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Adilas.biz Developer's Notebook Report - 7/1/2016 to 7/31/2016 - (104)
Photos
Time Id Color Title/Caption Start Date   Notes
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Shop 1563 Meeting with Steve 7/1/2016   Recording expense/receipts. Looking at emails and on a phone call and GoToMeeting session with Steve. We were talking about changes and tons of different things that are coming up, happening, and developing. We deal with lots of changing ground and changing playing fields. It is pretty crazy. We also looked over some code for a small project that Steve is on.
 
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Shop 998 Helping Russell migrate his ecommerce settings - full day 7/1/2016   Special session with Russell to do some code sign-off and merging.

9:00 am to 10:00 am - Emails, tech support, small bug fixes - general adilas stuff. Had to login to one of the servers and fix and switch some database values for sub inventory.

10:00 am to 12 pm - Added a thank you page to the classic ecommerce stuff. Setup a new folder structure for the Adilas For Business stuff. Moving and copying files and folders. We moved and fixed all of the template specific css stuff.

12:30 pm - 5:30 pm - Added a new permission to help protect the new ecommerce settings. Added needed corp-wide settings to different pages. Lots of testing back and forth. Fixed the database update file to include all of the new settings since our last merge. Merging files page by page from Russell's computer into a version of the master files. Long but great day. We are making progress and have made some decisions that will help us going forward.
 
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Shop 3472 Virtual Post-It Note 7/1/2016   -We need to add the full web path to the images on the getwebgeneralinventory both parts and stock
_idea from bryan
 
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Shop 1473 State API 7/4/2016  
 
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Shop 1404 Calvin Chipman 7/4/2016  
 
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Shop 1593 General 7/4/2016   General adilas stuff. I read some emails, cleaned up some elements of time, recorded notes, and worked with Steve on some code changes.

Part way through the day, Steve and I got on a phone call. We then jumped on a GoToMeeting session. We fixed a few things that Steve needed with some labels and then jumped into a special mini black box for the Oregon gram tracking piece. Oregon has quantity limits per category. It gets complicated as some of the people actually have multiple sub categories that need to stay within the limits of a parent category.

Anyways, after Steve and I worked on the page together, he sent it to me. I spent the rest of the evening working on the logic and doing some clean-up on 3 pages of code that deal with the custom gram tracking system. I almost got it done, but it still needs just a little bit more. Good day.

On a side note, I had a number of other tasks and things that needed to get done and I wasn't able to get to them. That seems to be pretty normal these days. Oh well, we'll just keep faking it until we make it. That's how we roll around here.
 
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Shop 1594 General 7/5/2016   Back on Steve's Oregon gram tracking project. Finished it up and then did some research on regular expressions. I've got a project that could use some love with regular expressions.
 
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Shop 1474 State API 7/5/2016   On an hour long phone call with Steve. We talked a whole lot about where we are going and how things keep changing on us. We talked about some of our pain spots and also about some good things. We are pioneering things in our industry. That is fun but could also be a pain.

One of the take away pieces of our conversation was that other companies will end up experimenting and experiencing some of the same pains that we have gone through. As things go from a primary level into a sub level, things get more integrated and more complicated. I mentioned to Steve that we have projects like sub settings, sub locations, sub phases, sub permissions, sub inventory, etc. At some point, other companies may have those same problems and needs.

We also talked about focusing on the positive and taking a second to step back and see what we are really accomplishing. Sometimes when you are in the heat of the moment, you can't see the progress that is being made. Things take time, and that is ok.

We then jumped on a GoToMeeting session and went over some of the new gram tracking changes that I pushed over to him this morning. We then looked into some possible bugs with sub inventory.
 
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Shop 1405 Calvin Chipman 7/5/2016   Working on a tutorial on regular expressions and how they work. Trying to fix a database update page that needs some regular expressions.

See attached for some notes on the subject.
 
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Shop 1596 New setting request 7/5/2016   We had a new setting request for the availability to show/hide the salesperson (or whatever you call it - corp-wide setting). The client wanted to make sure that they (the current user) was unable to change that value. They basically wanted to hold their employees to what really happens in real life. They were worried about someone switching the salesperson values for a sales transaction.

Basically they want the system to do that automatically and record who did what. That already happens in some ways, they just wanted it to be tighten down a bit. That would have to be a setting because some companies total need to flip who is the salesperson even if that person is actually creating the ticket. Anyways a new setting request.
 
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Shop 1560 API 7/5/2016   Working with Bryan to get setup on my computer to work on merging in API socket changes into the master branch. Bryan and I worked for the first half an hour and then Bryan continued while I was working with Russell.
 
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Shop 1564 Russell time 7/5/2016   Working with Russell to merge his first round of ecommerce files into the master branch. We fixed a couple of small things but mostly were merging files. Russell and I actually switched part way through on who was driving and doing the merging. I was pretty tired and it was easier to help watch and help things happen than to be in the driver seat actually doing it. Late night last night.
 
