FN-FORUM Contact management and billing

date posted 28th September 2002 15:19

Hi Darren

i) Contact management - if your volumes are reasonably low, I
recommend that you use Outlook. It allows you to store
Names/Address/Telephone numbers/important, and you can set appointments,
tasks reminder flags and so forth, and also attach Word and Excel
documents etc. I've used it very effectively for years. If you want
another level of complication/functionality, you could try GoldMine,
which is quite good, but a lot more cumbersome. I use it only for
managing direct mail campaigns for multiple clients, where Outlook
cannot handle the complexity.

ii) Quoting/billing - I know that some folk swear by spreadsheets,
but I would strongly recommend that you use a packaged designed for the
purpose. I use Quickbooks Premier 2002, but the Pro version is similar,
and will allow you to create estimates, record time and produce
invoices. (The standard version does not have job costing or
multicurrency capability). I don't actually send the estimates to the
clients, preferring to use a proper sales proposal, but I do build up an
estimate for each job so that I can track the actual income and expenses
against that through the life of a project. Quickbooks is a super
package for small businesses - it's very easy to use and has a lot of
neat time-saving features.

Regards

Lindsay

Business and IT consulting, sales and marketing services. Business
advice and mentoring for start-up companies and SMEs.
Professional Services Automation and accounting system selection.
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