Currently can use sub phases with sub flags and tags. Developers are currently using this. 

Still need to implement checkpoints ex assembly line.

Talking with Russell over the morning meeting. He was showing me around the new news and updates pages. Lots of new tools and features and ways to showcase features, benefits, advantages, support items, and topics of interest. Good stuff. Russell is also putting a really nice flavor to the new graphics and such. He is taking things to a much higher level. That is awesome.

Russell and I had a pretty good conversation about the direction that we want to take. We both talked and expressed that we want to keep adilas as a general tool that could be used by all kinds of businesses and individuals. We talked about an analogy of a tree with roots and branches. Our goal is to keep things balanced. I asked Russell to help steer us in that direction. I gave him a thumbs up and the verbal go ahead.

As a side note, our developer's notebooks and meeting notes have a virtual gold mine of information, ideas, lessons learned, and vision for the future. We need to slow down enough to tap into that resource. It is huge and covers almost 20 years of experience.

Alan popped in and we chatted for a bit. We went over some our upcoming plans and how we are going to tie things together. Basically, we'll keep pushing on in-line dollar off discounts, other discount rules, and then finish up the sales tax piece. We will then roll into options to expand the my cart favorite buttons and turn that portion into the pricing engine or the foundation of the pricing engine. That will naturally tie into sales and promotions and such. We'll have Eric working on loyalty points and gift cards and special tracking accounts. In the mean time, we'll circle back around and help with sub inventory and mini conversions. Ideally we'll also have Calvin working on the foundation of the label builder pieces. Once we get all of those pieces in and stabilized, that should really help.

Alan would also like permission to setup a testing server environment. We talked about using the adilas content server as that environment. Good stuff. We need to test and be confident that things will work in live scenarios, especially with the new database changes and world building stuff that is coming up.

As we were talking, Alan would like to build in some testing and more active object oriented stuff. This means more session based stuff, classes, objects, functions, getters, setters, etc. Piecing things together and combining like code into families and related code sets. Alan and I also talked about how we really want to tie in to time and elements of time as part of the object oriented model. We went out to the developer photo gallery (old drawings and graphics from the developer's notebook) and talked about how huge the time element is to the whole project. We also lightly talked about 3D world building and concepts of the data assembly line. Good conversation.

Spent the rest of the session paying bills, recording notes, and doing emails and tech support stuff.

Chatted on the phone with Calvin going over API socket connection for his desktop application. Also did some light planning for the upcoming live adilas training session. Here are a couple of random notes... no special order at this point.

- Sell the sizzle...

- Think GEO tourism for selling the venue and location of Logan, UT. 1.5 hours North of Salt Lake, hiking, fishing, history, USU campus, shopping, mountains, rivers, valley, Bear Lake, etc. 10 minutes from Logan, you could be in the mountains.

- Guest speakers - concepts, vision, processes, procedures, etc.

- Highlight new features, new updates, and upcoming projects. Think of things like Campaign Rise (social media and custom wire job for elements of time), Beaver Mountain Ski Area and Ski School, Steve's campground stuff, Plant phases and cultivation stuff, Russell's new custom email stuff, ecommerce, WordPress integration, white label stuff, sales tax changes, new discount options, etc.

- Show what has happened, what is happening, and what will be coming down the pipeline. Maybe show a timeline with some key points and historical stepping stones.

- World building concepts and how different clients are problem solving with adilas as their worlds change and progress. Try to focus on 3D world building and the concepts of the data assembly line. Show how some of that stuff is already playing out.

- Different topic, but I would really like to get some sites out there like billboards pointing back to adilas and what we are doing. These are all of the main concepts such as 3D world building, data assembly line, creating a system, API sockets and playing at the wall, etc. These might be great projects for Russell to give his developers who are going through the program at Bridgerland. Good stuff.

Talking with Russell. We talked about some small billboard sites and pointing people to adilas and the adilas community. We talked about SEO (search engine optimization) and using existing verbage to help lead them to what we have and what we offer. For example: Things like CRM (customer relationship management), POS (point of sale system), ERP (enterprise resource planning), CMS (content management system), etc. Point all of those things to where it is going... We are leaning towards 3D world building, data assembly line stuff, new school accounting, and other concepts.

From our talks yesterday, these are some other projects that Russell thought would be cool. They are: a cool mobile app, more with time clocks, time - reservations and rentals, and other mobile ready pieces.

Alan hopped on and we went over progress on the in-line dollars off discount project. Alan is making great progress and we talked about a couple questions that he had. We also lightly touched base on the reoccurring invoicing and reoccurring merchant processing pieces that he is working on for Campaign Rise. Good reports.

Most of the session was spent working on the sales tax calculator page and showing the test calculations and output math.

Met up with Steve on the morning meeting. Steve has been on vacation for a couple of weeks. We spent some time doing some catch-up and planning. We jumped right in and started looking over ideas and plans for the upcoming training event.

- Steve's idea - Ground zero - adilas training - Start at the very beginning.

- Keep it simple - $100 per day

- Part of the event should focus on where we are going and where we are seeing the concepts and trends heading. These are things like world building, 3D data assembly line, and the adilas model.

- Steve really wants us to focus on the adilas model. Share the "Why". Show what we have learned and why that works. Help to enable them to think and build on their own solutions. Teach the why and the how. Teach them to play like we want to play.

- Show a demo of what we are thinking and planning on the upcoming mini conversion project.

- Steve was talking about how much the event would bring to us vs how much it costs to put it on. Tons of benefits. Let's help push things forward.

After Steve and I got done brainstorming, Dustin S. (new developer) came on and we helped him get up to speed on Git and Bit Bucket. Steve and Dustin then worked together on some state API tracking stuff. I left the meeting and did some email stuff.

On the morning meeting with Steve and Russell. They were talking about how Bridgerland could help with outside development and doing smaller projects. Part of the puzzle is how we empower our users. It is so important to empower our users at the level that they need (go to the source). That is a huge core concept.

Taking the email options out to the bulk level and also allowing users to make the email come from their own servers.

As the guys were talking, I was doing some research on the old adilas website. Lots of good PDF files, help files, graphics, and flyers. Here is the old website link: https://data0.adilas.biz/old_index.cfm

Eric wants to talk about coupons and loyalty points. We talked about a guy named Chris Johnnie and some prior planning that may have been done by Russell and Chris. We are trying to pull things together and make everything happen.

From Eric - It is so expensive to keep stopping and starting - we lose tons in the transitions. We need to focus and stay on track.

Eric was expressing some concerns about sub inventory on the production side of things. Steve chimed in and was talking about how some people don't even know what else is possible and already built. The trail is faint and many people have been gone in different directions. We need to define the best path and then help educate others to play the game.

Manufacturing is a whole new level - You have raw goods being made into finished goods. Lots of internal flipping and tweaking. You need bill of materials, sub assemblies, recipes, other tracking needs, etc. We talked briefly about parent inventory and sub or child inventory. Some of the big needs come when they have sub assemblies and use semi raw goods and then push it into another finished good or product. You have to be at the sub level in order to really track that information. It gets into sub locations and sub phases and all kinds of other subs. In the background, we are seeing the _Z coordinate (depth and stacking) coming more in to play.

We are having a number of clients that are fighting against change. Some of the subjects are the way the one-to-many relationships are setup and what the individual people think should be the best option. Some of the questions are things like - one PO with multiple line items or one PO per one line item. Which one holds the location and how do you move things around. They want to group things but also be able to move things independently. They need both... basically, I'm part of this group but I also play over here and here. Very interesting.

This is a side note, but we end up spending so much time managing our customers because they all want to chime in and say what they feel is the best. Custom is awesome but it can also get us in trouble. Custom is really easy on existing and established pieces. One of the main problems is when we get into uncharted territory, people have all kinds of ideas and what things would work best. Once the trail is set and people are using it, they tend to go with what is already there unless we make it too hard. When the trail is not fully established, it turns into the wild west (anything goes) really quickly.

Once people get what they want, they tend to want to get to it quicker. They also want more. This could be more options, more control, more access, more of almost everything. They basically get addicted to data and ease of use.

Steve was doing a demo on sub phases, sub groups, and sub locations. Lots of using elements of time and special flags and tags to track all of the details.

One thing that will help people is showing them how to get back to their details and data. We (developers and power users) know things well enough that we pop through screens, skip steps, and go really fast. A new user is watching and they just get lost. So many moving pieces. It hasn't been smoothed out and/or standardized yet to really make it manageable and easy to understand. We either need to slow down and/or make the path more direct and discernible. Make it obvious and straight forward.

A note for us... We can use these subs to hold the sub details and sub data. We need to show things in very general levels and make it look simple unless the user wants to get clear down to the lower detail level. Think of the world building graphics that have universe level, world level, location level, group level, individual level, and the underlying data level. We need to allow the users to navigate at whatever level they feel most comfortable. We need all of the deep, deep, sub data, but that may be too much detail for some people and/or users.

There will be a greater and greater needs for mini conversions and how that effects things. Steve has already done quite a bit of work on the custom/build_complex_labels.cfm page. We need to use that as a great starting place. Lots of moving pieces. It goes like this... You have to have a parent item. Parents have subs or children. Those children then get broken down into smaller pieces and sub packaged. That is mini conversions.

We keep pioneering small little projects and getting some testers and people who keep pushing on things. Adilas is literally a giant testing environment and a virtual idea farm. We keep planting and harvesting ideas. They just keep coming.

Going back to manufacturing - there are tons of batches, sub batches, lots, and even reprocessing and repackaging pieces. We need to keep defining the road and helping the people who will be coming down the road later on. Kinda like Eric was saying... We need to focus and get pieces done and standardized - we get pulled in so many different directions. We lose a ton in the transition and switchover between projects. It gets very expensive and takes a ton of time and energy. In manufacturing, they often will set up an assembly line for a certain run... They then run that product until it is done. If they had to switch lines (assembly lines) every couple of hours, they would have tons of down time. Maybe we need to do similar type things. Make a plan and then work your plan.

The other gem is using the people who know it... get the reps and the clients together that know what is going on.

Flow - We can link all kinds of stuff together. That is a whole other level. If we can get the job done and get the person to the correct next step, we can help them keep moving forward. It comes down to flow and planning. Steve wants Dustin to help with some of that flow. Steve's words... "we need to train the system". That helps the whole thing go better. Dustin's words were... "the system almost needs rails". They then talked about wizards, steps, and showing a logic path and where they are on that legend or helping them know what is next and where things are at. Walk them through it. This could be crumb trails, legends, wizards, etc. Good stuff.

On the morning meeting with Steve and Dustin. I spent some time getting back into the developer's notebook project. We are trying to get some our brainstorming and info out to the world so that we can protect things like business or 3D world building, business or 3D data assembly line concepts, and other core adilas concepts and pieces. There will eventually be tons of different options, as far as code and application features go, but we really want to protect and help educate the general public about the core concepts and pieces that we are built upon. That is a huge part of the goal.

Helping Dustin get some custom labels going and helping to populate them. We had to fix a number of small coding issues. Good learning session.

Wayne popped in and we talked about database transfers between servers and how to handle duplicate records. We came up with a plan and he will be moving forward with the plan.

Eric and I setup some dedicated times to work on loyalty points and special account tracking. We are planning on 2 hour blocks for the next two weeks, from 1-3 pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That will be good to get some dedicated times to work on things.

------ different topic -----

These were some other questions that I wrote on a number of post-it notes... we are just trying to get organized and figure out a better plan for handling all of the pieces that are coming in.

- There are so many needs

- There are so many new requests (new things)

- There are quite a few bug requests (old things)

- Who does the work?

- How do we inform them?

- What is the plan?

- How can we duplicate ourselves?

- How do we create the funnel type approach.... things come in, we record them, we organize them, we distribute them, we work on them, we can check in, get reports and put things to bed

- If I add to my to do list... it never gets done

- Who can I use and what are my budgets?

- How do you prioritize request, projects, and bugs?

- Who gets assigned?

- What do we want to be?

- What are we becoming?

- Who are we wearing out?

- How do we mange that?

- What are our goals?

- We need some help

- See a need... fill a need - I kept coming back to this... this may be the next step.

- Help people manage themselves

- I feel like I'm climbing with a dresser on my back - so many pieces, we need to simplify.

- What teams (people assets) do we have? How are we going to use that?

- I'm running and hiding...

- We need some help

- Kinda like facing giants

- Get the Lord's help

- Get some good help

- See a need, and then fill that need... make a plan!

- Focus on one thing at a time - it is hard to switch and transition.

- We may have to keep people at bay while we do things.

- Schedule it out and stick to that if possible.

------- meeting with Steve -----

- Departments and who gets what

- We sometimes have multiple people looking and checking on the same things. That is not effective and/or efficient. Say an email that is sent to Steve and I, we both look at it and then both respond. This is just one example.

- How do things come in? Do they start with support or do they start with a call to a rep or something else? We might need to start catching things and then funneling them around.

- There is not a book on "SaaS" Software as a Service. We are kinda faking it as we go. That is for real. Basically a pioneering project.

- Maybe talk to Shannon and see if we could get here back. Maybe have her come back in as a different role. We could really use an internal project manager of sorts. Maybe a higher or overall approach.

- We may need to use elements of time and create our own support system and/or support tickets. That could be really quick, now that we have some things ready and done.

- We would love to have a sorted tick list... What are the top 10 maintenance pieces, top 10 bugs, top 10 new requests, top 10 upcoming projects. Then keep rotating through that.

- We love the concept of the data assembly line... What about our new needs... We have done of data, tons of servers, tons of requests, tons of needs... how are we going to track that process and take the actions that are needed.

- We might need places where we have ideas, projects, maintenance, bugs, etc.

- We often talk about the burning platform... it is amazing as we keep going, the burning platforms get fixed, and then there becomes another burning platform.

- Steve and I need a shield to help us filter some of the outside static and/or noise. Once it gets boiled down, we could get a list of things to do and work on.

- We feel bad about not being able to get emails, phone calls, and texts. We are just getting too many. We may need a person to help shield us a bit there.

- Steve and I have thousands and thousands of emails and thousands and thousands of text messages. It gets too much for one person to handle.

- We are in the business of data management, storage, processing, and such. We need to help categorize things and help filter the number of requests that come in.

- Filters... We need someone to help us catch things and then basically boil things down into a manageable list.

- We need to be able to allocate resources as we see fit. There are always limits on people, talent, time, money, etc. We need to manage our resources.

- We have some guys that are top notch... We are seeing Wayne, Alan, Eric, Bryan, Will, Dustin, etc. They are all shining and showing more and more potential. That is exciting.

- We also have Shari O., Shannon, Drea, etc. on the tech support and customer care side.

- We will be working on a running list and trying to be more effective.

- We really want to reach out and have the people run and excel where they have skills and talents.

- We are going to be reaching out to and contacting some of our people. We have a great team... if we use that team wisely, that will open up options.

- Kinda funny, we use to ask our clients, where is your pain? Let's start there. We'll we have the pain now, so, I guess we start there and work forward. Yee haw!

9009 E Arapahoe Road, Greenwood Village, CO 80112
Phone: (303) 799-4555

See attached for notes, scans, files, and GoToMeeting recordings (videos)

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Day 1

We did some intros and then got started. Danny Shuford did a demo and did a great job. See attached for some notes. Here are a couple of the highlights from what I took away from it.

- Solution for solution minded people

- It can be molded to fit your industry

- Changes keep happening

- Big open view of the whole system - it wasn't made for just one industry

- Brief overview of the framework

- Based on user permissions and valid logins

- All web-based and cloud-based

- Features and benefits - focusing on the benefits

- CRM - log notes, additional contacts, photos, and other media

- We all deal with money, but in the end... we are all dealing with people

- Note to me... Danny went into the customer table and doing the custom page settings on the customer fields. This is for things like the name, aliases, sort value, show/hide, etc. We really need to keep pushing that idea and concept forward. People really want that level of control. It just takes a ton of work to cascade that through the full system.

- He talked about news and updates

- "Our Interface" - what do you want? We don't have a single set interface, we let you choose

- Customer queue

- Lots of moving parts

- Drea - "Adilas is play dough"

- Inventory tracking

- Reporting and building your own reports

- Labels and changes to the requirements

- ecommerce

- Payroll

- Accounts payable and accounts receivable

- Print checks

- emails

- Customize and working with the developers

- Security and back-ups

- Steve - Showing some hidden gems

- Small demo on flex grid

Next, I gave a small section on the adilas model - core concepts - and intro to world building. I will upload my outline. I'm also hoping to upload the video as well. I don't have any notes because I was the presenter, but here is my rough outline:

- We will be bouncing around

- Start with a guy holding tons of stuff

- Talk about the needs and how to organize things

- Go over different tools... head and mind, paper and pencil, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, software packages, web or hosted solutions

- Go over systems and how things start to inter-relate

- Cover the 12 main players

- Cover the 12 business functions

- Cover the 12 main world building concepts

- Mix and blend to get the desired results

After lunch, Alan Williams did a presentation on highlighting and exploring new features. He started out with a fun group activity and a game of sorts. Minimal communication and we had to figure out a path through a virtual mine (bomb) field. It ended up having forward steps, side steps, back steps, etc. We eventually, as a group, got through the mine field. Really fun exercise and it opened up some conversations. Here are some notes from Alan's presentation:

- Little active - mine field - group activity - finding their way

- How does this relate to the adilas process?

- He then showed some of the steps that we have taken to build the application

- Side steps, back steps, and forward steps

- Going into advanced add to cart and sub functions

- Request from the group - no standalone discounts - Make that a permission and/or a setting. Standalone discounts can and do cause tax problems.

Next, Steve Berkenkotter lead an open Q & A section. The first question was asking about any updates with the Metrc (state compliance and tracking system for Colorado). That got pretty deep but exposed some of the challenges that exist between connecting and maintaining dual systems (adilas and Metrc). Here are a few notes:

- Questions on Metrc

- Some new tables and new limits from Metrc

- Auto processors - running nightly stuff to help sync data between systems

- API and server to server connections

- Challenges that exist

- Mixing old and new functionality

- Transfers

- Sales

- Using elements of time to track states, status, phases, and groupings

- Getting back at the data - reporting

- High level vision

- Question from Pat - 280E - new tax and accounting rules - what can we write off as cost of goods? What about unitizing expenses?

- Steve - How the IRS is looking at things and expecting things

- Steve - loves numbers and how he brings his skills to the table

- Work in progress - attributing a value as part of the accounting

- The progression of building and breaking

- The system is able to store the data (huge piece of the puzzle)

- The system may be customized to get the data back out and/or to get the data in (another huge piece of the puzzle)

- Template building

- A consultant spending time and configuring a system before it is released to the end users

- Small questions on CSS and changing certain page colors

The last section of the day was a presentation on historical stepping stones - what have we learned and why do we do what we do? I did this presentation so I will add my outline. Once again, we are hoping to get some videos uploaded to this element of time incase someone wants to watch the videos. Here was my outline:

- Where did we start? Spreadsheets, static web sites, zip disks and sending inventory around from place to place

- Fixing current business problems

- Where is your pain? Start there

- Letting operations lead - Use the adilas interactive map to help show flow

- At some point, accounting will need to follow

- Checkpoints and flowing data

- Gap between operations and accounting - drawing the gap, horses and carts, and old school T accounts - light history of accounting

- How does time play into the mix

- Comparing operations and accounting in a static environment

- Comparing operations and accounting in a dynamic environment

- Progression - drawings of the data assembly line and how it ended up at a 3D data assembly line

- 3D world building - x=time, y=resources, z=space or depth - draw out the box or cube

- Black boxes & white label options

- The whole deal

We didn't quite make it all the way through the whole outline, but we covered a good portion of it. Towards the end, we went around the room and got some feedback. Those documents and notes will also be uploaded. The final request from the class was to have adilas allow the "adilas version" spreadsheet to be shared with the world. It was originally created in order to get a bank loan, but Steve said to release it to the world. Great meeting and good energy on day 1. Good stuff.

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Day 2

We spent most of the day working on and going over inventory tracking and point of sale (POS) features. See the attached videos. We also had some great demos from Calvin Chipman on building custom labels and one from Dustin Siegel on some new code and features that help with plant phases and cultivation. Here are a couple of notes from some of their presentations. For a more complete version, you may need to watch some of the videos from day 2.

- Calvin and the adilas label wizard - He gave a slide show and then started to interact with the label builder. After he was done, we asked him to show some of the behind the scenes pieces of his label builder. Good stuff.

- Vaporware - the product doesn't fully exist (yet) - part concept, part actual, not yet fully functional

- User designs the label (step 1)

- User selects the label from inside of adilas (step 2)

- The label(s) are created and displayed on the fly, based on stored instructions, mappings, and special code. (step 3)

- Part of the demo was showing sheet labels with a data merge, labels with barcodes and QR codes, static text, dynamic text (user can interact and change things), data mappings, graphics, etc. Pretty cool.

- Small talk about PDF's, Flash, & HTML and CSS - printing options from the web - Our choice is PDF currently

- Interacting with printers, browsers, and other hardware pieces

- PDF - actual size vs shrink to fit size

- Questions about font point size and possible limitations for compliance reasons - We will leave that up to the users, that way we don't have to chase all of the compliance rules and regulations.

- We talked about settings and maybe limits that could be stored and looked up on the fly.

- Possible template options

- Be careful saying a compliant label

- A good disclaimer to keep things legal according to the local and/or state requirements - put the liability back on the companies and/or users.

- Small story of a company and internal programming wars and war stories - Different places that Calvin has worked.

- It may take a hybrid solution of both software and web

- Small demo of the actual builder - Calvin is going to be taking that and putting it more into a wizard-type format. Currently, you have to be pretty techy to use it. Round 1 - prototype.

Dustin gave a presentation on some new cultivation processes and some dynamic mapping. We had some technology issues, the demo was going slow (Internet) but the concepts were awesome. Imagine going from a manual one-by-one process, to a bulk streamlined process. Huge time saver, plus tons more data points, capturing the whole story clear down to minutes, seconds, locations, phases, etc. Pretty cool.

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Day 3

Busy day today. We got into sub inventory, why we do sub inventory, customer relationships, elements of time, flex grid, ecommerce, custom emails, group mass texting (GMext Pro), and a presentation by Kelly Whyman (super power user from the Denver area). We are going to be posting the videos and the notes from the day. Good sessions. Here are some of the notes that I took while others were presenting. Once again, see the attached media/content files for videos and other digital notes.

These are some notes from Shari O.'s presentation on CRM functionality

- CRM - The real acronym stands for Customer Relationship Management - Shari O.'s acronym for CRM is - Can't Remember Much - pretty funny

- Good data in = good data out - Fill things out completely and make sure you get good data in

- The client log and how to use it

- Leaving personal footprints in the sand - using the log

- Addin gin a user-maintained history... internal communication

- Cover you own rear-end

- Being business appropriate - have good manners when recording details and data points

- Custom emails

Drea did a demo on how to show/hide transfer packages inside of the adilas/Metrc inventory pages. Here are some notes from that:

- Transfers in and out and how to hide things

- Everything in adilas is flexible

- This new functionality is only a week old

- Talking about manual clean-up and automatic clean-up - doing side-by-side comparisons

- Using the data tables and being able to sort and search data - almost on the fly - re-writing the page based on the data.

- Some of the new CSS cards, tabs, and such - really look super cool and it seems more intuitive - it also makes it look more modern.

