully anchor / buoy, full consistent naming convention and now totally printer friendly.

UNDER THE HOOD - VALUE LISTS
Went through and renamed all value lists to a new centralized naming convention
Added a value list for countries called OVERALL_country and have started assigning it to related country fields in the solution

Version 2.4

2008-09-23T12:49:00.001-07:00

Version 2.4
I'm adding this post when InBizness SOHO is on version 2.6 but wanted to have this information available for reference.

NEW CONTACTS MODULE
Added new contacts module so now you can document multiple contacts within a client or vendor record.

NEW LEADS MODULE
Added new leads module for cultivating new clients. This paves the way for a more robust lead to client process.

NEW SALES ORDER MODULE
Added new sales order module and allows you to convert a sales order to an invoice.

NEW TIME CARD MODULE
Added new timecard module so now you can have a staff member log their time and have it associated with a record in another module such as a campaign, a customer, a lead or just about anything!

NEW CREDIT MEMO MODULE
Added new credit memo module to record instances where a customer was issued a refund.

NEW RMA (return merchandise authorization) MODULE
Added new credit memo module to record instances where a customer was issued an authorization to return a product.

MAIN MODULE CHANGES
Edited and reorganized the buttons for module navigation, also updated the Take Me To dialog box
Added a tab to see the dwaynewright.com web site in a tab

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Added a portal to add contacts to Client record
Added a portal to add multiple addresses for a Client record
Added the ability to create a new RMA for a client from the Create Related custom menu
Consolidated the Sales and Marketing tabs into one tab
Added new Sales Order sub-tab with related portal within the Sales / Marketing tab
Added new tab called Customer Sat, included sub-tabs to for related credit memos and returns records
Added the related portals for the related credit memos and returns records

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Reorganized the top tab panels. It used to be a pair of thinner tab panels. Now it is one long tab and the address information is not seen side by side.

PAYMENTS MODULE CHANGES
Previous to version 2.4, the payment module was accessed via a portal in the invoice module. Now it has its own form, list and print layouts.

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added a link to the new timecard module (naturally) with a new tab panel for Timecard with a ranged portal display

VENDOR MODULE CHANGES
Added the tab panel for viewing related contacts via a portal and added the script to create related contacts

CUSTOM MENU CHANGES
Reorganized the Navigation Menu with new module options

USER INTERFACE CHANGES
Tweaked the main screen leveraging even more from the ISO Theme Library
Continued tweaking of form and list view interfaces using the ISO Theme Library materials.
Added a value list for time related data entry, mostly for timecard entry requirements
In most layouts, there is a tab that allows a user to submit customization requests

REPORT CHANGES
Added a new client report that reports on sales by state and ranks them by total sales

Version 2.3

2008-09-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Version 2.3
I'm adding this post when InBizness SOHO is on version 2.6 but wanted to have this information available for reference.

NEW PURCHASE MODULE
Added new purchase order module for recording commitments to Vendors for the purchase of goods and services

NEW INVENTORY RECEIVED MODULE
Added new table that records when inventory has been received from an associate purchase order

NEW VENDOR BILL MODULE
Added new vendor bill module for recording bills from Vendors for the purchase of goods and services

CAMPAIGN MODULE CHANGES
Added a tab to see related invoices and added the relationship to link an invoice to a campaign

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Added layouts, script and custom menus to print Avery 5160 Shipping and Billing address labels

HELP MODULE CHANGES
Rewrote most of the help topic records in this module
Launched the InBizness SOHO blog ( http://inbiznesssoho.blogspot.com/ ) for updates to help information

INVENTORY MODULE CHANGES
Added the two new fields Vendor Product SKU and Vendor Product Title
Added a field to determine if a product will appear (or not) in the value list when adding an item to a purchase order
Added new inventory calculation fields of qty ordered, qty received and qty balance to update inventory levels on recvd inventory
Added a master tab of Inventory Transactions that has sub tabs for sales, purchases, receiving and adjustment transactions
Added a marketing tab with a client sub-tab to see all the clients that have purchased a particular product

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Added a tab in the background tab panel to see the key id links.
Added the key fields for campaigns, so an invoice can be linked to a campaign (currently a manual process)

MAIN MODULE CHANGES
Added a new tab to the main screen called acknowledgments
Added information about the custom functions used in InBizness SOHO
Added The SOHO Blog tab and linked web viewer

QUOTE MODULE CHANGES
Added the two tier pricing level system that was introduced into the invoice module in the last update

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added the print layout for staff and updated the Top Buttons script to include staff form view printing

VENDOR MODULE CHANGES
Added the ability to create a new purchase orders from a vendor record
Added a tab panel and portal to see purchase orders related to this vendor
Added button and menu command to create a new related equipment record from a vendor record

USER INTERFACE CHANGES
I have been experimenting for some time to update the interface to InBizness SOHO, this update has one of those experiments. It is inspired from one of the layout templates from the ISO Theme Library.

RELATIONSHIP GRAPH CHANGES
With the increased number of source tables, I decided to divide the table occurrences into two vertical rows. The first row will have all the source tables from A to L and the second row will have the source tables of M-Z.

CUSTOM MENU CHANGES
The Window sub-menu in the Navigation menu has been moved towards the top of the navigation menu
Added New Window as an individual option in the Windows menu
Tweaked the Report menu item descriptions to show what module they are focused upon

Version 2.2

2008-09-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

Version 2.2
This update has a number of minor tweaks in order to better support FileMaker 9 features. I'm adding this post when InBizness SOHO is on version 2.6 but wanted to have this information available for reference.

