CAUT

  • 1.  Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-16-2019 00:53
    Hello All,

    Cory J's thread has evolved into several different topics, and I thought it would be best to start a new thread than confuse the other one ;)

    Cory asked about invoicing, said he used Excel. What do you CAUTs use for invoicing? Hand-in-hand, what do you use for record keeping for that many pianos?

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    Benjamin Sanchez
    Professional Piano Services
    (805)315-8050
    www.professional-piano-services.com
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  • 2.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-16-2019 12:18
    Hi, Ben,

    I’m afraid I can’t speak to this personally, since I use a very old-fashioned format. (After leaving CSU Long Beach, I only track about 25 concert pianos now.)

    But my husband David Vanderlip has been using TapForms for several years now and is very happy. Trust me when I say he’s tried many, from the ludicrously huge and unwieldy to the smaller and less useful. He’s very happy now, and tracks a great deal of information. He has it on his iPhone and information flows easily to his other computers. He can also transfer information to his subcontractors, get their invoices, enter the data, and so on. He finds it very versatile and can bring up anything he needs.

    David Vanderlip and Susan Babcock are both using it for for large college inventories. I’m afraid they don’t watch this site often, but you could contact them offline.

    And I’m sure many other people will offer their ideas, I know there are a lot of popular databases in common use today.

    Kathy




  • 3.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-16-2019 12:22
    Oh sorry, I didn’t really address the main question. We use an older form of Quicken, called Home and Business. It has a nice invoice form which you can customize, and I (the un-techie) can use it easily, print paper copies if I want, but I always send it as a pdf copy to my various institutions. They like that because they can send it on, print it out, and so on.

    And I always carry a few paper invoice forms in my work bag, for the occasional need such as a client or concert which needs an immediate on-site invoice. That’s rare but it happens.

    Again, many competent techs are using systems they like. I look forward to seeing other ideas here.

    Kathy




  • 4.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-16-2019 12:38
    I've been using a Filmaker template Alan McCoy developed for many, many years, and find it does everything I need to do for the university situation. It does require that you have a recent version of Filemaker, which can be expensive, but there is a good educational discount. It allows for keeping service records for each piano, together with other data (when purchased, for how much, what work needs to be done on it, etc., etc.) and creating work reports and various types of inventory reports.

    Before that, I made my own database in Apple Works, which at least helped with the basics. I supplemented that with a paper notebook, a page for each piano with major service work - not very efficient, and it's been 20 years since I converted.
    Regards,
    Fred Sturm
    University of New Mexico






  • 5.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-20-2019 11:28
    When I joined Jim Busby at BYU in 2002 we faced a great need to develop an inventory tracking system. We were told that the University was going to discontinue tracking items under a certain dollar amount. That would have dropped about 60% of our pianos off the map. That would created a major problem considering we had over 400 piano. We had a student technician that had exceptional computer skills and with our input he created a FileMaker program that was exceptional. Not only did it keep track of our inventory it helped us with the following. Invoicing over five different departments. Keeping track of tuning assignments for over five student technicians. This included developing a formula to determine the difficulty of the pianos assigned and their available work hour to would calculate their work workload. For determining the value or the instrument inventory another formula was created based on the Larry Fine's appreciation and depreciation tables along with PTG and Steinway replacement recommendations. It as other features that I won't go into at this time. One problem with our program was it was so complex that when it came time for us to update our version, we could not get it to upgrade. After working with FileMaker technicians, they refunded our upgrade purchase and said they couldn't do it. We have since been able to do on upgrade. At an annual PTG convention, we demonstrated our program in a CAUT discussion when this subject came up. We were asked it we would share this with other CAUT technicians. We provide our template. As I recall, both Alan McCoy and Fred Sturm worked this over to make it so it was more downloadable and usable. It is still in the CAUT archives. It is still being used here at BYU.

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    Keith Kopp
    BYU Technician
    Provo, UT
    Wk 801-422-3400
    Hm 801-235-8077
    Cell 801-592-4842
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  • 6.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-20-2019 12:19
    I have adapted the BYU database template for my own use at Liberty University.  It has a lot more functions than we need, but I have sort of deleted fields I wasn't using and added some new ones so that it is very useful to us.

    David Pritchard







  • 7.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-17-2019 10:10
    Hi Benjamin,
    We've been using Gazelle for about 3 years now.  While it's not a comprehensive invoicing program with the ability to get annual records, etc. for tax purposes, it's great for my university, church, school work where multiple pianos are being serviced.  The database provides for multiple contacts for each client and each piano can be entered with all its relevant information.  A timeline of service history is created for each instrument, tuning reminders can be specified for each instrument, etc.  Very helpful for multiple pianos.  The invoices can be as detailed as you want and each piano will be listed separately on the invoice.  We invoice by email almost exclusively now but an invoice can be printed and mailed out if desired.

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    Gary Bruce, RPT
    Bruce Piano Service
    Edmond, OK
    405-413-TUNE
    www.brucepiano.com
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  • 8.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-17-2019 10:15
    Another thing about Gazelle that I like is that we can invoice an alternative billing source but still enter the service information on that piano.  For instance, if a concert is scheduled at a university by a client other than the university, I can enter the service information for the piano(s) in the invoice but have an "Alternate Billing" option.  So the piano gets its maintenance record accurately reflected but the bill goes to another client.

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    Gary Bruce, RPT
    Bruce Piano Service
    Edmond, OK
    405-413-TUNE
    www.brucepiano.com
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  • 9.  RE: Record Keeping and Invoicing for CAUTs

    Posted 02-17-2019 12:08
    I use QuickBooks Online version. It works excellent as a database too. There are plugins you can use with it too. Ones for tracking time to the minute. At the end of the year, my accountant can login via his software and prepare tax forms.

    I have it as an app on my iPhone, but it’s also useful to have the info in the cloud. I can then also login via my computer.

    Cheers,

    Jason Davies



    Fifth Octave, LLL
    http://fifthoctave.com
    Green Bay, WI 54311
    (920) 884-1195

    Please excuse any superfluous spelling, message dictated on an iPhone.