- We would love to keep adding new data tables and more options

- As we keep going, we may need more clean-up options

Calvin game a PowerPoint presentation on GMext Pro - This is his group mass texting solution. He did a great job and I think that people really liked it. Here a few notes that I wrote down.

- Pretend like you are a client

- Communicating to a large group or large groups (plural)

- Pitching GMext Pro - great demo and presentation

- Some of the stories of huge companies and how changes have happened and how those big companies weren't able to keep up. WordPerfect and Blockbuster were some of them. Major game changers entered the market and could do things better, faster, and cheaper. People gravitated to those new options.

- Technology happens... embrace it and thrive

- Mass texting and single text notifications - similarities and differences

- Phones and phone numbers - with mass texting, you are basically buying phone numbers so that you can send more texts at a time. Each phone number can only send 1 text per second. So you may need 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 phone numbers to get all of your texts sent out.

- Problems with people giving out the wrong phone numbers (bogus numbers or wrong numbers) - that can break your marketing campaigns - too many wrong numbers and you get reported as a spammer.

- Ways of opting in and out

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Day 4

Final day of training for this go around. We started out day 4 with a group session on tips, tricks, and best practices. We spent quite a bit of time going over settings, permissions, and parent attributes for items. Steve then did a whole session on the three main parts of the balance sheet (assets, liabilities, and equity). The topic was intro to adilas backend office and functions. Steve took the words backend office and tried to flip it to - let's put the owners in the driver seat vs trying to drive from the back of the plane (pretend they are trying to fly the plane from back in the bathroom with the doors closed). Great session.

The afternoon session was talking about BI - Business Intelligence & Big Data. The group talked about databases, data, and how to both get data in and out of the databases. Lots of fun examples. We then has some other Denver power users jump in and do demos on tiered pricing and smart group buttons, and another one on the process of doing a full inventory reconciliation and full inventory count. Great info and good sessions.

The final session was supposed to be on the adilas model - vision, future, and wrap-up. We were all too tired, so we just chatted and went over a bunch of the things that we learned from the training session. We got some great notes and tried to clarify a few items, topics, and concepts. Pretty casual ending. Great people, wonderful ideas, excellent participation, and memories made. A great training session. Here are some of the notes that were taken while others were presenting:

- Molly presented on parent attributes for items - think of tag or ways to categorize things

- On parent attributes - for example: say you have an item but want to show different brand names or characteristics - Say you are selling shoes... You may want Nike, Converse, Adidas, etc. Or running, walking, hiking, trail running, etc. These would be good parent attributes or tags.

- Parent attributes are huge for ecommerce searching and creating tags for different items

- Russell did a great job on so many different features - we would love him to keep building more features

- Easy setup

- Building your own little shortcuts

- Parent attributes are used for labels, sales, ecommerce, searching, filtering, etc.

- Treat parent attributes like a way to build your own database... eight use the flex grid and the custom fields or use parent and sub attributes.

- Both parent and sub attributes are unlimited and they have a proper data type such numeric, dates, text, toggles, and drop-down lists. That really helps when putting data in and also when querying the data to get certain results back.

- As an idea... what if we build out both parent attributes and sub attributes to all 12 main player groups, inside of adilas. You literally could build your own one-to-many database relationships. The main 12 player groups are deposits, invoices, users, vendors, customers, stock/units, expense/receipts, balance sheet items, elements of time, quotes, PO's, and general inventory items. Currently, parent attributes and sub attributes are only available for parts or general inventory items. Think how cool that would be if we pushed it to the next level...

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- Small note from a meeting during one of the breaks... what is the internal adilas funnel to report an error or a bug? Who gets put on that project? We need to figure out our own process and communication funnel.

- Bryan and Molly and others... funding some of the consultant projects - what is the short list and then where are things at. Basically, what do we have to work on and what are the priorities of those pieces?

- Shannon may be part of this funnel that we are trying to build out

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Back to the main training even... The next session was Steve Berkenkotter and Shari Olin - going over financials and adilas backend office functions. Steve pretty much ran with this subject and did an hour long power session on the three main parts of the balance sheet (assets, liabilities, and equity).

- CPA homepage interface

- Inspecting what we expect - you have got to look at what is being delivered as a final product (actual items and/or tasks or services)

- Going back to the beginning - balance sheet homepage

- When you get a new system, we setup a default bank and default location

- Problem with batching... Say trying to remember 30 days back and/or not getting data and information for a long period of time. It kinda leaves you guessing and/or missing some of the details

- Steve - Think of flying a plain... try to be ahead of the plane... where is it going - often pilots try to think 3 tasks ahead of what they are doing

- Views of the balance sheet - a trial balance - working and checking mode

- Assets, liabilities, and equity

- We covered the difference between the income statement (P&L - profit and loss statement) & the balance sheet

- Values and tax laws

- Depreciation and schedules

- Life cycle - length of the life of an object and/or an entity - time and a schedule to lower a value (usage & wear & tear)

- The IRS has setup the tax game... They want you to play and even play up to the lines that have been setup - think of a game - play to the line

- Where you put things in very important

- Small discussion on double entry accounting - history and pros and cons

- Skate to where the puck (hockey) will be

- The formula is the most important part of it

- Passing things like a hot potato... basically moving things along the data assembly line - roll call accounting

- A balance sheet is a snap shot in time

- Talking about the profit margin and where does that come in to play

- Small holes in the ice - things that are either gotcha's or thin ice (not all the way done)

- Some of the guys and gals were saying that we need - big dumb animal pictures - super simple instructions

- Accounts receivables - Think of that as they have your inventory or they have your endeavor (a promise to pay for something) - basically, they owe you money

- You have to know the story - sometimes the numbers tell the story but sometimes the story tells the numbers what they mean

- Liabilities and hidden liabilities - be careful there

- Hidden costs

- Triggers

- Payroll and payroll taxes - this is a huge sink hole

- Sometimes we can't do things due to the technology - as that opens up, we have more options

- Auto processing and calculating needed values in non-peak times that could then be available for other reports

- Fall backs, redundancy, auto-syncs, and re-syncs

- Turtle up, sometimes the servers will shut down and pull in their legs - kinda like a turtle protecting itself

- We need an all encompassing system to help steer the ship - think platform or system

- Owners - who holds the liability

- Steve - analogy of the tail wagging the dog vs the dog wagging the tail - who is in charge & which way do things flow?

- The owner needs someone who is a decision maker and/or gate keeper

- What is the game plan and do you have buy in?

- The POS (point of sales and inventory tracking part) is only a small part of the puzzle. Very small compared to the whole business realm (world).

- Abundant model - you have to imagine a line of people wanting your services and standing in line - next, next, next

- The backend - really, this is the pilot's cockpit and/or the driver's seat

- Absorption (in take) model & attributing sub costs over time

- Dustin - I want "this" (meaning adilas & underlying data) to argue with my boss, not me.

- I need a business tool & now I can run faster & better - thank you

- Equity

- Net Profit - it comes from the P&L - one of the only connections between the income statements (P&L) and the balance sheet.

- Investment - how was this company funded and/or formed?

- Fracture - just having fun - it keeps doing it (fracturing) on its own... maybe let it keep going and play accordingly

- Change "backend office" verbage to the cockpit or balance sheet.

Towards the end of the day on day 4, we had a couple of power users show some demos and such. We had Josh do a presentation on my cart favorites and smart group buttons (tiered pricing). Drea made a suggestion that you make the pricing tiers as dummy proof as possible. They even pushed the ending values clear out to show a visual warning to the person using the buttons. The other major request was for this feature (buttons and tiered pricing) was dealing with allowing these buttons to be time sensitive for sales and promotions.

We also had Drea go through and show an inventory update and how she does a physical count and then an inventory clean-up. She would pull reports, export data, show/hide columns, add columns, print things out, and have her people go work. Then she showed how the system would take those over and short values and push them through an update PO (internal tool for updating inventory counts). Pretty cool. As we go along, we will need more clean-up tools.  Clean-up tools make things look better and help to give users a peace of mind. We also talked about trust issues and how sometimes it is tough to trust and/or trust people. All of that plays into the mix.

My final note about the training sessions is that those who played with us, live and online, really had a good time and we all learned a lot. Good times, great food, and wonderful people. Inspiring sessions. If you want more details, check out the media/content pieces (notes, excel docs, scans, and videos for more info).

Steve and I met this morning and had a good meeting. It was just the two of us. So, we ended up talking shop and strategy. We talked about some of our internal pain points and how we could get someone to help us out with those things. One of the pain points was with merchant processing solutions. We have coded to a number of Internet gateways, and that is working fine.

We have two major needs on the merchant processing level...

1. Is on the chip reader side. We have two gateways that we have coded to, but it takes a person to get people setup and going on that (light babysitting). Those solutions require both web API socket stuff and software installed on a computer. If the company updates their software, we have to recertify and no one wants to pay for that. So far, those solutions have been somewhat of a headache.

2. We need a simple Internet solution where a new merchant could be approved very easily and then they are off to the races. Currently, the Authorize.net's and USAePay (our top two gateways) have pretty deep prerequisites that the merchants have to go through in order to be setup and qualify. As they grow and mature, they may need to go to a bigger processor, but we need a really simple solution to get people started fairly quickly. We are thinking that Stripe might be the best option and/or looking deeper into PayPal or something like that. I personally am leaning more towards Stripe.

We also talked about some other internal needs and who we could put on what projects. Some of the other needs are things like:

- User guides

- How to's

- News and updates (this is biggie for us)

- Billboard sites (world building, roll call accounting, data assembly line, and others)

- Tons of other mini projects that come up

- Build out the full Adilas API sockets and the underlying documentation to make that happen. That is a huge piece of the puzzle.

We would really like to have some focused project management on both internal projects and client projects.

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11:00 to 12:00 pm - Meeting with Global Design and Assembly - orders and backorders

- Not duplicating orders when something gets back ordered. They would love to enter things once and have it flow through.

- They would like a definitive answer of prices and timelines to make that happen.

- They import products and the resell those items. Lots of shipping and fulfilling of orders.

- They would like to go more paperless in the backend office (what is needed, what is ready, what has been shipped, etc.) - Currently, they are doing a lot of paper back and forth. They would like to eliminate the paper model.

- Steve, talking about a transitional PO (similar to a transitional invoice - between a quote and an invoice). This would be used for the on order/not quite inventory yet but maybe we are already making payments, etc. Steve was saying that Will Hudson (adilas developer) was going to be working on the transitional PO project. Basically, a work in progress type PO... it isn't fully valid inventory yet, but it is becoming more and more solid values.

- Jason, I think you guys would have a lot of clients who would like for a more automated backorder process.

- Steve, was talking about the existing manual process of duplicating the original PO and only pushing the backordered items forward. You don't have to build it from scratch, but you duplicate and keep pushing the ball forward. The other side to this, is you only pay for what you really get and have.

- Jason, would really like that process to happen (like magic) so that the whole story is still there but it flows through the whole system.

- Example: Say we ordered 500, you only got 300. What comes next? Do you have a small box that says, move 200 to backorder (aka a new PO) or what other options might be there.

- Small talks about ice-down dates

- On a technical side... how you do you keep cost of goods, inventory, accounts payable, and what is received and what is not received? Some of the questions go clear out to the balance sheet and how to track things.

- Just in time ordering and smaller draws... Say they need 500 total, but only want 100 now and another 100 by next week and then rest when possible. Just in time issues and some tracking nightmares.

- Technically, we may need another couple fields where we could put desired amount, shipped amounts, and backordered amounts.

- There is more of a need for time based ordering - just as, I need this on this date, and that on this other date... Basically, tying things into more of a time or schedule based environment.

- On the just in time... If someone wants 500 and you only have 200, how do you put it on the order? Do you put the whole 500 on there (this would drop your inventory by -200) or do you just do the 200, out the door, and then put the other 300 on another PO/invoice. Basically items still needed to be bought, purchased, and/or shipped.

- Warehousing and stocking shelves - excess inventory and back stock

- ecommerce type scenarios where orders are processed and managed as part of a supply chain scenario.

- Steve, was talking about companies that are proactively pulling sales from the other companies and then keeping a supply chain up and ready based on max/min re-ordering options. Once they (the other company) gets to certain level, a new order is always processed.

- here is a link for some of the older back order or backorder brainstorming from the developer's notebook.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=back%20order%2Bbackorder

- Steve, was talking about the new plant move and harvesting options that they are building out. It used to be one manual process at a time. Now, they can click a button and move, kill, phase, or group hundreds and hundreds of plants at a time. The whole things was custom built and automated through elements of time, PO's, and parent/child inventory. Totally a new automated process.

- Jason, we only want what really happens to be recorded, but we don't want to lose the other details of the story.

- Brandi, we already have some custom code that helps us see what we have on hand, what has been placed on new orders, and what is still needed (don't have that yet)

- Brandi, we currently have to make a sales order, fulfill it to the level that is true, and then duplicate it and redo what is still needed. This is the current manual process. She would really love to automate that manual process and take out the possible human error (either multiple clicks and/or info that was forgotten).

- Backorders play on both sides of the fence... inbound items and outbound items... Both sides need a standard and automated flow process.

- Steve, was recommending that we see their existing processes and then make a plan.

- Brandon, we somewhat proposed a system that uses a request quantity (what is wanted), actual quantity (real values), and still needed values (backorders and/or wish list). We talked about having and showing all the fields and allowing JavaScript to help do the math, show/hide checkboxes to help automate the duplication process and pushing the virtual backorder and/or wish list forward. We would then keep chaining and flex gridding those pieces together. Basically, the same things that they are doing manually right now, but we speed it up and help to automate it.

- Steve, he loves clients who ask - Can we move this tree? I keep having to walk around it. While other clients just quietly walk around the tree every day. Sometimes those clients who ask the questions really help us move the ball forward.

- Steve, software and application are constantly changing.

- Jason, really likes to look at "scale". Can I do this? Can I do this for x number? Can I double or triple that and still be ok? Can I multiple by n (unknown number)? It all comes to scale.

- Jason, they have really used tons and tons of flex grid... It is now getting to the level where it is getting to be somewhat of a nightmare, due to the number of custom fields and where it is stored.

- Jason, process sequencing - what data (total) do we need to catch and then push to where it goes. First catch the data. Then we can display it, however we want to.

- Jason, he likes farming (talking about idea farming). But, he really like to harvest (seeing it through).

- Jason, will send up some docs on what they want done. We (adilas) will then help plan it out and get them some quotes and what not.

- Dream it up, and we'll help you wire it up.

Our product is kind like open source software only more of an open community software package (anybody could contribute and/or ask for something). They can't go in and make changes on their own, but they can help push things forward based off of input and seed monies. Either way, it takes time you have to pay someone to do that tweaking and/or changing.

As a side note, we are seeing more and more of a need for deeper and deeper ordering, backordering, fulfillment, shipping, manufacturing, sub routines, supply chain stuff, just in time stuff, and other operation based activities. We already have a number of those pieces, we just want to get them more built out and automated. I would really like to see some of this going into elements of time (mixing date/time values where needed) and also more of the data assembly line type methodology. Those would be my wishes.

Alan popped in and showed us some progress on his charts and graphs for some of the new homepages. I think that they will really help with some much needed look and feel for some of those primary homepages (invoices, PO's, deposits, and expense/receipts).

I went in and fixed a small validation bug and the started to work on a new joint venture non disclosure and non compete form with and for Full Circle Interactive Media.

Josh popped in and gave us a report on some things. Some of the report was dealing with a deeper need to mix and blend date and time options for discounts and being able to set things up with easy interfaces and yet be super powerful. Another part of Josh's report was dealing with education and getting clients setup correctly. Basically, there are so many settings that no one really goes in there and plays around with them. Also, another comment was that some of the settings and options were not related to their industry. They saw things like religious tax categories, stock/unit (vehicle and trailer stuff), and other non industry options. Our model is very open, but sometimes that creates a feeling that we don't fully know their business.

- Discount pricing engine and maybe even special my cart favorite buttons that are discount specific. This could be all kinds of stuff. We have also had some other requests on limiting discounting and even allowing or not allowing standalone discounts. It would also be super cool if you could duplicate discounts, clone things, and build off of existing items. Having bulk tools to help where needed.

- Here is some other research on discounts, pricing engines, and my cart favorite buttons, etc. I would like to go in this direction... https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=748&id=3666 - you could also search the developer's notebook for pricing engine, discount, or my cart favorite buttons.

- Being able to create new items based off of existing

- Being able to do global settings for different industries... basically, set up a new corp, then be ale to click special setup buttons to update and change settings in bulk. We could have multiple sub options that may be clicked. As a side note, we could also program certain themes (actual folders) and use black box technology to virtually show/hide certain buttons, fields, features, settings, etc.

- Color coding for items going low or needing to be reordered - great idea

- Room based inventory vs a location based inventory (sub levels and sub locations)

- Limiting access to all other areas and/or rooms (once again sub levels and sub locations based on permissions)

- Being able to duplicate items and PO's even quicker. Basically, a save as type option to duplicate an item. Kinda like cloning an item or starting from a known point based off of other items. Make it quick and easy based off of existing items.

- Where is all of the data located? We have tons of great data but all of our data is on specific pages and requires a page to page progression (normal web flow). Some of the other systems are starting to pull multiple data pieces into the same page (ajax and jquery stuff). Basically, putting everything on one page or a one-pager type dashboard and/or interface.

- We have had clients who want us to auto close sub packages. This may be accomplished with settings and rules. Not everybody wants the same things. That takes us into settings and such.

- What about an off line mode? When no Internet is available? What about a local instance that could be synced up later on? This is bigger than you think... If you were to go this route, this may need to be a hybrid type solution where we mix localized software, some kind of queue type system (grabbing and holding the data), and then the ability to sync up the data later on. Alan was talking about a potential risk mitigation process and the need to have companies have other plans in place incase a disaster occurs. Both Josh and Alan were talking about possible news and updates that show options such as MS Excel, setting up a hot spot based off a phone, local software options, good old paper and pencil mode. Idea from Josh - What about a local label maker... that could really help as well (small and limited scope).

- Questions on multiple location pricing. What are the price points and price breaks? This got into a small discussion on what a white label or other entity charges.

- Let's keep working on making it pretty and simple and powerful. If you could mix these things, that makes it awesome.

- People want to set it and forget it... a one time wonder or single setup.

- People want the big dumb animal pictures... super simple.

- Once you become super familiar with something... it gets hard to let that go.

- Training a client to be proficient in all areas is really tough... it comes down to training and maintenance. Keep making things easier and easier.

- We might need to make the tips and tricks and news and updates easier to get to... if people want that stuff.

We gave Josh a task of getting out some pens and paper and sketching out interface ideas and going through the discount needs. We recommended that he use the pyramid (triangle) type approach. This would be starting at the top level (corp-wide settings), then go down to groups (customer types and part categories), then go down to tiers and/or buttons (smaller groups with rules and assignments), and then clear down to the item level. We also need to take into account both includes and excludes.

On the morning meeting with Josh and Alan. We went over a few new changes from yesterday. Alan reported on his work with Bryan and making a new black box database table (custom table - specific just for that client). Alan and I talked about some naming conventions and how all new black box database tables will have "bb_" to start the table name. For example: bb_53_some_table_name.

We spent a little bit of time going over some new needs for quantity and weight multipliers. Alan and I decided to add two new fields to get things into real numeric values. Currently, some of the people are using some of the existing fields, but those fields are strings or varchars (text based) fields vs real numeric fields. Alan will be making some changes. We know that this project will have two phases. The first one will be to add the new fields and then match-up what ever values we can. The other part of this is going through hundreds of other reports and top cart mini's (gram counters) and Metrc API reporting (state tracking stuff) and flipping the older text based logic into real numeric values and real math. We will be using a value of 1 in the numeric weight field as a default. 1 times anything is the same number. If they want to change that ratio, they will at least have a spot (numeric field) where to do it.

I then started to work on the sales tax project and bringing up all of the black box code to match the master code files (checking for new changes on the custom tax fields 6-10 and other dynamic naming). As a side note... Custom is awesome, but there is a flip side to that... It takes quite a bit of maintenance to keep things up to date if you are changing core pieces.

I spent some time reviewing some notes and info that Dave Forbis gathered up dealing with Stripe (online merchant processing and credit card gateway). See element of time # 4095 for some notes and links. After that, I got on a call with Dave and we went over a few things. We have four different topics that we will be looking into next. They are:

1. Reviewing some older things (tons of white boarding and graphics that were done by Dave from a couple years back) - The goal here is to circle through and pick-up anything that still has merit.

2. Start working on some billboard type sites. These are small websites that have a smaller focus and virtually point people and users to the bigger adilas application. These are things like world building, data assembly line stuff, new school accounting, 3D models for world building and digital story telling. Dave and I were also talking about some concepts that adilas is built upon that are either core and/or we've pushed pretty far. Dave was saying that we could create mini Ted Talk type videos and/or graphics. Get people thinking and talking. Use those pieces to point things back to adilas and what we are doing. Some great marketing ideas.

3. Currently, the adilas platform has a very high concentration of MMJ or Cannabis related industries. Maybe get a list of other kinds of companies that are using the system and show some of the diversity with how and what they are using in the adilas platform model.

4. Dave would like a list of the different domain names that we have and where we would like to focus on building small billboard type sites. I will get this together and send it to him. In a way, we are lightly playing the digital real estate game and trying to setup small little claims. Those claims have two fold purposes... One, they will become virtual billboard sites pointing to adilas and the core concepts that we are built on. Two, they will provide prior art - which makes it so that others can't copyright, trademark, and/or patent - intellectual property stuff. It basically strengthens and protects the main core of what we are trying to do. Good stuff.

Steve and Dustin were on the morning meeting. Steve had a quick question about a custom report for owners. We talked about some security hashes that could help the report be more secure. The admin report needs to be outside the secured environment and kinda a quick access link to a quick breakdown report for admin users. Steve has the report built, he is just adding some security and then going to add an access point from inside the secured environment.

I got a call from Russell. We talked for quite a bit about some custom client needs and how best to proceed with those requests. We also spent some time talking about using Bridgerland or BTech to help build out some of the fracture type pieces. The term "Fracture" comes from an idea that Steve had back in June of 2017. Everything in adilas seems to be fracturing and breaking into smaller and smaller pieces. Just discussions at this point, but basically a centralized brain (backend engine) and then a deployable front end that could be hosted on any client server or through a commercial web host. No special setup and a fully customizable frontend interface. The whole thing would talk and/or communicate through API socket connections and back and forth API traffic. We talked about ideas, options, etc.

If I were to put together a small fracture tick list, it would be something like this: (just ideas)

- Customizable look and feel (corp-level, department level, user level, and whatever in between)

- Preset defaults with ability to tweak out the defaults and settings (good starting spot and/or basic structure - starting templates)

- Permissioned out and/or micro permissioned (down to the functions per section)

- Settings for layout, settings for display (show/hide, sort order, aliases, instructions, required yes/no, validation rules, etc.) - As of right now, we are seeing settings on 4 different levels. They are world (corporation or business entity), groups or system player level (customers, invoices, deposits, expense/receipts, PO's, parts/items, vendors, users, stock/units, balance sheet items, quotes, elements of time, etc.), page level settings (what will show/hide, sort order, placement, flow, etc.), and finally, user level settings and defaults. How do I want to play the game (at a personal level)?

