Software
Software
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The software templates below are available for viewing and copying for use on Google Drive. You can also downloading file copies for other spreadsheet systems with the potential of loss in some functionality.
As well as being functional software for life, they are great tools for Education. An interested individual can learn about Sales Systems, Sales Systems Software, Spreadsheets, Cloud Spreadsheets, using spreadsheets for database applications, JavaScript Programming, Google Script Programming , commercial education and more. One need not learn all that to use them but it's available for those who are interested in more than basic use.
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On this page you will find several sales system software templates created to help you learn about sales systems and gain an understanding of how these can be customized to fit your own personal needs.
The most dramatic customization typically is related to personal desires related to the content desired in the line items on the invoice and any automated calculations for billing on a line item level.
Secondarily, data related to the invoice , but not related to the line items may need some customization.
Customization can get far more complex by adding additional relational data tables but most shouldn't need that for Utility Billing..
Line Item Record Data fields are also easy to add to the data table, but depending on what you are doing, modifying the output form to handle column changes can take a little time and some artistic thinking.
Header Record Data fields are generally easy to add to the data table and to the form. You can learn to do that in minutes.
On the following page, on another website you can see an expanded introduction to these systems, but you need not go there now. This is for your reference later if desired.
https://sales-system-software.brics-practice-management.com/software/software-templates
Suffice it to say, what the page conveys, is that we took a very simple, generic invoicing system and started customizing it in different ways until we got to something that was a better fit for utility billing. Once there we made a few different versions of it for utility billing and/or contractor billing to show the flexibility and customization potential for the software templates.
To modify a template for personal needs could take as lilttle as 5 to 10 minutes and it could take as much as 30 minutes or so for someone who knows what they are doing.
There is a quirky "artistic" or "McGyver" skill set required to changing the invoice form layout because we are dealing in grid based spreadsheets.
True Artists, creatives, and perfectionists may view the layout changes as the biggest frustration, until they accept that as a trade-off for function, value, privacy, customization abilities, and fun.
These solutions are about function over form, stability over time, and low cost.
With flexibility in your expectations, there are many very functional solutions to be had that will solve the software needs of many small business people for life.
Please remember to contribute if/when you become satisfied with what we've provided.
Folder w/ all Templates
BRICs Sales System 3
Invoices and Statements - (Small Utility Co Billing)
Line Items have:
1) LI # 2) Code 3) Description 4) Flat Rate 5) LI totall
BRICs Sales System 3a
Invoices and Statements - (Small Utility Co Billing)
Line Items have:
1) LI # 2)xxxxxxxxx 4) Flat Rate 5) LI totall
need to create one with variable line item billing
view / copy
Comments
Comments
Google Script Code Updates for Existing Users must be made by the User (no auto updates)
Google Script Code Updates for Existing Users must be made by the User (no auto updates)
We have no access to file templates once they are copied. Users who see functionality they want in newer templates or other templates will need to manually copy and paste that code into their systems as desired. That can be a remarkably simple process that can happen in 2 to 4 minutes, including script testing.
Alternatively they can make copies of new templates and transfer their data from their existing template to the new template. This is only a decent idea if you hven't made a lot of customizations to your own template. You would need to make those again if you still wanted them. For simple systems that got little to no user customization upgrading data for one to another might only be a 3 to 5 minute process.
Duplicate Google Script Code in Templates above is a problem to keep up w/ for us, the Publisher
Duplicate Google Script Code in Templates above is a problem to keep up w/ for us, the Publisher
As a publisher, with this type of setup, if we want to change the scripting, we need to make changes in each file template. This could have been addressed with Code Libraries but we chose not to implement those, after initially starting with them. For corporations with full time IT staff, the idea of libraries makes a lot of sense but for sole proprietors and individuals, avoiding them for simplicity, as much as possible, is ideal.
Strategies for Maintaining Scripting Code as it Changes
For a few templates, we'd need to go into each file and make those changes. With three that is annoying but could be managed, but there will likely be many more coming soon.
With dozens or hundreds, it only becomes viable if there is a product specialist for each file or with a few files for their responsibility.
Alternatively, one idea is to maintain the most progressive version of scripts in a single file and simply point to that as the resource for the most advanced scripts.
Alternatively it may actually be better simply to leave them all of these alone and make code upgrades in separate resource they'd have to cut and paste from
This is the inherent draw back with stand alone software that is not connected to publishers for upgrades and this is one reason it's not been done at scale before
Code Library Options that we chose not to implement...
The individual Code Library File Alternative was avoided - One way around that was to have created a code library file that went along with the software template as a separate file. The problem there is related to initial file configuration and setup complexity. That dramatically increases initial stress for novice and intermediate users. Ir also can get more challenging over time if you then have other libraries you are using. We started with the separate library file setup and we were not comfortable with that after having rolled these out in some beta testing.
The group Code Library File Alternative was avoided - The even larger and worse way around it with a library file would have been to have created that separate library file and shared it from our drive.
With that, if our file went down or went corrupt, everyone's files would go down. Not an option. The Cloud Strike Crash was an example of that.
There may or may not be privacy issues. I believe if a user can attach to a third party library as I'm describing, they can view the entire script / code project to confirm there's no code that is storing submitted data, but I would need to re-confirm that. If they don't have access to view that file in entirety to confirm what capabilities it has, then it's a privacy issue as well.
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