AAUG Reviews

by Mark Lovegreen, AAUG Member

As a small business owner, I was encouraged to review this software on my iMac computer. I was told it would allow me to make invoices of my own design. My business includes marketing and operating a high-end wildlife tour. I thought it might be good to have a tastefully designed invoice to send to my clientele. So I agreed to try it out. While it is possible to design one’s own estimate and invoice documents with Billings 2.5.1, that’s not one of its strong suits.

In fact, the type of business I’m currently in has little use for the features Billings 2.5.1 offers. It is ideal for those who don’t have the sale of an inventory or services with fixed prices as their primary business. This software is for those who sell their time and talents and need to keep track of not only their expenses and time as they create an estimate for a potential client, and then issue the invoices that result from a successful bidding process.

When the software is started initially, all of the contacts in the computer’s address book are loaded and treated as clients. If one has a home office, and uses their computer for both business and personal use, it will be desirable to remove one’s personal contacts from the software’s files. Otherwise, the automatic nature of this feature saves a lot of cutting and pasting. When the software is opened after the initial opening, a timer window appears so you are reminded to start the clock as you begin to work on a project. In the menu bar at the top of your screen is a small timer window. It turns red when activated and is quite adequate for keeping track of the time. (more…)

by Ronald Schoedel, AAUG Member

If you are drowning in a sea of to-do lists, folders, and sticky notes attached to every side of your monitor, the phone, and anywhere else they adhere, it is time to make the jump into a real project management solution. Daylite 3 is one of the absolute nicest I have seen yet. Daylite 3 takes a very complicated matter such as managing multiple projects, workflows, proposals, and customer relations, and successfully merges it all into a nice, attractive, interface that won’t scare you off like most project management applications could.

But don’t let the pretty face fool you: Daylite 3 is all business underneath the shiny surface. It has the muscle and flexibility needed to help a small business or workgroup manage their projects. Marketcircle says Daylite is designed for offices of 1 to 50 persons. Using Daylite made me wish even more that my entire office were Mac-based, because I could see this program making such a big difference in the way we track information and projects. Alas, since I am the only enlightened one in an office full of Windows PCs, I had to try out Daylite on my own, not really able to experience the joy of collaboration.

Daylite has several modules, such as Notes, Contacts, Calendars, Projects, Tasks, Opportunities, and Appointments. But it is far more than a basic personal information manager, Daylite shines in its ability to link these pieces of information to create a bird’s eye view of how your work fits together in the big picture. You can store all sorts of information to manage client relationships, such as customer preferences, client likes or dislikes, personal dates such as birthdays and anniversaries, to help you reach out better to your clients, either current or potential. Organizations allow you to easily link all persons associated with an individual firm, which is nice to keep all of the relationships straight in a multi-leveled project. (more…)