all data is live and searchable
[reset this page] .
[historical web outline - entries by month] .
[adilas community funded projects] .
[contact adilas.biz support - email form] .
[help]
|
Adilas.biz Developer's Notebook Report - All to All - (23)
|
||||||
|
Photos
|
Time Id | Color | Title/Caption | Start Date | Notes | |
|
AU 2166 |
|
Brainstorming Automating Sales Tax, Collected Fees & Other B.S. Items | 10/6/2010 |
Automating Sales Tax and Collected Fees & Other B.S. Items: Questions and concerns: 1. How do I name the output on the balance sheet? How do people want to see it? - Taxes? i. State, county, city, 5 dynamic, out of area, could be 0, 1, 2+ (or infinity) - Collected items? i. Could be 0, 1, 5+ (five is a random # but it could be infinity) 2. With only one location, the scenario above is workable. What would happen if you had 10, 20, 100+ locations? 3. Because it is so dynamic (0 to 100+ it seems to me that we need a 1-many on a per corp or per location level. Just an idea, we may want to start one by default that is only half setup so that is automatically tracks sales tax. On all of the drill-downs, put notes how to complete the process… 4. At one point we were talking about a hybrid balance sheet item…. How might this play in to the mix? I know that I need some sort of item to link up everything on taxes and collected items. What other pieces of the puzzle need help? 5. What if we made some modifications to all existing user-maintained balance sheet items and allowed for them to be hooked-up just like we need for taxed and collected. Hooked-up might mean… where or what are my incoming values, where or what are my outgoing values, and do I need any extra entries (general pointers, declarations, hybrid pieces, special bridges, pads, gaps, extensions, connections, hand holding, filling, extra entries, etc.)? This hook-up would not be required for the items to function. 6. So, what this could mean is that a user-maintained balance sheet item could be a standalone item (no watchers or no extra helpers) and it could functions “as is” right now. This is fully user-maintained and a manual process. However, if you add 1 or more watchers (and/or helper, feeders, participants, extra players) it could become some sort of hybrid. This might help with a known gap between B.S. expense types and B.S. deposit types. This could be cool because some B.S. items only need to watch one thing (an in or out). However an item could be setup to watch for ins, outs, and extra declarations or standalone entries. 7. As long as I’m brainstorming… what about a thing we wanted to call “special callouts” or “accrual callouts”. These are system-maintained items that need to be able to standalone. Say a special A/P for a certain vendor or a certain A/R for a specific customer that you do a lot of business with. These are basically handled just like the other A/R’s (invoice & payments) and other A/P’s (PO’s & payments or e/r’s & payments) but they are not lumped into the group as a whole. Basically, we set a watcher, as alias name, and a grouping for either a vendor or customer. The system runs all the logic and math but the end result is a standalone callout or hybrid system-maintained B.S. item. 8. This might also be a great time to set up a 1-many from vendor to expense type (defaults per vendor). 9. If we do allow hybrid user-maintained and hybrid system-maintained items, what would we call them or is “hybrid” a good word? Maybe two corp-wide settings? 10. A hybrid system-maintained item would be a special callout and would require a name, grouping, and either a vendor id or customer id. If a vendor was chosen, it might need checkboxes for e/r’s and po’s (or select both at the same time). 11. A hybrid user-maintained item would need a host (main) user-maintained balance sheet item. Which has the name, grouping, and math instructions. It also has options to hold subs. It then could have a B.S. deposit type watcher, a B.S. expense type watcher, multi B.S. deposit or expense type watchers (1-many if needed), standalone declarations, or known system feeds or feeders. 12. Just as an idea… a “standalone declaration” would be a generic non-specific item that could cross boundaries and be pointed to I.S. revenue, I.S. cost of goods sold, I.S. expenses, B.S. assets, B.S. liabilities, and B.S. equity. This could definitely get abused and has no backing. The name standalone declarations. On purpose, I may want to make it standout like a sore thumb so that it doesn’t get out of hand. There are reasons for it but it should be the exception not the rule. This is the item that can make the dreaded word “adjustments”. 13. A “system feed” is a certain section, part #, or known area of the system. The reason it would be called a system feed is because no manual entries are made but they are looked up (hence dynamic) from another known part of the system. A good example is sales tax, we know where it lives and should be recorded as a sum per day instead of individual details. The cool thing is one more drill-down and you could be at the detail level. Another good example is part # “collected”. It is assigned on an invoice line item and may need to be further categorized or filtered by description. 14. Histories on the standalone declarations will be very important. They will have their own homepage that can be accessed directly and from the P&L homepage and the balance sheet homepage. 15. After talking to Steve about this idea of standalone declarations, he thought that it might be a good idea to have a tool to link declarations together. For example: say that you are moving something from one account to another, you may want both actions to be linked together. This is not required but may be handy. 16. Before we go automating everything… what about documenting or mapping all system-maintained items out on paper. It might be good to take a small side step and map all of the know flow and what flags are needed to speed up the process. This could also help identify additional holes. 17. If we create a map, maybe we should go back to the underlying logic (where the add/edit and view takes place) and help the system keep track of known issues, dates, date ranges (windows), etc. It would be so nice to be able to search flags and dates instead of the main items, then the line items, and then the payments (sub loops and sub payments). Some of the flags that would help are: (not a full list) - Start, end, pre-main, pending, post or after main, paid, voided, match, complete, verified, posted, reconciled, transition period, etc. - Think of all the options for each piece. What are the possible states and status, both required (solid line) and optional (dotted line)? B.S. and I.S. flags? Basic and advanced? 18. With the mapping, watchers, and flags. The goal is to provide a quick look-up method for where are things at? What else is needed? And are there any potential problems? This mapping helps with the “known issues” report. It will help us present the findings back in reports and/or visual roll call reports. The goal way down the line would be to know where everything is and who is playing, moving, waiting, and in what area? Think overall vision…. - This becomes the full item roll call and where it has been, is, and where it is going… - Time becomes an issue that need to be shown and tracked. This is a constant and can be measured. Amounts and values are also constants. - These graphics don’t really mean anything it is just a concept - (See scan in photo gallery for graphics) 19. A 2D graphic might be awesome for general reference but a 3D graphic might be really cool to show 1-many relationships, subs, look-ups, etc. Just an idea… Think of a 3D model of the adilas database. Even cooler might be what and how are things playing together. Real time cause and effect. See the data relationships be built before your eyes… (interactive model) Okay, this is way out there… back to reality! 20. This is another random idea… Because we are defining all of the system players and how they interact, it would be cool to give them a face and characters (personality). This could be used to teach and educate users about what they do and how they play as tools, entities and as standalone characters. Some of the players may need more than one character to fully show what and how they interact. 21. If we could get it interactive enough, we could help show the users every step of the way what they are doing and how it fits in to the whole picture. Step-by-step – cause and effect, “visual”. 22. When showing graphics do we want to use static images, image maps with links, i-frames (windows), pop-ups, or interactive flash content? Maybe two different versions, one that is friendly to people and one that is friendly to search engines. 23. How do I keep it engaging yet logically simple? This might be a tight balance. Maybe show it very simple at first and allow the user to get more in-depth or technical as needed. Another strategy is to show it simple and then build layer upon layer until you get the full scope. This building idea takes more effort but might help the users see how things fit together better. 24. Just an idea… I’m worried about filling all the gaps and holes. What if we leave some gaps and holes and just show the users where things are at. The game of golf purposely has traps, water, sand, and rough terrain. What about the game of accounting and business? Is the goal to make it smooth or show where things are at? Once again, it might be a balancing act. 25. If I’m tracking something… How do I show something in the middle that has an uncertain start or unknown starting time and/or value? The reason I ask this is, quite often, we are asked to pick-up right in the middle and show a valid finish (numbers and accounting). It is kind of like a river… tons of water has already gone past (both flood and trickle) but I need to track a certain set of drops from point “E” to point “F”. In order to do that, I need some way to show current players and their status. In a way, I either need the supporting details or I need a starting value that plays forward… How do you do that? Does that affect anything down the road? Is there a limit going back? Does a starting value or false floor cause problems in the future? 26. How deep do we want to go? Surface level, a couple layers deep, or the full meal deal down to the dotting of “i’s” and crossing of “t’s”? How do we help people go to the level that they want and/or are comfortable with? How do you present on this level? How do you take yourself out of the mix so that there are no bottle necks and things run efficiently? 27. When a presentation is made (of any kind) how do you let people know it exists? How do you show it in context? How do you categorize the level of the info and presentation? How do you link backwards and forwards in a logical flow? How do you make it simple so that anybody could follow the path? 28. How do you help people get an education? You can’t force it… Do you want to show prerequisites or building blocks? What about requirements before and after? What about an indicator “you are here”? Lots of variables. 29. What is the timeline for a roll out like this? Or do we just start and slowly build as needed? Basically, don’t put any sort of time line on the project and just start it with the idea it will have future growth… 30. So, instead of worrying about timelines and deadlines… Do all that you can now because it will all be needed later on. Map it out, tell the story, and help people follow the path! 31. Make running a business and accounting fun… make is a puzzle… make it a game… make it as easy as possible without losing the need to pay attention or think… 32. As I was starting to map things out (visual flow chart), I thought that we may need a couple different maps… One might have all possible bridges or connections… another one might only show the current transaction and what pieces it plays with. Maybe we could even show a sample transaction and how it plays in. Maybe show the 10 or 20 most common transactions and what happens. 33. What about the element of time? This is a constant and part of the puzzle. A big part of the puzzle… 34. What about a hybrid graphic to help map actions. 2D – who are the players… plus a 2nd or 3rd 2D graphic as to the timeline and or physical relationships… Put them together to show the interactions. (Sketches in photo gallery, page 6) 35. How can I make the application map itself? Every possible roll call situation would need to be documented, scripted, and mapped. If the application could look at what happened (relative connections) it could display a real time map or visual flow chart. 36. If we are talking about smart object and/or transactions. We could also talk about smart reports, known issues, and full on automation of data flow. Along with automation… we will need to provide ways to back things out or correct known issues. Make the charges, record the history, and show a new flow chart or diagram. 37. Some modern software programs have a dashboard or graphical reports about key features. We could either use that feature or provide some sort of virtual drivers chair or cock-out (control seat) with all system controls and reports. 38. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could build virtual pieces or items (potentially 3D objects with relationships) and then drag and drop or physically put the pieces where they go? Basically, all of the tools we have created already would be used to put and build relationships (behind the scenes). The new piece would be on the user-side and would be a virtual environment where you can do your work and put things where you want them (interactive console or work environment)… This is sci-fi theory…! 39. On a different note, there is a known gap or hole if using special line items on incoming PO’s. Three possible solutions exist (right now)… One, we map the special line items to expenses or cost of goods straight from the PO’s and then pay for the entire PO through a B.S. inventory account. Two, we allow for some smart logic when paying for PO’s and help users split the specials off at that point. There are problems with both options as they exist right now. In scenario one, the full value must be deducted at once and it might seem weird to map backwards to the incoming special line items... (Not sure?) It might be better to use expense types). The second option also has a problem because it requires you to eat the whole cost at once and only shows up for roll call when you pay for it. This could be months between when you get it and when you pay for it. The third option is to satisfy the incoming PO with a series of PO payments assigned to the correct accounts. This gets the items booked right away. The catch is that you don’t pay the expense/receipt and turn the PO payable into a split payable (on account) for the vendor. The problem here is that you need to do double work and then have a split to pay off instead of a PO payable. 40. Once we get all of the mapping done. Why not use the map as a navigations tool (right from the homepage)? Show the history homepage report in a graphical manner. If people are stuck, show them what is needed, next, or possible options. Use the graphics to help lead them down the paths that will show them what is needed, or what we (the system) are waiting for. 41. Idea on making the map(s) dynamic. Allow corps to show/hide certain features like floorplan, stock/units, parts, rei’s, statements, rentals and reservations, etc. Maybe also allow them to move the pieces where they want. This could go even deeper if they have a rental fleet or layout of units. You could potentially stack, sort, categorize whatever it is that you have so that it matches your business. You could map your lot, your building layout, your warehouse, your restaurant, your clinic, your rooms, etc. 42. These are a couple of random ideas that I had in another notebook and have in another notebook and have a spiritual side to them. However, I still think they apply to adilas and where we are going… - Procedures (changeable) vs. Doctrine (unchangeable) - “Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves.” –Joseph Smith - Teach people to think. They will take care of the rest… - Help the people catch the vision… This will drive them… - There is no new silver bullet. We need to use the tools and programs that already exist… - Bring it together… Everybody is playing on the same team! - A solid base supports the whole! 43. People want to see simple grouped reports. I (adilas) have a tendency to show details and expansive reports with every possible options and value. They have great data but they may not be what people are looking for. If I could say just a couple of words “simplify”, “cut to the chase”, “simple grouped with drill-downs to the details (if needed). Just show me the groups, categories, and the number totals. 44. Are we building and spending our time where we (Brandon & Steve - adilas) want or where our clients want? What do our clients want? What have they said? What have they not said but hinted or eluded to? What are we missing? - “If we help enough of them get what they want, we will be able to get what we want.” – Rough quote from President Leo Price (2/8/09) 45. Most of the comments on this page and other pages have been leaning towards a global watcher type system. This is not meant to deflate that idea but what if the flags and watchers and spread throughout the entire application with the tables that already exist (go to the source). The reason for this comment is I’m thinking about upkeep and system resources. The beauty of adilas is the depth and direct link to the underlying details. Maybe think about each main item carrying its own details like baggage. If I put the flags and dates in the right place we can easily pull reports and jump to the correct players. 