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Shop 1592 Quoting 7/5/2016   Shannon, Dave, and Brandon - quoting and going over some things. See the sub comments for ideas on the different projects. Most of the quotes today dealt with custom data storage needs and how to time them into the system.

Dave and I also talked about having Dave bill us hourly vs. a flat rate per month. We talked about expectations and what Steve is seeing on his end. I think it would be good for us to have a talk and air some things out. Dave does tons of different things but Steve doesn't see those things. I think that some of the expectations just need a little bit of loving.
 
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Shop 1036 Brandon - Working on own projects 7/6/2016   On a GoToMeeting session with Will going over his newest API socket project. He is getting and pulling data to push into a 3D chart for a custom interface and customer trending report.

Playing with more regular expressions. Trying to figure things out.
 
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Shop 1406 Calvin Chipman 7/6/2016   Short phone call with Calvin. Just touching base. B. Dayton was using my computer to merge files so I was rereading some notes from May of 2015. Lots of changes and craziness going on. It is fun to see the maturity and growth in both the application and in our own characters. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1555 Adilas World/ Adilas for Business edits 7/6/2016   Met with Nick and went over some code tweaks on his Adilas World and Adilas Market project. They have it live, they are just debugging some things and making the final tweaks. Good stuff.

Reading more past notes (May 2015) from my notebook. Also helping with other random questions here and there.
 
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Shop 1565 Russell Moore 7/6/2016   Merging files with Russell into the master branch for his new Adilas for Business ecommerce packages. Fun stuff to see it get that much closer to being ready for release. We made it through all of the files. They are now on my plate to get them pushed up and fully tested live.
 
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Shop 1562 API 7/6/2016   Didn't really happen. I got called out to switch out my parents for different cars. The Jeep was overheating on them and they needed to use my vehicle.
 
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Shop 1479 Danny Shuford -Custom invoice pdf for Ostara 7/7/2016   On a phone call and GoToMeeting session with Danny. The connection was bad so we had to cut it short. Danny had some questions about custom labels and then some custom document questions for his own business.
 
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Shop 1561 API 7/7/2016   Recording notes and documenting pages that have been modified and merged. We have a number of bigger projects all coming together at once. We have Russell's ecommerce changes (300+ pages), some sub inventory stuff (10-15 pages), and a couple projects from Bryan. One of them is the standardization of the adilas API that has 60+ files all by it self.

Bryan and I then got together and started working on the customer bill pay portal. That is an older project but never got all the way done. We worked on and started merging some of that code.
 
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Shop 1407 Calvin Chipman 7/7/2016   On a zoom session with Calvin. We spent most of the time looking into his database auto process tool. He has some code snippets in it and has done some custom stuff as well. We went through a couple of scenarios and ran some of the code. Pretty cool.

We also talked about Calvin's mass group texting tools and application. He is really pushing on that area and having fun. Some of his clients really like what he is doing.
 
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Shop 1496 State API 7/7/2016   On a GoToMeeting session with Steve. He was working on his projects and I was working on mine. I ended up working on the customer bill pay feature for ecommerce. This is Bryan's project from back a couple of months but we never finished it up. Anyways, I got a lot done on that project and it is really close.

I also helped Steve with some code logic on some different pages. Steve would ask me questions as he needed help but both of us were doing our own thing. Pretty productive.

We also had some conversation about going back to our homes vs. being here at the shop in Logan. We only have about 3 of us here on a normal day. We have a number of other ones that come in, but that depends on the day and usually only for a couple of hours here or there. We could save a ton of time and money if we dropped the shop portion of the puzzle. We'll keep the shop as an entity, just not have a hub or office place to work out of. We may go back to this, but right now, it is too big of a weight to carry.

Anyways, good stuff and progress is being made on multiple levels and fields. I'm excited to see where things go.
 
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Shop 999 Brandon out of the office all day 7/8/2016   Spent the day up at girl's camp with my two daughters. I then drove them and some of their friends back home once they were ready. We took the long way home and enjoyed the day.
 
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Shop 1681 List of pros and cons 7/9/2016   General work and clean-up. Made a list of pros and cons for moving back to working from home vs. going into the Logan office every day.
 
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Shop 1682 Helping Danny Shuford with a custom PDF 7/9/2016   On a GoToMeeting session with Danny Shuford going over a custom document for his own company. He and Steve were working on it and they just needed a little bit of help to make it more dynamic. The goal was to be able to create the custom document on the fly (build the PDF based off of user input). We got pretty close to getting it all finished and done. We just had a little bit left on the dynamic look and feel.
 
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Shop 1680 Claiming more time to work for Brandon 7/11/2016   Emails and claiming some additional adilas working times to work on adilas projects, bug fixes, and internal maintenance. Trying to reclaim some of my time and manage my schedule better. I claimed every morning that I could clear out until October 2016. If I don't claim the time, it just disappears. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1497 General time 7/11/2016   Working on sub inventory code changes. Trying to get back into the project. This particular project takes quite a bit of time to get in deep enough to really do anything. I spent some time comparing old and new files and read over the update inventory count page. Making some changes and adding comments to the code.