FILEMAKER 9 SUPPORT CHANGES
LAYOUTS - All main form view layouts have been updated to take advantage of screen resize features
LAYOUTS - All form view layout tab panels have been changed to full justification and squared appearance
SCRIPTS - Added the new grouping feature to allow developers to better organize scripts

NEW STAFF MODULE
Added new staff module as a gateway for additional user feature sets
Added routine to place the staff members id as a global variable on startup
Added a child match field to all tables for the possibility to link to a staff record
Setup all staff match fields in all tables to auto enter global variable information
Setup method for adding and editing security accounts from a security record
Security updates send emails to email address in the preferences area
Added tab panels for equipment and software along with associated interactions

MISC OTHER CHANGES
MAIN - added global fields for setting default company information to be used on invoices and correspondence
MAIN - added a preferences tab panel in the main screen
MAIN - added a tab panel for viewing version update history
CLIENTS - added a billing address email field
CLIENTS - added the price level field for two level pricing for invoices
INVOICE - updated the calc field for email invoices to use the LIST function
INVOICE - added a tab panel to see the text version of the email invoice
INVOICE - added the ability to do two level pricing for invoices
BUDGET - deleted this table and associated logic, it wasn't a clean fit or needed by the other modules
EMAIL - dialog box for creating emails now has a tab panel
EVENT - dialog box for creating events now has a tab panel

TAXES - had the ability to export records that are tax specific to a different table, this never really worked the way I imagined it, so I deleted the table and associated logic

RELATIONSHIP GRAPH - InBizness SOHO has been using anchor / buoy for quite some time. In this update, I made tweaks to the naming convention for objects on the relationship graph. In short, all buoy objects will have the naming convention of anchor_BUOY__comment. So the name of the anchor will appear first in lowercase, underscore character, BUOY NAME IN UPPERCASE, (optional dual underscore characters), (optional text that better describes the relationship).

PRIVILEGE SETS - Added the privilege sets of Owner, Manager, Admin, Sales, Data Entry, Customer Service and Information Tech. These are common business roles in a workplace and this allows us to integrate these roles with staff based security settings.

InBizness 2.6 Update

2008-09-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

INBIZNESS BLOG CHANGES
The InBizness blog can be accessed via the main screen under the InBizness Blog tab and directly from your web browser. New information is added all the time to this web site include sneak peeks at future updates, new FAQ content, comments and much more. It has been recently updated to include a RSS reader function, so you can get immediate updates when new content is available!

NEW REPORTS UNDER THE REPORTS MENU
Clients Module: Marketing Record Crosstab Report
Timecard Module: Find Billable Timecards That Have Not Been Billed
Timecard Module: Week / Year / Staff Timecard Totals For Found Set Of Records
Invoice Module: Added Aging Reports By Customer (both general and detailed view)
Invoice Module: Added Overdue By Status report for aging reports
Invoice Module: Added Fiscal Year Quarterly Sales report to the invoice subcategory
Purchase Module: Added Show Open Purchase Orders report

MAIN MODULE CHANGES
Added a field that allows you to specify the start month of a fiscal quarter in the General Preferences area
Added a field to allow you to enter in the default address to appear on printed invoices in the Invoice Preferences area

CAMPAIGN MODULE CHANGES
Added a field that allows a campaign record to show up in Timecard pick lists or not
Updated the list view so that the Campaign, Status, Priority and Type can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Tweaked the light gray top button bar, removed "New" from each button and added a Create New label to the right of the button row
Added Create Timecard to the Clients Create Related custom menu and added a button to create a related timecard
Added a current record specific report for time card entries and added this as a custom menu option under the Clients custom menu.
Added a Client Marketing Crosstab Report to summarize totals of actions shown in the Sales / Marketing tab
Added a stored search feature with scripts, value lists and custom menus
Added first stored search to find only clients that are flagged to show up in timecards records
Updated the list view so that the Company, State and Zip can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)
Added a small plus sign button next to the shipping and billing contact names. This button will create new related contact records using this entered data.

CONTACT MODULE CHANGES
Added vCard capabilities via a tab, calculation field and export field contents script (good for the iPhone)
Updated the list view so that the Contact Last Name and Type can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)

EVENT MODULE CHANGES
Updated the layout that is used for the event dialog box to resize vertically for FileMaker 9 auto resize features.
Updated the list view so that the Date, Title and Status can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)
Added a Duplicate This Event (full) button that will duplicate an event and duplicate the day and comment data
Added the Clone, Duplicate (basic) and Duplicate (full) custom menu option under the Events menu

INVENTORY MODULE CHANGES
Updated the list view so that the Description, Price, Class and Status can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Added A New Tab called Timecard that includes a new portal for linking timecards to invoices.
Added Date Payment Due Field and Aging Status Field for upcoming Accounts Receivable features.

LEADS MODULE CHANGES
Updated the list view so that the Company, State, Zip and Status can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)

PROPOSAL MODULE CHANGES
Added a number of buttons that will remove formatting pasted in areas such as background and statements.
Added a sub-tab structure to the milestones tab and included About Milestones and List Of Milestones as those sub-tabs
In the milestone dialog box, added a button next to the title called Plain Title to remove formatting from pasted title data.
In the milestone dialog box, added a button next to the description called Plain to remove formatting from pasted description data.
Added the product comments data to be added to built proposals (previously was excluded)
Updated the list view so that the Company and Proposal Title can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)

QUOTE MODULE CHANGES
Updated the email quote operation to resemble the updates that was done with the Invoice email out. This includes the Text Quote tab, dollar format custom function, use of the LIST function for line items and more.