46. Accounting is not so much the numbers… It is who and what are playing over time. We are dealing with independent objects and how they grow, shrink, live, die, play with, help, support, tie, bind, interact, skip, connect, and other actions. Let each object live and track what it does and make it accountable for its actions… wow, that’s deep! Almost spiritual… 47. Remember the whole picture… This is not just about the accounting. We need to remember that time plays into the operations and daily actions as well. One of the constants is time… Inside of adilas there is the effectual or what shows up for roll call. There is also the historical or who touched what. Both deal with the element of time. What about the financial side? 48. What if we beefed up the flex grid tie-ins… we use them as watchers, feeders, etc. We could set-up dynamic drop-down fields (for any of the 10 flex fields). We could beef up the search options and reports. We could also allow for the roll call or reflexive side of the flex grid to be used. 49. There is a known issue if people/users are using adilas as a cash register. On the one hand, we are recording invoice payments coming in; on the other hand, they (meaning the users) might be taking cash out for expenses (like a petty cash draw). If they (the users) are not going to the deposit and bank level it might be okay but there are some cause and effects that didn’t get recorded. How can you simply help people who want to do that kind of transaction? Here are some options: - They need to record a negative invoice that doesn’t count towards revenue (special line item with a black hole assignment). They also need to record the negative out flow or payment. When they do their deposits, they deposit the negative payments right with the positive payments and it works out okay. - What if they were able to tie to “cash” expense/receipt payments from the amount to deposit? Basically, create some sort of secondary line item that back tied itself to an expense receipt. That would be the negative side of the equation. - What if you had some way to tell the story of where they money went? Allow and create tools to tell the story so that we can account for them, not double things up, and keep the loop tight. That is a challenge! 50. On the global watchers – what if you called it locations, layers, and level. A super mini version of this already exists inside of adilas. It is the location ages and floorplan history for stock/units. Basically, we are looking for who, what, when, where, how much, and how long… 51. Good consulting and education may be better and more important than good programming! 52. What if any object or sub object could be pointed into play or told how to show up for roll call. What if that could be flexible on a per item or sub item basis. Basically, set a standard and default to that. If special, have the tools and permissions in place to let things play where ever you want in the final game or layout. 53. To take this “any object to any place” methodology even further… what if this becomes the watcher or watcher(s). This could be 1-many on dates and status. The roll call then knows where to show up and how and when to play in to the mix. Basically, a default roll call is either assigned or presumed. (Keep the footprint small or inline). Then if needed, only on special cases, allow for the 1-many to happen as “any object to any place”. At that level you’re playing with where and how things show up to play. Full control and full flexibility. Maybe only add a “custom mapping or roll call” if needed… otherwise let it flow naturally. 54. The system would need to track exactly what was happening and be able to show effectually and historically what was, is, and will be where and at what timeframe or in what window. Funny how it comes back to time… 55. Maybe time is the stable element and we organize events and objects inside of the time windows. 56. Space??? Time??? Time space??? That could make a pretty good 3D model. You could even push, pull, move, slide, and shuffle objects to create a sense of virtual time travel (past, present, future) with in the application. Only recorded data would be able to play. You can’t pull something out of nothing. Without getting too deep… the element of space is how you organize items and objects into logical pieces. Catch and hold all of the pieces and then be able to show them back again. This becomes the accounting or story of what happens in your space. 57. Old school accounts want to see the entries that were made. What if you show the database entries that were made and show them how to map back to it? This could be a nice presentation with graphics or just a pen and paper and physically showing where things go and how you can look them back up. Draw out tables, containers, etc. Show them on paper where things are at. Simplify some of the look-ups and keep it to a minimum (don’t be so detailed that it makes it hard to follow). Simple. 58. To make the above simple demonstration even more powerful. Once the entire transaction is mapped out on paper… take them in to adilas and show the same transactions using the system. Compare the map with how the system works. Maybe allow them to choose what they want to see. A decision or linked tutorial. 59. For the record, there are some other known holes and issues: (balance sheet related) - Credits (vendor and customer), payroll settings for all states, payroll reports, accrued payroll, year-end reports and forms, sales tax reports and forms, build and hold recipes, build and build recipes, conversion of a stock/unit into parts inventory, hard core manufacturing, process vs. discrete accounting, depreciation and amortization schedules, schedules and rentals, other items discussed in this brainstorming session (see previous notes and questions). - Some of these already have a work around but they could use either some help and/or documentation/training. 60. Jumping back to 58. It would be really cool if a tutorial had subs. The user could either view the entire thing, just a sub step or chapter, or be able to jump to what they want. Maybe have an outline for each tutorial, sequence, or presentation. If the user is in a hurry, allow them to look at the outline and jump to that section. On a technical note. That may require the player to have an active playing piece and a next up piece that is being downloaded. If the user jumps around, the player would need to shuffle the pieces. Just an idea… but maybe that map or outline could be its own clip or movie that could stay loaded until the user is done with that clip or section. It would also be cook if the player could be smart enough to show related topics and additional clips. 61. In the theory clips… show web basics, how 1-many works in a database, client/server relationships, dynamic searches and filters, history and approach, what are the technologies that are playing and what each does, show how relationships are created, how things interconnect, and what things standalone. In a way, pretend that you were teaching someone new how to build a web based relational database application. I know it sounds like you are giving away the farm but I really feel strongly about helping other people learn and understand what is going on. Think about Steve and I and how we communicated, because we can talk at that “full picture” level, we can keep dreaming and taking the next step. Conditional logic, new settings, 1-many relationships, short cuts, links, loops, where things are currently, where we would like to take it histories and how we can get there. 62. I want to make sure that adilasuniversity.biz is free and open to the public. We may be able to charge for other things like system fees, training, setup, migration, optimization, merchant processing, classes, demo accounts, retail store, upgrades to different service levels, marketing and ads (sponsors), white labeling, etc. Train the upcoming generation! Help them to learn adilas so that is what they want to work in… 63. Once we get everything working, it would be awesome to go back through and hide all irrelevant items or choices. For example hide the bank if only one bank, hide the location if only one location, hide stock # stuff if no stock/unit assignments are made. Clean it up and simplify it. The process is the same; the only difference is hiding steps and making it more user friendly and faster. 64. Going back to the timeline idea… wouldn’t it be cool if you could see your revenue, COGS, gross profit, expenses, and net profit values every day. It would also be cool if your application could show a thumbs up or down (or smile or frown) for in balance yes/no. It would also be cool to show known issues and potential problems. This could almost be called a smart balance or something fun… This would be cool to add to a dashboard of sorts… 65. Add a crumb trail to the application. This would also be cool if you could visually show someone on a map where you are at. You want to know where you are at and where you are going… It would be cool if you could jump or switch places really quickly. Easy… yet flexible menus and jump spots. 66. On a jog with my dad and was thinking about using smaller flash movies inside of a bigger player. If you left the flash environment it would be cool if you could jump back right to where you were. Maybe pass a small string value to an outside request so that it would know to get back. It might also be cool to have certain major functions built in to the main player (adilas dewy decimal, permissions, etc.) and then smaller functions within the smaller flash movies that deal with just their functions. 67. How do you get depth? 1-many relationships, time, volume, layers, chaining, combining processes, pulling from a central location, multiplying, magnifying, compressing, breaking things down into smaller pieces, use over and over, only pull what is really needed, efficient layout and design. Group things, anticipate, lead from step to step, preload, copy, duplicate, and use a template system. Allow the system to grow and be dynamic depending on the user, what they are playing with, and how many are playing with the same items or processes. 68. A pencil works in space. A ball point pen does not. Keep it simple. 69. How about a visual permission map. Just another layer or mapping. |
|
|
AU 2167 |
|
Brainstorming Who are the adilas players & how do they interact? | 10/7/2010 |
Who are the players and how do they interact? No specific order… Corporation: - Scope: One of the biggest entities. The only bigger is a user or employee (this is because they can have more than one corp). - Operations: they are the box, bowl, or sandbox for all activities - Accounting: this is the end goal… where are we and how are we doing? o Corp start date o Inventory types o Number of decimals o Special line items o P&L physical year o Ice-down date - Buddies: tied to everything User/Employee: - Scope: the biggest entity yet the smallest and does all of the smaller transactions. This might be like a hallway around the different rooms. - Operations: they use the system on a daily basis, more than one may be required for certain tasks - Accounting: all entry is started on a base level. It is then passed on to the next station, state, or status. o Year-end W-2 and 1099 o Payroll o Expenses o Reimbursements - Buddies: tied to everything, they do the work… Flex grid tie-ins: - Scope: second under a corporation. They can tie together any sub piece in a 1-many relationship. This is a second level or virtual air level that flows over the main corp. This level does not compete with underlying data. It helps tie thing together. - Operations: this helps tell the story and creates links and relations, user-maintained - Accounting: no direct accounting ties but has or may contain supporting details - Buddies: could be anybody – built by the users and not required, very flexible Locations: - Scope: this is a sub of a corporation. On the simplest level the corp and the loc are generally the same thing. If more locations are needed, this is like adding additions, sub sets, and wings to a building. This could also be shown by different floors or levels. - Operations: this gets ties to almost every transaction inside the system. If only one location, it is somewhat redundant and un-needed. However, as soon as there is more than one, this helps separate and tell the story. Certain locations have certain jobs and functions. - Accounting: used everywhere. This is like thread holding everything together. o Start date o End date (not yet) o Status o Petty cash o Tax settings - Buddies: Tied to: o Deposits o Invoices o Quotes o PO’s o Expense/receipts o Balance sheet items o Stock units o Taxes o Floorplan o Income statement (P&L) o Balance sheet o Time o Flex grid Banks: - Scope: outside entity where money is stored, at least one is required. No limit (infinite) as to how many may play into the mix. - Operations: get money and make deposits, need money, write checks and pay for things - Accounting: the bank is one of the first entity on the balance sheet o Starting balance o Starting date o Ending date (not yet) o Status o Book dates (deposit and expense dates) o Verified dates o Reconciled dates o Posted dates - Buddies: o Deposits and expense/receipt payments o Balance sheet o P&L income statement Income Statement or P&L (Profit and Loss Statement) – Report - Scope: This is not a physical entity and is a report. It gathers up revenue or income, costs of goods sold, and business expenses. This is one of the primary financial documents. This report has a dynamic relationship with many different parts of the application. - Operations: All of the reports (giving of data) to the income statement that are done as tools are used throughout the system. This report is somewhat like the pulse or heart beat for the corporation. The income statement looks at a date range for one or more location. This report is flexible and may be altered to find or look-up specific trends or totals. - Accounting: This is the first stop for most day to day transactions. Certain pieces live and die here on the income statement. Eventually, the net profit is passed on the balance sheet report as net profit in the equity portion of the balance sheet. This report (P&L) runs a series of complicated math formulas according to what it finds from the system. By saying complicated, this doesn’t mean hard, it means in depth filtering and searching. - Buddies: Different parts of the P&L: o Revenue: • Invoice line items grouped by inventory type (default) item sale prices • Normal deposit line items that are not already tied to invoices above • Other revenue or non-sales revenue from deposits • Revenue adjustments like trade-ins, bad debt, and credit card fees o COGS: • Costs of invoice line items grouped by inventory types (default) • Certain special line items with a COGS setting (corp-wide setting) • Special expense type category assigned to COGS. Expense/receipt line items. o Gross Profit: • Revenue (plus or minus any adjustments) minus COGS o Expenses: • Expense/receipt line items and the associated expense types o Net Profit: • Gross profit minus • Expenses Balance Sheet (report): - Scope: This is not a physical entity and is a report. It is a snapshot in time and shows if everything is accounted for. The word balance comes from a mathematical equation. Assets = Liabilities and Equity. This is the catch all report for your corporation. - Operations: Most users are affecting the balance sheet everyday they make and run transactions. This could be adding and subtracting inventory, selling and stocking things in, buying and paying for things, and even working for the corporation. Most users don’t see their actions as balance sheet transactions but they are. There is a cause and effect relationship with every transaction in the system. One of the biggest pieces of the adilas system is the fact that users are doing their day to day jobs and slowly feeding the balance sheet without even knowing that they are playing a key role. Enter once and let it flow if it is correct. - Accounting: Most users think of the balance sheet as the accounting side of the business. Actually, the balance sheet is just a report of where the transactions are and what is still needed to fully show what is, has, or will happen. It is a snapshot in time of where things are at. The accountant or accounting persons use this report to check and make sure things are categorized correctly and properly recorded. o Grouping o Name o In date o Declared value o Starting date o Starting amount o Ending date (not yet) o Status o Mathematical function to use: • Assigned value • Difference • Running total o Line items or subs - Buddies: connected to almost every other entity and all of their subs or different levels. This is the report that shows “Where am I?” and “Have I been recorded and counted?” Tied to: o Corps o Users o Locations o Bank o Income statement (net profit) – (other report) o User-maintained B.S. items o System-maintained B.S. items – (virtual container) o Vendors o Customers o Stock/units o General inventory (parts) o Special line items (unlimited parts) o PO’s o Expense/Receipts o Invoices o Deposits o Accounts receivables (a/r’s) – byproducts of payments made and still owed o Accounts payables (a/p’s) – byproducts of payments made and still owed o Payroll and time cards o Accrual accounts or accrued monies that are collected and passed on or are due to the corporation o Floorplans o Check requests o Taxes and collected fees User-maintained balance sheet items: - Scope: These entities only exist on the balance sheet. They are used as place holders for things that need additional information or are not automatically recorded by normal system usage. They can be set up with names, numbers, grouping, descriptions, mathematical functions, sub entries and/or transactions. They are capable of being placed on either of the three balance sheet categories (assets, liabilities, or equity). Often these items have a special or less frequent time associated with them. This could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or at random (as needed) intervals. - Operations: These are special holding spots for special actions that are taken. These items are not changed behind the scenes and require a physical action or transaction to take place. Thus the name user-maintained balance sheet items. Quite often these items have admin permissions and deal with potentially longer time periods (as compared with normal day to day activities). - Accounting: The accounting side of these items is the manual portion of the cause and effect relationship. Currently this other half of the cause and effect relationship is not fully automated. However, where we are taking it will help automate the other side of the equation. Our proposal will include e/r and deposit type watchers, system feeds, and possible standalone declarations of values and times. Currently there is a known disconnect between the cause and effect relationship. - Buddies: Most common buddies include deposits and expense/receipts. However, they may also hold hands with invoices, PO’s, other user-maintained