Three different sessions, spread out throughout the day. Emails and checking payroll settings (new changes that got pushed up). Meeting with Bryan. Looking at a small bug on the data 10 PO reports. We got into a mix of old school values and new school code. The error ended up being a query loop without a start and end row value. Thus, it was duplicating form fields. We made the changes and pushed up new code to all servers. In the afternoon, more emails and setting up a client meeting for tomorrow.

John and I working on new personal settings for a default page view for snow owl theme modern or snow owl them classic. Basically, a new setting for old school/new school on the look and feel for the snow owl theme. Good work session. As a fun side note, John started a to do list up in Google docs and he and I were filling things in and batting things back and forth. Pretty productive flow.

Working with Shannon on the online glossary and converting the web version into a full Microsoft Word document with all of the terms and definitions on it. The document ended up being 20+ pages. See attached.

Towards the end of the meeting, we were trying to figure out what our next plans are and where we are headed. We did a light review of the developer's notebook from 1/1/19 to 4/20/21 and had a good review session. It looks like the two of us are trying to focus on the education side of things. We may end up circling back around on the user guide, old school accounting vs new school accounting, and other content and educational pieces. Good stuff.

Meeting with Craig and Steve to go over finances, bills, ideas, and direction. The meeting started out with just Craig and I. We went over a bunch of things and then Steve joined us later on. Craig brought a fun flavor to the meeting. Steve and I have hashed over some of these things so many times, we kinda get jaded or set in our ways. It was nice to have a fresh view and someone who would pose hard or uncomfortable questions. I really enjoyed the meeting.

All of the meeting notes are on Brandon's computer. Here is a small portion of them.

- We need to find the balance point - not running faster than we are able but still pushing it

- We have been spending some monies on certain projects - we really need to get a return. For example: Research on AWS (amazon), R&D for fracture, WanderWays, SEO

- Funding options -  The main 3 are: sales, borrow, investments

- Steve was saying, we have two main choices - steer towards deployment and fully funded projects - sell stuff or pull back and just do what we can - head back into smaller waters - slim down and tighter budgets. As a side note, we even talked about cause and effect if we were to actually gain from a small dip... lose some weight.

- Failure to launch - this is a problem if you never get off the launch pad.

- Picking our battles

- There is need for what we do

- Dealing with charging for our services - $65-100/hour

- Trying to sell a new car but it keeps having issues - makes it hard to sell - people are willing to pay more for certain products if they are reliable

- Fixing the servers - question: do we need more money or what to help make it better. On the positive side, people really use our products and they hit it hard, we really push the servers that we have. It's not like nobody uses it, the opposite is true - people throw everything that they have at them... we still need more.

- Maybe stop development - we need to sell things - harder done than said... - try to switch gears - cross training - maybe change the word or phase sales into networking... connecting the dots - get some more hunters out in the field - swap people around - focus on the deployment and setup process - focus on funded projects - on the dev side

- Being able to say "STOP"

- Learning when to put our foot down - limits and levels

- Selling the current 2021 model

- Switch who we are targeting - trailer dealers, bowling pro shops, etc. - sell what we have to offer

- It's just a $100/hour - managing expectations - sometime people want a perfect number or a nicely wrapped quote or project cost. It's just $100/hour. Otherwise, we lose our shorts.

- We get pulled off on tons of outside distractions - external distractions, custom projects, and outside 3rd party solutions

- The code is splitting - new school, old school, high tech, low tech, etc. scripts, tags, functions, includes, different styles

- Having a real game plan - we really need this - a full plan and then let everybody know about it

- Fracture is a real word - a life style - part of where we live and breath - keep heading in that direction. As far as we can see, things will keep fracturing. Plan on it and build accordingly.

