Joined up with Steve on the Monday morning meeting. He was showing me some new pages that he was working on and using some prebuilt CSS templates that we purchased. Russell Moore got us started with those CSS templates a few years back. Steve has been in there playing around and is grabbing code and pages and plugging in real code and database values. It is starting to look pretty good. As a side note, a couple times today, we have circled back around to prebuilt templates and what they offer.

Steve and Dustin were talking about some of their combined efforts and different demos that Dustin has been giving and doing. He has done a great job and is very easy to work with. That is a huge plus.

Calvin joined in and had a few questions. He also helped both Steve and I get the latest versions of his adilas label builder wizard. We worked with the label editors and then also gave Calvin a few change order to do list stuff. We would love to get some data formatting functions to help make the data look good. The other major topic was talking about 3rd party solutions and how we secure those pieces. I told Calvin that I would work with him on what is needed and how best to get the desired outcome. We are planning on adding a section for Calvin and MyEasySoftware in the adilas 3rd party solutions section.

One little nugget from todays talks and discussions was: We may be better off getting one or two key persons trained up on certain features and implementations and then allowing those parties to charge or get paid to help setup the others who need those pieces. It helps get specialists and also really cuts down on the tech support required to do harder or more complicated tasks and processes. The summary is: Get people to pay for value added services, especially somewhat technical or complicated setup or in-depth processes vs trying to teach everybody how to do it on their own. The other option to that, which would be nice if possible, is to make the setup and/or processes more simple and intuitive. Somehow we need to monetize some of these deeper tools. Either charge for setup and training or increase the monthly reoccurring.

Wayne joined the meeting and had a few questions. He and Calvin chatted about AWS, windows services, and how they may be able to use AWS Lambda functions to do similar things that we are doing under the current Windows server model. It got pretty techy. We setup a new permission for Wayne to use in his open id user pools and how to grant or deny access between open id users and different worlds or corporations.

Steve and I did some more work on templates and getting a good starting place to work from. Steve was talking about how awesome it is to use prebuilt CSS templates due to the fact that you start from a working picture (static or fake data) and then build in functionality from there. We did a code merge for Steve and I had to help out with some page view icons for some of the new pages.

Towards the very end of the call/session, Wayne popped back in and had some questions about changing the MySQL data engine from MyISAM to INNODB type tables. Techy database stuff. He also had a question about the scan and add to cart process and how complicated it seemed to be. We talked briefly about some performance tuning and options. Basically ways to help go in and split things apart and/or speed up certain queries. Afterwards Steve and I chatted and talked about some of the cool things that are coming down the pipeline. Keep moving forward.

Talking with Kelly and Steve about the balance sheet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talking about quotes, standing up for ourselves, piggyback options (somebody pays for one thing and the next person pays for the next and so on), and re-inventing ourselves and our style. Steve and I had a good 1.5 hour phone call going over a bunch of the pieces. Lots of options on the BI (business intelligence) side of the equation.

We may be able to offer the full solution at a price that is awesome and great. This would be the current and normal transactional data system. They could do everything and see everything. If they, the clients, want the enterprise edition, we would love to add a roll up aggregated business intelligence option that could be put over the top of the existing transactional system. This seems like a logical option and upgrade (value add-on).

We talked about the core product and then other layers or extras that are on top of or surround the core. Lots of exciting options that could be come up with and/or built to help with those other higher levels. Bulk tools, aggregated data, special dashboards, etc. If the clients need multiple systems, and those systems all need to be consolidated and/or aggregated as well, that's just another layer that we could roll things up into.

Instead of selling modules or small parts of the system. The main product would be the entire core (all of the pieces). You could then build on top of that and/or get the enterprise type packages. That seems like a better way to sell it vs splitting all of the core features up into smaller pieces. You basically need the whole core and then you add on after that. Great idea.

Some time was spent talking about making some offerings to parties and induvial to help with sales and offering commissions and birddog type fees. We want to get some people pushing on this and see who can sell what we have.

Our plan is to stick to the line in the sand mentality and it people complain, we simply ask them to contribute via ideas, feedback, seed money, or custom projects. If they don't want to do that, we'll just get to it when we can. That's how we have to play. We have been virtually beat up and down and we can't keep doing that. Our time and our product are of worth and value. We help a company by bringing value. 

Leadership, there are tons of different ways to play the game. Our style is currently, let's empower those who want to play and see where things go. Empower the people. Also, as we keep going, we are learning more and more how to focus and really try to do one thing at a time. That is really tough. Sow the seeds and then reap the harvest.

Another fun note is when Steve and I get together and we start talking, we generate excitement and energy. It is exciting to see of the dreams and ideas coming to pass and being implemented in the system. That is really fun. A portion of that energy is what gives us passion and really drives us.

Lastly, stick to it. That's what we keep doing and we're pretty good at that. Keep sticking to it!

Great little work session meeting. We started out and Shannon and I went over some of the new updates and happenings. It is amazing how quick things change in our world. After the update and chatting about new changes, we spent the rest of the time brainstorming on business intelligence (BI) and how that plays in. See attached for our brainstorming (you may have scroll way down the page).

- Shannon and I were talking and drawing small models of the power packed core (transactional data core - main part of the adilas.biz system) and then how we could add value add-on's going around it. Think of a small target with a couple different rings. The inter ring is the adilas core or the transactional data core. Then the rings around that would be the other add-on value rings.

- Here are some possible value add-on rings that could play into our model... once again, just brainstorming...
1. The adilas core and transactional data core
2. Industry specific skins, white label, or add-on's
3. Custom code, skins, API sockets, or 3rd party integrations
4. Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard and stats, graphs, and special reports
5. Enterprise level - unlimited options to interconnect multiple corporations - consolidated system

- See a need, fill a need - movie "Robots"

- Our landscape keeps unfolding right before us and even right underneath us - keep adapting

- Harvesting tons of prior work and efforts (some of our new brainstorming efforts - good stuff)

- Value add-on like a car, you need the basics (say the core) and then you may do other value add on's beyond that.

- Custom code and other interfaces are a part of the value added layers (core model with target like rings around the core)

- Industry specific layering, may be multiple levels deep, if needed.

Eric joined our meeting and had a couple of deeper server based questions. We talked about request timeouts, server side loops, API socket calls and checking status codes, multiple treads and threading, dishing off things to a task queue or sub queue of sorts, 3rd party error logs, and syncing data between servers. Pretty deep stuff.

After Eric left, Steve and I chatted briefly about some more marketing ideas. I pitched the core model with value added rings. Super light but a good start. Without all of the details, here are the quick levels:

1. Core
2. Industry Specific
3. Custom
4. BI - Business Intelligence Dashboars
5. Enterprise level(s)

We also briefly talked about how the corp size, number of transactions (invoices, users, and locations), data storage and usage (database size, photos, scans, uploaded files, and media/content), and even API socket transactions (3rd party stuff or other API socket usages) may all need to be part of the pricing and billing. We are thinking of setting up levels and then using that to help us to provide pricing options. Making progress.

Chuck and I met and touched base on a number of different projects. I gave him a small review of some of the new direction with the core and value add-on's to that base core. We went over the different outer rings and some of those ideas. After that, we jumped into some of his projects. We talked about the corp-wide settings page, the new slides for the presentation gallery. We spent some time there talking and going over ideas and concepts. Looking good.

After going over his current projects we spent some time looking for a code bug in a page that he is working on... pretty hidden bug, we couldn't find it with our first initial glance. We then closed the meeting just chatting about general things that are happening and going on - life stuff. Good meeting.

https://xd.adobe.com/view/e01cc5b5-caa2-4b84-4727-58b1b2ea764e-962d/ - current slides in the Adobe XD layout for the presentation gallery (still under construction)

This was going to be a special meeting for a specific project but it ended up being an extension of the general touch base on quotes, projects, and plans. Here are few things that I pulled out of the meeting (not necessarily part of any one project, but more overview of subjects).

- Both up and down traffic for enterprise systems. At one time, we were mostly focusing on smaller systems rolling up into a bigger oversight or holding type company. What we are seeing is that the clients really want both directions - roll up, and cascade down (two-way traffic).

- Some of these enterprise type setups will be a cross between a permission and a setting. Who gets to do what and what direction or instructions are needed to make the data flow either up hill or cascade down hill? Interesting.

- Looking at both aggregate systems and transactional systems

- The watchers, feeders, and triggers may come in to play as data (things) rolls up or down, depending on task and flow. The watchers, feeders, and triggers may even become part of the communication process and how and where to track things that are going on.

- We are starting to see the next steps... from transactions up to aggregate and from master back to transactional systems. We don't know everything yet, but patterns are starting to emerge and become more clear. That is awesome. Once we fully understand them, we can then document them and build them.

- Steve was talking about starting at a master vendor list level and then letting those vendors be available in the smaller or sub systems.

- We also talked about master lists for items, photos, part categories, sub inventory templates, etc. Think on three main levels... global (anybody could use), enterprise or master level (top level for a multi-level structure), or the individual corporation or world level.

- Smart software and creating master global lists for known vendors, items, categories, photos, customer types, custom units of measure, time templates, etc. The list keeps going...

- Lots of additional services - that is awesome, but we need to be able to charge for that and/or those services. We just can't do all of them for free. They are a cause and effect type service but also need to be a value add-on service that comes with a price.

- There was some talk about bringing in some of our developers closer to have more control over output and processes. Trying to get away from the wild west type mentality.

- Having Steve help more with project management. That could and is huge. He can and is able to point people in a good direction. He has done that for years. Originally, this was his brain child (meaning adilas as a company).

- On some of the projects, we may increase some of the project bids to help include new settings. That seems to be where everything is going and/or heading. Permissions and settings.

