Well, that could make for a looooooooong day. :)
Marlon K. Schafer wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion Jack. I don't think that would work very well for
500 to 600 invoices that all come out on the same day every month....
marlon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Unger" <[email protected]>
To: "WISPA General List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:19 PM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] ISP billing/management software.
Marlon,
I got a notice like that from Quickbooks maybe 6 months ago. I irked me
because I didn't want them to be able to force me to upgrade when my
2004 edition was doing just fine.
I started using the following workaround.
1. Rather than emailing invoices directly from QB via their email
gateway, I now save each completed invoice as a PDF in the subdirectory
of the client that I'm invoicing.
2. From my email program, I then originate an email to the client and
attach the PDF invoice.
This process may take a few more seconds than the older, mail-from-QB
process but it has worked out well otherwise and I feel that I am less
of a victim of Intuit's marketing machine.
Also, when I need to follow up with the client regarding payment status
(which happens all too often these days) I can just go back to the
original email that I sent them and forward it to the client along with
a polite inquiry as to the payment status.
jack
Marlon K. Schafer wrote:
Hi All,
I just got a notice that Quickbooks is going to REQUIRE an upgrade in
order
to continue to keep sending out bills via email. And we have all of 1
month
or so to get it done.... I HATE Intuit and would like to replace them.
Here's the work flow in our office.
New customer calls in.
Fill out signup sheet with all needed customer data.
Assign static ip to customer.
Enter customer billing info into Quickbooks.
Enter all customer data into Access.
Enter customer username and pass into RADIUS.
Enter customer email account(s) data into email server.
Enter customer data into Postini (if they purchase the filtering).
Type customer signup sheet info into word doc and store in customer
folder.
Generate installation work order.
Fill out check list showing what steps have been completed.
This has worked nicely in the past and "only" takes about 30 minutes to
accomplish. But now we're growing too fast and have gotten too big to
maintain this. Between tech support calls etc. the office manager is
having
to bring in extra help. It's only a day per week and it's good for there
to
be two people there at least part of the time. No one should work alone
all
of the time. Plus, if she wants to take some time off she will have
someone
trained in the basics so we'll likely need to keep some extra help around
no
matter what. This mechanism also gives us a lot of double checks,
redundant
data points etc. With Access and Quickbooks we can run a very nice mix
of
reports etc.
We do NOT have a customer trouble ticket mechanism other than the file on
them. We don't track customers on a per call basis. That's not too bad
because we're still small enough that we can normally remember problem
customers.
This would probably be a good time to change everything though.
In my perfect world, I'd have a billing system (that handles all of the
taxes for different communities etc.), trouble ticketing, auto server
configuration AND deconfig. I'd want good reporting capabilities.
I've looked at some of the commercial systems out there, but at $1 or
more
per month per sub for a full blown system I'd rather keep putting that
money
into the local labor pool.
Freeside looks pretty good but I don't do programming or server admin
work
in-house. I don't mind hiring someone to set it all up etc. and to take
care of the server. But it has to be an affordable solution too.
What are people using? Do you like it?
If you had it to do all over again, what would you do?
Vendors please feel free to hit me up.
marlon
509.988.0260
Or talk to Apryl in the office 509.982.2181, she'll know more about what
she
does day in and day out.
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Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc.
Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993
Cisco Press Author - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs"
WISPs - Do you know where your customers are?
For wireless coverage mapping see http://www.ask-wi.com/mapping
FCC Lic. #PG-12-25133 LinkedIn Profile
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackunger>
Phone 818-227-4220 Email <[email protected]>
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--
Jack Unger - President, Ask-Wi.Com, Inc.
Serving the Broadband Wireless Industry Since 1993
Cisco Press Author - "Deploying License-Free Wireless WANs"
WISPs - Do you know where your customers are?
For wireless coverage mapping see http://www.ask-wi.com/mapping
FCC Lic. #PG-12-25133 LinkedIn Profile <http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackunger>
Phone 818-227-4220 Email <[email protected]>
|
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