Morning GoToMeeting

I was working on sales tax expansion project for Kelly - tying in the tax by customer type stuff.

Alan and Steve were working on some Leaf Data and Metrc API stuff

Russell and Steve went over the new WordPress news and updates section (adilas university, help files, media/content) for adilas features and such. Lots of good ideas and what not. Good meeting between Steve and Russell. Lots of questions and answers.

Michael with McCorvey's Pro Shop jumped on and chatted with me on some needs that they have. Below are some bullet points from the conversation:

Indiana - need this asap - county specific

North Carolina - I didn't know about that

FUTA - check Florida calcs

Employees clocking in at one store but they really want that value to be split between locations. We talked about departments and how the internal setup goes. We also talked about a combined P&L between multiple locations (across states) and across multiple departments. Maybe relate the employee taxes to where the person lives vs where they work. Somehow we need to combine some hours and maybe even allow for cross bridging of hours between different departments. They would really like to be able to clock in/out at different locations and have the system calculate things properly.

Problem with the cost of goods sold - they get items at all kinds of costs (sales, promotions, bulk, etc.) but they sale things and the system uses the last known cost. That creates all kinds of problems with the P&L.

ICC - internal cost corrections - this is important to do for items and usage under the bridge - bring things back to 0 quantity and 0 costs, where appropriate. This needs to be managed going forward. This needs to be done location by location - per item.

Michael would really like to get some data and the code for the part usage page and inventory adjustment pages - this would be database tables, data, code and page logic and also methods that are used.

Possible black box code for average costs - tied to the add to cart logic - this is a new twist and/or option since we last talked

Michael would really like it built in with a corp-wide setting that says something like - use last known cost or use average cost - this could be huge... it creates a nice alternative for similar businesses.

There size and the number of locations complicates the issue. Some of their managers are paid based off of the percentage (back to the P&L)

Item life cycles - at some point, the product will reach the end and/or die out.

On the morning meeting with Steve and Russell for the first little bit. Steve and I were talking about the balance between custom code and internal code and development. We spend a lot of time on custom stuff. However, it also helps to pay for our guys and we gain some benefits by allowing it to happen. We do need to be careful, but if we keep it balanced, it can and will work great.

We talked about using the Ice-down dates and ICC (internal cost corrections) per locations to help keep things straight. This could be done to help close things out and keep parent costs in check. The real answer is in sub inventory and cost controls, but we have met with some resistance, especially from older or prior clients. They don't want to take the jump and do that extra step. Anyways, as Steve and I were talking, there was a definite undercurrent of the users need to use the tools provided and/or pay for future development. We would totally wear ourselves out if we did everything that was asked of us by our clients. We simply can't do it all. We need to make the dreams meet reality, on both sides of the fence. Good conversation.

Russell and Steve chatted about changes to adilas ecommerce while I started paying bills and fixing a small bug on the BSI (balance sheet items stuff) to expense/receipts. After that, I jumped off the GoToMeeting session and did my own stuff. I did a bunch of emails, paid bills, and got Wayne setup with Newtek as an authorized adilas rep to open and check on support tickets and such.

After that, I started to work more on the sales tax by customer type changes that Kelly is waiting for. This is a smaller part of the bigger sales tax expansion project. That has been a long time coming.

On the morning meeting with Steve and Russell. They were going over the news and updates section. Lots of talk on where to store the filters and sub features - at the corp level, at the admin level, and even at the employee/user level. The filters and settings will help us display the correct feeds and news and updates back to the users. They also talked a bunch about pushing 3rd parties over to the adilas marketplace. The eventual goal is to get all 3rd party solutions to have an active adilas market account and profile before we add them to the adilas 3rd party solutions page. Kinda force them over there before we do any outside advertising for them.

Fun little one linear from Kelly Whyman - "If you touch, you track."

On elements of time, Steve is wanting to setup internal templates and being able to fully control them and/or lock them down. Basically, a way of making a normal template but not allowing the users to change and/or manipulate things. Basically, we create it and let them use it, but we don't allow direct editing of certain pieces (maybe only certain things or limited options). Steve was mentioning a virtual ice-down on some of the settings and features that are turned on/off. This is not an ice-down date, but it is a form of ice-down but icing down settings, features, and functionality.

Some of the custom settings are almost becoming their own database tables and we have to make sure that things are setup correctly.

At 10 am to 1:15 pm, Eric popped in and we worked more on the loyalty points and gift cart stuff. We went into media/content and looked at all entries under "loyalty" and got some good ideas. That spun us off on some side tangents. We also talked quite a bit today about how things will be tracked, showed, and how things will be held on the balance sheet. One of the good breakthroughs today was an idea of how we could tie in these new special tracking accounts to existing balance sheet items. See attached for a small screen shot.

The uploaded image is a normal BSI (balance sheet item). It shows a main and normal subs. We then talked about how we could add additional options such as: main_account_types (#1), account_type_rules (#1.5), special_accounts (#2), and special_account_transactions (#3). We also talked about some of the stacking order under the main balance sheet items and how that would play out.

We recorded a number of new notes and even did some light scenarios using small drawings and such. Towards the end, we talked with Steve about the accounting side of both gift cards and loyalty points. Gift cards need to be tracked on an invoice, the part number needs to not be recorded on the P&L (revenue) but needs to be deferred to the balance sheet. We also have gift cards as a form of payment. We talked about some of the invoice payments that might need to be tied into make that happen. We also talked about how loyalty points and coupons are basically future discounts of sorts. Those values don't really show up on the balance sheet, but do need numbers below the surface. A discount could be in-line and/or standalone. Both the loyalty points and coupons reduce revenue and need to be treated like special trackable discounts or price adjusters (variable of price). See other attached document for more details and notes.

Met up with Steve over the GoToMeeting session. We need to train the system. What is green, yellow, and red? Think of a stop light and being able to let people know if we are good to go, caution, or uh oh. - From Kelly Whyman. Basically, make the system help us know where to go and what to do. That would be awesome.

Teaching people how to think vs just a 1, 2, 3 step process. Enable them.

Merging in Steve's branch. Talking about helpers and their schedules. Looking into a Metrc sales and sync bug. Small changes.

Brainstorming with Russell and Alan about the upcoming training event.

- news and updates, snow owl theme (look and feel and custom links), ecommerce, email, time clocks, other projects

- sub inventory training

- lots of emphasis on what is new and how that works and changes.

- reflexive flex grid, 2nd vendors, review what has happened over the years (maybe even research and setup a time line), future projects

- stay on task

- give industry specific training and maybe schedule things for a different training session or breakout sessions.

- open learning time... specific time to just practice with reps and consultants

- planned and special breakout sessions. So, for example, from 1-3 pm classes taught on this and that in this room and that in this other room, etc.

- as we host cooler and cooler events... we really have to charge and be professional. Make it really cool.

- try to shoot for 4 days. the 3rd day is mostly hands-on training

- 9-10:15, 10:30-12, 12-1, 1-2:30, 2:45-3:45, 4-5 sessions.

- make each day specific to the task at hand

- best practices

- Roxanne - training on financials. Lots of others who may be able to play.

- Having a pizza party with the crew - being able to hang out

- day 1, here is what is new with adilas. Maybe here is what is coming. Make it exciting.

- day 2 and 3, more specific training - POS (point of sale) and CRM (customer relationship management) stuff.

- day 4, hands-on training, one-on-one training, group training, open sessions, and industry specific training

- thinking about skipping the financial side of things for this first training

- we teach in general and then point them to the specific consultants to get industry specific info and advice.

- Get some of the power reps and have them be ready and available to help. Maybe even allow the reps to charge extra for custom time.

- Have someone who is watching for comments online and also taking notes. Someone to help with chat

- We could use one-person Zoom sessions to answer specific questions

- Try to get both Kelly and Molly out here to the training session. It may be $500 to $1,000 per super rep. Let them know that they could extend their stay and charge for individual consulting and other outside meetings. Or we split the fees with them for day 4. Day 4 could also be their thing and let them charge what they want. We could cover their plane tickets.

- Shooting for between 20 - 50 participants.

- Try to keep things industry specific between breaks and on day 4 group sessions.

- Run the payment through ecommerce. Setup online seats and live seats (limit the quantity).

- Run the new classes through the news and updates page.

- Come up with some numbers and budgets

- Document management options - After the session, I was answering some questions about custom forms, custom documents, and custom procedures. I was answering by telling about state manifests, transfer docs, state title work, and even the vacation rental and timeshare company that has a one page form in Adilas and it creates and saves multiple contracts and agreements and records them for clients. We also have gun clubs and such that sign waivers and then assign the signed waivers to the correct client record. Good stuff.

- This wasn't part of the session, but other notes on the training event from post-it notes and my mini notebook. Dated 4/27/18... Black box, presenters choice, Q&A, business topics, meet the developers, participant presentations, demos, industry specific, what is possible with _____ (fill in the blank), and interactive & hands on sessions. Other ideas might be direct video feeds, group games & hands on activities, watch a developer work - say a black box take over or something like that, reports from the field, exploring the database, white labels, dedicated servers, timed challenges, speed and shortcuts, custom wire jobs - show & tell.

Jumped on the morning meeting with Steve and Dustin. We briefly talked about some topics for the upcoming Denver training (9/11 to 9/14) Some of the recommended topics were things like: new cultivation processes, production and packaging processes, Metrc Specific topics, new sales tax stuff, new discount stuff, normal and advanced POS (point of sale) stuff, ecommerce, my cart favorite buttons, sub inventory, labels, loyalty points, etc.

We also talked about getting the graphical homepages into place and even starting with sales tax and invoice homepages. We would also like for the adilas developers to be able to present to us while in Denver... (merging in technology and live classroom stuff).

People who could help out: Cory from Pagosa Springs, Kelly Whyman, Steve Mitchel, Shannon, Russell, Alan, and other adilas developers.

After talking, we broke into a work session type scenario. We were all working on our own projects. I went back to working on the developer's notebook stuff and showing the historical listing of elements of time (for web indexing and web crawlers). We got back together for random questions throughout the morning session.

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).

The first part of the meeting was spent chasing some big queries. Then we rolled into a discussion about cross corp barcodes and buying and selling sub inventory and being able to use a set barcode for that item. Basically, one systems sub inventory would then be allowed to be sold from another corporation based off of a barcode that was set by the original corporation.

I was thinking that it will end up being tied into this new adilas community funded project. See the link below.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=22&id=1348

After the meeting, I kept working on some code for the Bear 100. I spent some time working on emails and light tech support. I also reviewed a label demo video that Calvin Chipman did for Kelly Whyman and Steve Mitchell. This was the first demo that I had seen with Calvin's new wizard style label builder for the upcoming adilas label builder. Compared with the old prototype, this looks awesome. I put up a small screen shot of the video. The real video is awesome, but I don't have permission to push that up yet.

The video had and brought up some great questions dealing with the adilas label builder... things like: permissions on labels, history on labels, simple mapping interface, right clicks vs buttons, checkboxes vs scrolling drop-downs, visual indicators, auto save, prompts when closing, AWS (amazon web services) and putting the Windows software on a Windows box and then allow the user to login and use the program from there. Tons of good stuff.

Steve was showing us a small demo of some of his tiered pricing out in ecommerce. We had Kelly come on and gave him some feedback. It is literally crazy to hear what they, the users and consumers, really want. It gets super crazy and they want a multi-flipping gymnastic display with super easy functional and beautiful at the same time. The deeper we go, the more things are really flowing and trending towards more configuration settings and then being able to display things in a really simple format. Another thing that I am seeing is the need for specialized and specific interfaces, per business vertical. It is crazy how much people want and how quickly they want it. That makes for a tough mix.

Creating a layered approach seems to work better. The user experience is huge. On that same level, we are seeing a growing need for a developer to code it and a designer to help with flow and the user experience.

As Kelly and Steve got deeper in the ecommerce demo, they, were asking for more searchability, more multi select, more JavaScript show/hide filters and menus, etc. They want the moon and even demand it. Kelly would like to do a different session where they, (Steve, Kelly, and Dustin) go in and do a look around on other ecommerce sites and get ideas of good/bad/ugly and then make a plan from there.

These are some questions that are going on in my head, who is coordinating all of these decisions? How is it all going to work and play out? Who is funding what and who is driving what functions and features? Assuming that we have the funding, who is going to plan, design, and code it? Huge demands and huge questions.

The conversation started rolling over into complaints about look and feel, server up time and/or perceived up time, and other perceptions for the users. They were talking about levels and costs to get to those levels. It then got into a discussion between web, on-sight servers, software, hardware, hybrid solutions, apps, mobile, etc. What are the expectations and what is expected?

Kelly wants us to get pricing on what it would cost for this and that. Steve came back and was talking about how the system keeps growing and developing and who is going to pay for this and/or that. Kelly then was talking about costs and choices that need to be presented to the clients. If you want this and that, you need to pay for this and that. If you only want a smaller set, you would hope that you only need to play for that piece.

Steve was talking about the cost of, even say, your worst employee? It most likely will be $2,000 to $5,000 per month. What is the cost of the adilas system? Say maybe $200 - $400 per month. There is a known disconnect, the adilas system provides tons of functionality, but yet, the price is itsy bitsy tiny and therefore sometimes perceived as less important. The conversation then turned to how do we support the bigger clients and what are their needs.

Wayne popped in and was reporting on servers and server stability. FTP and FTPS - normal and/or secure file transfer protocol issues. He had some questions on how do we keep the servers up to date, synced up, and how do we manage the custom code (things that are different per server or per corporation). Custom code is somewhat of a wildcard piece and/or variable per server. We talked about core adilas code and custom code and how they relate and interact. We also talked about ways to manage custom code and who has what code and/or reports (we need a system of recording who has what and what it does). We have had requests on the client side - am I running custom code? We have also had requests on the tech support side - are they running custom code? We have also had some developers ask the same question - are they running custom code? Kinda interesting - lots of different angles to cover and what not.

I got a call from Bank of America to talk about some term loans and/or revolving business credit lines. I was on the phone for 20 minutes and the rep is going to be sending us some information. They have a couple nice looking products that have way better interest rates as compared with Kabbage and other high interest options.

Steve and I were talking about the future of software of a service is - we do build a product that has as many permissions and features as we can see to solve the needs. The future is that the clients want to customize the results and/or the output. They all want some kind of specialized output. Each client wants to mix and blend the variables in a different way. This could be seeing the data in a certain way (report and/or dashboards) or they have a slightly different process (add/subtract certain steps). Steve is seeing that there is a cost to switch systems, so we are hoping that our clients have basically, choose your platform and then invest in your solution to make it almost your own. Custom solutions that fit people's needs and how they want to play.

Sometimes with bigger clients, you actually get beat-up more and they still may not be happy. We need to find the clients that are happy with us and even bring us donuts... :) We want to find the correct level for us and our company. Bigger is not always better. From Shannon - it is an abundant model. That is awesome.

Picking your battles and multi-concept decision making. That is quite the game. Fun, but very challenging. Question - who wants to play? Great, let's play. Lots of indicators, you just have to make decisions according to those indicators. Adilas is a giant idea farm. We will keep building and breaking things. That is somewhat of our model. We want to help businesses succeed. Those who want to play with that model, we love it, let's play. On the financial side, we are so glad that we don't owe anybody huge amounts of money. That is freeing to the mind and the soul. Good stuff.

This is on a different note, we would really like to circle back around and see where we are at on the accounting side. Most of our current efforts are still focused on operations and operational flow and process. There is some huge potential for future growth in that area. We need to keep working on and refining our plan. The other area that could really use some loving is the user interface and the look and feel. There is a constant progression from one thing to the other. That is fun and exciting to see and even revisit those pieces.

Steve jumped back into a recap of where he started with the coding and development side - simple HTML and web stuff on the old steps to success. As you get deeper and deeper, you keep needing to step outside and get deeper in the complexity and background pieces. Lots of moving pieces under the hood, but it looks super simple on the outside.

 Steve and I are realizing that we can't do this whole project by ourselves. We have a great little team and we are even refining things within that model. That is exciting. It is the team that wins the battle, not an individual. We are learning tons and tons about the software as a service (SaaS) model. Our plan it to keep going at the current pace, keep building, and keep listening. Our plan is to run as fast as we are able within the bounds of not running faster than we are able.

We are happy to keep building up the core pieces. We are seeing numerous outside parties that are catching the vision and building out more and more custom stuff.

On the morning meeting with Alan. We logged into the data 3 server and looked at some database stuff. We had some client questions on the invoice table and it possibly being locked for a client. These are corp-specific tables and only affect each individual client (corporation). Numerous emails back and forth.

Eric popped in and had a few questions. Around 11 am, Steve invited a gift cart company to join us on the GoToMeeting session. I chatted and talked them for awhile. I ended up texting both Eric and Bryan trying to check on some custom gift card implementations. I wasn't able to get much ground there and we may have to reach out to the client directly.

I got a bug report from Kelly on the data 7 server and jumped on that to try and fix it. I uploaded some new code for the fix.

Get Janna new account info to help her with the WordPress site back-up stuff.

Reminder for me: Follow-up on graphical sales flyer, custom emails, and adilas market.

Shannon and I met over a Zoom session (Steve was using the GoToMeeting session for a sales demo). We got going and I showed Shannon a few of the things and projects that I was working on. Limiting certain query tools to 100,000 records or less, maintaining customer tax category settings in the cart, etc. In a small way, they, the current projects, played into some of our other discussions. By way of a report, Shannon said that she had been working on some content for the new graphical sales flyer. We spent most of our time talking about what we really want there. The sales flyer is not done and is somewhat of an open book. We want to make it fun, visual, and really get what they are getting and/or getting into in front of them. Mixing those pieces will be a challenge.

We talked about all kinds of things that normally may or may not be on a sales flyer. We talked about being a good fit, explaining the open market concepts (adilas market or adilas world), setting realistic expectations, steps for success, how to set an attainable goal, how to eat an elephant (step by step or bite by bite process vs trying to take down the whole thing at once), cause and effect decisions, training, setup, self-serve model, and how custom plays into that mix. Shannon took a number of notes and I passed her over some links and documents that had some good ideas. We setup another meeting for next week. Our plan is to keep chipping away at things and hopefully come up with a great sales tool that inspires and also educates our client base.

Here are a couple of the links that I sent to Shannon.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=748&id=3957 - notes from a training session in Denver. Search this for the key word "Kelly". We recorded a session where Kelly Whyman, power adilas rep, was talking about setup, training, and steps to success with the adilas platform.

https://data0.adilas.biz/intro_to_adilas.pdf - older PDF sales flyer with some light info about adilas and our model.

Keep following up on graphical sales flyer, custom emails, and adilas market.

Shannon and I started re-watching the video of Kelly Whyman doing a presentation from the Denver training event. See this element of time and look for the afternoon video on day 3 - the actual start time of the Kelly portion of the video is at 2:33:19 (ish) - Web link - time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=748&id=3957

- One of the first things that she does is get the physical process that really happen and then she breaks those values into a work flow and defines who is going to do what?

- Setting and maintaining the expectations. Owners and operators are different. If things are too complicated, they, the users, stop putting things in.

- There are those who are good at frontend, backend, and maintenance. Different skills, talents, and interest levels.

- Shannon and I talked about "getting an investment approach" where the clients see what other successful people do. This was talking about other skills such as training, setup, maintenance, consulting, overseeing, etc. Ongoing help and other services.

- The setup and initial portion of the client's implementation is very important. They may need some ongoing oversight and/or help. How am I going to support you to get to your goals. Ongoing relationships.

- Try to operate out of the box first and then customize from there. Sometimes they jump too early on the custom bandwagon. Everybody loves the idea of custom but it can be a two edge sword. There might be a difference between small customization vs full or huge customization.

- Are you really ready to take on adilas? Is this the right system for you? You have to really want this (data feeding game). We talked about can's and should's... cost/time analysis.

- Maybe a way we can differentiate ourselves is based on concepts. We love talking about 3D world building, systems, interconnected data relationships, digital story telling, permissions & settings, and objects and data over time. There is an older PDF flyer that has a fun math equation of :: "Results = Mix(Functions, Players, Concepts)". See this older flyer for more info: Web link - adilas_formula.pdf - Good stuff.

- Sell the sizzle

Anyways, Shannon and I only made it part way through the video from Kelly. We had some good talks and we have some homework to keep watching and taking notes. We will touch base again next week on Tuesday.

Back reviewing video content from a training video and a presentation done by Kelly Whyman.

- What kind of a setup is it? Coming off of another system, brand new, a recovery type scenario? Fresh setup, new implementation, or a clean-up.

- Corp-wide settings and what you call things? Speak their language and setup an internal glossary.

- Sharing information back and forth. Build the team.

- What are your goals and how are we doing on those goals? Sometime the first quarter is pivotal on if they like the system or not. You have to be there (physically at times).

- Templates and standardizing things. Using bite size flow charts, lots of drawings, etc. Show visual diagrams and then relate it to the system. Start out of the system and then go back in the system.

- No more than 60 to 90 minutes per session. Do a session and then allow for some Q & A.

- Help them learn that mistakes are ok and then how to correct those mistakes.

- When getting a client started, do a once a week follow-up and/or training session. After a few of these, they may not need them as often.

- Recording training sessions and share them - avoid being a broken record.

- On a demo, who am I speaking to (owner or operator)? She usually does a 30 minute consulting meeting and then she gears her demo based on that.

- Talk about the life cycle of different things... there is always a start, one or more steps, and a finish. Sometimes people love seeing that full life cycle.

- 4-square diagram - PO's, Invoices, Expense/Receipts, Deposits - use positive and negatives and explain it really simply. How do these values affect inventory or banks. This is a great simple process of what really works. These are the big 4. So many things play into the mix.

- On tech support - a quick response can help eliminate the escalation of the emotion - sometimes that is where the problems are and/or where their roots are.

- Defining the rules and expectations early on help to set the ground rules

- How much do you want to work? There are tons of options, but it is important that you define those rules and guidelines. If you don't define those goals, it could run you over... literally.

- The language that we speak between developers, consultants, and clients. We all have to play in the same area and define who wants what, who is going to do what, and who is going to fund what? Once we answer those questions, we can move forward.

- When you are onsite with a client, you will get spun in multiple directions... lots of moving pieces. We need both women and men working together to make the team stronger.

- Adilas has and does create a community of independent parties. Working together and sharing values and ethics. Good stuff.

Working on some code changes for Kelly. She had reported a page where the quick search wouldn't work. I also started working on another page that needed URL (web path variables) scope access. This was a request from a client wanting to be able to get to reports externally by passing in search criteria without interacting with the normal search form.

Bryan and I got on a GoToMeeting but were having some problems with connections. He had some code that checked for certain things and then would beep (small sound) when some attention was needed. Once we started looking at the code, we had to still go back in and work on it some more. We have to be able to switch between test and live environments.

Finished up the night by doing some emails and tech support information.

Meeting between Kelly, Steve, and Brandon. This was a discussion about the current state of adilas, wishes, hopes, disappointments, frustrations, needs, wants, and dreams.

Kelly has been involved since 2010. She has trained, trained our trainers, done tons of tech support, and opened up tons of accounts on her own. She would like to help drive the business but feels like she doesn't have much say.

Steve was talking about payment and commission structures (monies paid and owed to Kelly). Kelly wanted to know, what is our admin structure? Steve said, well, we have dependables - people who just help and work with adilas. Kelly would really like to see our organizational structure.

We are seeing different people and they have different skills in different places... How do we mix and blend those pieces?

Kelly proposed a basic model... see graphic. She really wants to build out a standard structure. She sometimes get very frustrated by having to provide customer support for things that we are adding and doing in the background.

Question: Is it the size of a company thing or is it personnel thing? Kelly came back and said - It sounds like you need a motor (a person), someone to help drive the ship per company. We are starting to see that there are some dependencies. Some of the known dependencies are good consultants and good developers. Steve said, our solution is a tool, we need to find those that want to use our tools, in whatever state (our system) it is in.

It kept coming back to different people being good at different things. Nobody can take adilas from a to z. Currently, it is a very loose model right now. Steve kept coming back to having a person who helps to drive the adilas implementation per corporation. Kelly wants it to be standardized. She really wants some kind of structure to be able to hand off to a company so that they can run with it. Currently, there are a lot of moving pieces.

From our side... every corporation runs slightly different. That makes it really hard to setup a perfect standard and/or structure. We currently are having some of the best success with people who really want to jump in try and love to learn things. Kelly really wants adilas to come up with a more standardized structure - do this, do this, do this, we recommend this, ok you're set. The easier that we can make it, the easier we can get more people on board.

Adilas - all data is live and searchable - we need more options to get at the data better. Kelly wants all of the pieces live and searchable. We have a good start, but there are certain places that really still need some loving. Kelly wants to know what our plan is? What about funding and going out and trying to raise monies? Currently, that door is not an option. We are really trying to stay within our means. We don't like owing money and living under that debt.

We talked about some of the challenges that keep pulling at us. Tons of projects and tons of demands. We also talked about accounts receivable, reoccurring credit cards, and constantly chasing payments. We talked about some of the trouble makers (hard clients and customers) and what to do with them. We talked about online bill pay stuff and how to get the monies that are owed to us quicker.

How do we market our product? New sales, marketing, word of mouth, referrals, etc. The power of a good consultant. Those who have a good consultant seem to be able to keep it going. Another place where we sometimes struggle are in the developer arena. Those skilled persons are very critical. That seems to be the squeeze point (trained people and who does what and how do our people know what expect and who to ask).

Sometimes you can oversell things by saying, you can do anything. Kelly would really like for the process to be more standard and structured. Basically, putting training wheels on the system. Maybe we need an outside party to really run with their own standard process of setting up a client. It may not come from us (right now). It would be so awesome, if we could get people going without a great consultant. Turn it into a step-by-step wizard and/or step them through the paces by virtually holding their hands (Dustin calls it guardrails). If it gets better and better and faster and faster, it will become more intuitive and will take less handholding will be required. Maybe show a 1,2,3,4 setup process and/or show checkboxes to show what is needed. Help guide the users through the process.