Great little meeting. Chuck is working on a new corp-wide settings page with the snow owl theme. It is getting really close. He is working with Russell on some of his projects. We also talked about the presentation gallery and having he and Russell work on that project. That project is getting ready to leave mock-up stage and go into the coding phase. The other task that I gave him was working with Russell to build a new graphic that shows the adilas core with value add-on rings or levels. We just want to see some prototypes on that. Good stuff.

Monday morning. There were 4 of us on the meeting to begin with. Later on, Wayne joined as well. Steve and Sean were talking about sales. Danny jumped on and has some questions about code repository stuff (Git and bit bucket). We also went over projects, touching base, server stats, sales tools and backend server stuff. As part of the sales stuff, Steve had me show Sean what we were working on for the presentation gallery and what the status of that project is or was. Good stuff.

Once Wayne joined, we jumped into a number of other topics including:

- Breaking up the databases and dealing with the single sign-in or single access login. World building and adilas café stuff.

- Manual and automated load balancing

- The concept of the value add-on core model - with different rings to denote the other levels of add-on value pieces. We have determined at least 5 levels as of right now. 1. Core, 2. Business vertical or industry specific, 3. Custom level, 4. BI or Business Intelligence level, and 5. Enterprise or multiple corp(s) level. Each of those value rings has to be purchased and serviced. You have to have the transactional data core to get it started, but anything beyond that, is extra or a value add-on piece. Very configurable.

- Speaking of configuration stuff - We need to be able to configure the servers in or at the enterprise level as to who they serve, how many instances per box, and where they point. All configuration type details, but on the server levels.

- Wayne was explaining a bunch of terms and how things work on the VPS (virtual private servers) realm. Somewhat of a controllable shared space based on settings, needs, and what not. As part of this discussion, Wayne used an analogy of a fleet of cars/vans/trucks for lease by a company. The company that is using them does have to worry about the tires, paint, and repairs, they just have to use them and pay for gas. We did a similar analogy with what we are offering on the server/IT/tech side of things. Our clients just want it to be done and handled, we have to figure out what the configuration is, for their IT/server needs. Is that 3 web servers and 2 database servers or is it a cluster of web servers, a dedicated content server, and a cluster of database servers. All configuration pieces. We need more control of what and how we set things up (server configuration options).

- Steve and Wayne got into monitoring servers and how that too could be a value add-on service. They spent some time inside of pingdom.com and talking about packages and options for both monitoring servers, uptime, and page/user specific processes and flow. Once again, it got back into value add-on services and being able to offer those add-on or add-in services.

- There was some talks about persons who could reset servers and some training that might be needed there. Trying to get everybody who needs it, ready to help.

- As we, adilas, incur a direct cost, we need to be able to pass those costs on to our clients. Wayne used the term "transfer" direct costs to our clients. More add-on service stuff.

- One of the next steps for us is in the performance and reliability side of things. We really want to be able to optimize our code and split up our databases. That would help a lot. Once again, more configuration options and settings on the code and server levels. 

Marisa has some questions about EDI (electronic data interchange) and API sockets. We told her that EDI and API's are very similar. EDI was more of a front runner, but most modern apps and systems communicate via API sockets. They are very similar in that it allows computers to talk to one another via electronic communication channels. She and Steve were also talking about other client messaging options besides text and email. Different types of push type notification based on elements of time and/or customer logs that are visible via a valid ecommerce or customer portal login.

Steve, Cory, and I spent the rest of the time going over ideas and brainstorming on aggregate totals, and moving grouped and pre-summed data up the chain. We did a lot of drawing and talked about different ideas. We know that the bottom most level or base of the pyramid is the transactional core or transactional data. We also know, that per world or per corporation, we need to get to the aggregated totals for the P&L (profit and loss statement or income statement) and the balance sheet.

Cory was taking notes... here are some of them that she passed over to me.

- ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) - this is how you work with aggregated data. You extract what you want, change or transform it into what you need, and then re-load or push it into a database in the stored or transformed format. Make it easy to get it back out.

- We have a map (using the existing adilas system from operations into accounting) - we need to follow it backwards. Be able to pull the P&L and balance sheet quickly and pull it in from one single query. Currently, we have to go all over the underlying transactions and data details to pull back the values. It would be so cool if we could aggregate things as needed, based on the current map that exists in the system.

- P&L and BSI reverse mapping? Let's look into it. What if we could start from the top and then work/map going down? Follow the flow of the data. There are many sub pieces that may need to be linked and/or aggregated together before we can pull the hard, fast, numbers - all from one single place.

- As we map things out, we know we need to deliver what they (our clients) want and also try to head in the direction we want to go as well. That can be challenging.

- Different levels of drill-downs. Balance sheet starts at Inventory levels (way up high), not at part categories, vendors, parent items, or sub inventory items (child items). Eventually, we have to be way up high for the P&L and balance sheet info. Then, as the user needs more details and sub information, they will do what is called a drill-down (going deeper into the details).

- Here are the main pieces for a P&L: Revenue, COGS, Gross profit, Expenses, Net profit

- Here are the main pieces for a Balance Sheet: Assets, Liabilities, Equity

- Futuristic goal: run the balance sheet and P&L over time all the way down to the second. Imagine a time lapsed view of your financials. You have to go from transactional data up to fully aggregated totals in order to get those numbers. Let it begin!

- Thinking about data... Am I tied to a corp? Am I tied to a location? What is my date/time stamp? Do I have a main category or grouping? Reports and financials by day are the current goal. Eventually, it could go all the way down to hours, minutes, and seconds. For now, we will focus on a per day basis.

- Think of a pyramid. Top most would be all pieces, all of the sums. Quick sums- held at the top. We want to capture and hold these sums or totals per day. Much less information at the top than at the bottom.

- Value added cores - we had a great discussion about how we want to use a value added core type model to help businesses run on adilas and also ways that we could monetize the different value added cores or levels that get added onto the main transactional core (the adilas system).

- One table with totals for each (top most level): Corp ID, Date, Revenue, COGS, Gross profit, Expenses, Net profit, Balance Sheet, Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Out of balance value (sum). These would be the top most corp or world level aggregation tables. Quick financials and numbers.

- We don't know how deep it goes yet, but imagine one table with totals for each level going down - until you get to the transactional data. Not sure how deep this goes yet? This might take more than one iteration to build and figure things out. For now, just pretend and start back filling as needed.

- We were talking about tracking things up to 4 to 5 levels deep. These are some of the existing pieces (verbage from the system): Destination/main title, main category/main grouping, sub group or sub category, vendors or types. We need to figure out the 4-5 deep path for all major pieces. For example: If recording revenue, it has a certain path. If recording an expense/receipt, it has a certain path. The same thing is true for things like: deposits, user-maintained balance sheet items, system-maintained balance sheet items, basically every piece of the P&L and the balance sheet - they all have specific paths and need to be at that 4-5 levels deep. Even BSI’s are 5 levels deep. Five levels should cover everything (for now).

- Talked about everything being under one database (new aggregated or math sum/count tables). If we feel we have reached capacity, we could always go out to another database (level 4- aggregated sums) or just add more tables. Lots of options. Once again, trying to figure out where the natural lines exists and what could be extra or add-on values.

See attached for some drawings that we were talking about as we were discussing some of these details and ideas.

Working with Steve on an inventory upload for parent attributes. We ended up talking about progress and progression. We went through tons of other topics as well. Here is a small list from my notes: Funds, budgeting, turning some corners, CPA's, financial, oversight services, different audiences and levels. Good meeting.

Eric popped in and gave us a report on his sales tax aggregation project. We covered: ETL (extract, transform, load), data warehousing, mirroring data, running aggregates against the mirrored data vs running it against live transactional data.

Eventually, everything comes down to a date or date/time (objects and data over time). We need to play to that level. We briefly talked about a 3D calendar and tracking things based on that 3D calendar (years, quarters, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds). Adilas allows you to virtually mess with time (when did things happen). Playing in real-time, that's the goal. We keep building and breaking it, we then build it and break it again and again. That is our process.

Steve was chiming in and explaining flex bubbles, flex pods, and allowing things to flex and then come back together. The discussion went towards inventory and what we know about it (it's state or status). Inventory is usually either safe and physical (on hand), on order or in transit, or sold and has a cost of good sold. Querying and flagging data (phases and sub locations) and trying to do it in real-time! Real-time aggregates plus real-time transactions (mixing them). That could create some real-time virtual smoke and mirrors.

Going to the next level - that becomes a possible value add-on layer and getting other serves (or services) involved to handle the BI (business intelligence). The whole thing deals with flags and reporting on states, status, phases, and sub locations. The goal is keeping track of changes and tracking what days get changed (virtual queue) as a grouped modified date.

As we move up the chain, we will make it faster and faster. We may also need a manual flush or way to force a recalc per day or per location. As a side note, we may even want to add a compare page between transactional data and stored aggregates.

We also talked about being able to turn things on/off as we are testing. Running experiments as needed. What about API sockets and alternate routes (we have to catch all possible routes). We talked about database triggers but sometimes that logic gets hidden.

Path - good operations (ops) lead to good accounting (acct) and that leads to good business intelligence (BI). If you keep looking at things (going forward), you get into trending and predictive analytics. Pretty cool!

Date it and flag it! Date it and flag it! - This helps us track the story of what is happening and going on. Along with that, what is the next level? Keep watching and pushing, find the edges, and try to bring things together like a zipper being zipped up - one cog at a time.

I've got a project coming up that needs some new settings for elements of time (calendar, scheduling, and events). I woke up this morning and couldn't stop thinking about some ideas for some new settings. I scribbled them down on a 3x5 card (front and back). I was saying a prayer and the ideas kept coming. Kinda fun. Also, the other fun thing was almost being able to see how to do some of these things and the potential that they could unlock. Really fun.