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added a sub tab to the Background tab, moved auditing to one sub tab and created a new sub tab called Users Last Session Info
Added a startup routine to capture data about a users session into a global variable and set that data into that users staff record when they exit InBizness. Now I can capture information about the user that might come in handy for later troubleshooting.
Took the Equipment, Software and Mileage tabs and consolidated them as sub-tabs within a new tab called Admin
Added A HR tab with portals for Education Degrees, Training and Evaluations
Updated the list view so that the Last Name and Title can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)

TIMECARD MODULE CHANGES
The Timecard screens didn't have their own custom menu, added that custom menu and applied to all Timecard layouts.
Added a script, magnifying glass icon button and custom menu option to jump to a related client record in a new window.
Added the ability to link a timecard record to an invoice.
Updated the area used to email timecard updates, added a field that shows a timestamp when the timecard was emailed out.
After much internal debate, decided to have the start time auto enter via the record creation time.
Tweaked the value list for selecting a campaign record to link to a timecard record using a field added to the campaign module.
Added the tab and portal for related media file records and the ability to add related media files from a timecard record.
Updated the list view so that the Date, Duration, Staff Name and Type can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)
Added a button called Clone Incremental, this will create a new timecard record and populate it with data from the timecard you were previously viewing and it will set the start time equal to the end time of the record you were viewing. This allows you to quickly add in a timecard for a business day.

VENDOR MODULE CHANGES
Added a country code field and assigned a value list to the country address field.
Updated the list view so that the Company, Type and Tax Type can be sorted by clicking list label (Ascending and Descending)

VENDOR BILL MODULE CHANGES
Added a tab and enclosed text field to view a text version of the vendor bill.
Added a custom menu and associated script to send an email version of the vendor bill

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION CHANGES
Added the FYQ custom function to return the month and year of a fiscal year from a start fiscal year month

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM MENU CHANGES
Reports menu, added Client Marketing Crosstab Report to summarize totals of actions shown in the Sales / Marketing tab
The Timecard screens didn't have their own custom menu, added that custom menu and applied to all Timecard layouts

UNDER THE HOOD - VALUE LIST CHANGES
Added a new value list called OVERALL_month that has values from 1 to 12 to make selecting a month value easier

Added Five New “Under The Hood” Movies

2008-09-20T12:28:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

Thought I’d pass along an update about 5 new movies I added that cover the scripting, relationship, layout, custom menu and custom function philosophy used in my InBizness product.

Here are the the links, you might want to right click the links to open them in a new window or browser tab.

Relationship Philosophy
06:35 minutes

Scripting Philosophy
09:40 minutes

Layout Philosophy
06:40 minutes

Custom Menu Philosophy
07:18 minutes

Custom Function Philosophy
03:20 minutes
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.
====================== ADVERTISEMENT ==============================
For more information on the InBizness SOHO and other quality FileMaker framework solutions, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/solutions.html

Showing Open Purchase Orders

2008-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

I just added a simple report script for the latest release of InBizness and thought I’d quickly share it. The report is a very simple ... find these records and go to list view. It is activated from the Reports custom menu, so it can be activated from just about anywhere in the system.

There are a few different things about this script that some fledgling developers might or might not be aware off. I do have an error capture routine, to branch the script if there isn’t any matching records to report upon. If the find does fail, it activates a subscript, so I can reuse the same code in multiple reports. The sorting feature is a little different as well. It didn’t make any sense to sort the returned records alphabetically by status, so it sorts by the matching value list attached to the status field.

Here you can see the report that is activated by a script parameter passed to it by the Reports custom menu. It does show the report in a new window, which is pretty standard for most of the reports I create.

Here you can see my search is actually a couple omits, assuming that everything that is not delivered or canceled is still open.

Here you can see the contents of the “no records found” subscript.

Here you can see the message shown to users when the “no records found” subscript if fired. Notice how vanilla and multiple purpose it is.

Here you can see that the sort routine is using the associated value list settings.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

====================== ADVERTISEMENT ==============================
For more information on the InBizness SOHO and other quality FileMaker framework solutions, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/solutions.html

FAQ: Translating To Other Languages

2008-09-16T11:07:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION: If I would buy your solution, is it easy to translate everything into dutch..? Well the first translation would be easy, but if you change the framework (add new features or create bugfixes or just improve it), will we have to start all over again..?

-------
ANSWER: I have to admit that I have never done a FileMaker language translation project. I don’t think it would be hard to translate InBizness to another language but it may be time consuming. I don’t radically change the framework from version to version. So I don’t think that would present a big problem.

When I release a new version of InBizness, chances are you cannot directly upgrade to it. This is because you have done customizations to your copy of InBizness. If you purchase the update (or are on a maintenance agreement) you would pick and choose which of the new features in that version you want to implement into your customized copy. In most cases, you would copy and paste the code using FileMaker Advanced.

In your case, you would copy / paste the code, translate it and be done. I detail out the changes in each version via the version history tab in the Main window.

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: Database Not Modifiable

2008-09-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION: A popup keeps getting me saying it is not modifiable, even when I try to scroll through the tutorial. How do I fix that? Same thing if I go to clients and try to email you, I get a series of those pop ups.

-------
ANSWER: It sounds like your computer locked the file when it downloaded it. To unlock the file ...

ON A MACINTOSH: Quit FileMaker if is is running, navigate to the InBizness file and single click it. Then hit cmnd-I to launch the inspector and un-check the "locked" checkbox for the offending file. I know this is slow but that's the purpose of locking a file...to prevent it from being casually deleted.

