Both John and Sean were on the morning meeting. It was pretty quiet for the first little bit. Then Cory joined and had a few tasks that needed to be completed. Alan joined and they were working on some branch stuff and making sure things were merged into the correct branches. We have some server that are tracking different branches. Most of the meeting was Sean and Alan working on some changes. Alan will get all of that merged into the master branch.

Wayne, John, Cory, and I on the server meeting. Talking about tech support at our hosting company. Wayne gave John some more permissions in the hosting environment. Wayne is working on a side project in ColdBox and testing out a new ColdFusion specific framework. We talked about doing upgrades and upgrading from some of our older code. Ideally, we are moving more to an MVC framework (model, view, controller) with tons of new options. Currently, we are mixing code with some older libraries and dependencies. Our goal is going to be making fully independent pages and pieces.

Constant process of upgrading our stuff. Conversation about upgrading and what technologies we are using. Are we upgrading with older tech or with the newer more modern tech. We are trying to plan for our future clients. Wayne and John were going over options for switching databases. After that, Cory and John were going over data layouts and small requests. They spent some time talking about different projects. Cory and I did some checking on some custom reports and additional requests for more data and more settings.

Recording notes from the end of last week (4/19 - 4/21).

GoToMeeting brainstorming session with Steve to go over ideas and concepts for SG&A costs (sales, general and administrative costs). The whole first hour was talking and going over ideas. We were drawing and going through some fake scenarios. Here are some of my notes:

- Imagine a bucket with a relative fill line partway up the bucket. This would represent the bucket or holding account for SG&A costs that need to be distributed. As new sales happen, we would bleed off that bucket (lower the amount) based on the sales (percentage of average sales per month and what we thought was going to be the average monthly SG&A costs).

- Some of what we are doing would be considered smoke and mirrors. We have some known values and some unknown values. We have to mix and bled both, known and unknown. We also talked about flex and being able to flex at different times (image 1 and 2 how we see flex bubbles or data assembly line concepts).

- We talked about how we move monies for automotive vehicles (managers checkbook) and slush funds. Virtually padding things as needed to help offset costs, basis, and profit.

- We talked about using a fake number as an average and/or a fake burn number. These would be settings for average monthly sales and average monthly SG&A costs. Once we record these as settings, we can then base our math off of those values. If we want to run things harder or faster, we just change those values, which in turn would change the ratios.

- We talked about thinking on an invoice based model not on a daily basis model. That way, each invoice would carry its own weight and only happens as it really happens. For this first round, this was an easier tie-in to make.

- It keeps going, average SG&A and average sales per month. Constant fill and remove, fill and remove of those associated buckets.

- We talked a little bit about time. How many days to drain each tank or bucket? Monthly bills, annually bills, and other time variables.

- Here is the rough formula for our calculations: sg&a cost = invoice sub total * (average monthly SG&A costs / average monthly sales)

- Don't let SG&A go into the negative. We can't spread out or disperse more than we have available to spread. Adjust the buckets as needed. Being able to control the flow (gas and brakes) based on settings.

- We could show them (our users) the rough averages on the SG&A homepage. We could even do some forecasting or showing a "look ahead" view of what it should play out to look like. We could even show what things would look like under different circumstances and conditions. Almost a snapshot and/or predictive model.

- We will format our data in groups, drill-downs, and details. The goal is to seek the IRS's approval for this technique for tracking SG&A costs.

- Steve and I spent some time talking about systems vs trying to marry together multiple independent software packages. That can be a real nightmare. This topic lead to talks and discussions about systems, normalization of data, and even other outside 3rd party solutions using our data to show reports and statistics.

- Interpellation or Interpolation (not sure on the spelling) - good estimate and/or an educated guess

- Putting a white label over the top of our software. This would allow us to play a more build and supporting role vs the main point of contact and training. We may really want to look into this as we build out fracture (future project). We could be the Intel chip inside the computer or laptop vs being the actual computer (analogy with the Intel chip being inside various different computers and laptops). Being the underlying pieces of the system vs the top level or frontend piece.

- Steve was saying - selling what they want and how they want it - that's how you sell and market things.

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After talking about SG&A costs for the first hour, Steve and I switched over to talking about our guys, hours, projects, and having our guys record their time and progress. I really enjoy the building and brainstorming part of the puzzle. The management portion is less fun. This has been a small pain in our rear. Too much babysitting. Nobody wants to document what they are doing. Steve and I talked about our burn rate (money wise) going forward and what are plans are. We need to be able to finish up projects in a timely manner. Sometimes all we can do is keep chipping away at it. Some of these things just take time and resources. We know that, but still, it's hard to swallow sometimes. We need to add in some levels of accountability. It's an abundant model and there are lots of players who could play along with us. Lots of options. There are some real challenges to running a software company from a distance. We will keep trying to help our guys and gals finish their projects. Sometimes all we can do is keep pushing forward as we are able. Here we go...

Meeting with Bryan to go over his rental stuff (current project for elements of time out in ecommerce land). First, we pushed up some changes on the KPI (key performance indicators) dashboard page. Bryan and I were going over some CSS stuff in the shop folders and making sure that everything looked in sync and part of a system. He was showing me his to do list for this project. He's getting things done and it's looking better and better. We made some plans to do some more code review tomorrow.