balance sheet items, and standalone entries or declarations. Specific, yet flexible in nature. Vendor/Payees: - Scope: These could be internal or external entities. Vendor/payees are the "who" do we owe or who did we buy from? They could be individuals and/or businesses. They mostly deal with either getting inventory from them or paying them money. - Operations: All PO’s and expense/receipts must have at least one vendor. Specific stock numbers and general inventory items (parts) also have a vendor of sorts. The vendor/payee is somewhat behind the scenes but still plays an active role in looking things up in the system. Vendor/payees create associations (relationships) with other parts of the puzzle. - Accounting: One of the main functions of a vendor/payee is who do we owe for what? It is really important if payment is not made in full at the time the transaction happens. If the payment doesn’t match the total due a byproduct is created and tracked. This is called an accounts payable or A/P’s. Vendors/payees are used on checks and other forms of payment. The payment byproduct is tracked on the balance sheet as a liability (we owe someone for a product or a service). Vendors/payees are also useful when checking histories and seeing how much money went to them over time. - Buddies: Tied to: o PO’s o Parts o Invoice –tied but not shown o Quotes – tied but not shown o Expense/receipts o Check request o Payroll and time cards o Stock/units (loose tie) o Account payable (a/p’s) o Reimbursements o Recipe/builds (ingredients) o Floorplan o Time o Flex grid Customers: The word “customer” is editable inside of the system to whatever you may need. (Corp-wide setting) - Scope: These could be internal and external. Usually this is the party (individual and/or business) that receives a product and/or service. Most customers reside on the sales and quoting side of the equation. There are some exceptions to this rule and they come in to effect when they (customers) become a vendor/payee and we pay them money. Unlike a PO and expense/receipt that requires a vendor/payee, certain invoices and quotes do not require a specific customer. These are called cash tickets or counter sales. Basically, the transaction happens and is of a fast or temporary nature. This allows the products to flow out without associating who purchased or got the products and/or services. This kind of a transaction assumes full payment at the time of the transaction. - Operations: These are used on invoices, quotes, and shopping carts. They, like vendor/payees are somewhat behind the scenes but play an active role in transferring ownership of a product and/or service. Customers create an association of what was give and/or purchased. Customers are very important if the entire transaction is pending or incomplete at the time it takes place. This allows the users to look up the customer and finish the transaction at a future time. There is also an entire section that allows a user to record contacts and log entries about the relationship and how it is developing. This log portion has nothing to do with using customers as part of accounting. It is there to help tell the story. - Accounting: Accounting uses the customer to track how much has been paid and how much (if any) is still owed for the product and/or service. If the payments received do not match the amount owed, a byproduct is created and tracked. This byproduct is called accounts receivable or A/R’s. If an overpayment is created. The byproduct becomes a credit or amount owed back to the customer. - Buddies: o Shopping carts (creating a quote or a sale) o Quotes – are just declarations of projected costs and prices for a particular product and/or service. These quotes do not affect inventory and are non-committal back to the customer. o Invoices and transitional invoices. These are committal back to the customer. o Statements – are just reports to show activity on accounts and money both paid and still outstanding. Basically dead end snapshots in time to help with getting funds due. o User-maintained customer logs. These are notes about the customer relationship and may include follow-up actions and date. o Time and elements of time o Time-based billing Stock/Units – Serialized inventory items: - Scope: These are your bigger ticket items and are usually inventory items that are tracked by themselves (on a one by one basis). These are generally serialized inventory items and may have a need to carry additional baggage (outside repairs, internal tickets, adjustments, shopping and miscellaneous, etc.) Some of these items carry a thing called phantom cost such as pac, interest, slush fund monies, system fees, etc. There is a perceived a value and an actual physical value. These are inventory items. The little brother of the stock/unit is the parts and general inventory section. These are grouped or smaller (mass quantity) items. - Operations: The operations side will stock these items in, fix and update descriptions and details, apply additional parts and pieces to the units, and eventually show and try to sell the items. Salespersons consider these items as their inventory. - Accounting: As an item is entered, it automatically creates a payable (who do I owe for this?). As the users assign outside repairs and internal tickets (grabbing parts and labor and applying it to the unit) to the stock/unit, its value will increase accordingly. Once it is sold, it allows pieces of its baggage to flow over to the income statement and balance sheet. A sale will lower inventory levels, give revenue and cost of goods sold, it may also include other pieces like sales tax, special collected fees, assigned processing fees, trade-in (new inventory and revenue adjustments), and possible Lien payoffs on trades. These are only some of the values that flow over to the P&L and balance sheet. Fairly in depth inventory items. - Buddies: Tied to: o Vendors o Inventory (current and sold) o Accounts payable o Locations o Income statement (P&L) once sold o Balance sheet as inventory, payables, taxes, and collected fees o Possible floorplan actions o Expense/receipts either as payment for units or as outside repairs o Customers once sold o Parts and general inventory if added as an internal ticket o Quotes o Invoices o Deposit line items – coming from invoices o Taxes o Collected fees o Fees o Trade-ins & Lien payoffs o Payroll commissions Parts & general inventory: (The words “part” & “part number” are editable inside the system to whatever you may need. - Scope: Theses are physical and/or virtual containers, parts, items, products, services, etc. A “part” is anything that is tracked as a group and/or may be bought or sold. Parts are vendors specific (even if using a generic item) and are used on PO’s, quotes, and invoices. Depending on your corporation, a part number may be a physical quantifiable (countable) item that is on a shelf or in a box. Other corporations sell services or intangible objects. Both are considered “parts’. This is what we call your general inventory. The big brother to the parts department is called the stock number section or stock/units. These are bigger ticket items or serialized units. - Operations: Parts are created by bringing them in on a PO (purchase order). Once they are created, they can be searched, looked-up, referenced, re-used, counted, quoted, and sold. This process is usually somewhat cyclical and depends on the business. In general, the PO holds the quantity and cost coming in and the invoice holds the quantity, cost, and price going out. When you add up the ins and outs, you get an inventory count. If the item is setup as a service or virtual container, the quantity is set to unlimited and you are able to sell without ever replacing (PO actions). Each part number can have barcodes, descriptions, costs, and prices. Without getting to technical, the actual part number is just a container and space holder that can be used to get (PO) items or sell (invoice) items. The PO’s and invoices do the work. The part number is just the reference or piece that allows the flow to happen. - Accounting: As items are brought in through PO line items two things happen. One, inventory is created (assuming a positive in quantity). Two, a payable is created (how are you going to pay for these items?) As items are sold a number of other effects show up. One, the inventory count goes down (assuming a positive out quantity – this is normal). Two, we now have revenue (sales price or extended price) that goes to the income statement or P&L. Three, we also have the cost or extended cost of the items. This is sent to the COGS (cost of goods sold) section of the P&L. Four, we now have potential taxes that have been collected. To recap, items coming in create inventory and payables. Items going out create inventory deductions, revenue, c=COGS, and taxes that are collected. - Buddies: Tied to: o Vendors o PO line items o Inventory (in & out) o Quote line items o Invoice line items o Taxes o Recipes/build ingredients o Locations (inventory) o Income statement P&L o Balance sheet o Sales and profit reports o Payroll commissions Special line items: (Unlimited hard-coded special part number or items) - Scope: The term “Special Line Items” is used to describe hardcoded part numbers that are automatically added and controlled by the system. Each one has an unlimited quantity and is un-editable to system users. The adilas application has special code and functions for these items. There are some advanced settings inside the corp-wide settings page to control hide/show values, tax categories, payroll, and financial roll call properties. These special line items are the 3rd inventory type allowed on PO’s, quotes, and invoices. The other two types are stock/units (serialized units) and parts and general inventory. Some of the special line items are: Collected, Dealer Handling, Fee, Discount, Freight, Labor, Lien Payoff, Other, Rental, Shipping, Shop Supplies, Sublet, Supplies, Trade-In, Unit, Verbage/Info, and Warranty. F & I. - Operations: In general, theses special line items may be used on any page or section that allows a part number to be used. This includes PO line items, recipe/build ingredients, shopping cart line items, quote line items, and invoice line items. Using special line items can save time and allows special pre-built system functionality to take place. Each corporation is different and has specific tasks and goals for their system usage. Because each special line item is so different, maybe a special section to explain each item what it can and should do. Also, what special code is included if used as stated. This might be more effective than examples or general statements. (See farther on for some of the details…) - Accounting: In general, these special line items have a $0 cost (may be changed if needed on a one-by-one basis.) They can however hold a quantity, price or revenue value. The system treats special line items on a different level. Special line items may be taxed or non-taxed items. Special line items may be included or excluded in payroll commissions and reports. Certain special line items have a closed or limited scope and only properly track through the system if used as states. For instance certain special line items never hit the P&L and only play on the balance sheet. Another use for special line items is purposely use them to get a job done (on the operations side) and creating somewhat of a flag or disconnect (known problem or issue) that will require additional help or action later. Please see the special usage for each line items for more details. - Buddies: Tied to: o Internal system vendors o PO line items o Not eve tied to inventory (by default) o Quote line items o Invoice line items o Taxes o Collected fees o Other fees o Recipe/build ingredients o Income statement – P&L o Balance sheet o Sales and profit reports o Payroll commissions - Note: May need to add “Gift Certificate” to the list. - Also: It might be nice to go deeper and explain special code for each special line item. This might help with the overall picture of what is happening and what is going on behind the scenes? Small subset to talk about specific roles of the “Special Line Items: or hard coded system parts: - Item Name: Details & Information (format) - Collected: o The “Collected” part number is designed for use with monies, fees, or special taxes that are collected by the corporation for some other entity. Basically, you collect it and then pass it on to some other government entity or business. They may or may not give you any compensation for collecting the stated values. The “Collected” special line item will not show up on the income statement, it has no payroll settings, and may be taxed if needed. You can also hide/show the value through the corp-wide settings, if your corporation doesn’t use it. This part number is one of four special parts that can be prebuilt and defined to go on any stock/unit sale. See the add/edit location page for details. If you would like help showing this item on the balance sheet as a feeder, click here for information and examples (link to another page with info). - Dealer Handling Fee: o The “Dealer Handling Fee” par number is designed for use is selling stock/units. This special line item is one of the four special items that may be pre-built and defined for the stock/unit sales process. See the add/edit location page for details. Other corp-wide settings include: show/hide, tax settings, payroll settings, and roll call handling. The default roll call is to the revenue portion of the income statement. - Discount: o The “Discount: part number is primarily used on invoices and quotes. Most often the value is negative indicting a reduction in price or value. There are a number of pre-built pages that allow quick discounts to be calculated and applied from the shopping cart mode. Calculations include dollars off or by a calculated percentage. Discounts are not part of payroll and have a roll call of revenue. You are allowed to hide/show and change the tax category in the corp-wide settings. - Fee: o The “Fee” part number may be used for any fee that is applied to invoices and quotes. Fees are usually associated with revenue. If you are collecting a fee for another entity or government agency. We recommend that you use the special part number “Collected” instead of “Fee”. Use the “Fee” part number for things you get to keep. This part number is also one of the four special parts that may be pre-built and defined for stock/unit sales. See the add/edit location page for more details. All of the corp-wide settings are available for this part number (show/hide, tax category, payroll, and roll call handling). - Freight: o The “Freight” part number may be used on incoming PO’s and outgoing quotes and invoices. No special code is in place for this special line item. All of the corp-wide settings are available for this part number (show/hide, tax category, payroll, and roll-call handling.) Note: If used on incoming PO as a special line item, we recommend that you break it out into a separate line item when paying for the PO... - Labor: o The “Labor” part number is a great generic place holder for any type of labor. Even though there is no hard coded special code for labor, the system does treat this part number as special. There are a number of special reports that just deal with this special line item. By default it has its own payroll setting. There is also an option for paying a special labor commission if needed. See the department to user pages for details. Labor is generally not taxed, but may be taxed if needed. All other corp-wide settings apply (show/hide, tax category, payroll, and roll call handling). - Post-it Notes: Potential problem on the sales tax report page dealing with what part #’s to include and exclude in the parts section. This deals with special line items like “Other” and “Discount”, etc. Currently a “Lien Payoff” does not create a new payable automatically. - Lien Payoff: o The “Lien Payoff” part number is usually a subset of the “Trade-In” special line item. If lien is when monies are owed on a unit or item and this amount must be paid off in order to get a clear title or right to resale the item. Adilas allows a lien payoff to be shown and recorded on a stock/unit sale but technically a lien is a type of payable. Currently, the part number does not automatically create a new payable. This function is a user-maintained function. The part number “Lien Payoff” will not show up on the P&L and has no payroll settings. It can be shown or hidden and set to any tax category from the corp-wide settings. - Other: o Part number “Other”! You may actually hear or end up using this exact phrase. Part number other is one of the most flexible special line items or part numbers. It is considered by some as a blessing and a curse depending on how you use it. On the positive side, you can use it as a place holder for anything in the system. It allows you to quote products and services that you don’t have and sell and you can virtually sell anything that you run across using this part number. It is a great tool for sales or people who deal with customer and clients because it helps you get your quotes and invoices out the door very quickly (even if there are some unknowns or questions). On the other side of the fence, however (cause & effect), you are dumping transactions into a must fix later or more research is required to make it right container. One of the biggest problems is that no cost of goods sold is recorded. This is a key part of gross profit on the P&L and eventually flows clear to the balance sheet. Another possible problem is that if you sell something using part number “Other” the real item may stay in your inventory count, causing overstating of your inventory counts and values, which can also affect the balance sheet. You basically just doubled the problems by trying to be fast or just being lazy. Once again, part number “Other” is both a blessing and a curse. Use it is you need too but just be aware that you might be creating more work for somebody else. This part number, by default has a P&L roll call handling of “Unassigned (black hole)”. This doesn’t mean that it disappears, but it does mean that it gets put into a special container that has an unwritten name of “help me fix this transaction.” If the price is set to $0, the roll call of black hole is great and won’t cause any problems. Once you start assigning monies or values to this part number you may want to consider a roll call handling of revenue instead of black hole. Part number “Other” is not taxed by default but may be taxed if needed. All of the corp-wide settings may be applied to this special line item (show/hide, tax, category, payroll settings, and roll call handling). - Rental: - Post-it Note: Special line items that can be pre-set for stock/unit sales: Dealer Handling Fee, Shipping, Collected, Fee/ Trade-In & Lien Payoff from quote to cart |