Some people don't want to spend the time to watch a video. They want to just guess and/or fake it. There are also some who just want to be shown, by a real person. They almost want it so, so easy, that it isn't funny. It seems to come down to who wants to fund and setup these services. There are tons of things that are needed, but who is going to build it and who is going to fund that development? It gets crazy. Sometimes it is so much, we almost overwhelm people. It would be nice if we could turn things off, turn other things on, and/or limit them in certain ways.

Who wants to set up their own processes, because everything keeps changing? It gets tricky. We need it, but who is going to do it? Plus, it keeps changing and changing and has cascading cause and effects. It seems to be never-ending.

Kelly wants to know who is driving this ship and who is taking care of the financials? We keep flexing and rolling with what comes.

We may need more exports to MS Excel and/or CSV. We need access to the underlying data. This could be datatables (prebuilt exports and sortable tables), this could be normal exports, etc.

If I were a lifer (in it forever - a lifer), how would that look and where would it go and how would I be a part of that? Steve would like to put adilas in a trust - no employees, just dependables. There will always need to be a caretaker and/or person(s) that help it keep going, but it could run light and get direction from those involved.

Does anybody know adilas all the way through? No, we don't have anybody that really knows it all the way through. Kelly wants to see things get more organized and/or stable. As a side note, we know that we need adilas university (training and support) and the adilas marketplace (adilas world - who is able to help and who can do what). Kelly feels like we need to drive in a direction (goal oriented) vs just reacting to the pull of what is happening organically. Currently, we have outside independents and they tend to max out and growth is somewhat slow. The word "evolution" kept coming in and how it relates to the business model.

Different areas... communication, training, design and user interface (look and feel), development (code and functionality), and other services that are needed and/or offered (open marketplace). We need to keep bringing up all of the pieces. Keep finding people who want to play and are able to play.

As we get more developers... some of the pieces become less stable (different flavors and/or code quality).

There are a lot of clients that are looking for a solution. At some point, they will take what they have to as they keep looking for something better. Interesting.

There is currently no handbook for adilas. There is a lack of training materials and structure. That is a known issue that we are facing.

Reviewing timelines and progression. Sometimes that helps to remember where things are at and where things have been.

Shannon had an idea on house floorplans and layouts (as a concept) - We have a graphic with bread cut into different shapes and sizes (loaf, slice, cubes or sections, and mixed or different options). As far as the home floorplans analogy, people understand that. It becomes a standard package and/or a starting place. Most people don't want to build things from scratch with no plan in place. But they would love to get a few floorplans that they like and then tweak and blend between the existing pieces. Technically, we could build things from the ground up, but most people don't really know what they want and/or what is available. We may have to give them a good starting place. This may be size oriented (size of business) or industry specific templates, packages, and/or virtual floorplans. Great ideas.

We went through a document and some notes that we took (Steve and Brandon and Kelly) a couple days back.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=748&id=4464

As Shannon and I went through the older notes, we talked about a number of the concepts. We may need to start creating packages and virtual starting places for our clients. Help to standardize things and simplify the setup and implementation. We also talked about the pros and cons of getting more people involved and on the system. Is it ready for them? How do we get them in and help them get going quickly? Great questions.

The meeting today had a light flavor of education and training and standardizing.

Analogies for defining deeper processes

Steve - Business is like a pirate ship - (who is the crew, are they good/bad, who is doing what)

Kelly - Business is like a body - (what is your tool to get to your goals)

- Goals and sub goals to get to the bigger goal. Adilas is just a tool. The people who use it are the ones making the goals.

- Talk is great, but we need to work on some implementations (getting out there and doing it).

- How do we implement the tool... this drives customer satisfaction.

- Adilas is so flexible that sometimes that is a problem

- Kelly was not saying don't be flexible... but we need a standard starting place

- There are new things that get launched all the time... without any training - this keeps deepening the need for good reps and consultants

- Unintended consequences

- Pressure and pain drives the current development cycle

- Everyone looks to a system to be "The" solution - systems can do a lot of things, but they can't save you from yourself

- Good physical control of the system is a huge key - stick to the plan and then go from there

- Many of the business owners don't even know what they are doing and then that translates to their business processes

- Helping to setup mini goals for the client... miniature options for success

- Addressing the physical before jumping into a digital realm

- Sometimes, a companies leadership will drive things right into a ditch

- Kelly has been doing some research on what other developers and companies do to help standardize things

- A good setup will make or break the whole deal... from there forward (what milestones are set and achieved and was there a good handoff between the software company and the rep/consultant)

- Accountability practices

- When a client has a question, have tech support use the user guide as their answer. As a side note, Shannon and Brandon are working on the adilas user guide.

- On numbering... instead of using a straight 1, 2, 3, 4... system (single numbers). Maybe think more along hundreds 100, 200, 300, 400... (lots of room to add and subtract as needed)

- Sub attributes - Kelly doesn't think that piece is fully "strong", yet we are building upon it. Steve thinks the concepts are pretty good. We just need to fix some of the coding pieces to help get reports, searches, and exports more up to speed.

- Steve was talking about the complexity of even servers - we had a meeting this morning that just dealt with servers (hours and hours). So many moving pieces and working with somewhat limited funding and talent options.

- Due to our current size, we almost have to say - in order to setup clients, you will need to setup an adilas specialist (in your company) and we will help train them. They will then help push that ball forward.

- Some of our squeeze points deal with persons who have the skills, talents, and time. We have masters like Steve, Brandon, Kelly, Daniel, etc.

- Start by defining the language that we are speaking - adilas is its own language - A good starting point - how do we communicate things, as a company

- People want organization and structure - being too thinly spread can be a big problem

- Allowing dreaming and custom options - we love it but that could be a problem - we may get in trouble by giving them too much or too many options.

- Maybe have them run with the standard options for 6 months and then talk about going into the custom realm - we have seen problems with people going into full on custom too quickly.

- Like an airplane - put the oxygen on yourself first and then help others around you - you end up selling what you do

- Setting clear expectations

- Maybe have some tools and education (training materials) about how to run a business and how to use the tools - Steve has had the ideas of putting on basic business seminars across the country. We could use the adilas tool as the backbone of the basic business training sections.

- We are seeing a bigger and bigger need for training, guided training, and even self training. This could be checked and/or quality assurance based on skills, tests, scenarios, sign-off's, etc. In traditional learning environments, there is standardization, testing, feedback, etc.

- What about using elements of time to help monitor the virtual checklist of what has been done and to what level?

- We do need a team, but at what level do we need to get to? That gets tough. People resources are always tough to manage.

- More training sessions - pros and cons to our current model - people want to learn in privacy - some of the training sessions get out of control (high jacked).

- Vocabulary and what things do and what we call things is a big part of the puzzle

- Some people don't want to know the why (that takes time)... they often just want to know how (show me quickly so I can do it)

- Education from gaming - 2 minutes or less - quick YouTube type mentality

- What kind of users are you? Do you like to self train? Do you want the easy button? Do you shoot from the hip (all the time) or are you a detailed oriented person who likes to organize and manage things? Great questions... help pre-qualify them in a way. The adilas system works best if the users want to put the things into the system (feed it) and play the whole game.

- Sadly, we can't fix everything... sometimes, we have to just go to the next person

- AI (artificial intelligence) and where things are going - automating setups and then automating tech support - keep going where things are going (skate to where the puck is going)

- Working on your company vs working in your company - focus on working on it and making it better

- What is the low hanging fruit and where can we start?

- How many touch points are needed to get someone setup? Who setups up the quote? Who turns things on? Who setups up things? Who does logos and watermarks? Who does labels? etc. - you get the idea - try to automate as much as possible.

- Somewhat of an internal bulletin board - who is doing what and what changes are going on in those shifts

- Just adding bodies doesn't always help things - events happen, how do you deal with that - there has to be an internal training process to take care of those things. It comes down to core things that are needed. Who is going to do those things (virtual checklist of what is needed)? Light talks about templates.

- Function vs fashion - where do you spend your time? We may not be able to solve everything but we can try to take the edge off of things. We want to show them what is possible. We want to present a nice package. We also want to make sure that things work (functionality) for them.

- Steve and I are trying to get out of the way. We are trying to fully get the process all setup and dialed in. Sometimes, if we are a pivotal part of the puzzle, it just doesn't happen, we are maxed out.

- Going back to consistency... We know we need it, we are trying to work through it and then actually using it. What can you expect every time? We also need a timing of those events... when should we do things, not just what should be done. There is a difference.

- Sustainability - We need to keep doing this (our business) for years to come... let's set ourselves up for success.

- Building our own processes to help with project management, task management, and to do list checkboxes before doing x (fill in the blank). Templates and automation processes. Help share the load.

- Things are changing super fast... nobody knows everything - we are currently letting different parties run with what they think needs to be done vs having one person giving orders and then getting a good return and report type process. Currently, it is somewhat of a community type effort.

- Why are we doing it and should we do it? Check this out before you jump in. Think of the consequences first.

- Kelly is going to help get a group together to help bring up the structure level and get the oars (some driving and direction) into Kelly's hands. We need a good driver who won't run us aground. We are going to let Kelly run with some things on the core management side of things.

- We are going to be starting at the very beginning and then going from there. A great place to start.

- Who can help Kelly? She needs access to a developer.

- One of her main requests is getting data out of the system. One page that she would like is a full parent inventory with all flex grid fields. See the top_secret/custom/full_customer_list.cfm page for a sample that does the same thing but for customers and flex grid.

- Pieces of pie analogy - and who gets access to those developers and how do we get everything tied back together.

- Symptoms of the problem - a non whole-listic approach

- Kelly is having to take the information out of the system and run her own reports

- Two main parts that Kelly wants tracking money and tracking inventory

- What are the minimum levels for a code developer? Looking for talent. Kelly and I talked about beginners, intermediate, and advanced developers.

- Project management software for adilas

- We need money and funding to keep going

- We need to focus on our own system and get it across the finish line as a product

- The model of independent consultants and/or developers can get very scary - the scary part is the inconsistency of how the money comes in - somewhat of a feast or famine type feel

- Developers: Wayne, Alan, Eric, Calvin, Bryan, Shawn, Josh, Dustin, Brandon, Will, Steve

- People believe in the tool and like what they are doing

- In order for adilas to get bigger, we will have to change some things

- Revisiting the entire business model

- Investments - pros and cons - period for two year (funding numbers)

- Let's setup a whiteboarding time and come up with a new model

We were going to have a meeting with Kelly and do some online whiteboarding and business planning, but that didn't happen. Instead, Steve and Brandon had a couple hour brainstorming session about their own ideas on a business model and business plan. Super fun brainstorming meeting.

- Steve and Brandon were talking about the role of the adilas market, adilas university, and the adilas café.

- Steve was talking about ideas... are you buying or selling? What section of the market and/or café do you play in?

- Just jump in... see a need, fill a need - we love it

- Another piece that we may be missing is marketing and sales type literature and media pieces

- We would love to recruit some others to help with the heavy lifting - There are tons of great adilas users out there who have some great skills

- It takes time and energy to get things going - the goal is, once it gets going, hopefully it will keep feeding itself.

- Steve is having fun tackling the business model - analogy - like a friendly pirate ship. It could be a boat, a ship, a car, a plane, or anything that moves over time. The fun come in as you start asking questions. Are we friendly? Are we mean? How many sails do we put out? What direction are we going (what is our heading)? What kind of crew do you want? How big and how small do you want to be? Etc. Fun stuff.

- Sometimes as we write and record these log notes, it may expose some of our underbellies, but we really gain from it in multiple ways.

- Steve and I would like to be open to discussions from any parties. We also acknowledge that there is a cost to being open and listening to those ideas.

- There seems to be many cycles that interconnect and play as the ball gets kicked down the road.

- Zipper analogy of bringing operations and accounting together. We started this a long time ago, we want to keep going but some of the steps are bigger and harder than others to conquer. Problems exists and that helps keep things going. Problems force decisions and hopefully a solution.

- Working in teams and pulling through things together - it helps get the ball across the finish line and you build relationships along the way.

- A constant mode of refinement - dive and resurface, dive and resurface - build and break, build and break - the concept of maintenance.

- Building blocks of teams - forming, storming, norming, performing - where are we at in our team development process?

- As we keep coming together as a team, there will be some normalizing and efficiency as we keep going. Good stuff.

- Steve is always on the hunt for the better and better ideas. He loves the hunt, in theory and in practice.

- Different angles, different views - false summits, operations, accounting, task oriented, dreamers, managers, etc. Like a pie analogy, we need the whole (in the end), and certain people are doing certain pieces (delegating tasks and processes), but hopefully as you bring it all together and it becomes the whole.

- The proof is in the pudding - if you have a great idea... let's put it to the test... we don't have a monopoly on all of the good ideas. We want to be open to those around us. Ideas by themselves don't really stand too long... those ideas have to be put into action and start applying those concepts.

- You can fund a company through investment, equity, sales, or leveraging debt. We are leaning towards sales and equity.

- Talking about models, we are even seeing some morphing models (mixing and blending), client/services, budgets, and strategic customer care projects. Customer tune ups, targeted tech support, and other customer care and retention efforts.

- Hoist anchor! Starting to get the ship out of the harbor.

- Models - rep model, hub/shop model, 3rd party solutions and white label model - We are seeing a small mix between the basic rep model and the basic hub/shop model. - Russell's word "Dependable" model. A loosely bonded hub/shop type model where the bond is the dependable type and/or dependable people who service other parts of the service model. Basically, they stick around to help pick-up and service the by-products that are created (training, consulting, setup, design work, custom code, tech support, project management, training, and other by-product services).

- Being able to clone some of the main core players - Steve, Brandon, Shari O., etc. Small teams forming under some of these key players and creating loose bonds (dependable type bonds). Very interesting.

- Talking about sales and white label options, we have no boundaries and no zones - people could consume our product wherever they are - we don't plan on adding any boundaries and/or zones.

- Anybody could identify a problem and/or issue - what we really want and need is those who help come up with and are willing to work on solutions.

- Steve was saying that the employer/employee relationship is a kin to slavery - it can work, but over time, it has other costs and drains. Steve really wants to keep moving towards the dependable type model - It is very loose but it can and does work - We want to keep helping those around us - if you look at it... we have so many by-products, the by-products completely outweigh our normal products. Very interesting. One of the key pieces is, you have to want to play the game. If you are just coasting, it doesn't work very well.

- Finding that balance point - We were talking about the difference between a normal company that has an employer/employee model vs this loose community of dependable - We also talked about how some companies are replacing the traditional model with robots, AI (artificial intelligence), or automated services. Where are those balance points and what makes things tip to one side or the other? One of the core concepts that we have is, our main product creates tons of subs or by-products. We can allow others to pick-up any of those by-products by offering their services (basically an open market type option).

- Some of this is just happening and we are figuring it out as we go... We have plans, we try things, we fail sometimes, we go backwards and forwards, we try to listen, we harvest other's ideas, we experiment, we tweak, we refine, we circle back around. That seems to work for us. It is more of the try storming type mentality vs just a plan it and build it type model.

- Randomly enough, we keep getting people circling back around after years of talking with them initially (old sales leads). We also have other people who are looking for and needing some of the functionality that we are working on and/or already have. The general public needs keep advancing right along with us. Step by step building process. Keep building towards the full system (fully interconnected pieces) and even full world building levels.

- Talking about commissions and outbound monies and such - Steve used the word semi-dependable (not a full dependable, but still part of the whole team).

- Finding the glide plane - like an airplane coming in for a landing.

- Tag teaming based on abilities - Coach, put me in... I want to play or give me a shot.

- People putting in time to help move the ball forward - Steve would like to move the company into a trust at some point.

- We are excited that we are moving some things over to deeper and more expanded technologies - tech stuff and server models.

- Keep working to get out of the way

- There is some magic in having a business plan but it can have limits - we do need some direction but it also helps to have your head up and be looking around. Our current business plan is "we are heading North" or something like "we are heading to the top of the mountain" - we have a direction and a way to go about it, that's about it. Fill in the gaps and cross the bridges as they come up (we know they are out there, but we don't have a full plan in place for every little thing).

- What about enjoying the journey? There is some fun in planning out the journey and then responding to cause and effect relationships that happen based on those decisions. That sounds like world building, in a way. The five core concepts of world building are: Characters, relationships, trouble/problems, decisions, and consequences - see this element of time for more information... Web link - time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=371&id=3634

- Some people will like what we do and sadly, we may make some enemies - we want to keep it as an open model - there are tons of options out there. We welcome those who want to play and we'll keep refining and building as we go. We want people who are looking for a solution and are willing to help and invest in their solution. We want to make adilas consumable... what do you want and how can you make it work for you?

- Model of being able to charge for different components - it all needs to exist - what if we showed all of the 12 main players and what part of their bill gets charged out and/or applied to what part of the 12 main players? That could be pretty cool.

- We may want to open up the adilas ecommerce piece to all of our clients. Currently, they have to pay for the extended ecommerce functionality.

- Data - the new currency... people are offering features and functions for free, just so that they can collect data. Very interesting.

- Steve would like to help push forward the ideas of the adilas café - a virtual community of users and/or other companies that offer their services - that will be really cool - helping to push the ball along the path using the skills and talents of others (a community of adilas power users and/or outside services). Once again, the by-products are a huge part of the model.

- We do need some standardization pieces, but some of our model is the flexible ways you can do it... We need both side of the fence.

- We ended by doing a brief look at where we have been and where we are going (historical summary of invoices and client based financials). Good stuff.

6/9/2020: Notes from meeting with Kelly regarding upgrades/fixes to discount engine:

1)Currently for each line item you add through the discount engine, it creates a description in the non printing notes. This can get messy for searches. Possibly make this a permission- do you want this to print? Or, only print once.
2)Most people want to price items more than they want to give discounts. 
3)Needs to work in e-commerce.

Josh will be finishing up phase one of discount engine this week (9/11/19). 

Buy X get Y (a more flexible BOGO). This has been asked for quite a bit by clients. Josh estimates this is a larger scope, as additional fields would need to be added to the database. Estimated time would be 2-4 weeks.

Buy X Get Y
   -  Categories for X
   -  Categories for Y
   -  Parts
   -  Vendors
   -  Time Periods
   -  How many max uses
   -  Make any purchase on Friday, get a free joint

Buy 2 Get 1
Buy 5 Get 2

4/20: 27.44

from 4/14: 30

Up to 3/1: 26.48

from 11/19 through 1/1/2022: 112.4

11/18: 15.56

11/17/21: 17.5

10/21: 12.08

10/18: 38.04

10/5/21: 27.07

John is working on this:

2/25/21: Notes from today's meeting with KW and SM. Also from another eot that I just found today.

1) Choosing the hour is available for the everyday option. When you choose a day or a range of days, you should have the everyday functions of adding time frames. Multiple per day would be great ie 9am-10am, 10pm-11pm (Happy hours- only Monday through Friday)

2) Settings that allow the discount engine to connect to e-commerce!! 

3) Possibly the discount happens in the cart and not when added to the cart. (In ecomm only adding one item at a time) This will help with the buy x get y. *We did determine that the limit of how many line items can  receive the discount happens in the cart, so it seems there is already coding there for this.
Minimum =needs to pull from the cart info and not from when scanned.

4) Adding functionality that allows for multiple categories and multiple items. Currently, if you choose one category you can assign specific items. If you choose multiple categories you do not have the option to assign specific items.

5) A snow owl pop up so you can sort the vendor list or item list as they are super long. Would be great if the vendor list only included inventory vendors, and even better only vendors who are associated with the categories or items. 

6) Not imperative but an add or edit or submit button at the top would be helpful.

7) Not imperative but would be nice to show in an item if it is linked to any discount engine items. Similar to how it shows that an item is connected to a smart button. Could go right there next to the smart buttons.

**There seems to be a weird scenario, where if you have the wrong vendors populated in the list for the item that you choose to discount, when you add that item to the cart it doesn't recognize the discount. Kind of goes back to limiting the vendor list.

Adding other notes: Everything on this date was quoted at $5000.

6/9/2020: Notes from meeting with Kelly regarding upgrades/fixes to discount engine:

1)Currently for each line item you add through the discount engine, it creates a description in the non printing notes. This can get messy for searches. Possibly make this a permission- do you want this to print? Or, only print once.
2)Most people want to price items more than they want to give discounts. 
3)Needs to work in e-commerce.

Josh will be finishing up phase one of discount engine this week (9/11/19). 

Buy X get Y (a more flexible BOGO). This has been asked for quite a bit by clients. Josh estimates this is a larger scope, as additional fields would need to be added to the database. Estimated time would be 2-4 weeks.

Buy X Get Y
   -  Categories for X
   -  Categories for Y
   -  Parts
   -  Vendors
   -  Time Periods
   -  How many max uses
   -  Make any purchase on Friday, get a free joint

Buy 2 Get 1
Buy 5 Get 2

3/13/20: Molly specific requests: Updates requested, including improvement for: Tiered Pricing, Buy x Get Y. Corrections for Buy X, Get X: not just Line QTY Requirements but Add Total QTY requirements so this works for people who scan. 

11/25/19: Not sure how high on the priority list this is. Putting it down in the list for now.

One client experiences that the discount engine takes quite a while to load (I haven't see this, but Drea did see it on this clients system). Wants to add buy x get y.

Interested in having boxes next to the days of the week so you could run a special Mon, Wed and Fri. 

Have the vendor list after the categories, and if you only choose one category, choose the vendor, and only have that vendors items populate in the list.

Can you exclude specific items from the discount, the way you can include specific items?

Discounting based on key words.

this is time for labels that Adilas has already billed out for.   this particular job was for MPX New Jersey as they had four new custom labels per Kelly

Had Alan on the meeting with Chuck and I today. We wanted to get him in on the projects and getting a high level awareness of what is going on. We started out with the camp adilas project and where that is in the development cycle. Chuck did a demo for Alan and they went back and forth with ideas and questions. Both guys are excited to work together on the different projects.

After that, we rolled into a session talking about some snow owl theme (current look and feel inside the system) changes and where that could go. We looked at some mock-ups for the classic homepage and then then into user permissions and profiles. See the screenshots for some of the new ideas. Still in concept mode but definitely coming. We are thinking of putting a facelift on a number of the high usage pages or places where it looks older or more outdated. We are trying to change up the user experience and make it better and better.

We talked about user profiles, permissions, and allowing templates and presets. We talked about having tabs, vertical tabs, accordion displays (ways to show/hide additional data), floating submit buttons, putting help files and summaries under the gear icon on the side of the page, stash and go with a sock drawer type concept, and even changing the page flow to help the users. Currently, they do an action and may end up on a different page or on a success message. They then have to navigate away to another place or do some other action. Good page flow will really help.

A couple of other topics were mixing tasks and skills to get a job/project done vs a full stack developer (able to go from top to bottom or point a to point z - the whole thing). We may need to help some of our developers get really good at certain tasks to help with efficiency and productivity. We also talked about light messages and helping to lightly push our users towards the newer look and feel and/or new functionality options. We know that we have to be careful there, but we will make some attempts when ready.

After the meeting, Alan and I talked briefly about some of our developers and where we are headed and who could help in what regard.

New note added on 1/8/20 - Danny Shuford contacted me and asked that we make the view only permissions easier to get to. I showed him some of the concepts of where we are going with user profiles and permissions and said that I would add a note to this element of time. The original idea came from Kelly Whyman and Danny brought it to us. Great idea. That may require some special code just because the view only permissions are not standalone permissions. They require the main permission and then the view only permission to limit the options.

Meeting to review the view and functionality of the Dispensary Homepage, new transactional features.'

Kelly would like to review prior to launching

Kelly and I met up and looked at an error on the consolidated balance sheet and export to excel stuff. We made a few changes but still need to go deeper. We scheduled some more time for later in the day.

Worked with Kelly to get a bug fixed and pushed up to the servers.

Met with Danny to figure out if we want to go ahead and push new code up to master or wait for Dustin.  Dustin and Danny discussed this and they felt it might be best for Danny to push up his code and then Dustin when he is ready.  We worked on the code but didn't push it. Brandon has a question for Alan before pushing it.

Part way through the meeting, Kelly joined and wanted to show me an issue with some inventory reports and costing. After we looked at the issue, we scheduled some time on Monday to get into deeper and look around.

Kelly and I had a great meeting about the balance sheet and the next levels for adilas and ways to help our clients. Great meeting. There is a video out on the www.adilascontent.biz/videos site. The name of the video is: kelly_and_brandon_balance_sheet_talks.mp4. Really good stuff and worth going over again to get more notes. The video is 1:34 hours long. I would love to see things go to the next level.

After our meeting, I got with Wayne and we dis some checking on one of the database servers. Just trying to get everything up to date and fully functional.

Working with Cory on a possible tax calc bug. It ended up that it wasn't a bug, it just needs to be extended to some other with tax included scenarios. The question was dealing with sales tax calcs and settings from the store/locations, or the customer settings, or the cart settings. We just need to build it out a little deeper to handle the with tax included items if the customer is set to something different (say a tax category of government or something) and the items are set to with tax included. It removes the tax but it doesn't back the price down to what it would be without that tax. Sort of missing a step, but only for a certain scenario.

Towards the end of the meeting, Cory and I talked about getting other key players involved in certain projects. We were primarily talking about Kelly and Molly and other power rep/consultants. We talked about who is going to be the project manager and who would be the consultant on that project. We may need to define certain roles to help things flow better. Some of our projects will be built for our clients and some of our projects will be built for our power rep/consultants. There is a small difference as to who the client is. Somewhat internal or fully external.

We also looked at another project and some small bugs that need to be looked at on the general ledger stuff.

Steve and I were going to be meeting with Kelly, but she ended up getting delayed while traveling and security in the airport. We ended up having our own little meeting. Good stuff. Here are a few of the notes from what we were talking about:

- Businesses need all of the deep functionality, they just want it as hidden as possible. Smooth and pretty just feels better, even if it doesn't do as much.

- What if we keep flipping our model? What we mean here is... as a client or a rep keeps asking for more and more, what if we help direct them in such a way that we can get it done? This could be done by meeting with them, planning out what needs to be changed, offering solutions, listening, and taking down notes. Lots of possible options and then we gain from the source vs being pushed away from the source.

- Steve and I talked about the concepts that we are built on vs the code we are built on. Straight up, the concepts that we have built on are 100 times more valuable than the code that we have built on. Our code set is 1 of 1,000's of possible solutions. However, the main core concepts, those will need to be used every single time that someone does what we are doing. Even though you can't touch some of the concepts, there is huge value there.

