This isn’t to say that all of the internets or my loyal readers are all nerds, but there has to be some closet reader who has the solution for me. ?Odds are the trusty husband has some kind of madd problem solving skilz when it comes to this dilemma I face. ?However, if I mention Sweet Hope in the “above the fold” portion of this blog my “I hate partial feed” readers will click through and say meh. ?Just for that I’m disabling the partial feed (see I am nice) because that’s how desperate I am.
Here’s what I’m in need of…
I have folders and binders and excel spreadsheets coming out the wazoo of information about Sweet Hope’s customers. ?Who they are, email addresses, what they’ve purchased, you name it I’ve kept it. ?I can tell you how much you spent on shipping and what size box we used to ship your order in 2006. ?I’m very detailed. ?The problem is that while I need to keep these records, I don’t need to keep these records in paper format. ?I would rather unload the masses of paper and come up with some kind of content management system that will house all of this for me.
I need a program that will allow me to enter customer names and contact information, create their orders (or pick lists), track my spending, track what we take in (including donations), preferably generate the IRS forms we need and if it were really nice it would make reports of who are the biggest spenders, where we spend most of our money and not cost $5000. ?Because I totally found a program that would allow us and our board members in Oklahoma to access all of this information only it costs roughly $5300.
I do have a copy of Quickbooks Small Business that may or may not work. ?It isn’t compatible with Windows 7 and every time I open the box and leaf through the manual my head feels like it it going to melt right off of my shoulders. ?I may be smart, but I need ease of access. ?After teaching myself how to use almost all of the Adobe products my brain no longer has the ability to learn more complex programs off the cuff.
In my dream world I would also like the program to integrate into our WordPress e-commerce plugin and all of this works like magic. ?I can do that with the Quickbooks, but the integration plugin is $299. ?Is free too much to ask? ?Think of the orphans. ?It is for the orphans. ?Help me… anyone have any nerdy solutions. ?No idea is to wackadoo.
(Now all they need is to develop a way to comment straight from the reader!)
I have no idea about your solution. My first thought was to use a Google form, just to get your records out of paper format…but all that would get you is an Excel spreadsheet. And I’m so NOT an accountant, or anywhere even NEAR an accountant, so I don’t know much beyond excel spreadsheets.
Are you a 501c3?
Mandy, not yet. We were hoping for it by July, but we are very behind in getting things completed to enter the process.
No solution but a big hug for the full feed. LOL