|
|
AU 2181 |
|
Brainstorming - Ideas & Concepts for the adilas.biz "Any" Scheduler (Elements of Time) | 2/1/2011 |
1 February 2011 Ideas & Concepts for the adilas.biz “any” scheduler - This section began 2/1/11 & concluded 3/4/11 1. Tie to payroll. Add options for commission gross sales profit. 2. Remember that one of the original ideas in adilas was a series of containers or “Pringle's cans”. Stuff things where they need to go and move things around as needed. 3. The heart is – “Objects and data over time.” 4. We are trying to record and document the “story”. Tell the story: who, what, when, where, how much, how long, why, etc. 5. Map to check points and status as they happen (past, present, and future). 6. Be your own style! And let the users be their own style. 7. Scheduler for personal. 8. Scheduler for customer time cards – tie to invoices and show payment status. 9. Go onsite and ask about schedulers. • Dental, doctor/medical, rentals, car maintenance, manufacturing, classes and courses, golf tee times, hotel/motel, guide services, trips, cleaning companies, services like heating and plumbing, buy here – pay here, CPA/lawyer’s appointments, customer/client billing of time, reservations, salons/beauty, therapy, lessons, events, competitions, mobile persons, vacation time shares, membership, licenses, pre-paid services, etc. 10. What do you call it? 11. How many different pieces does it have? 12. How can you keep it flexible yet simple? 13. I want it to be a time-based scheduler on a flex grid tie-in level. This means all main players can play with built-in functionality. 14. Time… why not call it “Time” or “Element of time” and then let users define if they want customer time cards, rentals, to do lists, mini blogs, appointments, etc. 15. Include anything that could have a timeline on it. 16. Other thing to think about – rentals and buying down units, share and coordinating schedules, unassigned task or job pools, allow others to assign or move to their pile or task-list. 17. Add visible and basic/admin status. See the flex grid tie-ins for more info. This could also be a privacy or mark as private settings. Who else gets to see it? 18. When creating time based element – what about having a point and click interface with show/hide options during the creation process? Options, actions, types, etc. 19. What happens if I pre-define certain types of time elements and allow users to copy/paste and tweak the pre-sets? 20. Maybe I could add options for corp-wide settings and individual settings. 21. This may not be related but what about project management, goals, ideas, tick lists, wish lists, cataloging (events, agendas, video clips, etc.), or documenting ideas and plans. 22. Maybe review the MDI idea center. 23. Blogs, forums, threads, sign offs, comments, sharing and collaboration. 24. Show on web – build a pre-built page to show. This could be a blog, mini blog, update page, or a sales or specials page. 25. Along with show/hide on the web – maybe a show until date. 26. What about a newsletter? Think about an art company’s website I worked with. They also have meetings, shows, and special events. 27. What about an HTML editor of sorts – maybe photos, links, line breaks, tables, div tags (css), lists, horizontal rules, etc. This may have to come later on. 28. Keep it super simple – select time and objects and then click go. 29. Allow the time line to be printed in different formats and outputs. 30. Think about using spreadsheets as a layout form for the scheduling. 31. Some of the users will be doing scheduling either on a phone of mobile device or viewing a schedule from a phone or mobile device. 32. Think about water in a ditch – it always flows in the path of least resistance. Help to channel people and their use of the system so that if flows and is very simple. 33. Allow time elements to be tied together. This could be a single event, a series, a brother/sister or parent/child relationship. Help tell the story! Cause and effect, planned and un-planned, hay and sad, etc. 34. I am not limited to a Flash only interface. I can mix whatever technologies I need to and piggy back on existing technologies. I could use ColdFusion, database stuff, HTML, tables, div tags, css, Java Script, graphics, charts, MS Excel spreadsheets, PDF, etc. 35. Drag and drop is wanted but not required. This may come later as an upgrade or add on. 36. Design it first on paper, create static screen shots, then build the dynamic interface and add the needed interactivity. 37. Hide/show additional details when printing and viewing. This could be page settings, Java Script pop-ups, spreadsheet comments, or Flash status bar rollovers. 38. Random note about Flash – I may need to upgrade to the latest version. I could also stay with my current version for this first round. 39. We need a light package that allows for invoicing, quoting, using a recipe/build for presets, my cart favorites, groups, advanced grids, etc. We need to be able to attach deposits and invoice payments. These items need to flow right in to the normal back end adilas functions. We may need some new flags to help track states and status. I want it to go clear to the balance sheet (only if needed). 40. On the customer time clocks – allow items to be shown as invoiced/not invoiced or no charge. Allow for time sheets to show/hide on invoice. They could be individual and/or summed up. This might tie in to the visibility settings. 41. I want to allow it (time and elements) to be fully connected but they don’t interfere with normal traffic. Maybe another full application on top of the main application. Time goes in both “known” directions. Think 3rd dimension. Multiple pieces may share the same time space but each may have a different life or life cycle. 42. Time needs to be the one (1) and whatever plays in to that space is the many. 43. Allow multiple bookings in a single slot of time. Also don’t force ends to match-up perfectly. Let it flow like water… fully user-maintained… If needed show some extra flags for potential problems, double, triple, quadruple, booking, overlaps, gaps, disconnects, and waiting lists. 44. Allow the users to put and place what they want into the time-based model. 45. Allow users to go back in time (if needed). Basically, time as it is forecasted (future-somewhat unknown), time as it happens (user may be too busy to change something), and time in the past (what did happen or what was perceived). 46. The key to time is let it flow and date/time stamp and the actual history behind the scenes. This will become the audit trail if needed. 47. Like a virtual to do list – If an item gets done, let it stay. If not, allow it to be pushed forward. 48. If I’m using a quote to hold items or reservations – I may end up with multiple quotes (or invoices). It may be cool if you could stack, chain, or combine quotes and invoices. 49. It might be nice if the scheduler had its own photo gallery. It might also be nice if it had access to the reflexive photo galleries (what is it tied to). The main photo galleries are tied to the main objects. The photo gallery for the scheduler will be more of a one-time deal. 50. What if you could search, filter, and print out different Excel spreadsheets dynamically. 51. Think of the Flash timeline – This is a 2-D, layered timeline with actions, labels, spans, fills, blanks, and color-coded items. 52. What if we took that one step further and added a 3-D or cubic level to the time line. Think about the bricks in a building – Each brick represents a block of time; however, as you look closer at the individual bricks you can start seeing the details that make it up. A brick wall can be the entire wall, just a row, just a column, just a small block of bricks (cluster), or clear down to the details of each and every brick. 53. Most timelines are flat and straight. This is random, but what about a cycle, round, cubic, or infinity timeline model. Just a thought. 54. The scheduler might be a series of 1-many relationships. Each time element could have any number of subs. This could be good for details, follow-up, GPS stuff, tie-ins to other pieces, etc. It may need to go to a 3-deep level. Or more… (See #103 for ideas on subs and snap-ons.) 55. Have each corp start over with an id of one (1) and then increment from there. 56. My dad had the idea of the “any” scheduler – (12/4/10) • All dynamic: - Anything – different application types, general, generic, and build your own - Any place – locations and sub locations (maybe even open or custom) - Any # of events - Any length (time) - Any # of participants - Any price or cost 57. The whole thing is a “system”. That becomes a key word. A full system allows you to do things that others can’t do. 58. I want multiple entry points. Use the quick search, use the time element homepage, and be able to add from any unit (just like the flex grid). 59. I think we need to add a new main application type to the flex grid tie-ins. It will be “Element of Time”. Maybe a future one might also be “Standalone Declaration”. This may come later. Maybe even use quote as a future option. 60. Why do you do it? Because it needs to be done! Ask the question – what would I do? This helps developer the why – the why takes time to figure out and develop. 61. Function vs. Fashion – this is an attitude. There is always a choice. Once it works – you can make it look pretty. 62. Add a one to many from locations to sub locations. This could be rooms, offices, conference rooms, cabins, king beds, queen beds, party room, mini mall, warehouse, etc. (Storage units) 63. Allow a single customer to sign-up for multiple items, packages, classes, and time frames. This could eve cross locations. 64. Allow customer to split and share tickets. This could be as simple as multi payments on the same ticket or actually splitting a ticket. Maybe a restore to cart and then some edits. The trick here is being able to keep things tied together, fast and easy, and making sure that the original gets used, cleaned-up, or voided out. 65. Potential problem – Currently invoice and quotes are location specific. We may need to look at this and allow corps to mix and match locations and sub locations on invoices and quotes. 66. Be able to register for classes, courses, trips, events, etc. 67. Employee time scheduling and shift planning. 68. Be able to handle dispatching and service calls. I also have a need to be able to tie-in GPS as part of this. This may be a sub of the time elements. 69. “Apply” what you learn! Do this along the way. Don’t wait to the end. The more you apply it – the more it becomes a part of you. 70. There may be some cross-over to the multi-media player and training application. 71. Recruit help! It is okay not to have all of the answers. The more people that are willing to help, the better it is in the end! 72. I want and need some sort of work, time, or job sheets to help tie activities to invoices and payees (employee/users) to jobs. This needs to tie back to payroll and be available as a dynamically fed option. It would also need its own report from the calculate payroll page. Think about the ski mountain I worked for and how they pay their ski school staff. It could be hourly, teaching time, head counts, referral rates, etc. 73. Contact companies already using adilas to see what they would like in a scheduler application. 74. In order to allow invoices with multiple locations, maybe we will need to switch the (P&L) revenue and COGS sections to invoice line items instead of the main invoice. 75. On quotes – we may need an option that allows for a single quote to be restored to cart or split into different invoices more than once. Currently, once an invoice is created, it locks the quote from being used. This may need to be opened up a bit. Maybe make it a setting on the main quote. 76. We already have the flex grid in place – why don’t we allow options to automatically chain and link things together. Think of this as putting water fountains and sinks around your house or building. You shouldn’t have to go all the way outside to get the water source. 77. What about events and classes. This might be a mix of dates and participants. Depending on how tight the scheduling is, I could see an alternating schedule and/or multiple classes/labs being scheduled back to back. Think of a class at Bridgerland or room at the University. Either way you might need multiple start and end times. How do you keep all of the participants tied to each date and time? Roll call. 78. Some events and classes will be in rented or non-permanent locations. We might want a choice to select from a list of locations and sub locations or enter a temporary or custom location. 79. Spent some time in Staples Office Supply Store in the planner and appointment book section. Think very simple like a day planner, to do list, desk calendar, etc. 80. Allow preset blocks – seconds, minute, ¼ hours (15 minutes), ½ hour, and hours. The user could then see and choose the level without typing anything. It would also be cool to let them see start and stop values. For example: My dad always begins at 6:00 am and ends at 8:00 pm (whatever). If something custom is needed it would also show up. Maybe even have a button for 24 hours (if needed). 81. Time – slots, as many or as much as needed. Items, rooms, persons – as many or as much as needed. 82. We many want the users to choose between simple vs. complex time elements. They also need to be able to show results on different levels. (See #103 for info on subs and snap-ons.) 83. Online reservations and registration will lead right in to online eCommerce. We need to plan for that. Along with that – we also need a way for customers to pay their bills and see history (activity) and outstanding values. Self-service. 84. If people are in a hurry – they may want to schedule an appointment without getting all of the customer info. Allow for a generic party or customer name. This can be replaced later on or just left as is. 85. Adilas already has 2 or 3 storage units. Maybe call and talk with them about wishes. 86. I use sticky-notes or post-it notes all the time. I wonder if adilas could have a small mini blog or quick notes section. 87. Remember this is just a tool. The variable is still people and having them follow through. As an idea – if you tie it to payroll – that helps motivate people and users to play. 88. Be able to choose colors. This is not required. Maybe have a number of pre-sets and then be able to add custom colors if needed. 89. Let the users define preset increments of time – a couple days, 1 week, 2 weeks, a month, etc. Or maybe have a jump field – jump ahead, jump back. Be able to easily come back to the current day. Use a calendar interface to help show layouts and dates. 90. Be able to show other appointments per customer or customer family member by clicking a link or a button to show related or other appointments both in the past and in the future. 91. If a company wants to do rentals or dispatching – allow for pools of items, locations, and users. The system could help you pull from the pools by drag-and-drop or by clicking a check box. Another idea is to have the system remember the main time element as it searches for other pieces to tie to it. (Session scope) Be able to clear the memory if needed. 92. Make this as small and easy as possible – yet as flexible, bit, and complicated as needed. This will be a balancing act. 93. Be able to mark things in/out of play. This could be workers on a crew, service trucks, equipment that is in the shop or being fixed – help coordinate what is going on. 94. Templates of time, start and end time ranges, days of the week that are in play, etc. Be able to set known times and standard occurrences – weekly, meetings, training, lunch breaks, etc. 95. It may be line managers or crew chiefs that are setting up schedules for their employees. Each crew or line may need the flexibility to switch crews, locations, shifts, etc. 96. Be able to schedule a webinar. 97. Allow a buddy system on tasks, ideas, comments, and assignments. 98. Time also deals with the future like goals and forecasting. It could also be used to determine reality vs. planned. I could see a manager setting a goal for each day – then a crew manager entering an actual for each day. That would allow the person(s) to monitor progress and actual output. 99. If you were in manufacturing – you could even schedule production runs, needs, and demands. What about maintenance schedules. 100. It would be pretty cool if the system could help send you reminders . This could be email, screen pop-ups, text messages, etc. As a side note – some scheduling applications use MS Outlook as the platform and then use a MS exchange server as part of the application. Maybe a notification@adilas.biz or reminder@adilas.biz email form or address. 101. Estimates, quotes and job costing. The goal here is to gather up the details and show how they relate to income and costs. This could include supplies, parts, labor, time, overhead, rentals, sub-contractors, project management, fees, etc. It might be nice to have a report that shows what is revenue and what is a cost or expense. The goal is the bottom line or profit margin. Many times, the element of time plays in to these types of jobs. 102. A couple of things to think about – sign off requirements, sign off by who, changing status and how long in each section (aging of changes), assignment changes, aging in the queue and/or running time between phases or status. 103. What I’m seeing develop is a simple time object that can have all sorts of subs or pieces stacked on. Kind of like Legos. The main would hold and carry all of the subs. Each sub section has the functionality built in to it, not the main time element. This allows for known actions to be “snapped on” and they already know how, where, when, and how much to play. Maybe a “time snap-on” or “element snap-on”. Build the functionality in to the subs and options. Maybe just call it and “add-on” or an “add-on component”. 104. Once we go clear to eCommerce – we will need to know what to do (instructions), what to show, and how to show availability and bookings. 