ON A WINDOWS MACHINE: Quit FileMaker if is is running, navigate to the InBizness file and right click it. In the general area, you should be able to see if the attributes are selected as “Read Only”. If it is, uncheck that option.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FILEMAKER: Invoice Sales By Fiscal Year Quarter

2008-09-05T09:39:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

So I decided I want to add some quarterly level report options for InBizness SOHO 2.6. Thought it might be interesting to comment the steps I took to create the report and post it to my FileMaker Reports Explored blog.

ABOUT THE CALCULATIONS
I decided to cruise by the custom function library area at briandunning.com to see what I could find. I quickly found the following ...

FYQ
from briandunning.com (http://www.briandunning.com/cf/759) uploaded by Matt Wills, Virtual Vermont (http://www.VirtualVermont.com/FMP) Returns the fiscal year and quarter of a given date, considering the starting month of the fiscal year and observing the convention that the year is named for the year in which it ends.

This looked very promising, so I added it to the solution. I hadn’t even thought about a fiscal year option for the report! I made a global field in the main table to store the start month value, added this to the general preferences area and attached a value list check box option for values from 1 to 12.

The next step was to add a calculation field into the invoice table to calculate the fiscal year quarter and I named mine FiscalYearQuarterSold. It has the very simple calculation of FYQ ( invoice_m::g_startmonthFiscalYear ; INVOICE::date_ordered ).

ABOUT THE LAYOUT
So I have knocked down the calculation for my general report, the next step was to create a layout. I decided to quickly duplicate an existing report that breaks sales down by year and month. This report has a subsummary by year and then by month. I simply rewired the year subsummary part to use the fiscal year subsummary part and deleted the month part. After reordering my layouts slightly, I was done with the layout portion. Now on to the scripting area.

ABOUT THE SCRIPTING
So you might already know that I organize all my report related scripts in one script folder and then I break them down by module. So I only need to tweak the standard script I use for all my invoice related scripts and break it up by using a Script Parameter. Here again, I duplicated the script steps for my Monthly Sales Report. I changed the script parameter, the referenced layout and the sort order. Now my scripting area is done.

Here you can see my scripting group organization for reports.

Here you can see the specifics of this script.

ABOUT THE CUSTOM MENU
Again, I do almost all the activation of reports from a custom menu. So I copied the new Script Parameter I used for my new script steps and proceeded to find my Reports custom menu. I find my Monthly Sales custom menu report, duplicate it, change the used Script Parameter and I’m good to go.

QUALITY TESTING
I went ahead and ran the report from the custom menu and it worked great. I decided to go back into the preferences area and change my starting fiscal year starting month and run the report again. Once again, everything looked great.

So it really was a quick tweak for an existing report!
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

====================== ADVERTISEMENT ==============================
For more information on the InBizness SOHO and other quality FileMaker framework solutions, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/solutions.html

FAQ: How Do I Install InBizness?

2008-08-25T10:38:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION: How Do I Install InBizness?

-------
ANSWER: The database itself is a single FileMaker file. So it depends upon how you want to implement the sharing of it. It can be run in a peer to peer setting. That means that one user can open the database and share it with a limited number of users. Although this does work, it is not the recommended method. It is highly recommended that InBizness run on a well maintained FileMaker 9 Server. You can purchase a server and set it up for in house sharing. You can also have InBizness hosted with a hosting company. We provide hosting services for the database at $50 a month charge for agreements paid for in 6 month blocks. There are a number of other FileMaker hosting companies out there and each has its own unique advantages in what they offer.

Each user that wants to use InBizness, will need a copy of FileMaker Pro installed on their machine. If you need copies of FileMaker or FileMaker server, we do have a bundling agreement with FileMaker and can offer these applications at a competitive price.

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: Looking At My Files?

2008-08-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION:

Is it reasonable for me to send you files to be converted to FP9 for which you will bill me at your stated rate to prepare a quote, and prepare a separate quote for which I will pay to convert to your InBizness system. I have some minor concerns about the people here accepting a major change in what they have been doing.

-------
ANSWER:

Sure that isn’t a problem. You might want to go ahead and purchase a couple hours of FileMaker Estimation Or Project Management (which can be found as the bottom link at http://www.dwaynewright.com/store.html . You might even want to toss in an extra hour if you would like for me to do a BaseElements analysis on the files. BaseElements is an application used for detection and troubleshooting of database files.

When I’m done with the estimate, I can send you the converted files, the BaseElements reports and the estimate in one shot.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: Still Need Copies Of FileMaker?

2008-08-18T09:26:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION:

I'm going to purchase the following off your website..

BUNDLE: InBizness SOHO 2.5 Hosting (6 months) (pre-order)
This bundle is designed for workgroups between 5 and 25 users. This package includes a copy of InBizness 2.5, 10 custom design hours, complimentary hosting services for 6 months and free upgrades to all versions of InBizness for six months. $1950.00

I'm going to get the 10 hours of design and the 6 months of hosting because I would like you to be able to make changes and add the items I mentioned in my previous emails.

Regarding FileMaker copies.. since I'm hosting with you, will each one of the users of the dbase still need a full version of FileMaker running on their local computer? Does FileMaker have a data entry only version, for people who only want to use the dbase online? These users ( sales reps ) will not be making any changes to the dbase design.

-------
ANSWER:

Will each user require a copy of FileMaker Pro on their desktop?