- Existing structure and flow, but it could be modified. Basically, a template of the starting procedure and/or process but make it able to be modular (build mini data assembly line type options per procedure/task). Think of our model with the mini bubbles and/or pods. These interface with flow, permissions, time, flex, and mapping clear out to the accounting levels.

- Real in-line database extensions. This allows us to provide a basic starting point (database tables and template flow) but also allows for things to be expanded and/or contracted (lessened) based off of configuration. These database extensions could be data types and allow for numeric, decimals, text, dates, on/off toggles, and even long text or JSON storage.

- Be able to save and build any kinda of report or data export - using existing tools

- graphics, charts, graphs, and other summary type options

- Support of both transactional data (what happens day to day) as well as aggregated (summed or pre-calculated values)

- Digital story telling, using characters, relationships, cause/effect choices, consequences, etc. World building concepts.

- Configurable interfaces and functionality per business vertical - click of button to switch layouts and/or processes.

- Customizable (data or logic hooks or black box technology) on client side, server side, and display and logic sides.

- Responsive and/or mobile ready

- Tons of flags, tags, and special callouts

- Be able to tie everything to time or elements of time. This could allow for groups, categories, types, sub locations, sub phases, sub status, etc.

- The list goes on... Most of the ideas have been recorded somewhere in the adilas developer's notebook pages. A great resource, it just may take some time to review and categorize. 

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Back to other topics, Eric popped in and we made a few more notes and decisions on the sub special account tracking stuff (gift cards, loyalty points, in-store credit, etc.). After that, Wayne jumped on and we talked a little bit about email servers and what is needed there. I spent the rest of the time recording notes and reviewing to do lists. Busy times.

At some point, we want to circle back around and rebuild a bunch of the pieces and how they act and interact. We would like to call this new rebuild "fracture" or something to that effect. Anyways, here are some brainstorming ideas on the fracture pieces that we would like to sew together. No specific order:

- object oriented approach (objects and data over time)

- use teams and different talent pools

- ice berg vs mountain type analogy (what is being exposed and what are the perceptions - visual exposure)

- settings and different setting levels (corp, group, page, user)

- subs... of sub (everything is fracturing into smaller and smaller pieces) - plan for it and embrace it

- API socket connections and external work flow options

- database scaling (corp-specific databases or corp-specific database tables)

- real in-line database extensions (add/edit/remove database fields and help them flow through the whole system)

- 3D world building - keep going and building out these ideas and concepts - one step at a time

- data assembly line(s) - concepts of tracking phases, grouping, sub locations, allowing flex and checkpoints, permissions, mapping to financials, etc.

- using time or elements of time as a base level and then mix, blend, and share sub functionality and tracking options (more objects and data over time stuff)

- funding and making sure we can fund the planning, design, and development of our game plan

- help files, videos, and SOP (standard operating procedures) - standard and custom

- black box and ways to customize the pages, verbage, logic, and process flow

- summarized data (aggregated data) vs transactional data (all the steps and transactions) - we need both - watchers, feeders, and triggers

- following and dreaming the dream - it may sound way out there... but following that dream is huge

- make a visual plan

- include general testing, unit testing, validation (local and serer-side), and standardizing requirements

- version control and deployment

- going back and doing research and review of older notes - tons of mini gold nuggets to harvest from doing this over the years (make sure and harvest some of our own ideas)

- use of sub homepages and graphical hubs of sort - also use graphics, charts, graphs, and other elements

- summed up data with drill-downs or searches available (basic or advanced) - approach all most everything from a summed up version into a more expansive (expanded) view and/or format

- be able to export any data to CSV, Excel, PDF, and general web format

- smaller mini functions - getters and setters - for miniature database access and updates

- use sub flags, tags, and other similar features - lots of ideas about sub phases, sub groups, sub locations, sub flags, sub tags, sub progress, etc. Lots of prior documentation on elements of time and subs of time, including how to virtually adopt functionality between main player groups (invoices, deposits, expense/receipts, PO's, customers, parts/items, stock/units, vendors, employee/users, quotes, elements of time, balance sheet items, etc.)

- custom look and feel - able to match moving trends

- responsive (able to change size and layout based on device or screen size) - mobile development

- sales - how are we going to market and/or sell our products and services - how are we going to set things up for correct billing and tracking (usage, storage, bandwidth, queries, connections, data, files, images, etc.)

- communications, push/pull notifications, automated things, queues and scheduling tasks, bulk and individual communications

- good project management

- sub permissions - almost down to the function type level (as needed)

- dynamic verbage, custom layout(s), dynamic link builder (favorites), and simple look and feel

If you are looking for other ideas for the fracture account stuff. See this URL or web address: https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=fracture

4.84 - World Building & Data Assembly Line

-World building has become a key concept for Adilas. This occurs in every company and organization and is reflected in the Adilas system. The concept of World Building includes characters, relationships, troubles/problems, decisions, and consequences. This is what business and life is all about.

-As an example, different characters in the system such as customers and invoices interact together in a relationship. This relationship brings about circumstances that require decisions which have consequences. Even at the most basic level of customer needing to buy a good/service and as a result you track in the system your good/service and the exchange of good/service for money or something else of value. These interactions occur continuously throughout the system.

-As each company has differing needs, resources, personalities, different processes for accomplishing tasks, etc.; we recognize how important it is to build/create the business/Adilas “world” that will suit your purposes and needs. With Adilas we want to empower you with tools and the flexibility to do just that.

-The data assembly line is the idea that your data is more like an object that moves through a lifecycle, just like the creation of something moving through an assembly line. There are check points, assembly areas, holding points, quality control checks and measures, etc. As data move through the system it follows a similar ebb and flow of creation, assembly, checks for quality and validity, and making it to final completion or destination.

-One example of the data assembly line in the Adilas system is creating an invoice and depositing money collected from the invoice/sale. The invoice is created with a date/time, customer data and some other information. The next step is to add content or items to the invoice. After the desired items are added to the invoice it moves down the “production line” to the check out and collecting of money for the goods being purchased. After receiving the money the invoice is “completed” but then moves itself into another holding area with other completed invoices waiting to be added to a deposit. The invoice and other invoices are then added to a deposit which effects the bank and financial accounting side of the system. This can be given a final stamp of approval and locked down when all funds are seen for and accounted in the bank.

-A phrase used at Adilas is objects and data over time. Data also undergoes a creation process that moves across time and has relationships to different things. Being able to track and account for your data at any given point in time as it moves, or moved, along its life cycle is a foundational component of how the Adilas system works. This allows for incredible transparency and power with your business data.  

We are getting more outside vendors (3rd party solutions) trying to sell us block chain (blockchain) type technology. This is both on the inventory tracking side as well as the accounting side. Currently, it sounds good and cool but there are hidden costs and problems.

As a side note, we are also getting more pressure on servers and who has access to control what pieces. We are still bringing things up at AWS and Newtek. Both systems have a different structure. That is a challenge as well.

Another topic is dealing with API sockets and dealing in bulk sending and receiving data back and forth. The other circling topic is the need for customer rewards, loyalty points, and other special account stuff. The deeper we get, the more buried we seem to be. It almost seems perpetual and an ongoing mode of being buried. Thus is life.

On the adilas permissions (we have tons of them), we would really like to help that page with the look and feel as well as a copy user permissions and/or templates. We were also talking about a possible grouping of permissions and even a drill-down type interface for permissions, settings, and how each thing could be layered and/or navigated. The easy answer may be a simple copy a specific user's permissions. That could be the fastest option for helping out with permissions and setting up permissions for other users.

We had a discussion on the transferring of sub inventory and parent inventory. We have some clients that want to mix the locations on PO's, invoices, and quotes. It gets really crazy. They want to virtually skip the transfer step. Steve would like to maybe help them out by creating a new process that allows for bulk transfers. As an alternate option, Steve would like to potentially be a project manager for this project and work with Bryan on a new solution.

Spent some time reading over public records on blockchain. There are some advantages and a number of disadvantages. As of right now, we will continue with what we have going on and working on a digital assembly line. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain

One of our virtues is to keep going day after day. We also keep trying to solve and take the next logical step. We just keep doing this over and over again. That's what we do.

Steve and I were talking about our guys. Dustin is doing great. We are excited to see where he will end up and what we can do to help that process. Steve is really excited about Eric and getting him going on more internal stuff. He has been a great custom developer and a great team player. We keep trying to make a one stop solution. That becomes a challenge. Steve was talking about directing the energy of the guys and putting them into the right spot and best fit.

Some of our 3rd party solutions end up giving us a big black eye. We want the outside help... but it kinda comes at a cost.

Steve was talking about an analogy between an arrow and a target. If we are the bow (our company), what arrows are we going to use and where do we point it.

We then started talking about some of the byproducts that Adilas can and does create. We are seeing needs in oversight, compliance, training, sales, consulting, custom development, etc. Steve was saying that one of the main goals is making your CPA happy (on the accounting side). Oversight could a reoccurring service. Some of the other services are reoccurring but they tend to cycle through different companies. It is reoccurring and a never ending need but it does cycle more.

Make a small goal, then regroup and huddle up and make the next plan. Kind of a return and report type model.

Steve and I would like to offer more guidance and help with system oversight. To fit Steve's analogy, we need to be aiming the arrow instead of being the arrow. We tend to through the rope across the river and then someone else could come back and help carve out the trail a little bit better. Steve and I are kinda like pioneers in some ways. We keep trying to solve the problems that present themselves. Some of these projects may include scouting, research, ideas, demos, prototypes, mock-ups, and eventual plans.

Inspect what we expect.

We started talking about a trail type analogy. We want to build to certain points, some of it is pretty stable and awesome, some of still needs some loving, and some of it still needs to be pioneered and explored. It just keeps going.

We have tons of projects... we need to turn some of those ideas and projects into ice (water, slush, to ice). We need to follow the same analogy as we did for operations and accounting. We have an ideal (straight parallel lines) but in real life, it needs to flex a bit. Once we allow the flex bubbles or flex pods, we then put in some checkpoints. That helps us make sure that things get brought back together. We could then add in permission levels and eventually allow it flow just like a data assembly line for code vs a data assembly line for data, inventory, and financials.

We are seeing that we, internally, need to provide some small goals and checkpoints and then help with the oversight to help them get to the next checkpoint. We are building SaaS (software as a service). Do we really know where that is going? The answer is no, we truly don't know. But we do have a good idea (an ideal or a goal or a direction). That is great and may be good enough for now. This is a paradigm shift for us.

Taking and bringing things back to the trystorming type methodology. We make a plan and then keep trying and trying, knowing that we will have to circle around again and again.

We need a plan (even if it is dusty and/or a little rough). We then take action to get there (small goals and checkpoints). We then look at the results and make the next decision. We allow the flex but still provide some checkpoints. We do tons of mini project management stuff all the time. Maybe keep going with that and keep it going from step to step vs planning the whole voyage. We still need a vision and master plan, but keep it small and turn it into attainable steps. As a side note, if we don't get enough communication between our developers, we may need to shorten up the checkpoints and make it into smaller attainable goals and steps. Checkpoint, direction, checkpoint, direction. That would be awesome.

Such a fun conversation. We got into resource planning and management (y axis) type stuff. We want to softly start reaching out and helping our guys and gals hit their stride. A fox that chases two rabbits catches neither.

We had some more talks on the adilas community funded projects and helping to tie things into the adilas tick list (see attached for an excel file). We would like to use these two things and actually use those documents as part of the project management tools and tool sets. We also talked about pulling in a ranking (priority) and using some of the code that Bryan was working on for voting on and creating an adilas community and what they would like us to do and work on. This will be a little mini project for Steve and I. Let's use what we have and start down this little path. Yee haw!

Met with Alan for half an hour going over the existing internal API socket system. We talked about web page id's, API sockets, requirements, and how things are validated. He has a project (invoice due dates and automated watchers for overdue invoices - collecting on a/r's or accounts receivables). He will either be using the existing path way and/or slightly modifying it to work better for future development. Good stuff.

I got on a call with Drea from tech support and she had a number of questions about barcodes and settings inside of adilas. I assured her that beyond creating and generating the barcode, the other settings are on a printer driver, scanner setting, or a browser setting. We don't have any of those pieces in our system. We also briefly went over options between Adobe Flash barcodes and Calvin's PDF labels and sheet labels, using the adilas label builder app.

Grabbed some older notebook sketches and put them together into a single image and uploaded them to element of time # 4791, here in the shop. The combined image is a quick break-down of the data assembly line analogy and model.

11 - Financials & Accounting

-These are your numbers. As much as possible we let operations run and do their stuff and then we report back to accounting what happened. The numbers themselves are important but the story behind those numbers is potentially more important. For example $500 in a certain account does not mean anything unless you say it came from sales.

-Some programs focus on the numbers but one of our main goals is trying to zip up the difference between operations and accounting. The way we do that is using the system. It turns into a virtual data assembly line. We add data and if it is good data it flows through the system from check point to check point and builds your accounting and financial pieces.

-There is always a cause and effect relationship. Nothing just appears. Once again we go back to catching the story and then showing how that story unfolds as it goes forward and fills its own life cycle. 

11.5 - Adilas Theory on Accounting

-Before we go into this next section it is worth expressing that there are multiple different views on this accounting piece. As different as religion and politics are, some people have similar opinions and beliefs on how accounting should be done. We are not trying to start a fight or offend anyone and we value all of the different avenues.

 -Basically we feel like accounting is the end result of cause and effect relationships and how they show up. So our goal is to gather information and data as it starts and let it flow if the data is okay. If a change is needed, we make the change, record a checkpoint or make the correction, and then let that data flow. So accounting really does become a sum of the details. In life, most things do not just appear. There is a story or a reason.

-When we first started building Adilas we saw that there was a known gap between what is called “Operations”(day to day activities) and “Accounting” (the financials and final numbers). One of the analogies that Steve Berkenkotter came up with was a zipper where you have operations on one side and accounting on the other side. “Our goal was to bring operations and accounting together one cog at a time, like a zipper being pulled upwards until it comes together.”

-As we got into it and had been exploring we found that you often need to let operations lead, that is a huge key. Already some people might be saying no, stop this is the wrong direction for accounting but this is a critical key in how we approach the topic. Using another analogy, imagine a horse and a cart. Which one needs to come first? The horse, to pull the cart. Your horse is operations and your accounting is the cart. Natural consequences of a users action present the next logical step. This is known as accounting or accountability. Let operations lead and the accounting will automatically follow.

 -For those who are really worried that is a bad idea, accounting can still have the reigns and reign things in the horse/cart analogy. But in the end the cart has to go where the horse goes if they are connected to it and really want true accounting.

-Without going into details it may be important to say that accounting would not have anything to account for if there were not daily operations occurring in one way or another. Once again we feel that accounting is the sum of the details.

 -Another analogy on how we track things is similar to a process of water turning into ice. The water droplets are very loose at first (like operations), and slowly become crystals, then slush, and finally becoming completely frozen or ice (final numbers or accounting). Throughout the process we flag and date key check points of the life-cycle or steps in the process. This becomes a built-in history of what was going on at any given point in time.

 -Imagine the concept of a data assembly line. You basically run all actions and activities through both space and time while monitoring resources to get a 3D model of where things are really at. Digital story telling.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/help.cfm?id=496&pwd=assembly

-The 3D model contains 3 dimensions, the x axis is time (horizontal), the y axis is monies & resources (vertical), and the z axis is space or depth (how deep are you going within that).  

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/help.cfm?id=483&pwd=building

11.6 - Roll Call Accounting Principles

-Roll Call Accounting is the ability to track objects and data over time using a series of dates and flags. Imagine the web server or computer asking the objects and data to return and report. What's your story? Who created you? Where have you been? Where are you headed? Who are your buddies? Where do you belong? When did you finish? etc, etc, etc. Virtually require each piece of data to hold its own luggage.

-The concept of a roll call is what you learn back in kindergarten/first grade when the teacher is asking, “Where is Johnny?” or “Is so & so here?”. So basically what we do is track the life cycle of data. All data has a life-cycle and goes through different processes in that life-cycle. The roll call comes into play by asking the data questions such as where the data was at a given time, where it is now, who touched it or performed certain actions, etc.

-There are 3 main groups of history tracked in Adilas: Effectual – what shows up for roll call (where is an object at, with date & time stamps), Historical – who touched what (actions/histories), & Financial – what & where does this show up on the financials.

-We have determined that there are 12 main players in the system. Some of the roll call is talking to those individual players or groups and asking them questions based off of the state or status they are in, what point in their life-cycle they are at, where they need to go next, etc. That might sound random to keep it that broad, but each individual player performs certain tasks. Many of those tasks can be mapped directly back to the financials such as sales, quantity - inventory tracking, expenses, COGS, payroll, taxes, etc. Everything has a date/time stamp along with what phase or step it is in. We simply map to that. That is roll call accounting.

-Here is a small example. Let’s say a customer comes in and wants to buy something. Before the sale happens your product is in inventory and no monies are owed by that person. Once the sale is complete we now have a reduction in inventory, we have new sales money that either needs to be deposited or is still owed based on payments made. We have a tax liability, we have COGS, and we know a profit that was made. All of those pieces can be mapped back to physical spots on the P&L or balance sheet. The important part is progressing that data through the data assembly process where you are flagging, dating, stamping, etc. The data if it’s ran through the assembly line process actually allows us to do the roll call accounting.

-A huge part of the roll call accounting piece deals with allowing your data to flex. Disclaimer: certain accounting people may start freaking out at this point but if you don’t allow your data to flex or go into virtual waiting spots while the data is waiting for some of its other pieces you have to do all sorts of adjustments to keep everything picture perfect. Our concept is that things often flex. We hold them in that flex state until they can pass that next checkpoint which is where they are flagged, stamped, and then can get passed on to the next step.

-Some people say, “Okay I see how that can happen once”, meaning a flex point,  but what we see is that it happens over and over and over again. This is why we treat it like the data assembly line. Some data might go through 3, 4, or multiple steps until it has completed its entire life-cycle. But if there is any data that has an issue or has a need to allow for time to pass before completing its life-cycle it needs to stay in that flex zone until it is ready to be advanced. This could be waiting for another process to happen to the data, another person to perform a certain task with the data, waiting for something to happen physically before the data can be advanced, etc. There are endless scenarios that cause this circumstance where the data needs to flex or get held in a waiting area of sorts before it is ready to progress down the data assembly line.

-The link below is an entry from 2014 where we were expanding our vision of how we have seen things start rolling in this roll call/data assembly line type concept. The entry shows a number of small drawings as well as information. If you are interested in this concept it might be a fun read for you. https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=371&id=2894

-Here is some additional content on roll call accounting.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=roll%20call

11.7 - Old School Accounting vs. New School Accounting

-Similar to a movie that says the views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and creators and do not necessarily reflect traditional views on accounting. We acknowledge that this could be a very controversial topic and do not mean to make any sort of inference or offense. Having said that we are trying to stir the pot a little and challenge tradition.

OLD SCHOOL ACCOUNTING

-Old school accounting, or traditional accounting, or double entry accounting, are some terms that are used to talk about classic ways of keeping books. Books meaning a company’s financials. Interestingly enough, originally things really were kept in books or notebooks. These are often referred to as journals and ledgers.  

-By way of a little history a couple of very important events happened. The father of accounting is a guy by the name of Luca Pacioli. He was an Italian monk that lived at the same period of time as Leonardo DaVinci. He is credited as the father of accounting due to a textbook he published called, "Summa de Arithmetica" (the summation of arithmetic). Here is the kicker, this book was published in 1494. To put this date in perspective, Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Many of the modern day accounting systems have just digitized and sped up these 500+ year old concepts. This is potentially why we would call it old school accounting. 

-Going way back, before computers, company’s would keep track of their records on paper. The word “paper trail”goes back to this method of accounting. In order to keep things separated and organized they put things into accounts or T-accounts. A T-account was almost like a miniature bank balance which you could add to it or take away from it so that you could know the balance in that account. These pluses and minuses are called credits and debits. Normally a credit is a plus and a debit is a minus, there are some exceptions.  

-These processes may be different per company but this is a general overview. A company would have something that they wanted to track. Often this was something that was either important to the company or something the government said they had to track due to taxes. Where they would start is to create a list of categories that they called a chart of accounts. Each category or piece that they were going to track got a number. These numbers have all sorts of levels and specific categories that have been defined over time. There are certain numbers for cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable, long-term loans, etc.

-A journal entry was a debit or credit to one of these chart of accounts. This is where your T-account comes in, meaning credits on one side of the T and debits on the other. These journal entries are the small transactions or day by day activity. The sum of these journal entries would then be passed on to a more stable spot called a ledger. Back in the day, depending on the time period between things, the journal entries would be kept daily or as often as they could. When the time period came that they wanted to get the totals, they then summed up those totals and put them into the ledgers. This helped them save space and kept the ledgers clean so that they weren’t showing all the daily ups and downs and fluidity of business. Often these final posts to the ledger were done weekly, monthly , quarterly, annually, or some other period of time. This is where the word post comes into accounting - moving from a general journal to a ledger - aka summing things up and stamping it into the more final record.

-As part of the journal entry system businesses would do what is called double entry, meaning if something happened it may have effected more than one account. Technically this is how they were tracking cause and effects. For example if I got some new monies from a sale I would have to record those monies coming in and the other side of that would be that I got to deposit that money and my bank account increased. Some of these double entries can get very deep.

-To help businesses keep track of their financials there have been some helpful documents or reports created that we still use today. These reports helped them to know the vitality of the business. These are things like cash flow statement, income statement (P&L or Profit & Loss), balance sheet, etc. These documents are wonderful tools that were created. Most business owners will recognize these names as standard financial documents. Business owners use these documents to get business loans, submit taxes, track business operations, buy and sell businesses, make business decisions, receive other financial reports/requests, etc.   

-There are a number of other things that are associated with old school accounting or traditional double entry accounting. There are chapters upon chapters and textbooks upon textbooks that go over all of the ins and outs of double entry accounting. In general, most of the existing accounting software packages literally emulate the same 500+ year old accounting concepts and flow. They use the same names, the same flow, same mentality, it is just digitized and has some technology enhancements that help it to go faster but it is based on the traditional accounting practices. We may address some of these traditional accounting aspects further as we discuss new school accounting.

NEW SCHOOL ACCOUTING

-New school accounting, roll call accounting, time stamp accounting, tracking objects and data over time, data assembly line, world building, these are all some terms that could be used for modern and/or progressive ways of tracking your data and doing your books. As a note, some of the terms and concepts that exist in old school accounting will be mimicked or copied in new school accounting but some of the names have been changed. This is really important because if you keep some of the traditional names, people expect it to follow the same process as the traditional method does.  

-In old school accounting we added a history section that showed sort of where things came from. Before we jump into new school accounting we feel like it is important that you have an idea where some of these things came from before we start right into ideas and concepts. Right up front we didn’t set out to make a new accounting system. Our business problems were all on the operations, day to day tracking, side of the equation. If you would like a story type format here is a great document below that tells the unfolding of what happened with Adilas.

https://data0.adilas.biz/adilas_history_bio.pdf - (Tons of fun concepts as they developed. This document shows lots of the problems we encountered as a business and how our solutions evolved into the Adilas system.)

-As humans we love to use tools because they help us accomplish our tasks more efficiently. In old school accounting some of the tools used at its roots go clear back to paper and pencil, which are some great tools. Each tool has pros and cons and at some point if the task keeps evolving it can break the efficiency of the tool being used. (If you are interested in seeing a fun document exploring tools and where they excel and break click here.) 