- Like race car driving - we need a good driver, but maybe not the best driver, especially with an attitude, they may need to go

- You can always fill a spot... (even in management) - like a bucket of water, if you put your hand in, then pull it out, it will fill back in - finding that range that fits

- There are multiple battles - in front of us

- Using a talent scout, like my dad - maybe look around at the college (talent just getting out of school) or for people who have the skills - draft

- Find and gather up the low hanging fruit

Shannon and I jumped back in on the adilas user guide project. We were working on the section 11 stuff dealing with old school accounting vs new school accounting. This is still unfolding, but we were trying to get back into the flow and swing of things.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=371&id=4038 - entry for the old school accounting vs new school accounting - still working here

11.7 - Old School Accounting vs. New School Accounting

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

OLD SCHOOL ACCOUNTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NEW SCHOOL ACCOUTING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-The other analogy is the data assembly line

-WORKING, CONCPETS, IDEAS:

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

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

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

-Horse & cart analogy

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

4:17 PM

Brandon Moore

/// notes from the adilas history bio

- corps, locations, users, permissions

- web-based

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

- Internet came into play mid 90's

- gathering information into a centeral location

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

- start with your pain points

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

- letting operations lead

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

- pain - load and stress

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

- permissions and opening and closing virtual windows

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

- one-to-many relationship model

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

4:17 PM

Brandon Moore

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

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

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

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

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

-Ideas/Concepts from History Bio Article:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Met with Shannon to go over the tools that we use. This is some research on a topic called new school accounting. We are trying to get some information for the adilas user guide. We were reviewing some notes from yesterday about some topics that I was talking about with a buddy on a hiking trip. See this element of time for some of the details. As we were going through it, I was drawing and showing Shannon what some of the things meant. Fun session.

https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=748&id=4736

As a side note, We had both Eric and Drea join our meeting at different times for some internal tech support type stuff. Eric had questions on showing progress bars, spinning loading images for big uploads and data sync processes. Drea had questions on rounding, discounts, with tax included, and smart group buttons (tiered pricing). We ended up going in and doing some math to help us know what was happening and going on. Lots of moving pieces. Also, we recommended to her that she talk to the client and maybe recommend using the corp-wide setting to help with invoice rounding. That way the client could have their invoices go out the door without any extra cents.

Shannon and I were working on a session for the adilas user guide. We are working on a section called new school accounting. As part of that process, we were reviewing a brainstorming document from September of 2013 (years ago) dealing with the tools that we use. See attached for the original brainstorming doc.

As a recap, some of the tools that we use are:

1. Head and mind

2. Paper and pencil (pen)

3. Computer Based - word processing or a text document

4. Spreadsheets (rows and columns)

5. Databases

6. Software Packages and IT (information technology)

7. Web & Cloud

8. API or Custom (application programming interface)

9. World Building (virtual stories and movies - ultra custom level)

Original Document was created on 9/28/13

We found this document and used it as a resource for working on the new school accounting section of the User Guide (Section 11) on 7/3/19

Tools that we use:

Features, advantages, and benefits

Limitations and how do these tools break

Build & Break, Build & Break, Build & Break

1. Head and mind

a. Always on, not limited, imagination, switch at will, creative, huge capacity.

b.  Think through things, process clear to the end without actually committing, different scenarios, multi tasking even while doing other things.

c. Unlimited capacity to learn and process.

d. Start here and translate to other processes.

e. Limitations – Recall, searching, memory, what you do know, knowledge, affected by outside sources.

f. Break the mind – Sleep, eat and intake. Volume and number of transactions.

g.  Complexity

2. Paper and pencil (pen)

a. Write things down to remind you, categorize things, you can do all sorts of stuff.

b.  Draw, make it up quickly, written hard copy, plan, play with options, you can flip pages, you can have huge, tiny, massive, erase, mobile, searchable.

c.  Limitations – Searchability but not centralized.

d.  You have to have it. Potentially dangerous with loss or damage – outside sources or personal neglect.

e.  Not centralized – no one else has it. Hard to share unless you send or copy it.

f. Only one original.

g. Break pencil and paper – Searching, stacking, organizing, auto calculate, create relationships, nothing is automatic, everything is manual.

h.  Physical problems with the paper, run out of ink, pencil breaks, if you loose the original, you have to start all over again.

i. As it spreads, it becomes harder to get back to what you are looking for. No record of who touched anything. What date/times something happened.

3. Computer Based – word processing or a text document.

a.  All the creativity of paper and pen but you can now search it, print it, save it, send it, centralized, easy access, looks nice, readable, formatted, spell check, copy & paste, speed.

b.  Graphics, links, insert things, create columns and rows, email it, go back and change (small amounts to full pages of new content), take things away (delete).

c.  Limitations -  Structured, certain rules, learning curve (learn the tools), the program itself (does it even offer what you are looking for).

d.  Your skill level. Electricity and a computer or device. Dishing things off to outside sources (printers, faxes, email, Internet).

e. Things that break it:j If it is not centralized, it doesn’t do anybody any good. Run out of space to save it.