Anyways, here are the ideas. After I got them all scribbled down, I texted Steve to see if he would want to meet for a bit to go over the new settings and ideas. We jumped on a GoToMeeting session and he and I had a good 45 minute chat, with drawings, proposals, pitches, and lots of ideas going back and forth. Good session. Here is an expanded version of some of my little notes and scribbles.

- Dealing with time templates - what if we allowed for a basic mode and an advanced mode? Some people may not want to see all of the pieces. The basic mode would be what currently exits and/or something pared down from that. The new advanced mode would allow for all kinds of other settings, verbage changes, field name aliases, special instructions, sort order (where the fields show up), settings, required options, etc. The time templates page would have a toggle switch to go between the basic mode and the advanced mode. There would also be links directly to the advanced and basic modes from the list of time templates page. Same permission, just a toggle switch between the page modes. As a side note, Chuck recommended that we maybe have a "custom" mode.

- We already do this with customer database field names (allow for field names to be controlled). We want to do the same thing for elements of time. We will use the db_field_settings table to store specific info (field name options) for each time template, if the users wish to. If not, we will use a default set of data stored in the db_field_settings table for basic time_templates. We will use the field called db_table_name to store the value "time_templates" to store the default values assigned to corp 1. Just like the customers stuff. For each time template, we will change the name from "time_templates" to "time_templates_[555]" where the number will be the corp specific time template id number. Tons of sweet options there already. Aliases, defaults, placeholders, build your own drop-downs, required yes/no, max, min, show/hide, sort order, etc. As a side note, we currently let the main time templates handle the show/hide options. Somehow we may need to sync those up and/or figure out which one is the master. For right now, I'm still leaning on the time template being the master and the db_field_settings table holding the naming, aliases, special directions, defaults, etc. I hope that makes sense.

- On the advanced time search page. I would really like to add a master template switch at the top of the page. This would be a drop-down form field that shows all of the time templates. If a time template is selected (or preselected through a URL.template value), at the top, and submitted, then the page would be able to virtually slim down based on the settings, naming, and custom pieces per time template. The current advanced time search has everything plus the kitchen sink. If a template is selected, then the page could only show those pieces that are turned on, the correct naming, the correct filters and search criteria, and hide all unused sub searches as well. The time template settings would also affect the sub time searches and use the correct verbage, info, naming, show/hide, filters, etc. Basically, be able to dynamically convert the advanced time search page into a time template specific search form or page. That would be super cool. Also, if a template is selected, the search results could also translate and show the correct fields, verbage, settings, and make it feel round trip (search, results, and details). Higher in this entry, it is alluded to the fact that we could control the page with a URL value (URL.template) and then we could link to it, store quick buttons, etc. That would be really handy. As a side note, Chuck recommended that we look into a tab or tabs based page for all of the different searches - make it more digestible vs all in-line down the page. We could still have the template switch, but show the different searches in a vertical or horizontal tab display. Great idea.

- On the sub flags and tags, we need some more template settings. You can turn 5 different sections on with this sub (one of the bigger subs). A section within the sub tags and flags, was one that that was added later on (for phase tracking and location moving) it deals with possible sub tie-ins (PO's, invoices, quotes, etc.). Currently, we can't control that piece through settings. It just kinda got added out of necessity vs through the normal development process (planning). All we need to do is go in and add those settings, flip some of the old values (existing data) and make it more straight forward as people set those things up in the future. Along those same lines, the sub flags and tags may need some help on the output and display and the add/edit process. All of those pieces were altered and got the sub tie-in hardcoded to them. We may need to remove or make that more settings based.

- On sub flags and tags, I would like to be able to show the last flag or fag on the main. It holds the data right now, but doesn't show the entry. Light tweak to make it show up on the working with time page and the printable time page. Also, check the searchability of the last known flag or tag on the main, through the advanced search.

- There are two pieces of the main elements of time that we can't control via settings yet... they are the make private and admin only checkboxes. We need to be able to turn those two settings on and off. Currently, every element of time automatically gets those. They are not used that often and need to become settings so that we can show/hide those options. As a side note, those two settings do have some hardcoded text values like "private" or "admin only" that show up on other reports and report types if someone searches for something that is marked as private or admin only. Just a heads up. We may want to limit the verbage on these settings.

- The general amount field on the main elements of time is currently locked to showing dollars. I would love to add some settings to allow that field to be named and formatted. I was thinking of dollars and cents, decimals, plain (no formatting), and integers (remove the decimals). That would make it more useful. For example: I have a time template called mileage and I use the general amount field to hold the number of miles. It holds the correct value but when I pull the report, it always shows the miles in dollars and cents vs just a plain or decimal number. Anyways, I think that could help. Also, along those lines, there are some budget and estimate settings (different settings but still tied to the main element of time)  that could use similar number formatting options. See notes at the bottom for some other mileage ideas.

- What about allowing for the sort order of the fields? This is more complex, but it would be cool. You could put whatever makes sense to you first and move other fields around (up and down or sorted). We may have to circle back around to make sure this is possible.

- Recently we added a thing called flex attributes to the customer section or player group within the system. The flex attributes are virtually real in-line database extensions. We allow for new fields to be configured, added in, able to search, able to show-up, etc. These flex attributes are datatype specific (dates, times, strings, numbers, decimals) vs just plain text fields like the flex grid tie-ins. We eventually want to add these flex attributes to all 12 main system wide player groups (customers - already, invoices, quotes, parts and items, stock/units, elements of time - coming soon, I hope, employee/users, vendors, PO's, expense/receipts, deposits, and balance sheet items). One more thought on this topic of flex attributes. We may need some flex attributes on a global scale (able to cross time templates) and we may need time template specific flex attributes. We may want to do the global ones first, then limit or tighten things down for the time template specific flex attributes after the global flex attributes are added and stable.

- Horizontal grids - show time blocks with main categories or values going down the left and time across the top. We would love to allow for saving settings, allowing for special homepages, and custom buttons, just like my cart favorite buttons. See element of time 6967 for more info on horizontal grids. This is a form of blocking out times and who or what is scheduled, called for, or booked. Ideally, we want to be able to configure these horizontal and vertical time views, so that we could have and use more of them. That would be really cool. Once again, see element of time 6967 to get more details and information on horizontal grids. We used a custom horizontal time view for the Beaver Mountain Ski School. They have been using it for 5-6 years now. We would love to keep building off of that type of a model and make it even more configurable and savable without tons of custom code. Make it a tool for all of our users.

- Visual blocking of time... both horizontal and vertical blocking or showing bars or blocks of time. This is a visual way of showing what is booked and what is not booked or called for. Both directions, horizontal (side to side) and vertical (up and down). We need them both. We currently have the time slot view which is close to vertical blocking, but it still needs to be more bold and handle the blocking in a better way. The logic seems to be there, but it still needs a little visual help to really bock and virtually claim those slots or segments of time. It might be nice to ask for certain visual blocking right from the advanced time search - kinda like a report type. We already have a calendar view, time slot view, grouped view, and detailed view. Maybe add horizontal block view, and vertical block view. That would be cool.

- We would like to add in some dynamic dates. These special dates would allow reports to be saved with the dynamic dates vs a physical date range or custom fixed date rage. The dynamic dates would and could be things like: current day, current week, current month, current quarter, current year,  yesterday (prior day), last week, (prior week), last month (prior month), last quarter (prior quarter), last year (prior year), tomorrow (next day), next week (future week), next month (future month), next quarter (future quarter), next year (future year), etc. These would be really handy, so that saved reports could just pull relative info (based off of the current or today's date value), without having to worry about updating or flipping date ranges. Anyways, I think this will be awesome and we could use it all over the system on other reports and pages. Especially, wherever we are saving reports and pulling up saved data. These dynamic dates may make it super awesome and powerful.

- Be able to use the calendar view and calendar overlay for tons of new reports. Be able to save almost anything in an calendar type view. That would be awesome. Once again, the dynamic dates, mentioned above, would be really cool with this. Maybe even have an advanced search page that could save and filter the data and then show it on a calendar type report view. Great visual for what is happening on what day over time. We could call it the advanced calendar page or report. It would also be super cool if we could point subs of time to some sort of calendar type report or other visual time blocking type report. Currently, most of the subs only show up in detail view (normal tables with rows and columns). Being able to see the subs in other report formats (calendar, time slots, time blocking, horizontal, vertical, groups, etc.) would be sweet.

- On the template settings (techy stuff behind the scenes), currently, when adding and editing a main element of time, you have to pass in the template settings when adding or editing the main element of time. I would like to automate this process. It would make it easier for the developers. This is more of a behind the scenes switch on the methods and method calls. Most of those template settings don't change very often. We should have the methods themselves do the look-ups and make the changes (adds and updates to the fields on the elements of time table). This would really simplify the add and edit main elements of time processes.

- Being able to control the names and settings on the subs is going to be huge. This means what they are called (like sub dates and times, sub comments, sub sign-off's, sub flags and tags, sub payroll, etc.) and what fields they hold. Be able to change that on a per template basis. It also includes the sub fields and what they are called. For example: Say the default sub section is called "Sub Dates & Times". We may want to rename that "Amenities" or "Sub Bookings" or "Project Timecards". We could also control the field names with the sub section. Say the origianl or default field name is "Sub Title or Caption". Say you wanted to change it to "Extra Booking" or "Follow-up Reason" or "Sub Event" or whatever. Being able to change what the main things are called and also what the sub fields, within each sub of time are called and how they act. That will be a game changer. Here is a list of the current subs of time.