Other emails and general stuff.
 
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Shop 1601 Adilas time 7/11/2016  
 
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Shop 1408 Calvin Chipman 7/11/2016   Calvin and I briefly spoke on the phone. Our internet was down here at the shop until around 2 pm. Nothing to report.
 
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Shop 3473 Virtual Post-It Note 7/11/2016   -Make a hard copy of a code,data base,and elements of time.
-Paper back-up
-This may be a ton of paper but feel I need to do it
 
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Shop 1566 Russell time 7/11/2016   Got to the shop about 12:30 pm. We didn't have internet for awhile. I worked on some code for sub inventory. I met with Russell from about 1:30 pm to about 5:15 pm. Most of what we were talking about was budgets, vision, and people. Who can do what and where would we like to put people? Lots of discussion about the shop, direction, and use of time, personnel, and other resources.

Russell and I went over some pros and cons for keeping the Adilas Shop (renting some office space) and/or working from home and saving time and money. Tons of good dialog here. We also had a full sheet of paper with things written on it and somewhat organized into sections (pros for home, cons for home, pros for the shop, cons for the shop). Good conversations. We may need to look deeper into this and explore some of the other options.

Here are some other small notes from the day:
- Slow and steady - let things drop off
- Maybe stop doing custom stuff right now (this is from me)
- We are somewhat in a catch 22 type scenario
- I mentioned to Russell that I feel kinda trapped - We talked about a bunch of different things - Russell also feels kinda trapped in some ways.
- Russell needs to earn some money
- It get heavy carrying a dream by yourself
- We are way under full market value - costs for the system - this may be why we have a problem - the supply and demand are not equalized.
- We may still need a hybrid shop that does both hourly, bid, quote, and per job payment structures.
- Russell has some dreams of his own and really wants to play with what we have - make it better and better
- Things like adilas ecommerce packages, adilas world, adilas market, adilas university, adilas project manager, and even making an adilas app.
 
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Shop 1652 in-line 7/11/2016   Talking to Russell. Unable to get with Bryan on a GoToMeeting session. See other notes for things that Russell and I were talking about.
 
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Shop 1654 Data import for T&M Pro Shop 7/11/2016   Did a data import for T&M Pro Shop. There were about 800 inventory items on two spreadsheets. We migrated the data and made sure everything was good to go online. Invoiced the client.
 
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Shop 1498 State API 7/12/2016  
 
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Shop 1602 Adilas time 7/12/2016   Working from home. General to do list time. Paying bills, checking up on emails, and pushing up information for a business loan.
 
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Shop 1409 Calvin Chipman 7/12/2016   Quick phone message and text message. Nothing major.
 
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Shop 1599 Alan Time 7/12/2016   EMV chip reader

Alan and his wife were still at the hospital with a new baby. We texted a little bit but the meeting did not happen. Congratulations guys!
 
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Shop 1649 API 7/12/2016   On a GoToMeeting session with Bryan. We started out looking at his time on the in-line discounts and dollars off stuff. He has a nice spreadsheet that he is keeping track of files, changes, and other project notes. We then started creating a use case scenarios page for all of the things we need to check for this project. That was very good and really helped us get a good flavor for what is going on. We then started working into the code sign-off process. We didn't get very far, but we are prepped and ready for the next session. Good progress.
 
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Shop 1653 Quoting 7/12/2016   Quoting with Dave and Shannon. We did a couple quotes for some custom reports. We added some notes and got some things uploaded and ready. It seems like we are getting better at doing the quoting process, making good estimates, documenting things, and then getting things turned over. That is awesome. It is exciting.
 
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Shop 1675 Working with Bryan 7/13/2016   On a GoToMeeting session with Bryan. We were looking into the in-line discounts for dollars off. We spent a lot of time going over different variables and different scope variables. Just trying to get to know the players and overall project values and pieces.
 
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Shop 1037 Brandon - Working on own projects 7/13/2016   9:30-9:45 am emails

10:15-10:45 am - Phone call with Tiffany from Jane. Record this separately. Fulfillment and mobile options using quotes, tablets, and scanners. Recorded other notes in the billable hours section for the client.

9:45-11:00 am more emails and working on code sign-off pages.
 
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Shop 1656 Quoting 7/13/2016   Quoting with Dave and Shannon. We did a quote on a data import tool for T&M Pro Shop (CSV import of parts data). We also started into a quote for Chris Johnnie and Russell (adilasforbusiness.com). This deals with an affiliate program, sub inventory on ecommerce, and sub part categories.
 
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Shop 1410 Calvin Chipman 7/13/2016   Quick phone call with Calvin. We talked about sub inventory and progress there. We also talked about the export for QuickBooks. I pledged a $1,000 to help push that forward, coming from adilas. We currently have a client that is looking for that type of solution.