4. Spreadsheets (rows and columns)

a.  It does the math for you. It can do calculations. Searchable, organize it, show/hide columns and rows, color, graphs, add graphics, block in cells, lock cells, connect certain things.

b.  Ability to reference to specific cells. Ability to sub divide and expand.

c.  Good structured look and feel.

d.  Export and Import data because it is already formatted in rows and columns.

e.  Changing sizes and merging data cells.

f.  Limitations – Volume. It maxes out at a certain level.

g.  No history – once you replace it with something, it is gone.

h.  Higher skill level in order to play.

i.  Limited to rows and columns.

j.  It is not centralized. It is on your machine.

k.  Static layout – If your data is different or variable, it breaks.

l.  Break a spreadsheet – Volume, you have to see the whole thing all at once.

m.  Formulas and moving and inserting columns and rows. It may break all of the formulas and references to other cells.

n. Electricity, computer, you have to buy it.

o.  Spreadsheets are not the most compatible for touch screens.

p.  Manual filters and always looking at a full screen of data. You can get lost very easy if the columns and/or row headings are not shown.

q.  You can overwrite things very easy.

5. Databases

a.  Unlimited structure, storage in the billions, relationships, histories, you can link things, search things, you never look at the whole database all at once.

b.  Return and report, call back, dynamic level for storage (one-to-many). Scalable.

c.  Different types of databases. There are file share databases (limited number of connections) or server databases (unlimited number of connections). What are the open connection options.

d.  Calculations, filter things, pull back certain rows, you can query things (asking it for things), loop or play in bulk – multiple tasks at once.

e.  Storing and cataloging things. Modular or ability to compartmentalize.

f.  Limitations – Where is the database located at? Location is very important.

g.  Computer problems such as electricity, hardware issues, connection issues, multiple variables.

h.  Security issues.

i.  Skill level – who sets it up? Who is going to work on it? How easy is it to get the data in and out?

j. Break a database – Volume (usually traffic vs. size)

k.  Deleting or dropping information. Losing integrity between pieces of the one-to-many.

l.  Too big or too cumbersome.

6. Software Packages and IT (information technology)

a.  Package or packaged. Pre-built, on your own computer. Industry specific scope or niche.

b.  Keep coming out with new upgrades or versions. Improvements are being made.

c.  Thousands and thousands of choices.

d.  User friendly (general statement), support, manuals, well used and communities, training, etc. Lots of resources.

e.  You feel like you own something – even if it is older – you still own it.

f.  You can customize it for yourself. Create your work flow.

g.  Networking and everything can be hard wired. Established different connections.

h.  It is a tool that is meant for a specific job. It is a catered tool box.

i.  It has a version number that relates to a historic level of the software.

j. There are freeware, shareware, and different pricing structures. Bundles, packages, suites, downloadable or on a hard copy (disk).

k.  Limitations – Price or cost. Same with IT (information technology). $0 to Millions and millions.

l. Implementation and delivery. How do you get it? Install? Download it? Served up to you? How do you consume it?

m. Versions and computers – they don’t always match. Upgrades. Static and constant need for upgrades. Once you make it, it is that version until the next upgrade.

n.  Licenses – How many do you have and how many do you need? Bottlenecks or limit output by not having the right tools.

o.  Niche specific – but then you have to try to marry non compatible products together. The average is between 4 – 6 software packages. Maybe more.

p.  Skill set and use of the tools.

q.  Break software – Viruses, outdated, cost, volume, traffic and hardware issues, not support or non user friendly, natural disasters, computer crashes. 

r.  Newer products with more features. Constant leap frog of features.

s. Having multiple systems running at once & having to try to mix & match & hodgepodge things together.  Sometimes having multiple systems requires double, triple, or more entries into the different software packages. 

t. Changing requirements and changing technology can break software. 