- On the working with time page, make the add/edit subs easier. Add in buttons to help with the add new process. The current way is just a simple link. It kind of gets hidden. Make it a little bit more bold and obvious.

- Some of these settings and concepts would be super cool for the fracture project. We really want to hide whatever we can, show what we need to, and allow for the whole thing to be dynamically (through data vs code) controlled and configured. That would be a super cool piece for fracture. See the above entries for some ideas.

- Futuristically, we would love to be able to switch elements of time between time templates. Currently, you get one time template and that is it. We don't allow an element of time to switch templates due to all of the background settings that are being held, monitored, and used.

- We may also need to add in some settings to deal with the general name for elements of time. That is very broad. Each time template can be named individually, but we have had clients that want it called the calendar, scheduling, etc. We may need some bigger corp-wide settings that control the main name and smaller abbreviations. For example: The defaults may be "Elements of Time" and "Time" for short. However, they could be set to Calendar, Lessons, Schedules, Reservations, Rentals, Bookings, Assignments, Tasks, To Do's, etc. The more that people can call it what they want, the less they end up fussing later on. That key piece of speaking their language is huge.

- It's not all code, some of this is just planning and dreaming

- It may be nice to use a spreadsheet to help with some of the planning. We have lots of rows, columns, and complex data that is needed for the planning portion.

- As a side note, it was so tempting to see a need, and then jump and try to fill that need. I on purpose spent some additional time (hours and hours), trying to get ideas and thoughts out of my head and on to paper (virtually) so that all of the pieces became public knowledge. My normal urge was to figure out a portion of it and then just do it vs writing all of these things down for the benefit of others (and myself).

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On 8/10/21 added some ideas for advanced job costing.

- Mini P&L per element of time. If we can tell that an invoice or expense or PO was tied to the element of time, have it automatically show up in a mini P&L (profit and loss) statement. This may be done with flex grid tie-ins right now (currently - but somewhat manual). We would love to automate it and build it into the mix. That would be really cool. Maybe do some searching for "job costing" to get other ideas.

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On 9/2/21 added some ideas from Chuck Swann

- Chuck read through these ideas and gave Brandon some feedback. Some of the ideas have been listed above with Chuck's name (search above). Here are some of the highlights - What about adding in some custom CSS (cascading style sheets) or custom display options? Maybe think about using a tabs based display for the advanced time search. The word or mode of "custom" may be better than "advanced" - technically, the advanced mode could be the custom mode, it just sounds better and more fitting to what we are really doing - dealing with time templates. Lots of the existing pages need an update to work better with the snow owl theme (style and face lift for pages). Make elements of time easier to use, in general.

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On 9/2/21 added ideas and projects from Cory

- Build out the online and customer facing scheduling options - this is a big project, all by itself. There are more details on other pages. We have a bike shuttle company that needs online scheduling (from ecommerce) and there are many others who are looking for this. Any business could use customer facing, online scheduling.

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On 8/21/23 added some ideas from a buddy - Josh Hanks

- On mileage. Maybe add a sub of a sub to do mileage. We may also need a standalone option (list way up higher using the general amount field) or adding it to a sub date and time entry. Not all entries would need mileage, thus a one to many off of the subs (sub off of sub dates and times). Imagine template settings under sub dates and times to say something like: Need mileage? If yes, do you want to enter a simple number (x number of miles) or use start/stop odometer readings (then we automate and do the math when submitted). Anyways, I had a great meeting with Josh Hanks on 8/21/23. He's a water master, ditches and irrigation stuff, he has a need for these things mixed together - projects, hours, notes, and mileage. The other benefits would be reports, exports, and math that is done for you. We may also add in photo galleries, document management stuff (media/content), etc. We have all of the pieces, we would just need to mix it together better and make it a small industry specific skin. Eventually, when we build out fracture or adilas lite, we want to include some industry specific skins as part of that project or platform (part of the value add-on core model). This may be a fun little venture into that world.

Cory, Steve, and I meeting to decide if we wanted to do a project with the paypod (cash management) stuff and folks. We (mostly me) have been reviewing documentation and making a list of requirements that are needed. We were hoping to do some quoting and making some decisions. We still aren't quite deep enough yet.

We started out the meeting talking about project management and some of our successes and failures. I had just come off another meeting where some things had been going off the tracks a bit. We spent some time going over some of those things and also noting the difference in some of the projects that are coming down the pipeline. Some of our projects are super simple and some of them are deep and super complex. Those two extremes (super simple and super complex) are completely different animals on what is needed and required to get them done and to do them well. I get frustrated sometimes because I feel like things just get dumped in my lap and then we have to figure them out. That technique loses its appeal really quickly. Not very fun.

Switching back to the paypod project. Cory was asking the question, should we or should we not take this project on? Yes, it is a paying project, but it's huge, it's deep, and we will need multiple of our developers to get it done. Because it deals with high level admin hardware integration, it may be over the heads of many of our normal web or cloud based developers. Hardware is a different matter all together. I'm super grateful that she was willing to ask those questions. Good discussion.

Steve wanted us to do some pros and cons to see what we think. Cory took a few notes but mostly we just talked about pros and cons. There are both, goods and bads (pros and cons). It's not just one sided. I like to be positive, but I've been feeling lots of stress and burnout lately. Just overloaded with tons of things trying to grab and/or fight for my time. I was venting and telling both Cory and Steve some of my thoughts and feelings. It may sound weak, but it's real. There are tons of hidden stresses and little things seem to keep adding up. It can be timelines, promises, funding, number of projects, complexity of those projects, and million other things. Sometimes we need to vent and express where we are at and how we are feeling. It may make you feel weak or unable, but it is real and part of life.

One of the pros that Steve was talking about was getting into AI (artificial intelligence) and using some form of robots both now and into the future. Interesting angle. The paypod using is basically a cash management robot of sorts. As we keep going, we may see more and more hybrid type solutions - browser, web/cloud, software, hardware, combos.

We talked about limiting our scope and walking through things one step at a time vs trying to quote out the whole project, which is a pretty big lift, even just to quote it out or give a full estimate. We have to get a little bit deeper first. Another thing that we talked about was letting them (the paypod folks - as a virtual client) help to lead us what they want next vs just our thoughts and ideas. If we were funding this project on our own right now, it would just sit. It's too big of a lift right this minute. However, if they want to fund it, we can and are willing to keep taking baby steps to get it done and chip away at it. We already have 4 phases that we know of right now with this project.

Steve wants the first round, even before we quote anything, to be a quick knock, knock with the machine or simulator. We can then go from there.

These are some other notes from our meeting:

- What about maintenance? Who does what and who will pay for what? We need to define that.

- Go step-by-step and literally take baby steps

- Help to prep the project and dashboards with fake or dummy data. Give our guys and gals a visual of what we are looking for vs just trying to explain it through words.

- Lean on their developer guys - we already have a point of contact that will and should be willing to help us on their side. That could be huge. We don't want to push too hard, but we do want to get their guidance and lean on them where we can. They are the masters of their stuff and they are the ones who want this integration.

- Cory and I (and Steve) will keep working on the project management stuff to watch, control, and manage this project. It will take all three of us on this one. Steve has some vison of what he wants, I've done a bunch of research and initial checking things out, and Cory knows what the the other developers are up to (with their project loads).

- We want to make this a value add on vs a deep dark spot (good job/bad job).

- Making good decisions and it's ok to say no.

- Helping and letting Cory bring in the angles that she is playing at - asking hard questions and being honest about yes, no, possible, don't even think about it, or whatever those angles might be. We are super grateful for her help in that piece of the puzzle.

The last random side note is that Steve is a salesperson or good sales man - He was literally pitching Cory and I and getting us to buy in to his vision and his ideas. I can't tell you how many times he has done that. I will virtually be on the side of a cliff (some crazy gnarly decision) and Steve is able to talk me off the virtual cliff and gives me just enough to keep going or take some other angle on the project or task. That is both good and bad. I'm grateful for his help, but sometimes after the fact, I think to myself, how did I let him talk me into this (again)? Just being silly (kinda). Steve we love you!

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

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

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

- Seek first to understand, then to be understood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Build on what we have

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

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

- Are we making decisions off of logic or emotions?

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

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

- Focus on one thing at a time

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

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

- Fall down 7 times, get up 8 times!

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

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

- Setup a time or a person to help manage adilas

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

- Maybe cut down on dedicated hours

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wayne, John, Bryan, Cory, and I were on the server meeting. We went over a number of projects throughout the meeting. We need to spin up a couple more boxes and the guys were working on a quote and a time estimate for one of our clients. This was really cool, but Cory asked Wayne what it would take to get this project done. Wayne flipped it on its head and was talking about working the whole thing backwards. Basically, you start with what they want (that wasn't super clear) and then you figure out what things you will need to do to get there. Wayne's approach quickly started to focus on what was wanted vs what could we do (the sky is the limit). I've known that and even used it, but it was fun to see it play out in the meeting. I really enjoyed it.

We went over options and questions that we could take back to the client. Are they looking for access to raw data, summarized data, a webpage or web-based report, a spreadsheet, or even open API socket access points? That makes a huge difference as to where you go and what you do. We also talked about certain projects and possible code that has already been written for other clients and how we could tweak that if needed. Wayne was recommending that we get with the client, open up a blank spreadsheet and see what data they were looking for (basically doing some consulting - instead of just quoting something). I took it as a form of listening and even helping to educate our clients. That method or process, of talking with our clients, will actually help our clients be even more happy and really get what they want.

We have so many possible options, sometimes it takes some time to figure out what is really wanted and/or needed. There is a big difference between value and cost. We were talking about that. Ideally, we focus more on the value vs the costs. As we were talking about this, I was thinking about some of the ideas of the value add-on core model that we have been dreaming up for fracture. Here is a rough recap that I grabbed from an older element of time.