Exports and tie-ins for QuickBooks seems to be heating up. Also as a note, idea from B. Dayton, if we played better with QuickBooks, it may allow us to be a better companion software package vs. our own standalone piece or option. We are trying to focus on being a good companion. Behind the scenes we still want and need our own solution, but we also need to play well with others. I'm kinda softening a little bit on this.
 
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Shop 1567 Russell time 7/13/2016   Working and talking to Russell about goals and direction for the shop and some of his projects. We talked about carrots and how we place them. That lead to a big discussion on what is going on, why it going on, and our plans either for or against.

- "Be careful how you place your carrots & are you getting what you wanted for or from those carrots?" Russell Moore - this was talking about how I manage and how I'm trying to spread the wealth.

- Idea from Russell - Maybe I could take a custom job and then pay that money to Russell for some other things that I wanted or needed.

- Seek first to understand and then to be understood. This topic came out today as Russell and I were working on stuff. He is doing great and is kinda feeling like he is being left out because he is doing so awesome. He virtually wants to be fed as well.

After our conversations and discussions, we then did some local testing, light pages fixes, and pushed Russell's first round ecommerce stuff up to the data 0 server. We started to test the new ecommerce stuff live on the server. He has worked really hard on this project and it is looking awesome. Tons of new settings, new look and feel, and even some great new functionality. He is making the ecommerce portion come to life. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1650 API 7/13/2016   On a GoToMeeting session with Bryan. We were going more over the in-line discounts and dollars off project. Lots of twists and turns. Bryan is doing a great job of trying to document things and then also following as many pieces of the puzzle as he can. We are making progress and he has a number of scenarios to test against and run things. Slow and steady.
 
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Shop 1674 Emails and Prep 7/14/2016   Emails and prep for an email for the Jane Team. Steve asked me to prep and pull a report of unplanned and unbilled hours for the Jane Team.

I then wrote an email explaining our position and thoughts. I recorded a full hour of billable time for Jane on a different element of time.
 
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Shop 1499 Working on sub inventory 7/14/2016   On a phone call with Steve for about an hour. We were talking about a number of different things and topics.

Here are some of the topics:
- What about a new cart template that shows the possible subs when a quote is restored to the cart. Basically, we know the parent items or even the quoted subs. What if we just showed that or those options and let the user choose what was real and needed to be on the invoice? That would really speed up the process and take away the need to remove so many line items.

- What would happen if we went to a one-to-many relationship on the API socket settings and the adilas 3rd Party Solutions page? It would be cool to expand the API to allow multiple different people to use it based off of different criteria and settings. The other idea is auto turn API sockets on/off based off of actions done on the adilas 3rd Party Solutions page. That would be cool. As a note, we would need to disclose what was being turned on/off if they didn't specifically open or close certain API sockets or virtual windows.

- Steve and I talked about the old saying - static vs. dynamic. Then Steve said, "We are way past the dynamic level or stage. We are into fracturing." Basically, the further we go out, the more sub levels of control that are needed. Every main item or topic inside of adilas is splitting and virtually fracturing into smaller and smaller controls. There is also some requests to standardize and make bulk decisions based off of known needs.

- We need to adopt the strategy of fracturing and even embrace it. Let everything go into the subs or sub levels.

- Still on normal dynamics vs. fracturing & breaking into subs - The old way of normal dynamics has a element of planning and then building accordingly. Once it starts to fracture, split, and break, some of the planning gives way to being driven or being forced into new changes. We have to start reacting vs. the proactive slow growth model. Things have to be built and then be used. The more mature they get, the more they tend to start fracturing and splitting.

- We are so glad that we have built off of a relational model that included one-to-many, as deep as we need to go.

- We are getting more calls for sub part categories and pushing sub inventory out to the ecommerce levels. Things just keep on going.

After the phone call, we then spent 1.25 hours working on sub inventory and trying to get some things fixed that were the problems or open holes. We fixed some formatting for quantities, some multiple decimal levels on costs, and then closed an edit hole that allowed a user to edit a parent part number from a PO line item form. Pushed up some new code.
 
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Shop 1603 Adilas time 7/14/2016  
 
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Shop 1411 Calvin Chipman 7/14/2016   Working with Calvin over a zoom session. Calvin is making progress on his database to database processing tools. He is playing with different scripts and running things both forwards and backwards through his new tool. It is looking pretty cool. The goal is to help with data migration on small and larger migrations. Basically take the web interface out and run longer migrations without having a person click and do 100 or 1,000 at a time. Automation of sort for data processes and migration.
 
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Shop 1600 Alan Time 7/14/2016   Alan showed me his progress on the new EMV chip reader and credit card gateway integration. Pretty cool. The craziest part of the project has been interfacing with the custom software and chip reader. The gateway piece has been fairly straight forward.

Alan then helped me with some regular expressions. I have been stuck on some code for weeks now. Alan helped me figure things out within about an hour of playing around. I'm very grateful for his help. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1651 Inline 7/14/2016   Light tech support, phone calls, and emails.