7. Web & Cloud

a.  Great when it is fast, personal, any one can access it with a device, centralized, unlimited as far as storage capacity, versatile.

b.  Use outside pieces, tons of features, graphics, links, forms, buttons, animations, video, sound, print, you can search like crazy.

c.  If hardware crashes, no problem. Switch device.

d.  Cut your IT (information technology) costs to almost nothing.

e.  Mobile. From your car, on the go, multiple things connected to the same piece of data, collaborate from anywhere, any time, multiple people can share tasks and work on projects.

f.  Conditional logic (if, then). No updates, no waiting for the next upgrade (it gets pushed to the server).

g.  ADILAS – All Data Is Live And Searchable, Secure, Serviceable, Scalable, Sustainable.

h.  Go paperless. Scans, images, files, and other content tied into the system.

i.  Skin things (look and feel and flow and processes)

j. Cut steps, speed up processes, customize things to a huge level.

k.  Younger generations are getting more and more tech savvy.

l.  Future??? Where is going? Currently pioneering some of these fields and places. How deep is the rabbit hole? Potential!

m.  Limitations & how it could break – Have to have Internet access (somewhat of a diminishing problem). More and more places are getting it and it is becoming more and more free. Free is good!

n. Travel if Internet is down – have to get to a signal. Server issues, global blackouts, hack attempts, filters,  

o.  Security or un-secure (hacks and stolen data). Semi unknown??? Brings up question because you don’t physically have it or can’t touch it. Where is it? Movies almost create this hype or scare on vulnerability.

p.  How adilas.biz uses security – HTTPS – the “S” is very important. This deal with a thing called SSL (secure socket layer) – encryption. Check logins – 3 strikes your out policy on failed logins. Each corporation (aka virtual world) has user assigned. Each page in the system checks for a three-way tie or code. Corp to User – User to Permission on each page. System history or virtual surveillance system. 75% of the entire adilas.biz application deals with validation and security.

q.  Skill set – certain requirements.

r.  Interoperability – meaning playing with outside players and services. Everything has to work together. Adilas – uses a “System Thinking” type model. Cause and effects, consequences, tell the story, connections and relationships.

s.  Custom needs. Load balancing and potential internet traffic. Adilas tries to be an e-Business buffet – you dream it up we’ll wire it up!

t.  Play with both old and new technologies. Browsers, computers, operating systems, unknowns. 

u. Languages - for US markets things are typically created in English but there may be needs for things to be translated into other languages.

v. Trying to keep up with technology - finding people with the skills and talents. We're trying  to keep up with a the constant moving wave of technology. Hard to keep up. It takes lots and lots of money to keep up and keep developing. Trends, aesthetics, expectations of users, user interfaces, user experience, access to tech support and service for clients. 

w. The amount/quantity of data and the time required to calculate or crunch that data. 

x. Can be difficult if that site is not compatible with devices (mobile apps vs. normal web)

8. API Sockets or Custom (application programming interface)

                       a. An API socket is a way to plug into data without having to use a specific webpages or interface. You have data you can push and pull wherever is needed. You can take whatever is in the cloud and instead of having to interact through a specific webpage you can have access to raw data that you can then format, display, use, or do whatever you want with it.

                        b. You can technically mix & blend data from multiple different sources into one single location or feature - it just give you so many potential options! This could be dashboards, reports, interfaces, comparisons, stats, etc. 

                        c. You can tap into what are called data warehouses, where you take transactional data (day by day activities) and then aggregate the data to get pre-calculated sums, averages, totals, etc. 

                        d. API sockets can have their own security and can potentially bypass any permissions or add any permissions for access. So it can totally change the permission structure for what is being asked for or pushed back and forth. 

                        e. Usually APIs have documentation or samples that help speed up the development cycle. 

                        f. With custom work the sky is the limit. You can literally rewrite a process, change processes, show/hide specific values, reorganize things, make it completely niche specific, make it very intuitive, etc. 

                        g. One of the advantages of custom is that you can pay for exactly what you want without altering the core functionality. This could even be done by using outside developers to program something that may become a part of the core or a one-off job (custom mimic of core functionality).

                        h. If you deal with custom often you get to directly interface with the developers instead of just submitting to the general user request line. You  have to pay for it but you get to work with a developer directly and get to say this is what I want. What is the cost, timeline, what are the project deliverables, project mile markers.

                        i. Often when we think of custom we think of adding new pieces and functionality. That is great and well but custom could also be removing or hiding things that seem unnecessary or confusing, simplifying things.