The concept of the value add-on core model - with different rings to denote the other levels of add-on value pieces. We have determined at least 5 levels as of right now. Starting from the middle. 1. Core (adilas core - everything that exists right now - image the), 2. Business vertical or industry specific, 3. Custom level, 4. BI or Business Intelligence level, and 5. Enterprise or multiple corp(s) level. Each of those value rings has to be purchased and serviced. You have to have the transactional data core to get it started, but anything beyond that, is extra or a value add-on piece. Very configurable.

Eventually, everyone will want some of the (BI) Business Intelligence stuff. This will take the underlying transactional data and will help to summarize it, aggregate it, count it, condense it, and display it in a way that is easy to digest and fun to look at (aka eye candy but also eye candy with a purpose). I'm really excited to get to that part of the project. I want to make sure, when we build out the fracture project, that we include this Business Intelligence (BI) level into the main application.

As far as history, when we started, we didn't have clear picture of where we were going. The further we go along the path, you can see how the other pieces play into the mix. I'm excited to keep working on them prior to getting to fracture, but I really want to make sure we include them in the next round. In a way, it's like what Wayne was saying, work the project backwards - what do you want, then make sure that it fits and fills those needs. Make the plan.

Long meeting between Steve, Cory, and I. Cory was reporting on tons of different projects and getting our input and suggestions. We covered tons of different topics. Here are some of my notes (from 10 pages of post-it notes - didn't know it/we would cover so much). The original meeting was only setup for an hour. It went a wee bit over... :)

- Talking about tons of custom label options. More talks about what to do with Calvin's custom label builder. We've spent a lot of money there and want to really get a return on that investment.

- We talked about bringing projects more internally with our guys and breaking things into smaller and smaller pieces.

- On labels, we had a request to be able to do serialized labels (up or modify counts and counters based on batches or packages).

- Using tons of our existing tools and refining those pieces. We have a ton of tools in the shed (virtually).

- Lots and lots of talks about breaking up the bigger projects into multiple smaller pieces. Along with that, we need to be able to charge money for bigger estimates. Everything takes time and effort. Either that or be able to recoup the amount within the bid or estimate.

- If we are doing real custom work, we need to charge for that. Often, we end up taking a hit.

- The trend seems to be (globally) transactions and details going into aggregates and summaries. We have had so many 3rd party analytical companies wanting to use our API sockets to harvest and use our great data sets. We would like to do a bunch of that analytical work inhouse vs farming it out to a 3rd party. All of these 3rd parties are just working for individual companies, but you can see the trend happening. Our clients are really wanting to get to the business intelligence level (BI) for viewing their data, snapshots, counts, summaries, and other aggregated data or stats.

- We went over some pros and cons of using the adilas API sockets. Back and forth on monetizing those channels and also making sure that they don't get abused or flooded.

- Lots of talks about the item catalog and the image catalog. As we use more and more API sockets, we could really use bigger and bigger bulk tools to help with data standardization and speed of deployment. Lots of positives. We, as a company, could also sell more systems if we brought in the enterprise level (way up - cascading info down to lower systems). Good stuff.

- More bulk standard tools. This just adds to the votes for building out the value add-on core model with different levels. Just as a recap - the value add-on core model deals with 5 known levels. They are: 1. Transaction core (current adilas system), 2. Industry specific skin, tools, and features. 3. Any custom code on top of the main system. 4. BI - Business Intelligence levels (stats, sums, counts, averages, mins, maxes, aggregates), and 5. Enterprise levels - connecting multiple worlds in a hierarchical type system (roll ups, roll downs, transaction corps/worlds, aggregates and sum corps/worlds - also dealing with permissions and access). We really want this type of a system for our future fracture project. We already have a number of pieces to this project (all kinds of prototypes spread all around the system), it just isn't all put together. That would be so awesome, clean, powerful, and hopefully pretty!

- We spent some time talking about our clients. Sometimes they get pretty creative. That is both good and bad. If they get creative, and find errors or break things, we just fix them and keep going. Other times, they totally use certain tools in ways we never would have imagined and/or foreseen. That can get interesting.

- There have been some requests for bulk tools for updating sub attributes and bulk sub inventory tools.

- Cory kept asking - Who are we? We tend to build generally but then we have all of these industry specific demands that keep coming at us. It makes it really hard to know where to focus. We really need to decide who we are and then hopefully that or those choices will help guide us.

- Dealing with Metrc (state compliance systems), we've had the request to build out more individual user type functions. This is dealing with more employee/user type permissions and settings. Currently, most of our Metrc transactions are done on a corporation or world level. The new requests are to do the exact same things but break it down on a per person basis. That sounds awesome, but that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars in development. We would have to create the one-to-many relationship, make sure that they were valid, then sync up users and permissions between systems in order to play. Then, to further make it kinda crazy, you would have to check user permissions (remotely) then attempt the connection, then if it failed, figure out if there was a global (higher up) option that you could do so that it wouldn't break all of our code and processes. It could be a huge project. Lots of unknowns. As part of this project, we would also have to add more history tables, who did what, who changed what, who has permission to do what, and making sure that each individual keeps their keys and tokens updated. It sounds like a small nightmare.

- We seem to build in general and then use it specifically as needed. Custom code on top of our own standard package, tool, or feature.

- Going over the cost of building and building. One you have to build it, then you have to maintain it, and upgrade and support it. The costs keep increasing. This topic lead us back to questions about who are we and where should we be focusing?

- There is a growing need to use asynchronous type loading like AJAX or some way of breaking huge datasets into smaller pieces. It is totally common for us to need to show or export 10,000+ or even 100,000+ records at a time. The current process tries to take that whole thing as a single bite or single attempt. It's just too large and slows things down.

- Some time was spent talking about loyalty points and keeping track of the total liability. More talk about other reports that show sums, grouped values, look-back capable reports, and using ACV (actual cash value) for recording loyalty points. We do a bunch of that, just refining the process and making it even smoother.

- Need for messaging or using the message marketing features that we have already built. There is a growing need for push notification and two-way communications outside of the main app or website. The client portal is growing in needs and options. More mobile ready or full mobile pieces are going to be coming down the pipeline. Everything seems to be trending in that direction.

- Question - do we fill in the gaps on functionality or try to update the look and feel? It sure would be awesome if we could virtually turn things on/off based on the UI (user interface) and settings. We would love to set things up super simply and then let the users add on or take away from our smaller base level. A new mini version of the shopping cart is in great need of these fracture type level settings. Start small and simple and then let the users build on or configure things as needed. Hide anything that we can unless asked for. Then when it is done (using the tool or feature), it can be hidden again. Every page needs show/hide options on a per page or per section level. Totally customized.

- Along with the show/hide options talked about above, it would be so cool to show all of the options and then say - what do you want? You tell us. More fracture stuff (where we are headed). Mountains and iceberg analogy stuff (it still needs to be there, but what is shown and/or exposed).

- We talked about extra costs and prices for some of the other add-on tools and functions. Some of our stuff (tools and features) takes a major amount of work and effort. We would love to sell more training, consulting, automation, and other professional services.

- News and updates and the importance of keeping our users up to date and informed. This seems to be a constant need and keeps evolving. Content and making and creating new content (creation and maintenance).

- Lots of talks about prioritizing efforts for different persons (parties). Diving out responsibilities and sharing info across departments and across people (users).

- Using videos - the value of education and training. Selling our other services. Scheduling and setting up ongoing training efforts. We would love to make lots of polished smaller videos. Laying it all out for our clients (on demand education or just in time education). We could really use our website to toot our stuff for different business verticals. For example: Revamping our manufacturing site and pages. We can handle... (fill in the blank) for manufacturing or whatever. That is a deep pool (manufacturing and production type businesses). The trend seems to be leading us more in that direction.

Poor Bryan - he was having major internet issues. He and I got to chat at the beginning and at the end. Steve came on and we got to hear from Steve for a while (I'll share some notes below). Part way through, Bryan's internet connection was going in and out and the poor guy kept trying to connect and then got booted, time and time again. I was on the whole time, Steve most of the time (while he was on the meeting), and poor Bryan in and out the whole way through. Finally, Bryan sent me a text message and said that he would hook up with me later on. He was making a great effort but some of that was out of his direct control.

Anyways, here are some of my notes:

- Bryan and I spent some time looking over Chuck's first round mock-ups. I was drawing and showing Bryan what we were thinking about. We got kinda techy and talking about flow, processes, settings, and ideas from the mock-ups. Good session.

- Steve popped in and he and Bryan were talking about videos and marketing. Lots of good back and forth. Bryan's brother is the one pushing the videos. Steve would be very interested if he (Bryan's brother) wanted to work on a commission basis - he does the videos and then gets a kickback from sales.

- We have tried a bunch of different things. Trying to figure out where we get the best bang for our buck - ROI (return on investment).

- Small section talking about our sales and marketing teams and how they have to deal with a level of client rejection. If they get too much, it tips them over the edge, and they start doubting their skills and confidence. Pretty natural but very much a real thing.

 - The costs (huge costs) of training someone to be high-level power user in adilas. You almost have to take an adilas power-user and then go from there vs trying to get a non adilas user and get them trained up. The costs are too high, and the skillsets need some in the trenches experience. Interesting!

- Steve was talking about allowing people to invest in marketing and then try to get some ROI on those efforts. It's really hard for us to do it internally, based on funds and available personnel who could really do what needs to be done.

- YouTube and YouTube influencers - that seems to be a very modern trend that is getting some results. That also takes someone fulltime who is pushing on things, knows what they are doing (adilas power user), has a following (other people like them and what they do), and they keep creating new content (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). You need a mix of all of those pieces.