On a GoToMeeting session with Bryan. We went over some of his questions that he is having on the in-line discounts dollars off project. He is doing great and making progress. He is having fun working from home and our sessions on the computer have been very productive. He basically kicks the ball down the street and makes notes of places where things are funky or out of whack. We then go through his list and work on the problem areas. It seems like a good flow. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1663 Working with Russell 7/14/2016   Working with Russell to cascade some new permissions and settings around for his AdilasForBusiness paid ecommerce settings and templates. That is really fun to see it get pushed out there a bit. We also talked about an admin photo tool and what that would take. We updated some ecommerce images and gave away some settings and permissions to key people who we hope will use the new tools. That was fun.
 
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Shop 1000 Brandon out of the office all day 7/15/2016   Went on a hike with my Dad and Sister this morning. We went to the top of Flat Top Mountain in Smithfield, UT. It was about a 6.5 hour and 13.5 mile hike. Supper fun and very beautiful.

At 2 pm I started doing some emails.

At 2:15 - 2:45 pm I was on a zoom session with Russell trying to help him fix a small bug on the Adilas Market (adilas world). We made the change and then pushed up the new code. Russell's stuff is looking really really cool, I'm excited to see how our clients like it and view it.

2:45 - 5:30 pm - Cleaning up shop times, recording notes, and making small fixes. Changed a billing email address for adilas.
 
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Shop 1500 State API 7/18/2016  
 
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Shop 1604 Adilas time 7/18/2016   Doing emails and light tech support. Also took in a copy of the adilas code base and put it in our safe deposit box. We've been so busy, that hasn't happened for awhile. We have copies of the code, but we haven't had time to take it to the bank.
 
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Shop 1412 Calvin Chipman 7/18/2016   Phone call with Calvin. Emerald Fields (one of Calvin's main custom code clients) is dragging their feet on getting him paid. We talked about options and how sometimes people with lots of money often think of ways to save themselves money. Sadly, even at the expense of other things.
 
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Shop 1678 Question on compatibility for exports 7/18/2016   We had a report that Windows 10 was installing an update that made our MS Excel exports unreadable. That is a Windows thing and somewhat out of our control. As a question, should we move towards more options to do CSV (comma separated values) files. Those are older technology and are technically just plain text separated with commas. That might be a good idea.

At some point, I'd love to do exports to CSV for any and all data. That would be awesome.
 
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Shop 1679 Updating sub inventory 7/18/2016   Working on an update script for sub inventory and matching up part id's and part numbers for unique packages. Ran the script live on all servers that have clients using sub inventory.
 
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Shop 1568 Russell time 7/18/2016   Working with Russell on some ecommerce changes and minor logic tweaks. Started looking into some media/content errors on the adilas market.
 
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Shop 1662 Alan Time 7/18/2016   Working with Alan on the BridgePay gateway code sign-off. BridgePay is an online merchant gateway that deals with the option to use a EMV chip reader (new credit card technology). Anyways, working with Alan to sign-off on his code. Light testing and reworking on some of the logic. Making progress.
 
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Shop 1501 Working with Alan 7/19/2016   Working with Alan on his BridgePay credit card gateway. We were on a GoToMeeting looking over code and trying to get things to work. Alan helped me install the needed software and we tried to get things connected. We got the software installed but couldn't make things talk all the way through. Lots of checking and trying to debug things.
 
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Shop 1605 Adilas time 7/19/2016  
 
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Shop 3474 Virtual Post-It Note 7/19/2016   -On my cart favorites,we need to disable some things on the advanced matrix for items that are marked as subs only.
-" Have a bold attitude and be more of a salesman " By Bryan Dayton
 
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Shop 1413 Working with Alan on his code 7/19/2016   Went into the shop and tried to work with Alan on the BridgePay gateway stuff. We pushed files live and went through the sign-off process. Still having problems connecting to the right server. Alan is looking in to it.
 
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Shop 1676 In-Line $ Discounts: ADI-146 7/19/2016   Working with Bryan on logic and bugs on the in-line discount for the dollars off. We were working on the mini invoice, logic for the main update cart page, and tracking down how all of the math was calculated.

I also was on a phone call with Kelly Whyman for almost an hour talking about sub inventory and places where it fails and/or has light disconnects. Lots of cause and effects. Kelly asked about learning code, helping with project requirements, standardizing communication, and fully reworking the sub inventory section.
 
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Shop 1684 General 7/20/2016   Lots of emails and light research on some investors and investment groups. We are looking for ways to fund the next phase of growth. Light tech support.
 
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Shop 1038 Brandon - Working on own projects 7/20/2016   Emails and more research on getting some finances and possible bank loans.
 
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Shop 3475 Virtual Post-It Note 7/20/2016   -What about setting my cart favorites with show on the web options.
-What about part categories and saying show/hide on the web.
 