-All data actually has a life cycle, meaning it gets started or created and ends and/or finishes. Usually that means that there is some sort of time frame between these different phases or stages in how data fulfills it’s life-cycle. In our quest for tracking things we started on the operations side. We really wanted to see where every penny went from beginning to end. The missing pieces for our business were on the operations side of tracking inventories, selling inventories, counting inventories, building new things, etc., etc. Basically we needed to get more details on what was happening in the day to day transactions and activities. Step 1 is catch the data at the source.

-As you try to catch data at, or from, the source you have to have tools in the hands of those who are doing it to allow them to capture the data. This can be a problem due to technologies, permissions, or trust issues between departments and employees. As part of this discussion we need to acknowledge that there is a known gap between operations and accounting. Operations, or sometimes the sales department, tries to make things happen to make the deals go. Sometimes accounting doesn’t like all of the decisions made by the operations department and/or doesn’t want to give all of the control for decisions to the operations department. This is where permissions come in. A permission is basically a thumbs up or a thumbs down on being able to add, edit, delete, modify, and so on to all kinds of elements. 

-At this point we want to introduce a few analogies. One of them deals with this life cycle of data. What we want to introduce is the idea of water becoming more solid or the process of water freezing into ice. At first when the water is very flexible this is like the sales - things are still happening and moving, deals might still be in process and negotiation, promises may be being made potentially on both sides of the equation. As the deals solidifies it is almost like that liquid water starts becoming snow or slush. At this point we now have fixed numbers, maybe we have monies, a transaction could have been completed, or we need to further build or fulfill something.  As the time goes on those values, numbers, monies, product transactions, and data become more firm and stable like ice. They become fixed and a piece of the history. We call this analogy the water, snow, to ice analogy. 

-The next analogy we want to introduce is a cart and a horse analogy. We propose that the horse is the thing that is moving things along which is your operation or sales side of the equation. If you don't sell anything you don't have anything to account for.  WORKING....

-The other analogy is the data assembly line

-WORKING, CONCPETS, IDEAS:

-Comparison between operations and accounting with static, parallel, perfect lines - everything is perfectly static.

-How we actually need flex bubbles and periods of time/waiting, etc.

-Difference between operations and accounting and the gap between those. Batches, things get batched, missing time, lack of communication, non-centralized data,

-Horse & cart analogy

-3D data assembly line and 3D world building models

4:17 PM

Brandon Moore

/// notes from the adilas history bio

- corps, locations, users, permissions

- web-based

- tools >> head, paper/pencil, computer tools, software, database, web solutions

- Internet came into play mid 90's

- gathering information into a centeral location

- limiting duplicate work - collecting data and allowing it to flow (start a process)

- start with your pain points

- enter once, use many, and empower the users at the point of action

- letting operations lead

- with the right tools, productivity increased and sales increased, and that drove the need for better accounting

- pain - load and stress

- zipper analogy and using the system as the common element (even the bad guy - saying no)

- permissions and opening and closing virtual windows

- solving problems and then going to the next logical step - keep solving bigger and bigger problems (cogs of the zipper)

- one-to-many relationship model

- dreaming up a super system (what if we could do this... or that... or maybe both...)

4:17 PM

Brandon Moore

- maybe grab the paragraph about no road maps and we were just going off of ideas, concepts, and needs... shannon liked that section.

- we are still doing the same things today as we were back then. where is the pain and how can we possibly fix that (more zipper cogs coming together).

-From here maybe start looking at the post-it note list and see if we can transition into some of those other pieces. We’d like to describe that there is gap, horse/cart, time, batching - and just how this gap keeps getting wider and wider with the real time effects of these things, using computers and technology to create logic that can perform these accounting operations (conversation with Brandon & Steve --- WORKING….  

-IDEAS: We are going to start defining terms, concepts, start typing up pieces and ideas and we will probably need to come back and sew it all together, smooth things out, and make transitions.

-Another Note: On 6/25/19 as Brandon and Steve were talking Steve was saying how old school accounting used to have post after post and entries and different journal entires - lots of time and inputs, whereas roll call accounting can use technology to create logic and teach the computer to look for certain patterns and use logic to map to what is actually happening. Because it uses the logic and mapping, it can do that process over and over again and allows the data to flow more on its own, it just tracks where everything is at and puts numbers where they need to go. Computers are really good at doing repetitive tasks.

-Ideas/Concepts from History Bio Article:

These concepts are enter once, use many, and empower the users at the point of action.

The entire development process was as follows: 1. Find a specific need 2. Figure out what pieces came from where 3. Take a step in that direction by releasing a new tool, feature, or report. The natural consequence of the user actions would then present the next logical step and management would be able to see where they wanted to go. In a way, the horse began leading the cart instead of the other way around.

-If you would like some additional research from the developer’s notebook on new school accounting look here.  https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=new%20school

-Some entries from the developer’s notebook on Christopher Columbus and Lucas Pacioli. Christopher Columbus - 1492 sailed the ocean blue. Luca Pacioli - the father of accounting - in 1494 published a work on the double-entry system of book-keeping and accounting called "Summa de Arithmetica".

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=columbus%2Bpacioli

-This is a 6 page document that has a publish date of 2011 and deals with the start of the Adilas system. It discusses where Adilas came from and how we even started on this journey. Lots of fun concepts of roll call accounting and tracking objects and data over time.

https://data0.adilas.biz/adilas_history_bio.pdf

-The link below is a photo gallery but has some interesting accounting concepts to check out especially in the second picture.

https://data0.adilas.biz/adilas_for_business/photo_gallery_full.cfm 

Monday morning. Lots of action today. Steve and I were the only ones on the meeting to begin. By the time we were done, we had touched base with Dustin, Alan, Eric, and Josh. By around 11 am, most of the guys had moved on and were working on their own projects.

Steve and I were talking about a number of topics. The first one was dealing with a corp-wide setting that was setup way back but never had been fully operational. It was called show_tax_breakdown. After looking for a bit, we determined that it was setup in September of 2012. It has never been used. We did find however that a smaller version of it exists in a corp-wide setting called default_printable_invoice (option # 9 for that setting) on the mini invoice and showing a tax summary as part of the mini invoice (customer receipt). This question and subsequent look-up came from a client email that wanted to turn on the old show tax breakdown setting. It is funny how things keep circling around. Often, we do what we can, and then we know that we will have to circle back around again. We keep building out nubbins where we hope to tie things in later.

While we were looking up some history on the older corp-wide settings, we also talked quite a bit about master corporations, aggregated data, aggregated systems, and being able to move away from transactional data. We still need the transactional data, we just need a way to get to secure summed up and tallied data points. We talked quite a bit about posting, locking, and levels of being able to edit things. The analogy of water freezing into ice was brought up. Some users want us to go directly to ice and make things un-editable. Others require the options to be able to modify and edit data and values. We talked a bit about our data assembly line concept and having different permissions that allow certain levels of access in the flex bubble type model. Very interesting.

We also talked about VPS's (virtual private servers) and some times needing to go back into older environments or models with new features and/or needs. We talked about flagging data, maintaining known and trusted values, scheduled tasks, harnessing user clicks and actions, and even back filling data as needed. There were conversations about single logins, flipping between corporation, showing and maintaining aggregated totals, and validating the integrity of certain data points, sums, totals, counts, and grand totals. We are seeing bigger and bigger needs on first, sales data, and then on inventory tracking. Those seem to be the hot topics for now. Sales data tends to motivate all kinds of other sub functions such as cash flow, inventory levels, tax collection, repayment, etc. The list goes on.

Eric popped in and has a number of question about discount campaigns and how to set them up and track them. We went over ways in corp-wide settings, individual entries, and talked about the discount engine that Josh worked on. There were some talks about deciphering some data and exposing certain fields and values to outside 3rd parties through API socket connections. The users would have to agree to the 3rd party terms and turn thing on, but once completed, all discount information, campaigns, and calculated values and totals would be passed to specific 3rd parties for analysis (only if turned on).

More talks about circling back around and back filling and/or completing certain data values. There are tons of transactions, and certain records hold certain values. We may also need to expose how certain values are calculated, if it is not logical from the data itself. This gets clear into formulas, calculations, order of operations, etc. Discounts play along those lines. You can skip discounts, do standalone or dis-jointed discounts, in-line discounts, percentage discounts, dollars off discounts, mixed discounts, automated discounts, stacked discounts, etc. It gets pretty deep.

While we were talking to Eric about discounts, Josh joined in. We talked with Josh about getting with Cory and working on some concise videos and educational material for showing how to use the automated discount engine. We talked posting videos to help files, updates, and the news and updates page. We are seeing more and more of need to get the correct information out to our users. Basically, a number of things and features exist. However, due to how many there are... some times certain features are not used just because people/users don't know how and/or can't find any training on the subject. Some times they don't even know that certain tools and features exist.

Still talking with Josh, the topic started shifting towards more concise pieces. We have tons of things that are big and somewhat bulky. Those are harder to consume and digest. We need to get into smaller and smaller pieces. Along those lines, Steve chimed in and mentioned almost a marketing type approach. We need to be consistent and have some consistency between the info we are trying to share and how that is presented. We need to help people/users learn, but we also need to be putting our best foot forward. That takes things to a different level and almost adds a marketing level of showing off our stuff. There are pros and cons to that. A pro is it all looks super nice and makes sense. A con is that it requires still, time, resources, and a plan (one or more persons doing the same thing).

As we got deeper into some of the subjects, I kept thinking back to the word "teams" and what teams are we a part of? Certain people or certain teams need to handle certain parts. This really isn't a free for all, it is too complex and requires certain timing, skills, and resources.

After Eric and Josh were done, Steve and I worked with Alan. He helped me on some database query questions and then Steve worked with Alan on a project that both of them are working on for state compliance issues. A couple of other topics for the day were: directing towards teams and who does what. Using news and updates more for training and tech support, GPS tracking and delivery options, and using the right tools for the right job (talking about database and SQL query optimizers - built-in helpers for certain tasks with complex logic and tons of records).

Lots of moving pieces, all over the board. Towards the end of the meeting, I worked on some emails and then recorded a bunch of notes. Things are going so fast... the only way I feel that we can keep up is to record what is happening. We can't solve everything, but hopefully, we circle back around and get a sense and/or flavor of what transpires. Busy times.

Shannon came on at 11 am, but I was still working on the code merge for Steve. We got started about 11:30 am. The whole session ended up being somewhat of a training exercise about mapping out the system and what progress we have made over the years. My goal was to help Shannon as she was going to be meeting with Jonathan and doing some training for him. After Steve and I's meeting the other day, we would like Jonathan to keep going along the lines that he is working and work on mapping out the pieces.

Going back a long ways, we started out in 2010 (October 2010 ish) doing a mapping project that lead to some major discoveries. We came up with the interactive map and tons of other good needs and ideas for the future. That was literally a springboard into some of our current projects and direction. Here is a link to the interactive map graphic.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/big_map_layout.gif - interactive map graphic (2010)

Next we got into what we ended up calling the core layout or GPS core. This is a spiral navigation wheel or a core shot of a world. This graphic started to bring in concepts of world building and almost a space type theme. Here are a couple of links for these graphics.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_gps_layout_big.jpg - GPS core layout map (2013/2014)
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_gps_layout_plain.jpg - core only
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_gps_layout_world_building.jpg - world building levels only

The next level was dealing with the core interface, deeper world building concepts, with different modes or levels (data mode, work mode, usage/stats, settings, permissions, learning, concepts/theory levels). This one only got to the graphic stage, we really wanted to build it out into an interactive navigation model, but only prototype graphics were created. Here is a link for some of these graphics:

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/adilas_gps_core_layout.jpg - GPS core layout with different modes (2015)
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/adilas_gps_core_layout_white_label.jpg - GPS core layout - white label (2019)

The other thing that we have always wanted to do was use and show some graphical homepages. Basically, have some kind of primary navigation that is really easy to use. As the users leave the primary dashboard and/or navigation, have them land on a graphical homepage of sorts. Each of these sub homepages would be a landing spot for the subject and/or topic at hand. For example: invoice homepage, deposit homepage, expense/receipt homepage, inventory homepage, customer homepage, etc. There are even smaller and more specific homepages that are sub to some of these bigger homepages. They could use some fun graphical interfaces as well. We still want to do this, we just haven't had the time. Here is a link on some of the research and ideas on the graphical homepages.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=graphical%20home - research on graphical homepages out in the developer's notebook

The next level is trying to get the whole system or platform into a deeper 3D world building level and using the concepts of the data assembly lines. That would be really cool. Here are a couple of other links that play along those lines:

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=3d%20world%20building - research on 3D world building
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/developers_notebook_home.cfm?q=data%20assembly%20line - research on the concept of a data assembly line

Here are some other fun graphics - just concepts:

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/tools_magic_square.jpg - magic square - invoices, PO's, deposits, and expenses
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_3d_world_building.gif - concepts of 3D world building
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_dream_it_up.jpg - 4 step - dream it up process
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_dream_it_up_white_label.gif - 4 step - dream it up process - white label
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/location_model_landscape.gif - What you get with adilas - map overview
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_map_layout_all_business_functions.jpg - business functions overview using the map layout
https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_gps_layout_all_business_functions.jpg - business functions overview using the core layouthttps://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/images/help/adilas_core_map_combos_all_business_functions.jpg
- business functions overview using both corp and map layouts

All Business functions: - all business functions - shown in the core - show on the map - show using both core and map

1. Sales, Inventory Tracking, & POS (Point of Sale) - core - map - combo



2. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) - core - map - combo



3. CMS (Content Management System) - core - photo galleries - map - combo



4. Online Expense Tracking - core - map - combo



5. Payroll & Timecards - core - map - combo



6. Calendar & Scheduling - core - map - combo



7. Create Data Relationships Between System Players - core - map - combo



8. Backend Office & Accounting Functions - core - map - combo



9. Histories & Reports - core - map - combo



10. BI (Business Intelligence) - core - map - combo



11. Web Presence & eCommerce - core - map - combo



12. Virtual Data Portal (Big Data) - core - map - combo

Cory jumped on the meeting and had some questions about the video for the preview for the special accounts and customer loyalty points. We went over a few of the questions and made a couple more notes for us to look at. We then started talking about some other topics and projects. One of the topics was how tight to tighten things down and/or give the user the power to control things at the source. It got into all kinds of scenarios and cases (what about this, what about that, etc.). It also goes clear out to settings, permissions, and checkpoints. You kinda need to have the flexibility at some point and then be able to tighten things down and/or have it pass through a valid checkpoint. It keeps coming back to the concepts of the data assembly line flow and process. Basically, little linked flex bubbles with checkpoints, permissions, sub pieces or layering (depth), and then track it all over time based on the flex bubbles and virtual phases.

Steve and Cory were talking about running mini manufacturing over time and even getting into different phases and WIP (work in progress) type interface. It all comes back to time and tracking what happens over time. That gets into subs - sub phases, sub locations, sub grouping, etc. They were talking about pros and cons of using recipes and doing all kinds of internal builds.

After that, Steve, Cory, and I went over a bunch of our projects and did some updates and setting budgets and priorities. We are going to keep pushing on this every week. We currently have all of our projects in a section called adilas community funded projects. It is still a work in progress, but we are making progress and trying to setup a good work flow.

Working with Shannon on 11/7/19 - this was in prep for a demo for a local tech college and trying to make it more simplified. We had a good brainstorming meeting and here are some of our notes:

- Every business offers a service or product to their customers.

- Milk before meat - only run as fas as you are able.

- Pain is a huge motivating factor for change.
>> - We can handle certain levels of pain
 >> - If it gets unbearable, we are looking for change

- We want to make it easy, digestible, and pretty (yet still powerful)

- We need to show you that it is doable and we can do that by breaking it down into simple chunks.
>> - If you have to bounce everywhere... it may look like it is super complicated. Being able to bounce is super cool, but it may look intimidating.
>> - They want it to do the super complicated stuff (the little stuff) but they (meaning users) sometimes get overwhelmed when you show them without some of the other context.

- We may not even realize that we are in a world... our world becomes just part of what we do and how we do things.

Ideas on a general tour...
- top level...
strip mall** (think of the diversity in a strip mall - tons of little shops, right next to each other)
big hallway
universe
worlds
departments
locations within those areas
business needs
point of sale
invoices
collect monies
customers
tracking things - sales, customers, inventory, expenses
paying our people, timecards
accounting
paying taxes
reports
data storage and processing
ecommerce
analize and adjust accordingly

- Business functions - we have already defined 12 of the business functions

- Tools - I really liked how Shannon kept saying the word tools - that's what they really are.

- Processes are going to change based on needs and industry (business vertical).

- Meet the tools** (players may be the wrong word) - pages and options (not 1,000's of  pages but only 6-10 pages total - make it chewable - little tiles)
 - group and simplify, then go deeper as needed. think of being able to fly over the whole and drill-down as needed. Be able to navigate at any of those levels

- Using tools to get the outcome that you want.

- Mixing and blending tools, goals, and outcomes to build your world.
>> - As you are picking and using tools, you are virtually building your world.

- What tools do you use all the time? Those become important and you want them right at hand for the task that you are doing.

- pull pieces from what Jonathan is already working on
>> - go, do, see
>> - Almost a geo tourism type level. Basically the reasons why you go where you go to do what you want to do. What else is in that area? If you have multiple things in the same area... that increases the pull for that area. Getting the biggest bang for your buck.
>> - Look at all of these other pieces and features that you get. Instead of just getting one of the things that you want, you get 10.

- Be able to jump from the tour into real live scenarios
>> - What if there were canned scenarios that you could walk through? That would be awesome.
>>  - Be able to link out to other resources (videos, photos, graphics, images, help files, articles, research, etc.)

- World building (advanced concept) - maybe talk about such and such land, and this land, and that land... they are really worlds or part of a world, but maybe the word land or area or department may help people follow things better. Be able to flex as needed.

- Data assembly line - what an awesome concept, but it sometimes takes people time to warm up to that idea.

- Visual outline (foldable or unfoldable - maybe use +&- signs) - be able to jump where ever...

- The adilas cafe... work, play, buy, sell, learn, community

Met up with Shannon and did a session on the presentation gallery. We were working on bullet points under CRM (customer relationship management) and CMS (content management systems). See below for a small list... still in the building and editing process.

1. Business Functions

1.1. Sales
1.1.1. Inventory tracking
1.1.1.1. Start to finish inventory tracking
1.1.1.2. Item usage histories
1.1.1.3. Unlimited
1.1.1.4. Reports, exports
1.1.1.5. Images, scans, multimedia
1.1.1.6. Units of measure
1.1.1.7. General items
1.1.1.8. Serialized items (stock/units)
1.1.1.9. Time or services (unlimited)
1.1.1.10. Fulfillment
1.1.1.11. Sub inventory (parent/child)
1.1.1.12. Transfers
1.1.1.13. Internal builds (manufacturing)
1.1.1.14. Ecommerce settings
1.1.1.15. Updating inventory counts

1.1.2. POS (Point of Sale)
1.1.2.1. Invoicing
1.1.2.2. Quoting/Ordering
1.1.2.3. Secure shopping cart
1.1.2.4. Barcoding
1.1.2.5. Custom buttons
1.1.2.6. Discounts & campaigns
1.1.2.7. General items
1.1.2.8. Serialized items (stock/units)
1.1.2.9. Time or services (unlimited)
1.1.2.10. Locations & tax settings
1.1.2.11. Hardware options
1.1.2.12. Custom designs & layouts
1.1.2.13. Ecommerce tied to POS

1.1.3. Customer options
1.1.3.1. Loyalty points
1.1.3.2. Preset discounts
1.1.3.3. Purchase histories
1.1.3.4. Payment history
1.1.3.5. Accounts receivable
1.1.3.6. Customer billing
1.1.3.7. Online bill pay
1.1.3.8. Images, scans, multimedia
1.1.3.9. Customer accounts
1.1.3.10. Reports, exports

1.1.4. Reporting
1.1.4.1. Sales reports
1.1.4.2. Profit reports
1.1.4.3. Daily/weekly/monthly reporting
1.1.4.4. Per locations, per salesperson
1.1.4.5. Deposits
1.1.4.6. Purchase histories
1.1.4.7. Trending items
1.1.4.8. Automated P&L
1.1.4.9. Exports
1.1.4.10. Advanced filtering
1.1.4.11. Save your own reports

1.1.5. Payment solutions
1.1.5.1. Normal POS options (cash, check, etc.)
1.1.5.2. Merchant processing (credit cards)
1.1.5.3. Online bill pay
1.1.5.4. 3rd party payment solutions
1.1.5.5. On account (customer credit)
1.1.5.6. Custom configurations

1.1.6. Ecommerce
1.1.6.1. Real-time (live) inventory counts & tracking
1.1.6.2. Fully integrated systems
1.1.6.3. Online product purchase
1.1.6.4. Customer login portal
1.1.6.5. Online bill pay
1.1.6.6. View histories, statements, orders
1.1.6.7. Fulfillment
1.1.6.8. Fully configurable (settings)

1.1.7. Other special functions
1.1.7.1. Work orders
1.1.7.2. Layaway
1.1.7.3. Recipe/builds
1.1.7.4. Hidden line items
1.1.7.5. Reoccurring
1.1.7.6. Barcode/QR code generators
1.1.7.7. Emailing capabilities
1.1.7.8. Discounting engines
1.1.7.9. Quantity tracking & thresholds
1.1.7.10. Loyalty points
1.1.7.11. Gift cards

1.2. CRM - Customer Relationship Management

1.2.1. Sales & purchase tracking
1.2.1.1. Payment tracking
1.2.1.2. Monies owed
1.2.1.3. Accounts receivable
1.2.1.4. Purchase histories
1.2.1.5. Invoices/quotes

1.2.2. Customer profiles
1.2.2.1. Holds additional information & subs
1.2.2.2. Log notes
1.2.2.3. Additional contacts
1.2.2.4. Reoccurring billing
1.2.2.5. Purchase & payment history
1.2.2.6. Groups & types
1.2.2.7. Preset options - discount, tax category
1.2.2.8. Photos, scans, files, media
1.2.2.9. Expandable custom fields
1.2.2.10. Manage relationships
1.2.2.11. Unlimited customers

1.2.3. Customer tracking & follow-ups
1.2.3.1. Unlimited notes & logging
1.2.3.2. Show/hide notes on calendar
1.2.3.3. Show/hide notes in customer portal
1.2.3.4. Purchase histories - what did they buy?
1.2.3.5. Accounts receivable - what do they owe you?