105. Each element of time may be tied to a master recipe or template. This will show options, show/hide “snap-ons”, and set requirements. 106. Be able to schedule payments and due dates. This is money coming and going. Think of a bank collecting on a loan or a buy here pay here checking to see if their buyer is on time. This could also be for monies going out. 107. Almost every element or piece inside of adilas is related to time. Is there a way to bring things together without making the user duplicate their efforts? Basically, we have tons of stuff that is already getting assigned to an element of time. I would love for that stuff to show-up and be counted as well. Adilas – All Data Is Live And Searchable. 108. Reoccurring invoices (and expense/receipts and balance sheet items – not done yet) need to show up as an element of time. 109. I’m sitting here thinking about how every piece of the puzzle is tied to an element of time. I’m also thinking about how I could have missed this “Big” of a component of the entire picture. We have been running things for years and only now is it clicking and making more sense. I’m grateful that I’ve had time to soak some of this in. 110. There are six pages of notes in my mini notebook dated back in 8/27/08 under the topic of reoccurring invoices. Here are some highlights and/or ideas: - Inter-corp options, master/sub relationship, be able to turn on/off the master, back tie to units to help buy them down (physically and/or depreciation adjustments), normal operating hours for each unit, only show those hours unless the full 24 hour link is clicked, be able to search for available dates and times, be able to cancel and back things out. - Need in/out stamps for check in/out, booked vs. actual usage, special notes and/or instructions per booking. Think general to specific, average time slot per unit. - What about capacity, # of guests (customers), optimal #, min #, max #. - Productivity reports (booked, used, optional), assignments (requests), mass entry (recipes), different reports that deal with dates, time ranges, capacity ranges, available, booked, etc. - Rate tables for seasonal use, waiting list feature, cleaning status on each unit, package deals, late fees, cleaning fees, other fees. 111. We want to add a sales and promotion section to adilas. Maybe customer reword programs, promotion codes, sales, and seasonal pricing can play in to time. This deals with loyalty programs, points, rations, and marketing campaigns. 112. Marketing and promotion is a huge part of business. Help them start to manage that as well. 113. For drag and drop or selection pools – what if we actually create a second or sub time element for items that are not available. Basically, one pool for active and one pool for inactive or out of play. This may be able to be done by reverse association but I wanted to add it as an option. 114. When going to drag and drop. Use the adilas multi-media player to show and display elements. Include interactions between the left sub and right main panel. 115. At some point we wanted to add specific medical records. The elements of time might be a perfect spot. This would be as a sub or add-on component. 116. What about someone that goes to a resort. Everything goes on a tab and then could be pulled together. It might work cool if you could stack or combine invoices. Another cool thing might be to limit line items by date range and then print or show to your client. 117. Not everything that gets recorded needs to be shown or made printable. What about practice, draft, or concept notes. 118. We need an option to add up to five levels deep for an outline. This outline needs to be able to form in html and automatically in the Flash player (sub nav panel). Be able to edit on a single and/or bulk level. 119. On the outline – maybe use a table with 10 columns. Use two columns for each level. Column 1 (one) would be the Number and/or bullet point. Column 2 (two) would have the title, data, etc. 120. We need to be able to tie assets to outlines and/or subs. This is full content management. Be able to upload and store assets and content for users. We many want this on a different content server. That way it doesn’t impact the main adilas site or traffic. 121. Another function of time is a progress report. This could be added on to a task, to do list, document, idea, project, job costing, students, customer, etc. 122. What I’m seeing is eventually all of this data and content will need to be able to fly around via web services. We want it to get to the level of… “Your data, you cache and retrieve it, we secure it.” Make a super open interface… This could even allow outside developers to tie in to adilas functionality to create a hybrid super solution. 123. “Sphere” – once you are in the data sphere you can virtually go anywhere at any time. Other words or names are ball, global, bubble, orb, orbit, and realm. This concept could make a cool visual for how to get around inside of adilas. The outside layers could continue to expand as needed. 124. Training may fit best as an element of time similar to a document, outline, or idea. The media assets and contents could then be tied to sub elements. 125. Maybe have a show/hide status for items still in edit mode. It might also be cool if you could lock things down at some point and only allow growth or actions to take place on certain pieces. 126. What if we created system-maintained time elements and they became the watchers. Return and report! I’m not saying everything, but what if we wrapped all existing objects and data inside of adilas and allowed them to play or be counted in their own time element. Maybe one element per day with unlimited financial subs. 127. We need to stitch, sew, chain, group and link things together. This could be physical, virtual, or based on a relationship model. The entire system is a series of 1 to many relationships. 128. Originally I was thinking that time had two parts type and function. What I’m seeing is that the type just tells or dictates the functions needed. You can create type by adding function(s). 129. Matter – cannot be created or destroyed – but it may be combined, altered, formed, molded, compressed, etc. Fine matter, course matter, liquid, solid, gas, vapor, plasma, pure, contaminated, etc. Cut it, stack it, bend it, break it, etc. 130. Time – cannot be created or destroyed – this is a give (as far as we know) – what we do with it depends of each person. It could be simple, complex, self, others, persons, places, things, reoccurring, standard, variable, by choice, by dictation, by consequence, by others, etc. 131. Question about the system –maintained time elements – will that blow-up the elements of time table. Maybe we could have a special system-maintained section that mimics the elements of time without adding tons of system-maintained items (non-editable and non-searchable (ish)). In some ways, it might be nice to leave time as user-defined and put the daily watchers in a different table. 132. What if the type of time is the template with all of the defaults and settings assigned. 133. Most email programs have a calendar and appointment application. They may also have a to do list or sticky note section. Some people have apps on their phone. Where adilas comes in is connecting other pieces, built-in functionality, and already in the business platform environment. We win on the scalability and tie-ins to business functions. 134. We may need a special page that helps people know about their options – training eventually, but before that – some sample and guidance… show options. 135. Allow for defaults, presets, and custom values on all entries. This includes date and time selection – auto or custom date/time stamps. 136. Create a master list of functions of time. Duplicate this list and allow users and corporations to modify or create an alias name of the functions. What they do will still be the same but allow for custom naming. 137. Categories are the same way – create defaults and allow them to change the names and values as needed. 138. Categories are tied to functions of time and functions of time are tied to templates or types of time. 139. Certain settings, like back tie to units (or anything else – persons, places, or things) may need settings and options on the individual items that could then play forward. Even though we may want a back tie – It may need to come from the items themself and only play when needed. Another option is to think more globally and create a pool that knows what to do – then when the pool is update, the items already know how to play instead of being on a one-by-one basis. This could even work for sales and promotions. 140. Along the lines above – we may need to add a reverse look-up from the items to the pools so that they know what to do. 141. On the templates (types of time) – allow for the users to either preset hardcoded values or defaults or set the settings to dynamically look-up values like current user, current location, current date, current time, etc. Help wherever possible. 142. On reminders and notifications – push the valves in front of the user on the time homepage and the main homepage. There will also be options to help notify via email or text message. 143. When booking things for a date range – maybe add a transparent sub date/time option to hold each date to help with booking and availability. 144. On categories – instead of just one, what if they could pick and choose – like check boxes or something, maybe tie colors to categories. 145. When showing people how the elements of time work – show them a very basic drawing of the key pieces. (Templates have functions and functions have categories). 146. “A fox that chases two rabbits catches neither.” Focus and get the job done! Then move on. 147. When looking at a single item – show the bookings for three months. This may help to get an idea of usage and availability. 148. Sometimes the prep is more important than the jump. 149. On the templates – It might be nice to add an option to preset sub default titles. Either separate with commas or add a one-to-many relationship. Look at the flex grid titles for ideas. Options may include leave blank, a set value, or a list of values to use. 150. I may need to “dummy” things way down. This is like going hunting with an army, planes, tanks, and ships – when all that is needed is a small gun and some bullets. I know that it is a balancing act, but less might be more. 151. Currently we have a template that controls the elements of time. What if we had some settings that controlled the templates? 152. I can see a market for a scaled down version of adilas – say an adilas express or something like that. - Maybe a home version, a business starter version, an entrepreneur version, a small business, and a medium or large business, maybe an enterprise level. Okay, just took it too far again. 153. In conference on (4/3/11) I heard a talk that was talking about basic needs. The question was posed- will this buy me any bread? Cover the basic needs before we go tweaking to the “nth“ level. Keep it simple! 154. We may need to rate a table per user or per tech. This would automatically tie in to the rate or general amount according to who was assigned and the total time. From Post-it notes: - Group Meetings o Use technology to get the biggest impact - Group Training Sessions - Group Invites/Seminars - Newspaper ads - Flyers - Adilas theory demos - Webinars - Video capture, Dimdim, simple drawings, and power-point slide shows - Use Steve’s house until we grow out of it On customer site: - Easy contact info: o Email form o Phone #’s - Video demo o Overview o Specific tasks or concepts - Maybe a tutorial link or help files - What about showing general pricing and allow credit card payments and sign up - Adilas express - Adilas non-profit - Maybe allow the users to select # or users, # of locations, # of invoices or annual gross sales, send email requesting a quote. |
|
|
AU 397 |
|
Daily Ideas | 2/9/2011 |
On post-it note in notebook: • Financial history look-up • User history look-up by payee id and location • Full site map of the adilas.biz system. My Quick links • Email sales and support page. • Beef up flex grid searches and dynamic drop-down titles and options. • Payroll feeders on balance sheet items. • Time conditional logic – only date, no time, just a single day (choices). • Might sound weird – no dates – but able to show up for roll call – on specific numeric days (not dates). Like accrued payroll… • Standalone declarations From mini-notebook: • Add a flag to help people know if a transaction is system maintained or user maintained. • Make the system return and report. • “Teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves.” –Joseph Smith • Help the people catch the vision – this will drive them. • Everybody is playing on the same team - bring things together. • A solid base supports the whole. -Need pagination on sales tax report. -Ease the load on the server. Reports are either too big or take too long to run. I want it to run as smooth as possible. -Maybe add a flag per line item for possible tax problems. This would help the accounting staff find the possible problems quicker. -Once we start in to Flash – I can see navigation, sub modules, shopping carts, schedulers, training, etc. starting to play in the same base player. It might be cool if there were options for classic html and interactive or flash. |
|
|
AU 2184 |
|
Brainstorming Types & Functions of Time - Elements of Time | 2/15/2011 |
Simplify – Types and Functions of Time 1. There are 50 to 100 known types of time. Many are very similar, only what you call it needs to change. Almost like groups or families. Like values. 2. There are 50 to 100 known functions (needs) for time elements to play with. 3. Most people want things that are pre-set and ready to function out of the box. Other people want to be able to customize things. 4. If things are too hard to do, set-up, or maintain… you lost functionality because people are inherently lazy. K.I.S.S. 5. What is a standard? How do I play to that? 6. It needs to be as simple as possible. 7. What if we created basic templates (types and functions) and then allowed the user to apply a template to each time element. 8. What if every element of time was as simple as an id number, a corp, and a template id number. All other pieces would be subs according to the template (directions and requirements). At least one sub would be required but the element could have more than one. 9. What if the types were something like: personal (my), person(s), place(s), thing(s), combination, custom. 10. What if the functions were something like: date only, date/time, …. Infinity 11. Why am I scared to commit… I see that it is big; I see that people want to be able to call it this and that. I want to tie it all together, and part of me wants to keep it all under the same roof “elements of time”. 12. Is my pride getting in the way? Even this page… am I getting too worried about what people will think (later on)? What is the hang-up? 13. I’m feeling a lot of stress… I have needs to finish up balance sheet, do a training application, build the scheduler, map out the entire system, build new reports, etc. 14. What happened? I’ve always had tons to do… why the huge swarm of things in the last couple of months? Why am I so limited? Everything feels big… Everything feels complicated… It seems like everything is so interconnected… I know that is good and bad… 15. I’m thinking that the process needs to go like this… scheduling, balance sheet, and training. I would love to put training first but I also know that some major changes are coming down the pipeline. 16. Things are changing so fast… It is hard for me to keep up with things. I can’t imagine being a user and trying to deal with all of the changes. 17. Maybe keep making the changes and then go back and start training people how to do it properly. (Once changes have been made) 18. Apply what you learn along the way. The more you do the more it sticks and becomes a part of you. 19. Who is counting time anyway… I’m not trying to break some record or something. I am trying to make progress and I’m okay with a step at a time. Only run as fast as you are able. From a gridded outline for brainstorming “elements of time”; Needs – rows – 1,2,3… & Types of Time – columns – A, B, C… NEEDS - rows 1. Basics, quick name or title, corp, id, template, creator id, sub type 2. Date (day only, single, multi, range, reoccurring) 3. Category & sub category sort 4. Time (time only, n/a, single, multi, range, special rounded, reoccurring) 5. Total time 6. Notes & credits (real, practice, draft, concept – 255 or big) 7. Payroll 8. Privacy, show/hide, web, visible, permissions 9. Assignment(s) & changes (one or many), change log 10. Reminder(s) & notification(s) - sending messages and pushing reminders to main homepage 11. Photos & media – subs, choices, ftp, decisions, stitching, content… video, stills, graphs, maps, audio, html, pdf, word, etc. 12. Comments 13. Invoice tie-ins – details or summed up (invoice types), (invoiced, not invoiced, no charge), recipe tie-in (one to many) 14. Quick tie-ins (build or pull from multi chain as needed) 15. Financial & general amount – standalone declarations, able to add back up to the main (revenue, costs, value) 16. Sign-offs & by who? – maybe a 1-many (review, outside players – sharing) 17. Rate tables & look-ups – seasonal, promotion, sales 18. Expiration dates &/or show until dates – due or target dates 19. Booked vs. actual usage, planned vs. reality 20. GPS subs 21. Sub pool(s) – what kind in/out of play 22. Reoccurring (master/share, template, blocks, average unit, standards, slot, values) 23. Flex fields (names & types) 24. Tie-ins (flex grid, what else) what about tying together subs and media, sewing, stitching, links, groups 25. Customer (1 or many) look back, relationships to other tie-ins, roll call, participants, general or generic 26. Vendor/payee (1 or many) 27. Histories & usage logs – start, stop, # of times 28. Sub times or sub time frames – due dates, aging & queues (relationships) 29. Follow-up & details –progress reports 30. Finished/starting settings or completion – starting, prerequisites, requirements, test & evaluation 31. Rewards & promotions 32. Medical records 33. Capacity, min, max, optional 34. Deadlines, timelines, phases, grace periods, due dates, outlines, content, details 35. Status changes – edit mode, dynamic status lock down 36. eCommerce 37. Inter corp – security, settings (general, per corp, per user, IP address) 38. Back tie to units – this may be on the unit or a pool that the unit is assigned to 39. Cancel/back-out/void (see status), (make sure and cascade to subs) 40. Check in/out (start/stop, actual/rough) 41. Mass entry – recipes, packages, deals 42. Priority & rating 43. Reports & searching needs – capacity, conflicts, testing, history, usage, availability, booked, open/closed 44. Waiting list 45. Cleaning status 46. Fees (late, cleaning, other) 47. Person(s) – customer, vendor, payee, user, salesperson, N/A, party, unassigned, crews, lines, shifts 48. Place(s) – subs, temp, variable, multi, unassigned 49. Thing(s) – storage, units, parts, general or generic, assets, money, supplies, labor, overhead, shipping, sub-contractors, game 50. Dynamics – (fun & extras, names, titles, needs, html, multi-step, memory, colors, increments, webservices) Types of time – columns A. Lists, tasks, assignments B. Notes & reminders, progress reports C. Basic, scheduling & appointments D. Time sheets, time logs E. Sharing & collaboration F. Sales & promotion marketing G. Meetings & events, classes H. Projects, updates & newsletters I. Resorts & tabs J. Reservations K. Dispatching L. Registration M. Job costing, estimates, quotes & invoices N. Maintenance, manufacturing & production O. People, employees, techs, doctors, teachers, crews P. Invoices, e/r’s, bs: reoccurring or system-maintained Q. Goals & forecasting, (production, sales, general) R. Rentals, storage S. Places, rooms, locations, subs, main, #’s T. Things, stock/units, parts, general, pools U. Payments in/out, date due, deadlines & grace periods |
