More Great Suggestions.
Hi Jan
I think you've started something huge here! Just reading the blog it seems there's quite a range of needs out there for different levels of information gathering. For CraftMemo users who are mainly hobby beaders it is beautiful, but for anyone who is doing craft work as an income producing enterprise, there are extra needs.
The ability to import from Excel is great, but for people using financial management software such as MYOB or QuickBooks to manage a home based craft business it would be very useful to have the ability to export inventory as well. Otherwise maintaining an accurate inventory for tax purposes could mean entering all the info into two locations. Even a single line "stock movements for month" export could be useful
CraftMemo was mainly intended for hobby beaders/crafters and that will always be the main focus. I believe that for people who run a craft business, they would require something more complex (more buttons more fields) which would probarly not be required by a hobby beader and would just confused an average user. There are a lot of powerful commercial inventory & accounting software (MYOB etc) which would cater to craft businesses at a price but there isn't anything that is easy yet flexible and free :) for a craft hobbyist. That was one of the main reasons for CraftMemo. To hopefully fill that void. However if it is a function that could benefit both hobby beaders and craft business owners and would not make the system more complex, i would be more then happy to implement it.
An export button is a great idea. However i am not sure how easy it is to implement it. Does MYOB/Quickbooks come in a fix table format? Does it import from Excel? I've not used both softwares so i have no clue how they work. I can quite easily create a button to import to excel.
Another button which could be useful would be a "value of inventory on hand" total??
Just more thoughts which could be useful!
This is a good idea. I might add it at the bottom of the inventory listing so it will show the total value of what is listed making it versatile. You can list for example how much you've spend from a particular supplier or category etc.
Thanks again for a lovely product! I love it as is, and it would be a shame to have it as complex as some inventory management software with more buttons and fields than you can poke a stick at... maybe an extra tab for some of the advanced "business" features so that those who don't need them could ignore them?
I will try my best to keep CraftMemo an easy to use inventory system. If you see it getting too complex, please let me know as i can sometimes be too carried away with adding functionalities. There is currently no plans to make CraftMemo into a "business" program. If i ever did, it will be a totally seperate program.
And another query... in the projects window, you have "Estimated Cost" which calculates the value of the components used... is the "Project Cost" field intended for use as the cost of "components plus labour" or is it intended as a "Selling Price".... or should I create an inventory item of "hours of labour"?
Project Cost was intended to be the actual total cost of the project (inc any additional/hidden cost). However there is no rule on how you can use it. You suggestion above is actually quite good and i never thought of it. For example you could add an inventory item "Labour Cost per hour" and lets say you work on a project for 5 hours, you just add a quantity of 5 to the project.
Sorry... not intending to bombard you with emails, it's just so exciting to see a specially designed crafters' product like yours!
Have a great day
No need to apologize. I am always delighted to hear from passionate CraftMemo users like yourself and thank you for taking the time to write :)
I think you've started something huge here! Just reading the blog it seems there's quite a range of needs out there for different levels of information gathering. For CraftMemo users who are mainly hobby beaders it is beautiful, but for anyone who is doing craft work as an income producing enterprise, there are extra needs.
The ability to import from Excel is great, but for people using financial management software such as MYOB or QuickBooks to manage a home based craft business it would be very useful to have the ability to export inventory as well. Otherwise maintaining an accurate inventory for tax purposes could mean entering all the info into two locations. Even a single line "stock movements for month" export could be useful
CraftMemo was mainly intended for hobby beaders/crafters and that will always be the main focus. I believe that for people who run a craft business, they would require something more complex (more buttons more fields) which would probarly not be required by a hobby beader and would just confused an average user. There are a lot of powerful commercial inventory & accounting software (MYOB etc) which would cater to craft businesses at a price but there isn't anything that is easy yet flexible and free :) for a craft hobbyist. That was one of the main reasons for CraftMemo. To hopefully fill that void. However if it is a function that could benefit both hobby beaders and craft business owners and would not make the system more complex, i would be more then happy to implement it.
An export button is a great idea. However i am not sure how easy it is to implement it. Does MYOB/Quickbooks come in a fix table format? Does it import from Excel? I've not used both softwares so i have no clue how they work. I can quite easily create a button to import to excel.
Another button which could be useful would be a "value of inventory on hand" total??
Just more thoughts which could be useful!
This is a good idea. I might add it at the bottom of the inventory listing so it will show the total value of what is listed making it versatile. You can list for example how much you've spend from a particular supplier or category etc.
Thanks again for a lovely product! I love it as is, and it would be a shame to have it as complex as some inventory management software with more buttons and fields than you can poke a stick at... maybe an extra tab for some of the advanced "business" features so that those who don't need them could ignore them?
I will try my best to keep CraftMemo an easy to use inventory system. If you see it getting too complex, please let me know as i can sometimes be too carried away with adding functionalities. There is currently no plans to make CraftMemo into a "business" program. If i ever did, it will be a totally seperate program.
And another query... in the projects window, you have "Estimated Cost" which calculates the value of the components used... is the "Project Cost" field intended for use as the cost of "components plus labour" or is it intended as a "Selling Price".... or should I create an inventory item of "hours of labour"?
Project Cost was intended to be the actual total cost of the project (inc any additional/hidden cost). However there is no rule on how you can use it. You suggestion above is actually quite good and i never thought of it. For example you could add an inventory item "Labour Cost per hour" and lets say you work on a project for 5 hours, you just add a quantity of 5 to the project.
Sorry... not intending to bombard you with emails, it's just so exciting to see a specially designed crafters' product like yours!
Have a great day
No need to apologize. I am always delighted to hear from passionate CraftMemo users like yourself and thank you for taking the time to write :)
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