Using a database to create simple bespoke accounting package

Maddie

Hello, I was wondering whether or not this is possible.

My Dad is an optician with his own practice and is considering spending a lot of money on a specialist optometry practice software program. I can't see that the features are worth the money, but he's got it into his head that it will magically fix all their problems and he can be quite stubbon!

I have never used a database, but have just downloaded open office 'base', and it seems quite simple. Would it be possible to create a database which could be used like an accounting package, ie record customers, suppliers, invoices, stock,... raise an invoice (by using a form?) which would then update the customer's a/c and the list of all sales and the stock levels etc

Or am I biting off more than I can chew?

Many thinks for any advice!

Maddie

Tallymanjohn

You won't be able to adapt an off-the-shelf database to meet all your needs - M$ Access & suchlike are big but not adaptable enough for something as bespoke as a opticians, plus you'll need something the taxman approves of.... . Your best bet is to use one of the Sage applications - which one depends on no. of customers, amount of stock etc. Even then you will pobably need to get a Sage specialist in to adapt it to your needs - getting invoices looking right & making sure it has the correct detail fields for each customer etc. If you look in Yellow Pages you'll find quite a few Sage specialists so ask a few for quotes.

nickmack

As Tallymanjohn said, it would need to be something that's fairly robust for keeping records.

That said, using MS Access as a backend is possible up to a certain amount of records, then it would get a bit cumbersome. You could use a VBA front end or a web interface. If it is more or less what you've detailed then applications like this have been built in Access and still work. Although it's not the most professional or reliable method.

For more robust solutions, you could use a MySQL database back end(free!) and Visual Basic or Real basic (free!) front end.

Either solution would require you to have good knowledge of databases and reasonable SQL, plus Visual Basic for the interface.