Skills and Services
Scroll down to see our showcase of creative Access programming techniques,
but first try out our Interactive Order form for e-commerce just below.
Showcase - Internet
Most of my Internet programming has been on private, password-protected
sites; if this is the case, I've created a working example for you to see if
possible.
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Interactive
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A Peck Tech invention.
Interactive order form with a running total (you don't have
to "submit" to find the dollar total) - can be used with any
ecommerce web site. |
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Bells
& Whistles |
Animated GIF, Ticker Tape,
Rollover effect - and how they're done |
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Animated GIF |
Could you use a good chuckle? Look at this
animated GIF created by my 10-year-old son... |
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Menu |
Foldout menus - these can be added to almost any site |
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Banner ads |
Get advertising dollars to help pay for your website
(maybe) - Also, an explanation of how they work. |
| Email |
Send emails (or pages) automatically |
| Customer service |
Make (limited) information available to your customers
from your company database on an inexpensive password-protected
website. |
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Passwords |
Password-protect your site |
| Customize |
Display different titles and column headings for
different customers |
| Upload |
Upload files from any Internet user's computer to your
website (commonly used on Intranets (company websites) and sites
like dating websites where members upload photos) |
| Searches |
Extremely complicated search criteria; multiple-page results
; easily sort the results (the sort is a Peck Tech invention) |
| Sorts |
Sort results of search by any column; multiple pages |
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Showcase - Microsoft Access business software
While it's important to use quality tools, the single most important element
for user satisfaction and cost-effectiveness is the design. Custom
software development gives many opportunities for creativity. Following are
examples of some of the things I've done that my clients have liked.
Click on the underlined words to see an example (with lots of images)
Eliminate
swearing - Let users access "maintenance" screens where it's
easiest
Friendly persuasion
- How do you make those pesky users do something they don't
want to do? (A Peck Tech invention.)
Automate - Let the computer do the irritating work (mistake free).
Things like the following make your users happier and more productive - and they
cost very little.
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Date calculator |
A Peck Tech invention.
Type in "3W" and the system calculates the
date 3 weeks from today, or "22D" for 22 days from
today... |
| Report dates |
A Peck Tech invention.
Automatically calculate date ranges for "last
month", "1st quarter", etc. - a real time-saver and
mistake eliminator |
| Copy address |
A Peck Tech invention.
Copy the customer's address to the "ship-to"
address on an order with the click of a button |
| Split |
A Peck Tech invention.
Automatically split a fee into three installments |
| Salutations |
A Peck Tech invention.
Automatically fill in the salutation based on the
client's names |
Receipt
Allocations |
A Peck Tech invention.
Use color to help make fast, error-free allocations; part of a
complete invoicing and accounts receivable system |
| Initials |
Instead of typing your initials and today's date over
and over, put them at the top of the screen and then click a button
every time you want them inserted. |
| Standard items |
Add a standard list of tasks to a new customer, or add
a standard list of budget items to a new job, with the click of a
button. |
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Tools
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| Calendar |
A visual aid that's perfect for some applications |
| Schedule |
A Peck Tech invention.
Is space at a premium on your screen? This is a
compact way to view a daily schedule out several weeks or months |
| Calculator |
Sometimes the simplest things help the most |
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Integration - Share
information among a number of different programs inexpensively
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| Export to Excel |
With the click of a button, create an Excel
spreadsheet - including a graph - from information in your company database |
| Mail Merge |
With the click of a button, export information from
your company database to do a Mail Merge (bulk letters, etc.) |
| Quickbooks |
Import into Access from Quickbooks, or export into
Quickbooks from Access |
| Anything |
Modern tools let your central database read
information from - and write information to - any of a number of
formats (FoxPro, dBase, SQL Server, etc.) |
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Integrity
- I fight to protect the quality of the information on your system. Here
are just some of the tools I use.
And, as you might have guessed by now...
I've got lots of experience
I've done custom programs for almost every aspect of business
management for a broad variety of business. If confidentiality allows,
I've given you links so you can look at a sampling of my work. NOTE:
All of these are fairly plain because I've found that's easiest on the eyes long
term, but if you want color I can do color!
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Quotes,
Customer Orders |
Highlight: the ability to easily change a quote into an
order; "birds eye view" of each customer's quotes and
orders |
| Purchasing
Receiving
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Highlight: see all the items from all approved
customer quotes so you can create POs to get quantity discounts, shipping discounts,
etc.
Quick, easy, accurate entry of ordered items when
received
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| Scheduling |
To schedule daily deliveries as requested by customer
orders |
| Invoicing |
Highlight: Ability to consolidate multiple orders with multiple
items on one invoice - or not - controlled by an "Invoice Group" |
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Monthly billing & receipts |
Generate monthly bills for a karate studio;
automatic late fees; receipts |
| Annual billing |
Generate tuition bills for a private school; extensive
reporting |
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Daily Cash Receipts
Receipt Allocations
Financial reporting
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Pay by check, cash, credit card; show by date or show
all not yet allocated regardless of date
One receipt can pay multiple invoices, one invoice
can be paid by multiple receipts; how to make it easy and error-free
Daily Receipts, Statements, Aged Accounts
Receivables, etc.
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| Inventory management |
Receiving, shipping, reporting... |
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Task management
Bulk letter generation
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Automatically generate standard tasks; allow custom
tasks if needed; confirm easily; reporting
Automatically generate hundreds of letters (the
selected letter out of 15 templates) on a certain pre-established date with the
click of a button
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Construction management
Budget management |
Track job details; track tenant and owner budgets;
generate contracts automatically; track insurance
Create/edit budget; allocate PO's to a given budget;
budget reporting
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Callbacks |
Automatically create a callback whenever a new
prospect or quote is created; manual callbacks for sales and
collections; notes on conversations - all integrated with a
customer/order system. |
| Geocodes |
For a dating service, find all members within a given
number of miles of a certain address |
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My promise to you
I promise to create (or modify) a system, website, database-driven website, or
intranet for you that is:
- Exactly what you need - neither more (unnecessarily expensive) nor less
(frustrating),
- Easy to use, full of features to make your users happy and productive,
- Fast
- Reliable and bug-free
- Capable of future growth
- Powerful
Does this sound too good to be true? Please read my references.
What about costs down the road?
Maintenance costs are dramatically impacted - for better or for worse - by the quality of the
initial design. From day one we're designing to keep maintenance costs to a minimum by:
- Proper database design to minimize the cost - and impact - of future changes
- Using "scalable" technology - programming tools capable of growing without starting
over from scratch.
Tools
Obviously, the tools I use are constantly changing. As of
this writing, I'm primarily using the following:
Websites: HTML, ASP, VBScript, JavaScript
Business: Microsoft Access, MSDE, SQL Server, Visual Basic,
Filemaker Pro
Graphics, Miscellaneous: Photoshop, Illustrator,
ImageReady
While I don't use Dreamweaver or any "automated"
web-crafting tools, primarily because they make "fat" code that's more
difficult to maintain, and there are many more options in hand-crafted code, I can
certainly work on websites created using them.
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