1.2.4. Calendaring & scheduling
1.2.4.1. Elements of Time
1.2.4.2. Reporting
1.2.4.3. Billing

1.3. CMS - Content Management Systems

1.3.1. Upload content
1.3.1.1. Permissioned
1.3.1.2. Image galleries
1.3.1.3. Files/Media/Content
1.3.1.4. Pre-filled custom documents
1.3.1.5. Digital story telling
1.3.1.6. Manage content relationships
1.3.1.7. Multi-file upload

1.3.2. Web presence & ecommerce
1.3.2.1. Custom controls
1.3.2.2. Categorize
1.3.2.3. Turn things on/off
1.3.2.4. Change web pricing
1.3.2.5. Show/hide things on web
1.3.2.6. Provide long descriptions, specs, reviews
1.3.2.7. Full ecommerce experience
1.3.2.8. Shipping options
1.3.2.9. Customer portal
1.3.2.10. Online bill pay

1.3.3. Data controlled content
1.3.3.1. Point & click interfaces
1.3.3.2. Template based & custom options
1.3.3.3. Permissioned based
1.3.3.4. Create unlimited content
1.3.3.5. Edit content & record histories
1.3.3.6. Advance content (virtual data assembly line)
1.3.3.7. Business world building
1.3.3.8. Store, view, interact as desired
1.3.3.9. Backend logic based on content (cause & effect)

1.3.4. Whole system
1.3.4.1. The whole system is technically a CMS
1.3.4.2. System look & feel
1.3.4.3. Backend layout & design - what's under the hood
1.3.4.4. Built-in core flexibility
1.3.4.5. Custom anything (Dream it up! We'll wire it up!)
1.3.4.6. Data & content storage
1.3.4.7. Tracking all data interactions
1.3.4.8. Access points (who, what, where, when)
1.3.4.9. Solid foundation of permissions & settings
1.3.4.10. Dynamic possibilities (Let's grow together!)

1.3.5. Hosted solution
1.3.5.1. Cloud based
1.3.5.2. Ease of use - mobile, home, work, travel
1.3.5.3. Automatic updates
1.3.5.4. No hardware & minimal IT requirements
1.3.5.5. Built on multi-server environment (getting more than most businesses could afford on their own)
1.3.5.6. Backups & disaster recovery
1.3.5.7. Data & system security
1.3.5.8. Managed services
1.3.5.9. Not charged per devices or per users
1.3.5.10. All system pieces in one spot
1.3.5.11. Interconnected & accessible
1.3.5.12. Access to support & training

- still working on the outline for these sections below **

1.4. Expense Tracking
1.5. Payroll
1.6. Calendar
1.7. Data Connection
1.8. Accounting
1.9. Reports
1.10. Business Intel
1.11. ECommerce
1.12. Big Data

Working with Shannon and brainstorming on business functions and working on an outline or breakdown report of what is what and how does it play together. See the attached document for where we are working. We flagged some of the items to help us remember where and/or what was modified from our last meeting.

As a side note, we are trying to use the concepts of the data assembly line for our own pieces and development processes. Keep kicking the ball down the road and be willing to circle back around as needed.

Shawn and I touched base about tax and withholding stuff. We planned a different time to work on things on Monday before Christmas. After that, I spent some time working on emails, recording notes, and transferring things from small post-it notes into adilas. Busy times. If things are going at a normal pace, I can put them directly into adilas. If things are flying faster than normal, I scribble things on post-it notes and then have to go back and add more details. The never ending process.

Around 3 pm, I got on a Zoom meeting with Russell. We were chatting and pitching ideas back and forth. Russell has been working on a project and as part of that has created some different assets. He has been working on a business plan, code, and some marketing ideas. We are really hoping to be able to join forces and bring some of those pieces to the adilas family. We were chatting about a number of different options. Here are some of my notes.

- If we open up things for outside developers to work on our new testing environments, make sure and add plenty of checks and balances. The absolute ideal would be a full API socket interface and have them play at the wall. That is still a ways out, so we may have to open up some other channels.

- Make sure we charge for our time. That is huge.

- We spent some time talking about ownership and being able to get a residual back from that.

- By helping others succeed, we succeed. That is really true in many ways.

- Some of Russell's priorities are to help stabilize, improve, maintain, and plan for the future. I thought that those were fun priorities.

- Russell would really like to help with project management and job costing.

- There are these things called web components. They are virtually like mini code snippets or functions that can be used over and over again without rewriting all of the code necessary to make them run. A simple call, with some parameters, and it does its job. Russell and I talked about some new adilas web components like table components, ajax search components, cards and actions and moving things between stages (like trello cards - project management software), and modal components (interactive pages that could display or show more details where needed without leaving the underlying page). We had some great discussions about some of these options.

- As a side note, on the cards (both tasks and actions) and being able to move things from stage to stage. We also talked about an even deeper idea of being able to allow users to build their own processes and then move things simply through those processes with point and click setup, rules, validation, automation, defaults, etc. Basically, a way to build your own virtual data assembly line by using tools that already exist and being able to string things together in such a way that it works, is simple, is custom to you, and fits your needs. All from pre-built tools and processes that could be strung together to create these custom processes. Great idea.

- We talked about the company culture and how important that is.

- Making a business plan and putting things in writing. We have a number of very loose business plan type things. Steve and I are on the same page (ish). It would really help to get everybody else to know what the plan is and how we intend to roll things out. As part of this, Russell showed me a small plan that he is working on. We went over some of the ideas. See attached for Russell's proposal and business plan (starting point document).

- We talked about models and how to best combine all of the pieces. There are lots of moving pieces. We talked cores, layers, themes, industry specific stuff, custom code, etc. It gets pretty deep, but it gets fun.

- As part of the model, we also need to be able to strip things off and get rid of extras that are not needed. That is just as important and being able to add new features. Keep it simple, where possible.

Steve and I were on the meeting most of the morning. Dustin popped in and we talked about a few quick things. He is doing great. After that, Steve and I did some of our own stuff and also spent some time talking about some upcoming pieces. There are always some challenges and Steve really likes to keep figuring out the next step. Here are some of our notes.

- We spent quite a bit of time talking about an abundant model vs just trying to hold onto what we have. We really feel like we live in an abundant model (lots of options). We have an upcoming situation that we need to figure out if we are continuing, altering relationships, or moving on - dealing with an outside party. We spent quite a bit of time talking about this subject.

- We spent quite a bit of time talking about bringing things up to the next level and how the virtual data assembly line (stages and flex bubbles) play into what we both have and where we are going. We have had great success trying to follow that model. What is the next logical step and how are we going to get there.

- Steve and I spent some time and we were drawing on the screen and talking about ideas and current models that we are trying to follow. We were looking at the tri-facto model with system features, number of clients, and education and training legs of that tri-facto. We are trying to fill in more on the education and ease of use side of things. Some of our new efforts are dealing with the graphic designers like Chuck and Jonathan. We spent some time and looked at their (Chuck and Jonathan's) newest progress reports and where they are going. We also talked a lot about the future potential of what they are doing.

- From earlier this weekend, I had a guy who asked me about adilas and what it does. We talked about a platform based model that we could build on. We related it to a chemistry set and the ability to mix and blend those pieces. Basically taking custom development to the next level by mixing and blending what we already have. Build new, change up ratios, enhance existing, etc. Being able to mix and blend like a chemistry set, made sense to me. I thought that it was a fun analogy.

- Steve and I spent a lot of time talking about transitions and handling those transitions. Steve was talking about how business is all about transitions.

- We talked about burnout and how that can effect you now and even later on down the road (virtual flashbacks and post stress stuff). It is real. How do we deal with it, how do we prevent it, and how do we build going forward?

- Running a business takes a lot of both physical and mental abilities - it is a challenge.

- We need to be compensated for our time and efforts. We give a lot of stuff away for free. It is kicking our buts.

- You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Where do you want to be?

- We are really wanting to attract people who really want to play (developers, trainers, designers, consultants, etc.). That may take a specific bread of people, but that is what we want.

- Steve and I will be doing more and more project management as we go forward.

- Focusing on one project at a time. Staying focused. Maybe something like one main project and maybe some small filler projects. Currently we get really spread out and somewhat lose focus.

- We talked about bottle necks and being careful about who is doing what. If you create too many key points (certain people do certain things), it creates bottle necks. Be careful. Keep things moving and flowing.

A few more items that need to be prioritized/quoted for clients.

Cory and I spent some time looking over custom projects and making plans. We decided, if it (the project) is big, we'll need to give the person a quote for the quote. Sometimes it just takes time and we have to cover that. Some projects are really quick and we can just suck that cost up internally. Other projects, it takes hours just to plan it out. Basically, if the project is big, we may need to give them a quote for making a quote, just to be fair and to do the real quote justice.

We did some training on elements of time and how that tool allows for data to be tracked over time. We got into light training about data assembly lines and how to set that kind of stuff up and use the existing tools.

We also did some training on doing corp roll ups (aggregated systems or enterprise systems). We looked at ideas for multiple corporations, a controller entity, and how to move financial data between those corporations. All of it is manual entry right now, but totally possible. Eventually, the goal would be to automate the whole thing and make it super easy and real time.

The other topic that we talked about and did some training was stacked accounts receivable. This is when more than one party is attached to an invoice. Say for example, a controller corporation (mother corp) has a number of daughter corporations. The daughter corporations extend credit to one another but the main mother or controller corporation needs to pay the actual bill. We talked about one-to-many relationships between invoices, customers, and even sub or secondary customers. All of these pieces already exist, we just needed to do some training to show Cory how it all works. Super fun meeting with a mix of planning and training. Good stuff.

Steve, Russell, and I met to talk about some business options. Russell has been working on some prototype code that he wanted to pitch to Steve and I. The new code is really cool, but not all the way finished. We talked about a number of the concepts and they will be great additions and could be the base for some of the fracture stuff that we are planning. Here are some of my notes.

- Russell really wants to take what we have and restructure it into a more cohesive core. We build and build and stack and stack. Some of what Russell wants to do is take all of that, and re-make it in such a way that it becomes more mobile and modular. Same type functions, just change the backend core pieces to work better in the future. See attached for a small diagram (drawing) to help illustrate the concept.

- Russell really wants to fix and patch the current ship as well as start building a new and faster ship on the side. Enlarge our fleet, in a way.

- We build and break, build and break. That's how we keep learning and growing.

- We want the adilas core to be 80% of what people need and use all the time. The other percentage will be industry specific code and custom code per corporation and/or business.

- At some point, we bump up against a few tougher obstacles such as volume (quantity of records or quantity of choices) and up against evolving tech. Those two things seem to be a common thread.

- Lots of talk about using web components. This is where we make a small mini widget and then use it over and over again. The little widget holds the code and the logic, we just pass data to it and it knows what to do. Some places where we want to do web components or something like that are: Movable pieces to set up your own flow or virtual data assembly line (think of the cards on a Trello board). Media/content libraries - be able to upload items and then use for multiple places vs just uploading the same thing over and over. We also want to add drag-n-drop functionality and our own version of the data tables. Russell has more info and ideas. There are things that will end up playing in the fracture interface.

- We talked about the value of being in the know and having experience to go along with that. Huge key.

- One-to-many and using shared libraries and media/content galleries and libraries. We already have some of that (media/content remote references) but we want to make it more visual and spread it out more across the system.

- Building and using some tech and pieces from other companies like WordPress and Trello (cards, boards, and that type of interface). WordPress is a pretty deep CMS (content management system). Lots of good ideas. We'll end up with our own flavor of sorts.

- We want to keep making the tool better, prettier, faster, and more powerful. In Russell's words - Easy, Pretty, Powerful.

- As a side note, I wanted to record a saying that Russell said back in 2016. "Adilas is a great companion software package for any business." (4/13/16)

Touching base with Alan, Steve, and Dustin. After a little bit, Steve, Alan, and I were talking about where we can go and what would those positions look like.

- Alan was talking about helping to break up some of the bigger projects into smaller and smaller pieces. And how he could and would like to help with some of the project management. Almost having individuals being small scale specialist in certain areas. Lots of small victories.

- Steve had a question, what about all of the small little things that keep popping up? Bugs, fixes, updates, and small maintenance issues. Some of those little things are really tough to manage (shear volume and switching gears every second).

- Sometimes we lose a lot of ground if we have to switch back and forth between too many projects.

- Currently we are all spread so thin... we can't get anything done quickly. Small talks about small teams and small sprints.

- Setting up expectations, meeting times, etc. Then following through on those pieces.

- We can really get some great on the job training going on. This will really help all of the pieces as we go forward.

- Steve was saying... maybe we have Cory be the door (gateway), she then communicates with Brandon and Steve and Alan. These three work together and talk with Wayne (server stuff) and then help and deal with the rest of the developer pool (all of the other guys and how deep the water is).

- Putting in shields, bouncers, and processes to help us say no, not yet, yes, or maybe. Some of those answers are tough, but it you have a shield, it becomes easier. You can virtually hide behind the process in a way. Drawing lines and setting up expectations. Healthy boundaries.

- Gaining victories by having our guys get their own victories (helping others and helping them get their projects done). Basically, a management structure in some ways.

- Data assembly line - set the expectations, really spend the time to check things out and do good progress reports and sign-offs, and then move forward as possible.

- Helping to remove obstacles from each others path and shielding each other.

Towards the end of the meeting, we had Alex and Cory join us. Each of them reported in and we fixed a small bug for Cory and pushed up the file.

Shannon and I were working on the presentation gallery outline. Our topic for the day was accounting. We got to a certain point and basically said "plus, plus, plus" meaning and it just keeps going. I was ready to stop and Shannon kept asking some great questions. Before long, we had more than double what we started with and were still going. I'm really glad that she kept asking questions and having us talk about things.

As a fun takeaway from our meeting, we talked about making conscience decisions and then sticking to those decisions. For example, we often say to people, sorry, but we do it this way vs that way (fill in the blanks). As Shannon and I were talking, we decided that we are not doing this because we have to or we got forced into something. This, what we do and why we do it, is a conscience decision and that's what makes us who we are.

See attached for our brainstorming document. You may have to scroll down to page 18-19 to get to the new brainstorming stuff on the business function of accounting. Just for fun, here are some of the ideas...

- We started out with basic stuff like: balance sheets, P&L's, user-maintained items, system maintained items, accounts receivable, accounts payable, aging, reimbursements, expenses, banks, inventory tracking, layaways, work in progress, loans, etc.

- Next we got into photos, media content, custom documents and ways of connecting with other outside file assets (documentation).

- Natural flow, flex grid tie-ins, payroll, people, deposits, invoices, customers, users, stock/units, floorplan, tons of reports and exports, bank reconciliation, etc.

- Slight switch to more concepts such as: operational lead accounting, mapping, roll calling, translating, where do the numbers come from (relationships and cause and effect options)

- Loyalty points, taxes, sales tax, withholdings, PO's, manufacturing, inventory tracking and manipulation, life cycles, going backwards and forward, and automation.

- Traditional vs non-traditional accounting

- System and how that makes a difference - everything is there and you can start to interconnect the pieces - digital storytelling

- We do accounting because we have good data - the accounting comes from the data

- Tons of permission levels and who gets to see what

- Accounts, ledgers, glossary, terms, and concepts

- Data assembly line, digital story telling, cause & effect, characters interact to solve trouble and problems, more relationships and building, maintaining, and in some cases destroying those relationships. Processes.

- Time - time is a huge piece of the puzzle

- How do we zipper operations and accounting together to close the gap between the two?

- How does the system handle roll call technology, who, how, what, and why???

- If someone can do their accounting by their own design and take it to their accountant (shoe box, spreadsheets, random records) - then why can't I create something that automates and maps out that process.

- We play according to the standards and the rules but we on purpose create the processes to get to those data points.

- Tradition - our biggest competition

- This is daily, real-time, sharing, no batching/waiting, managers and admin can look at things real-time, cloud based, editable, full history, audit trail, cause and effect, cart and horse, data drill-downs, proof behind your numbers.

- Why we chose to build in a non-traditional manner - because we see all the benefits and we want to keep going in this direction - conscience choice

- We are pioneering and we are on purpose creating tools that are proof of concept

- Crazy accounting things like phantom costs, funny money, slush funds, etc.

- Sub inventory and cost controls - perfect costing vs other costing models

- Normal revenue, COGS (cost of goods sold), gross profit, expenses, net profit, assets, liabilities, equity, retained earnings, etc.

- Future - we have a challenge and we build to solve that challenge that is before us - this is part of our accounting model

- Some people expect us to be completely done but we are not done - we are going to keep building and breaking, building and breaking. That is part of our model.

- You really need human input at certain places - decisions have to be made - you really can't automate some pieces.

- Ongoing development - bring your ideas - stone soup "Bring what you've got, throw it in the pot. We are making stone soup."

- Open to suggestions and new growth

- Things that drive change: pain, brick walls, burning platforms - all these pain points help to bring about change and new solutions

- Static vs dynamic - both flow and environment - things are built differently based on the conditions (static vs dynamic)

- Allow for updating inventory counts - how do you deal with theft, shrinkage, expiration dates, spoiling, and other inventory reconciliation stuff.

- In-store credit, accounts, discounts for terms, bonuses, games, vendor credits, etc.

- We give you the tools to play the game

- Accounts, sub accounts, locations, sub locations, phases, sub phases, etc. - details, layering, and stacking (aka space)

- Add notes to anything, able to add log notes and tie things together

- Track the story - the story is powerful - telling the story is your audit protection

- We can and do deal with multi-locational stacked models. We also deal with cross corp stuff and multi-worlds rolling up or down into the respective holding containers. It can get really deep and complex.

- We don't require you to do this... this, meaning how we do and track accounting, is optional.

- From Russell Moore back in 2016 - We can be a good companion with any other software package. Run any part of our application without using the pieces you don't want. We can feed information to any other software package you want to use. Adilas is a great companion software package for ANY business.

- Conflict management - it is okay to stand your ground. Be confident in what you have built and why you have built it that way. We are going in this direction! If you like what we are doing, great! If not, great, feel free to use some of our other products, services, or pieces if you would like. You do not need to apologize for things that are in line with your values and your vision. The vision helps us all work and succeed.

Anyways, fun brainstorming session. We will take these ideas and refine them into a section in the presentation gallery that deals with the business function of accounting. Great session and fun stuff.

Lots of new brainstorming on the business function of reporting and what that means and does. Working on the outline for the presentation gallery. See attached.

Here were some of the main topics we are working on under reporting:

define the needs
catch the data
secure and store data
transform and progress
show and filter
reporting uses
quick search
dealing with time

simplify - one place to get your reports
you've been waiting for this
bridge the gap - between your business operations and your accounting
roll call - when you need them
live and searchable
remote access
onsite data entry points
cloudbased - access any time
real-time as it happens
always up-to-date
empower the people
customized for each user
hidden features based on permission
permission levels
enter once - use many
enter at the point of action
pass to the next step
if data is correct, let it flow
data assembly line principle
no limits
no data caps
unlimited
different corps within the same login
view at a glance
recent activity and history
automated reports with aging

Just for fun, here is another link to an older what is adilas.biz? flyer - It has some fun concepts that still hold true.

https://data0.adilas.biz/what_is_adilas.pdf - What is adilas.biz? flyer

There were 5 people on the call when I got in. Each of them asked some questions and then eventually bailed out to work on their own projects. Here are some things that I pulled out of there discussions.

- What is the real purpose there? Thinking on a per page level. If that is known, that can really set the tone for the project - aka a focus. Basically, being more clear on the objectives and then sticking to it. That really helps. Idea was presented by both Russell and Danny.

- Some marketing ideas from Danny about free software and then charge for other pieces and/or services. He was talking about a product out there for music lovers and how the sound mixing software was free but they had to pay for specific hardware. Lots of options.

- Eric was talking about being able to build business processes. I would love to take that to the next level. Think how cool it would be if we could setup an area where people could build a business process, name it, setup defaults, determine layouts, requirements, and flow. Then, once those pieces are set and in place (saved), we then could show and use those real settings. Imagine being able to setup your own data assembly line and then the system helps you keep and maintain those business processes. If you need to alter something, you could go back and just tweak some of the setup pieces. That would be so cool.

- Talking about auto printing from the web and using a queue of sorts and then doing the print jobs based off of a service that monitors that queue.

- Talking about custom code jobs. How are jobs coming in and being completed? We have lots of independents and what is the plan for the adilas shop (dev shop) and the projects being passed through? Along those lines, we need to take care of the house. The house being adilas. Often, some of the independents do the work, they get paid, they move on, but they suck tons of resources from adilas without paying for any of those usages. Time, talent, and money are all resources... we need to make sure we are managing and taking care of those pieces.

- Eric was talking about rough estimates and how he likes to bid a project. If needed, he sets up an estimate and then says he bills by the hour regardless. If things get deeper, he then lets the client know that it will be different then the original estimate. It flips it back on the clients and they get to say yea or nay. It's a way to somewhat protect yourself.

Today is Memorial Day. Pretty quite on this front today. Steve and I were the only ones on the meeting this morning. We ended up chatting about enterprise and aggregated systems. We need to make sure that the traffic and flow of data can go in both directions - up and down (to master and from master). We also talked about tons of other topics and lessons learned. We are constantly refining our model, what we offer, and how we do things. Just part of the game.

Some of the topics that we were chatting about were things like:

- Flex bubbles and concepts of the data assembly line - trying to keep operations and accounting running parallel and allowing flex to enter the equation as needed. Bring things back together with checkpoints, permissions, dates, and known phases. 3D depth, stacking, and layering to record and let the story play out. Lots of data assembly line concepts.

- Helping our developers move from the snow owl theme towards fracture. We are currently working on a look and feel them of snow owl (just a name for the current version and look and feel). What we really want to do is keep building in such a way as to get to a future project called fracture. This is where everything starts breaking into smaller and smaller pieces that may be configurable and controllable. The whole thing keeps sub dividing. So, we plan on accepting that and are planning on capitalizing on that natural occurrence of things splitting into smaller and smaller pieces. Everything is headed into sub level of controls.

- As we move forward, what would that take and how does it roll out (current to future projects)? Trying to get our minds about how this whole thing will unfold.

- As part of the conversation, we were talking about how accounting and CPA's help keep things together, once operations have taken place. Eventually, everything ends up as accounting. If we can help in that process (from operations to accounting), that helps companies become more sticky (wanting and needing our products and services) through their accounting and CPA's.

- A big part of our job is pioneering the vision and bringing both operations and accounting together. It takes a lot of hard work, ideas, good data, and lots of dreams. Steve and I love the dreaming and brainstorming and problem solving parts of the puzzle. Good stuff.

- Once you get some motion and momentum, it seems to be easier to go in certain directions. Part of Steve and I's job is to help get things started and get that motion and/or momentum going in a good direction.

- We need to give Wayne some more power in order to do everything that he needs to. He is doing a great job.

- This is silly, but we went to the corp administrator page and talked about some older pricing and verbiage that was on that page. Here is some text from there. Just for fun...

Submitting Ideas, Custom Code & Developer Rates

The adilas staff are constantly adding to and improving our business platform. We love your feedback and ideas! Just email us or let one of our reps know if you have any needs or suggestions. Many of your ideas may be incorporated for free and then passed on to all other users and companies free of charge. This is how we share the love and give back to the community. A huge portion of the adilas platform has evolved from great ideas from different users like yourself.

When you submit an idea or suggestion it will go into the general adilas "to do list". We then pull from this list according to priority, time, and needs. There are no promises as to the specific timelines or release dates for when or if ideas will be used. All changes we make that come from our general to do list are completely free to everyone.

Entering the "custom" or "priority" level...

If you have a specific idea that needs priority or needs to be custom-built, just let us know! At this level, we do charge for these changes.

Here is how things work in the custom code arena... Adilas, LLC. retains all rights and possession of code, assets, functions, and features (including custom-built code). Your data is yours, but all of the code assets and code libraries belong to Adilas, LLC. As much as possible, it is adilas's goal to reuse, resell, and permission out new projects and features to other adilas users. This becomes part of the free upgrade process that all adilas users benefit from.