- Adilas has been a frontrunner and forward-thinking company since the get go. We just haven't been able to capture the full market. We were doing software as a service before SaaS became a buzzword. We were doing cloud, web-based software, paperless office type functions way before they were cool. Tons of other frontrunner type approaches. We have been pioneers and out on those front lines. We've been doing this for the past 20+ years. We started wtih modem speed internet connections and Microsoft Access Databases. We've come a long way. So, how do we market that? That seems to be the question of the day.

- Bryan was trying to reconnect to the meeting and Steve and I were just talking. I mentioned that Heather (my wife) said that we are too broad and trying to help too many people or do too many things. In the very next breath, I mentioned to Steve that I had a phone call with one of our clients (Drew at the bike shuttle and coffee shop) and they wanted all of these other things. Some of which were standard and some of which were custom. Steve was saying that we are caught somewhere in between those two realms. Some want it to be simplified and others want even more with choices, settings, permissions, and pick and choose functionality. It gets crazy deep.

- Seems like people want everything under one roof and they want it for free. That's a tough ticket (super powerful, low cost or free, looks great, and is easy to use). Sounds great! Sign me up! How do we get there?

- Just thinking about possible funding options - What if we were free (the whole adilas transactional core) and just charged a small cover fee? Credit card do it... everybody wants to use a credit card processor because it helps them make sales and run their business. We would also do something along the lines of the value add-on core model where we provide the main adilas core (full adilas account that takes care of all of the transactional data - what it is right now). We then could charge for any of the additional layers. We could even charge for the core and then add-on fees or charges for the higher levels. All kinds of options. Just as a quick review - Levels are: 1. Transactional core, 2. Industry specific skin/functions, 3. Custom code, 4. Business Intelligence (BI) (sums, counts, aggregates, stats), and level 5. Enterprise level (multiple corps in array and interconnected with roll-ups, roll-downs, controls, and full control over the flow of data.

- We can also sell other professional services, training, consulting, analytics, custom code development, design, marketing, hardware/software integration, etc. We are not limited as to possible avenues where we could monetize our efforts. Currently, our monthly application fees are our bread and butter (SaaS type levels of a monthly subscription or usage license). We could sell digital real estate (web hosting, database serves, mirrors, shared hosting servers, semi-dedicated servers, fully dedicated servers, and other special server configurations). We can sell storage (active and archived or cold storage - for data). We could flip our model so that is fully based off of usage, throughput, bandwidth, storage, counts, amounts, and transactions. Tons of options.

- We sure are gaining a lot of feedback and insights on what we can do with fracture (future adilas project). This is where we are headed. We just aren't sure how to fund that. We have an awesome testbed; we've done tons of little prototypes (they are working and in production), have tons of feedback from our users and other outside critics, we've been making plans, we have learned tons of lessons dealing with settings, permissions, interfaces, transactional data vs aggregate data, speed, servers, configuration options, look and feel, solving pain points, and bringing all of these pieces together. So.... what is our plan and what can we do to bring these pieces more fully to market? Where do we go from here?

- Switched gears and started talking about using some other video conferencing software packages. We've been using GoToMeeting but have been having some issues. Steve and I briefly talked about Google Meet, Discord, Zoom, or whatever. Just looking at options.

- Steve left and Bryan was able to rejoin for a few minutes. I told Bryan that Steve was very thankful and grateful that he, Bryan, is adding his timecards and time clocks to the adilas system. That is very helpful.

Good conversation between Steve, Sean, Cory, and Brandon. We were going over ideas for sales, eye candy, graphs, charts, and system-wide aggregates. Here are some of our notes:

- We would like to create a MVP - minimal viable plan (product, person, whatever) - focusing on the plan part of it for fracture (future adilas project).

- Brandon pitched the value add-on core model with 5 levels – 1. Internal core (transactions), 2. Industry specific skins and functionality, 3. Custom code, 4. BI – Business Intelligence (aggregates), and 5. Enterprise level (multi corps and multi worlds). Part of our upcomming plan is to work on level 4 - BI or business intelligence (eye candy, graphs, charts, stats, counts, totals, etc.). Make it look good and be quick and easy to get to. Bury the transactional core a couple levels deep, so it is still there, just feeding quick information off of the upper levels (aggregates) vs all of the transactional pieces and records.

- We really want to work on the look and feel of the cart - less is more on the display on the cart

- For graphs and charts, we could use cfchart (code tags) or JSCharts (javascript charts).

- The reports homepage could use some loving

- Surface stuff to help with demos and sales

- Capture the daily, location, and category levels – basically, per day, per location, and per category (on the P&L and BS). As a note, we already have this info... we just need to grab and hold it. Also, we could go backwards on this one... there is already something that exists. We could pull it all in going backwards. There is already a path and a pattern.

- ETL – extract, transform, and load – this is how you get the aggregates = Brandon would be happy to build in this aggregate table or whatever -Steve would like us to talk and work with Eric about the backend triggers and deeper database stuff.

- Lots of talk about database triggers vs smaller microservices - pros, cons, visible, not visible, who has permissions, and best practices.

- We need to remember the API sockets and other ways of getting data both in and out. This needs to be part of our process.

- We tend to get pulled off of a project due to custom code, customer requests, and budgets (time, money, resources).

Started playing with elements of time and setting up the main pieces for the adilas master plan. Here is a quick breakdown of the time id's.

Master Adilas Plan

All time id's are inside of adilas

2283 - Main Index

2284 - Jellyfish Model

2285 - Value Add-On Core Model

2286 - Adilas University

2287 - Adilas Marketplace

2288 - Adilas Cafe & Community

2289 - Fracture - Future Project

2290 - Budgets & Finances

2291 - Marketing & Sales

2292 - Other Timelines, Plans & Projects

Great phone call with Steve. We were talking about direction, options, and how to push the ball to the next level. We talked sales, staff, developers, projects, MVP, plans, adilas jellyfish model, value add-on core model, adilas cafe, adilas marketplace, and adilas university. Tons of different topics. We talked about raising prices, raising funds, selling percentage shares of adilas, and how to help make things smoother and smoother. Who is going to manage what and how to best define certain roles, jobs, and tasks. Great conversation and making progress.

Here are some other random notes:

- Client acquisition costs - Where are they at? Do we fully know or does it change from client to client?

- Increasing development or decreasing development?

- MVP's - minimal viable products and minimal viable plans and minimal viable persons

- Possibly selling up to 51% of adilas percentages and then reinvesting strategically in projects and pieces that we want and/or really need. Plan it all out and then push on what we want.

- As a side note, we went in a number of circles - ok, let's do this... ok, maybe we should do this..., no, let's do this... - next thing you know, you are back where you started. We did this over and over again. The funny thing is, we didn't come up with the same exact plans every time. That means that there is more than one option out there.

- Trying to work the long plan and long play

Small pitch to the guys and gals of what we are planning. I did a small recap of our last sales meeting and went over a few ideas and options. The first two pieces of the plan are the adilas jellyfish model and the value add-on core model. Just trying to keep all of the players up to date and in the loop. Even though it's not done and fully ready yet.

We flipped over to server stuff and going over servers, bugs, questions, and what not. Cory had a list of questions to follow-up about. Wayne was telling Cory about new ways of building and checking objects and memory objects. We went over some options for testing code on data 5 and the value of both data and documentation. Cory asked about a few other client requests. One of the last topics was - Being able to finish and get the projects across the finish line.

For me, I really want to build the value add-on core graphic in put it in the teaching photo gallery. I have to keep drawing it over and over again, and it doesn't really show the whole vision of where we are headed yet. I'll get there.

Recording notes from 3/7 to 3/12. Phone call with Eric going over some quick questions about forms and JavaScript.

As I was recording notes from last week, I really am feeling the need to make a few new graphics. I really want to create a graphic that shows the adilas value add-on core model. This will have the transactional core and then then the other layers or value add-on's. This is part of our plan and where we want to take things. Along those same lines, I would like to add the graphic for progression of things, Star Wars Death Star (work in progress), rose pedal analogy (building one idea on top of another), and the value add-on core model to the teaching gallery or image gallery that I use for showing the guys certain ideas and concepts.

Two different sessions working on some new graphics. One was from 5:15 pm to 6:30 pm and the other was from 8:45 pm to 10:15 pm. They were both related, so I put then in as one entry.

Working on ideas for a rose analogy and idea farming. See attached. I also spent some time working on a version of the adilas value add-on core model graphic. See attached.

Just for fun, I decided to attach a few other small graphics to this element of time. When I get a chance, I'm going to add these graphics to the teaching gallery that I use when doing training, demos, and working with the guys/gals. I love to use pictures, graphics, and actually drawing on the screen using online video screensharing tools and drawing tools.

Quick update - as of 3/16/23, I have added all four of these images to the teaching photo gallery. See the section for ideas and plans. Here are the thumbnails...

Like the Death Star - We have the vision, it just needs to be finished...

Like the pedals of a rose, adilas.biz is just a bunch of ideas laid on top of each other - we call it idea farming

Things change over time - Are you keeping up? Progression of things...

Adilas Value Add-On Core Model - Every world needs a transactional core - Then you build value by adding layers

Recording notes from earlier entries this week and today. Ended up flipping over and adding the new graphics and images to the teaching and training photo gallery. I added 4 new images. They are the Star Wars Death Star image, the rose pedal model, the progression of things image, and the adilas value add-on core model graphic. See element of time # 9967 for more info and to see the actual graphics.

Zoom meeting with Cory and Kelly. The whole thing was dealing with inventory reporting and an advanced report builder concepts. Kelly wants to throw-out a wider net and see what we can catch. Instead of going super deep to financials, she wants us just to focus on the invoices and PO's. Basically, an inventory and CRM (customer relationship management) mix. Leave the accounting alone right now (for these reports). Just help our clients get their data in and out quickly. Basically, it's operations stuff.