Well, the answer is yes, no and maybe. The hosting package does not come with any copies of FileMaker. If you need additional copies of FileMaker, these will need to be purchased. We do have a Solutions Bundle Agreement with FileMaker, so I can work up a bundle price that does include full copies of FileMaker Pro 9 software.

Under the maybe and no categories, as of version 2.5 of InBizness, I have not built in any FileMaker Instant Web Publishing (IWP) features into the database. By building them in, I really mean duplicating layouts and removing features that are not IWP compatible. So if you have a user that only needs limied access to a few modules, we can enable IWP features and they can use a compatible web browser. The hosting plan does include IWP hosting capabilities, it is just that I haven’t build layouts specific for IWP compatibility.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: Migrate My Data Into Your System

2008-08-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION: I have four companies utilizing FileMaker for all financial control, stock, shipping, customers, prospects, rep commissions, personnel etc, in general the vast majority of operations in the companies. Is it possible to migrate my data into your system without losing any?

-------
ANSWER: Without looking at the files first, I would be guessing. Since you are using FileMaker now, my best guess is .... “Yes, it certainly can!”. Working with legacy data integration is always an adventure however. Here is what we do for complex legacy data migration ...

All your data is imported into a new FileMaker 9 file and a unique table is created for each file or existing table you have. For the sake of this discussion, lets call this the Data Translator.

After phase one, the Data Translator will contain all the tables, fields and data from your current system. We then create scripted routines to place your data from the Data Translator into the InBizness shell. In some cases, the data may not go cleanly into the new shell and has to be “worked / cleaned” to fit snugly into the new system.

After this is done, the Data Translator will have a collection of scripts that clean and place your data into InBizness SOHO. At that point we ...

- Empty the Data Translator
- Get a fresh copy of InBizness
- Import your latest legacy data into the Translator
- Run all its data cleaning scripts
- Run all its scripts placing data into InBizness
- Upload the new InBizness file to your server

We then recommend a testing period to make sure we got it all working correctly. This can be anytime from a week to a month. We fix any data problems we come across. Then we do a final Data Translator action and we should be good to go.

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: Accommodate Normal Business Requirements

2008-08-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION: Does your business system accommodate all the normal business requirements?

ANSWER: I’m afraid that I would have to say that normal business requirements is something few people would agree upon. Particularly in a day and age in which business requirements are changing rapidly. Ten years ago, the ability to interface with email not be considered a normal business requirement but today it does (in my opinion).

Currently InBizness Supports business modules such as Clients, Contacts, Vendors, Staff, Leads, Proposals, Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices, Payments, Inventory, Campaigns, Emails, Events, Media, Purchase Orders, Vendor Bills, Finances (check writing included), Bank Deposits, Timecards, Office Equipment, Office Software, Mileage recording, Credit Memos, Return Merchandise Authorizations and Customer Support tracking. Each of these modules are open for customization to a particular users business needs.

Some would say that the ability to customize a business tool to the unique needs of a business is normal. However, QuickBooks does not allow that capability and they are the largest seller of business software on the planet. Talking about QuickBooks ...

There isn’t any double entry accounting features within InBizness. However, previous versions of InBizness have been connected successfully to QuickBooks. There are companies and products that specialize in this type of integration. Here are some links to information about those products and services.

SolutionMakers Inc. - 123Synch
Productive Computer - FMBooksConnector
Happy Software - FileBooks Link
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: Record Creation Via Incoming Email

2008-08-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION:
Is it possible to automatic create an order from a email? I’m looking for an easy way to get orders from my php/sql based website into filemaker. Maybe you have some other ideas on this.

-------
ANSWER:
Yes, it is possible. What normally happens is we use a plug-in to bring the email directly into FileMaker or some way to directly get the email in. After that, we run a FileMaker script to parse the data in the field and create all the order information based upon the email. The email will need to be consistent in nature or its possible the parsing routine might hiccup.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

FAQ: Customization Hours

2008-08-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

QUESTION:
Is your program something that could fit our needs or would it require hundreds of hours of customization???

We have looked at two other Filemaker integrated solutions and they both do everything we need (with customization) but they both have their disadvantages. i.e. Cost and user interface is confusing. Your program has the right cost and the user interface is very clean. All of which I like.

ANSWER:
The customization of InBizness is pretty straight forward. Tracking down the needs analysis and putting it into a hard plan can be tricky, time consuming and expensive. If you have a specific idea of what you need and can point me to it, then I can reduce the customization costs dramatically. InBizness can be integrated with Quickbooks and can be upgraded to have most of the accounting needs you mentioned.

As far as manufacturing goes, that is possible as well. It really depends on your particular needs. If we can get that firmed out, then we can work up an estimate on those needs.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

2008-08-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

Recently, I just used this technique in my upcoming 2.5 release of InBizness SOHO. I have been doing a lot of proposals lately for database work and wanted to streamline the process a bit. A number of my proposals have common milestones and I wanted the ability to copy a similar milestone from one project and place it within the current proposal.

Here you can see the new interface for the milestones module. (you may need to click the image to enlarge. You can see a button in the portal row that copies the primary key fields data into a global variable. This way, that data is available as I go to a different record. I have a self relationship between my milestones table and use a script to place the key id and set the fields in the new milestone equal to the one I copied.

Here you can see the script in the Script Debugger (a feature in FileMaker Advanced)(you can click the image for a larger version)

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Sneak Peek At Updates For Version 2.5

2008-07-25T21:25:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

I’m getting close to finalizing the feature list for version 2.5 of InBizness SOHO. I thought I’d go ahead and sneak peek of what I have so far.