- We were talking about ways to get funding and the down sides to that. We talked about getting overextended and having huge amounts of debt. That is no fun either. Other talks about possible funding sources such as: grants, selling our services, getting partners, investors, loans, venture capital, donations, and leveraging other assets.

- MVP - minimal viable plan (the p could be plan, product, etc.) - I like the plan option for what we are doing and working on.

- What about the adilas marketplace (adilas world)? Lots of options out there as well.

- Everything that we see is fracturing into smaller and smaller pieces. Development process, permissions, settings, servers, API sockets, single tools vs bulk tools, tracking needs, etc. Fracture is the key word. Kinda like "Legos". We may need some blue ones, red ones, and some yellow ones. It just keeps going and breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces.

- Business management and who will take care of what

- Pain and virtual bleeding sometimes help to drive us towards change

- Somewhat of an open source type model

- What is our direction and our pace? Pick a direction and then let it grow. In some ways, it feels like we pick a direction and then plant the seeds, then in a day or so, we dig it up to see how it is doing. I think we need to pick a direction and let it grow a bit.

- Our model has always been slow and steady...

- We are only able to move forward as we get funding - we get funding from...
>> Reoccurring revenue
>> One time services
>> Seed money
>> Donations and other sources

- We are stable currently

- 3 things... from Steve
>> Look at what we have - deep, deep
>> We are building daily - progression
>> We help you by bringing value - multiple ways
-->> Low cost for what you want
-->> You are able to move the system in the way that you want it - allow custom

- Maybe make it known what we are spending on new functionality and R&D

- This is who we are... we are who we are and we plan on maintaining that

- We need to take things with a grain of salt

- Our current direction is directing projects over to one main source (Cory) and then dividing things out from there - a director of development operations - Steve and I have decided that we will let this play out for a while before making a major change or shift.

- Walls and helping to sterilizing things - getting some separation

- Like an essay - tell them what you are going to tell them (prep), then tell them (main content), and tell them what you told them (conclusion)

- You can do that? or You can do that! - We love it!

- We have a team that helps and supports us... that is huge

- We, as a company, need to have our clients get in line. Sometimes we give preferences and special treatment. We need to help standardize things.

- As a skill, we have people saying that they are proficient in adilas as a skill set. Pretty cool.

- Constant development and pushing the ball forward. We are building and refining every day. Keep it going!

Talking with Kelly and Steve about the balance sheet.

- The original balance sheet was developed in 2009/2010. It needs to be updated.

- The development of outside requests and how it almost creates legs or outshoots from the core.

- We want to consider the balance sheet in all of our development processes.

- If Kelly helps with project management, how does that look and where can we take it?

- The buck stops at the balance sheet. We really want to get more into the accounting market. The balance sheet will be a huge value piece of that puzzle.

- Seeing and paying for the value that they are getting from our continual efforts, meaning our clients.

- How do we roll this out in order to help our clients see the value that we are bringing to the table.

- On the coding side, there is more than just code languages that need to be understood. There is theory, there is concepts, there is a way of thinking.

- Some of the coders/developers are only as good as their plans are... We need to help and fill in the gaps. Also, some of these guys have a hard time seeing all of the connection due to the fact that they aren't in there working on everything all the time.

- There is a huge amount of education that is needed to help translate to the developers as to what is going on.

- Steve was talking about how we are trying to do the projects and get those things going.

- If we start messing with the balance sheet... we are technically messing with all of the financials (cause and effect and multi-facetted).

- As we roll this out, we need to look at the progression and the succession plan (how it rolls out) for this part of the project.

- Due to requests, we get pulled in many directions. Sometimes that makes it tough.

- What is best for adilas? What is best for our customers? Often we get turned from our own projects due to funding and heat/pressure.

- There are a limited number of people who really know what is going on in the background. We need to expose some of that knowledge and/or know how.

- Our customers get drunk on technology... they just want more and more. That is both good and bad.

- Sometimes we have a disconnect between adilas needs and customer needs. No one is really planning and coordinating those needs. Many of them line up, but might be stated differently.

- Talks about how we can standardize things and get a better buy in from the CPA and accountant side of things.

- Starting out of thin air vs a process to get the ball roll - talking about where and how things start and how to help standardize the system.

- We are looking at aggregated systems (cross corp summaries)... before we jump there, we really need to focus on the individual corps first.

- What if we go back to the balance sheet and show how that is really your business (the core).

- Education and helping others know what is going. Maybe even as part of the adilas university.

- Talks about who is adilas and what do we want to be? How can we create a stable infrastructure that allows for more passive type management?

- What we have learned along the way are invaluable. Look at the last 10 years of development, ideas, and new development/inventions.

- The balance sheet is the report (snapshot in time) that helps us know where things are at.

- Back in October of 2010, we spent a ton of time trying to map out the system and what happens and how it relates to the balance sheet. That exploration process showed us a lot of things that have been super important in the past few years.

- Kelly really liked how Russell worked with and rolled out the Snow Owl theme. There was a plan, a product, a presentation, and education to go with it. The full meal deal. 

- We started talking about project management and people who have helped with some of these projects and helping to setup these requirements, maps, directions, tech specs, etc.

- What roles are we all playing? We've got talents and ways to contribute to the whole, but sometimes we are trying to bring things together but may be in the wrong spot or wrong role.

- We also talked about helping with training to get others involved and in the know.

- There were some funding options discussed and proposed by Kelly.

- From Steve, adilas just needs to be the software piece. We may not need to be all of the other pieces.

- Making less work for a user by harnessing technology and AI type decisions. All kinds of things happen all the time, we just need to figure out which actions are key indicators and/or triggers. Learning to harness those triggers.

- Automation of onboarding and that flowed information into corp-wide settings, industry types or verticals, and how to help that information translate into settings, permissions, and user happiness.

- From Kelly - Some of our biggest clients have come from some of our little guys that started years and years ago. We have basically helped them bring value to their organization. There is a difference between little guys and enterprise levels.

- Some of the people who help to service the solution have made way more than the actual tool itself has made.

- Talks about charging for support and how does that look and roll out?

- One of our biggest walls (internally) is who is going to build it and make these things happen? We have some people who can plan things and figure out the requirements. We need more people who can actually do the building/development.

- Live chat and making certain help options as a value add-on. Small talks about Full Circle (3rd party) and using some of their technologies. We talked about auto responses, automation, and human side stuff such as support tickets, live chat, phone calls, etc.

- Steve and I get so bombarded with meetings, we struggle with some of the other things that are on our plates. Too much of a good thing. As we keep growing, we keep hitting some new levels and then can't seem to push past that level. Eventually we get past a certain level just to find that there are more limits later on.

- Looking forward to some future meetings to help push this project forward. We need some time to plan this (the balance sheet) project forward.

- We may need an outside source to help us really focus on what is important. Sometimes we get too close to the subject matter.

- Versioning and maybe building some new pages and new functionality. We need to look at how we roll these changes out and how it plays into the main financials.

- There was some talks about life cycle dates and ranges. We may need to start out and show certain things as of certain start/end dates. Accurate, reliable, repeatable - that is the goal. As we change and move forward, we may be able to charge more for some of these new pieces. Evolution of the system.

- We are built on a good foundation - we can really build from here.

- There may be a future split between legacy vs enterprise solutions - everything has a value. We want to be scalable based on the size of the client and what they need.

- If we are reducing the number of systems required to run your business - there is a value there. If you start listing out the costs, you will be surprised. We bring value and we need to show that value. Finding that balance point. Real money savings can also be equated to time savings. That is huge.

- Let's do something about this! Keep making it better.

We did push up a video online. It is called kelly_steve_brandon_talking_about_balance_sheet_plans.mp4 and may be found at www.adilascontent.biz/videos and it is 1:37 hours.

2/25/20: Steve will email Kelly regarding having R.....ll do their reports. Steve will also show Kelly new robust gram control.

https://zoom.us/j/997233164 This meeting is the one you already had planned with Kelly. Cory is joining and we are going to zoom so we can show you the first 3 projects we need quoted for financial accuracy in reporting.

Questions... how do we flag our projects for projects that are fundable? Cory asked, how are the projects related? What projects play along with that.

- 3 things - internal shopping cart, look and feel, balance sheet stuff and reporting/exporting

- MVP for the cannabis industry - balance sheet, reporting, sub inventory, mini conversions

- Building new products off of the existing platform as a service (PaaS)

- From Kelly - small group of legacy people to help fund some of the reporting and exporting - certain ones would be grandfathered into older lower rates while others will get increased rates going in the future.

- We did some other forecasting and looking at numbers.

- Grouping projects into like areas

- Lots of talk about smaller packages, modules, and list of features and options per price tag

- Changing our focus to working on client funded projects

- Getting more organized and really staying as focused as possible - working toward a goal

- Everything is trending toward our community funded projects and getting things funded

- Finding the mix and blend between client funded projects and internal funded projects

- Light crowd funding options

- Phases, even with-in our own environment - making it easier and easier to record the data and also to get the data back (reporting) and easy in/out type process.

Per Steve to discuss data points in compare inventory page.

Join Zoom Meeting


https://zoom.us/j/997233164


Meeting ID: 997 233 164

On a Zoom session with Cory, Steve, Kelly, Sarah, and myself. The subject was aggregated P&L (profit & loss or income statement) reports. Lots of good and fun ideas floating around. This is a spot where we can really help businesses and gain more visibility in the business intelligence (BI) realm. Here are a few of the notes from the day.

- Log any changes made to older things (invoices, payments, line items, deposits, expenses, etc.). Once logged, show a report for both audit trail as well as what changed and who touched it. Even to the level of notifications and communication stuff.

- Lots of talk about the need for the ice-down dates and how that may play in.

- Getting into the business intelligence (BI) level with quick data, summaries, totals, and aggregates.

- We do great at transactional data - right now. We would love to move more into the aggregate type levels.

- Seeing the bigger picture.

- Using BI functions to help drive revenue for us and our clients. This is what our clients want. Quick and reliable access to counts, sums, averages, maxes, mins, and stats and reporting.

- Big need to be able export the data. We also talked about being able to import data, even from other financial or operational type software packages. Along these lines, we also talked about the need for API sockets to help both push and pull the data as needed.

- Some other names and phrases that deal with bigger or summarized systems. Things like enterprise, consolidated, multi-faceted, etc.

- Dashboards and being able to show and compile the aggregated data.

- Playing with the ideas of "Powered by adilas.biz" - Having adilas being under the covers, somewhat in the background, but built on our business platform.

- A super general BI enterprise solution. Maybe even a product that rides on top of the bigger platform.

- For fun... we built a small fake database to show where we were headed. Just playing around.

12/23/2020: As of today, 5 and 8 are completed. The rest of the project is multiple projects and needs to be requoted if K wants to proceed.

11/9/20: Surfacing parent and sub inventory quantity(view only)one value: #8=Pulls off the parts homepage. $400 for this one.

11/6/2020: 8 hours to date:
10/28/20: #1-4 have been completed as of today. 

#5 will completed this week.

#6-9 need to be fleshed out.

9/28/2020:

top_secret/secure/global_parent_core_updates.cfm

1) item description: yes, easy

2) reference #- yes, easy

3) Bin #- yes, easy (this is an alias- called catalog page)

4) Barcode-yes, easy

5) Discounts- in a different spot- talking to a different table= different project.(not related to this project)

6)U of M- slightly complicated= deeper (wait)

7)category: hardest of all. wait on this

8)Qty- Surface parent and child inventory (view only)= deeper

9)Replace the categories piece with multi boxes instead of one= deeper. Database change

7/13/2020: Adding more items to be globally updated per client request for a quote: will need 2 hours per each. Kelly will pay- put on Balance Sheet

- Bin Number -ok
-Barcode-ok
-Discounts-ok

Qty: Surface the parent and child inventory to view only.

Replace the categories piece with single selection to multiple boxes.

5/11/20: Global Parent attributes and global sub attributes updates:

4/20/2020: Vendor was made visible by Steve over the weekend.

4/16/2020: I have found this functionality to be very useful, but it is difficult to understand what items need to be changed quickly without research. It would increase the ability to clean up systems and implement E-Commerce if we added a column for the Vendor Name and Qty field. I also think the ability to update the Bin # and Reference Field would also be useful to quickly change reporting from item exports and invoice line item exports. 

4/16/2020: Spoke with Alan about various bugs (also from meeting with Kelly, Sarah and Steve on 4/14) and he will continue to plug away on them on Fridays- this is his designated bug day. He will assign his time to this project #.

Some of the issues at hand:

-Duplicate rfids
- Issues with compare inventory page- some issue that seems to be related to the last modified date.
-Something on 3/20/20 maybe was weird?
-Dates don't always sort- maybe not a bug but need to change coding of date?

Finished up a couple of small projects that have been hanging around. I got some new JavaScript code from Jon Hudson for a slight change on the build sales deposit page. The new code checks to see if the existing pieces are in place before just using them. This helps if any of the payments have been sub filtered before being added into the deposit.

Kelly sent me an email about a date issue on ecommerce quotes and invoices. I went in and fixed the dates to look-up and use the timezone offset. That helps stamp the history date/times according to the user that is setup to do the outside web traffic or ecommerce actions. Great catch by Kelly.

All new files have been uploaded to all servers.

Finished up by recoding some notes from the day. See earlier entries.

The meeting was originally going to be going over a deep look into the automated P&L (profit and loss or income statement) financial documents and reports. We switched it out and ended up with a group meeting on a different topic, set by both Kelly and Sarah. Good meeting. The main topics were: proposal for performance improvements, scalability, revenue increase, legacy and enterprise planning. Here are a few notes and topics covered:

- Upgrades and helping our clients get the service levels that they want. This could be dedicated boxes, clusters, VPS environments, clear out to full on enterprise type solutions. Each upgrade needs to come with a cost. We just can't do this for free as our base level product.

- Charging the correct amount for certain service levels

- What ways do we communicate and how are those channels working? Email, text, phone, GoToMeeting, Zoom, elements of time, pass along from our clients, etc.?

- Kelly and Sarah would like to get a list of who does what and who is in charge of what aspect (task or position).

- Both Kelly and Sarah were filling the role of business consultants in this meeting. Great questions and trying to keep the subject on target or on task.

- They, both Kelly and Sarah, are somewhat doing an analysis  and seeing where they can help and how best to structure things. I was impressed, they seem like they want to take an active roll and help the whole business become more fluid and efficient.

- Top priorities from Steve - cash flow, servers, customer care, and new UI (user interface).

- Light talks about sales and marketing

- Top priorities from Brandon - servers, current projects, maintenance, R&D, and planning for the future - including new look and feel for the whole system

- Cory is currently doing a great job pushing forward the custom and internal projects - project coordinator

- Charging for storage, processing, and hosting of the software package

- Software is a constant process of refining and building

- What does our team look like?

- What are the future goals? Short term, medium, and long range goals?

- Time management and where we are going

- Concept of adilas.biz as a trust

- Getting business consulting for adilas done by adilas power users

- Cofounders and a small village

We had our second meeting with Kelly and Sarah. Very interesting. They, both of them, are somewhat acting as business consultants for us here at adilas. They are somewhat part of adilas and have been for years, yet they are currently taking our meetings and trying to help us plan and get better and do better. Very interesting.

Here are a few of the topics discussed and talked about today.

- The diversity of the adilas organism. It is alive and growing... ever changing.

- Who is caring for the adilas.biz website. That is a primary communication and sales channel. Who is doing what and what assignments and/or delegations have been made there?

- Lots of talks about white labels and how that could potentially play into the mix. Custom skins, industry specific environments, regemented processes and procedures, defaults, settings, permissions, flow, data entry, updates, notifications... and the list goes on and on. The summary would be specific skins, specific functionality, or industry standards per business vertical.

- What would a 100% white label look like - We envision that we manage and take care of the core elements and pieces. The white label company would handle all of the rest of the pieces. Which include billing, tech support, setup, sales, training, etc. Adilas would just be in the background as a business platform or business system engine.

- Wouldn't it be cool if a real white label also offered live on-site training. Say a company uses the software package. They could charge for people to come and learn and do on-site training (at the white label's site) and show the in/outs of the software package and/or the industry specific skins, functions, processes, or features. That would be super cool.

- Question - how do we decide to switch or specialize in any one industry? Answer - So far, it has just been coincidence and expressed interest of outside parties. No real studies have been conducted. Floating with our ears and eyes open.

- Focusing on core development.

- As a fun side note, part of the meeting was going over some graphics and ideas of where we would like to take it. Just concepts and ideas and drawings (lots of analogies).

7/28/2020: This was the client project but we determined what was created was actually templates and not roles. Switching this to templates project and creating #1840 to reflect monies spent on the roles project. As of 8/18: $2007.00

5/25/2020: Kelly suggested connect to departments, which would automate alot. Change role- change department?

4/27/2020: Looks like client will move forward with this. Quote is attached.

This was a multi-hour Zoom meeting with Kelly, Sarah, Cory, Steve, and myself. I actually don't know when Steve came in, but he was in there by the end... :)

We did a high-level training on elements of time and how the time templates and subs tie in to the mix. We started by going over some light brainstorming and where the need for elements of time came from. Here are a few of the earlier brainstorming links:

Original brainstorming for elements of time - over 150 things we wanted it to do - date of February 2011 - https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=371&id=2181

Brainstorming on types of time and extra functions or add-on's of time - date of February 2011 - https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=371&id=2184

More from February 2011 (just that month) - original brainstorming for elements of time

We then went in and did lots of work with the time templates and how they act and interact with different pieces of the puzzle. Tons of potential. Lots of custom options. Lots of options out of the box (ready to go right now), and tons more that could be made available (say a round 2 of elements of time).

There was quite a bit of talk about how time and time management and general management are what fills the gap between operations and accounting. Lots and lots of drawing. Cory actually recorded the session. I'm not sure if she is going to make it available, but lots of potential inside of elements of time and what that section offers. As a fun side note, we talked about having a virtual chemistry set and being able to create and make tons of things with the raw elements and chemicals. Elements of time is somewhat like that right now.

Cory,

Thanks for the extra information!

We are aware of the intermittent 500/503 errors that you are experiencing. Our technology team has also identified the issue causing this error. We expect a resolution shortly and will follow up once we have confirmation that the issue is fully resolved. 

​

In the meantime, please retry any transaction that receives a 500/503 response until this issue is resolved.

Thank you so much, and reference ticket #446893 for your records.

Have a good day,

 

Andrew Magnemi

API Team

Metrc, LLC

Your ticket number is 446893

I have gotten the Cultivation homepage to be 100% accurate to METRC Vegetative and Flowering Plants. Questions on how to get the systems to Sync to METRC. 

Kelly, Steve, and Wayne were talking about test driven design. There ended up being 7 people on the morning meeting call. The first 45 minutes were mostly Kelly, Wayne, Steve, Cory, and myself. The other guys waited until the end. Here are a few of the topics:

- What is important to the clients in their interfaces? Small disconnect between what is possible, what is available, and how hard/easy is it to use. Also, what if the client doesn't know that a certain function and/or feature is even an option? Education, user interfaces, configuration, training, speed, and tasks at hand.

- Light talked about some of the fracture concepts such as being able to turn everything fully on/off, show/hide interface pieces, mass settings (corp-specific settings and/or industry-specific settings), make sure those on/off toggle switches cascade through the whole system. The iceberg approach vs the mountain approach. Same amount of data, just the approach and perception changes.

- SOP's for adilas developers, adilas reps, adilas consultants, adilas setup people, etc. SOP is short for standard operating procedures. Getting things more standardized and organized. Be able to scale and do it with style.

- On the cart, currently we have some corp-wide settings that help the user determine what they are searching for (items, flex grid tie-ins, recipe/builds, cart favorite buttons, barcodes (mixed sources), and sub barcodes. As we were talking... Steve had the idea of allowing the corporations to check what they search for and in what order to do the search. Currently, they have to chose one of our drop-down cart quick search settings and we then do the search. Steve was thinking that maybe we let them tell us what to search and in what order to do that search. Great idea. Just wanted to record it. Currently, the corp-wide settings is #37, but that may change. Search for it by looking for "mixed sources".

- Along the same lines as above (cart search and scan options)... what if the corporations could set up what they want and then each user could tweak that on a per user basis, if needed. Just another thought. More preferences and helping the system be more effective in the searches.

- Dustin is interested in doing some of the test driven design stuff. He jumped on and was talking to Wayne and Steve about his interest level.

- Two reoccurring themes keep coming up... They are structure and getting more organized. Interesting.

Nice little meeting between Steve, Cory, Russell, and myself. The main goal of the meeting was how and what priorities we have for Russell and his team for the next few weeks. They, some of Russell's team are in between schooling stuff and doing a small sprint for the summer months. Here are some of my notes from the meeting today.

- We went back and forth on cutting out or adding in the new cart stuff. We ended up cutting out the new invoice homepage to substitute in work on the general cart project. We know that it may not be fully done by end of summer. Small time frame but we know that we need it - eventually.

- Some of the other projects are: new invoice homepage, roles and user permissions, corp-wide settings, header/footer session values, etc.

- Russell spends a lot of time prepping the vision of where we are headed and where we are going.

- Lots of talk between the new invoice homepage and the shopping cart. We hit this subject multiple times. As some side notes, if we do the invoice homepage, we would also want to add new graphical homepages for expense/receipts, PO's, deposits, etc. Kind of a suite of graphical homepages.

- Alan's name kept coming up due to skill level and deeper tasks. He is one of the main assets and everybody wants his help.

- When it comes to time... it feels like there is a pull to either be a developer and doing development or being a project manager and helping others. It is really tough to be both at an effective level. It seems like a choice - either development or project management.

- We are seeing three new carts coming into play soon - Spencer - one-pager quick cart, Jonathan Wells and Kelly - smart cart - industry specific, and Russell - new generic and configurable cart.

- We are heading more and more toward mobile friendly designs.

- Keep moving the core system along. We want to keep working where our clients will be - help them by keeping the ball moving forward in a good and positive direction.

- There were some talks about help files and splitting things up. This could be smaller help files or actually making them more in-line where needed. Ideas about pulling them more into the page flow and showing things just in time, as needed.

- Education mode, videos, helping our users with smaller, in-line help, and options. This could even include tech support and online chat, per page.

- Use technology to keep solving the problems that keep coming up.

- Ideally, keep finding predictive ways of responding to needs.

- We were talking about Russell's small team of developers and options for them once Russell goes back to school. There will be projects enough and to spare... Keep honing in on their talents and skills. Let them run where they can. Good stuff.

- There was quite a bit of talk about smaller redesign projects and lots of form fields and in-line validation stuff. We could gain or get a lot of mileage by doing some small tweaks to the layout and forms, including in-line form validation stuff.

- Chuck could even teach a class on doing in-line form validation to help the other developers.

- We now have access to page level JavaScript and custom JavaScript per page. This is one of the new changes based on the projects that Russell and his team have already produced this summer.

- One of Russell's favorite things is dreaming it up and then really making it happen and function like we were dreaming. That is awesome! Real-time problem solving.

- Everything is heading to customizable and configurable - out of the box - that's where we are headed.

On the morning meeting. We had a number of developers and people check in. Eventually, Steve, Kelly, and Dustin were talking about tons of new Metrc changes and how that affects our solution and the solutions of others. Lots of moving pieces and more and more rules and throttles (limits) and regulations. Steve and Kelly were having some good discussions about bringing value to our clients and how that plays into the mix. Also, as we offer more services, training, and support, the cost has to go up to support that. All of that is mixed together. Very interesting.

Wayne jumped on and Steve and Wayne chatted about other backup plans and data/server migrations. A few more are planned for this weekend and into next week. Wayne is doing a great job getting all of those pieces moved and put into place.

11/11/2020: Paused due to cost and lack of funding.
7/28/2020: Jonathan and Kelly working on ways to innovate- pushing fracture forward, etc.

Steve, Sean, Cory, and I were on the morning meeting. Lots of different topics.

Here are Steve's top 3
1 - Servers
2 - Cash flow and sales
3 - Look and feel

- Passing those costs on to our clients - as we keep adding new features and options, we need be able to pass on those costs to our clients. Otherwise we get stuck with the bill.

- Get Steve a sales team - Steve, Sean, Marisa, Drea, Danny, etc.

- Wayne wants to help with code sign-off - that really really help. First, we have to get the servers all tweaked out and running smoothly.

- Brandon and Russell - Steve wants us to work on the header based receivables piece - technology to help get the payments from our clients in a timely manner.

- The whole team is helping to fill different roles - really cool

- Tons of cool outside funding on some of the projects - cory and steve and doing a great job billing and asking for help to fund projects, functionality, reports, and other features.

- Another round on the balance sheet, look-ups and drill-downs. lots of crazy deep moving pieces. We are seeing this topic coming up more and more. People really want to see where their stuff (data and values) are and how it plays into the balance sheet. Alan has been meeting with Kelly on some of these topics and needs. That is awesome.

Alan reported in on a number of different projects. We talked about the transition invoices, new balance sheet drill-downs and reports, working with Kelly on some of those pieces, a new payroll and expense/receipt upload (CSV file stuff), and EMV chip readers for USAePay (merchant processing with chip reader technology). Alan reported on all of those projects and we are making progress there. Good stuff.

We also talked about some great break throughs with some of the other developers. Alan has been helping Bryan and Dustin out lately. Great progress there in their learning and comprehension. We also briefly talked about Steve's laid back leadership style. I tend to be too high strung, Steve tends to calm things down. That has been very helpful at different times. Our job is already plenty stressful.

Small bug fix for Kelly with expense/receipts, splits, and back tracking through the voiding process with multiple subs and smaller pieces. Recording notes and emails.

Bryan, Kelly, and a client got on a Zoom session to launch and test some code for the client after hours. We pushed up a couple of files and Kelly and Bryan will work on the other changes that are needed tomorrow.

Bryan coordinated a late night, after hours, code push for 2 corporations on the data 3 server. Kelly, Anita, Bryan, and I were on the call. We got things up and got the thumbs up from the client.

Met up with Shawn Curtis to setup some times to meet to do payroll stuff and update all of the new withholding settings for 2021.