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Shop 1414 Calvin Chipman 7/20/2016   Calvin showed me some of his new tweaks to the data migration process. We spent quite a bit of time talking about using web, remote servers, and client-side software to get a great hybrid type solution. Basically, use the best tool for the job and don't try to force everything into the same playing field.

We briefly talked about Calvin's GMext (group mass texting) solution and how we could potentially deploy something like that from or on our servers. That could use the power of the web and the backend data servers to run a custom software application. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1677 General 7/20/2016   Working on a loan application document for a company called Fundera (www.fundera.com). On the phone with a couple different people and reps from that company. I then did some research and got them some bank statements and such. Other small tech support type things.

Helped Bryan Dayton out with some questions he had on the in-line discounts and dollars off project. We then switched gears and worked on his mini project and getting his trees and nut growing project working with some data.

At the end of the day, Bryan and I spent about 1.5 hours talking about debt and where and how some of that came to be. That sent me into a whole monolog and story of how things came about. I'm not sure if it helps or hurts more to tell the story. Anyways, Bryan and I talked about things for over an hour and a half. It has been quite the ride. Not all negative and not all positive, a good mix, and random the whole way. Did I mention that it has been a little random! Yee Haw! :)
 
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Shop 1502 General 7/21/2016   Tech support and emails. Redid a logo for a client. Pushed up the alternate logo and found a small bug. Tracking things down and fixed the bug. Pushed new files to all servers.
 
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Shop 1606 Adilas time 7/21/2016   Bryan came over and pitched me a proposal for how to help out the shop. We went over it and did some talking. Last night, he and I talked for a little bit over an hour on what is going on and the state and status of things.

We talked about how there is a gap in active admin, management and project management. We talked about how the biggest gap is at the top. I'm currently filling that position, but I'm so busy that I can't really get everything done. We used the analogy of a triangle. The bottom is easy to fill and the middle is able to be filled with good intermediate skills. The problem exists at the top of the triangle (admin and management).

Anyways, we went through a number of different options and talked about possible ways to get things done. We determined that one of the key needs is at the admin and project management levels. I'm not sure who to have fill that spot.
 
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Shop 1415 Meeting with Alan 7/21/2016   Light phone and tech support. Meeting with Alan on his BridgePay gateway project. We were on a conference call with the developers from that company. We then spent quite a bit of time looking into how to structure the shop and who could play what roles. At the end, Russell joined us and we got some got ideas flowing around and through. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1569 Russell time 7/21/2016   Merging new ecommerce files into master. We also pushed up some new ecommerce changes and the new version of the ecommerce homepage with the new look and feel (adilas for business - css and navigation options).

While Russell and I were uploading things, we were talking about how to mix and blend the main adilas company with the adilas shop and adilas for business. Lots of talk about how to get them to work together and create new tools that could be sold for up sale values or as 3rd party add-on's. Some fun ideas.
 
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Shop 1659 Custom Report 7/21/2016   Met with Nick to go over a custom report project. It is fairly small and has a fairly good and easy path to the finish line. Thanks to Shannon and Dave Forbis who went in and helped document things and get things going for the client. Great combo effort on all parties.

At the end of the day, Russell and I were talking about possible options for "dependables" and how to structure the shop and other entities and how they might play into the mix.
 
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Shop 1001 Brandon out of the office all day 7/22/2016   Went into town to help Russell with some of his projects. We ended up spending the whole day talking about options, counseling together, and exploring different options. The counseling session was very good for me.

We talked a lot about goals and direction. Where do we want to go, as a company? How big do we want to be? Big, small, in between? What is the time it will take to get to market? And what are our goals with minimum targets, mid range targets, and max or optimal targets?

So here is the concept of the targets within your goals. Instead of yes, I hit my goal vs. no, I didn't get my goal - What if your goal had a scale inside each goal. You figure out what is the minimum target for the goal. This is always attainable and allows for you to virtually check off that box, even if you didn't hit a huge home run. This minimum target also helps to keep the habit in tact and keep going (consistency). The max or optimal target is a goal within the goal but doesn't have any negative consequences if you fall short and hit some where between the min and the max. Basically you allow enough room that you could hit the mark and allow for some flexibility in order to find the sweet spot.

Russell was showing me how goals should have a couple of elements tied to them. He kept using the term smart goals. The word smart is for a small acronym.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals -
Specific
Measureable
Attainable
Realistic
Time Bound

He then added a couple of other ones that he thought were important. They were:
Flexibility - expand and contract similar to the data assembly line concepts
Research - what else do we know and what cause and effects will this provide
Adjusting - be willing and able to change as needed based on the situation

We talked about priorities and how to best prioritize. We talked about the jar analogy and pretending that a glass jar is all you are able to fit in a single time period. There are two different kinds of things that can go in the jar. One is eggs or rocks (bigger objects) and the other is sand or rice (smaller objects). And how if you put the rice in first (extra stuff) you may not be able to get the eggs or rocks (main priorities or must do's) into the jar. We did some light drawings and used the whiteboard for different concepts.

