Hi. I am a new business owner, about two years professionally now. I had my first "real" christmas season last year and just about went crazy.

I got calls from wholesalers, retailers and random internet orders and tried to fulfill those while not losing them, or mixing them with other orders.

With my pretzel business I have over 50 flavors, two different gift box sizes, and the ability to custom print a note card and/or a personalized label on the pretzel. And, people can pick them up or have them delivered to themselves, or to a different address.

What can I do, what software can I use to make this go more smoothly? I do use quickbooks for accounting, can this be used as a point of sale thing?

since i work from home mostly, and just make the pretzels elsewhere, I usually just grab a piece of paper to write down the order and try not to misplace it. i did create an order form, but they just seemed to never be where I needed them.

any ideas that can save my sanity? i'm doing my research early so to not have the same issue this holiday season. thanks for any input!!!

Are you online? Do you have a shopping cart with a database?

Otherwise, you could create a simple database that has your orders, if they have been fulfilled, etc

yes, i am online, but use the paypal shopping cart that comes with homestead.com, which is who i'm using for hosting. it is not of much help in the organizing side of things.

how would i set up a database on my own? do i need to learn/use access?

Ah, so you are not really using a shopping cart that help you maintain too much, I take it?

To build a database, well you need to know at least the fundamentals of course. But it is like any MS product, it has a help and is pretty easy to go through

Before taking the time to mess with Access may I suggest that you go to
www.download.com and search for business software. Look in the category that interests you and check out any reviews available. Most software is available for download as a demo. You MIGHT find something that works the way you do and therefore is a perfect fit. The bonus is that many of these programs are very low in cost.

I'd suggest first off that you make a habit of taking orders while in front of your computer. Then you can type them up on the fly, and avoid losing papers, illegible handwriting, etc.

You could set up a database, or do something rather simple to start with:

Make a few folders on your computer, like:

New
In Process
On Hold
Completed

etc. (essentially, one for each status that an order can have).


Then, when the phone rings, you open up a program like "Notepad", type in the order, and save it to the "New" folder (maybe by the customer name, or something).

You can click and drag the files to the appropriate folders as they go through the system. And of course, you can update the order by editing the file, and adding any notes required.

On a daily basis, you could check the orders in each status area, and make sure things are moving as they should. Old orders could be moved to a "2006" folder, or some archive folder. or by customer name.


NOW - this is a very "rudimentary" tracking setup, but it's a step up from what you have (paper), and costs nothing to implement.

Ideally, you should look for some kind of order tracking / inventory type program, and use that. Then you can store customer information, track repeat orders, generate all kinds of reports, etc.

But, maybe that's beyond where you are right now.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

To add to Jim's suggestion, you may want to try that in Excell as it will help you from having to have separate files in different folders. You can keep everything in one file. Just a thought...and it's a very "rudimentary" setup as well.

what dont u have a computer register system where everything is catogariezed and than each transaction is saved.