Thanks,
Dwayne

----------
NEW BANK DEPOSIT MODULE
Added a new module for quickly creating deposit slips for customer check payments.

NEW SUPPORT CALL MODULE
Added a new module for documenting the customer support experience for a company.

MAIN MODULE CHANGES
Added a sub tab to the Version History tab to document the changes in version 2.5
Removed The Emails And Events buttons to make room for new modules.
These two buttons are still in the Take Me To screen and the navigation custom menu.
Added a sub tab panel to the Preferences tab in the Main module including General, Invoice and Purchase Orders
Added a global field to help tailor the message on email invoices about how to make balance due payment

CAMPAIGN MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Campaigns To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.

CLIENT MODULE CHANGES
Added a button called "List These" that does a GTRR to related records and show them in a list view. This button can be used to show related invoices, sales orders, quotes, proposals, campaigns, credit memos, returns, emails and events.
Tightened up the bottom tab order to show more data and be organized into logical group tabs.
Combined Emails And Events into the same tab and added this data as a subtab.
Added a relationship from Clients To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.
Added A Support Call portal in the Customer Satisfaction Primary Tab
Added button and custom menu to create a new linked support call record from the clients module.
Added a pull down list of countries for the billing country and shipping country fields
Added a country code field for shipping and billing that uses a custom function to auto entry the code to correspond to the country
Added another subtab within the Emails/Events/Time tab called Timecard billing, which can be used to calculate and communicate consulting billing timecard entry.

CONTACT MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Contacts To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.

EVENTS MODULE CHANGES
In many modules, you can see a related event in the Events Dialog box (a smaller layout linked to the Events module). I added a button on that dialog layout to go to full screen view of the event record.

INVOICE MODULE CHANGES
Added a button in the payments tab to automatically add a payment that is equal to the balance due for the invoice.
Turned off the validate always selection for the invoice number field because it was interfering with importing legacy data
Added a customization options area in the text invoice tab to allow for customization options for each invoice that might be emailed.
The first text invoice customization allows for including balance due information on outgoing invoices.
Tweaked the text invoice information to include a message about how payments can be made for invoices with a balance due.

LEADS MODULE CHANGES
Added a relationship from Leads To Timecards, a tab to see this in a portal and you can create a timecard from this module.
To be consistent, the lead contact field has been broken up into a first and last name fields.
Added the ability to create a proposal from a lead and added a tab with portal to see related proposals for a lead

PROPOSAL MODULE CHANGES
Added a button and custom menu option within the Proposal module that will convert the proposal record to a new campaign record. The proposal milestones become campaign events and everything is attached to the related client.
Shortened the tab name Terms Agreement to Terms and added a Products tab
Added a tab for products and now you can add products from inventory to a proposal
Made Background a master tab with the sub tabs of Background, Research and Objectives
Removed the main tabs of Research and Objectives and made them sub tabs within the Background tab

STAFF MODULE CHANGES
Added a new sub tab in the Events tab titled "Range / Working / Date Sort". It allows a staff member to set a start and end date range to see all their events in "Working" status. Added a large number of buttons to help set the range including Today, This Week, Last Week, Next Week, This Month, Last Month, Next Month and YTD. I also added a button to set all the events that have working status before the current date for a staff member to the current date. Also added the Set Previous Working feature as a custom menu for the Staff menu.
Added summary fields to the Timecard tab for overall timecard time (by range), overall billable time and billable amount.
Added New Timecard light gray button in the top button row, not sure how I missed that until now

TIMECARD MODULE CHANGES
Updated the client id field to auto enter via a lookup to an associated campaign record
Added a button next to the timecard email field to send timecard information to the linked client

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION ADDITION (insert_commas)
Added the custom function of insert_commas, which inserts commas before every third digit before a decimal point. Uses recursion to handle any number, including negative values and decimals. This allows me to have a calculated number in a text calculation field and still show the commas. So a calculated value of 2,000 will look that way instead of 2000. The name of the function is insert_commas and I got it from the briandunning.com web site. The credits for uploading this function to that site are noted as Matthew Stetson, Antidote Solutions (http://www.antidotesolutions.com)

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM FUNCTION ADDITION (_cf_Country_Letter_Code)
This is a list of countries (sorted partially by their first letter) and their equivalent letter code. The name of the function is _cf_Country_Letter_Code and I got it from the briandunning.com web site. The credits for uploading this function to that site are noted as Edward Souza, Duana A. S. Designs.

UNDER THE HOOD - CUSTOM MENU CHANGES
In the Staff module, added the custom menu of Set Previously Working Events To Today.
In the Proposal module, add a custom menu to covert a Proposal (with milestones) to a Campaign (with events).
Removed all aspects that allowed general FileMaker users to install standard FileMaker menus vs custom menus

UNDER THE HOOD - LAYOUT CHANGES
Went through and renamed all layouts to a new centralized naming convention
Went through and reorganized all layouts by module name and purpose

UNDER THE HOOD - SCRIPTING
Added a new naming convention for all scripts so they can uniquely identify what module they focus upon

UNDER THE HOOD - RELATIONSHIP GRAPH CHANGES
I had my Relationship Graph in very good shape for my InBizness SOHO product. However, I have never made sure that it printed perfectly. This is a large task because InBizness SOHO 2.5 has over 200 table occurrences for the 45 tables it currently has. So now, all those table occurrences are in synch with the Page Guide grid. I know that many of my competitors in the FileMaker framework business market could never print all the relationships for their solution from one place and it all fits into the printable grid. All TOGs are sorted alphabetically, fully anchor / buoy, full consistent naming convention and now totally printer friendly.