|
|
Adi 16 |
|
B.S.I. - Balance sheet rework (round 4) | 6/3/2011 |
We need to circle back around and work on automating sales tax, collected fees, standalone declarations, watchers, feeders, hybrid callouts, etc. This is quite in depth and is what we would be calling round 4 of the balance sheet. As a note, on 7/4/13 we had another request from Kelly Whyman to add some sort of off the record type entry that a CPA makes. This would allow the owner or manager to see things as they really are and/or see things as they become adjusted according to specific entries. Kelly was requesting this show/hide option that could be turned on/off as needed. I (Brandon) replied to the email and mentioned the "standalone declarations" that are planned for adilas. Here is some info from the email. Kelly, Great ideas! We love it! Now if only we could find some time... :) I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this before but have you ever heard of a thing called a "standalone declaration". This is a future adilas project that I think could help you out. A standalone declaration will be a physical entry that is mapped to a specific spot within the financials (income statement and/or balance sheet). It will be called a standalone declaration because it just exists or was created (kinda pulled out of the air if you will). It doesn't really have any backing or supporting documents other than it was an entry that was required or requested by a CPA. We are going to call these entries a standalone declaration to help them stand out or be their own little sub set. In order to help with the show/hide options, we could add a special show/hide flag or we could add an option for "real" or "taxes only". Another thing that we could do is allow the dates to be very general. Most of the dates inside of adilas are a physical date such as 7/4/13. However, if we needed to, we could allow for things like: In 2013 or in July or 2013 without going clear to the exact or physical date value. Anyways, just some ideas and food for thought. Enjoy your day and keep the ideas coming. Even if we can't jump on them yet, we can at least record them. That is at least a start in the right direction. Thanks, Brandon Moore 435.258.5504 (home/office) brandon@adilas.biz :: www.adilas.biz "all data is live and searchable" ----- Original Message ----- From: Kelly Whyman To: Brandon Moore - adilas.biz ; Stephen Berkenkotter Sent: Thursday, July 04, 2013 1:40 PM Subject: HUGE SUGGESTION - The need for an additional day on the Balance Sheet or Option for Adjustments to be seen or hidden Gentlemen - Happy July 4th, with it being independence day, I have a huge request for the Adilas System. Is it possible to add a day or some time of sub section to the system that allows adjustments to the P&L/Balance Sheet to be shown or hidden. So many CPAs adjust clients books and it takes away from the ability to see the business as it was prior to adjustments. Originally Steve had mentioned an extra day of the year. I would like to suggest you allow the adjusting entry mechanism (Invoice, Deposit, Expense, Balance Sheet Detail) to have the ability to be active or inactive when viewing P&L or Balance Sheet. Is this possible? It would be something that no other system is capable of doing. Best, Kelly |
|
|
AU 2211 |
|
Brainstorming What is still needed to roll everything out like we want to? | 6/9/2011 |
What is still needed to roll everything out like we want to? - Ecommerce and customer pay portals. Maybe online reservations. (2 weeks) - Help files (3 days) - Grouped reports (2 weeks) - My favorite buttons (2 weeks) - Graphical navigation and page flow (all sub homepages) (2 weeks) - My user history - Flash media player (2 weeks) - Roll call page with associative reports flex grid and other system ties (3 days) - New credit card gateways (Lucy and First Data) show groups then details (2 weeks) - Balance sheet rework – round 4 (1 month) o Feeders o Watchers o Known issues o Standalone declarations o Payables rework o Taxes and collected fees - Training manual and adilas university… Ongoing project (1 month) - User history reports (3days) - Financial history reports (1 week) - Small tweaks to current history reports (1 day) - New photo galleries and moving over to content server (2 weeks) - Payroll rework (1 week) o Gross sales o Elements of time (subs) o Reports - Ideas and sharing… global updates, global idea center, global forum, all elements of time (1 week) - Objects and data over time – adilasuniversity – theory and concepts (2 weeks) - On order and in transit tracking (1 week) - Sub locations and how they tie-in to things (1 week) - Elements of time (1 month) |
|
|
AU 792 |
|
Daily Ideas | 4/27/2012 |
-Tied to comment below – what about recipe/builds, internal invoices, or PO’s tied to stock/units. Just some ideas – maybe part of a build and build recipe or reverse build of sorts. -On stock/units we need the ability to have them produce child inventories (new items or new stock/units) of be broken (chop shop) in to smaller sell-able pieces. Start with something and then have it multiply or divide into something else. (Idea from another associate.) What about renting or borrowing from a master stock/unit? Does it totally go away or are we able to use it again? What does the word sell or sale mean? Brainstorming and recording ideas while cleaning out my email inbox: o On the eCommerce side – we need a customer portal where they can pay for past bills, create quotes, statements, buy new things and get access to custom paperwork or forms. Most of these ideas have been recorded before but the paperwork and forms (PDF, Word, Excel) have not been recorded. o On the label generator – it would be cool if we could make assignments to main application types and then build custom mappings for that type. It would be cool to be able to save these settings and be able to name them. Basically a custom 1-many between application types and fields or values. It may also be cool if you could hard code a value or let the system show an option. What about custom stuff like sized, logo, yes/no, font color, font size, positioning. o We need to make the words “make” and “model” dynamic if using specific units. o The calendar interface needs to be a back drop for any date/time related report, invoices per month, customer birthdays, bills and due dates, etc. o We need a mini calendar app to help on some of the date fields – not required but available. o We have a known issue with PO payments and the balance sheet. It has to do with force payments and how does that effect something. No way of searching, editing, fixing or finding what happened. o We need to circle back around and work on automating sales tax, collected fees, standalone declarations, watchers, feeders, callouts, etc. o On inventory items – we have been asked about multiple categories and sub categories. Currently using either the reference field or the RFID tag field as a text copy of the categories. o We were also asked about a part number grid (grid items) to hold values like red, white, blue, large, medium, small, etc. – attributes. o We have had requests for more flexible “Google-type” searches. These are called regular expressions or we can check for spaces and build our own list or array searches. o Add drill-down links from vendors to all incoming items (lines), all sold items, (invoice lines), all payments made (PO parts or e/r parts), all e/r line items, etc. o When starting a new location – it takes quite a while to get the starting inventory in. The system requires it, the parts inventory, to be entered one at a time. It would be cool if we could do something like an update PO but pull from all inventory items. This could be as simple as a switch or a permission to include all parts in the update or just location specific activity. Anyway, once completed, it would do what we want and setup initial inventory levels. (This whole idea could be done with the duplicate PO tool.) o The more we use the flex-grid, the more we will need ways of getting data in and out of it. The flex grid also needs to be a filter (pre-search filter) for other main application types. o We have a growing need to help manage cash drawers, petty cash, pay outs, etc. o On build PO’s – we need a way to add a new product (with a variable vendor) while in the build PO mode. Currently this is not allowed and requires a user to first prep and create the placeholder part and then go back and use it on or as a part of the build. Basically, they need a live PO to create the item and build PO to use it. It would be nice to have it all wrapped up together in a single step. o We had a request to make the customer log types dynamic per corporation. These are recorded as the customer log reason or subject field. Currently they are held in the contact_types table. All we would need to do is add a corp_id number and an add/edit interface and it could be done. o ICC’s (internal cost corrections), cost of goods corrections, cost differences – this is location specific, date sensitive and according to part numbers, what we need is a 1-many relationship from parts to the corrections. We virtually track what came in (PO’s), what was sold (invoices) and calculate the differences of cost differences between the two. This correction could really help with perfect Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). o On the accounting side, the cost differences would need to play into the P&L or income statement as part of COGS. It would also be cool if they, the differences or manual corrections, would show up under the part usage sections. o We talked about a thing called watchers and feeders for the balance sheet. This could be things like taxes, collected fees, etc. Why not cost of goods sold corrections or differences. It automatically sits in the background and runs logic on items sold vs. items sitting in inventory. This would be cool and would take out the manual portion of this task. If it was virtual, it could be very dynamic but may take more processing power. If it was manual, it would take up more storage space but would be quicker to get to. o What about correcting per location – locations play a part of inventory. o Steve wants to use an invoice depending on whether the cost needs to go up or down. Use a -1 of a +1 on the quantity. Each entry would have two lines. You would then adjust the cost accordingly, pretty creative. The price on both lines would be $0.00. Doing it this way only effects COGS and does not affect inventory because a -1 or a +1 =0 on the quantity side. Pretty cool! General ideas: o We need to go through the application and show/hide stock/unity fields, permissions and settings. This could be kind of a big project. However, it may make the interface simpler. o We’ve had request to be able to clean-up old inventory items. This is twofold: 1. COGS and 2. Quantities on hand. Basically, we need a “sweep the floor” function to get everything in order and then really hide the items on the look-back reports. Even if they are inactive, they still show up if there is a problem with COGS and quantities on hand. (ICC’s - internal cost corrections, see next page for another idea – April 30th entry) |
|
|
AU 1195 |
|
Daily Ideas | 4/20/2013 |
-Thinking about “roll call”… I don’t even know if this is possible, but would happen if you had one table just for roll call? This would be what flag, what date, what checkpoint, what status? This is just an idea but if we had everything in one place, it sure would make reporting easier. Currently we have all of the pieces (mostly) but they are all continued in-line or on tons of different tables. -This idea is somewhat related to some topics back in October and November of 2010. We have tons of brainstorming on watchers, feeders, standalone declarations, etc. A global “roll call” table may end up being part of those options. -In a nut shell – things happen every day (changing, turning, staying, coming, going, becoming, etc.) Our goal is where is it at (the objects and/or data) when the day closes? Almost like a “snapshot” or daily summary. If more details are needed, we could always go back and check on the objects history. -The one (or more) problems with this deal with changes and going back in time. This is especially true if one value is related to another value. You end up getting a cause and effect chain of events. -One way to solve this is to put each corporation on its own mini adilas and then look-up all of details, dates, and flags on the fly. We could speed things up by using numeric dates, smaller tables, and using global watchers that help things stay contained. We have a thing called the “ice down” date. That could help us lock things down and then don’t allow any changes. If a change is needed, we could back up the ice down date and then record changes. That date could be a backward compatible border or boundary of sorts. Basically, a no one goes past here unless the ice down date is backed up. -Another thought keeps playing through my head… what if you still kept – all data is live and searchable – but added a lock or sorts. You still want all of the data but you also don’t want everything to be flexible all the time. Maybe once you lock it down, no one gets to touch, unless the lock down (ice down) date gets pushed back. Everything is still there and plays a part but it prevents tampering and changing once it gets perfectly locked down. -Maybe think about formulas in a spreadsheet… But be able to lock them down… |
|
|
AU 1688 |
|
Daily Tasks | 7/5/2013 |
• Emails and notes about “standalone declarations”. These are financial entries that need to be made but don’t have any backing – thus the name standalone declarations. • Also uploading lots of YouTube videos that my brother has edited. • Emails and phone calls. • Bank stuff, uploading YouTube videos, and recording notes. • On the phone with Steve going over a number of different topics. We talked about the ability to email an invoice for a customer. We talked about sending a simple invoice that has links to other backend eCommerce options. I told Steve that we are pushing up a bunch of YouTube videos with adilas training stuff. We also talked about Denver training stuff and the adilas world section of the main adilas site. • Making some small tweaks for different adilas flyers. |
|
|
AU 1708 |
|
Daily Ideas | 7/5/2013 |
-This is somewhat random but we have had the request (multiple times) to add some sort of option to show/hide adjustments that a CPA makes to the financials. Basically, adilas tracks things very literal and exact. However, many CPA’s want to adjust different entries or accounts for different reasons. These adjustments are used for taxes but sometimes owners and managers want to see what is real vs. what shows up. In a way, it is almost like two sets of books. The suggestion from the users is to add a non-counting day and then be able to pull reports with or without that extra day. The problem is you can’t just add a day to any given year. I think that the answer is in a concept called “standalone declarations”. Maybe those entries could have a special flag for “real” or “tax only” purposes. These entries don’t exist yet but in theory, they would be standalone entries that get mapped to specific areas or sub areas of the financials. The reason for the name is – they (the declarations) are made but potentially not supported by anything else in the system. Thus the name “standalone declarations.” Other notes have already been recorded on this subject. The concept of an additional date may be done by allowing a general date vs. a real physical date. For example: A general date may be something like – in 2013 or in May 2013 vs. 5/20/13 (physical). Just ideas. -Little things can add up to great values. Today I was picking up trash while looking for my son’s pocket knife. He lost his knife last night at the 4th of July celebration. As long as I was looking for his knife (an hour) I decided to pick up some trash. By the end I had a bulging pocket full of trash. It reminded me of a talk I heard from Elder M. Russell Ballard of the quorum of the twelve Apostles called “Finding Joy Through Loving Service”. It had a story about a miner/prospector that was looking for gold. He didn’t find any nuggets. Finally, an older miner told him to collect the little flecks of gold instead. Even though they were small, they amounted to great worth. Just like the small pieces of trash in my pocket. I did find the knife that I was looking for but I also learned some great lessons along the way. I’m very grateful for tons and tons of tiny lessons along the way! -On emailing invoices – We want a simple invoice with links to view the eCommerce invoice, auto login, and do more backend features. We would also like to add links to shop for more products. Basically, help the people do some advertising. They (our users or clients) may also want options for CC’s (carbon copy) for multiple email addresses. -In a way, admin corp-wide settings (hidden) are almost like corporation permissions in a way. -On ICC’s (Internal Cost Corrections) – We may want to include invoice classifications. These are corp specific categories for their invoices. That way, you could quickly go see any and all ICC invoices. -On emailing invoices – We could pass along the corp key id, the customer id, and the invoice number. We could also pass along a hash value for security. The hash could be a mix of the other three values. That way we could check for hacks. |