One of the goals is to show, teach, and allow our clients to use a mix of vendors, customers, invoices, PO's, inventory items, sub inventory, parent attributes, and location information as needed. All of these things interact on both the sales and customer relationship (CRM) levels.

Here are some my notes from the meeting:

- Talking about building a report building engine. This deals with groupings, filters, show/hide columns, sort orders, etc.

- Kelly was talking about getting to the meta data of the database data (going deeper). What is related, how does it work, what can I get out of it - including mixing things that a company and/or individual is looking for? Even things that we can't think of and/or thing about. Extracting those data analytics and details out of the system. Lots of value there.

- Be able to export to CSV, PDF, and web formats (normal HTML or data tables).

- Ideas about display options - Nested groupings, even pulling and storing data in temp tables, data dumps, and then querying that data. ETL - extract, transform, and load - manipulate the data however we need to. Leave the raw data alone, just tweak out other pieces or tables.

- Show all of the tables and their fields. Preset a few things so that the defaults are showing (not everything is checked by default).

- Use the data tables, be able to save the reports, see new reports from the saved favorites, all kinds of advanced report building options.

- Put this new advanced report builder engine under its own new permission.

- Thinking about vertical tabs (for a layout view). The tables or basic system players would be the left most side (left vertical tabs), the right side would show other settings per table. For example: Say the tabs down the left were things like vendors, customers, invoices, PO's, parts/items, etc. Then when you click on the different tabs, it would show which fields belong to what table (on the top of the page) and then the filters and grouping options would be below that. When you are done, you click to view the report. You could also save a new report name, set the sorting or sort order, and who can see it (assigned to who or just a assigned to all option).

- Help educate the users on the database structure. This could be a great side agenda item for this advanced report builder engine.

- Kelly was asking - Is this new advanced report builder a value add-on? How do we monetize it? We decided that for now, we'll just roll it in and try to sell it as a feature of the whole or bigger picture.

- We talked about sub inventory attribute mappings and creating groups (things or attributes that can cross over categories). This is a form of layering for the sub attributes. Basically, each item category can have any number of sub attributes. We then go in and allow a user to setup groups or which sub attributes are buddies or tied to other sub attributes in different item categories. Making small or mini family groups for the sub attributes. Just an idea to help with reporting and consistency.

- We won't build this in yet, but we have to think about things on an enterprise level. If we build this advanced report builder engine on the corporation or basic world level (where we need to start), it won't be long and some of our bigger multiple world level clients will want an enterprise level solution for the advanced report builder engine. We know that is coming!

- Along with the enterprise level, we know that some of our clients really want the business intelligence (BI) level of reporting and aggregation. It's a known need. That's a whole other plan and topic.

- There may be versions and phases of this report builder engine.

- I was asking about big reports and possible timeout issues. We may need to show sample data and then build out the bigger (in needed) reports and then let our clients know that they are done or finished. Some of these reports could potentially be millions and millions of records. As a note, I know that Wayne was working on something similar to this a few months back. I'll check with him on ideas for timing, flow, and notifications.

- We may want to build in options for details (default level) and/or aggregates groups, sums, counts, etc.

- If you are wanting to get more money from people, it really helps if the people that you are dealing with want the same things (that you want). It creates a common want and need.

- In a nutshell, this project would be mixing and blending all (maybe not all) of our existing advanced search features into one bigger master report builder. Because this project could get so big, we may end up playing around and building a mini version and/or a prototype of sorts.

- We talked about timelines and even ways of distracting our clients to buy some time. All of this takes time and resources to plan, build, and deploy.

- As an addition - it would be really cool if we had some presets (pre-maid selections and choices) to help people get started. That would make the building process simpler. We could show some defaults and then let them modify that vs building from scratch every time. This idea came from Aspen (my daughter) who was listening to the meeting while working on other stuff.

Working with Aspen to go over our plan for making the plan. Light review and discussing expectations and where we are going. Started in on adding some research links to part of our plan. Pushed up the new stuff to the google doc that John and I had started.

Here is a light version of where we are heading... (just barely starting - for the record, it looks nicer in the google doc)

Master Adilas Plan or Adilas Master Plan

1. Company Structure - Adilas Jelly Fish Model
2. Product Development - Adilas Value Add-On Core Model
3. Education & Training - Adilas University
4. Community & Outside 3rd Party Solutions - Adilas Marketplace
5. Social & Efficiency Options - Adilas Cafe & Community
6. Deeper Product Development - Adilas Lite - Fracture Project
7. Budgets, Finances, Marketing, & Sales - Other Business Plans

New note added on 8/14/23 - For a pretty good breakdown of these projects - just at a high level, see this element of time 10377 and it's photo gallery.

________________

Table of Contents. To-do

All time id's are inside of adilas

2283 - Main Index

2284 - Jellyfish Model

- Research on the Jellyfish model - link

2285 - Value Add-On Core Model

- Research - link

2286 - Adilas University

- Research - link

2287 - Adilas Marketplace

- Research - link

2288 - Adilas Cafe & Community

- Research - link

2289 - Fracture - Future Project

- Research - link

- Adobe XD mock-ups with options

2290 - Budgets & Finances

2291 - Marketing & Sales

- Adobe XD mock-ups with options

- World Building Concepts and Concepts of the Data Assembly Line - Pitching the concepts

- Research on world building, research on data assembly line

- Presentation Gallery - great start for an outline of what adilas does

2292 - Other Timelines, Plans & Projects

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.

Lunch meeting with Jonathan Johnson from Epic Enterprises. Jonathan is a business consultant here locally in the Cache Valley, Utah area. Great little meeting and he was asking some great questions and feelers to check out parts and pieces of my plan for ship B, fracture, or adilas lite. We talked about pieces of the business plan and how to plan things out and proceed.

- One of the main topics was dealing with talent and getting excellent talent to help run the business.

- Went over our rough plan and talked through steps of the plan. See elements of time # 10179 for more details.

1. Company Structure - Adilas Jelly Fish Model
2. Product Development - Adilas Value Add-On Core Model
3. Education & Training - Internal and External - Adilas University
4. Community & Outside 3rd Party Solutions - Adilas Marketplace
5. Social & Efficiency Options - Adilas Cafe & Community
6. Deeper Product Development - Adilas Lite - Fracture Project
7. Budgets, Finances, Marketing, & Sales - Other Business Plans

- Lots of talk about division, departments, and managing the entity and the projects. Defining those roles and what is needed. Once that is finished, we will put or assign/invite the who (people and talent) to the what.

- We talked a lot about inviting and enticing the talent. Not all of the talent will be hourly or employee level people. Some of the talent or high-end knowledge workers contribute in different ways. That was a small paradigm shift for me, thinking wise. More of projects and contributions vs hours and physical output.

- What needs to be done for the product development pieces - plans, marketing, sales, and roll outs.

- Talking about building out a pitch deck to help pitch the project and product (the whole package).

- 5 main personality types - There are five major roles that need to be fulfilled in a company. Instead of just roles, ideally, you actually have people in place who can carry each of these roles and own it. Otherwise, you just have a smaller number wearing multiple hats. The five people are: An organizer, a doer, a creative type, a consultant, and a salesman. The goal is to align talents with tasks. I grabbed this bullet point from entry # 5295 - another meeting with Jonathan Johnson (early on, back in 2019).

- Talking about the root words in authority (author or create), accountability (count or manage), and responsibility (respond or react). Who does what and how that all plays into the mix.

- See attached for a napkin with some notes on it - Here is what Jonathan wanted me to do - 4 steps he wants me to work on... 1. Define the division and structure of the company, 2. Invite the talent to fill the roles defined, 3. Product development MVP, and 4. Build the pitch deck. All of these need to be at least good enough. Shooting for an MVP level on all of them.

Planning with Aspen. Doing some brain mapping on a huge board with post-it notes. See attached for some pictures. Lots of high-level planning for adilas lite, fracture, and sub projects within our bigger vision. Once again, see attached. We also got Aspen paid for her work.

Quick breakdown of the different projects:

#1 - Company Structure - Jellyfish Model - Knowlege workers vs hourly workers, define divisions, departments, the who (talent), combine areas as needed, optimize structure, overtime, and compensation. We also want to deal with the different personality types - organizer, doer, creative, consultant, and the salesperson (someone who does sales).

#2 - Product Development - Value Add-On Core - Players, features, each summarized (possibly in a video or multiple videos). Define the current core. Figure out industry specific skins. White labeling options. On the industry specific skins, go minimal for the start. Custom code - data driven, not code driven. BI (business intelligence) level - Model needs to be fully planned out because it doesn't exist as a standalone layer at this time. It is built into the system as a whole. We need to extract those pieces and make a better plan for those numbers, values, and pieces of BI. Enterprise - define it and prep the database to make the jump eventually.

#3 - Education and Training - Adilas University - Internal and external training needs - video clips, organize them (library of sorts), tracking education, SOP's (standard operating procedures) per industry, in general, and company specific options. Make all of this data driven. Easier interactions, easier interface, all dealing with settings (show/hide, rename, aliases, sort order, defaults, etc.). Once again, both internal and external training needs. Online and in person trainings. Minimize the need for education by building out a better interface (fracture and adilas lite). Dynamic content and settings. Program education directly into the interface. Be able to turn the education mode or help mode on/off based on needs and per person.