Writing up a personal letter to Kelly, talking about server department stuff. Steve and I had some ideas we wanted to put in writing and present them to her. We wanted to pitch her some ideas on joining forces to make an internal adilas service department. Kelly has been one of the top rep/consultants for the past 10 years.

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!

Great meeting between Cory, Steve, Kelly, and I. The main topic for the meeting was talking about some advanced inventory (both parents and subs) search and export feature. The new report would bring together pieces from the main invoice tables, PO (purchase orders) table, parts (parent items) table, sub inventory, sub attributes, and parent attributes table.  This will end up being a combo type report - pick from viewable options, add filters and sorts, view report, get export, and be able to save the report for quick reference and usage.

Kelly had some great ideas as we were talking. Not all of these are directly from Kelly, but she was providing a bunch of these:

- Our clients, like to record the data and deep details about their inventory and their processes. However, once recorded, they need searchable and exportable access to all of the data, at every level. Basically, they want to get it back out (be able to use the data).

- Be able to point and click, name, and save the reports - under my favorites

- Lots of talk and ideas about parent attributes - how to help collect that data, how to show the data back in reporting, how to use it outside in ecommerce for marketing and stats.

- Talk about multiple or disconnected pages. All of the pieces are there, it could just use some more defined and simplified flow - workflow or data flow (interface and UI stuff).

- One-pagers - build in options for core part/item values, parent attributes, sub inventory attributes, all from one page and/or interface - our users are wanting more one-pagers.

- Kelly was saying - "The juice isn't worth the squeeze" - basically, the results are not worth the effort (at times). We need to find that balance point. More intuitive and more simple.

- Currently, they can do everything that they need to, but it requires some back and forth and even multiple touches (between add and edit) for certain pieces. The recommendation was to go clear back to the PO's and new item creation process. Maybe even allow for certain things to either be defaulted and/or hidden to make it more simple.

- Some of our conversations got into the next gen (next generation) of sub inventory and being able to allow sub attributes to flow across part/item categories. Parent attributes can flow over or across categories but sub attributes currently can not cross those boundaries. Kelly would like us to allow sub attributes to cross categories. Great idea, it may take some recoding and restructuring, but it could really be advantageous.

- Computer sprawl or digital sprawl - build, build, build - sometimes even without a full plan (like urban sprawl in certain neighborhoods).

- Training "if/then" statements is hard to do, especially if there are deep branching logic choices and consequences.

- Eventually we will want some great reporting for ecommerce and even activity out in the ecommerce land - not just buying but even browsing trends and client behavior and habits.

- Core attributes - currently, we sometimes call these the main attributes or main data fields. We will be using the term "core attributes" more and more to mean the main or primary fields or values for a certain group or section (12 main system players).

- We can use some of our existing code and snippets to build these new pieces. That will really help. We experiment all the time, let's harness some of that development.

- New term - web core or web core components

- Getting into marketing and customer trends and searching info (BI - business intelligence). Aggregating the data, even backend usage and stats (clicks, usage, page views, time spent per page, unique visits, and other demographic type stats). Everything is heading towards marketing and analytics.

- How can we speed up these processes? We know what is needed, we just need to figure out how to best wrap this or this whole thing (processes and procedures). That is one of the big challenges. The good things is, we've figured out a whole bunch of the smaller pieces already, let's just go to the next step.

- Breaking up these huge projects into smaller or bitesize pieces - that is big key to allowing multiple people and/or parties to play the game.

- Dealing with breaking things up, not only the projects, but maybe the UI (user interface) options. Things such as accordions (collapsible sub sections), show/hide pieces, tabs, dynamic - on the fly content and choices, cards, and other cool layout options.

- For this round, we are shooting for a mix between the advanced customer search reports and the save as my favorites (saving the reports).

- What about going back in time? Certain reports work really well for showing current (just in time) values and counts. What about being able to ask the system what was going on or what things looked like back in time (at a past date). Current (right now) vs going back to a date/time in the past. Playing with objects and data over time.

- We want to get to some futuristic or some predictive type reports in the future. Watching tends, alerts, and forecasting.

- The only way we can do it is to go step-by-step and take it slow. Sometimes we can only see just around the next corner, we can't see all the way to the end. One step at a time. That is ok!

- Towards the end, we got into some talks and conversations about building templates and virtual starting places for the next person who has to pick up the pieces and play the game.

- Steve and I will be working together to build and develop some of these pieces. Once we get things pioneered out to a certain level, we may get some others involved. Sometimes it is too hard to convey they whole vision. Sometimes, getting someone started so that they can see a little ways down the road really helps that process out.

- On data imports, it really helps us (the backend developers) if there are both human readable fields (text and verbage) and computer readable type fields (id numbers). Helping to prep for the next person down the line (who is who's customer).

Steve and I were looking at a data import template from Kelly. Trying to get her a good sample. She sent us some data and we sent it back with a few tweaks and requests.

After that, Steve and I looked at a new sub inventory report that he is building. It is dealing with both core part/item attributes and parent attributes (dynamic and able to cross over part categories). The report is looking good and Steve is making great progress on the report.

Part of our goal, everyday, is to keep kicking the ball (or the can) down the road - little by little. We call that progress.

Steve and Sean started going over some of the new mini unit stuff. We also did some follow-ups on sales leads, demos, and appointments.

John gave Cory and I a nice update on where he is at with some of his projects. One of his projects has been working with Chuck to create basic code templates and starting places for the developers to incorporate some of the newer design elements and layouts. We also talked about how the support for the classic system needs to remain (older pages and older sections) but some of the new features will only be built going forward - using the snow owl theme (newer look and feel). Eventually, it starts costing more than it is worth to make it compatible on every conceivable level. Decisions have to be made some times.

We are trying to push both users and developers into a more standard and maintainable model. I love to hike, and I can't tell you how many times a trail gets modified and eventually the older trails get forgotten, as long as the newer tails are easier, more manageable, and easier to maintain. It just gets better and better. We are trying to do similar things inside of the adilas system and application platform. Hopefully good and maintainable changes.

John showed Cory where he was at with the payroll and timecard project that he and I are working on. They went over some new look and feel and display options as well as new backend changes. I've been working on this project with John, so I have a pretty good bead on where things are at, but John filled in Cory so that she could follow along.

More education, when wanted and needed. John is really into including the educational pieces, but helping them to be somewhat hidden unless needed. That is awesome.

At the end of the meeting, Cory and I were talking more about training and the upcoming training event and conference. Cory told me that she, Kelly, and Marisa are working on some new curriculum for the upcoming training event and conference. I'm excited to see what that looks like. I love the direction.

Great meeting. We went over a few projects and follow-ups. Then we switched gears and talked about the upcoming training event and conference. Cory was reporting on what plans she, Kelly, and Marisa have been up to. They are doing a knockout job and getting everything prepped and planned out. I'm excited to see how it goes and turns out. My props go out to Cory, Kelly, and Marisa. Also some props to Mrs. Shari O. behind the scenes.

Work session with John on the payroll and timecard project. We were getting lists of payee/users, running validation on permissions and selections, then doing logic and looping to create arrays of structures (lists of objects or advanced data sets). Nice little work session. Most of the new work was being done on a new payroll and timecard totals report that John is working on.

After John and I got done, Steve and I worked on some joins for a new recipe/build report that showed items not on recipes but still in inventory. Special request report from Kelly for a client.

Bryan joined the meeting and we looked at some code for the eXPO e-checks and simple SMS (text message stuff) validation. Pushed up some new code for testing.

Zoom meeting with Danny, Kelly, Cory, Marisa, Sean, and Shari O. to go the last minute details and logistics for the training conference. Brief overview of the training slides that will be used. The ladies did a great job on prepping the content and training materials. Kelly went over some of the slides and the timing that we are shooting for. Great back and forth with lots of input from the different parties and persons.

Multi-day conference in Salida, CO - birthplace of adilas.biz! If you spell Salida backwards, you get Adilas - All Data Is Live And Searchable

Small Recap:

The adilas team meets almost everyday via GoToMeeting and Zoom meetings (virtual online meetings). Having said that, we have not had an in person conference for almost 3 years. Our last major conference was in September of 2018. The live event was much needed.

The adilas team met up on Monday evening and did a small meet and greet - ice cream social. We then went over to the hotel and conference center. We setup up systems and did some testing. Crazy, but sad, the hotel was having major Internet problems. We setup some mobile hotspots, but it just wasn't enough.

Tuesday morning we started the conference but the Internet was super slow and was dropping the GoToMeeting session, audio, recording, and even basic site browsing was going super slow. We tried using the GoToMeeting options for the first two sessions. After that, we ended up just presenting to those who were on site. There were about 20 individuals there on site. Once we dropped the GoToMeeting piece, the whole attitude of the conference shifted. From my personal opinion, the change was for the better. Much better flavor and things started to flow much better.

We had more folks join us live on day two and day three of the conference. Great stuff. Those who were there were treated good and everybody was learning new things. As a huge shoutout, three ladies spent a ton of time on training content, slides, and presentations (including timing, samples, etc.)

Marisa got a bunch of shirts for adilas with the little blue dog avatar (ADI). The guys and gals looked great in the adilas shirts. As usual, Mrs. Shari O. took great care of us and had snacks and lunches for us each day.

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See attached for some of my notes... I will also put a few of them there below for searchability. My notes that are attached have a lot more details. I just wanted to capture some of the tweaks and user requests that we picked up from the conference. Not all of my notes are just what needs to be updated (for the record), most of my notes were dealing with what the guys and gals were presenting:

- Request - We should not allow new default payments as "show" they should be hidden by default - this is dealing with money types under more options under the corp admin page.

- Request - They wanted Venmo as a payment type

- Request - Remove the Flash option for my cart favorite buttons - under personal profile

- They went through all kinds of setup and settings - being consistent to get things out of the system later on

- Request - Adding in a date picker to the add/edit pages in elements of time. It is currently there, but if you have the HTML enabled SummerNote editor, there is a conflict between the two features. They both use a form of jQuery.

- Small side note on the presentations - Kelly was doing slides on a PowerPoint, Marisa was driving (clicking through adilas), and Danny was presenting - fun combo and good flow.

- Prototyping and then expanding those things

- Request - On the customer log notes, try to add in the date pickers and the SummerNote HTML editors (small conflict)

- Request - On the balance sheet quick search - be able to pull the balance sheet by that date, using the quick search. That would be pretty cool!

- We sure want to get back to a project called "known issues report" - Helping to find things that are known problems or disconnects

- Request - On sub inventory templates, it needs to default to active. Currently it defaults to inactive.

- Kelly and Steve did a great job showing some down the road cause and effect relationships for categories, inventory controls, and other sections in the inventory controls section. Great little session.

- Request - On the advanced part and parent attribute search - They may or may not want some of the inactive parent attributes on that report. In the Farm and Ranch demo site, there were tons of inactive parent attributes that were showing up. Small clean-up.

- Use of the word core - parent cores, child cores, etc.

- Request - On smart group buttons, the description modifier does not currently change the sub description. It only changes the parent description. It should change the sub as well.

- The power of being able to save your own reports

- Save time and money, adilas has a solution built-in (talking about ecommerce, but it could be anything)

- Request - On ecommerce, change some of the verbage on the photo image sizes - make them square (item pictures and item category pictures), if possible. Say something like 750 (_w) x 750 (_h) vs 750 x 553. Square works better on the web, helps make it all line up correctly.

- Request - On ecommerce, the parent attributes on ecommerce show all items with certain tags. We need those counters to filter what was/is really available - For example: Drinks(2) - but when clicked, only 1 (one) showed up. It would be better to show Drinks(1) and then show just that one. That shouldn't be too hard to fix. Maybe just look to see how those item counters and counts are calculated.

- Request - On login into ecommerce, it would be so awesome to have a new setting to say - Where can we take you after a valid login? My details, shop home, make a payment, etc. that would be cool! Basically, let the client/users dictate where to send their customers upon a valid login. Right now, they always just go to a single page and then have to click from there where they really want to go.

- Request - Build a customer marketing link builder page, this would be a page similar to the add/edit my cart favorite buttons (limited), but thte main feature would build a link, add to cart, set a discount, tract a campaign, add a coupon, auto login, etc. Build whatever link you needed, without knowing all of the techy stuff behind the scenes. Make the links so that they may be used in marketing messages, emails, texts, ect. The person who builds it, enters info into a form and the form (backend logic) builds the correct link for the client. Basically a special marketing or link builder tool.

- Request - Add some terms to the glossary such as: Modal, ADI (the blue dog avatar).

- Request - Make the "all help files" more flexible and be able to search the descriptions as well. Currently, it only searches titles for the help files.

- I can't wait until we can show the daily balance sheet over time - multiple day report running over or off of the aggregated totals

- Request - Look into the add new B.S.I. item process - We may need some more flexibility on the account and item groupings. Also, a request was made to allow for setting up the expense types and deposit types right from there as well. Basically, a one-stop shop for balance sheet setups.

- The value of education and being able to help set people and users up for success

- Understanding logic and cause and effects

- Idea - It sure would be cool if due dates could show up on a calendar type view - think of showing all kinds of stuff on a calendar type approach or view

- Request - New settings - Expense/receipts and locations on line items. Also, B.S.I. bump up or down values. More settings.

- Take time and read the page errors and info stuff - We are trying to help - Slow down just a bit

- There is a need for some cash flow and budgeting tools - This would be awesome - Maybe round 2 on the financials

- Request - Ice-down dates and being able to "post" on invoices and PO's - Posts only exist on deposits and expense/receipts

- Data visualization and customized dashboards - We haven't even scratched the surface yet - It's time!

- Request - On the media/content homepage and media/content advanced search pages - It would be nice to output or show the reports in Snow Owl data tables to help with exports and visual displays

- Following your interests and be yourself!

On Friday, June 11th, 2021 we had an internal conference day for just the adilas team. We went from sales to internal code to ideas and plans. All over the place. See attached for my notes. Many great things were discusses. Once again, this was an internal team meeting, but we don't mind sharing what we were talking about. :)

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The attached notes are better formatted, but I wanted to push some of them here for searchability:

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Group Sales Meeting

Marisa, Danny, John, Cory, Sean, Steve, Dustin, Shari O., Dawn, Brendan, Steve (mac), Brandon, Chuck, Alan, Kelly, Bryan

- Kelly was saying that there is some public records per states

- We may try to pull our own list

- Questions... who, what, where, how good, etc.

- Maybe look at a sample of 10

- We may need a more focuses approach

- What about different industries?

- We need to get the name out there

- Kelly was pitching a social presence

- Do we know anybody who wants to do the social stuff

- Word of mouth

- Testimonials

- Some new video graphics

- To the penny, to the gram, every day

- What about small streaming commercials – focused and pointed

- Kelly recommends that we maybe focus on a slightly larger pool

- Dawn – maybe focus on start-ups or that small to medium range

- Get them at the beginning – maybe even tradeshows

- It is a pain in the but to switch over – pain creates options for change

- Focus on services... deployment, oversight, consulting, training, best practices

- How can we deploy something easily and repeatable?

- It is tough to get some of the people started, but once they get all in, they tend to stay

- Kelly has done this over and over again

- Using the professional resources that are available

- From Kelly – Help get the clients all the way in – full system and platform

- Getting the success on the first implementation and then building from there

- What about focusing on those who are having trouble and/or are struggling

- Dawn loves the support, training, and feel good part of it – duplicate that feeling to others

- How quick can we respond – we jump pretty quickly on custom needs, development, training, and support

- Get more testimonials from our clients

- We have some experience to offer to those who want it

- What about pitching best business practices

- It's ok to be non-traditional

- Being Relevant!

- Focus on helping over sales – from Steve (mac)

- Simple things that bring the relevant pieces

- Social webbing – group effort

- Danny, straight up, I don't want to be the social media guy! We have to find the right person and/or persons (small little team)

- We are not QuickBooks... what does that mean? Be our own style!

- Packaging this platform based on the target audience

- Formulating a plan – ease the lift – maybe a monthly meeting with some planning

- Influencers and YouTube options

- Small info tips...

- New age marketing – we have to play to the current market

- Big Dumb Animal Pictures – super simple

- We have to do a cost analysis to see which one(s) make more sense for us

- John, what if we setup our own little social piece (aka maybe the adilas cafe) – we could allow all of our users and power users to pitch and promote – we may need to approve things, but we have tons of very knowledgeable people and users

- We are looking for engagement – back and forth – a relationship – maybe get an intern to help handle this

- Danny – Switching over to the modal message marketing

- How to save the app to your phone

- Make the email piece better

- Small web tool to help with building special html links to embed promotions, direct add to cart, discounts, campaigns, etc. A simple form to help with the backend tech of those URL's and web links.

- Maybe, we need to upgrade our email platform. It is a small holdover from years gone by.

- What about the delay on the outbound emails?

- Marisa – maybe outsource things as needed

- Steve – would like more input on the bulk tools

- Better filtering and target marketing

- Steve wants to work direct with Dawn and Branden

- Matrix and target marketing – even predictive

- Maybe a little itty bitty (super small) native app on the different phones – iOS, Android, etc.

- Steve wants to get into possible predictive marketing

- Steve – looking for great feedback and even ideas and dreams...

- Archiving, saving for later, dismissing, etc. We have the data, what do we want to do with it? – Wet clay...

- Danny – Going back to past clients

- Version 1 vs Version 2 – type attitude

- What kind of clients do we want? We may not want certain kind of clients.

- We love people who like details and are willing to play

- We love people who take things to the fullest level

- We love people who just need a small little piece – there is a gap in their current model and they need some help. We can then grow from there.

- Do a full comparison of what we offer

- Pitch what we do differently – we help deploy and maintain your ERP

- White glove approach

- Playing with the tools that we have and flipping those into marketing messages

- Chuck – maybe check out some groups on Facebook

- Blog posts, articles, info snippets, quick videos

- Talking with Kelly – how have we helped small businesses become bigger or big business – showing the potential – dreams to reality

- The small goals to achieve – steps to get to the next level

- Small goals lead to bigger goals – getting some small successes along the way

- Clients and expectations – not all money is the same – budgeting and planning – what kind of client do we want

- Reoccurring revenue vs one-time revenue

- A quote is just one of many pieces that needs to be done

- People, skills, and cogs in the wheel

- We all care... where would you and your skills fit in best

- Seeing the bigger picture

- Maybe looking at personalities and figuring out the mixing and blending of our options and resources

- Slowing down and taking the time to see where we are at? Virtual time travel – child, youth, adult – as a company

- What's the difference between a goal and dream? A plan!

- The internal group summary that we did... a great start

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Second session - Servers & Infrastructure - Refining Our Processes - Tech Support & Training - Project Management

Steve wants us to show the online label builder

- We had some good talk about where we want to go

- We pointed to our internal summary report

- Steve McNew – helping with the strategic marketing plan, technology road map, timelines to position, plans for action

- Scale – can we grow and can we shrink

- Conversation between big and small – perspective – big and small (sales, number of team members, lines of code, etc.)

- Molly – Is adilas the big guy or the small guy? Think of code (lines of code). We could be considered a big guy if you were looking at code and functionality.

- We like being small (ish), but what if we are big already

- If we want to grow, that means that we want to get better – grow in a good manner and sustainable manner

- The underlying services that support the whole

- Be your own style!

- Steve McNew – old classmate with Steve Berkenkotter – guest speaker – part of the adilas team to help us get some things more standardized – processes and procedures

- Defense contractor for the military – 28 years

- Testing, software, management, auditor

- He has already called, interviewed, and talked with a number of different team members

- He did a 20 page audit and report on what he was seeing

- Getting into some testing and processes – he would like to see more of this

- Not trying to derail the train – we are trying to polish the Ferrari (spelling – awesome car)

- Whitepapers – catering to a higher audience – going beyond stick figures and into technical docs – not everybody will want to read some of these, but there will be some that require it

- Steve B – if we try to sell our product to those who can't afford it, it doesn't really work. They have to be able to pay for what we do (really do – billing for our time and efforts)

- Fin-tech – financial technology

- Using whitepapers as part of our marketing plan

- John M – unit testing – confidence of the developer team – currently only Wayne and Alan are doing this (unit testing)

- Going to ease into this – refining our testing plan

- Version control and when do we update these systems? The older way was wild west... we may want to figure out some specific micro builds.

- It would be nice to keep track of the versions and options.

- The balance between core and custom development

- The application needs some spring cleaning – what is being used, what isn't, what is going slow, etc. – Refactoring

- Priorities – customer priorities or our internal priorities – what is the mix and blend of these pieces

- We all ware many hats... we may need to define that so that we don't overstretch ourselves

- We all use (and can use) the system in different ways – how do we translate that information to our clients, other developers, and other team members (upstream and downstream)

- 2 minute videos – no more

- Work instructions – even giving it to someone who has never done anything in the system

- Danny – Shoutout to Steve and Brandon – we have done great – what is coming next? Resources?

- Talks about earn and burn ratios

- Prices have to match the services

- We are a growing business

- Kelly – going from 1.5 to 10 (millions) – that is a huge change

- We are competing with companies that are hugely funded... what do we want to do?

- There are some real things in our path – there is tons of potential – what do we want to do with it – also, sometimes there is shelf life on potential or advantages

- We don't want debt – however, there is a time for debt – cost analysis and being smart about it

- Making choices, but also being willing to fail

- Marisa – look at our new website

- Steve – there are some percentages of adilas that are available – not looking for vulture capital (just being silly – vulture vs venture)

- Someone looking to take on some risk but helping us to get to the next level, without taking over the company

- Kelly – pitching our vision and business plan – we have to define the vision – Danny seconded the define the vision before looking for the funding – goals, sales, budgeting, maintenance, and getting a business plan.

- Adilas Trust option – co-founders

- Possible option – Maybe take some of IP (intellectual property) and sell that to a new entity and then restructure those new pieces

- Dustin – thoughts on corporate structure – we are all on our own little islands – Ferrari to a tricycle – frontend compared to backend – splitting up those pieces and functions – he wishes that we could be more collaborated.

- John – teams and buddy projects – small sub teams – full stack (all levels) vs specific skills or somewhat limited skills – this needs to be part of our plan.

- Sean – we already have some small teams that are working on some of these projects – cogs of the wheel – buddy tagging the workflow and processes

- John – the adilas docs project – and being able to go to it and also add to it – working on standardizing the pieces – filling in the gaps

- Danny – Navy Seals – two is one, and one is none – at least two on a project – two-by-two

- Kelly – scale – having a back-up

- Danny – accountability back and forth

- John – confidence levels

- Kelly – what about a succession plan?

- John and Dustin – real life buddies and how they help out each other – seeing a different angle or perspective

- Marisa – tooooooooo much weight gets put on single persons

- Kelly – relieving pressure and helping with scale

- Marisa – Cory, Kelly, and Marisa – wonderful training slides, presentation, and delivery for the conference. Awesome job!

- Alan – modularize things – able to be reused – code concepts can relate to business functions – one to many relationships – translating knowledge into real life and different scenarios

- Chuck – last summer Chuck was on a joint project with he, Russell, and a different John. It worked out awesome – Keep pushing towards that kind of rollout of the project

- Molly – thinking and coming up with ideas. Keep it going!

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Next Session - Deployment & Oversight - Design & Layout - Internal Core Development - Custom Development 

- Deployment – where are we going and how can we make this all work – team effort

- Shari O. – first touch and setup corp, Sean and Shay first hour or so, Sean helping to coordinate the next steps and pieces

- Sean does a great job of reporting back

- Report on things, record the notes, get back with us to help us keep pushing

- Doing great with testing and prototyping

- Kelly – who is on settings, who is on planning, maybe even looking at pre-deployment options

- Before Kelly even does a demo, do some consultation – figure some things out without doing any pitching or selling. This is called listening.

- What are you looking for, wanting, expecting, hoping for?

- Make the demos custom to the pain points or key wants and needs

- The prep work is huge to help them be successful

- This platform is not a turn on and go type system – there may be pre demo, consulting, custom planning and demo, then custom hand holding to get them going down the road

- Picking the point of contact... who is going to own this thing?

- Owners, managers, and users

- Users want the easy button – Steve calls this the tail wagging the dog vs the dog wagging the tail – what is and how can we get buy in?

- Tools are great, but solutions to problems and pain points are even better

- Give to get! If you give too much, it can get you into trouble.

- What is the cost to fixing things... on the other hand, failing does help with major learning – there has to be a balance

- We tend to remember pain – setting people up for success

- Often users are looking for a quick switch. This system takes work. Please sell it that way.

- Not going to custom too quickly – learning the manual way – then automating it

- User buy in – light pain and then helping them learn a better way

- Change proposals and scope of work – setting up boundaries

- Feature creep – setting that scope of work – cause and effect of what they want and what they give – expectations and timelines

- Sometimes I start with NO – interesting

- A saying no - sandwich... Yes, I'd like to, no, I can't. Yes, I would love to help do this... - people think that no is a bad word

- Having a plan to say yes, vs just saying yes

- We like to please people – that is awesome – what does that cost?

- Help make the plan to say yes. Maybe, no (first), however we could do this...

- Making things repeatable

- What are the internal costs to do deployment?

- Say $350 for a setup fee – does that cover it? If yes, great. If no, where does that put us?

- Maybe on the setup, prep, an activation fee (define this – turning on the lights), setup and deployment fee (range), training, custom code, imports, labels, etc.

- We like to cater to everyone – that had bitten us

- Actual prices and then use discounts if needed. You can't really ever raise a price after the fact.

- Back-up our prices

- Use adilas to run adilas!!! This is our communication tool, let's use it.

- We are good at the dreaming and software building part of things, we need some major loving on the service side

- There is demand!

- What pulls at our time - It is time, money, skills, etc.

- Kelly – earn has to be more than burn

- Flipping the demand to sales or services that could be provided

- MVP – minimal viable product, plan, player, etc.

- Intangibles

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Next Session – Show and tell! What are you working on?