                        j. If you are dealing with custom all of the sudden you are not limited to what the original developers created for database tables, columns, rows, etc. You can create your own structure for your data needs. 

                        k. Limitations: If it is custom you may not know what you may not know. If it is full custom you may not know where to get started. Unless you have a clear vision it can be challenging on the starting side. 

                        l. Another limitation of web API is that if you don't have enough documentation or access to the data then you have difficulty accessing the data you need. 

                        m. A possible limitation is that there may communication issues on wants, needs, availability, getting data pushed out, filtered, documented from the entity you are working with. 

                        n. It is also a possible limitation could be scripting language. One of the benefits is that anyone can talk to anything but one of the limitations is that each language has it's own quirks. It can be worked out but there are quirky things along the way when dealing in different languages. 

                        o. Because you have data, logic, and presentable pieces that may all come from different sources. You may have to determine where is your hybrid combined piece going to live. 

                        p. How it breaks: One of the most common things that happens is that a change occurs and no one lets you know. So what worked yesterday may not work today and there may not be any documentation. 

                        q. If the internet goes down, electricity out, too much web traffic, or other computer issues arise you may be back to paper and pencil again. I hope you have a good back up plan.

                        r.  You can actually custom things to death. Sometimes you can get into a never-ending cycle of trying to refine the feature which sometimes can cause over-analyzing, over-building, and over-complicating the system. 

                        s. New documentations, help files, SOPs, education, training, etc. 

                         t. Cost

9. World Building (digital story telling – ultra custom/hybrid level)

                        See sub notes below - we ran out of room 

Super fun session with Shannon. We were working more on new school accounting concepts and trying to get some content for that part of the adilas user guide. We ended up rereading a historical document from back in 2011 (see attached). As we did that, we took a few notes and talked about the process of finding a need, brainstorming a solution, and taking a stab at it. We have done that process, with user input for years and years. If you look at what we are currently doing, it is literally the same thing today as it was in the beginning. The only difference is the problems and issues are deeper and have more teeth (virtually speaking). Good stuff.

Link to the text or historical flyer we were reviewing - https://data0.adilas.biz/top_secret/time_web_gallery.cfm?corp=371&id=4028

Shannon and I had a great session recording new content for the adilas user guide. We are currently working on the financial report section and talking about old school and new school accounting practices and how they are similar and how they are different. Fun session. 

Working with Shannon on adilas user guide content. The subject for the day was old school accounting vs new school accounting. We only got some content written on the old school side (classic double-entry accounting). We went over journals, journal entries, ledgers, t-accounts, chart of accounts, batching, posting, and reports such as income statement (P&L - profit and loss), and the balance sheet. Shannon has all of the content. As soon as it is ready, we will post it in an element of time.

I had Wikipedia open and was doing a number of different searches:

Christopher Columbus - sailed the ocean blue in 1492 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

Luca Pacioli - father of accounting - published a math text book with rules for double-entry accounting called "Summa de Arithmetica" in 1494 (2 years after Columbus). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Pacioli

double-entry accounting - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-entry_bookkeeping_system

We didn't get to it... but this was an article that we (adilas) wrote back in 2011, it has a number of different key features and shows some of the changes in newer or more modern day accounting (new school accounting). This is a 6-page document that is more in historical story type format, but a fun read. - https://data0.adilas.biz/adilas_history_bio.pdf

Doing some database and code backups. Prepping some information for the adilas user guide. Today we are going to be talking about old school accounting vs new school accounting and how adilas plays into that topic.

Adilas is what we call a "business platform". What that means is there are tons of tools, functions, permissions, settings, and processes to help you run your business. This guide or manual will take you on a step by step journey in exploring and explaining some of the functions and tools that are available to you and your company. Not every tool or function will be used and that's ok. We want you to match the right tools with the right job. Some of the goals in providing this manual are helping you learn the system, apply the concepts in your own specific manner, help you track all your operational and accounting data, and help make you even more successful than you currently are! Let's get started!