UNDER THE HOOD - VALUE LISTS
Went through and renamed all value lists to a new centralized naming convention
Added a value list for countries called OVERALL_country and have started assigning it to related country fields in the solution
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Printable Relationship Graph

2008-07-14T08:36:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

I had my Relationship Graph in very good shape for my InBizness SOHO product. However, I have never made sure that it printed perfectly. This is a large task because InBizness SOHO 2.5 has over 200 table occurrences for the 45 tables it currently has. So now, all those table occurrences are in synch with the Page Guide grid. I know that many of my competitors in the FileMaker framework business market could never print all the relationships for their solution from one place and it all fits into the printable grid.

Here you can see a 50% print preview look at part of InBizness SOHO 2.5 Relationship Graph. All TOGs are sorted alphabetically, fully anchor / buoy, full consistent naming convention and now totally printer friendly.
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

InBizness SOHO 2.4 Released

2008-06-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

dwaynewright.com, a member of the FileMaker Business Alliance, is proud to announce the immediate availability of InBizness 2.4, a uniquely powerful CRM framework product.

Chances are, your business is an elaborate balancing act between fulfilling customer requests, managing projects, interacting with inventory and much more. InBizness SOHO combines 24 different business modules into one sleek FileMaker file and provides for open customization using FileMaker Pro, an Award-winning, easy-to-use database software for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh computers.

InBizness SOHO was designed to grow to custom fit your business needs.

Features Include ...
- Attractive User Interface and Custom Menu Support In All Modules
- Full Anchor / Buoy Design For Taming The Relationship Graph
- All Scripts Organized Into FMP 9 Folders By Module
- FileMaker 9 Screen Resizing Supported In Almost All Module Screens
- Basic Record Auditing In All Tables

InBizness modules include Clients, Contacts, Vendors, Staff, Leads, Proposals, Quotes, Sales Orders, Invoices, Payments, Inventory, Campaigns, Emails, Events, Media Files, Purchase Orders, Vendor bills, Finances, Timecards, Office Equipment, Office Software, Mileage Tracking, Credit Memos and Return Merchandise Authorizations.

All InBizness products are developed by Certified FileMaker 9 Developers! For more information about InBizness SOHO and how it can dramatically increase the productivity of your business, please visit http://www.dwaynewright.com/solutions.html or call us at (360) 863-3021.

About dwaynewright.com

dwaynewright.com. has been a leading provider of FileMaker framework solutions since 1994. The site includes links to over 1,500 FileMaker design articles in the key design areas such as calculations, scripting, relationships, security and much more. The site also includes hundreds of free FileMaker design training movies covering FileMaker versions as far back as FileMaker 5.

Modules For InBizness SOHO 2.4

2008-06-10T10:28:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
WEB: www.dwaynewright.com
EMAIL: info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

This week, we will be releasing version 2.4 of InBizness SOHO. As you know by experience, our updates are rarely a small set of bug fixes. In fact, our smaller point releases tend to have more new features than some products from other FileMaker framework developers have in total! This update is one of our most ambitious updates to date, including 6 totally new modules.

Here is a quick listing of the new modules for InBizness 2.4.

The Contacts Module
As we know, a company in the role of a client, vendor or sales lead may have multiple contacts within their organization. The contacts module is designed to allow you to have an almost unlimited number of contacts associated with the above companies or independent records of their own.

So contacts can be viewed in a tabbed layout of their own or via a portal in the clients, vendors or leads modules. As with the other InBizness modules, this is designed to allow for customization for your individual contact manage needs.

The Leads Module
The Leads module is designed to hold business entity information for future customers. So there is an intention that each lead record will be converted to a client, continued to be worked upon for that purpose or closed as not an option to become a client.

The Sales Order Module
The Sales Order module is designed to allow a company to perform split shipments from the same order. You can create invoices in a number of different ways and many companies may never perform a split shipment. However, there are many companies in which split shipment on a customer order is a critical piece of their business.

The Timecard Module
The Timecard module is designed to work hand and hand with the staff module but can be easily linked to almost any of the modules within InBizness. This module has the classic timecard needs of a data, a start time, an end time and comments. It also has direct ability to be linked to a campaign, client, staff or event.

The Credit Memo Module
The credit memo module is design to record instances where a customer was issued a refund. You can record what we returned via line items (just like the line items on an invoice). You can even link a credit memo to an invoice and you can quickly view all the credit memos given to a client from their client record. This is available via a customer satisfaction tab found within each client record.

The Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) Module
The RMA module is design to record instances where a customer was issued a confirmation to return a product for repair or return. You can record what we returned via line items (just like the line items on an invoice). You can even link a return to an invoice and you can quickly view all the returns given to a client from their client record. This is available via a customer satisfaction tab found within each client record.

Plus we have the nearly 20 other modules that were available previous to the version 2.4 update!
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Introduction To The Timecard Module

2008-05-30T13:00:00.001-07:00

The Timecard module is designed to work hand and hand with the staff module but can be easily linked to almost any of the modules within InBizness. This module has the classic timecard needs of a data, a start time, an end time and comments. It also has direct ability to be linked to a campaign, client, staff or event.

There are other nice touches to the Timecard include a tab to see a text wrap up of key fields for emailing, a portal that shows timecards by a range of date and basic auditing of record changes.