Another valuable exercise was putting some goals up on the board and then putting realist timelines to them. One that we did, that was kinda scary, was taking about 1 million dollars worth of projects and really asking how long that would take. We got the 1 million dollar value from a list of community funded projects for adilas. Here is what we came up with.

$1,000,000 total / $100 per hour = about 10,000 man hours

To get 10,000 man hours that would be 5 years at almost full time (2,000 hours per year).

To get 10,000 man hour that would be 10 years at almost half time (1,000 hours per year).

To get 10,000 man hour that would be 20 years at almost one quarter (1/4) time (500 hours per year).

We then talked about a well trained team and what that would take to get the same 10,000 man hours.

Say you had a small elite team that could do a solid 100 hours a week. If you take that times 50 weeks (almost a full year of 52 weeks) you would get 5,000 man hours. If you did that for 2 years, you could get to the 10,000 man hours of your goal. Long story made short, you could cut your 5 to 10 years into 2 years or less with an elite team. That is pretty cool.

Another concept that I really enjoyed was talking about adjusting and re-aligning to meet your goal. Russell gave the analogy of a car's speedometer and how you constantly adjust and/or re-align with the correct reading. Say the goal was 60 miles per hour. If you are at 50 or 55, you increase things slightly. If you are at 70 or 80, you decrease things slightly. No harm done, you just try to align with the desired outcome and let the speedometer help you monitor your goal. I enjoyed that analogy.

One of the other subjects of the day was options for helping adilas and the adilas shop go forward. Here is a brief outline of some of the options that we went over.

Option 1. - Stay as is and just keep going - currently this is not working too well. A change is needed.

Option 2. - Close down all extras including the shop and only be as big as we can support right now. There is some cost savings here but we lose a ton of momentum.

Option 3. - Setup a budget and get the pieces funded that are needed both internally with adilas and with the adilas shop. This would be awesome but requires another $5,000 to $10,000 a month. Most likely, this increase of internal expenses would need to be funded from some form of short to medium range debt such as a loan or an advance on a line of credit.

Option 4. - New idea while talking with Russell. We could fund the increased expenses by raising prices or charging for features and/or system usage. Russell and I ran some numbers on things as simple as sub inventory (say add $20 to $30 per company per month). At a 100 clients, that would be $2,000 or $3,000 per month that could help offset expenses. We also talked about doing a price increase of 25% and 50%. Those are big numbers but still keeps us lower than much of our competition. With a price increase, you could generate $5,000 - $25,000 more a month without adding on any new accounts. Lots of potential here.

Option 5. - New idea from Brandon on 7/23/16 (next day). This option deals with supply and demand and marketing skills of those who are in high demand. This is not as straight forwards as a price increase but has great potential. What if Brandon, Steve, and others, entered the adilas marketplace or adilas world and offered their time and skills at a rate set by each person. Basically, if someone needs someone else's time, they need to pay for it.

What if we (Brandon, Steve, and others), went down to part time working for adilas (doing things that can't be billed for and/or that are hard to bill for - internal things). We could then use our other time and allow the market to dictate costs, prices, and availability. We could market our skills in multiple areas such as setup, consulting, training, custom code, graphics, etc. We could setup a way to get a base pay rate from adilas and then rely upon the use of the market to get the remainder of what we need. The goal there is that the market could be a tool to drive revenue without incurring additional debt and/or liability. Anyways, some fun options.

Option 6. - What if you mixed and blended some of the ideas above or came up with new ones. That would be cool as well. Just trying to keep things open.
 
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Shop 1763 Help people who want it 7/22/2016   Russell and I had a number of good talks today. One of the concepts was we need to focus on people who want help. We also need to focus on people who are able to pay for that help. We can't do everything for free.

One of my personal goals is to help some of the shop guys like B. Dayton and Dave Forbis to become more independent and start selling their own services and skills. Good stuff.
 
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Shop 1683 Conference call with the Jane Team 7/22/2016   GoToMeeting with the Jane Team - adilas white label options. On a GoToMeeting session with Tiffany, Javier, Russell, and myself. We showed them some options and how we can re-skin data through CSS, themes, etc. We also showed them how to get to the public API pieces and what those look like. We also talked a lot about the difference between quotes, invoices, and how those two things interact.

We talked about fulfillment center stuff (filling orders) as well as an outstanding tax issue (how things are rounded and calculated). I got kinda riled up and didn't want to hear and/or deal with it. I did listen and Russell helped me calm down. I don't know where it is, but somewhere there is a small rounding error (or a preceved error) when dealing with backing into fixed amounts, using with tax included, and how discounts apply. Those are all back calcs and some are done in combo. Their issues seem to only show up when used in combo. They like the way we do it one thing at a time. Anyways, just noting that issue.

As a note, this entry was recorded on their monthly billable hours.
 
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Shop 1686 General 7/23/2016   Emails, tech support, and recording hours. Trying to document the story.
 
