Stock control software?

P&V uses a straight unadorned Access .mdb file. You can get in and mess up the database all you want {;-)

Last major upgrade (v5) was in 2002. Seems they do a major version once every two or three years. I'm expecting one soon. By the way, my current revision is 5.0.143. I think they start at 5.0.100, so that's 43 minor glitch fixes in 3 years. They are very conscientious about making minor upgrades and glitchfixes as they come along.

THey also have an ancillary program that coordinates with Circuitmaker (an obsolete Protel pcb layout and schematic capture program) that I did the beta testing on. I can give P&V a Circuitmaker file and it makes a Manufacturing Parts List for me for all the parts on the board.

Not only that, but P&V has 5 "user fields" that are customizable to your own liking. Since I make "Heathkit" types of products, I've got one field set up for "marking", so that along with the MPL I get the resistor color code for each resistor, the color banding on a diode, the part number printed on capacitors, and all that stuff that makes user manual editing a real breeze.

Jim

They do, in about three or four places.

Go to

Click on "ordering/pricing" at the top of the page.

From the drop-down box pick any option and you get something like this:

Program Edition 1-5 Licenses, @ 6-11 Licenses @ 12+ Licenses @ SE $99 $79 $69 EX $299 $239 $209 ECO $399 $329 $299

...and so on. What's the problem?

Jim

Run a Google search under * inventory management freeware *, then come back and you tell us...

I use firefox exclusively and didn't have a problem. I dunno what is going on, but glad you finally got the data.

"good" being a relative term. It is really quite detailed (23 pages in the printed manual) which is way more than I need, so I do mine by Excel. If I wanted to make my ECO train run on P&V's tracks, I suspect I'd need a day or so to set the system up. However, most of my designs never need ECOs {;-)

Jim

No, and I think I wrote in another post on this thread what I'd like it to do. However, we are a rather specialized business in that the manufacture we do is on a rather small scale (50 is a large production run) and we sell to individuals ... think Heathkit.

I'd love for it to do some of the financial stuff (invoicing, bank accounts, checkwriting...) and some inventory predictions based on past performance. I'd also like to be able to amortize shipping across inventory as a function of either weight or cost.

However, as I've stated, it is one hell of a product for what it costs.

Jim

Any suggestions for a stock control system that does BOMs, kits, shortages etc.

Just been chatting to a mate who is doing it with a XLS spread sheet, far too complicated. He used to use Page freeware, but that died on th Y2K problem, but was apparently ideal for the work.

Done a quick search of the archives, nothing obvious. But ISTR that there was an Oz software package that looked good

martin

Does the Trilogy product do everything you'd want it to do?

I'm looking for some software to develop that might have some commercial potential. I've played with the demo on this, and it seemed pretty good, but that's not the same as *committing* to using it for everything.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Hello Martin,

Doesn't look free to me. When there is no price listed but a link to ask for a quote that can often mean $$$. Enterprise SW typically is expensive but for a larger business it can be well worth it. Before embarking on one particular product talk with others because this is usually a decision you can't easily change a few years down the road.

But for heaven's sake don't use spreadsheets for that and discourage you friend from doing that. It may be ok for a hobby project but the query options are rather limited. I use databases exclusively. Come to think of it, I do not use spreadsheets at all anymore these days. Since the biz isn't large I am pretty happy with the Works/Access format.

Check it out: Your PC most likely came with Office or Works and that usually contains a database program.

Regards, Joerg

sheesh, terminology....

found this

martin

Hello Martin,

Could be ok. Make sure it's a long standing business you buy from. After all, you don't want to find out 5-10 years from now that the SW has become incompatible with something on the PCs and then the SW vendor has gone belly up. That would mean most or all of the legacy data might have to be re-entered into a new system by hand. I have seen that happen more than once.

Regards, Joerg

Hi Joerg, No its for a 2 man 1 wirewoman biz, just stuffing pcs, doing final test, etc.

He just wants something simple, and P+V I think may do the job. it is cheap, 99$ to 300$, well worth it, by the looks of it

martin

Hello Frank,

I have seen quite proprietary formats there and that's when obsolescence problems happened. So yes, it is also important to find out that the chosen vendor does not use a proprietary file format.

But even if they don't, porting it all to a new system is a huge job.

I don't agree there. Enterprise SW must live longer than that. Where the vendors make money is on the maintenance and upgrades. A SW that won't have a chance to live a decade will not be bought for my biz, that's for sure.

BTW, the biz data is still entered and stored in a Works 2.0 compatible format. The same that I used 1990.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Jim,

As long as the user can write macros or small additional programs to do that with a reasonable effort that should be fine.

Sure looks like it. What better endorsement can the program get than right here on s.e.d.?

Then why don't they simply tell us on their web site what the three versions cost? To me "Request quote" somehow has that taste of going to a car dealer. The last one said if he develops an ulcer it would be my fault. The one before that almost had a nervous breakdown after about four solid hours of haggling. I actually began to enjoy it...

Regards, Joerg

"Joerg" schreef in bericht news:9LU0f.781$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr11.news.prodigy.com...

That's not something that needs to happen. For every possible database engine there are ODBC drivers, it can all be converted to mysql or whatever. Often the most ingenious part of the system is the actual design of the database, relations between tables etc. The application to manage the database, well, thats just an application ;)

BTW, if customers expect to live 5-10 years with the same software, every SW vendor goes belly up.

Hello Jim,

Well, I did. Tried again with IE and then I got the prices. Maybe the site didn't like Mozilla.

Those are quite decent prices, especially if the deluxe version is good at ECO handling.

Regards, Joerg

They do, Online ordering/priceing on the home page

martin

We use STOCKIT from

I have been using in my business for about two years now. Never gave me any trouble and it uses a standard database file. Great product at a very fair price. Hope to see it grow into a complete small business package someday.

Big advantages for me is that it has some very simple import and export functions that allow me to sort lists, export them to csv files that I can bring into a spreadsheet. That allows me to do special things with the data that the program does not do. Then I can import it right back into the P&V program.

Download the demo and play with it. It is fully operational, they just limit the size of the database is all.

What do I wish it had???? Same thing everyone else wants. The rest of the story. Add the invoicing and other basic accounting functions into it and you will have the perfect small business package. Right now I have to all my books on Quickbooks. P&V does have some integration with Quickbooks, but I would far prefer to have it all integrated so I do not have to always run exports from one program to the other. To easy to make mistakes or omissions.

Good luck.

RST Eng> P&V is located about two miles from where I sit. I've known the owner for

I read in sci.electronics.design that Joerg wrote (in ) about 'Stock control software?', on Wed, 5 Oct 2005:

You are Helicobacter pylori in disguise? I see the guys who discovered it have a Nobel. Goo for them!