Key Features Of The Timecard Module
- Ability to link to multiple modules
- Ability to see all time cards for a date range
- Ability to link timecards to media files
- Ability to email out timecards to clients
- Ability to see client balances for billable cards

Introduction To The Sales Order Module

2008-05-29T15:28:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
www.dwaynewright.com
info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

The Sales Order module is designed to allow a company to perform split shipments from the same order. You can create invoices in a number of different ways and many companies may never perform a split shipment. However, there are many companies in which split shipment on a customer order is a critical piece of their business.

So you can flag individual line items on an order to be included on a newly created invoice or not. Clicking the Convert To Invoice button will selectively convert just the line items that are flagged as Ship / Invoice Ready. Line items flagged as Ship / Invoice Ready are automatically highlighted in bold blue formatting via FileMaker 9 conditional formatting.

Many of the options that are available in an invoice module are also available in the sales order module.

Key Features Of The Sales Order Module
- Ability to create orders for products and services
- Ability to selectively move line items to invoices
- Ability to link sales orders to media files
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Introduction To The Leads Module

2008-05-29T12:37:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
www.dwaynewright.com
info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

Here is a sneak peek at an upcoming new module for InBizness SOHO 2.4.

The Leads module is designed to hold business entity information for future customers. So there is an intention that each lead record will be converted to a client, continued to be worked upon for that purpose or closed as not an option to become a client.

For obvious reasons, there are many similarities between the clients module and the leads module. You can have multiple addresses for a lead and multiple contacts listed for that organization. You can define events that you want to track and send stored emails to those lead records.

The Web View tab allows you to see the companies web site, google map and mapquest data. The web viewer area also supports FileMaker 9 layout adjustments and grows in size as the window is expanded.

There is a button to convert a lead to a contact record. So you can track success of a lead marketing campaign and adjust accordingly.

Key Features Of The Leads Module
- Ability to link to multiple modules
- Ability to see multiple linked aspects of Events and Emails
- Ability to see multiple linked staff timecards
- Ability to see multiple linked media file records
- Ability to see linked web site information
- Limited data auditing on record changes
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

The Contacts Module

2008-05-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
www.dwaynewright.com
info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

The Contacts Module
As we know, a company in the role of a client, vendor or sales lead may have multiple contacts within their organization. The contacts module is designed to allow you to have an almost unlimited number of contacts associated with the above companies or independent records of their own.

So contacts can be viewed in a tabbed layout of their own or via a portal in the clients, vendors or leads modules. As with the other InBizness modules, this is designed to allow for customization for your individual contact manage needs.

Here you can see the contacts listed in a portal from the Clients module.

Here you can see the form view for the contacts module.

Key Features Of The Contacts Module
- Ability to link to multiple modules
- Ability to see multiple linked aspects of Events
- Ability to see multiple linked staff timecards
- Ability to see multiple linked media file records
- Ability to export vCard data
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

New InBizness Logo?

2008-05-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

I'm rapidly working on InBizness SOHO 2.4 and will be rolling it out soon. This will be the last big update of SOHO for a time as I begin to roll out new products in the InBizness family. Thought I'd share a prototype of a new logo I'm thinking of for the line. Would be interested in hearing thoughts about it.

Accounts And Passwords For InBizness SOHO Version 2.3

2008-04-29T09:23:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
www.dwaynewright.com
info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

With the release of version 2.3 of InBizness SOHO, I made some tweaks to how the online demo works. Basically, you can sign into any of the accounts by using a supplied launcher file. The launcher file has a number of buttons that will log you into the demo by using the account name and password.

As of version 2.3, all the privilege sets have the same security settings. However, the records will be tagged with the name you signed into SOHO with to open the file. As I add more modules, you will start to see the differences in the different accounts and I will document was accounts can do what.

Accounts And Passwords For InBizness SOHO Version 2.3 have the following privilege sets ...

User
Owner
Manager
Admin
Sales
Data Entry
Customer Service
Information Tech

All the accounts are configured the same with full record access, layouts / value lists / scripts are view or execute only. As I mentioned earlier, this will likely change with later versions.

=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Introduction To The Office Software Module

2008-04-25T20:32:00.001-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
www.dwaynewright.com
info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

A place that allows you to quickly enter in the software with license information you are using. You can enter information such as purchase date, related vendor, access codes and even linked files!

Key Features Of The Office Software Module
- Ability to record office equipment records
- Ability to link to vendor records
- Ability to link to media file records
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Introduction To The Office Equipment Module

2008-04-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
www.dwaynewright.com
info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

A place that allows you to quickly enter in the office equipment you are using. You can enter information such as purchase date, related vendor, extended warranty information and even linked files!

Key Features Of The Office Equipment Module
- Ability to record office equipment records
- Ability to link to vendor records
- Ability to link to media file records
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.

Introduction To The Vendor Bill Module

2008-04-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

From Dwayne Wright - Certified FileMaker 9 Developer
www.dwaynewright.com
info@dwaynewright.com
TWITTER: dwaynewright

The vendor invoices module tracks all invoices linked to your purchase orders and can be linked to both vendor and inventory records. You can also link a vendor bill to a finance record by paying the bill from a finance account and even record the payment transaction on the fly!

Key Features Of The Vendor Bill Module
- Ability to create bills for purchases
- Ability to link payment information to finances
- Ability to setup alternate payment addresses
- Ability to link bill to media files
- Ability to link order to purchase orders
=
More info about the author and FileMaker in general, contact me at info@dwaynewright.com.

© 2008 - Dwayne Wright - dwaynewright.com

The material on this document is offered AS IS. There is NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, expressed or implied, nor does any other contributor to this document. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. FileMaker Pro is the registered trademark of FileMaker Inc.