Products Tab

[Rachel_Young]

Question: by mikeh123 » Fri Jul 09, 2010 11:41 am

Hi guys,

First off big thanks for putting out a really solid, well designed template. We are a small 2 man startup and this is a really big help to us. I can play and change a bit with FM but am not a developer or even a half decent FM user.

Products -

What was the intended use for this as I'm a touch confused as it seems to fit really well into two different areas. Ideally I'd like both but seems to be one or the other.
I see it as a way to record what stock you have and where you bought it from. So if a customer orders a mac and a network switch I put in details of where it came from how many in stock and cost etc. Brilliant. I create quote, turn into invoices and assign the stock to it. Still great.
The other bit you have is the serial number. Now imagine once I've actually got the mac or switch in I then look at the s/n and input and assign to the customer who bought it. Thats also great as I can build up a list by account name of what kit they ordered and the date and serial number for warranty purposes.
The only issue this presents is if I have 50 macs sold all the same we create 50 products all with same name and assign one by one so if you go to create a new quote and search for product mac there are 50 in the list all the same.
Imagine in a year we might have 200 - 500 products all pretty much the same creating huge lists which become a little unwieldy.

Now if I did one or the other it makes sense but what do you think about an inventory sort of approach on items already in the list. Not sure how clear I am with the above ramblings but thought I'd ask to see what was originally envisaged.

Apart from that everything is looking really good and very thankful you've put this out there. Really nice work.
--------------------------

Hello Mike,

Glad to hear that FM Starting Point is working well for you!

Thank you for your question and let me explain our philosophy behind FM Starting Point. FMSP was created as a fully functional database with flexability in its operation so that it might fill numerous business applications with different workflows. It was also created using the most simple developer techniques so that any FileMaker user with a limited knowledge of the software would be able to open the database and easily make changes.

Because there was no specific business for this database there were several places where we left options open. It is possible for the user to create Estimates and Invoices that do not reference the Products module at all. Some FileMaker users have taken that feature to bill for work time which naturally cannot be kept in stock or categorized in a Products module. Some users might be selling big-ticket items where they would want a record of each indivitual product item and the serial number without inventory for each product. Others would like to have several products where they could keep track of inventory coming in and going out and would not keep track of the serial numbers. I think the last option is what you are looking for. If you would still like to keep track of serial numbers, I recommend entering the serial number directly into the line items for the Estimate or Invoice as part of the "Description" field.

If you have any further questions feel free to post more!

Best Regards,

Calvin Mosiman