We use the following as our general guideline on rates and fees:

• Submitting An Idea or Suggestion - Absolutely Free! :)

• Hourly College Intern Time - Quote or $35 to $50/hour. This could be for either design or development work. This is great option that both saves you money and helps one or more college interns get the skills to pay the bills. Adilas interns work directly with the main adilas staff to get the work and projects done.

• Hourly Adilas Development Time - Quote or $100/hour.

• Custom Interfaces - Quote or $100 and up. A simple page with 10-15 buttons will run about $100. If it gets more involved, we'll give you a quote that fits your needs. We also allow you to literally "dream it up, and we'll help you wire it up!" We are happy to work with paper and pencil mock-ups, sketches, digital diagrams, or schematics, and even designs from 3rd party designers. No problem, we'll help you wire it up!

• Custom Data Imports (parts, inventory items, customers, vendors, etc.)
Quote or $100/hour. Most imports, from Microsoft Excel, come in between $100 and $200. You provide the data file.

• Simple Custom Documents or Forms
This could be any simple Adobe PDF file, custom report, MS Excel document, or CSV file. - Quote or $100/document. Advanced documents or processes are by quote only.

• Full Day of Development Time
Block of Time (at least 6 hours and up to a max of 8 hours) - Quote or $500/day. Must schedule with developers and get approval.

• Full Week of Development Time
Block of Time - 35-50 Hours - Quote or $3,000/week. Must schedule with developers and get approval.

• Full Week with a Developer Onsite
Up to 6 days at a time - Monday/Saturday - Quote Required - $5,000/week. Must schedule with developers and get approval. This option may also include a place to stay and airfare if needed.

• Full Project Match
Quote Only - We figure out a project together and Adilas, LLC. will match and/or exceed what you and/or others put into the project (possible group effort). We, at adilas, need to see a pretty good value in the projects or features that take this route. :)

These rates and fees are "ballpark" only... They are provided to help you get an idea of what is possible and to help you determine rough budgets. If you can dream it up, we'll give it a go and see what kind of magic we can do... We love this kinda stuff! Yee Haw! :)

As a reminder, the only required fees and costs to use adilas.biz are your normal monthly fees to use the system. All other costs are done at your consent to play in the custom code or priority arena.

Copyright © 2020 powered by adilas.biz

Shannon and I had a good session and talked about where we are going next. We've been working on the presentation gallery for weeks and months now. We are getting close to finishing that up, at least for this round. We determined that we will start planning and preparing for an important project for us called "fracture". This is the next level we want to take adilas to. It included concepts like: 3D building blocks, world building, data assembly lines, beautiful and configurable user interfaces, permissions & settings, and dynamic paring. Super cool stuff.

See the bottom of the attached document for some of our concepting and brainstorming. We want to present the vision of where we are headed. We want to start tapping into the raw potential of what we are doing. The potential of what we are working on is far greater than all of the code and pieces put together to date. The sum of the whole and where that could go... It's good, I want more... Good stuff.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/help.cfm?id=483&pwd=building - help file that talks about world building concepts

Steve and Sean were on the meeting when I got in. Steve introduced Sean Carlton who is going to be doing some sales stuff for adilas. Eric joined in and all three of us, Steve, Eric, and I spent some time getting to know Sean. Steve's goal was to introduce Sean to a few of the adilas players as a sort of flavor or culture type thing.

Eric and Sean were talking about using standard internal solutions and tools vs mixing tons of outside 3rd party solutions. Sean has worked for companies that have used adilas for the last ten or so years (experienced user). Eric was able to talk about pros and cons on the 3rd party solutions and what not. Lots of options, sometimes it is hard to figure out what path to choose (internal, external, mix, hybrid, etc.).

This was kinda funny, but at one point, they had been talking about internal vs outside 3rd party solutions, and Eric said "there are lots of little rabbit holes like this where you could spend hours and hours, all around adilas." I thought that was kinda funny, but true. Eventually the topic switched to the beauty of a fully integrated solution and/or system. Many of the current adilas users may not even know that certain things exist. That lack of knowledge makes it so that even some of our current clients are not using adilas as effectively as they could be, due to lack of knowledge and knowing what is already there and/or in the works. Things change daily.

One of the challenges is letting people know what we have and keep improving along the way. It is never done - at least it seems that way. The lungs can't tell the heart it is not doing a good job because they (the different body parts) each do different things... like a system and all the systems inside of the body. Lots of moving pieces. That is both a challenge and a blessing.

Towards the end of the morning meeting, Steve was talking and pitching pieces of the adilas culture to Sean. It was fun to listen to him pitch it and hear how it works from his point of view. We do have a unique company culture.

As a take away, it is very common for almost all companies out there, that they are trying to mix 4-6 (or more) different software solutions and packages to try to make everything work. The pain comes in the mixing, crossing, double and triple entry, and dead ends that each of those 4-6 different packages bring to the mix. We at adilas are actively trying to build a single system that handles everything in an integrated system type environment. That is where we are headed. We are calling it world building or business world building. Our goal is to follow the data assembly line type concepts and enter the data once, at the point of action, and then let it flow until it completes it full life cycle (dates, checkpoints, permission, phases, states, and status stuff). Catching and recording the story of the data as it unfolds and then passing it on to the next step in the cycle or life cycle. That's where we are heading. Good stuff.

Russell and I merged in some code and then talked about projects. We also spent some time talking about fracture stuff (where we are headed). Russell has a lot of good information there and has a dream and a vision already in his head. I'd love to capitalize on that see if we can get those ideas out of his head and on paper and/or recorded somewhere. Here are just a few things...

- Russell really wants to organize the core with specific sections. He has a drawing that he does to explain some of the pieces. Basically, imagine a center core that is round. On the top and both sides, there is a known slot where something may be inserted into it. Imagine a slot for special logic and/or a controller. Another for classes and/or a model (structure of the objects and pieces). And yet another for the visual or view portion. Somewhat of an MVC (model, view, controller) type model.

- Relating to the core with special insert points, each of the insert pieces (logic, view, what) would allow for both industry specific code and custom code. Basically, You set the core up so that it can and is able to handle things (code, views, logic, other objects) that change the core without hurting the core.

- Along those same lines, for fracture, Russell would like to have two different types of API's - One would be a rest (URL or path based) API. The other API socket would be for things like graph QL or some other type of API socket.

- One of the goals of this new interface and/or application would be to have the ability to reach out to other industries and be able to swap out the pieces to virtually make the application or platform switch clothes or be able to change as if the application was switching clothes and/or modes of operation. Dynamic core, known plug-ins per industry, and ability to flip/flop without affecting the core. On purpose built that way.

- What if we could... be able to... handle all custom needs? Be able to handle all industry specific needs and all core needs? That would be a very flexible and dynamic architecture and/or design. We want to head in that direction.

- We used to say something like... You dream it up, we'll help you wire it up. What if you could say, Dream it up, you wire it up? Basically, give the power to wire it up to the persons who are using it... That would be so cool. Real live world building and/or setting up their own data assembly lines. That would be super cool.

- Headless CMS (content management systems) - Headless CMS storage for your data. We offer a huge and configurable database and backend app or toolset. You get to decide how you want to use it and what you want to do with it.

- Along those same lines... if we want to reskin the app for a different industry, we do the same thing that our users do, we just do it in bulk to accommodate more than just one company at a time (think bulk setting changes and/or industry specific themes or modules). It is still a headless CMS storage system for your data and your business flow. It just deals with are we configuring it or are you (as a company or user) configuring it. We both use the same tools.

Working on a business plan with Shannon. We went over a document that we got from Russell that had some outlines for mission statements and other things. Just trying to get ideas and figure out where we want to go.

We liked a term that Russell had in his mission statement. It was "business grade software package". That had a good ring to it. We took some notes on our brainstorming session and talked about what we want for our mission statement. We talked about putting the words "business grade" in front of some of the things that we are doing. For example: business grade world building or business grade data assembly line, etc. Just having fun.

Shannon was a great sounding board for me today. She often takes on that role and does a great job. Earlier this morning we had meetings on rules and regulations for accounting, a small question and answer session with an internal auditor, and a meeting dealing with servers, configuration, and custom project requests and needs. All over the place.

Here are some notes from our meeting today. It was pretty much all over the place as well. I guess that is us...

- Rules are part of the checks and balances. Having those rules in place create the checks and balances. Those rules help our company and culture to out live us. As needed, it is ok to keep changing the rules. Sometimes we feel like we have to nail it perfectly the first time... not so, we get to keep playing and playing and practicing as we go. That is super important.

- We play the game on a dynamic and changing playground - everyday.

- Talking about a rigid structure, like the internal audit we are conducting, do we want to be really structured or on purpose, be a more open type model?

- If we are trying to compare... our virtual boxes (where you store things and say, yes, that is done) are not a one and done type of box... our boxes sometimes takes days, weeks, months, and even years (plural).

- We are doing a lot of great things right now. Maybe just keep polishing and refining. A phrase that works for us is "tweaking" or micro adjustments.

- Often we try to be a perfectionist. That's hard for anyone to fill those shoes.

- A couple different models that are somewhat similar, if you look deep enough. The city on a floating platform powered by a core engine, a town that has a railroad or tracks helping to setup a town (a railroad town), the adilas jelly fish model (a cap of the monthly reoccurring business platform and all of the services that are needed to support that reoccurring monthly entity (code, design, consulting, training, project management, hardware, servers, data entry, other services). All of these models have a primary element that brings everything else together. Without the primary element, all of the other pieces would only exist by themselves as smaller independent pieces, there would be no need for grouping or combing assets and resources. That primary element is a big key to the puzzle.

- Shannon and I were talking about opposites. We said that a structured or linear format was one side of the puzzle. The other side of the puzzle was round or more all inclusive. Shannon kept using the word "sphere". Just for fun... think of one eternal round - not climbing a ladder but working and refining things all over the place - a sphere or data sphere type model.

- Going back to world building... If that is our goal, then a model of a sphere is perfect. Lots of different levels and pieces.

- What are our priorities?

- Seeking happiness vs full compliance. We talked about what drives people to work or do certain things. We brought up the points: some people work for money (pretty simple), some people may even work harder for other people (doing something for someone else), and some people may even work the hardest when they are driven by a cause (some form of deep passionate form of motivation more that other people and money).

- Our next few topics got into some mental factors that sometimes get overlooked. Such as fulfillment, progression, being able to take away comparison, and being ok with our own skin. That word comparison sure can add a lot of stress and pressure.

- Going back to the sphere concept, not an up or down, able to work on different levels and layers of the whole. All of the pieces of the puzzle are important.

- Concepts of the data assembly line - time based, checkpoints, flex bubbles, depth, permissions, advancing the ball as needed, ability to add in flex.

- Compassion to self and others - that is a huge thing. Be a little kinder, show some compassion.

This is sort of silly... but Shannon and I talk a lot about adilas and business principles in our meetings. We also end up talking a lot about just life in general. Maybe that's why we enjoy these meeting so much. It's a great time to reflect, learn, and express where things are at. Good stuff. I wouldn't trade it. I love it.

Steve and Sean going over sales stuff. They were talking about the Apple Model and how someone greats you when you come in and then you could be helped by someone else by going through some sort of simple queue type process. Danny checked in. After that, we helped Steve with his local environment. Both Dustin and John Maestas checked in. Some small intros were made and what not. John is Dustin's friend. John is just getting going with us on some development projects.

They then started to talk about different versions and generations, for example: generation 3 or generation 4, etc. Dustin has been responsible for some of the new versions out in cultivation land and what not. It is fun to see the progress and the changes over time.

After these guys left, we went into a sub meeting of sorts and worked through some things. Sometimes, our clients, want industry specific processes that are fully built out and completely industry specific (super narrow focus and/or paths to choose). As we were talking, we ended up talking about drawing out the processes, pretending to do simulations and different use cases. We also talked about being proactive vs reactive  and/or passive. We really want to help our users out and then let them help us refine it vs waiting completely on the client's input. Sometimes they don't know what is possible, they tend to stick with what is set in front of them.

Often, our clients don't realize that we can customize it (tweak or refine the processes). That seems really trivial to us, but thinking in custom code (what is possible) is a skill. The deeper we go, the more we are seeing that all of our layouts need to be fully customized or customizable and based on settings. That sounds awesome, but that adds a whole other level of complexity. Small and skinny yet totally data driven.

We need to get back to the limited flex grid pages. Make it slick and skinny. We are already using it for Beaver Mountain, but want to make it good to go for all of our clients. This would be so cool, but it will take some more work. Having said that, we really really want to get back to this. The limited flex grid is a way of setting up custom fields and dynamically populating a really small add/edit form that only shows what they want or need vs all of the possible fields.

As a side note, the flex grid table has over 40+ different fields that we can and do use for different things. Imagine is you could setup a simple form that only had 5-6 of those custom values. It then becomes really simple vs too big or too overwhelming. The goal is user defined simplicity, yet still being fully connected and powerful. If needed, we could always flip over to a full or more extended mode if some other field or value is needed. It is almost like layering the interface and the data. Super simple on the surface, but deeper or more rich as needed (layering).

We got off into communications and dealing with outbound messages, communication options, and getting people connected to the correct sub or special pages (combo of communication and navigation options).

Next, we got talking about building out custom skins (wrappers of the logic and data) and how that plays into the mix. We did some light pitching and talking about different packaging and marketing options. Some of the subjects that we chatted about were things like ski area, gun shooting lanes, classes, and then working with people in those industries to build and test out products and services. Basically, have or get a dream, build it, and then use people who are in that industry to test and give feedback on interface, navigation, user experience, flow, and functionality requirements.

On the marketing and sales side, if we have someone who is using our product in a specific industry, that testimonial does tons for helping others in that industry to be willing to jump on board. We have also found that if we find someone who is in an industry and they are willing to help, provide feedback, beta test, and give ideas... that is like gold and helps the process get smoother and smoother. It is amazing how a little bit of icing makes the cake look that much better.

Expanding into other horizons, we really want to do this. Our conversation circled back around to the dream it up, push on it, and we'll help you wire that up type model. You dream it up, we'll wire it up. Making things simple, powerful, and easy. Awesome words/phrases, harder to do, but possible. We also talked about opening our eyes and minds to what is possible. Being able to see and/or imagine is sometimes harder than you think. Once we can see it, the next phase is letting our users and clients catch that vision. Once you can transfer the vision, others start helping to beat that drum and making it happen. Share the vision!

As we look at the MVP (minimal viable product or minimal viable plan) type approach, we get pulled out of the dream land and back into - what are the next step or steps that need to happen. You can't lose sight of the goal, but you also have to make it work (along the way) vs just the dream at the end of the tunnel. Having said that... one thing that has been very successful for us is... get them hooked on one aspect and then letting them go and start dreaming. They'll start putting the pieces together. You just have to get that process started. Sometimes with an MVP type approach and then let it grow from there.

Here are a couple of other topics that were discussed: saved reports and connecting to them, other future projects (fracture), reviewing topics listed above, automated and predictive logic, aggregates and quick starts, templates, build your own processes (data assembly line and flex bubbles or flex pods), and other topics. Good meeting. Lots of new ideas and also firming up some of the older ones that keep circling around.

Danny, Sean, and Steve were on the meeting when I joined this morning. They were talking and touching base on things. I was doing emails and trying to get caught up with small to do list stuff. Here are a few notes that I gleaned just from listening.

- Keep building and connecting the pieces - take the next logical step.

- The deeper we go, the more we are seeing elements of time being an underlying foundation or under weaving of almost everything we are doing. Maybe keep exposing that and building towards that. We've always know it was there (foundation of events and objects over time) but maybe keep pushing that connection and foundation piece.

- Have the attitude, let's figure it out. We keep getting hit with more and more questions, what if's, wouldn't it be cool if's... etc. Well, let's figure it out!

- If you find the pain, then look at the tools that you have, and build a solution to fit.

After that, we changed course and started to talk about a project with a gun manufacture. They need to track gun registrations and RMA (return merchandise authorization) stuff. We invited Chuck on to the meeting and took a bunch of great notes. See attached.

- In this meeting, there was a lot of talk about the data assembly line concepts and how it would be super cool if we could do the limited flex grid type approach for flex grid as well as elements of time. Imagine a small and simple form with only a couple of key values, you submit it, and the next time you need to do something (say another phase or process), the small and simple form could keep track of where you are at and only show you the new limited fields that you needed. That would be so cool. Almost a generic process or phase builder. You pick what you need at what phase and then as you walk through the phase, you only get presented what you really need at that time. That concept may be worth exploring more. Think data assembly line for data, based on settings, templates, phases, and underlying processes (tasks to do and/or record). Simple, step-by-step processes with a powerful and dynamic backend so that the frontend looks super simple (trained monkey could do it - in theory). That would be pretty cool.

Steve and I spent an hour talking about ideas, key reps, key consultants, what they are doing that we like, what we could work together on and where things are headed. I was taking some notes on a separate Word document. Good stuff.

From Steve - "flex bubble" or "flex bubbles" - concepts of mini steps (bubbles or pods) to make a whole (aka processes) - parts of the data assembly line concepts - dynamic settings and user (data) driven settings. Help them build their own phases and processes - super simple. Think of a process where you are able to say... by the time we are done, I want this, and this, and that... Then setup the steps or phases to get that done. All through settings and basically a simple point and click build process to format and formulate the correct steps in the process. That would be so cool.

Keep finding people who want to play! Lots of great talks about who we are looking for and what piece they bring to the puzzle. Fun conversation.

Steve asked me to run some of the mini units ideas and options by Danny, as he missed out on our conversation the other day. We did lots of drawing, scenarios, and even some typing of what we were hoping to accomplish. Nice little brainstorming and planning session. This is kinda funny, but I was pitching the ideas on mini units like it was my current project. I kept defending certain ideas and concepts, yet nobody was defending an alternate point of view. I don't know why, but I felt like I was trying to pitch something that was being opposed and/or had a conflict. It turned out fine, just not sure why I was so motivated to get the ideas and concepts across. Kinda funny.

We ended up going into options for the mini units and how they could be tied into packages of packages (cases, boxes, crates, etc.), media/content options (specific paperwork per mini unit), and tons of options on flow for how those mini units would flow through the processes (data assembly line and flex bubble stuff). This ended up sending us on a tangent to talk about the order, invoice, fulfillment, and shipping processes. Lots of ideas about bringing things in, tracking and recording inventory, selling items internally, and also selling items externally or through ecommerce. Certain places have subs, sub processes, data entry, uploading documentation, gathering other info, etc. Each side of that story (receiving, stocking, selling, shipping, etc.) all have different needs dealing with the same mini unit or serialized items. Very interesting.

We got into what some of the reports may look like, how to find and filter the records, we also talked about bulk ways to look and match-up those extra details (serial numbers per mini unit). We got into 1-to-many-to-many-to-many relationships. It got kinda deep in places. Build what is needed to track it all the way through. Very interesting.

Steve and Sean were also talking about tracking backorders and using quotes (orders), invoices, and monitoring the fulfillment of those orders. We got into concepts of joiner tables out in database land. A joiner table is a table that creates relationships between different objects. The subject for this meeting was quotes, quote line items (aka the order), and how those were fulfilled on one or more invoices, and invoice line items. We talked about ways of using a joiner table to monitor those relationships and fulfillment needs.

Good meeting, lots of concepts, pitching, planning, and drawing.

Wayne and I started working on the WordPress stuff and getting the adilas news and updates section tested and deployed. All was going well and we pushed up some new code. For about half an hour, no problems... all of the sudden, we had alarms going off right and left. We had flooded the new WordPress server and it was totally maxed out. We quickly tried to remove the WordPress API socket connections to restore our servers. We don't know if it was just our own traffic or if it was under attack, but we buried that poor server. We got things recovered as quickly as possible. We are going to build in some better error handling and enforce better timeouts and number of attempts. Crazy stuff.

On a totally different note, while everything was going good and smooth... Wayne was showing Steve and others some of the home automation and fun things that he (Wayne) does when he is not working for adilas. Some really fun stuff.

As part of Wayne's demo and virtual show and tell, they were talking about 3D layouts, gaming, 3D printers, house plans, electrical circuits, etc. As they were talking, I was having this fun vision of using adilas to virtually layout and organize a business... just like a 3D layout program or a circuit schematic, what if you could layout out your business or business flow in such a fun visual manner... this talks to this, that flows over to that, these processes get done here, and these things get connected with these other things (very general but image real instruction and flow processes). I think it would be so cool if eventually, you could virtually setup a business to help map, layout, and illustrate the full flow of data and processes. It would be so cool to virtually watch as each piece of data went through the process. You could see the data, you could tweak and change it, you could correct it, you could approve it, you could allow it to move on, recycle, add options, or whatever. Think how cool that would be... almost a 3D virtual game (data assembly line) for the game of business.

That concept of a virtual game type layout and interface may be fun and could be part of the fracture project (future version of adilas). Build your own mock-up, build your own interface, custom configure just what you want and need, tailored to your business. See above.

- There was an original email dated back in July - Cultivation report for Ianthus

- Suzi and Philip from Ianthus were on the call - there were quite a few adilas folks on the call.

- Cultivation mapping - done by Dustin

- When a plat it changed from one phase to other phase, you auto populate those fields.

- They have some custom fields (sub inventory attributes) that they want auto filled when certain actions happen - changes of specific phases

- Maybe setting up which sub inventory attributes show up based on what phase. Also, does one or more of them have (sub attributes) a mapping from other data that is being entered up higher. It may take some more mapping. We may want to show/hide certain sub attributes based on the phases. That means we need to go through the process and really detail out what is shown and what is hidden. Along those same lines, they would love to set it up so that if a sub attribute is being shown, it can get a value or its data from one or more spots (other user entered form values). 

- Currently, some of the info that they are wanting to catch (automatically) is dealing with dates and sub dates.

- As a side note, because we allow each corporation build their own sub attributes, we then have to be able to show/hide and map out these pieces as they go through the different phases. The eventually need all of this data, but we are showing so many fields, it makes it more difficult. We are catching all of the data right now, it just isn't organized (visual report or visual form) to make it easy.

- Another thing that they were talking about was getting to those sub attributes later on - other reports  and passing that data along to other places.

- Just an idea... what if we build a phase builder type app - these would be settings, user controlled, and allow you to setup a single phase, what data to gather (maybe a point and click interface to setup what will show up), then the ability to setup defaults, show/hide fields, what to default things to, other data mappings, etc.

- There were some talks about back filling the data - separate tasks going backwards. Along with that, if we back fill things (update the data), we also need to build it going forward so it becomes an automated process.

- Eventually, they were getting into the nitty gritty details of each phase. The start of one phase sets certain values, the end of a phase closes things down (other actions) and also starts the next phase. We need to detail out each phase. I'm just dreaming here, but virtually a way to setup pods or sections of a virtual data assembly line process.

- The first phase would be a backfill type report - able to do things in bulk. They were talking about being able to select a PO date range and then applying specific dates to all line items on the PO. There were also talks about a PO number range.

- Light talks about required sub attributes and optional sub attributes.

Emails and recording notes.

Reviewing a 7 page document from Steve McNew - internal consultant and software process engineer. I have a copy of the document saved on my local computer. Some new and exciting things. Mostly a structured refinement of some of concepts, methods, and practices. Trying to become more structured and standardized in our approaches and philosophy.

I also had a half an hour phone call with Steve Berkenkotter. Part of it we were going over the document from the other Steve (software consultant), talking about funding, and what are the next steps for us as a company. We talked about scale, stepping up to the next level, allowing others to help handle small teams and sub projects, and concepts of the data assembly line.