Basic Outline - Feel Free to Jump to a Specific Section or Area
 
1 - Understanding The Basics
1.1 - What is adilas?
1.2 - How Does It Work?
1.3 - Enter Once - Use Many
1.4 - Database Basics
1.5 - Web Basics
1.6 - Standard Page Elements
1.7 - Navigation Tips & Tricks
1.8 - Vocabulary
1.9 - Adilas Theory

2 - Logins, Passwords & Permissions
2.1 - Main Website Features
2.2 - Username & Password
2.3 - Creating An Adilas Bookmark or Favorite
2.4 - User Permissions

3 - General System Settings
3.1 - Main Corporation Info & Settings
3.2 - Locations
3.3 - Sales Tax Settings
3.4 - Payroll Tax Settings
3.5 - Departments (tied to payroll)
3.6 - Assigning Employees to Departments
3.7 - Timecards (clock in/out)
3.8 - Master Time Templates (calendar & scheduling)
3.9 - Flex Grid Tie-Ins (custom data fields)

4 - Meet The Players
4.1 - General Overview
4.2 - Admin
4.3 - API Sockets & Communications (application programming interface - send & receive data remotely)
4.4 - A/P - Accounts Payable (vendor waiting room)
4.5 - A/R - Accounts Receivable (customer waiting room)
4.6 - Attributes (parent & child inventory flags and tags)
4.7 - Balance Sheet
4.8 - Banks
4.9 - Barcodes & QR Codes
4.10 - Black Box Page Technology (custom code options)
4.11 - Check Requests (sub type of the normal expense/receipts)
4.12 - Check Writing
4.13 - Chooser (custom interface chooser)
4.14 - Corporations (worlds)
4.15 - Coupons & Sales Campaigns
4.16 - Customers/Clients
4.17 - Customer Logs
4.18 - Customer Queue (check in/out)
4.19 - Data Imports & Exports
4.20 - Departments
4.21 - Deposits (monies coming in)
4.22 - Discounts & Discount Rules
4.23 - Display Options & Interface Choices
4.24 - eCommerce & Web Presence
4.25 - Elements of Time (calendar & scheduling)
4.26 - Email Settings
4.27 - Employee/Users
4.28 - Expense/Receipts (monies going out)
4.29 - Exports - MS Excel/CSV/PDF
4.30 - Flex Grid Tie-Ins
4.31 - Floorplan
4.32 - Gift Cards, Rewards, & Loyalty Points
4.33 - GPS & RFID Tag Tracking
4.34 - History & Reports
4.35 - Ideas & Sharing
4.36 - Interface Options, Dashboards & Choices
4.37 - Invoices
4.38 - Labels & Custom Paperwork
4.39 - Locations & Tax Settings
4.40 - Look & Feel (custom colors & navigation)
4.41 - Manufacturing (changing or modifying inventory)
4.42 - Marketing
4.43 - Media/Content/Files (physical file uploads and referencing)
4.44 - Merchant Processing - Credit Cards & Financial Solutions
4.45 - Mini Conversions (buying, selling, & tracking inventory - units of measure)
4.46 - My Cart Favorite Buttons
4.47 - My Stuff (personal settings & options)
4.48 - Objects & Data Over Time (theory & concepts)
4.49 - Orders
4.50 - P&L - Income Statement
4.51 - Parts/Items (general inventory pool)
4.52 - Payroll, Commissions, & Time Clocks
4.53 - Permissions
4.54 - Photos & Scans
4.55 - Purchase Orders (PO's)
4.56 - Quick Search
4.57 - Quotes
4.58 - Recipe/Builds
4.59 - Reimbursements (REI's)
4.60 - Reoccurring & Automated Options
4.61 - Sales & Promotions (see coupons & sales campaigns)
4.62 - Saved Reports (custom report favorites)
4.63 - Settings - Corp-Wide
4.64 - Settings - Group Level
4.65 - Settings - Page Level
4.66 - Settings - Personal
4.67 - Shopping Cart
4.68 - Special Line Items (system parts)
4.69 - Splits (payments made on account)
4.70 - Statements
4.71 - Stock/Units (serialized inventory)
4.72 - Sub Inventory (parent/child inventory)
4.73 - Support
4.74 - Texts, Emails, Reminders, & Communications
4.75 - Third Party Solutions
4.76 - Tiered Pricing & Pricing Engine
4.77 - Timecards (digital clock in/out)
4.78 - Tools & Maintenance

5 - Customers (in depth)
5.1 - Customer Settings (general)
5.2 - Customer Types
5.3 - Customer Logs
5.4 - Customer Additional Contacts
5.5 - Customers to Invoices & Quotes
5.6 - Customer To Elements of Time (scheduling)
5.7 - Customer Photos & Scans

