Grex Smallbusiness Conference

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Grex Smallbusiness Item 7: Business Forms
Entered by mcpoz on Fri Feb 28 02:02:20 UTC 1997:

If you have access to Microsoft Word, they have a fantastic selection of
business forms available which you can customize to your personal needs.  They
had all the standard forms, plus some obscure ones which I needed.  Probably
other software packages have the same forms, but I was really impressed with
what MSWord had.

9 responses total.

#1 of 9 by cmcgee on Fri Feb 28 21:24:24 1997:

Micorsoft Works has a lot of those forms, plus it has a drawing package, a
spreadsheet, a database, and a communications package.  I use it for 95% of
my business stuff.  Because I do a lot of professional writing (CD roms, and
training workbooks) I need Word both for its bells, and for compatability with
the other people I'm working with.  Word 6 for IBMs can read Macintosh files,
so it works well.  But for running my business, Works is great.

At one point, I had designed a Hypercard stack that also tracked time by
clicking on fields, and then it calculated the total time, and added it up
for billing purposes.  I'm still looking for accounting software that will
do that, and create bills, accounts receivable, and all the balance sheet
info.

#2 of 9 by mcpoz on Sat Mar 1 01:02:17 1997:

I checked with my wife who does payroll, accts receivable, and similar, and
she recommends Peachtree software, but she says you still have to have the
time tracked separately and downloaded into the software.

#3 of 9 by danr on Sat Mar 1 01:45:50 1997:

Hmmm. I've been using MS Word for Win95 for over a year now and haven't
stumbled across these forms.  How do I find them?

#4 of 9 by ryan1 on Sat Mar 1 02:01:18 1997:

MS Word is part of Microsoft Office, not Microsoft Works.

#5 of 9 by valerie on Sat Mar 1 05:44:18 1997:

This response has been erased.

#6 of 9 by cmcgee on Sat Mar 1 07:38:43 1997:

Dan  also look for "stationery".

Works works!!  I just figured out the client/time/billng problem with
Works.  Works lets you create fields with time values.  Call one start,
and the other stop. Create a calculated numeric field called "total",
which is "stop"-"start"*24

Create a fields "date", "client", "project", and "activity"

Now you can enter the client name, the specific project you are working on
for that client, and a short note about what activity you are engaged in.

command-shift-D to enter today's date.
command-shift-T to enter the time you start
command-shift-T to enter the time you stop

Works calculates, in tenths of hours, how much time you spent on that
activity.  (If you need to, you can enter the date and times manually)

Create a new record for each thing you do during the day, and at the end
of the day/week/month, Works will print out a sheet sub-totaled by project
or client or whatever you wish.  Ready to send to the client, by using
headers to insert your message on the top of the page.

#7 of 9 by scott on Sat Mar 1 13:24:31 1997:

Careful you don't use that exact approach to record an overnight project,
unless you include the start/stop dates...

(Scott is a real-time warehouse system programmer, and knows all the
"gotchas")

#8 of 9 by cmcgee on Sat Mar 1 20:33:54 1997:

Thanks!  I don't usually pull all-nighters for clients.

#9 of 9 by cmcgee on Mon Mar 3 04:01:20 1997:

But now I can!  I put Works through its paces, and I now have a form that lets
me start timing at 11:45 pm on Day 1, finish on Day 2 at 5 am, and correctly
calculates that I've worked 5.25 hours on the project.  

Thanks, Scott.  I wouldn't have played with that problem if you hadn't pointed
it out.  Anyone can email me if they want the instructions for designing that
particular little point-and-click billing form.

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