We keep seeing a need for things to be open and flexible, then coming together and getting more rigid, and then expanding and contracting again, over and over. This same process will be needed as we go up the chain, clear into aggregated or master systems at the enterprise levels. These are the virtual flex bubbles or flex pods that we keep seeing. It all comes back to the data assembly line type concepts. Kinda fun to see it go full circle and even to keep expanding beyond the simple transactional corporations and worlds. "O|O|O" (pretend that those are little flex pods or flex bubbles - the O's are the flexible or open areas (based on phases and permissions), the | (pipe symbol) is the checkpoint or divider for the next level.

More info on the data assembly line concepts - help file

We had a bunch of guys on the meeting this morning. Sean and Marisa were asking questions about using sub inventory out in ecommerce. There are tons of different settings. Ecommerce was not designed for the customer to be super detailed, like they are inside the main system. Out in ecommerce, they just say something like - I want this and that. Behind the scenes we have to check packages, counts, quantities, and other availability. This makes it kinda interesting... We have to play in simple requests but record things in crazy levels of details.

Steve was helping to guide the discussion. He did a great job and it was fun to watch and participate. We ended up having Alan pop in and go through things. As he was talking, I was scribbling down notes, ideas, and such. There are so many moving parts and pieces. All part of the same game or same puzzle.

We got into some Metrc and state compliance issues and needs. We ended up checking out some data for a client. They had added things, removed things, set things to inactive, voided things, and adjusted quantities using adjustment tools in the system. A complex series of events and timing. Also, different things done by different people. Thank goodness for histories being kept and maintained by the system. We ended up having Sean and Marisa do some fixes and then reach back out to the clients to let them know (passing on the knowledge and info - training).

Putting in another plug for a couple of other things that we still need to build out and/or refine a bit:

- We need to add a history table for sub inventory. The table already exists, but has not yet been wired up. That would really help.

- A quick search tool for RFID tags, media/content (files and links), and sub inventory attributes and packages (batches). The quick search already exists, we just don't have those things listed in the available search options. That would be really cool.

- The story about what is happening is so important. Eventually, it will end at a certain state or status, but what happened to get it there is huge. That's where the history and story comes in.

- We added more to the known issues report and known issues list. This will become part of the master code branch so that we can gather up ideas and such. We are hoping to get this report and tool out soon. Still under construction, but coming. Yeah!

- Steve is doing awesome on JIT (just in time) project management and delegation. Super fun to watch him work today.

- Steve and Kelly were on a meeting earlier today - as part of that meeting, they were using elements of time (calendar objects) to schedule recipe/builds to happen on certain days (production). The elements of time hit the calendar and the individual elements of time had links to fire off or do certain recipes on certain days. Creative use of both tools and mixing them together. As a side note, we are seeing elements of time being used more and more to coordinate and orchestrate different pieces as needed. So powerful!

-  There is a value of group trouble shooting and putting the puzzle pieces together. Not too many, but enough!

- Some of the jobs and tasks require planning and even pre-planning.

- We deal with moving targets all of the time - static (non moving) vs dynamic (constantly moving)

- Out in ecommerce, we have different levels. Inside the system, we help take the users into deep waters, based on permissions. However, out in ecommerce, we need to keep it simple (customer view and customer level), yet eventually we need the deep water info. What do we automate and what do we leave or make as a human type interaction? There is a balance and not situations are the same. Wouldn't it be cool if we could virtually setup the data assembly line with automated tasks and manual entry tasks. We can do that, but we have to be involved every time. Wouldn't it be cool if we could build the tool to help configure things as needed and have it all tied into the big picture software package or system app. Let's keep working towards that!

Dustin and Cory joined the meeting. We were looking into Dustin's new cultivation and batch process actions. He showed us some small bugs and enhancements that he is working on. We talked about some possible strategies and he took some notes. It is looking good and we should be within a few days of getting the current version launched and pushed up live. That is exciting!

As a fun side note, Dustin made his local environment look really cool with a custom dark theme on the look and feel. It looked very professional and fun. Throughout the meeting, Cory and I would ask questions and Dustin would respond. Some great back and forth with ideas, flow, and user experience stuff. Once again, looking great. Some of the things were form on the top, bottom, how much to scroll, filters, flow, show/hide buttons, verbage changes, etc.

We want to keep things at a minimal but still make it fully functional (as far as what is currently done) without rolling into weeks and weeks of more development. Kinda putting a temporary cap on things to get them up and going, instead of creating the never ending feature creep type scenario.

One interesting takeaways from our meeting was the concept of creating a dynamic, user controlled, environment that allows for data to be started, gathered, structured, categorized, and a full end-to-end process all through settings and automation. Basically, it was the concepts of the data assembly line and a user controlled (dynamic) data assembly line. Phases, locations, moves, bulk functions, printing labels, batches and batch controls, removals, new items, etc. All in one place and flowing towards an end goal. Pretty cool.

The last thing that was brought up was how recipe/builds could help in manufacturing and production systems. It could be pretty cool.

John and I were on a meeting. I ended up doing a little bit more research and looking at the file from Jonathan Wells and his Adobe XD mock-ups and prototypes. I FTPed  the files up to the content server. John asked me to explain the content server and how that whole thing works. We did a lot of drawing and bouncing to different pages to explain the processes. Some of the highlights were talking about why and how we allow for 3 different sources for media/content (files). We allow for local paths (where are things stored on the local computer or drive), remote references (where are files stored on outside or other servers such as google drive, drop box, skydrive, etc.), and finally, physical upload (files that you push up to our servers for storage and security). Great questions.

John really wants to help out with some visual flow charts and graphical user interfaces, including graphical homepages and layouts. That would really help - for people to get their heads around what is out there, possible, built-in, and available. Each section needs a small visual and/or virtual map of the area. As we get into fracture, I really want to include some maps of the sections so that people could follow along, know what is there, and also be able to customize their own workspace and data flow (digital assembly line with phases, sub locations, date/time stamps, checkpoints, etc.). Make the whole thing a visual delight to work with and organize your space or work environment.

Steve was working on a database update for some new corp-wide settings for PO names and recipe/build names. We looked at his code and made a few changes. We then went on and talked about the growing need for super high enterprise or global level product and item catalogs. It seems to be more and more needed, yet it is still out there a little ways.

Steve and I chatted about some funding options and then I pitched some ideas to Steve about the data assembly line concepts. Lots of small little drawings. We are actually doing it, building towards the full data assembly line concepts, but we just haven't really made that our focus. Dustin has already added a phase base process for cultivation. Steve is currently working on some production phases, and we have other projects that have similar flavors. The absolute ideal would be to allow our clients the ability to setup and run their own business processes and let them (our users or our clients) setup the phases, sub locations, options, flow, defaults, timing, etc. of these processes and procedures. That would be really cool!

Working on content and verbage for an article we are writing (Shannon and I) dealing with the origins of the adilas core concepts. See attached for where we are at. Shannon and I were exploring on where, why, and how some of those core concepts came to life. We weren't planning on getting into all of this stuff like super deep custom business software and theory, but... The core concepts sort of just fell into our laps. We just picked them up and mixed them together... We didn't come up with them, but we sure have been grateful for them. The results are the lessons that we have learned and where we are trying to go and head.

Gratefully, the core concepts have been one of our best guiding lights and we are very vested in them. He/She who masters the concepts, masters much. They are kind of guiding us along this path and journey. I personally love learning and really enjoy talking about, teaching, and brainstorming on the different topics and subjects. I've been in and through many of these situations, scenarios, concepts, and topics. I've lived it, to some extent. I'm still learning, but loving it. I love talking about world building concepts, 3D data assembly lines ideas and ways to implement things. I've also really enjoyed brainstorming on other 3D business world building ideas. Shannon and I were talking universe level, galaxy level, cluster level, solar system level, word level, locations, groups, individuals, data, and running all of these different levels over time. So many different levels.

Fun stuff like 3D data levels (x=time, y=resources and money, and y=space and depth (layering, stacking, details, relationships, etc.). Good stuff.

As part of our research today, we were talking about more world building stuff and how all of that (those concepts) came to be. Once again, we didn't come up with them, but we for sure will help be a spokesman for the subject and topic. We love it! We were discussing the idea of learning and then protecting things through sharing of intellectual property (IP) stuff. That feels like one of our roles. We learn it, then we share it. If we just keep it to ourselves, no one else will gain from it. We really want to share and protect these pieces. Here is an article (developer's notebook entry) on intellectual property and ways of sharing to protect things. I feel driven to help educate, demonstrate, and protect some of the main core concepts and ideas that we, adilas, are founded upon. It give me purpose to try to play a role with these things. Good stuff.

Server meeting with Wayne, John, Cory, and I. We talked about some of the domain names that we have and making sure that they resolve to the correct servers. These are extra domain names that deal with data assembly lines, world building, business zipper, data sphere stuff, and more.

We talked about budgets and light work on Excel doing some simple math. Along with this, we also talked about transferring backend code over to Lucee, an open source product that reads and translates the Adobe ColdFusion language. Basically, a switch between using the commercial (high dollar) version or the lower cost, but still super powerful, open source option. This could save adilas over $30K/year going forward. That is a great possible savings. We talked about what it might take to switch over.

Towards the end, Cory had some questions and we did some math, budgets, and drawing on what we are trying to do. We were talking about clustering of servers, possible fees per CPU cores, etc. It became more clear as we went through it. Good stuff.

Shannon and I met up and started to get back into some user guide files that we were working on in mid 2019. We were going over some financial theory, what makes us different, and why do we do what we do. We'll circle back in and keep working on that section. The underlying tone of the documents was dealing with the concepts of the data assembly line and how to track objects and data through their lifecycles, states, status, and checkpoints. Good stuff.

I woke up this morning dreaming about adilas and what value it brings to the table. I went downstairs to record a couple of thoughts and ended up staying down there for a quite a bit of time, just recording ideas as they came to me. I then took a small notepad of post-it notes upstairs and kept coming up with different ideas. These could be expanded upon, it was just a quick, record what thoughts are coming to your mind, type of thing. I had all of these little one-liners written on about 9 pages of post-it notes. Kinda funny.

- 20 years of experience

- 250 customers

- Working model

- Trained team

- Data like crazy - tons of it

- Usage patterns

- Able to handle multi-industries (business verticals)

- People use it - daily

- Success stories from some of our clients

- Database model and database schema (what rows, columns, tables, indexes, data types, records, values, etc.)

- Code repository (huge code base)

- 10 full versions with back-ups of each version (over time)

- Documentation (things written, recorded, and organized)

- Commercial product

- Developer's notebook - full story and all that we have learned

- Able to do custom out of the box

- All of the custom code (as an asset)

- Plans for fracture (upcoming and future project)

- Established billing and revenue

- R&D and prototyping

- Graphics, visuals, and other artwork (even sketches)

- Presentation gallery - Full presentation ready gallery for business functions, attributes, key players, and core concepts

- Concepts - these are worth more than our code

- Pioneering paths and ideas

- Over 6.5 million in sales

- Willing to push the limits and try new things

- We know the pit falls, the costs, the good, and the bad - we've been playing in this arena for quite some time

- No one else is doing what we are doing and how we do it. Our approach to bring operations and accounting together is unique.

- Our story is fully recorded

- Reoccurring model and reoccurring revenue

- Support a team of 15-20 individuals and their families

- Thousands of users that use it every day

- Refinement and bug fixes

- We've built and maintained this application - we know what it takes

- We are doing it - following a dream

- Tons of video recordings and trainings

- Knowledge and experience

- Minimal debt

- Generating revenue right now

- Plans and vision for the future

- 40+ servers

- Ok with being who we are right now

- We don't have to have every client - Ok with serving those who like what we do

- Relationships with clients, vendors, 3rd party solutions, users, and team members

- Tons of intangibles

- Ecosystem

- 12 main players, 12 business functions, 12 core concepts

- Data assembly line

- 3D World building concepts

- The concepts are worth more than the code - We are one of millions of possible options vs everybody will go down the main primary path that leads to what we are doing and trying to do. If they (any other company or software system) choose to follow us, they will come down the core paths that we have found and are exploring. These are the core concepts that we are built on. There is tons of room down here (like exploring a giant cavern with tons of off shooting tunnels and shoots).

- We keep taking the next little step and keeping linking things together

- The depth of what we do and what we cover

- High-end software as a service (online SaaS model), we cover anything to do with operations and accounting, we have a standard package and can built out custom on top of that.

I got an email about an Adobe ColdFusion conference coming up in October. As part of the email, they were requesting people who wanted to speak and/or present. I decided to put my name into the mix. I would really like to be able to pitch the concepts of world building and the concepts of the data assembly line. I sent them links to our website and also a link to an adilas origins - core concepts document that Shannon and I worked on at the beginning of the year.

On with Steve and Cory talking about dynamic data fields and custom software development. Lots of needs for sub phases, sub locations, and data assembly line stuff. We need to know the data points, the flow, and the processes. That also means we need to know the pain points and other important pieces of the puzzle. Instead of guessing, we need real communication and a working knowledge of what they want their workflow to be like. Basically, where, when, and what to do or grab.

We talked about checks and balances, virtual stops, actual stops, and other critical data or checkpoints. More needs for that data assembly line type environment. As a follow-up, we will be looking at setting up some client meetings before we quote anything and/or make any promises.

Special client meeting on Cory's Zoom account. The goal was to cover and go over internal ways of monitoring and tracking quality control issues for a client. The user wasn't super familiar with adilas, but wanted a full-on system that could hold and track all of his pieces and processes. He works for a company that uses adilas but didn't know much about the existing tools. The underlying goal was a deep level of tracking for quality control within his processes. He's in the food and food production industry.

From what I was hearing, it sounded like a number of possible sub location or sub phases type stuff (data assembly line concepts). The need seems to be the ability to setup and manipulate the environment, setup standard and custom data points, and control the flow (start/stop/controls) of the processes. For our upcoming fracture project, I would really love to build in user controls that help people setup the sub systems, sub locations, sub phases, sub categories, and sub flow of data (forms, steps, or processes). The other important part of the data assembly line concept is the ability for the users (companies) to change, add, edit, remove, delete, and make their own processes more efficient. The concepts of the data assembly line have been on my mind quite a bit lately.

Kelly joined and was basically running most of the conversation. She just jumps in and sort of takes over. Some people really like that. She was talking about blending time, scheduling, inventory tracking, histories, and permissions. She really has a talent with consulting, talking, pitching ideas, show vision, and helping to make the sale or up-sale. Very interesting to watch and learn.

I also liked how she explained ERP (enterprise resource planning software). She said - "we track both money and goods, thus making it a light ERP system." I thought that was a good and simple definition. She also said, after the meeting, "The goal is moving the client from a problem based approach to a solution based approach. Get them excited about the possibilities." I enjoyed watching her work with the client. Kinda fun.

Good meeting - Going over the advanced time search page. Chuck is reworking that page. It is a huge form and has multiple smaller search forms all on one page. He is rearranging them into vertical tabs to show each one separately. That will really help. Here are some of my other notes.

- Chuck would really like to use drop-downs or predictive text drop-down selectors vs open text entry fields.

- Elements of time - very powerful but almost overkill - sooooo much data and sooooo many settings. How can we narrow that down? We talked about a couple of different analogies - cover the walls (imagine all the plumbing and wiring being shown vs a nice looking wall that is pained and has pictures on it), a hood covering the car's engine (style on top and complex and even dangerous below the surface), icebergs vs mountains (how much are you seeing at a time).

- Being able to pull data as needed using things like AJAX (asynchronous data being pulled in just in time, based on user inputs and requests).

- Sort of big and confusing - what does this do? How about that? How can we educate our users without making it look complicated?

- Make the whole thing (elements of time) more consumable - plans for fracture - break it down - Ask our clients and users, how do you use it? Offer preset settings or feature packages - such as: basic calendar, appointments, rentals, bookings, project time tracking, etc. Keep it small and tiny and lead the users along to get it setup correctly and not be intimidated by the number of options.

- Simple interfaces that are to the point and optimized for smart phones, mobile, and responsive layouts.

- Do some market research on how people use it and what they want.

- More dynamics and allow for the users (or preset settings) to change the naming and make it more dynamic. This would be from the top down - what do you call it? What does it do? What is shown, hidden, defaults, etc.? Allow for dynamic naming, layout configuration, and flow of data. At the highest level, almost the data assembly line type concept. If the preset options don't do enough, allow for a build your own layout system (super configurable).

- I mentioned to Chuck that we had some other plans for time templates and dynamic settings that we want to build into the next level (fracture project). See elements of time # 8004 for more details.

- Timing and budgets - sadly, it may take months and years to get all of this done. We have lots of changes that we would like to do. All in good time. Keep floating, watching timelines, budgets, and available funding. We'll get there.

- For fracture, we talked about some sort of education mode. This could be small popup walk through guides, wizards, tutorial helps, or whatever. Along with this, if we show little popup helpers, keep track of what has been viewed and what had not yet been reviewed. Be able to reset if needed.

- Chuck and I also talked about date pickers and time pickers. We looked at a few samples. Ideally, with the new UI/UX changes, we will be able to add both date pickers and time pickers to all pages that need that type of user input fields or selectors.

- The value of a team. We don't have anybody who can do everything to the fullest level. Plus, that would take way too long. That's where the team comes in. We've got backend guys, frontend guys, designers, database guys, coders/developers, project managers, dreamers, admin, and managers. Good stuff! Keep going in that direction.

Steve and Cory were talking about looking up projects in bit bucket (code repository stuff). Being able to check on commits and branches. They were then talking about different industries and how they are financing some of their developments. Lots of games that people play and how do we fit into that mix. While Steve was still on with us, Cory was reporting in on some meetings that she had had with Kelly dealing with the adilas label builder and sub inventory attributes. Both of those subjects seem to be heating up a bit.

Our current goal is to focus and try to get some small victories (projects being done and across the finish line). Cory and I spent some time going over projects. We talked about the need to test everything. Even small stuff. We have had it bite us before. Next, Cory and I looked into a possible bug in some settings. We looked and looked and couldn't see anything quickly. We may have to jump in deeper, when we get a chance.

Shari O. popped in and had some questions about getting a new internal email server. Our current solution has been giving us some problems lately. We don't change any code on our side and it works great, all of the sudden it will be down, and without any changes on our side, it all of the sudden starts working again. Kinda crazy. Shari O. calls it the gremlins or email gremlins. As a side note, later in the meeting she popped back in to let us know that it was working again. Random.

Wayne joined the meeting and got Cory and I up to speed on a few things that he is trying to work on. Performance tweaks.

Cory and I then started going over her list of possible projects, quotes, and estimates.

- Need quotes for inputting sub attribute data all at one time upon PO creation (start with build page)
- Bulk update sub attributes interface
- Mapping of EOT (elements of time) data to sub attributes (settings for cultivation and manufacturing)

Along the way, we were talking about options and settings that relate to the concepts of the data assembly line, recipe/builds, showing subs in the packaging and production pages, and managing recipe/build output better. Lot of talk about bulk edit tools for sub inventory attributes, batches, phasing, sub locations, and moving subs along a known path or virtual assembly line.

Dealing with the data assembly line concepts, I was telling Cory how we setup both rules and assignments for smart group buttons (tiered pricing buttons). I was mentioning that we could use something similar to help setup and do the mapping between elements of time, sub phases, sub locations, sub groups, and monitoring the progress of certain things. We need the rules (what or how to do things) and the assignments (who or what to connect or monitor). Using the two pieces in combo (rules and assignments) we could then have the computer and/or system help us monitor progression and progress. They are good at that, they just need instructions and the who, what, when, how, and why and they can do those jobs over and over again.

As we keep rolling more and more towards the concept of fracture (future adilas project) I would really like to keep working on the data assembly line concepts and using rules and assignments to get the correct flow and mapping in place. I see that as important as we keep going forward.

Working with Danny, Sean, and Shari O. on the rafting site (demo site). They, especially Danny, were requesting and wanting some kind of SOP's (standard operating procedures) or some kind of a quick start guide. See attached for our notes. New notes are at the bottom. Mostly the session was just checking in and some light communications for today.

One of my observations is we have things all over the place. We have things inside elements of time, in physical notebooks, in emails, on adilas university, on YouTube, in help files, on different google drives, and the list goes on. We have a ton of resources, but they are not yet linked, cataloged, and organized for use. It's too spread out. That would be an awesome project to get all of that together and available to the public. That could be a future fracture type project. Training and education are huge spokes that we need in our wheel. There is a whole other side to this thing and it's on the education and training level.

Totally random, but a fun side note or thought - Think how cool it would be to go through the different system players (all 12), all of the different system business functions (12 of those as well), and the underlying core concepts. That would be awesome. Beginner, intermediate, advanced, and deep dive or backend levels. Show how things act, cause and effect relationships, where they show up for roll call, how things happened historically, how they effectually show up for roll call, and even how they financially affect inventories, banks, P&L's, balance sheets, and other financial relationships. That would be sooooo cool! I would love to work on that project.

I would love to get into the how, why, and what we are doing. The how and why really seem like fun topics. The "what" is pretty normal but allow us to do the other parts of the puzzle or passing the data along the virtual data assembly line. Getting into 3D world building and all kinds of cool stuff. So many things that we want to do and build. We just need help getting to that next level.

Helping Steve with some image paths for a 3rd party solution menu system. After that, John was showing us some new pages that he is working on and changing the look and feel. We looked at some custom Expo/Herbo code and layout stuff. At times, we are not sure what certain older pieces of code do and accomplish. Sometimes, just like in life, we have to fake it.

Steve chimed in with some accounting history to help John with some of our terminology. He was talking about the term "Posted" and what that used to mean. In a way, this older term was a way of locking things down and moving data along a virtual data assembly line - old school style. As a side note, it is amazing how much training and education it takes to help our users know what to do and how to do it. That seems to be a never-ending process.

The last topic of the meeting was looking at some of John's new mobile responsive code and page layouts. It is looking good. We are excited to see where it goes.

Prep for a meeting with my dad and his friend Harry. I made a small list on a post-it note for some ideas that I wanted to go over with them. Here are a few of the ideas and notes:

- Go over the elevator pitch for adilas

- Playing the game of add-on as a business model

- Finding pain points and coming up with solutions

- History of where we came from and how things developed over time - it's part of our story

- Demo login and letting them get in and start playing around

- MVP - minimal viable product, plan, person, presentation

- Graphics and world building concepts

- General rules and setup - what's the flow process

- Operations and accounting - horse and the cart - operations has to lead (it's the horse) and accounting follows (the cart)

- Permissions and settings - configuration

- Going over flow and processes

- Systems and relationships

- Simulating reality or simulating the real world - what really happens and why?

- Non-linear system - concept of the data assembly line

- Adilas quick search and standard navigation

- Our current goal - fill in the gaps

- Help files and videos

- Reach out and ask for help - use the whole team

Met with Aspen to look over her world building presentation. We ended up getting into this little Q and A session and small virtual interview. It was kind of fun. Aspen took a bunch of notes on a Google doc. I won't share all of the info that we covered but I may pull out a few key pieces.

- Settings and speaking the client's language is a huge part of it - where it starts or where they (the client) gets some buy-in. Once you speak their language, they feel more comfortable.

- System configuration - I like this, I don't like that, can I hide this, can I make this show up here or there, etc.