6 - Inventory (in depth)
6.1 - General Inventory vs. Serialized Inventory
6.2 - Parts, Services, & General Inventories
6.3 - Vendor/Payees
6.4 - Part Categories
6.5 - Use PO's to Add Inventory
6.6 - Updating Inventory Counts
6.7 - Light Manufacturing
6.8 - Recipe/Builds
6.9 - Stock/Units (serialized inventory)
6.10 - Makes
6.11 - Models

7 - Sales (in depth)
7.1 - Shopping Cart
7.2 - Advanced Add To Cart
7.3 - My Cart Favorites & Smart Group Buttons
7.4 - Quotes
7.5 - Invoices
7.6 - Invoice Payments
7.7 - Transitional Invoices
7.8 - Reoccurring Invoices
7.9 - Discounts, Returns, Trades, & Refunds
7.10 - Statements
7.11 - Sales & Profit Reports
7.12 - Sales Tax Reports
7.13 - Merchant Processing (credit card payments)
7.14 - Transfer Invoices

8 - Deposits (monies coming in)
8.1 - Banks
8.2 - Deposits
8.3 - Deposit Types
8.4 - Deposits on Merchandise
8.5 - Depositing Invoice Payments
8.6 - Bank Transfers (deposit side)
8.7 - Special Deposits (balance sheet)

9 - Expenses (monies going out)
9.1 - Payables Homepage
9.2 - Expense/Receipts
9.3 - Expense Types
9.4 - Check Requests
9.5 - Reimbursements
9.6 - Splits or Payments On Account
9.7 - Pay Stubs (payroll and withholdings)
9.8 - Payroll Tax Liability
9.9 - Sales Tax Liability
9.10 - Special Payments - Credit Cards
9.11 - Bank Transfers (expense side)
9.12 - Special Expenses (balance sheet)
9.13 - Printing Checks
9.14 - Advanced Concepts & Usages

10 - Reports & Searching
10.1 - Report & Search Basics
10.2 - Adilas Quick Search
10.3 - Basic Application Type Searches
10.4 - Advanced Application Type Searches
10.5 - History Homepage
10.6 - Sales & Profit Reports
10.7 - P&L - Income Statement
10.8 - All Advanced Searches & Exports
10.9 - View Custom Code & Reports

11 - Financials & Accounting
11.1 - Bank Reconciliation
11.2 - P&L - Income Statement (logic and flow)
11.3 - Balance Sheet (logic and flow)
11.4 - User-Maintained Balance Sheet Items
11.5 - Adilas Theory on Accounting
11.6 - Roll Call Accounting Principles
11.7 - Old School Accounting vs. New School Accounting
11.8 - Vision for the Future

12 - Other Tools & Features
12.1 - Bridging Users Between Corporations
12.2 - Site Look & Feel (colors and logo)
12.3 - Corp-Wide Settings
12.4 - Training & Support
12.5 - Barcode & Label Generator
12.6 - Profit & Discount Calculator
12.7 - Finance Loan Calculator
12.8 - Financial Flow Calculator
12.9 - Global Parts Find & Replace
12.10 - Global Parts Mark-Up
12.11 - Global Stock/Unit Mark-Up
12.12 - Admin Time Clock
12.13 - Update Inventory Counts
12.14 - Managers Checkbook
12.15 - Wholesale - Cart Builder
12.16 - Cross-Corp Sales
12.17 - Custom Forms & Documents
12.18 - Custom Code & Reports
12.19 - Building Master Time Templates
12.20 - My Cart Favorite Buttons
12.21 - Smart Group Buttons (tiered pricing)
12.22 - Become an Adilas Rep

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spent most of the morning meeting doing tech support and helping Steve and Wayne merge in some new code. Wayne Andersen is taking some our older code and turning it in to more object oriented code and script. Steve and I were looking over things and drawing up analogies to help internalize some of the new changes. It is kind of the old school meets the new school on tactics and logic. We looked at code and tried to digitally diagram and talk about what was doing what and what options that brings to the table. Kinda interesting.

I got a call from the Utah Workforce Services and they had some 1099 questions about tax year 2017. I spent some time getting them info, PDF's, numbers, and contact info for our independent developers.

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

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

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

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