|
|
|
Adi 983 |
|
Round 4 On The Balance Sheet - Automating Things With Watchers, Feeders, & Standalone Declarations | 3/30/2015 |
Will has been working on General Ledger. Huge project completed on sales tax. (round 4 of 5) Round 5 code is in code review. |
|
|
|
Shop 1515 |
|
Quote session with Shannon | 6/16/2016 |
On a GoToMeeting session with Shannon. We did a couple of quotes and went over some tech support questions. We also talked about some of the next rounds for the balance sheet and the accounting features inside of adilas. Good stuff. As a note, the balance sheet and other financial sections inside of adilas have had numerous sessions and rounds. There are a number of other rounds that have been in the planning stages clear back from 2010. Search the adilas university site for balance sheet, mapping, watchers, feeders, standalone declarations, or interactive map. Lots of notes on the subject. Things really started to heat up in October of 2010 for the balance sheet and full system mapping. See elements of time # 2166 and 2167 in the adilas university site to get a flavor. Expand the search and research as needed. |
|
|
|
Shop 2447 |
|
Shawn time and other general stuff | 3/9/2017 |
On a quick call and GoToMeeting session with Shawn. We talked about the payroll 1099's and some printing options. We also talked about a small plan going forward. After that, I was recording notes and Steve popped in and had a quick code question on showing sub inventory and parent inventory items. After we talked about some things, I scribbled down some small notes from our chat. - We need to wire up the connections between sub inventory and the PO/invoice line items table. Currently, we have to run multiple queries to see if a line item has any subs. Not that that is bad, it just takes time and you can't easily tell what is going on. We may want to look into this and tighten things up a bit. Think about search options and speed that way. - I mentioned to Steve and that Eric and I were talking earlier and how so many crazy projects were all somewhat converging at the same time. I mentioned smart cart logic, sales and promotions, custom labeling, sub inventory (parent/child relationship), mini conversion, discounting, pricing tiers, loyalty points (special accounts), and other things. He added to the list... ecommerce and sales tax as also being more and more in the mix and coming together. - The reason that Steve mentioned sales tax is that I told him that Eric and I were planning on doing something similar to a user-maintained balance sheet item for loyalty points and gift card stuff. He made the comment that sales tax is very similar... almost a mini account of sorts. He then started talking about a special sales tax homepage, searchable database stuff (already summed entries vs. full transactional entries), the need to go to multiple decimals for taxes and withholdings, etc. Kinda interesting that I didn't even think of sales tax in the same boat as in-store credit or loyalty or gift cards but they are very similar. - This made me think about some old ideas we had back in 2010 dealing with watchers, feeders, and standalone declarations. I wonder if it may be time for that type of stuff to come into play. - As Steve and I talked about converging projects and how they all interconnect, he made the analogy of a steeple on a roof or a church. Lots of different angles and roof lines all coming in together. That analogy was fun to think about and added some depth to the converging concepts, ideas, and projects. I really liked how it could go up (be built up virtually) in order to make room for all of the pieces to match up and play well together. Kind like a capstone or elevated portion of a building. My original thinking was sort of flat. Don't be afraid to add some depth (settings, permissions, time, etc.) in order to bring everything together. Good stuff. |
|
|
|
Shop 2374 |
|
Adilas Time | 3/14/2017 |
On a GoToMeeting session with Steve and Eric. We were talking about the special tracking accounts for loyalty points and gift cards and such. - We had some question on taxes and with tax included and how that plays into loyalty points. Technically, some of this stuff should not be taxes but is due to the fact it is an invoice line item. - We are seeing that special account stuff is heavily tied to payments and is almost like a mini bank account in some ways - We may want to steer away from the line items area... that brings up tax issues. We may want to play more in the payment area or a standalone area that interacts with the payments. - Mini bank accounts are totally mini balance sheet items. Keep it separate. - What about special money types (corp specific) and then tracking that (logic) back to payment and to the special accounts. Or we could add a new one called special or use the internal payment and record some notes to help tie things together. - Loyalty points are like "cash power" - in a way, they can use for future payments on invoices. Basically a discount (reduction in price) that is available to be applied as needed. Think of a delayed discount. - If we track things clear out to a mini bank account level, we could really show the total liability that is owed back to the clients. Sum and group things for them. - If a gift card is purchased, that can't be revenue, it has to be a balance sheet item. This may cause a small problem. Currently, all line items get mapped directly to the revenue portion of the P & L (income statement). We may need a destination switch of sorts. Similar to the special line items. - At some point, we have to move the balance sheet liability over to revenue (say the amount collected from gift cards that hasn't been redeemed). How does this transaction take place. As a side note, we have a concept of a standalone declaration (back in 2010 ish). One of the motivation of doing gift cards is taking in money that never gets redeemed. Big return on investment. At some point you have to claim that revenue vs. just leaving it hanging on a balance sheet. - All of these items are balance sheet items or user-maintained items. Also, a lot of these accounts are somewhat of a "funny money" type concept. As a side note, we started way back with stock/units. They have all kinds of phantom costs, slush funds, trade-in allowances, actual cash values, etc. All kinds of funny money stuff. - On parts and general inventory items, we need to allow a switch that allows for a user to declare if the item was a revenue item, cost of good sold item, or a liability. Maybe think about all options for the P & L and the balance sheet. - Credits (vendor and customer) - These could be either assets or liabilities. It comes back to who owes who. These also need to be tied to both invoices and possibly expense/receipts. They may also play into deposits and PO's if you get into credits. Maybe think about all 5 of the major players... invoices, PO's, expense/receipts, deposits, and other balance sheet items. Or we could just say something like main id, app type id, and table name. That would handle all possible tie-ins. - We need a special accounts homepage. These special tracking accounts will be showed as system-maintained balance sheet items of sorts. Some what of a cross between a system-maintained and a user-maintained framework. Think of a mini bank account or mini tracking account. - On a different note, we talked about a client need to be able to break the customer queue into sub queues. This could be sub locations, sub categories, or sub types. Crazy how everything keeps fracturing and breaking into smaller and smaller subs. We are also seeing how things need to be summed up, counted, and treated as a whole as well (stats, logistics, and aggregate analyst stuff). It goes both ways. - Anyways, on the customer queue, we can see that a new option to sub categorize or add a sub location could totally work. That doesn't seem to be as big of a project. We will tackle that project next week. - We are so grateful for the pressure and ideas from the people who use our product. We are trying to focus on operations and it is leading us to the accounting level. We are actively cultivating ideas from the "adilas idea farm". Pretty fun and crazy. |
|
|
|
Shop 2464 |
|
Shannon Meeting | 3/22/2017 |
On a meeting with Shannon. We talked about a couple of custom projects and then chases some numbers around on the P&L (income statement) and balance sheet. We logged in on data 0 and used McCorvey's Bowling World as a data source to check the different drill-downs and reports. They, McCorvey's have tons of data and we bounced between different reports and such. We are seeing more and more the need to circle back around and add the watchers, feeders, and standalone declarations. We talked about how cool it would be to see a report that could show where things might be off or out of balance (known issues report) and also how things play into the mix over time. I took some notes and we had a good chat. I was grateful for Shannon and here listening skills. We talked about all kinds of stuff. She is doing awesome and has really bloomed as a tech support, teacher, customer care person. Pretty cool. |
|
|
|
Shop 2582 |
|
Adilas Time | 5/4/2017 |
On the daily GoToMeeting session with Steve. We started out the day just working through some small tweaks and making some new changes. 9 to 10:30 am - Making a few small changes. We added in a small tweak to the my cart favorites buttons. We made all of the disabled subs disappear from the my cart favorites view for smart groups. All other sub views were left alone. We also added in a date/time stamp to the advanced invoice searches. We added the date/time stamp to main invoices and invoice line items. This will help users see when the invoices were created. 10:30 am - Meeting with Kelly and Danielle about financials and such. In the financial world, they really want to see certain reports and certain views. This is huge for owners, investors, auditors, CPA's, and bankers. They expect a certain format and certain key indicators and such. - We talked about a possible policy about pushing new code and updates. We have people using this product on a daily basis. They rely on it. When we change it without letting them know, they freak out sometimes. - Chart of accounts and special groupings. Trial balance, month over month financials, year over year financials. - Currently, our users have to do tons of manual entry and tweaking the system to get their numbers. For example: The user has to pull data from tons of different pages and reports and then put it together in a manual process to get the views they are looking for. We have tons of the data, but it may not be formatted easily and correctly. - People want to see tons of different view points, averages, running totals, comparative values, trends, projections, budgets, etc. - Uploading budgets and then comparing to how things are going and doing. - People want to see the year over year values vs. a single one month or one year at a time. - People want to consolidate values, merge locations, look at all kinds of angles, etc. How can we help the person look at their data in a more standard way? - Currently there are a number of ways that things could get disconnected. People want to see GL (general ledger) details. There are also tons of possible disconnects and possible variables. Some of that is due to how we are built. That isn't bad, it just doesn't follow normal roads and normal expectations (for certain users). - We talked about us either being able to export to QuickBooks or build it out so that we look like we are a little bit more stable or standard. Somehow we need to bridge that gap. - Just as an idea... maybe use a simple dash (-) instead of 0.00 on some of the financials. The dash may mean, N/A or nothing to report. Sometimes a 0 (zero) makes it look like it should be part of the reporting but we have nothing. The dash may help show that no data is there to report or don't worry about it. Kind of a mind trick of sorts. - We may need to open back up the old chart of account number fields. This already exists, we just need to re-expose it. We then need to have some mappings to that number if doing cross corp or consolidated reporting. Also by way of a note, we need a way to flag where those pieces play in and what main group or categories they fit into. This could be to any of the main 6 categories such as: Revenue, COGS, Expenses, Assets, Liabilities, Equity. If we opened up the account numbers, it could help with cross-corp mapping and such. That way you map against the numbers vs. a naming convention that might have spelling differences. - We need to move more away from transactional data and go more into daily totals per location. The transactional data is awesome but we really need some preformatted numbers, values, and totals. That would really help with speed and reporting. We have tons of cool ideas (back from 2010 ish) dealing with watchers, feeders, and standalone declarations. Supper cool stuff - well worth looking back into. - On the adilas side, we really need to look into the system-wide defaults and what gets loaded into the system. These are the generic corp-wide settings that get setup when a new system gets created. As a side note, we may even need to take out the defaults for expense types and deposit types. The girls are wanting it super clean and simple (don't even add anything as far as defaults). Maybe figure out some standards and then even keep it super simple from there. - We talked about light world building and breaking up the bus into smaller motorcycles and smaller cars per corp. This deals with breaking up the database to smaller pieces. - Some of the problems the girls are having is on the consolidation between multiple corps. The bigger the business, the more pain there is as you try to consolidate things. Making systems talk to each other, that is the trick. This will end up going clear to a full API socket level at some time. Pretty cool. - We still need the special accounts and custom tracking accounts. This could be customer in-store credits, loyalty points, etc. There are also some other needs that need to be looked at. - Danielle's top 3-5: overall chart of accounts, month over month, year over year reporting, exportability of the general ledger. - Kelly's top 3-5: trial balance, general ledger, p&L and balance sheet on the same page (trial balance), formatting of views (month over month, quarter over quarter, and year over year views), setting up the chart of accounts using the chart of account number. - We have some clients that want a really cool tool for accounting. We need both the simple and automated views as well as a more advanced model that has advanced tools and speaks a standard language. Think of a new view for users. Simple and automated or more robust and showing greater details. - Task from Kelly to me, look into opening up the chart of account numbers on expense types and deposit types. Check out the cause and effect relationships. At the end of the session, Kelly and Danielle were excited to maybe look into two different views. One for the general public and one for a more hardcore financial person such as a CPA and/or an auditor. We will tweak a few things around and see if it gives us more of the look and feel we are hoping for. Good meeting. |
|
|
|
Shop 2743 |
|
Adilas Time | 6/8/2017 |
On the morning GoToMeeting with Steve and Shari O. We started out the day looking at the sales tax differences. We talked about a virtual dust pan for catching any rounding errors on tax calcs. Our options might be: - We extend the original percentage spot - where the percentage is held (on the locations). We could go with say a 5 decimal level of accuracy. - We could use a small bucket or dust pan for tax calcs. This could be called the rounding error for the tax calcs. - We could rework the math on the tax calc function (this is the main function that is used over and over again to calc the taxes). Check for possible bad rounding errors. - We could show a flag on the invoice line items reports where a tax is off (say a color or an icon or something - say red...) - We could show the full extended math on the edit invoice line items page... this could include the extended price * the tax % - no rounding - and then the rounded value. - The biggest complaints are on the grand totals per tax category... This is just a sum of the details. We can't really adjust that number... it is just math. We can however get tighter on the individual sums or individual line items. - Drew some graphics on possible disconnects between calculating the taxes based on line items vs. invoice totals. We were talking about the disconnects on line items vs. grand totals. We came up with a number of possible options... - What if we calculated and stored the line item calculations at 5 decimals. We hold what it really is... - On the main invoices - we could add a number of new buckets to the main invoices... the only problem here is how much of a load this is... The ideas is: new buckets like: sub total, taxable total, tax total, all taxes (state, county, city, other 1-5, out of area), and a new one to help with tax calc diffs (rounding error or catch all bucket). - What if we ran things in a paired type solution where we have a total per tax section and the total taxes collected for that total. That way we could show a total and the calculation based off of that. - We will want to run each major report off of these new totals. *** new idea - this could be super cool *** what if... we did this summing and virtual bucket stuff on a daily basis... that would save tons of storage space. This is what we are hoping to call watchers, feeders, and even standalone declarations. We have been looking at things like this clear since 2010. - As a side note, we could propose a solution that taxed and calculated out to 5 decimals. Then at the very very end we could round it to real numbers. Steve would really like to take this proposal back to the state sales office to show them the problems and possible solution options. - We spent quite a bit of time talking about watchers, feeders, and standalone declarations. We made a number of small drawings and had a great meeting dealing with the vision of these concepts. See attached for some of the drawings. We talked about the 3D calendar and how things could play in if we caught things per day, per location, and per category (these are revenue, cost of goods sold, expenses, assets, liabilities, and equity). We also talked about possible options and how that could even be fed into a virtual video or play-by-play on the full financials of the company and how that plays out over time. Pretty cool futuristic ideas and concepts. - There is more information on these graphics in the media/content section. Additional explanations on watchers, feeders, standalone declarations, and 3D calendars. See attached and the descriptions for more details. |