Calvin – Advanced file and folder finder, resize images, convert images

Brandon – harvesting assets from element of time

Steve – parent attributes report, items not on a recipe (manufacturing), modal message marketing for customers, log notes for vendors and employees (payee/vendor logs), backorders homepage, mini units, auto add item (quick PO behind the scenes), bulk update on the vendor – master copy paster... :)

- Branch 122 – fun

Bryan – cfqueryparams – stop SQL XSS (database hacks – cross site scripting)  - SQL injection – converting from dynamic queries to secure dynamic queries - Example: Corp_id = #Trim(some form or URL var)# or Corp_id = <cfqueryparam etc, etc,> - this stops the SQL hacks

Bryan is also working on eChecks for eXPO, Hypur checkout in the shopping cart (eComm), new API's for delivery (with documentation and samples)

John – Payroll project to allow holiday date picking, timecard flags, timecard totals (pre summing the math to go faster and lead towards bulk payroll), new timecard reports showing grouped sums and totals.

Page templates and style guide defaults with Chuck – Going from old school tables and links to the newer grid and mobile ready code. Part of the adilas docs project. Build once, use many (effective copy and paste). Basic templates (3 new ones). New information icons and popups (modals). Style guides and usage of those pieces.

Servers with Wayne

Chuck – Huge new web site!!! Awesome Job!!!

Global Design Dashboard, adilas docs, and new presentation gallery (sales tool).

Danny – message marketing, custom labels, sales team meetings – hats off to all of us! Keep listening and keep finding solutions. Open table – follow your highest excitement and be yourself! Be happy!

Alan – enterprise level catalogs, refactoring code (custom page settings), standardizing code for speed and reliability.

Random comments – Cory really liked having access to all of the team members, right here at the conference. Marisa – great to meet everyone – keep floating the boat. Sean – he likes the team. Molly – loved watching and wants to be involved. Chuck – idea of everyone joining slack

Meeting with Kelly and Steve to talk about plans and goals. Kelly is trying to help us make some of our own goals and plans. Because we do custom solutions, we tend to be pulled wherever the money and funding is vs building out our own dreams. Kelly was making some small pitches and showing us some trends that she has been watching. She is taking adilas numbers and pulling them into a spreadsheet to show month over month results. Great little tool. I'd love to build that same type of thing into adilas. Good ideas!

Some of the other topics were pricing, amount of effort it takes to chase down payments, overhead, management, as well as A/P's and A/R's (accounts payable and accounts receivable - who we owe and who owes us). We talked about services (consulting, training, oversight, marketing, custom code, design work, etc.) and how valuable those pieces are. The need to be involved with social media and building up the education and training side of adilas.

Currently, the reoccurring monthly fees for using the adilas system are doing great. We always want more, but Kelly was pitching ideas of reoccurring services (called managed services) and seeing if we could get more of that going. Lots of good ideas and what not. Good meeting.

After I finished up with Kelly and Steve, I was supposed to get on a meeting to help with a demo for a mattress company. My daughter Aspen (almost 18 years old) was sitting in my office. She had come in partway through the meeting between Steve and Kelly and I. Anyways, she was sitting there quietly listening to the conversation. Once I jumped off of that meeting, she, nicely, started quizzing me about what we were talking about. We had some good discussions and she made some valid points.

As a follow-up, later on this same day (more around 6 pm ish) we had another small talk. She was doodling on a piece of paper and writing things down. Just for fun, I have scanned in the doodles and notes she was making and taking. Some of it may not make sense, but it was part of our conversation.

Meeting with Steve McNew and Steve Berkenkotter. Both Steve's were on for a bit. Then Steve Berkenkotter had to bail out and just Steve McNew and I chatted and went over some things together.

Here are some rough notes:

- Trying to push more on sales

- Ideas on prospecting with customers and doing demos

- We will need to keep building out the info graphics - a good image speaks a thousand words

- Refining the installation plans and deploying new clients - getting them going well and properly

- Steve Berkenkotter's top 3 on the tick list, as of right now - 1. Sales, 2. Work on earn and burn ratios, and 3. Servers (being able to split up databases - datasources and/or world building project - bus to motorcycles transition)

- Top 5 things from the conference that we just had from Steve McNew - see attached - 1. Helping Kelly with an installation plan, 2. Working with Sean on deployment processes, 3. Bug tracking and getting things tighter, 4. Communications and collaboration within our team, and 5. Projects and planning pieces (heading toward fracture).

Cory and Steve were talking about some new changes that are coming for production and manufacturing. Steve is working through a tick list that he and Kelly and Cory have been putting together. Sounds like some good stuff. Cory and Sean were also touching base on some of their joint efforts and working with existing clients. Sounded like some clean-up of an older system and making sure that certain tasks were done for the client.

Cory and I spent the rest of the block working on the High Valley Bike Shuttle project (booking seats and online reservations for a shuttle company). We read back through our original document with notes and made a few more and expanded on a few things. See attached. We also went into more details and came up with some questions, some ideas and options. It isn't fully mapped out yet, but we definitely have more of a game plan. I have been tasked to help push this project through, at least to the level where I could easily and safely hand it off.

This will end up being one of our first customer facing booking and scheduling pieces. We've had elements of time, internally or inside of adilas, since 2011. This will be customer facing and full payment from ecommerce through the customer/client portal. Good stuff.

Danny was on the meeting this morning and asking about a possible mini training session per month. He was calling it a monthly deep dive, where we could pick a topic or section and do some training on that. We could let our clients know, our internal team know, and then go from there. Great idea. He was also talking about an idea for a feedback form and page for monitoring what our users and clients are wanting and needed.

Dustin, Sean, and Kelly were chiming in. Working on emails and other small to do list things. I unpacked a new events banner from Marisa. It looks great. It has a QR code and a web address on it. It also has the adilas logo and some other graphics including Adi (the blue dog avatar) on the banner. It will be used when we help with other events, such as the Bear 100 and other races, events, or whatever.

On a client Zoom meeting with Kelly and a manufacturing company. They are mixing elements of time (calendar and scheduling) with recipe/builds and manufacturing (production runs). They are really trying to use the scheduling (elements of time) to virtually reserve inventory in the future for their production runs. Interesting stuff. Anyways, we met and I showed them some of the new changes that we have been working on and I was somewhat surprised, they didn't know about them. I could really see the breakdown in communication. I had related the updates to who I thought needed them, but then it never got passed on. Also, I never took the time to physically show the person who needed it (the new updates and information) how to operate the new features. Lots of assuming, on my part. Anyways, we were showing them things, that they had asked for, that had been done for almost a month, and it was totally new to them. Good lesson. Passing on the update and correct information is huge.

Great little meeting. We were dealing with flex attributes, elements of time, settings for time, and other requests. It was also very apparent that they, the client, wanted full control over the page layout, order, display, and full verbage. That is possible, but usually it takes an outside person, like Kelly, to get that information from the client and then translate the wants and needs into instructions for the developers and development team. Once they get it right, how they want it, they also want to cascade the same changes to multiple systems. Not only custom software solutions, but repeatable and duplicatable custom software solutions. It was good to see somewhat of what they were looking for. Kelly and I will meet again to go over things after she does her work, review, and then submits the projects and their requirements.

Steve, Cory, and I jumped on a meeting to go over some of the requests from AWH (adilas client) who wanted some custom development done on the scheduling and production areas. We spent the first hour together going over an existing document with notes, bullet points, and requirements. Good discussion. We added some new notes and refined some of the requirements. We also did a lot of drawing and sketching to make sure that all of us were on the same page.

After the first hour, Steve had another appointment to go to. Just Cory and I stayed for the last hour. We were adding in user stories, setting up prerequisites, requirements, and other details. Good discussion and helping to push the pieces, user stories, logic, and general project forward. Tomorrow, we will meet with Kelly (consultant) to make sure that we are all on the same page.

Great little meeting. The main topic was the adilas shopping carts, both internal and outside eCommerce shopping carts. I took five pages of notes and we got some great ideas and discussion topics written down. We had Cory, Kelly, Marisa, Sean, Chuck, John, and I on the meeting. See attached for meeting notes on the smart cart.

- Lots of talk about modes - eCommerce, internal, user based, customer based, management based, quick and dirty, and more detailed modes.

- Speed is key

- Wants, wishes, and hopes - see attached

- Smart cart logic dealing with discounts and the discount engine - cart as a whole, beyond just the normal add process

- Research and plans

Meeting to talk about ROI (return on investment) with Kelly. We had Kelly, Cory, Steve, John, and I on the meeting. Lots of talk about the progression of the logic and the style. Kelly was talking about FinTech (financial technology) and how that plays in. We are considered FinTech in many ways. Lots of talk about carts (internal and external - eCommerce) and how to tap into that market. Lots of talk about style guides and costs for obtaining new clients. See attached for tons of other notes.

Brainstorming on ideas to help with adilas, our teams, our servers, our costs, our plans, and our strategies.

I read an article on how open-source projects make money. I also looked up how free apps make money. Most of it was from providing hosted solutions, paid support, licensing, training courses, or selling other paid products that support the open-source portion or application. They could also offer advertising, do donations or allow contributions, or some other kind of offering. The other option, that I thought was interesting was a free core and then add-on's on top of the free core. I thought that was kinda interesting. Just for fun, I wanted to see how much would it cost a single client if they wanted to run their own version of adilas. Say it cost them nothing... What would it really cost to get it up and running on a monthly or yearly basis? You would have to get the code, buy a domain name, setup the server with the correct specs, sign a hosting contract of some sort, condition the server settings (super backend level), add the database, populate the database, make sure that they connected (code server and backend database), setup a new account, do initial settings, configure logos, look and feel, and then get a user in and trained on the system. That is for one single person, not even a full team or set of people. You would then need someone to setup other people, train them, and start using the system. I don't know an exact cost, but I would say thousands (plural).

These are just some other things that I was thinking about... No specific order. Some are questions, some are ideas, some are reminders:

- Seek first to understand, then to be understood

- Apply It! We keep learning things... it really takes affect when we start applying what we are learning and have learned.

- What if we created a fundraising pitch deck for investors? On our own? What would that take or cost?

- Playing with the small phrase "start, stop, continue". I heard this statement in a training course one time. It is a way of looking at things and seeing how they or things are going or doing. Imagine something like this: What do we want to start doing (adding something new), what do we want to stop doing (subtracting or taking some things away), and what is working well (continue or keep refining)? Just for fun, you could also say that saying like this: "add, subtract, refine".

- How firm is the foundation? Everything gets built off of that. That is a great question: Do we have a firm foundation? Let's make it super solid, we have a lot riding on it.

- Core and then the add-on's on top of the core... This goes along with our concept that everyone is going to need an adilas core as the base level. This came from an entry back over a year ago. See element of time #6629 for more details. The concept of the value add-on core model - with different rings to denote the other levels of add-on value pieces. We have determined at least 5 levels as of right now. 1. Core, 2. Business vertical or industry specific, 3. Custom level, 4. BI or Business Intelligence level, and 5. Enterprise or multiple corp(s) level. Each of those value rings has to be purchased and serviced. You have to have the transactional data core to get it started, but anything beyond that, is extra or a value add-on piece. Very configurable.

- Dealing with the core add-on or add-on core - I would really like to make some graphics of what that would look like and even put some prices to that model. That would be fun!

- Random side note - I've got so many things started or half baked... it sure would be nice to finish up some of those things. So many things, I get pulled in multiple directions and even lose momentum or focus. Part of the territory of what we are doing. Lots of moving pieces.

- Do a quick napkin style fix job - quick and dirty. Pretend that you are solving the problem on a single napkin, after you ate lunch. What is a quick fix? Get that going and then dive in deeper as needed.

- How desperate for help are we? How desperate am I? Is Steve? Are others? - I'm not saying that I'm there right now, but I've been there. Literally clawing for any traction or firm ground. It's a scary place and you feel totally vulnerable and fragile. You feel like things are out of control and you'll do anything, pay anything, give anything, to get back in control or onto stable ground. Searching frantically for any shred of hope or positive traction. It really feels like that sometimes. Just being honest.

- I think it would be good if we could define our roles, responsibilities, and expectations - within our own small teams. Put real numbers, attach values, priorities, and get rid of any assumptions. This may help with our expectations of who is doing what and even what our jobs (perceived or actual) really are. A little bit more structure there.

- Build on what we have

- Reaching for firm ground and what does that fear drive us to do? I could say lots here. I've been there. I'll most likely be back there again. Who knows, I may even be there now (again). It won't be the last time. It has happened over and over again. It seems to be a pattern of sorts.

- Along with that feeling of desperation, are we desperate enough that any help or progress is allowed, tolerated, and even welcomed? Be honest!

- Are we making decisions off of logic or emotions?

- It may be good to review some of the business consulting that we started doing back in late 2019 and into the first part of 2020. Here are some link: EoT # 5295 (1st meeting), EoT # 5296 (2nd meeting), #5354 (3rd meeting), there are also some uploads in the media/content section (in the shop) called meeting_with_epic_enterprises.docx with tons of other notes.

- From Kelly - We need to spend time managing our own company. Who is helping to manage adilas.biz?

- Focus on one thing at a time

- Saying "no" 101 - a no sandwich - Yes, I'd like to do such and such. No, I can't. Yes, I'd like to do this and that. Basically, yes, no, yes.

- By not talking about certain things - what are we avoiding and/or denying?

- Fall down 7 times, get up 8 times!

- How firm a foundation - We get lost out on the limbs and branches. Maybe bring the focus back in a bit.

- Getting rid of assumptions - who is going to do what? List it out and define it.

- Setup a time or a person to help manage adilas

- The costs of transitioning (switching between things, projects, tasks, focuses, etc.) - it is a real cost that is hard to nail down. There is also a mental side to transitioning without finishing things. That wears on a person's confidence and psyche.

- Maybe cut down on dedicated hours

- Dealing with funding options, we could divide some of my percentages (ownership) - just an option.

- Who is going to manage things - single person, small team, some kind of board or council, nobody, or hire it out?

- What about the adilas Jellyfish model - good, bad, change, tweak, refine, kill it, what?

- Who are we and what size are we comfortable with? Small, medium, large, extra-large, massive? Just being silly. I really like the small to medium sizes personally.

- Reread the internal adilas questionnaire summary that Shannon and I put together from the different key players and adilas dependables.

- Timeline to make and implement these decisions - how are we doing?

- So much - We get pulled on every day - how do we get away from all of the distractions? Focus!

- Just for fun, what does it take to go public? Meaning publicly traded or a way to raise capital and investments.

- Could we sell some of our shares? What would that look like?

- What about freeware, shareware, or full open-source options? Do we even want to go there, or do we stay with our current model and just keep tweaking it? Just ideas.

- Our internal rates - What we charge for what we do - We are held captive due to available monies and funding. As an independent developer, I was charging $50/hour back in early 2000's. Where are we at now and is there any room for progression? There is a disconnect to what we are making vs what we have to deal with and try to coordinate. The stress alone is way bigger.

- What if we created our own investment pitch deck? We could do all kinds of levels - loans, investments, equity, shares, other supporting companies, etc. Might be interesting.

Quick meeting with Dustin to get him going on his local box. He was running into an error. We got it fixed and he is on his way. He is almost done with his production samples project. He showed Steve and I a quick demo. He and Steve will be getting together later to discuss the next steps and other projects.

Steve and I were talking about breaking up projects into smaller and smaller pieces. This may not apply to everything, but we are really trying to take better bite sized pieces vs trying to stuff everything that you can into your mouth (not really - but an analogy). We are going to try to release code almost weekly or daily where possible. We may need to disable it or limit it, but we want it to be pushed into master when it can be. That helps us limit the amount that we build and then put on a shelf (virtually in a code repository). Baby steps or progress by degrees.

Steve and I also talked briefly about other plans and what not. He was going to be calling Kelly this morning to go over things with her. I ended up doing emails and light internal tech support with our developers. Small stuff.

Helping Dustin over GoToMeeting chase down some variables. Making a couple of changes and pushing up some new code. Looking into an error that Kelly sent over via email. Alan ended up responding back on that one. Emails and doing budgeting prep work. Looking over banks, accounts payable, and deposits. Recording notes from the past couple of days.

Doing some prep work for the PO line item rounding project. Asking for some help from Steve, Cory, and Kelly. Going back and forth with them via text messages as to ideas and direction. I also checked on a small bug with the cross corp loyalty points. I got in pretty deep and spent close to two hours in the details and following where things were going. Eventually, through looking at code, I found that the code was looking for an active customer record. I was able to flip the problem child record from inactive to active and it worked. I then made some changes to allow for both active and inactive customer status values. This deals with looking up loyalty points on older or possibly inactive customer/patient records. Pushed up some new code and did some testing. Finished up with some emails.

Lots of emails. Sent out a bigger email to a contact at Stripe (merchant processing and online payment options). Checking on some options and even possibly becoming a reseller of their products. Sent an email to Kelly asking for some help on what she does on the PO rounding and how she forces certain internal build PO's to be a $0 value. Just trying to see if I can get any more information and ideas.

Spent the rest of the time working on a scratch file (temporary code) to play with PO rounding and back filling in unknown costs per if the total quantity is known and the total dollar value (extended costs) are known. Using the PO rounding function to do the job. If we like how it works, we'll build in a new button to help force certain values. All of this is part of the PO line item rounding project. This portion just helps match up the sum of the line items with the main PO amount or value. Without getting super deep, it will still affect a single PO line item, but it will get its main goal or output numbers by summing up all of the ingredients and then rolling that new number into the output line items.

Follow-up with USAePay and getting more info on merchant processing stuff. On the phone with Steve talking about all kinds of stuff. Mostly about the multi member LLC and percentage ownership stuff. Steve and I were on the phone for well over an hour and a half. Here are some of my notes... all over the place.

- Trying to get our guys and gals to focus on one thing and getting it all the way finished. From top to bottom. We have a lot of stuff that feels 50-75% done. We want to get it all the way across the finish line. Our goal is to give them a single project so that they can get it all the way finished before moving on. We are hoping that if we extend them some ownership in the company that it will help to motivate them to play the game.

- Need for more news and updates. We also thought that it would be good to do some internal news and updates for our internal staff. That idea came from Steve.

- We need someone who is able to get into some deep JavaScript stuff and really help out there. We have a number of projects that are very heavy in that area and need some loving.

- We chatted about different developers and their skill levels. As a side note, the deeper we get, the more things start breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. So many interweaving and interlocking pieces. Lots of dependencies and requirements.

- Kelly seems to follow trends very well. It's almost one of her skill sets. In the book, "Who Moved My Cheese", there are two mouse like characters. One is Sniff and the other is Scurry. Kelly seems to have those type of instincts.

- Divesting possible ownership and management options to an outside company. Just playing with options.

- For our internal team, we have been talking about a price of $1,000 per percent of adilas. That is about 1/100 of its actual value. On the open market, 1% would be somewhere between $50,000 to $100,000 at a $10 million dollar valuation.

- Steve was mentioning options for an operating company, a holding company, a management company, and maybe a retirement company. Just talking possible options, down the road.

- There seems to be a huge gap between sales and demos. If we get the demo and get to talk to people and show them what we have, we shine, and they want it. If we can't make it that far, it doesn't go very fast. Kinda interesting but logical.

- We are trying to stir the pot on the sales side of things. We talked about doing a sales sprint, daily sales standup meeting, and getting some of our guys really going and focused there. We really want to manage it properly as well. It is one thing to say go, it is another thing to have a plan, accountability, and be able to measure efforts. We really want to lean on the manage it properly type level.

- As far as sales and travel. We were talking that if they log their miles, we could pay $0.25 per mile. That covers gas and some light wear and tear on the vechiles. We would have them log those miles inside of adilas. Ideally, we would tie that into a general budget for what they are charging us or what we are budgeting for their help.

- We would like our salespeople to stay as local as possible so we don't burn up tons of travel costs. This is at least true for getting started out and getting things up and running.

- One of the goals would be to help the guys and gals be more accountable. Along with that, dealing with sales, we need them to log the contacts, touches, and daily standup meetings. Ideally, we want to record these notes as real-time as possible, while they are fresh in your minds.

- Sales is a game of numbers. The numbers should tell the story.

- I'm going to reach out to Shawn and get his instructions for his sales and contacts that need to be logged into adilas, in the CRM (customer relationship management) section of the site. See attached.

- Both Steve and Sean would be the main contacts for the sales guys. The main adilas morning meeting would have a small standup for sales everyday.

- For me, keep pushing out gift cards as we get them - perks for the guys and gals.

- Steve and I went over some percentages and who was going to be selling what percentages. We made a list on a spreadsheet. Our initial internal offering is going to be 5% from Steve and 5% from Brandon. These will be sales made to us as individuals - checks made out to Brandon or to Steve vs adilas llc. We will come up with a promissory note of sorts to document the sales of those percentages.

- There is huge value in getting in there, out there, doing it and learning from your mistakes and successes. We build and break, we build and break. Don't overthink it! Just keep going!

- When we present our offer to the guys and gals, Steve wants it to be pretty simple. This is the deal. If you want to play, great. If not, here are the options. Keep it as simple as possible.

- In closing, Steve was making some comments on having sufficient money to play and make other plans. Hinting at some other fun things to come... It just keeps going!

Brandon, Steve, Kelly, Cory and Charles... if Brandon isn't working today we can record and ask any questions later.

On a quick meeting with Chuck. We looked over some code and merged and pushed up some changes. This was on the parts usage page. These were some requests from Kelly and Cory. After that we looked at some of his other projects that he is working on. Small little session.

Shari O. jumped on the meeting and just needed a verbal consent for the bank to use a debit card for a foreign transaction for one of our vendors.

Quiet morning meeting. Sean checked in but that was it. I was doing emails and looking up a possible bug on the bank balance drill-down link from the balance sheet. Kelly reported a possible bug, just checking it out. Light research on bank dates, normal transactions vs verified dates.

Cory and Wayne were going over data 16 server issues. It seems to be quieting down but we have little hiccups here and there. Wayne reported on the new corp-wide settings and corporation model object stuff that he and Alan are working on (DAO's and services). It is getting pretty close, and we expect to get some new code tested, pushed up, and fully deployed by end of the week, or first part of next week. When it is ready, we will launch it on the Herbo server for doing some live testing. We went over a couple of other server related projects. Small updates and reports.

After the server meeting, Cory and I briefly looked at the bank drill-down bug that Kelly had reported. We decided to make a small change. After that we talked about a client's need for some maintenance on a merchant account type that we are not really wanting to support. We will look into it but may or may not commit to doing the maintenance. Currently, we only have one client on that particular service and it may cost of a couple of thousand to do the upgrades. We'll have to see. We will commit to getting a guy in there to check it out but we will wait until we hear back from them before taking the bigger commitment step and repairing everything. This wasn't our fault, the vendor of the merchant processing code made changes and thus are forcing us to make upgrades and do unscheduled maintenance, on our dime. Not very fun. We'll check it out.

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.

Meeting and going over projects, updates, follow-ups, and small quotes. Kelly had made a request to up the size of the additional customer contact notes. Cory was doing other things and I busted it out while we were on the meeting. We had to do a database update, check validation, make a few layout changes, test, merge, and update a help file. We got it all tested and pushed up to all servers.

I got on a little late, I was helping my son out. Steve was on a meeting with Kelly. When I jumped on, John was on there. We touched base on a couple of things and then just worked on our own. I was recording notes and going through emails. He was working on his own projects.

Chuck checked in and we quickly reviewed a few things. He and I met yesterday so we were pretty much on top of things. As a side note, he did inform us that he got admin permissions for our YouTube account and will be helping there.

I spent most of the rest of the session working on an error that Cory got from Kelly. It was a cause and effect error. The other day we increased the character limits on one of the fields. That was working great. The cause and effect came into play as those new bigger records got pushed over to invoices and quotes as additional customers and additional contacts on those invoices and quotes. Anyways, we got it all figure out and pushed up new database updates and new code to all servers. Finished up the session doing emails and clean-up there.

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.

Chuck joined the meeting. Cory was still on from the last meeting. She quickly reported to Chuck about the video for the adilas label builder that he had done. Cory had showed it to kelly and had gotten some good feedback.

After that, Chuck and I talked briefly about 3D printing and building in supports for more complex projects. This was just for fun.

We got into a small session and talked about financials and available hours, based on projects and budgets. We hopped into the system and looked around. After that, Chuck and I spent some time looking at his new code for the working with time page for elements of time. Lots of layout and UI (user interface) changes. It is looking good. Big lift and Chuck is adding tons of new code to help with the layout and such. He is somewhat experimenting with different layouts and formatting options. I thought that it was looking good.

The last topic of the session was dealing with maintenance costs going between the older classic code and the newer snow owl look and feel theme. Some of our pages are doubling due to the amount of code to handle both versions and/or themes. Once again, a maintenance deal - hidden costs.

Cory and I going over the quote for the upgrades to the adilas label builder. Cory had the quote open, we talked about each line item, and she asked some questions from a meeting with Kelly.

Small demo on the automated budget settings for the bike shuttle company. We also talked about testing and tech support demands.

Server meeting. The whole first part of the meeting was Dustin and Wayne going over some new things for cultivation. We talked about doing a new database field for locations and calling it a location type (normal, retail, warehouse, backend, vault, etc.). That almost sounded like sub locations, but we didn't end up going there. I've got a bunch of other notes on sub locations and sub phases.

Kelly ended up joining us and we found out that we thought was a coding error was just a data or user error. Great dialog back and forth between Cory, Kelly, Wayne, Dustin, and I. It was a great session. Here are a few other things that I thought were interesting:

- Being consistent - across the board

- Forcing some clean-up and maintenance

- Talking about reports and proper data drill-downs - getting to the underlying data quickly and correctly

- Mixing different vendors and locations (report settings and filters). If they weren't just right, the reports would return different data (filter stuff).

- When Kelly joined, you could literally hear and feel the difference between a power user and a backend developer. Kelly, as s power user, had so much more depth of knowledge of what went where and how it got there (using existing tools). The developers could look at the data and the logic, but it didn't make as much sense because they had no context for that data. Interesting!

- We are trying to smooth things out. Some of that will be through new interfaces, training, and education.

- Some of the challenges of being so dynamic (as a software system or application). It is both a blessing and a curse (how flexible we are).

- What does it cost to keep clean data and how do we main that clean data?

- We would love to add some trouble shooting pages and/or known error reports or pages. Basically, a quick way to find and fix data that may have an issue. Flag it and then allow them to change it so that it is correct. This would be awesome if we could add this for our fracture project.