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Shop 1687 General 7/23/2016   Built out some code and logic for the barcode (mixed sources) search page. Added options to search sub inventory packages directly from the quick search. All the users need to do is enter a package number in the quick search and use the barcode search option. An example might be: ~555 or ~750 where the package or sub inventory id is 555 or 750.

Also built and coded a small page for a client that wanted a special character removed from his general or generic barcode searches. Added a new black box and pushed the new code to all servers. Billed the client for an hour and a half.

Doing some thinking about how Steve and I could enter the market and market our skills and time along with the other independent reps and consultants that serve the adilas marketplace. Some fun ideas.
 
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Shop 1688 Email to Steve about some funding ideas 7/23/2016   Wrote an email to Steve to go over some ideas for funding and even possibly letting Steve and I enter the adilas marketplace (Russell's new application - adilas world). Fun stuff.
 
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Shop 1503 General 7/25/2016   Emails, tech support, and recording notes from 7/22/16 and a meeting I had with Russell. See element of time # 1001 for details. Lots of good ideas and such.
 
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Shop 1607 Adilas time 7/25/2016   Talking with Russell about setting up an elite little developer team for the adilas shop. We talked some numbers and did some white boarding.
 
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Shop 1416 Calvin Chipman 7/25/2016   Small phone call and update with Calvin. He is making some small changes to a program that he is working on and let me know that he got paid from a client that he was working for. He had been worried about a payment that was getting older that hadn't happened yet. He reported that all was well and the client was current and up to date.
 
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Shop 1689 Alan time 7/25/2016   started on code sign-off with Alan. Got a phone call from Steve and spent the rest of the time talking with him about options, plans, and changes. Expand.
 
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Shop 1660 Custom Report 7/25/2016   Talking to the guys about the new plans and how we are going to structure the smaller team. Using the whiteboard to go over sub inventory, plans for the shop, and general changes. Expand.
 
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Shop 1504 State API 7/26/2016   Talked with Steve on the phone and firmed up some of the details of the new changes. Pitched more of our plans. Expand.
 
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Shop 1608 Adilas time 7/26/2016   Went up to Bryan's house to talk with him about the new changes. Expand.
 
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Shop 1417 Lunch meeting with Dave Forbis 7/26/2016   Had a lunch meeting with Dave Forbis to go over the new changes and plans. Expand.
 
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Shop 1570 Russell time 7/26/2016   Zoom session with Russell. He was at home and I was at the shop. We fixed a couple of small things with his new ecommerce packages.
 
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Shop 1685 Custom Report 7/26/2016   Working with Nick on a custom report for a trailer finance dealer. Custom mappings to invoices, flex grid, and invoice line items. Expand.
 
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Shop 1692 Data import for a client 7/27/2016   Did two digital uploads for a client. Did about 80+ vendors and almost 200 items from multiple vendors. Pushed all of the new data to the correct server and ran the migration files.
 
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Shop 1039 Brandon - Working on own projects 7/27/2016   Emails and general stuff.
 
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Shop 1418 Signing off on code with Alan 7/27/2016   Alan came in and we looked at some of his EMV chip reader code. Added comments and did some code sign-off.
 
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Shop 1571 Meeting with Chris Johnnie 7/27/2016   Meeting with Chris Johnnie on a number of different topics. Schools, ecommerce, merchant processing, and flags and tags for users and vendors. See other page of notes.

Dave Forbis came by and worked with Chris and I for a bit. Dave then helped me with doing the Stripe credit card stuff, using the online bill pay options, and looking over stuff in the shop. Expand.
 
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Shop 1691 In-Line $ Discounts: ADI-146 7/27/2016   On a GoToMeeting session with Bryan. Helping him get his Northern Nut Growers Association database and code up and live on an adilas server. Expand.
 
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Shop 1693 Clean-up 7/27/2016   Clean-up, recording notes, and getting ready to close things down here at the shop.
 
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Shop 1505 State API 7/28/2016  
 
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Shop 1582 Consultant meeting introduction 7/28/2016  
 
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Shop 1764 Perform raw SQL queries 7/28/2016   We have had a number of people (system users) who have wanted to be able to perform raw SQL queries on their data. It would be really cool if we could create an awesome point and click tool that would allow them to do normal select queries, joins, and filters. It would also be cool if we could export that data in a CSV file or Excel file for them.
 
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Shop 1419 Calvin Chipman 7/28/2016   On a zoom session with Calvin. We talked about where things are at with sub inventory and how we could best work together on these projects. I helped him get his system up to speed with some updates and then we talked about his new query and database sub inventory stuff. We are going away from bulk storage like JSON and tons of arrays to traditional one-to-many database logic. We are hoping that these changes will help and speed things up. We are making good progress. Calvin is starting to make new code changes for the new features.
 
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Shop 1690 Out of the office 7/28/2016   Out of the office.
 
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Shop 1002 Brandon out of the office all day 7/29/2016  
 
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Shop 1713 Cleaned out the Logan office 7/30/2016