- Using world building concepts in trainings and demos. Once the clients figure it out and catch the vision, they use world building terminology in describing what they are wanting or what they are hoping to achieve. Basically, if you can get the client to start thinking about the bigger picture, it really gets the juices flowing and the ideas rolling in. Virtually get the wheels spinning.

- Keep building what we know and then deal with other ideas and requests as they come. Custom code vs settings and toggle on/off features. A growing blossoming idea farm.

- We have outgrown a number of different models. For example: We started out with 5 different roles for permissions. Things like sales, mangers, accounting, admin, and backend/web. Now we have over 170 individual permissions that may be applied in any configuration vs the five simple roles that we started with. Also, our first round of corp-wide settings was to build out six corp-wide settings. We had to flip the model when we got up to the 400 ish level. We ran out of room. We ended up building vertically (variable/value pairs) and using custom setting objects (JSON objects and linking similar settings). Tons of ways that things have exploded, changed, and evolved over time. It's been a process. The other big challenge is adding in or taking away new stuff without affecting those who are already in there working (existing clients). You almost have to make the system a chameleon that can change its shape and color on the fly.

- Aspen and I talked about the potential of doing a white label approach. Kind of like the Intel chip inside of a computer. It could be branded however, but the chip is what the whole thing rides on. For example: You could have an HP, Dell, or some other brand of laptop but all of them use the Intel chip as the underlying microchip processor. We would like to do something similar. Whatever brand, powered by adilas.biz on the inside. We don't have to be the main company like HP or Dell or whatever. We could easily just help power those brands using our tech and underlying engine.

- Along the lines of a white label - It would take a potential competitor years and years and millions and millions of dollars to do what we can do right now. If they saw the value of a white label option, they would be smart to go in that direction (saving time and money). Just reskin it and start selling it vs building it from the ground up. There is already a market for what we do (based on our current clients and 20 years in the business and millions and millions in revenue - even though we aren't done yet).

- Aspen asked me about a couple of features that we are using right now and how they relate to world building. I mentioned elements of time and the flex grid tie-ins. Both are hugely customizable and fill gaps and needs, out the door. We talked about selling in bulk but tracking individual items, tracking processes of change (dealing with sub locations, sub phases, or steps of a process). One-to-many relationships, custom fields, preset settings, configuration, and being able to limit what is shown (even though behind the scenes it could be very complex). Tons of samples, examples, prototypes, and working models. We have nuts and bolts companies, bike shuttles, ski schools, and tons of other companies that use these pieces. This is just two pieces of the much bigger puzzle.

- Most of our progress is somewhat limited by outside funding, not ideas or needs. We have huge dreams; it just depends on where the funding for that comes from. This whole thing has been build on a garage type budget. We have ideas and projects that sometimes sit for weeks, months, and years before we can get to them. Our list for an MVP (minimal viable product) keeps revolving and growing. If there is funding, it moves to the top of the list. If not, we chip away at it little by little.

- Lots of analogies between our system (the adilas.biz system) and the body. Often, we start out talking about things like arms, legs, feet, etc. As we get deeper, we get into layers, joints, muscles, system, and clear down to the cellular or molecular levels. People keep wanting to be able to control and/or see the next layer, the next layer, etc. We haven't found the end or bottom yet.

- Aspen was asking what is the difference between world building and fracture? I tried to explain that the fracture project is more of list of lessons learned, ways to speed things up, ways of standardizing things, allowing for customized things, show/hide things, toggle on/off certain settings, full control over flow and display, and controlling things at a smaller detailed level. World building is what we are trying to do and/or accomplish (think bigger picture). We use fracture (aka the next generation of the system or application platform) to get to the bigger world building pieces. We talked about Legos and building blocks of different size, shape, and functionality. Sometimes you need to play in bulk (bigger or preset pieces), medium pieces, and super small pieces.

- We got into talking about the iceberg analogy (or ice berg analogy - different spelling) and how if we could have the whole mountain but only show the iceberg, it would sell better than something seeing the whole big mountain. It makes it look too intimidating (showing the whole mountain). The iceberg looks so much more approachable (be able to configure just what you want to see and use). That's where fracture and some of those ideas come in. You could still have the whole mountain (under the surface) but only have to show what is needed or wanted. Put the rest of the engine under the covers (under water) like the Intel chip inside of a computer. It's all perception and expectations.

- Ideas that don't get exposed (out to the public) can sometimes die in a hole. We talked about if a bigger company was pushing some of the world building concepts or data assembly line concepts, they would sell like hotcakes.

- Towards the end of the meeting, we were getting into costs, growth, and projections - numbers, costs, financials, etc. Fun stuff!

Anyways, a great meeting. Aspen has more notes in her Google doc where she was recording things from the small interview. I enjoyed the chat and the learning session. Sometimes you don't know what you have until you start trying to verbalize it. Good stuff!

GoToMeeting brainstorming session with Steve to go over ideas and concepts for SG&A costs (sales, general and administrative costs). The whole first hour was talking and going over ideas. We were drawing and going through some fake scenarios. Here are some of my notes:

- Imagine a bucket with a relative fill line partway up the bucket. This would represent the bucket or holding account for SG&A costs that need to be distributed. As new sales happen, we would bleed off that bucket (lower the amount) based on the sales (percentage of average sales per month and what we thought was going to be the average monthly SG&A costs).

- Some of what we are doing would be considered smoke and mirrors. We have some known values and some unknown values. We have to mix and bled both, known and unknown. We also talked about flex and being able to flex at different times (image 1 and 2 how we see flex bubbles or data assembly line concepts).

- We talked about how we move monies for automotive vehicles (managers checkbook) and slush funds. Virtually padding things as needed to help offset costs, basis, and profit.

- We talked about using a fake number as an average and/or a fake burn number. These would be settings for average monthly sales and average monthly SG&A costs. Once we record these as settings, we can then base our math off of those values. If we want to run things harder or faster, we just change those values, which in turn would change the ratios.

- We talked about thinking on an invoice based model not on a daily basis model. That way, each invoice would carry its own weight and only happens as it really happens. For this first round, this was an easier tie-in to make.

- It keeps going, average SG&A and average sales per month. Constant fill and remove, fill and remove of those associated buckets.

- We talked a little bit about time. How many days to drain each tank or bucket? Monthly bills, annually bills, and other time variables.

- Here is the rough formula for our calculations: sg&a cost = invoice sub total * (average monthly SG&A costs / average monthly sales)

- Don't let SG&A go into the negative. We can't spread out or disperse more than we have available to spread. Adjust the buckets as needed. Being able to control the flow (gas and brakes) based on settings.

- We could show them (our users) the rough averages on the SG&A homepage. We could even do some forecasting or showing a "look ahead" view of what it should play out to look like. We could even show what things would look like under different circumstances and conditions. Almost a snapshot and/or predictive model.

- We will format our data in groups, drill-downs, and details. The goal is to seek the IRS's approval for this technique for tracking SG&A costs.

- Steve and I spent some time talking about systems vs trying to marry together multiple independent software packages. That can be a real nightmare. This topic lead to talks and discussions about systems, normalization of data, and even other outside 3rd party solutions using our data to show reports and statistics.

- Interpellation or Interpolation (not sure on the spelling) - good estimate and/or an educated guess

- Putting a white label over the top of our software. This would allow us to play a more build and supporting role vs the main point of contact and training. We may really want to look into this as we build out fracture (future project). We could be the Intel chip inside the computer or laptop vs being the actual computer (analogy with the Intel chip being inside various different computers and laptops). Being the underlying pieces of the system vs the top level or frontend piece.

- Steve was saying - selling what they want and how they want it - that's how you sell and market things.

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After talking about SG&A costs for the first hour, Steve and I switched over to talking about our guys, hours, projects, and having our guys record their time and progress. I really enjoy the building and brainstorming part of the puzzle. The management portion is less fun. This has been a small pain in our rear. Too much babysitting. Nobody wants to document what they are doing. Steve and I talked about our burn rate (money wise) going forward and what are plans are. We need to be able to finish up projects in a timely manner. Sometimes all we can do is keep chipping away at it. Some of these things just take time and resources. We know that, but still, it's hard to swallow sometimes. We need to add in some levels of accountability. It's an abundant model and there are lots of players who could play along with us. Lots of options. There are some real challenges to running a software company from a distance. We will keep trying to help our guys and gals finish their projects. Sometimes all we can do is keep pushing forward as we are able. Here we go...

Zoom meeting with Cory, Steve, and Kelly. We were talking about sub inventory. Subs are great but do require more work and effort. Getting info in, out, reporting, and bulk updates and bulk tools. When we started, we didn't even know what was needed. As things unroll and unfold, we are beginning to see a bigger picture. That is awesome!

We have mountains and mountains of data. Now what?

As the meeting progresses, we spent some time talking about the challenges to sub inventory. Here are some of my notes:

- Sub inventory attributes and being category specific

- Settings all over the place - configuration

- What about changes, updates, and flipping categories (after the fact)?

- Possible mapping of categories, sub attributes, etc. Talking about mapping by id numbers and not names or column numbers.

- We need a sub inventory history section. Tables are already built, but they have not been tied in.

- Some of our clients want so much control

- Sub attributes, parent attributes, flex attributes, flex grid tie-ins, and other different levels or layers

- Master list of sub attributes and then repurpose those per category. This could be tied in with the mapping options listed up higher. Either start from the top (master list) and go down (what sub attributes are needed per category) or list out each attribute per category (current model) and then tie and/or map them back to a master type list. We may have to go in both directions. Just some thoughts.

- Kelly likes how parent attributes can be bridged over categories. Having said that, we need to be able to search by sub attributes, parent attributes, and flex attributes.

- Certain clients want to pull data without the category specific reliance. Basically, once we catch the data, we have to be able to let it be searched, pulled, filtered, shown, and exported. It's all part of the puzzle. Being able to get at and use the data. That's a huge key. Just being silly - ADILAS - all data is live and searchable

- Maybe upping the permission level to add/edit sub inventory or sub inventory templates or sub attributes. Once again, we need some histories of who is doing what in the system.

- Steve was talking about - 1. Capturing the data. 2. Then being able to get it back out (in any form - CSV, Excel, PDF, printable, web). and 3. Being able to play in bulk and deal with automation options. Those are some of the goals (small summary).

- We have people who are wanting to add certain sub attributes on the fly, as part of a sub process or sub phase. This gets into sub locations, sub phases, and sub processes and/or steps. Currently, we only show the subs at certain steps and make them go back to certain places to add/edit or update that data. There is a lot of manual work involved. How cool would it be if we could help them and let them setup their own processes, phases, and sub processes. Mini concepts of the data assembly line.

- There is a need for bulk update tools, easy flow processes, and being able to setup their own data flow based off of the subs or steps within a process.

- The use of templates to help control other actions, defaults, rules, and assignments. Having that example and/or template really helps answer a number of questions.

- We went back to the main need of being able to pull data out of the system (quickly and easily) - all data is live and searchable - We really need this and keep going with what we already have.

- Kelly and Steve working on advanced reporting and moving beyond a band-aid. What about going back and correcting the plumbing from the get go. Planning for the future.

- Need for more controls, handrails, and ability to scale.

- Build and break, build and break. Well, it's time to fix it again! it's breaking!

- What if we re-imagined it??? What would it look like? What things do we need to consider if we were to rebuild this out?

- Kelly was recommending that we get into a real life system to see the challenges. We made some plans to meet with Kelly again see the tools that she uses, how she uses them, and what is still lacking and/or needed.

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This is more for me, but what are the next steps in the planning process for new phases, data assembly line stuff, and where do we want this to go? Help lead and guide it! Keep pushing for more bulk tools, bulk options, and bulk tools to add, edit, update, change, pull data in, pull data out, etc. We can do a bunch of things on a one-by-one basis, let's keep pushing that to the next level. Yee haw!

After the server meeting, just Wayne, Alan, and I stayed on to go more in-depth on the framework stuff that Wayne is testing, trying, and pitching. Wayne has been spending tons of time looking into the ColdBox framework and experimenting with things. He's really going for it.

We talked about files, folders, and structure of how the application could and would work. The whole thing is setup in a rest type interface with specific paths, pages, and URL's (web addresses) to make it work. REST API or RESTful API architecture stands for representational state transfer. Basically, that deals with logical paths, files, and folders to create organization. You then place special code at each end point to do a specific task. That is part of the way it is organized. Our old site has tons of pages, all bunched into a couple of folders (all mixed together). When I say a ton of files, I'm talking thousands of files. This newer site will have like or similar pieces and pages in specific spots or places. It's all part of how it gets organized and managed. Interesting.

Alan and Wayne were talking about object-oriented coding with options for extending, inheriting, and sub classing functions, variables, and conditions. They both fully get it. I haven't had any formal training on this, but I'm picking up some of the pieces and concepts.

Next, they got into talking about limiting the handlers (receiving pages or virtual doors and windows). We covered a number of other topics such as nesting, sub classes, pre and post level page handlers, and how all deeper business logic needs to be over in the service models. Once again, it was mostly Wayne and Alan talking shop and I was listening. To translate, our existing site and pages have a bunch of things that we do every time to make sure that the page gets valid information. They are talking about doing all of that pre validation and logic as a simple handler and thus making each page smaller and not duplicating code (hundreds of lines per page).

After talking for a while, Wayne was showing us what it takes to rewrite things and pages using the new architecture and structure. We kept jumping off on tangents as Wayne was explaining and we were asking questions and making comments. Fun little interchange. At one point, Wayne had to either jump off and/or deal with something at his home. Alan and I were talking about options for permissions and limiting things even before we show them. Keeping things skinny and lite.

Here are some of my other notes. They don't really flow into nice paragraphs.

- Currently, our main pages, inside of adilas are kinda like handlers. We just don't call them that. Sometimes we call them the wrapper pages and string together some black box and/or special page includes to make it all work.

- All business logic would need to be in the services.

- Lots of talk about separating logic and views (pages).

- Using fracture (potentially more complicated) to show less (looks more simple - based on show/hide settings and configuration stuff).

- Creating rule books and using the database to help drive the pages, logic, rules, and procedures. Basically, the code gets stored in the database, where it could be updated, shared, or tweaked as needed. The pages just process the rules and/or instructions.

- Migrating data, seeding things (pre work and adding things for setup), checking for pending actions, and processing different actions. Small data assembly line stuff, for our own setup and configuration. That could be pretty cool!

- Wayne was saying, not really rewriting our code, more of moving it...

- Alan would love to help with this restructure project.

- We talked about options of how to integrate these things together.

- There are still some core changes that are needed. The key word was "core".

- Lots of talk about scale - how fast, how many, etc.

- Too many includes (code pages pulled into other code pages). This gets hard to trace down dependencies and variations if different pages are mixed together.

- We have some master copy and paste coders and developers. If that is the case, let's help them out so that they can copy and paste what we want them to do and use. If you can't beat them (some of our team may never change), then join them type attitude (give them good stuff to copy and paste).

- Tiny servlets and micro services. Everything is based off of time or events.

- We talked about budgets for both time and money. How quick can we do this? Time, money, resources?

- How long do we have if we don't do this? Not sure... meaning making changes and/or moving things over towards fracture (future plans and making the changes listed). Just part of our discussion.

- Wayne will reach out to Ortus Solutions (maker of the ColdBox framework) and see what options we have. Is there any way to use some of what they have and still keep some of our older existing stuff? We are looking for a middle ground, if possible. Basically, just a quick check to see if an option exists - mixing old code and new code and old structure and new structure. We may have to just choose one or the other, they may not cross or mingle very well (water and oil).

- Small story of how the Utah pioneers had to stop building a temple so that they could finish up the railroad. Once the railroad was done (lines completed) they were able to build their temple faster using the railroad to haul rock from the quarry to the temple site. Fun story.

- We talked about a new possible name for fracture (current code name for our future build out) and/or something that has a nice ring to it. We were thinking about "adilas lite" or something along those lines.

- What about building out a mini version, creating small modules and then charging for those pieces? Everything could be broken down into modules and sub modules.

- Originally, we were going to leave the existing adilas code alone and build something new, using the same database. As we were talking, it became apparent that we needed to build new. Meaning new code, new data, new database, new, new, new. The whole thing. As we were talking, we kept referring to ship A (existing adilas platform) and ship B (new or future adilas platform - aka fracture or adilas lite).

- Our first prototype, that Wayne is already working on, will be for payees. This is for vendors and users and will include a single sign-on option. Once again, just a prototype and proof of concept.

- Lots of great conversation about the adilas cafe and community. This is dealing with a global or master level list and access to the whole platform and/or adilas application. Imagine a single global login and then you could choose if you wanted to work (only show corporations where you have permissions and access), play (demo sites), buy things (marketplace), sell things (marketplace for goods and services - professional services), participate (community and social media stuff), and/or get some training (adilas university). Here is a link to more info and research on the adilas cafe from the developer's notebook.

- After Alan left, I talked with Wayne about percentage ownership stuff in adilas. Wayne would like to get some more ownership. He's doing a great job! We have many on our team that are really pulling the load very well. That is awesome!

- For me - adilas lite - make a simple play or plan. It could be a rough sketch or simple layout plan. Keep it simple.

Working with Aspen to go over our plan for making the plan. Light review and discussing expectations and where we are going. Started in on adding some research links to part of our plan. Pushed up the new stuff to the google doc that John and I had started.

Here is a light version of where we are heading... (just barely starting - for the record, it looks nicer in the google doc)

Master Adilas Plan or Adilas Master Plan

1. Company Structure - Adilas Jelly Fish Model
2. Product Development - Adilas Value Add-On Core Model
3. Education & Training - Adilas University
4. Community & Outside 3rd Party Solutions - Adilas Marketplace
5. Social & Efficiency Options - Adilas Cafe & Community
6. Deeper Product Development - Adilas Lite - Fracture Project
7. Budgets, Finances, Marketing, & Sales - Other Business Plans

New note added on 8/14/23 - For a pretty good breakdown of these projects - just at a high level, see this element of time 10377 and it's photo gallery.

________________

Table of Contents. To-do

All time id's are inside of adilas

2283 - Main Index

2284 - Jellyfish Model

- Research on the Jellyfish model - link

2285 - Value Add-On Core Model

- Research - link

2286 - Adilas University

- Research - link

2287 - Adilas Marketplace

- Research - link

2288 - Adilas Cafe & Community

- Research - link

2289 - Fracture - Future Project

- Research - link

- Adobe XD mock-ups with options

2290 - Budgets & Finances

2291 - Marketing & Sales

- Adobe XD mock-ups with options

- World Building Concepts and Concepts of the Data Assembly Line - Pitching the concepts

- Research on world building, research on data assembly line

- Presentation Gallery - great start for an outline of what adilas does

2292 - Other Timelines, Plans & Projects

Went over to Bryan's house and we had a brainstorming session on his new upstairs patio. Beautiful view and good times. It rained on us but we were protected from most of it. See attached for a scan of my notes. Lots of ideas for fracture or adilas lite.

Here are a few notes:

- Mobile first - plan accordingly. Allow for mobile and desktop settings (show/hide for fields).

- Be able to setup your own data assembly line - based on what you care about. We will try to provide the pieces and modules and you can put it together how you want it and/or need it.

- Lots of talk about API sockets and small microservices.

- Lite or simple apps - for each layer - if you want more, just choose the next pieces. Play with aggregates (sums, counts, averages, maxes, mins, etc.) unless you need more details. If yes, just keep peeling back the layers.

- We have a friend that was pitching us on Deductr a long time ago (back in 2015 ish). It was a quick mobile app for simple expense tracking, simple mileage tracking, and simple categories and reports. Adilas can do so much more but we need to present it in a way that feels easy like Deductr (aka Hurdlr).

- Choose your own adventure or choose your own business process - similar concept. When I was a kid, I used to love reading the choose your own adventure books. As I grow up, what if I could do the same thing and put together my own business adventure (map it out based on needs, wants, and decisions).

- Talking about free versions of our software/web apps. We could also have or offer upgrades. If someone really wanted to play the reoccurring revenue game with us, we could allow them to sponsor and/or fund certain modules or sub modules and then pay them a reoccurring commission on clients who use those pieces. Bryan and I were talking about possible ideas and how that might work. Fun stuff!

- We talked about growth, slow and steady, and natural (organic) growth.

- At what point does the scale start tipping? What feature or add-on will really make it go? Or do we need to pull back some of the complexity and make it even more simple. If you want deeper, you just ask for it (layers) and then you get what you want vs having to have the whole thing every time.

- Lots of talk about pain points and how that tends to help with growth and being willing to pay for a solution to those pain points. If someone pays for an enhancement or feature, we tend to roll it into the mix. Kinda a piggy backing type system where one person pays for something, everyone gains (piggy backs) and then next person pays for the next enhancement. It has worked great for us. Sometimes we call it idea farming.

- Creativity is a chance - there is a possibility of failure with creative stuff - that doesn't mean don't do it - you just have to know there is a chance involved.

- It may be ok to use older code, if needed. Keep rolling forward and revamp, refactor, and rewrite as needed.

- Bryan and I also talked about API socket connections, simple website builders, easy payment solutions, dashboards, widgets, advanced reporting, and simple timeclocks. Tons of fun topics. See the attached notes for some other ideas.

Digital storytelling research. Printing things out, reading, highlighting, and reviewing a number of different articles that I (we - Shannon and I) have written on the subject. Fun research project. I really enjoyed it, the deeper I went, the more everything was making sense.

Title: Exploring Digital Storytelling - Benefits of going beyond the data

Description: Everything has a story to tell. What if you could help your data start talking back to you (nicely)? Wouldn't that be awesome! Imagine asking something like this: What's your story? Who created you? Where have you been? Where are you headed? Who are your buddies? Where do you belong? When did you finish? In this session, we will be exploring the 12 core concepts of digital storytelling. We'll discuss real world examples of how using these concepts can bring life, depth, and value to your data, apps, systems, and platforms.

Outline:

Here are the 12 core concepts of digital storytelling:

1. Capture & Record The Story
2. Groups, Players, Individuals, & Characters
3. Relationships
4. Trouble, Problems, Pain, Needs, & Goals
5. Decisions & Choices
6. Consequences (cause & effect)
7. Accountability
8. Permissions & Settings
9. Systems
10. Vision & Future Developments
11. Tech, Tools, & Maintenance
12. Tracking Objects & Data Over Time

Other things that I would like to cover:

• Systems thinking approach
• Success isn't a destination, it's a journey!
• Finding success along the way
• Everything has a story to tell
• All the W's - who, what, where, when, why, wHow :) - just being funny!
• World building
• Digital assembly line concepts
• Tying everything into the 12 core concepts of digital storytelling

References:

I've been studying and using some of these concepts for years. See attached for some of my notes. In my notes, I took pages and pages and boiled them down into a smaller list of key points. Each main point is numbered and underlined. For reference, the numbers look like this: #2.8 or #4.5, depending on which document the idea or point comes from. I may refine it further, but this is the rough draft.

Below are the links to the original docs in digital form (no mark-up, no numbers, no underlining on the originals).

Number #1 - Submission to speak at an Adobe ColdFusion conference - link

Numbers #2.0-#2.13 - Text from the business zipper website on the about us page - link

Numbers #3.1-#3.17 - Text from the old adilas.biz website. You may have to scroll down to see the text. - link

Numbers #4.1-#4.51 - Core concept document - taken from the adilas archives - still partially unfinished - link