- Manual tests and audits of the data - Is it a code issue or a data issue?

- We talked about switching over our email servers and how that project is coming

- Talking about getting system-wide aggregates and how best to get that data in place. This is huge, we just haven't done it yet. We have all of the transactional data records, we just need to virtually let the cream rise to the top.

- Kelly and Cory are going to be coming up with some standard testing forms (what to test and different scenarios for testing)

- Cory had a small list of other projects that we checked in on and got small updates.

- John and Cory were going over end of the year payroll projects, once everybody else left

Multiple different phone calls. On the phone with Steve going over education, certification, and getting a quick ROI (return on investment) from new development. Steve has been talking with Kelly about some ideas and options. She has been a great resource. I was also on a phone call with Chuck. Sadly, he is going to be moving on to greener pastures. He got an offer for over double what he was getting plus benefits. It's a no brainer. Anyways, we talked and chatted, and we'll still pass him over projects as he is able to fit them in. Emails and other text messages.

Good meeting this morning. Steve had just come off of a multi hour demo yesterday afternoon. He was reporting in and going over things that he had learned. Both Sean and I were listening as Steve was explaining and teaching us. Good stuff.

We talked a lot about solving pain points and how that helps make our product a viable solution. Steve got into some financial training and where things come and go (ways that monies move or track) and how that creates a cause and effect type relationship. As he was talking, I was plugging in numbers on the financial flow calculator to illustrate the flow of the monies. Steve had me build that page to help with just such trainings. The real goal is capturing and recording the story. The numbers then play into and through the story vs just being a standalone number (plugged or adjusted value). That is super important.

As a part of the financial flow, Steve was talking about being able to mix and bled while in the same system. If you run your operations on one platform and then try to do your accounting on another, you will always have disconnects. If you run things as they happen and then report back (roll call) then you can capture the story and thus get the financials or accounting (what really happened). That is where we are heading.

They were talking about software and different releases. With what we do, we release new things and features all of the time. Constant releases and constant refinement. That lead to a discussion on what are called "mash-ups" or "mashups". This is where a software company takes a number of different tools and applications and basically mashes them together to get a whole. There are pros and cons to that, but that type of business is also prone to major disconnects and paid points. We are striving to make a fully integrated system that lives and breathes on its own.

As the guys were talking, Steve was telling Sean how Kelly (adilas rep) was doing the demo. He brought up how well Kelly will say something like "We will help you and here is what that will cost." Both assurance, help, and tying it to cost, in the same sentence. Sadly, I'm not very good at that. It usually comes out something like, "Yes, we can help you do X and Y. And, oh, by the way, we should probably give you a quote." Or something like, "Great idea, I'll build that in and/or make a note of that (assuming all costs or taking it on internally)." Anyways, I'm not very good at the monetizing thing. Light discussions about styles and goals.

The discussion extended into talks about promises, expectations, and what those things really cost. We also talked about how much prep work and knowledge is needed to do certain things, tasks, or jobs. Sometimes those things are a barrier to entry. One of the things that we have found, mini gold mines, is getting first-hand knowledge by helping customers solve their problems. If you can afford it, those clients help by transferring real-life knowledge of what it takes and what is needed to get the jobs done. Invaluable, hard to put a price tag on those things. We love doing that when we can. It ends up in a net benefit. We tend to do what we call piggybacking. We build something for one client and get to pass that on for free or as part of the system to the next client. Then that client will help push something else forward that the other clients get to benefit from. It becomes a form of piggybacking. Kinda fun!

Custom work! That is one of the things that sets us apart from the rest of the software solutions out there. We love and are willing to do custom work. That may not sound that big, but it's huge. As we were talking, we were reminded of our elevator pitch (condensed sales pitch). It talks about us offering a standard package and then being willing to customize on top of that. That's pretty cool. Here's a link to our mini elevator pitch (also one to Sean's expanded elevator pitch). We really do offer a lot of options.

We will just keep working on sharing what we have and how it can help people solve their business problems and needs. As a small side note, Steve was talking about ecommerce and how that little solution is actually becoming a way to sell and interact with clients without even using the main internal tools. It's so simple and connects everything together, we actually have some companies that help people use the ecommerce options and solutions vs using our internal shopping cart tools. It keeps it simple yet limited in options. I just find it interesting that some companies are using that tool vs the internal tools. I don't think that I could have anticipated that. Interesting.

Small bug fixes and emails to Wayne, Cory, and Kelly.

Hours of emails, tech support, and other stuff. Emails to Wayne, Cory, Kelly, etc. Going over validation stuff, routines, logic, fixing small bugs, and looking into sub inventory data and attribute mappings. On a Zoom session with Kelly, Wayne, Dustin, and I. Looking over code and testing things. Kelly even pulled a client onto the meeting to get some approvals and have her do some live testing. Pretty deep session.

As a side note, if all is going well, the value of the systems admin person doesn't seem that important but when all things go crazy and he/she helps to get it back in check, the value of that person is huge. They are often overlooked when seas are calm and the wind is not blowing (which means that they are doing a good job). Lots of unseen efforts. Thanks Wayne!

Zoom meeting with Steve and Kelly and tracking down settings. We were looking at cause and effect relationships and turning things on/off in different places and whether or not those same values cascaded to the other settings (show/hide and active/inactive). It can get pretty deep.

The last topic for our meeting was a switch from developing to marketing through training and education. I thought that was a fun idea and topic.

Steve and I jumped on a meeting. He was showing me a little bit of stuff and we were talking about the demo that he, Mike, and Kelly were on this morning. Kelly had created a really nice outline that had a series of live links on it. Basically, she was logged into a corporation on the Herbo server. She could then split the screen and jump from her outline presentation right into the system without any migration. That allowed her to follow her outline and jump to pages that she wanted to show or demo. Pretty creative and a great way to use web-based software.

On that same note, that kind of presentation and/or demo takes quite a bit of prep work to get it all laid out, prepped, and ready to go. Pretty awesome. Anyways, Steve was going down the outline with me and going over things. As a fun side note, he and the girls (Cory and Kelly) were prepping things and they reminded him of reports that he had forgotten that we had. We have so much stuff that is available and ready to use. Sad but true, we sometimes forget what we even have, there is so much.

Steve's wife came in and he had to go and help her with something else. I flipped over and started to do more transferring of notes and recording notes from the past couple of days. Good stuff and lots going on. Busy time.

It was just Steve and I on the morning meeting for the first 20 or so minutes. We were talking about getting people started and getting things going and helping them to get up and running. Here are a few other random notes from our meeting.

- At some point, we would like to circle back around and get back to the vendor logs or payee/vendor logs project. Basically, this would be similar to the customer logs but for both vendors and employees (users). Steve started this project but it got put on the shelf as other things came up. We need to circle back around, when possible.

- On the chooser page, what if we allowed every possible page. That could be really cool. This is where a user gets to choose what they want to use for their default homepage.

- Steve was asking about settings and how we wanted to organize things. I told him that we have at least four known levels for settings that we know of, right now. They are: corp-wide settings (at the world or corporation level), group level settings (any of the 12 main player groups or sections that we have a homepage for that section), page level settings (currently using the slide out drawer on the right of the snow owl themed pages to show page level settings), and user settings or personal settings. At some future point, we may want to build out a master settings page that showed where everything is and/or is located. We have things spread all around right now. This may be a project for fracture - future project.

- The whole thing of adilas seems to be a pyramid or stacked layered application. There are tons of different levels that build on top of each other.

- The magic seems to come from progress and ideas. We do something, someone else sees it, adds to it, requests something, we build it out and/or add to it, and it starts all over again. Like a giant snowball or idea farm.

- One of the huge foundations seems to be settings and permissions. We are also seeing that these two key foundational pieces tend to split, fracture, or break into subs. Almost an infinite level of control and customization. Very interesting.

- Sean and John popped in and gave us some updates and reports. Dustin and Kelly also joined for a little bit. Their general vibe or message was - that people need help (generally) and if we can help, we are able to slide into place. It could be data entry, tools, functionality, systems, normalizing data, sales tax, inventory management and controls, financials, etc.

- My observation from today's meeting - it seems like all of the team is playing well together and helping to get things done. No way, one person could get all of this stuff done and handled, as it is going along and happening. I'm super grateful!

- John was showing us an update on the chooser page to help users select, view, and setup their default homepages. He is making good progress there. More good changes coming in the look and feel department. Good stuff!

Working on the quick search help file. Added new code for the quick search to pull a full balance sheet by using a date in the quick search field. This was a request from Kelly. Spent the rest of the time going over videos that Shannon made for the adilas university training. I watched the videos on PO's, vendor-specific inventory, generic inventory, quotes, vendors, and users and permissions. Good stuff.

- Shannon was showing multiple step processes, reviewing info, prep work, and helping to organize things. She was bringing out standard features, patterns, and helping to show that the tools are as flexible as you want them to be. Good information at the beginner level. I was wanting a little bit more, but that will come. Good stuff!

Back to the main index for the master adilas plan

Master Adilas Plan - Jellyfish Model

Brainstorming Ideas and Topics:

- How big do you want to be? – See also the internal questionnaire responses and survey - tons of good info there - almost a mini plan by itself. Also, question 7 on the survey has a whole write up on the adilas jellyfish or jelly fish model and explains it further.

- The adilas jellyfish model - see attached - covers almost all of the departments and sub sections of what we are trying to be as a company. It is not the main product, but more of our internal and external departments, areas, and general areas that we will keep refining and working on.

- Possible numbers for the jellyfish model. Going from top to bottom and from left to right.
1. adilas.biz
2. Admin
3. Monthly Reoccurring Service
4. Sales & Marketing
5. Setup & Training
6. Tech Support
7. Design
8. Custom Code
9. Consulting
10. R&D
11. Project Management
12. Internal Development & Maintenance
13. Adilas University
14. Adilas Marketplace
15. Adilas Cafe & Community - Adilas World
16. Databases, Networks, Servers, & IT

Areas, sections, and departments in more detail:

** for me - go deeper into each section **

1. adilas.biz

• Are we going to stay the same entity? Are we the same or are we different entities? Are we rebranding? Are we piggybacking?
• What version are we on?
• Adilas.biz or adilas lite? Branding? Marketing? etc.
• The thing that keeps us all together is the reoccurring monthly services subscription for the main adilas.biz system. It has been the glue that keeps us together.
• Offering upgrades from ship A (current adilas) to ship B (fracture or adilas lite)
• What are our goals for ship A? What are our goals for ship B? Are we building it up to sell it? Are we going to be replacing ship A? How do you transition between the two.
• We want to make our current product better. It then grew into a full or bigger rewrite. It seems to be changing more and more. Originally, it was pretty small changes.
• Timelines to get things done? What will it take?
• Ship A will be great salespeople for ship B, once ready.
• If people change from ship A to ship B, there needs to be an increase or at least a re-evaluation of monthly fees and services.
• Ship B, we are planning for tiered pricing and dynamic billing based on functions, sizes, usage, storage, and preset packages.
• Ship B, they can toggle on/off different settings, include other features, and change what they want. All of this will reflect on dynamic billing options.
• Talking about future plans - selling it, royalties, secession, retirement, etc.

2. Admin

• The admin's role is to manage the budget, make decisions as to the direction that we need to go, do HR type functions, payroll, manage the different groups and departments, communication channels, general running of the day to day business.
• This could be one person, multiple people, a board, a council, etc. Somebody or some entity needs to be in control.
• Co-owners, Co-Founders, CEO's, presidents, vice-presidents, board members, etc. We can figure that out.
• If we do one person, we need to have VP's or managers in the other departments.
• One of our problems is that none of us (on the current team) want to be that person or take on this whole responsibility.

3. Monthly Reoccurring Service - aka Billing (new name)

• This is billing, invoicing, receiving, dealing with monies coming in and reaching out to our clients.
• Accounts receivables
• This could be tied in with admin roles
• Debt collection, bad debt, accounting, financials, etc.
• Setting up new corps (currently) and sending welcome emails and collecting business contact info.
• Bank reconciliation, paying bills, prep the budget info, etc.
• We could automate some of this, in the future.

4. Sales & Marketing

• We like that they are together. This is anything to generate and keep new clients to keep coming in and paying for our services. This could be publicity, knowledge about the system, get new demos, entice our clients to buy and keep buying from us. Serving their needs.
• Currently, the main method of marketing is word of mouth and referrals.
• We have used sales reps, consultants, and light networking. Steve and Kelly have been some of our biggest sales type people.
• We want to listen to what feedback they are bringing back. Currently, the sales people and the developers almost live in two different places.
• Sales should have a good pulse on what is working, what is not working, and what people and our clients are asking for. We tend to get lots of good ideas from clients. Sometimes, what that takes or the priority, that can get tricky.
• How big do we want to be? Get everybody or get enough (sufficient)? Keep pushing into other markets or be content with good ROI?
• Helping with market research, looking around and checking out markets, and what do we need to do to penetrate those markets?
• We almost feel like being in no man's land - too big for just a few people to push on it, not quite big enough to really have the team that we need to push it. Do we push and go bigger? Or do we trim down and keep it like it is (not really coasting but strategically developing as we can)? There are associated questions about speed, reliability, and uptime.
• Along with sales and marketing, there are expectations that are set and keep changing (trends and expectations).
• We need to know who we are servicing. Currently, we are kind of all over the place. We have little accounts, medium accounts, and some big accounts. We could go any direction. We just need to decide. Where is the sweet spot?
• If we want to be big and grand, we will need some major funding and thus major sales and marketing. Or do we figure out the sweet spot and really refine and focus in on things.
• Making things more stable and more reliable. Keep improving.
• We have a lot to offer - no one has even heard of us.
• The new and upcoming business owners are going to be fully connected and have certain expectations. If you want to get those guys/gals, you're going to have to revamp things.
• Our current mix is very developer heavy. We really need to switch that focus and get things that people want. Easy, Powerful, and Pretty!
• We need this department to really keep us in the know on what is going on. Currently, we don't have anyone fully dedicated or assigned to this department. We've been missing this piece.

5. Setup & Training

• Originally, we didn't charge for any of this. We just wanted people to get on our system. We are now charging for this and even trying to presale some of the training, deployment, and setup stuff. We are finding and have found, that people who get setup correctly and have the correct amount of training stay longer on our system. It has a learning curve, and that proper setup and training goes a long way.
• Currently, one of our system admin persons has to go in and create the corp, do a bunch of the settings, assign the master users, setup the logos and colors, and get them going. Most of that requires someone from our team to hold their hand along that process.
• Futuristically, we really want to help automate a bunch of that. Have them setup their own corp, let them pick what industries they want to play into, help them with their settings (wizard style), and then even help them pull in their data (without any other involvement). Let them create a test account or a free version, play around, and then either upgrade or get some help.
• Offer services to help our clients. Also have a number of self-help tools and features to let them do it themselves.
• We would love to develop a number of preset packages and industry specific skins.
• We would like the setup and training to be coupled with education and the adilas university side of things. They are very related.
• Getting products, customers, vendors, and other info into the system easily. Currently, we have to do a bunch of that (data imports) on a one-by-one basis. We need to make that more global and self-help level.
• Provide a good starting point to help them succeed. Show them the benefits and advantages of doing it our way or how we help them succeed.
• This department or division could include the adilas university, training, tech support, setup, and training.
• Easy access to get help and direction if needed.
• We see a lot of user error type problems. Figure out ways of helping them stay in their lane better or put up guardrails or bumpers to keep them on track.
• It has only been recently that we have added more focus on the setup, deployment, and training.
• This department could also include on-going training and retention. That is huge. Things constantly keep changing and we keep adding on new features.

6. Tech Support

• Currently, we allow people to email or call for tech support. It's free but often bleeds over into full on training, not tech support.
• We could build out a report a bug or open up a ticket or an issue. Make it easier to get support.
• We could provide better help files, tips, how-to's, videos, tutorials, and in-person training events.
• Everybody uses the system so differently, that makes it kind of tough. It would be nice if we have tech support stuff that was industry specific or catered to a specific industry.
• Tech support really should be part of the training, setup, and deployment stuff.
• Tech support could be a small carrot for deeper training and/or offering other paid services.
• Helping to show the value of deeper training and education.
• Having a standard way of getting to training and even industry specific training.
• Offer some adilas university training courses - covering various subjects on scheduled dates/times.
• Really helping to push the training and education stuff. Tech support should be quick, temporary, and non reoccurring. Show them the benefits of getting properly trained.
• As we move forward, we are planning on simplifying things. That should help with the training needs and the tech support stuff. Helping them figure it out on their own.
• If people (our clients) really want more tech support, we could offer more robust or advanced support packages.

7. Design

• This could be websites, forms, reports, interfaces, dashboards, UI/UX (user interfaces and user experience). This is the pretty and easy part of it. The powerful may be from a feature or backend process.
• Most of our current guys are developers, not designers.
• We don't charge enough, as such, we tend to skimp on the design phases and processes. This tends to get skipped or minimalized.
• We tend to do function over form - however, most clients say that they want function over form, but really, they want form over function - they want it to work and look pretty.
• Our project management tends to be a simple one liner. Do such and such. No other plans, requirements, mock-ups, or fixed specs exist.
• Mock-ups, prototypes, samples, wireframes, flow charts, graphics, videos, etc. We want to show the plan, air it out, and then build to the specs.
• Modern look and feel and user experience keeps changing. We need someone to keep watching and keeping up with trends, expectations, and options. This needs to be monitored and maintained regularly.
• Figuring out and sticking to a style guide. We do have a section called the "adilas docs". We have been working on it, but it has not been fully adopted yet. We need to set those standards and then stick to it. This is our style guide, and we are sticking to it.
• Doing some test cases and getting user/client feedback. How did their experience work out and what did we learn from that?
• Planning in maintenance and upkeep.
• Our clients squawk at things not being consistent. I don't mind change but I don't like some change and other things not being consistent. We could also introduce settings.
• We could allow the users, or corporations, to choose their default layouts. Horizontal forms, vertical forms, stacked forms, or auto formatted. We also want to store those settings and allow them to change it on the fly on per user basis.
• We need some consistency - this deals with who the designer is, what we are designing and outputting, people's preferences and opinions, and where we are heading. We can all be different, but we need to be consistent.
• Allow people to try things out and/or fully switch over.
• There is a point when we need to keep moving forward so we don't have to keep supporting all of the older styles and themes. Help make that as smooth as possible.
• We have some needs for design work out in ecommerce, customer facing sites, portals, and even business websites or web presence stuff.
• We need designers to help with marketing and social media stuff. Once again, consistency, specific plans, strategic campaigns, etc.

8. Custom Code

• This is one of the things that really sets us apart from other systems. We love it and even encourage it.
• We currently have tons of black box options. That was a solution at the time. There are some great concepts there (black box stuff) but we did run into problems.
• The code base keeps changing. We have had people ask for things, we build it custom for them and then wrap back and make it standard. The ones who got the custom version are now off on their own vs being fully integrated into the main codebase.
• We offer a lot of this. Having said that, we don't charge enough.
• We would like to move as much as possible to data driven settings and permissions.
• One of our current issues in maintainability. If it was on the side (like a black box page) it got left behind. The main pages always got updated but anything custom was harder to test, and harder to main it.
• If we do custom code, we need to build in some maintenance costs to help maintain that.
• We could do a community type approach - who ever helps build it out, gets a commission or a usage fee for others using it. Kinda like a sponsorship or something. We just need to get enough to plan it out, build it out, test it, market it, and then do some sort of kickback or reoccurring usage fee. There may be different levels  - one-time, reoccurring, built in, full one-off custom code, settings, combined projects (we pay, they pay, we then get to use it).
• Custom code should be by our internal developers and internal development team. We need to make sure that it works and doesn't affect something else.
• We have had some maintenance issues. Who made it, what does it do, how does it work, what does it touch, what else does it touch up/down stream, where does it live, how can you get to it, and was there any planning or testing done to the custom code? Tons of potential far reaching questions.
• If we build something... we really need to get an ROI and market those pieces.
• We could do some pay as you go build outs. Monthly fees that get added to their bill. They could pay upfront and then get a payment plan, or set it up on a reoccurring basis, or whatever.
• We need to charge enough. We often shoot ourselves in the foot. We charge pennies to build on top of multi-million dollar platforms and applications.
• We need good planning, good project management, good estimates, and then good developing.
• Estimates - take what you think it will take and double it. Then double that. It's almost a 4x ratio. By the time you add the work to get the work, the work before the work, the work, the work in between the work, the work after the work. It all plays in.
• Paying for both quality and speed.
• On the estimates, we also need to think about opportunity costs and what are we not working on, while doing custom code work.
• Approving custom code. Just because someone wants it... doesn't mean we should build it out. How does it fit with our mission statement, goals, and overarching plans and rollouts?

9. Consulting

• Byproduct of the main reoccurring business services. Once we are in, the system starts generating byproducts and people need to know what is next, how to do certain things, where they could go, options, next steps, phases, etc.
• We haven't really tapped into this yet. We do it, but we could do it so much more.
• This could be tied into the training, setup, and education stuff. Teaching our clients the best way to use the system to get the most out of the system or platform.
• You start getting into paying for knowledge and experience and expertise.
• We have seen many of our power-users become consultants. They know the system, they know how to make it run, sing, dance, and play. That provides a value to others. Those people then offer their expertise and know how to help others.
• Currently, some of this is done on the side. Adilas has no part in it, and no kickback exits. We would love to bring this more inside but that takes money to keep those people on call or on staff.
• This could be a great thing to add to the adilas marketplace.
• We may allow some outside stuff to go on, but we need some rules. We could configure this any way we want, we just need some rules.
• This could be part of the adilas cafe scenario - our clients seeking out a professional to help them out.
• Do we want to manage this internally? What would that look like? Once again, we may need some rules here.

10. R&D

• Research and Development - You have to spend time here to move the ball forward. If you aren't going to move forward, nothing will happen, you will live and die. You have to keep up, especially with tech stuff.
• Exploring different avenues - there are costs for exploring.
• Cutting edge, bleeding edge, sweet spot, new ish, or older/classic?
• How much does it cost to be on that cutting edge?
• Vision, plans, and looking to the future. Where are we/you heading? Plans, how are you going to get there?
• It really comes down to where do you want to play (on the spectrum)?
• Training what is new.
• Maintenance for what was or has been developed. Technical debt.
• Stable and known or less stable and new - How quick will the older pieces change and/or be deprecated? If it's so new, it may not even stick.
• We make things and then it sits on a shelf. That hurts. There could be difference between development that didn't get fully funded vs totally new prototyping and experimenting.
• Is this something we should do? On not? Figuring out what it takes to make something happen.
• Looking into speed, efficiency, demand, cost analysis, needs analysis, scope, scale, and reality of doing certain things.
• Beta testing, prototypes, experiments, testing, pushing boundaries.
• Currently some of our R&D is mixed in with our code. We try things to see if it works. Without being consistent with other pages and code. We often have good intentions (prepping for the future - mini stubs or prepping for stuff) but then get pulled on to other projects. We do a lot of experimenting within our projects. Almost a revolving door or revolving code set. Basically, a fully working, living prototype.
• We are seeing a mix between custom code, R&D, and project management.
• Back tracing or reverse engineering things. Sometimes if you know what you want, you can then figure out a way to get there, that might be easier or better.
• Being aware of what's out there? How could I use some of that in my projects?

11. Project Management

• We have really been missing this piece. We do a ton of just in time project management. We are not very good at doing a more full design, plan, or architecture type layout.
• We do a lot of this one-on-one right now. One project and one developer.
• The project manager can and does act as the shield between the client and the developer. Buying some time or deflecting decisions.
• They help with quotes, estimates, and project specs, scope, costs, timelines, and details. Lots of potential back and forth communication is needed.
• We have spent a ton of time and money going back and fixing things that should have been planned out originally. We have also spent money where a developer makes a decision and just does something and doesn't ask or doesn't get any clarification.
• Teams - authority, accountability, and responsibilities - setting up clear expectations. We have played around here a bit. We need to refine things here a bit, based on our needs. We had some people who were so worried about how to do scrum that it didn't actually happen. We also had some problems with free riders. We want to use some small teams, but still need to get it refined a bit better.
• Dealing with teams, we were trying to do some training... and we didn't really have it all defined. Wasted time in meetings, talking about code, and what is needed. We then fall down based on assumptions or just verbal communication. It needs to be just a little bit deeper and more consistent.
• Team sizes and dynamics.
• As a project manager, not assigning yourself to a required task. Actually, make an assignment to do the project management.
• Someone needs to be available and be the virtual babysitter. Getting rid of hurdles and what is expected of them. Helping them stay on task/track. The project manager's job to help other people succeed.
• Slowdown
• We build and build and build... we need to slow down and test it, train on it, market it, and push it.
• Being able to plan it out so that we can reuse as much code as possible. Giving the developers guidelines, handrails, samples, and good instructions. If it's too tight, they don't want to do it (it takes out the fun of figuring it out). Figure out what developer needs what (how detailed) and then play accordingly. Developers need to accomplish something. Not just follow A-Z and you're done. It is a mix and a spectrum.

12. Internal Development & Maintenance

• This internally funded by adilas to work on adilas. This comes from revenue and budgets to keep the system up and running.
• Bug fixes, maintenance, changes, next steps, phases, testing, documentation, code review, etc.
• This needs to be tied into project management and custom code.
• This is the most defined area that we have inside of adilas.
• We get a plan from project management, we then build it out, test it, deploy it, and make sure that it works.
• We have had problems with guys following style guides. Everybody has their own ideas on what a good style guide is. This could be whitespace in code, tabs, naming conventions, etc. It also happens on the look and feel part of page or report.
• Alan had the idea of having a way of helping to force or standardize the output. Almost a forced style guide or validator of sorts. It all has to comply to a certain standard. Whitespace, naming conventions, comments, indents, variable names, components, etc.
• Keeping things separated - backend, database, objects, services, views, logic, functions, classes, etc.
• In object-oriented programming, you need good encapsulation (only contains what is needed) and low coupling (lower number of steps as possible).
• There is some great value in teams and getting different points of view. A better solution because we worked on it as a team. More well-rounded.