#4 - Community and 3rd Party Solutions - Adilas Marketplace - Access from the adilas cafe or as a standalone app. Adilas creates tons of byproducts (both products and services). This could be things like consulting, design, custom code, data entry, bank reconciliation, accounting needs, etc. We want to offer ways to both buy and sell both products and services through a controlled interface. Think of a mini Amazon or mini eBay type marketplace. We need a spot to send, organize, and direct 3rd party solutions. Advertising and marketing efforts. More white labeling options (in the marketplace). This section could be further explored and has lots of potential.

#5 - Social and Efficiency Options - Adilas Cafe & Community - White labeling, standardized portal, single login, single sign on, able to jump to any corporation on any server where permissions have been granted. Options for work, play, buy, sell, train, social, and participate. User profile page. Interface with other corporations, get assigned, hub type environment. Mini marketplace for adilas based products and services. Sales and creation of new accounts (automated setup options). Tired pricing. News and updates, this wouldn't be forced on anybody but would be more available. We could allow them to customize their news and update feed. Dynamic billing and making payments for our (adilas) clients.

#6 - Deeper Product Development - Adilas Lite or Fracture - Customize everything. Setup wizard, question to help with setup, industry specific settings and presets, sizes, features, and options to customize as needed. Show/hide almost everything. Other settings such as toggle on/off features, columns, reports, navigation, etc. Everything is configurable to some extent. Sort orders and the ability to move things around (vertically, horizontally, and free form). Settings and making all of these decisions data driven.

Inside of fracture (code name before we got adilas lite) we want to make some server changes, code changes, frontend and backend changes by using frameworks and different languages (code stuff). Entirely composed of API sockets. This will make everything more portable and will also allow other outside developers options to build custom pages, features, and interfaces. Another advantage of using the API sockets for everything, it will standardize how everybody interfaces and interacts with the system or application. It will also let other developers play along without letting them see the underlying code. They just see documentation, examples, and final output from the API socket calls or API endpoints.

Fracture will include testing plans, sections for unit testing, integration testing, automated tests, and good coverage on testing in general. Everything will be modularized and broken into smaller mini components. We plan on using dynamic billing for usage, features, storage, etc. Entirely new interface with the ability to setup your own navigation and your own dashboards. We want lots of white labels and white labeling options. Tons of industry specific stuff as well.

Be able to turn on/off the education mode. We would love to capitalize on numerous lessons learned from 20+ years in the business. Lots of prototyping, new databases with good indexing and normalization. Directly program in teasers and marking. There has even been some talk of using AI (artificial intelligence) to help with suggestions for products and features that they might use or want.

Everything will be mobile ready and responsive. Client-side and server-side validation. We also want to prep things and have a maintenance plan in place as well. That is something that has been somewhat missing from past versions. Basically, take what we have and build from there - learning from the past and building for the future. Everything has a life cycle, prep for the next phase or part of that life cycle.

#7 - Budgets, Finances, Marketing, & Sales - Other business plans - interactive wireframing presentations, SWOT analysis, funding and repayment stuff, timelines, mission statement, profit sharing, budgets per section, per person, per product/feature. Writing business proposals, project scopes, sales pitches, standardization, and master table of contents. Lots of good marketing and campaigns for sales. Sources of profit and ROI (return on investment). Prototyping, testing, and market research.

#8 - Other - Networking and meetings as well as more research. Get in there and get it done!

Lunch meeting with Alan. He was in town so we hooked up for lunch and to chat. Planning, talking about our team, roles, strengths and weaknesses, and industry specific skins. We talked about the jelly fish model, the value add-on core model, adilas university, adilas marketplace, and fracture (adilas lite) stuff. Fun little meeting. Both Alan and I are on the same page as far as vision. That's awesome!

Recording notes and then meeting with Alan to touch page. We gave each other updates on what we were working on and progress being made. I gave Alan a small pitch to show some stuff that Josh Hanks and I were talking about over lunch (see EOT # 10437) and how we could make a little mini app for projects, time tracking (hours), quick notes per day, and mileage - all tied into one little mini app. That could be really fun and would or could be one of our little industry-specific skins (from the value add-on core model).

Meeting with Alan over the GoToMeeting session. We did some catch-up and then started talking about plans and priorities. Alan was saying that we could potentially break things down into smaller and smaller pieces. We totally will and need to do that. Just for fun, he said, we could start fracturing fracture (project codename). We looked at the 7-8 projects for adilas lite and talked about priorities and how each one plays into the others. We are planning on focusing more on the value add-on core model project next. We need to lay some things out, define it, and then (even now) start building some of those pieces.

Anything that can be reusable, including concepts and code, we want to build out those pieces. Be able to reuse as much as possible. That way they can help both ship A and ship B out. Good catch-up meeting.

We decided that for the next couple of weeks, we would both focus on some ship A stuff to help out the main adilas system. We have a small deadline to try to hit by October 1st.

Great phone call with Steve. We were talking about options for white labeling and even doing some kind of franchising options for certain companies. We talked about the concept of being like Intel (chip sets). We don't have to be Dell, Sony, HP, etc. We could just be the software (virtual chip set) that run the other programs and products. We don't care what it is called (the selling company). We just want people to use our products, even if they don't know that they are running adilas or a part of adilas in the background.

Anyways, Steve has had a few different people somewhat approach him lately with similar type requests. They virtually want to own their own software but don't want to pay millions of dollars for it. Steve and I were talking about options on how that could play out and how it would work. Great phone call. I enjoyed the conversation.

As part of the conversation, I was lightly pitching the concept of white labeling and how that could tie into layer 2 of the value add-on core model - Industry specific skins - aka - white labeling. We would like to move in that direction.

Meeting with Cory and Shari O. on projects. We went over some yearend documents and forms and progress there. We spent quite a bit of time on some new quotes. One was a revamp on a prior quote. We added in some new requirements and needs for histories for flex attributes. Randomly enough, there were other requests for other hidden history records and reports. Some of our clients want us to watch almost every single place and record histories (some visual to the users and some that are hidden and only seen by administrators). I thought that was very interesting and something that we need to be on top of for fracture and adilas lite.

One of the places that they want us to watch was settings and who turns things on/off (like a gram controller for the shopping cart) and other setting changes. We also went over more requests to tie things to elements of time (like PO's and E/R's). We have some clients that are using elements of time for help with production runs and delivery options. Interesting what people need.

The last quote that we worked on was for a better or more standard report or export for the balance sheet, P&L (income statement), and general chart of accounts (deposit types and expense types and balance sheet types). The requests was for a report that showed each segment in a nice grid like fashion. On some of the existing reports, the values are all there, they are just hyphenated, the request was to break each data piece down and export it in a simplified grid, no other formatting. I think that the end goal is to pull it into Microsoft Excel and do some tweaking of the data and values there. Just guessing.

The last thing that I wanted to say was put in another plug for better aggregated data to help provide some better speed and business intelligence (BI). We have this planned as part of the fracture and adilas lite project, it just takes time and resources to get there. There is a whole project called the adilas value add-on core model where we will be working on these layers over and on top of the transactional core. Just for fun, here is a link with other references to the adilas value add-on core model.

Our original plan was to work more on the SWOT analysis today. It ended up being a sounding board session. I was talking and telling Shannon what was going on and she was recording notes. See attached. Lots of fun ideas and concepts. It does repeat itself a lot but overall, great little brainstorming session. The cool thing is that we have some great take aways from our session. Here are just a couple. See the notes for deeper thoughts and ideas.

- AI (artificial intelligence) - Trends and observations

- Who? - Lots of talk about who will oversee and manage what

- Plans

- Marketing - Ideas including being able to cover over 85% of any business. Also some great ideas on marketing adilas' AI (artificial intelligence) aspects

- Company Structure - We really want to nail this down

- Value Add-On Core Model - Industry specific skins and quick aggregates (counts, sums, totals, etc.)

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New note - added on 1/19/24 - see attached for a new or updated version of our sounding board notes. Small edits and tweaks made by Brandon, after the fact. See attached.

Working with Shannon.

- Whatever brings us to certain points... lots of ways and similarities (commonality and overlap).

- Going over the working genius results with Shannon.

- Overviews for the value add-on core model.

- Concept of boundaries. Boundaries are different than rules. Self-ruling... only able to create those for yourself.

- My personal limits or ways to keep myself in check when things get crazy.

- General and culture specific norms.

- Personal boundaries are set by you... allowing for flex, when needed.

- It's not the hours... it's what is going on during those hours.

- Markers - if, then's - looking through the lens... (how am I doing?)

- Cycles

- I get to define the areas and parameters

- Power to make a change and make a different choice.

- I don't like to be micromanaged - personally.

- If this starts to happen, I need to take this course of action...

- It's more about what I'm planning to do.

- Practice and learning.

Working with Shannon. Touching on the adilas value add-on core model and the adilas university overviews for the adilas lite and fracture projects. We also spent some time working on the adilas marketplace project overview. Good work session. We then added the overviews to the web pages where they belonged. See attached for our documents and progress.

Links to the project overviews:

- adilas jelly fish model

- adilas value add-on core model

- adilas university

- adilas marketplace

Working with Shannon. We finished up the adilas lite (fracture) project overviews. We then pushed up the overviews to the correct pages. That is awesome, we've been working hard on some of these overviews. Here's a list of projects. They are not done yet (as of right now) but we are making progress and getting things planned out.

Adilas Lite - Main Homepage
# 1 - The company structure - adilas jelly fish model
# 2 - The overall structure of the adilas platform or system - adilas value add-on core
# 3 - The education and training needs - adilas university
# 4 - The marketplace for the adilas community - adilas marketplace
# 5 - The virtual portal or primary landing spot for the community - adilas cafe and community
# 6 - Deeper dive into the adilas platform or system - adilas lite or fracture
# 7 - The budgets, finances, marketing, and sales plans - other business plans
# 8 - Come take a look!!! - adilas lite videos and research