|
|
|
Shop 3929 |
|
Brandon will be checking in | 8/9/2018 |
Checking in on the morning meeting. I have been out of the office most of the week. Steve and I chatted this morning about the need for new independent developers and getting people into the mix and into the family. There is a real need there. We then merged in some code from his branches and pushed up files to all servers. Looking over ideas for loyalty points. Lots of good info on element of time # 3778 in the adilas shop. What is a liability? What are the differences between real and phantom values? We need the values recorded for both real and phantom, the difference is how firm and/or fixed the liability is. Steve mentioned a term called a "shadow account" (that exists, but may not be fully tangible). We also talked about how it is the actual company that is creating these phantom and/or shadow type liabilities. That kinda changes things... it is the company creating their own liability based off of a point system to encourage customer loyalty. There seems to be two main part of the puzzle. How many points (ins and outs) and what is the value of those points? Lots of balance sheet transactions. Simple to more complex transactions... simple gift cards or simple gift certificates, basic loyalty points, punch cards, in-store credits, coupons. As a fun side note, some of these transactions are subs of the balance sheet. Kinda like sub inventory but on the balance sheet side. Maybe we need to think about how the transaction takes place. Is there already cash on hand (paid in advance)? or is it just lowering the total owed, like a form of a discount? Who pays for what? What about coupons that a manufacture pays for or pays a part of? On the main balance sheet items, we may need another switch to help us know if this is a main account and/or a sub account. We may also need to know if the asset, liability, and/or equity account is real or phantom (shadow). This is kinda fun, but we are seeing a fracture that is needed in order to record the balance sheet items. Everything is breaking into sub accounts. Going back to discounts and special discounts... do we apply the discount to the cart/invoice on a whole or do we have to re-distribute that discount back through the system? On a different note, we had a request from a client to be able to permission and/or fully turn off standalone discounts. Also, we are seeing that taxes make the discounts more complicated. We have options to do both in-line discounts and/or standalone discounts. Things get really fuzzy as you try to tax, especially with excise taxes and taxing things at the different levels (per item category, per customer type, per inventory type, etc.). We had a great talk about "bad debt" payments. Don't worry about the words (verbage), think about the concept. That helps to satisfy the invoice (monies owed to us), the taxes are fully correct, but it is then showed as an adjustment to revenue (rewards, coupons, loyalty points, etc.) on the income statement. Both coupons and loyalty points are similar. It is the internal company basically saying "I'm going to cover that part of the invoice". We claim that that invoice and/or ticket is x dollars and has y amounts of tax. We then cover the invoice by real monies and/or monies that mean something, but no real money changed hands. Look deeper in this. The main difference is the verbage between bad debt vs rewards or loyalty points. Maybe we should add some new standard payment types such as: Rewards, Loyalty Points, Coupon, In-Store Credit, Gift Card/Gift Certificate, etc. We are seeing the need for a good mix of user-maintained pieces, system-maintained pieces, and possibly some mixed-maintained pieces (user and system). We are seeing this in the watchers, feeders, standalone declarations, time templates, settings, etc. We need to let them play where they can and need to, but also make sure they have the tools and pieces to get the job done, even if we control the pieces behind the scenes. Eric would like to check in on loyalty points around 11 am for a couple of hours. He texted me and said that he was unable to meet today due to some things that came up. So, in the meantime, Steve and I had a great discussion and made some good breakthroughs. Good stuff. |
|
|
|
Shop 4133 |
|
Adilas Time | 11/5/2018 |
On the morning meeting. We briefly talked about some updates from the weekend. We had a number of different developers pop in and make small reports. Steve and I were about system stats and reports at the higher system level. We also need some rules and how we allow and/or don't allow play. Not just reports on how much data we are carrying along (total stats and counts)... but also, what is added new per day (incremental reporting). We need to be able to analyze usage, storage, and even analyze bandwidth. What are they truly using. From Calvin, there may be potential in monetizing the usage of the application. If we are incurring a cost, we need to pass that on, plus adding in some profit. We have some clients that come in at a super low rate. Then they grow and develop and build and become more successful, but the system fees haven't increased to match that (at all). Basically, no one is monitoring the growth, storage, usage, and system stats. We need some report matrixes that we could show and then charge for. Calvin popped in and gave Steve and I pretty deep demo of the adilas label builder. We got pretty deep, we played, asked questions, and even got into some of the funding and financing of how do we pay for this, how do we fund it, and how do we keep supporting it? Good stuff. Some people want to buy it modular (every little thing) and some people want to buy it as a package (get everything and use what you want). Some of the matrix values might need to be: How many things get created? How often are they being used? How much data is being transferred back and forth? How do we monetize things and get a real ROI (return on our investment)? It comes back to sales, rules, and what we setup. Steve and Calvin were talking about putting all of the tools out there and then letting them (the adilas users) use what they need. Kinda like a big giant rental center... they could use the big tools, the small tools, and everybody could use whatever they needed. They were talking about small mom and pop shops, percentages, set fees, or some kind of mix between those different models. Lots of options. By us not monitoring server stats and usage, we and kinda killing ourselves. We want to come up with something that is fair and workable for all the different parties. That is where we want to get to. We want to track the cause and effect of data storage, file storage, processing (API socket calls, queries, data in/out), and maybe usage and bandwidth. Looking forward... We may need some snapshot info (aggregated data) to show corp to server stats. We may need to start counting reads (queries and looking at things) and writes (inserts and updates). We may need just counts per day per corp. This could become some of our general matrix values. Steve and Calvin were talking about possibly charging for the net results (what are they getting out of it). We need to store it, and then go back and use that as the histories, stats, and usage. Just an idea... what about showing stats per user and what they are browsing (who is generating the usage - who is looking at what). We could add some counters on the actual method calls (yep, Holly used me or pulled me). Steve - Every year that a company is with us, we keep adding a virtual train car to what they are pulling and/or hauling. At some future point, we may need a way to snip and clip some of that older data off (how much are they hauling). This could be in and may include standalone declarations and other watchers, feeders, and triggers. Certain tables just keep ballooning and we are storing and storing data. We need to figure out a way to archive some of that data. |
|
|
Shop 6039 |
|
Loyalty Accounting | 3/2/2020 |
Great meeting with both Eric and Steve. All three of us spent two hours going over a number of key points. Lots of drawings, running scenarios through financial flow calculators, and talking about options and needs. - Math and logic for loyalty points One of the other major topics was the law of deferring to something else that has more details. That could be a sub account, a one-to-many relationship with details, payments, line items, sub accounts, transactions, or other things that have sub dates, types, groupings, values, calculations, etc. Often, we defer to the item that has the best information and/or the best vantage point. That is part of what we are doing. |
|
|
|
Shop 7837 |
|
Projects | 6/25/2021 |
Steve and I met and talked about all kinds of stuff. We chatted for almost two hours. Here are some of my notes. - The process of being willing to dive into the unknown - Need for project management - Standalone declarations - How to incorporate those pieces and tie everything in to the financials. The standalone declarations allows (futuristically) a user to move and virtually declare or make a statement one way or another. For example: Say you just needed to declare some revenue, for some reason. It wouldn't have any backing (no supporting docs or history) but it allows you to just add it to certain places within the financials. This would allow you to make any change and/or adjustment that would be needed (revenue, cost of goods, expenses, assets, liabilities, equity, etc.) without having to have a special balance sheet item or entity. Just because it exits (or will be) doesn't mean that you would use it for everything. On purpose, it would stick out like a sore thumb. Ideally, you would only use these adjustments if you did not have another tool to do the job naturally. - Starting and finishing projects. Our guys seem to love to start things but we are having a problem with getting them all the way across the finish line. That seems to be pretty normal. We don't like it, but we will try hard to help these guys get in there and help them finish things up. - One small step at a time. It's hard to go faster than that. - The shelf - We build and develop and then put something on the shelf. That is a big pain to us. We pay and pay and then we can't even use it - right then. The further we go, the deeper the shelf seems to be. It almost has layers and layers within layers. If it gets too old, it gets hard to bring it up to speed with master code branch, just because things happen and change so quickly. Interesting cycles. It's part of the game. - We would like to use Cory more as the manager for the projects. She already coordinates tons of the pieces, we would love her to be even more involved. Along those same lines, we would like to extend more authority to make calls on flow, direction, speed, and budgets. Good stuff. - We have to be careful of the mindset of "got to do the whole thing". We do way better if we take smaller bites, do it, finish it, and then cycle back around. If we bite off too much, we tend to get in so deep, the end or end goal becomes blurry and it makes it hard to finish and/or even know where the finish line is located. We keep trying to get the small victories. That seems to help. The really long hauls wear everybody out and sometimes you don't feel very successful, even if you finish. - One technique that we use and have used is to launch things (pages, features, or projects) and we don't link to them (keep part of it hidden). You have to know that they exists. We then build and test, build and test, and then start showing it to others. As it becomes more stable, we fully build the navigation and path to the door of the virtual area or functionality. We have had great success doing it this way. If we do it this way, we get code merged into master quicker, it is still somewhat hidden, it can get pushed on without breaking anything, and the developer feels like progress is being made. It also has the opportunity to get others involved to help fuel on the project - both financially and mentally. Having a buddy is amazing! - The conversation turned more towards sales and networking with different people. We would love to get some of our developers out in the filed more, have them open their mouth and just talk to people. We have people who can do the demo, the training, etc. We just need people to talk to. Plus, if a developer is out in the field, they then to fix things that need just a little bit of loving. Rounding off the edges. Good stuff. - We talked about setting a base $1,000 setup fee. This includes turning on the lights, doing the logo and colors, basic settings, and some one-on-one training. The monthly could then be set on top of that. The monthly could be whatever we deem to be a value for the client. The primary range is between $17 and $987 per month. That could depend on the client and their size and needs. - We are trying to draw lines and set boundaries. Work in progress. - Helping our guys get their projects across the finish line. In the meantime, if they are done with their projects, let's get them out and get them talking to people (networking and stirring the pot). We will still pay them their normal rate, we just need people to talk to. Along with that, we log everything in the system. Once a lead shows interest, we can setup a demo with one our people (Sean, Marisa, etc.). Good plan, we just need to work that plan now. |
|
|
|
Shop 10191 |
|
Planning with Aspen | 6/19/2023 |
Meeting with both Alan and Aspen. I took some notes and Aspen took some notes. After the meeting, I did some more note recording and note digitizing for 6/15/23 and for 6/16/23. Alan was on with us for the first hour. Here are some of my notes. See attached for all of them. - Let's build out the MVP for the plan - general fracture or adilas lite planning session - what documents does that mean and/or require? - Two of the first main things we want to do is define the jelly fish model (business structure) and the value add-on core model. Those two are some known needs of where we are heading. - We spent quite a bit of time talking about how to break functionality and features up. We want to keep those separate as far as options. - I showed Alan the presentation gallery and the outline of the business functions. There is quite a bit of work that has already been done there. Great resources. - Small packages and/or starting points - We could call it whatever - recipes, packages, templates, industry specific skins, presets, etc. - Alan wanted us to think about tiers and scaling - both vertical and horizontal. I was thinking, what about the Z scale or the depth/layering axis. Just for fun 3D scaling and 3D world building. It might be fun to explore this. - We talked a little bit about pricing and tier levels. We would like to set breakpoints, ranges, and fees for going over. - We asked Alan about his vision for adilas lite and fracture - He is really excited about creating a solution that is light weight and very efficient. In his words, he said, How can I get the most power with the least amount of drag? We went on to talk about hiding things that they don't need and getting them to the meat of the operation as quickly as possible. We will do future planning sessions where we look at each section and slim it down to the minimum or minimal requirements. - This is a side note, but as I have been thinking about minimal pieces, I keep coming back to a concept that we were looking into called standalone declarations (full entries without any other connections and/or supporting documentation). They exist by themselves but they also may be mapped and pointed to the right place. We could sum them up, count them, map them, and keep it super simple. Originally it was going to be something that could be made for financial documents (P&L and the balance sheet) but technically we could use them in any way. Simple standalone pieces. - Spend the time and do some market research on what business verticals we could hit and take care of. - Lots of talk about automation and even automating the setup of new systems. Let people try things out as a free or limited version. We would setup thresholds, limits, ranges, or whatever. We want people to try it out and like it. - We talked about ice bergs and mountains (perception of how big it is). We also switched and talked about the depth of the water... pretend levels of swimming - Imagine that you are at the beach - you could get your feet wet, do some wading, swimming, snorkeling, or scuba diving. All at the same place, just how deep and serious are you or what are you looking for? - Once we have a list of things that need to be done and/or worked on, we get to prioritize that list. What do we want to build out and when? - Alan had the idea of putting our outline information into a database. That way we could just query things (just in time) as needed. That way we could make the lists super small and then allow for it to be expanded at will. Great idea. Simple displays with drill-downs. Almost the presentation gallery for sales, marketing, pricing, features, and education. - We also want to highlight future plans and what is up and coming. We change things all the time. Make that part of the plan and the part of the presentation. Put it in a database and let our users pull back what information they want and/or need. Self-building templates, feature lists, tiers, and other levels. |
|