13. Adilas University

• This goes hand in hand with the training and deployment section. This is the training arm of the system. It may also tie in with tech support or consulting. We could combine some of this as needed. Similar type people and knowledge resources.
• General topics for training - One, how do you use the system? Two, how do you run your business? Consulting is a part of this as well - what are the best business practices and how to get the most out of the system.
• There could be standard stuff, custom stuff, and internal stuff.
• Each page would have how to videos, quick videos, and options for more or deeper training.
• We also need to offer some custom or live training events.
• For fracture, we experimented with a thing called the education mode. You could turn it on/off and the system would hide or show more options and information. You could turn it on from any page and all of sudden it would react differently. We have some great screenshots on this from Jonathan Wells. Along with this, the help files could be shown, side-by-side with the page that they are referencing. There were also options to toggle into the actual adilas university site as a tab withing the side-by-side help window.
• There is a known missing gap here on the education and training side of things.
• There could be free levels, basic stuff, and deeper more paid type levels of training and consulting.
• There could also be certification levels, requirements, status, and other testing and certification stuff.
• We are hoping that the adilas lite and fracture project will make it even easier to help train the users and because they can tweak everything, there will actually be less of a need for certain pieces of the education and training. They will still be there, just hidden as needed.
• This could be a whole other business entity, if needed.
• A new user really wants to be guided through - holding their hand. An advanced user may not want any of that stuff in their way, just let them do it quickly.
• Link to this from the adilas cafe.
• If we do certifications, maybe show or allow some of that basic info to show to other users, if they are seeking trained professionals to help them out.
• If we have trained users, those become a value to others who are looking for help or pros on those topics.
• Adilas University could be a stand-alone product, or it could be interwoven with the entire site. Both have the same content, they just either have a standalone navigation system or we help navigate for them based on what page the users are on (context stuff).
• There could be levels to the training... Think of a triangle - simple, basic, intermediate, advanced, and deep or backend logic or design level stuff.
• There may be both external and internal training pieces. Along with that, we may have to have permissions or something that open/closes those training modules for certain people or parties.

14. Adilas Marketplace

• Part of the adilas cafe. People could sell their products and services, buy products and services. Including adilas skills and other professional skills.
• Adilas creates lots of byproducts. This is a way to help harness and gather up those byproducts. 
• Options for 3rd party solutions, white labeling, advertising, marketing, etc.
• Online mini marketplace for adilas products and/or our users could sell their products and services on a mini Amazon or eBay type level (mini consignment type shop built for our users and companies that use our products).
• Possible payment solutions with interest, fees, commissions, and other small kickbacks for using the marketplace.
• Limitless potential for other byproducts and additional services that could be added on to this piece of the puzzle.
• This may need a separate team to help run, manage, and administer this piece of the puzzle. Automate as much as possible.
• Here is a rough draft - Russell did - way back - don't get stuck here... It could be so much more. Adilas Market

15. Adilas Cafe & Community - Adilas World

• A landing spot outside of any corporation or entity.
• A corp selector - where can I go (have permissions or access)?
• Get to the marketplace type stuff.
• Get to the adilas university stuff.
• Forum type stuff - ask Q&A type stuff. This could be answered by staff and/or other users. This would need a moderator or forum manager.
• Let people show that they have the skills that others (businesses and/or individuals) could be looking for. This may include direct messaging or some other way of communicating.
• White labeling options.
• Standardized portal - single sign in be able to jump between servers and corporations.
• Dynamic billing and making payments.
• Mini marketplace for adilas products.
• Sales and creation of new accounts - tiered pricing and auto setup options
• News and updates - configure news feed as needed.
• Interface with other companies and corporations. Get assigned, hub type model.
• Work, play (demo sites), buy, sell, training, social stuff, and participate.

16. Databases, Networks, Servers, & IT

• This is the whole backend of the application or hardware side of things.
• Load management, reliability, up time, speed, redundancy, backups, storage, orchestration, etc.
• Lots of security needs and requirements. They will also be majorly involved in implementation of security.
• Code interacts with these things, but they are separate entities or divisions.
• We will need our own documentation, permissions, training, etc.
• Maintenance and upkeep, prototyping, standardizing, testing, databases, servers, hardware, clusters, network, security, IT stuff.
• Patches, updates, protection, hacker prevention stuff.
• Email servers, text or communication servers, web servers, database servers, backend logic servers (ColdFusion or whatever).
• Monitoring services, requests, traffic, load balancing, stats, specs, remote access, database indexing, automation scripts, tons of IT type stuff.
• Migration stuff, off-hour updates and maintenance, backups, restores, and other tasks.
• Move data around, put things into and out of cold storage, special bulk data manipulation stuff, zip and archiving things, etc.
• Future proofing things.
• Offloading bigger or longer processes.
• API sockets, API endpoints, and being able to load balance traffic, requests, deal with sessions, server config, clustering, and managing small microservices.
• We need a way to get rid or purge some of the pieces. The current system builds and builds. It never really releases or virtually poops (dumps).
• We would love to get a full data dictionary to allow our new frontend to be more data driven.
• This could be multiple people - DBA, IT/Server guys, etc. They could cross over, but these are high level skills and high level people or teams.
• Everything on the hosting side of things. This gets deep but just think - what do we need for hosting? - SSL's, domain names, hard drive space, spinning up servers just in time, pointer records, DNS, DSN, puppet, orchestration, bit bucket, code repositories, ColdFusion Administrator, Fusion Reactor, Papertrail, Nagios, tons of outside services and tools.
• Servers - hard drive sizes, backups, RAM, CPU's, configs, and the list goes on.
• This could go deep and deeper... Etc.

-------------------------

- Alan and I were playing with a mini version or what that might look like (see attached for a mini mock-up of the smaller mini model):

Adilas.biz - admin, monthly billing, and day to day running the company. They could do their own R&D (progress, speed, what the clients are wanting).

Sales & marketing - They could do their own R&D (advertising, pricing, features, marketing materials, etc.).

Consulting, tech support, setup & training, and retention. This could also be part of the adilas university (similar folk). They could do their own R&D (tied into sales, marketing, training, etc.).

Development stuff - project management, custom code, internal development, maintenance, & design. They could do their own R&D (code, frameworks, layouts, look and feel, etc.).

IT stuff - Databases, servers, hardware, hosting, etc. They could do their own R&D (speed, load balancing, redundancy, monitoring, etc.).

Marketplace and adilas cafe - This could be their own little piece or small team. They could do their own R&D (product research, options, pricing, hardware options, services, etc.).

We would love to see each of these sections or divisions (departments) be able to meet and interact with each other on a consistent basis (at least monthly or semi-monthly). Nobody is left on an island by themselves. Communication is huge.

Cory was checking in on projects, bugs, and what not. She had a list, and we went through things. We talked about some quotes and numbers for a client dashboard. We need to get to the duplicate recipe project for Kelly. We set a date for the 15th of this month to be finished with that project. We scheduled some time and now we just need to do it.

We spent some time looking at a client's data. Small little fix and trying to help a client with their financials. They had some bad costs of goods sold that didn't have a real backing (they plugged the numbers) and thus it was throwing off the balance sheet.

At the end, Cory was saying that she is trying to help support me and the other developers on our projects and time lines. That is awesome. Sometimes (often) we need the help.

Notes from meeting with HG, KW and SB on 3.7.23:

Has some redirects that aren’t user friendly. 

1. When you sign in, take to the main order or have shop home more prevalent. ** Put a setting to skip the first page. Take you right to the category page. **You have successfully signed in.
   
2. Add item to the cart, should allow you to keep shopping instead of taking you to the cart. 

*** look at what Will Hudson did on the above *** EOT 2413

   3. Setting to show/hide the display mode. Don’t need to show it.

   4. Can’t sort and prioritize by the item. ie. HG first, then Green Dot as it is alpha-numeric.

**Steve talked about icon app for phone. Michael is interested in this. Will need to add the email templates to HG.

**Steve talked about tiered selections. Ex. Sell burrito, choose what cheese they want to add.
Talked about Leafly integration. There will be some changes in how tiered pricing is set up.  We will need to make sure HG’s settings are all good when the new code comes into place.

You’ll be able to have 10 tiers and name it what you want. It can have a variety of amounts ie 1.3 grams, for example.

Kelly mentioned suggested products… lead customer to an equivalent item or suggestion.

Steve talked about related items (that is more like a cord needed for a product that you purchase)

**Predictive… you may want this as well. Algorithm.  Build in a default so something shows up

Showed Mike Message modal: 

Would be helpful to be able to choose people to message in other ways besides customer type.

Schedule recurring messaging off of birthdates. 

Eric can help with bubble that would show up on your icon app.

Another thing would be to have the customer to reply back.

**Not ready yet: Transitional invoice= instead of doing a quote, you can do this so it holds inventory/reserved. Assures inventory is held.

Pushed up some files for Dustin. Working on the duplicate recipe page. Back working on the line items. Prepping to go live, even though it isn't done yet. Pushed up code and sent an email out with the update info to Steve, Cory, and Kelly.

Cory had a list of project that she wanted to go over. We both reviewed a small video from Kelly dealing with needs to be able to search sub inventory status and sub inventory availability. Basically, some new filters may need to be added to some of the advanced reports.

Recording notes and working on a list of known issues. See top_secret/secure/known_issues.cfm for more information.

For fun, here is a list of some of the items listed on that page. This list originally was started in 2009. Small list of what are known problems. Some of these things are real problems and some are just warnings. Lots of things have changed since then. It may need to be updated, added to, and some of the items removed, that have been patched, fixed, and/or finished.

1. Invoice pmts on account with something different than 0.00 value.


2. Receipt pmts on account with something different than 0.00 value.


3. Reimbursements (rei's) with a bank assigned on the receipt pmt.


4. Invoices with mismatch between main and line items.


5. Deposits with mismatch between main and line items.


6. Receipts with mismatch between main and line items.


7. PO's with mismatch between main and line items.


8. Non verified payments (outstanding deposits and checks).


9. Duplicates ???


10. Dates prior to the corp start date or prior to the bank start date. See bank_balance_helper.cfm page.


11. Dates in the future. see bank_balance_helper.cfm page.


12. Internal invoices that are not marked as paid.


13. Receipt payments that are verified but the main is not verified.


14. Difference between invoices and stock numbers. Created a number of flags to show disconnect.


15. When paying back splits and rei's - what about both (main and subs) being assigned to income statement expense types? This could double things up on the income statement. Defaulted special multi build (rei and splits) to b.s. items for expense types. Still possible problem on original e/r that may get assigned to the balance sheet.


16. Update PO's not tied to a balance sheet item (say a loss account or something).


17. Lien payoff line items on invoice with a 0 cost. The cost and the price should be the same otherwise it puffs up the profit. Did run a report at one time to fix this. Also added code to the cart to match cost and price for lien payoff stuff.


18. PO payments that have the wrong date and thus the po_paid date is wrong. The system was using the current date as the payment date even if the payment was actually made in the past. Small disconnect between actual payment date (e/r payment date and PO paid date).


19. Check auto dates that are actually used in I.S. reports or B.S. reports. Need a way to manually change the auto dates if really being used. Check the unit payments, PO payments, other system made payments. The system seems to be ok, the problem is with dates and being able to either set the date when using or edit the date if defaulted to today's date.


20. Blank expense/receipts (payee_id = 1).


21. Voided items but part of it is still in play or not fully voided. Need to get to a voided list quickly.


22. Denied check requests on payables page.


23. Sales tax problem with work in progress invoices. They don't show up on sales tax reports until they get flipped back to a customer invoice. The problem is that the date (main invoice date - if not moved forward) will not show up on the next month’s tax reports. If this happens, the invoice will fall through the cracks and not be counted for sales tax. Possible option for sales tax, Steve thought that it might be cool to have a point and click interface that we physically pay taxes on certain invoices. That way, they never fall through the cracks and we only pay taxes once we collect the monies. This would also help with a system-maintained b.s. item for accrued sales tax. As an update, Eric was working on a sales tax aggregate project to automate this.


24. Along with sales tax problems, how do we show this on the balance sheet? We need to show collected, paid, and owed values. Once again, Eric has been working on this in his sales tax aggerate project.


25. Payroll has similar problems with regards to what has been paid on, what is still needed, and how do we show this info on the financials.


26. See idea in note book about showing all daily transactions. This is different than a history transaction record. This is what really hit in and out on this day in time according to the system. This is not a known issue but may help with finding issues. Daily monitoring of each account per location, per day, per account or category. This would be awesome.


27. Check for master/slave relationships between date changes. For instance main invoice date compared with invoice line items dates. PO main date with PO line items date.


28. Known issue with PO dates. Do we run off the main PO date or the PO received date? Need to standardize. Leaning towards PO received date.


29. Known issue with location based payables. Both expense/receipts and deposits have the location on the line items not the main. This means that monies could potentially get split between stores which would alter bank balances if only part of the money went in/out of the bank. Known problem here. Solution might be that banks are what they are (full monies in/out) and all sub lines and types are location specific. This could give a false indication as to how much money was available for each location.


30. What about transition invoices that have the main invoice date overlapping the transition (wip/qti) invoice date range. They don't show up anywhere other than on the main invoice homepage which doesn't tie to anything. Added a small fix on view_transition_dates.cfm page. Still need to check for possible mismatches.


31. Disconnect between sold date on units and invoice date. This is a disconnect that is unmonitored and will only show up if pulling a sold report (units) and an invoice report for the same time frame.


32. When backing up the main bank start date, there is a problem with expense payments and deposits that have a date before the main start date and a verified date after the main date. The payment or deposit date is not counted but the verified date is. I had the same problem with Leanna in Poncha and with Drew Middlemiss doing his first bank statement. What a pain. See the bank_balance_helper.cfm report (5/16/09) for small fix. Still a known problem with a starting bank balance not being 0.00.


33. Advanced pmt on invoices (pre-paid). They hit the bank because they were deposited but they also need to show up as a liability to offset the deposit or cash going up. This should be a system maintained item.


34. What about deposit types of other income that are assigned to invoices (double counted)? The default is an invoice hits the p&l and only deposit line items that are under other income and revenue adjustments hit or the p&l.


35. What about bad debt? Do we want to create a system maintained items for this?


36. What about deposits that are made before pmts are posted to invoices. This is not backward compatible.


37. Known disconnect between PO dates. The main PO date is currently used as the main search date. The PO received date is the main b.s. date. We are thinking that the main date may become somewhat of a request date or a age player only. The main date will become the received date with the received flag.


38. If a check request gets approved and assigned to a bank but never written out (bank never sees it), there seems to be a problem. There is also a problem with older check requests and the dates that are set in the background. They are uneditable once the request changes into a normal e/r.


39. Known issue with i.s. (income statement) deposit types. If used, without an invoice, they don't show up on the income statement. They may also be double booked if on an invoice and also recorded as other income or revenue adjustment.


40. What about payments made on a PO before it was received. This could happen with a request PO or a basic PO that has not yet been received.


41. What about inactive (status) on parts and subs. If we have details (activity) but something is inactive, that could cause problems.


42. Levels of inventory - this could deal with parents, subs, and usage details. We may need to check costs, quantities, dates, etc. Sub inventory was added way after 2009 (original date of this report). We may want to spend a whole session just going over sub inventory levels and possible pit falls.


43. Steve, Kelly, Molly, and others have lists of balance sheet challenges and other known issues. Check with them and get their lists.


44. Ecommerce and what plays into the real mix from there - invoices, taxes, costs, prices, discounts, payments, quantities, elements of time, etc. Good questions? Some of this is already figured out, it just needs a little bit of loving.


45. What about aggregates (somewhat new for us and just barely getting rolled out) and making sure things match up. Category (could be whatever), by day, by location - are there update processes that may be ran to keep things up to date. Manual updates, API sockets, watchers and feeders.


46. What about backorders? Steve did a whole section on backorders but I'm not sure if we tied in everything to the balance sheet and P&L. Anyways, may need to circle back around.


47. What about banks that get turned on/off (active/inactive). If we go back in time, we need to know if they were playing.


48. Same is true with locations. If they get turned on/off (active/inactive), we need to know when they were playing. We may need a start and end date and then be able to pull things accordingly, even if the current state or status is inactive.


49. What about cost of goods sold on unlimited or special line items? They should be a $0.00 cost because they are unlimited (like a labor or a service). If a cost is needed, it needs to be allocated through an expense to the COGS section or distributed in a thing called SG&A costs. SG&A (selling, general and administrative expenses - aka accounting for general costs by attributing them to a single unit and thus incorporating the true costs into an item). Basically, you take a normal expense like the electric bill or rent and build it into the individual cost of each unit by unitizing the expenses and virtually spreading a bigger general cost to smaller pieces. Sometimes that type of process (SG&A) is required for certain manufacturing and/or production type products. Basically, they (the IRS) don't allow you to expense off the whole expense (rent, insurance, waste, electric, etc.) as a bulk item. It has to be distributed to each smaller piece. If you do real SG&A, it helps assimilate those costs in smaller percentages and thus passing on a truer look at real costs of goods sold.


50. Anything that is currently marked inactive but may have played a role at some point. This could be locations, banks, part categories, items, vendors, customers, etc. Often, if we make them inactive, they don't get pulled (but maybe we need them at some time in the past).


51. Other special account options such as in-store credits, vendor credits, punch cards, etc. We already have loyalty points and gift cards that use special accounts. Maybe expand on this and allow for custom options or other digital payment accounts or payment solutions.


52. ICC's or Internal Cost Corrections. This is an entire topic that deals with items being sold at certain known or prior cost levels. The internal cost corrections deal with going back through inventory sales and making sure that real cost of goods sold is attributed correctly. This one may require a deeper look-up for ICC's or internal cost corrections. One of the things that happens is the system is setup to use a stepped actual cost. If the cost changes and then other items are sold, they be recorded at the current cost vs the actual cost. We came up with sub inventory and cost controls to help with this, but some companies don't like sub inventory and like to run off of parent inventories. This still needs to be done, as a clean-up type effort. We have seen some clients that run their inventory clear down to a 0 quantity, but there is still some inventory value (on the balance sheet) for that item. The problem is the internal cost controls or corrections. We could build a report and automate this. As a note, some of the ladies (Kelly and Molly) used to do a funky fix for this in doing two entries on an update PO. The positive quantity and the negative quantity (matching) don't affect the inventory levels, but if you alter the cost of goods on one of the entries, you could make your numbers match. I want to me be more specific, but just wanted to record an existing work around that we have seen.


53. I'd love to map out all of the existing balance sheet and P&L values. Make it more widely known and really put it out there. Right now, it all happens behind the scenes and is kinda like a magic box. I'd love to get it all mapped out and presented to the public. We'll get feedback, refinement, and maybe even some other really good ideas. That's my vote, let's get it all out there in the public eye and public realm.

WordPress was down and this caused our main website to be down. I contacted Chuck via text, then a phone call. Sent emails to Wayne with some instructions and suggestions from Chuck. Trying to get things figured out. Luckily, you could bypass the main website and do a direct login by changing the URL (web path) to the login page.

Jumped on the GoToMeeting session and was having audio problems. Cory had some questions about the adilas label builder and getting images pulled in. Kelly needs some sub inventory reports. Some of that gets pretty dynamic and pretty deep. After that, John and I talked about our WordPress site and getting our stuff off of an outside content management software package, WordPress. We couldn't get ahold of either Wayne or Chuck to get help. We need to get some documentation from both or have John help with that documentation. Our eventual goal is working towards standardizing and using best practices for all of our developers. Constant processing of pivoting, updating, and changing to fit and fill our needs.

Chuck was able to meet with me and I jumped back on the GoToMeeting session. John jumped back on as well. We were trying to fix the WordPress stuff for our site. Chuck was helping John try to navigate to a certain file folder and make some changes. We kept running into issues. Cory jumped on and we made a quick fix for her on a cross corp invoice to PO transaction (special cross corp page). Once we finished that up, back on with John going over plans and what not.

More sub inventory stuff for Kelly. Worked on the advanced sub item searches for PO line items. Lots of work and changes to exports to Excel. Pushed up new code and did some testing. Let both Cory and Kelly know about the changes.

Bryan checking into the morning meeting with a question or two. We will have to get with him later to get it all figured out. It wasn't a simple fix. Michael and Sean were talking sales and gift card stuff. Cory jumped on and we were talking about scenarios on reports for showing new columns. If we just add them, not all of our clients like that. If we don't add them, other clients want them. You almost can't win.

Our solution will end up being a mix between show/hide checkboxes and saved settings where they could set their own defaults and then still be able to change things on the fly if they want something different. Anyways, we may end up with a mix between normal filters and options and pre-saved settings to help speed things up.

This is our bad, but we have a small lack of communication to our clients. Here's the tricky part, even if we put something out there, they usually don't read it. However, if we do something and don't let them know, they get mad at us as well. Cory and Kelly requested some changes, now we are dealing with the backlash. Some like it, some don't. Sounds like we need more settings.

Small data fix for Kelly on data 34. Had to fix some sub inventory attributes for a PO that had been voided but had sub inventory on it. We did some back and forth via text message and we got it all figured out.

After that Cory had me look at a custom PO label that needed to be fixed/tweaked for a client. The barcode was missing a small piece and thus not scanning the number that we wanted for the sub inventory package. The number was right, it was just missing the "~" for the sub package or sub id number. For example: Say it was sub id ~34, the barcode was only scanning as 34. On the phone with Cory, made the small fix, and pushed up new code. Also sent the update to John and Steve to push into master. My local box is still kinda broken.

Zoom meeting with Cory and Kelly. The whole thing was dealing with inventory reporting and an advanced report builder concepts. Kelly wants to throw-out a wider net and see what we can catch. Instead of going super deep to financials, she wants us just to focus on the invoices and PO's. Basically, an inventory and CRM (customer relationship management) mix. Leave the accounting alone right now (for these reports). Just help our clients get their data in and out quickly. Basically, it's operations stuff.

One of the goals is to show, teach, and allow our clients to use a mix of vendors, customers, invoices, PO's, inventory items, sub inventory, parent attributes, and location information as needed. All of these things interact on both the sales and customer relationship (CRM) levels.

Here are some my notes from the meeting:

- Talking about building a report building engine. This deals with groupings, filters, show/hide columns, sort orders, etc.

- Kelly was talking about getting to the meta data of the database data (going deeper). What is related, how does it work, what can I get out of it - including mixing things that a company and/or individual is looking for? Even things that we can't think of and/or thing about. Extracting those data analytics and details out of the system. Lots of value there.

- Be able to export to CSV, PDF, and web formats (normal HTML or data tables).

- Ideas about display options - Nested groupings, even pulling and storing data in temp tables, data dumps, and then querying that data. ETL - extract, transform, and load - manipulate the data however we need to. Leave the raw data alone, just tweak out other pieces or tables.

- Show all of the tables and their fields. Preset a few things so that the defaults are showing (not everything is checked by default).

- Use the data tables, be able to save the reports, see new reports from the saved favorites, all kinds of advanced report building options.

- Put this new advanced report builder engine under its own new permission.

- Thinking about vertical tabs (for a layout view). The tables or basic system players would be the left most side (left vertical tabs), the right side would show other settings per table. For example: Say the tabs down the left were things like vendors, customers, invoices, PO's, parts/items, etc. Then when you click on the different tabs, it would show which fields belong to what table (on the top of the page) and then the filters and grouping options would be below that. When you are done, you click to view the report. You could also save a new report name, set the sorting or sort order, and who can see it (assigned to who or just a assigned to all option).

- Help educate the users on the database structure. This could be a great side agenda item for this advanced report builder engine.

- Kelly was asking - Is this new advanced report builder a value add-on? How do we monetize it? We decided that for now, we'll just roll it in and try to sell it as a feature of the whole or bigger picture.

- We talked about sub inventory attribute mappings and creating groups (things or attributes that can cross over categories). This is a form of layering for the sub attributes. Basically, each item category can have any number of sub attributes. We then go in and allow a user to setup groups or which sub attributes are buddies or tied to other sub attributes in different item categories. Making small or mini family groups for the sub attributes. Just an idea to help with reporting and consistency.

- We won't build this in yet, but we have to think about things on an enterprise level. If we build this advanced report builder engine on the corporation or basic world level (where we need to start), it won't be long and some of our bigger multiple world level clients will want an enterprise level solution for the advanced report builder engine. We know that is coming!

- Along with the enterprise level, we know that some of our clients really want the business intelligence (BI) level of reporting and aggregation. It's a known need. That's a whole other plan and topic.

- There may be versions and phases of this report builder engine.

- I was asking about big reports and possible timeout issues. We may need to show sample data and then build out the bigger (in needed) reports and then let our clients know that they are done or finished. Some of these reports could potentially be millions and millions of records. As a note, I know that Wayne was working on something similar to this a few months back. I'll check with him on ideas for timing, flow, and notifications.

- We may want to build in options for details (default level) and/or aggregates groups, sums, counts, etc.

- If you are wanting to get more money from people, it really helps if the people that you are dealing with want the same things (that you want). It creates a common want and need.

- In a nutshell, this project would be mixing and blending all (maybe not all) of our existing advanced search features into one bigger master report builder. Because this project could get so big, we may end up playing around and building a mini version and/or a prototype of sorts.

- We talked about timelines and even ways of distracting our clients to buy some time. All of this takes time and resources to plan, build, and deploy.

- As an addition - it would be really cool if we had some presets (pre-maid selections and choices) to help people get started. That would make the building process simpler. We could show some defaults and then let them modify that vs building from scratch every time. This idea came from Aspen (my daughter) who was listening to the meeting while working on other stuff.

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!

On a Zoom meeting with Kelly, Cory, Steve and I. We were going over a number of different topics. We started out on expense/receipts and logic on limited expense types per vendor. Kelly was saying that we should only limit things if we know enough information to actually limit things. There was an error where a vendor had been assigned to a single expense type, but then that expense type got made inactive. She couldn't get into the expense/receipt. We had her go to the vendor and remove the limit by expense type value and everything worked fine.

We then switched over to talking about sub inventory and sub inventory attributes (sub attributes). We spent tons of time and I took a bunch of notes. Here are my notes:

- Kelly went through things to find the gaps

- Parents and children are so separate - you have to know what goes where

- She started on the grouped inventory report (just shows counts from the parents).

-- She was hoping that those quantities and costs would be able to show the same values.

-- Investigating and auditing - Going deep

- Cost of sold adjustments - 2 sides on an invoice... one positive and one negative. ICC - internal cost corrections (future project) - cleaning up the dust - bulk tools are needed.

- On big reports, we need to look at the size, and maybe do backend data pulling and then showing data.

- She has to go to the usage on each one to look at what is going on.

- Accurate inventory values - this is a big lift

- She needs an extended cost per - cost * qty = extended. We just show the cost and the quantity, not the extended cost.

- Clients are saying that their reporting is way off.

- Disconnects between PO line items - parents and subs

- She was using Excel pivot tables to get super close details to what we were showing.

- Cost changes, rounding errors, some parents and some subs, negatives, etc.

- In order to find all of the possible problems, you have to get so deep in the usage and details.

- How do you help clients fix items, quantities, costs, and usage, etc.

- When auditing subs... it would really help to show which ones have which costs

- Part status - active and allow sub only - could be both.

- The knowledge level to do an audit.

- Multiple tabs open and pulling data at one time.

- Level of trust... - I could pull more data but is it even what I'm looking for?

- Pagination of the data - say 40 pages - I need it all summed up - with what was what... in/outs, cost changes, etc.

- In Excel, she had to do find and replace, build special comparisons, standardize the data, etc.

- She had to figure out what was off and then go in deeper. Basically, she would love to see the known issues or sub sets of the data. Maybe even comparing things and helping them find the issues.

- Some of the dates... in the past - you can't even fix something - How do you fix it without adjusting things going forward.

- It would be nice if there were alerts, notices, or somehow finding those problem children.

- It becomes so complicated that they skip it. It is very manual on the fully deep audit.

- Locking things down - ice-down dates - being able to lock/hide things. We need this on all of the main players.

- If there is a difference between po line items and subs, we could show the problems... all at once. Similar to the bank balance helper report.

- Read them and weep numbers - too bold

- Our basic user's comprehension is not very deep.

- There is a need for oversight, maintenance, etc.

- Helping all our users to know what the problems are. It seems like it is coming down to known issues and disconnects.

- The cost field is so important... we allow that to be changed. Kelly was saying, the cost runs downhill.

- We talked about the balance sheet homepage and that it should run a number of checks before it does it stuff, and/or we need to let people know that there is a possible problem (or problems).

- Talking about some other check fields (aggregated values) that could be held on the main to show problems, disconnects, or whatever.

- On E/R's and deposits, we allow posting and locking. Most of our PO's and invoices can lock lines, but never get to the posted level.

- We rely so much on PO's. We don't have a ton of control over them.

- People are looking for the easy button - things keep evolving and users are expecting the system to help them along that journey.

- More guardrails

- Huge need for aggregates, counts, sums, averages, maxes, mins, and other values. This is a huge need. Bigger than we can say... We are very good at getting all of the data (transactional level). We need the aggerate levels. We have so much data. We need to get it summed up and other aggerate levels.

- Controls - at all levels

- We have seen users create more issues trying to correct other issues... Tons of cause-and-effect relationships.

- Inventory that goes into the negative. Ideally, this shouldn't happen. If it does, we need to show it.

- Visibility - start here - helping our users see what is going on.

- Parent/child issues - looking for disconnects.

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Switching over to sub attributes

- Kelly has a client that has sub inventory and existing categories and wants to re-categorize the inventory. Category to category moves, in sub inventory. This totally creates a disconnect.

- People want to consolidate their categories or break things into smaller categories. We didn't know that people would be flipping the categories. That's a higher level of flipping but it has cause and effect drop-down effect.

- Currently, all sub attributes are tracked on (or off of) the column number (not the sort order or name, literally just the column number), not the id number. This can make things go off the rails.

- Is there a quick solution? Personally, I think this is going to take some time.

- One of the biggest problems is - we can't get the reporting out that we are needed. Because of this, they start altering things to solve their need. That can cascade potential problems. They want quick reports, quick exports, etc.

- We need to be able to cross over categories.

- We think that we need a master list for sub templates. In Kelly's words, maybe build above it. Along with that, we may need to build on both sides, build above it (master list) or build below it (custom cross category mapping).

- Build and break - build and break - part of the cycle

- Steve was talking... what about the next version of sub inventory. What would this look like?

- What about bulk tools?

- Kelly's goal was to show the different sides of what we are learning.

- Software has to evolve! What is the next step?

- From Steve - It keeps feeling like our users are wanting the software to go to the AI (artificial intelligence) level.

Steve, Cory, and I stayed on the Zoom session after Kelly left. We were talking about the evolving nature of software and how it seems like it keeps heading towards a form of AI (artificial intelligence). We were talking about developers, projects, and project management stuff. We really want to get that datasource project done (bus to motorcycles or world building project). We spent a lot of time talking about funding. We are pushing as hard as we can, we need some gas money. Big requirements and a tiny budget. It takes time and resources. Our product and our users keep evolving. Project management and quotes with Cory after Steve left.

- It may be good to do a pros and cons analysis of attributes - parent attributes, sub attributes, flex attributes, flex grid tie-ins, and other in-line database extensions. Speed, bulk, capabilities, searchability, show/hide on all or certain templates or views, etc. Where are we headed next or how can we tighten things up to make it even better?

- We first have to get the data into the database. They we have to be able to get it out. Next, what happens if anything changes? We need to think through all aspects of lifecycle of the data.

- We really need a plan - detailed out - commit to it - then really do it.

- More and more of a need for bulk tools (data coming in, data going out, and updating and changing things).

- Charging for what we are doing. We, as a company, are missing out.

- The value of our user/client base as a testing group. We couldn't pay for what they are doing.

- Cory and I were talking about requirements for industry specific software. Expectations of our clients. We have a standard package and then we customize on top of that. It's really tough to do everything, well.

Zoom meeting with Cory, Kelly, Steve, and I. Going over plans for sub inventory reporting. I took a number of notes. See below.

- Kelly did some prep work and had a small spreadsheet- Here is the link: Web link

- Some of the report settings need to be at the user level vs the corp or global level- for example: the new advanced part search settings. They are controllable at the corp level but not at an individual user level. We are seeing a need for deeper levels of control, per user.

- She, Kelly, found a good report (that still needs some tweaking)- advanced invoice sub line search for all item categories. The current report shows and does some sub attribute grouping (text based off of the names).

- Kelly thinks that a limit of a 31-day month (whatever the range) would work for now. For both PO line items and invoice line items. If they want to pull info per item category, no date range limit. If they want everything or "all" we limit it to a month or 31 days.

- Ideally, she would like grouped output for PO's, invoices, and items. That's where subs play (currently).

- Steve is working on some sub inventory reports right now.

- We have a currently working model in the advanced invoice sub line search. If the part category of "All" is selected, the actual search page shows all possible sub attributes as filters. We then pass that list of combined attributes over to the results page. The results page then loops over the combined list and fills out what it can. We may be able to use some of these pieces.

- As a side note, we actually looked over some code for the working model to see how it was switching, grouping, and pulling the data. For now, we may take that code and push it over to other sections as a patch and/or band-aid of sorts.

- The sub reports need all of the main line item details plus the sub information. Currently, the sub reports are only showing the sub details. Kelly wants all of the data out of the system. Cory wants to be careful not to get in trouble if we add a bunch of new columns (past history with clients complaining - changing their reports or exports).

- The reports homepage is kinda messy- We may need to rework that page to make it look better.

- We need sub attribute information on its own, parent attribute information on its own, and mixed sub and parent attribute information together. Along with this... We need these same reports for PO's, invoices, and items in inventory. We need all of these pieces. Consistency across those reports.

- Kelly is sort of stuck- helping out the clients. She is pulling tons of reports and piecing them together. She is looking for some time savings and better reporting, out of the system or out of the box vs having to pull things and piece them together.

- Up next, once we have the good reporting that we need, we can build in bulk update tools where you can see it, fix it, repull the report. Export it as needed. We need the visual representation of the data first (good reporting). The other features and tools will come later.

- Steve, Dustin, and Alan are going to be working on some bulk tools for subs.

- Be able to export beginning inventory, ending inventory, and what is in between. That's the goal.

- Kelly likes the super invoice line item search/report. Could we add on a bit there? That might be nice. We talked about creating a super sub invoice line item search (same as above with subs). Maybe a link to that new page from the bottom of the advanced invoice search page (maybe at the top as well).

- At the end of the meeting, Kelly was asking what we needed to get going. She is going to build out a spreadsheet with columns and instructions per column for us to use as a reference. That should really help. We will pass this on to the correct developer to help them know what is wanted and needed.

On with Cory and Kelly going over new requests for sub inventory reports. Kelly had created some spreadsheets and we were going over those pieces. Great review and we are ready to hand this project over to the developer. We switched topics and started talking about sales tax aggregates and creating manual switches to help force an update.

Cory and I were doing some planning for a server meeting and some decision making. We talked about doing some R&D on the new frameworks that Wayne is working on and almost doing a mini scratch app to get all of the kinks worked out. After that, Cory and I went over a number of other small projects and plans.

My mind was going nuts all day. Literally a whirlwind. I didn't write down the start and end time on this one. But from about 12 noon until 11 pm ish I was brainstorming, thinking, recording notes, talking to people, phone calls, texts, etc. It was super fun. Once again, these notes don't have any specific order, they were just what I recorded on small little post-it notes. I should have used a bigger notebook... :)

- We need a matrix and the ability to monitor every choice and setting. Full data driven and choice driven billing for our clients. This needs to be baked into the beginning design for fracture and where we are heading.

- What about possible open-source code and/or having our clients pay for their own accounts? That would take some of the hardware and server pressure off of us. Just a thought. Along with this, we could set it up to use any domain name, any site/server or hosting company. Whatever. Keep it super open, if we want it to be.

- As far as hosting and packages, we could have our own options as well. Things like simple home use, shared servers, semi dedicated servers, full dedicated servers, clusters, etc. Make some options and then make them available.

- List out your services that you offer and/or have available.

- Packages and bundles - tiny, small, medium, large, extra large (xl), double X (xxl) or whatever. Maybe set some limits for the different sizes or limits withing a certain range (keep it kinda flexible). Allow for variable billing.

- Stripe seems to have some awesome automated merchant processing features. It may be fun to plug into this. We could also use something like Datacap and then have access to even more merchant processing options. Just thinking along these lines. This could be for our clients as well as for us, as a company. Currently, we are using USAePay for our internal merchant processing stuff. I'd like to expand and really open that avenue up a bit.

- You (meaning me) may need to fully jump off. Earlier today I was giving Steve an analogy of jumping off of a moving train. The best place is either on or off, not somewhere in the middle. If I'm going to jump, do it and get clear. You don't want to be too close to that moving train. Once again, just an analogy.

-  Some of this stuff is for me, but was part of the brainstorming session. Anyways, I'm going to list it anyways.

- I know some bankers. I'd like to meet up with them and just pick their brains. Thinking of Mike Hall, Brent Wallis, Kevin Moser.

- I could use some of my percentage ownership of adilas as collateral, if I needed to get a loan.

- I have a buddy that helped me out, back in the day with my Learn To Freeride (LTF) project. His name is Gene Spaulding. He currently does a lot of stuff with nursing homes, memory care, and retirement homes. Good resource. Maybe even checking with him if he needs a product to help manage all of his beds (rooms for his clients - elderly folks). Regardless, he's an awesome resource.

- I know a guy by the name of Jud Eades who is an entrepreneur, a friend, and a total stud. He does all kinds of fun stuff. I could see if he has ideas and/or is interested in helping me build a reoccurring revenue based product.

- I know lots of other business people who have ideas and different know how. I would love to tap into their minds. Just being silly, but started thinking about too many people and decided to stop (for now).

- Use eye candy to show what we have done

- Talk with my wife Heather

- I have a full business plan that I did for the LTF project (older personal project dealing with teaching snowboard freestyle tricks and moves - early to mid 2000's). Look at the LTF binder, just to get some ideas.

- Recruit help. Think about all kinds of avenues, people, places, things, etc. Be creative!

- Include the Lord

- Sufficient - That goes a long ways

- Apply It! - Whatever you learn, keep applying it. That seems to be one of the secrets.

- We (adilas) hired a business consultant a few years back. Get back with him and review of what you learned from Jonathan Johnson and Epic Enterprises Consulting.

- Check in with Aspen, my daughter and see if she wants to help. She has a great gift for organizing and such. I could use the help.

- Talk with my mom and dad. I would like to ask my father for a father's blessing as well. That would help me out.

- Planning things out and then funding that development.

- Strategic funding based on needs and plans.

- Willing to listen and record notes. I love sharing what I have learned. Writing things down helps my memory. The old saying - The faintest scratch is better than the sharpest mind.

- I'm willing to let others play a role and add to or even take away as needed.

- Freedom from the adilas grind - that's worth a lot.

- I may be able to do more and help more by not being tied down.

- Make a list of pros and cons

- Include some prayers (lots of them) and some fasting - ask hard questions of God and of yourself

- A couple of books came to mind - Who Moved My Cheese, The Go Giver, How To Win Friends And Influence People, Rocket Fuel, etc. Read those books.

- Be willing to help and give. I enjoy that.

- Follow a dream

- There is a level of excitement that I'm feeling. This is kinda fun!

- I have a book called "Differentiate or Die" - I'd like to read that. It was given to me years ago and it has been in my office but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

- Get some training

- Work on some funding

- Be a cheerleader

- Help fix the existing foundation. Make this part of the plan.

- Be open... to... whatever...

- Bridgerland - It's a local technical college here in my town. There are lots of options there. I know a number of people, they have training resources, and they have even asked for a demo (multiple times) of our products. I'd like to explore some options there including offering to help them build something that they could resell and/or pitch to other technical colleges. Almost a white label type option.

- I had a dream the other night about including other businesses in our planning and roll out. Keep exploring those ideas and avenues.

- Leverage your percentage of ownership.

- Ask... What do you need? How can we help? What do you want? Where is your pain?

- Go back and do it again. Trystorming and being willing to circle back again.

- Talking with Heather, my wife, and going over what I was making, what I could make, and how to keep a good balance. I'm not going to lie, there are parts of it that are just plain scary.

- We may need to get back to doing a family budget. We used to do that a long time ago. It's been pretty smooth sailing and we haven't done that in quite some time. We may need to circle back around.

- I'm kinda scared to dip into savings. Super grateful that we have some.

- During the day, we talked (Heather and I) about existing expenses, promises, and upcoming expenses dealing with raising a family (vehicles, wisdom teeth, other doctor bills, etc.). We listed a few things out.

- From Heather - We don't want to relive LTF! - Understood and I agree. Lots of lessons learned. If someone has time, some time in the future, I'd love to tell them about that project and product. Huge building blocks of my career, part of my life, and part of the journey. It wasn't all bad... :)

- Look at the risk/benefit trade offs

- From Heather - She'll let me do this - new venture - if we don't take out a personal loan and don't clear out our savings.

- We have been super blessed.

- We can't see the future. We don't know what is coming.

- Keep adding to savings as part of the plan.

- Light fun with numbers. We started adilas in 2008 from a project that started in 2001. The first adilas deposit was for $100. As of 5/31/23, adilas has made over $7 million and growing. That's kinda fun.

- The current goal is the business plan. That may end up being more than just one document. It may be better to say plans (plural).

- Need to call our accountant and check on taxes (for me personally)

- We have a number of projects planned for around the house that will still need to be completed this summer (paint back porch, cut down the dead tree, etc.). Heather wants to make sure that I don't get too busy and that I can still help out and do the planned projects around the house.

- From my daughter Amber - We were on the back porch talking - Here are some random thoughts that I wrote down from our conversation. From Amber - Do what makes you happy! Question - wouldn't having more be more stressful (meaning another whole adilas product)? I told Amber that I was trying to work myself out of a job. She had a few questions about that. Foreign concept to her. We talked about - if you are enjoying the job, it's not work. Good fun!

- More notes from Amber - You could always find another job. For example, snowboarding or whatever. Something that you enjoy! Maybe something part time or something like that. You could teach an art class, spend more time with your hobbies, actually get a job where you have a window (you work in a cave), get out and get outside, something. She was having fun giving me advice.

- AI (artificial intelligence) - this may replace certain jobs. Creativity and interpersonal skills - you can't replace that (currently).

- I like helping people - do something along those lines.

- Aber was being super kind - She said - You should draw stuff. I love the t-shirts, cards, your life jacket (kayaking PFD), and other things that you have drawn. Go have fun! You could totally use your drawing talents.

- Next I talked to Aspen for a bit - she was very logical and had some great questions. For example: I wrote down - Do you feel comfortable dropping all of your responsibility on other people? Who is going to do what you were doing? What about family timing (meaning with our family and who is doing what - in general)? What about retirement? Who is going to help with marketing? Etc. Very logical questions. It was great.

- I told her that I was playing a small game, similar to the old fable called "stone soup". Bring what you've got, throw it in the pot, we are making stone soup. She thought that "a community effort" was a better way to say it than calling it stone soup. She is probably right.

- A few more questions and comments from Aspen - If you have a passion about something, we'll trust you. Prove yourself! Different question, how will this look for taxes?

- Both grandmas and grandpas (Heather and I's parents) are a great resource. I'd like to let them know what we are doing.

- Talking to my son Tanner about what was going on - He said, it sounds like Legos (little building blocks).

- This is totally random, but also came from Tanner - We were talking about trying to skip things that we didn't like or couldn't do. Just being silly. All of the sudden, Tanner tells this story about one of his friends. His friend is in a wheelchair and has some disabilities. Tanner was really sore from doing something and said, I think that I'll skip leg day today (dealing with weight lifting and going to the gym). His little friend chimed in and said, I skip leg day everyday. Tanner and his friend had a good laugh at that. Anyways, it was super funny and broke the tension around the dinner table. Good stuff!

- Talk with Steve about some ideas

- Aspen recommended that I talk with Kelly (adilas power user)

- Called and spoke with my mom and dad over the phone. I then went over to their house and spent an hour with them talking about things. Great little visit. They recommended that I do some fasting and praying. My dad will be willing to give me a father's blessing this coming Sunday. Pay your tithing, server the Lord, and pray for help.

- My dad gave me a scripture to look up: 1 Nephi 4:6 - Led by the spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.

- I told my mom and dad about a dream that I had on Monday night about including other business owners in this software re-write and that is exactly what my parents recommended for me to do. I thought that was very interesting and awesome!

Emails and research on media/content and naming conventions. Kelly had a client that got transferred from data 33 to data 39 and we had to look into the media/content (uploaded files). Light research and tech support.

Zoom session with Kelly and Cory and Steve. We were looking at a cross corp data issue. Light clean-up on some backend database stuff for both Kelly and Cory. Jumped back on with Kelly, Cory, and John to look at a sales tax calculation issue. It was dealing with how the shopping cart figured out taxes based on customer types (including and excluding calculations). After the meeting, Cory and I chatted about other projects on the to do list.

Small side note, it was amazing watching Kelly navigate around with multiple tabs, quick search options, exports, pulling reports, and bouncing from page to page to get the data. We need to remember how hard some of these pages and functions get pushed on when we build out fracture. We need something that is stable enough to hold up the power users.

Meeting with Shari O. and Cory. Going over plans and priorities. We talked about yearend stuff for payroll and 1099's. I'll be working on that here this week. We also talked about a quote that a client would like. It's joining PO's, flex attributes, and elements of time. We watched a 15-minute video that Cory and Kelly made with the requirements and requests. We may modify it a bit, but it looks like a good project. This one has more of a manufacturing type flavor to it.

Going over plans and research with Bryan. He would like to work on a new horizontal time view page. Instead of having people down the sides and times across the top (what we currently have), he would like to run locations down the side and days or dates across the top. Sounds great. We have some other ideas on elements of time # 8004 for more ideas on horizontal and vertical time or date views.

We also went over some feedback from Kelly and Cory on a report that was showing some data errors for sub inventory. Recording notes.

Three different meetings. First, I jumped on a meeting with Eric to look over some tip stuff. We ran an update on data 11. We also looked at a CFC (code and database queries) and I made some suggestions. Something was erroring out with invoices and combined tip amounts.

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Met with Cory for a bit to go over a new quote for Kelly. She really wants a new report format for both the balance sheet and the P&L (income statement). Her end goal is to get us closer to a consolidated report that she could mix and blend corporations and financials. She is calling it a chart of accounts report. That's kinda what it is, but we'll just go with it for now. We went over a video that Cory and Kelly recorded a few days ago. I took some notes. It was a pretty good video and really explained well what she was looking for. Her main goal was visibility and exportability.

Here are my notes: The video does a great job but Cory has that.

- kelly wants all existing columns in a full grid...

- combined view system generated and user-maintained items

- going clear back to the top level groupings

- they want to see destination, groupings, types, accounts, etc.

- visibility

- all three parts (bsi, p&l, expense types, deposit types, bsi types)

- destination, category, group, sub group, account/type (item name), system generated or user-maintained, drill-down - show everything

- they want chart of account numbers

- need balance sheet numbers

- show active and inactive

- show sort order

- working toward a consolidated report - multi corp - enterprise

- corp id and corp name

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At the end of the day, I was helping Bryan with some code. He needed something merged and pushed up to a server. We did and then tested. We ended up rolling it back. He will look deeper and we'll push it up later on. It was for a custom report and needed to be tested with actual live data.

Meeting with Kelly and Cory and Shari O. over a Zoom meeting. The main goal of the meeting was to look at some bad data for a client on data 10. We can't make it happen again, it was data from well over 1.5 years ago, and everything since then has been good. I'm just being silly, but it was a bit of a beat-up drill and a brow lashing of sorts. The good thing is we found the issue (limited number of bad records). At least we have a starting point to work from. We do not have a plan yet but that will come.

I was pitching the idea of a known issues report. Instead of just showing data (normal reports), we could actually look for bad data or errors in our code or data mismatches. That would be a small level of AI (artificial intelligence) on the reporting side. Imagine a report that said... check this and that... these things are known to be off the rails. That would be super cool. Side note, we actually started a known issues report way back (3/11/09)... at least listing out known areas that might have trouble. We just haven't been able to get around to building out that report. The actual report is in our code at this location... (top_secret/secure/known_issues.cfm). It has a huge list of possible problem areas, date mismatches, flow problems (something happened out of order or out of normal flow), and id/relationship possible problems.

As soon as we get a chance, it would be super cool to help uncover these and other possible problems and issues. Kelly had the idea of working backwards to help find the errors and exceptions.

One big take away, and something that we want to keep in mind for fracture (adilas lite) are these key pillars... We track money, inventory, finances, and full histories (Kelly was saying that those pieces are huge keys to what makes adilas awesome).

Meeting with both Steve and Alan. Originally we were going to be discussing some ideas on company structure and where things are headed. We got a little bit sidetracked and ended up covering a number of other topics. These are some of the notes.

- We spent some time doing a general catch-up. It's been awhile since we have met as a group.

- Steve was talking about some of his friends that are teachers and have been forced to do online school (prison camp for the teachers). They, the teachers are being watched super closely. They, the teachers, almost feel like it's a prison camp type atmosphere (too tight).

- Advances in software

- Age of our kids, they are growing up

- Business, everyday wondering what you will do today and tomorrow

- Kelly has been pushing hard on us

- Master/slave relationship

- The squeeze - by clients, internal owners/users, and in general. We are feeling it!

- Analogy of a bug vs windshield - which one are we?

- How do we find our way forward? Plan and vision

- Super loose structure - our current plan is very loose

- Wild west thing - our current mode of operation - minimal rules, laws, expectations, or structure

- Getting spread thin

- Alan was talking about teams for projects but no one takes ownership

- Still dealing with teams, they didn't want to be left out but didn't want to really participate

- So much to do but the turnaround is so slow (how quick we can get the projects across the finish line)

- Frustrating/mental health

- Building and not finishing things

- MVP (minimal viable product) - Leaving stuff that is still flapping in the wind

- Whirlwind (bouncing all over)

- Discussions on funding and a centralized office

- Drift & culture

- Deadlines and nobody caring about it

- Why don't you care?

- Managers of Steve's stores - back in the Morning Start Automotive, Inc. days - They really kept things rocking and rolling

- Not taking any crap and rolling some heads if needed

- In the replacement business (people) - When you deal with employees, you tend to be in the replacement business (from past expierence)

- Reviewing peoples work and making sure that people are on task

- How big can you get before it implodes on itself? Experimenting...

- Managers and assistant managers

- Employees and workman's comp

- Payments, lawsuits, HR stuff, discrimination - more employee/employer stuff

- Filling in the gaps

- Start with a manager

- Manual of what your duties are - put it in writing

- Defining roles

- Part-time or variable working schedules

- Part-timer's may end up costing you money

- Scheduling and who is working when

- Missing the employee/manager piece

- Independent contractors and putting requirements on them

- We are all part owners but what does that mean?

- Alan had some questions like - Co-owners and having to pay to be paid? How does that work. Basically, we had to pay money to become a co-owner and then we get paid by the company for doing work. Just trying to figure things out.

- How does joint ownership work?

- Defining responsibilities

- Who wants that management position?

- We (humans) know right from wrong

- Too much oversight or pampering

- Learning curve

- Moving on

- You could always get someone better - or not - That's a variable

- We can't hire people that need help all the time

- Avoiding things

- We have all been trying really hard

- Good guy/bad guy and letting people go

- Fitting virtues to the jobs that they can do

- Efficiency

- 1 person can manage 5 or less people

- Are our people remote or local

- Going over some possible structure options

- Getting the managers setup

- Being able to crisscross over departments (some flexibility)

- Each department does their own R&D

- Able to switch things up (bring new life)

- We have so much stuff that our clients could use but we don't do the client retention stuff (letting them know about stuff like gift cards, loyalty points, new carts, etc.)

- Each department could use a programmer

- On purpose, rotate people around

- Bare bones - What do we need, right this minute?

Meeting with Cory. Fixed a few elements of time to help close them up. On retention (potential adilas department - upcoming), Cory and I were joking around on who is going to take what. Going over other projects and rehashing to do lists for Eric, Bryan, and myself. We spent a lot of time talking about the chart of accounts project for Kelly. I was pitching a certain thing, and we were trying to see if it would meet her needs.