Clean It Up
UK Window Cleaning Forum => Window Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: lee_dewing on January 08, 2008, 02:06:12 pm
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hi,
keep sitting on the fence about getting george w/c assistant or not.
Problem is i don't have a pc at home use internet at library.
Have a small place so would need laptop £399 pc world.
then would need a palm £70
plus a cheap printer £40
and of course goerge £50
total £560.
I know i'l put this in as an expense to my accountant but i've still got to
pull up the dough :-/
Is it that more beneficial than pen and paper i am a one man band using a freedom trolley probably earning 30% less a day than i should down to under pricing :P.
Oh yeh and our washing machine just packed up ;D
Do you think george would be that great for me and oh yeh i tend to move my work about to different days as i'm still growing my round and also i don't like doing a customer on damp days ie if done on a wet day one month like to do them on a better day next time.
could george cope with this.
any views
thanks lee :)
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George with cope with your needs
And
You dont need a plam and just get a cheap PC and printer (200) and your sorted
Andy
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You've got to have george.
You do need a computer plus printer plus internet. You don't need psalm.
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George does all the accounts, you just print off at the end of the year and give to your accountant, that on its own, is worth it ;)
Andy
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Dont be fooled into thinking you need George to work
you manage so far, dont go put yourself in debt, thats why the world is in meltdown, people buying things they cant afford, i made do with a pen and a book, and some organization,
i already had a pc and just used George as a trial, and liked it,
but ultimately if there was no power i would be using pen and paper again
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whatever works best for you mate, I use george now and its made doing the figures etc at the end of each day really easy (almost fun!) its so easy to track and manage everything with it.
You could buy a 2nd hand pc couldnt you? it doesnt have to be too powerful, hp do a printer now for £20, i saw it in the post office of all places. I dont reckon u would need a palm straigt away, i've been doing fine without it, i'm getting one really soon but i'm lazy lol.
Good luck chap ;)
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I just use a spreadsheet with all my customers on it, print off a round sheet at the beginning of the month and tick them off as I go. I also write down the jobs I've done that day in a diary, so I can see when the same jobs are due next month and work out weekly, monthly, yearly turnover etc. Works perfectly for me :):)
If you really want a new laptop, you can get a good one in Tesco for about £300. You can get open source office suite software called OpenOffice.org for free, and as Cleaner Windows said, a good printer can be found for about £20-£30 :)
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I'm probably going to get a pda soon (maybe a Windows one so I won't be having george)
I've got no interest in having it all on my pc and printing crap out though.
All you need is to have to hand all your stuff that's due that day, and a pda would be helpful for keeping track of 6 and 8 weekers you'd forget otherwise.
Well I tend to, that's why I'd like my accounts accessable with a button press. :-\
If you're doing fine though, don't waste your money.
There's a ridiculous "Keeping up with the Jones's" attitude around Clean-it-up.
You need to computerise everything as much as you need a £600 pole or £3000 system to clean windows. ::)
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I am moving house at the moment and have a spare pc and monitor if you want it. It isn't going to set any land speed records but would suffice for george and internet browsing. It is a smallish base unit, 15" screen and I could probably russle up a mouse and keyboard.
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact.
Why not? I do absolutely fine without it? ;)
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I rest my case... ;D
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
I've managed without George for 22 years (not that it was around at the beginning)! We look after large domestic rounds, some of them sub-contracted out and large commercial rounds. Whilst I'm sure it's a very useful bit of software, you really do not need it to run a successful business plus I just can't be bothered and my wife says I'm tight.
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Yep, you certainly don't need it, but once you've had it you won't want to be without it......... like a lot of things in life really ;)
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
i agree, I didnt get george or want to get a pda just cos everyone else had them on here, I was using spreadsheets to track my round etc and found it got to a stage that irritated the hell out of me and needed a better,easier and quicker way of doing it and george = pda makes sense, if you were making a visit to your local shop you wouldnt go round the block twice before going there would you! you'd go straight there with no messing because its quicker and easier (plus if its like our local shop you'd have to be quick, the bugger closes so early lol)
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Yep, you certainly don't need it, but once you've had it you won't want to be without it......... like a lot of things in life really ;)
without a doubt ;)
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If you want to shift work from one day to another you have to double damn bloody irritaintly click every job and put it in another day - and all the jobs it then displaces!
Apart from that, I find it ok, but I wouldn't rely on it for accounting as you'll always get other cash jobs you didn't expect then forget about them then you won't put it in George then you'll be in the carp with HM customs.
It's a nice prog, don't get me wrong, it just not the be all and end all.
I'd go for the washing machine to keep SWMBO happy, then upgrade slowly.
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hi,
keep sitting on the fence about getting george w/c assistant or not.
Problem is i don't have a pc at home use internet at library.
Have a small place so would need laptop £399 pc world.
then would need a palm £70
plus a cheap printer £40
and of course goerge £50
total £560.
I know i'l put this in as an expense to my accountant but i've still got to
pull up the dough :-/
Is it that more beneficial than pen and paper i am a one man band using a freedom trolley probably earning 30% less a day than i should down to under pricing :P.
Oh yeh and our washing machine just packed up ;D
Do you think george would be that great for me and oh yeh i tend to move my work about to different days as i'm still growing my round and also i don't like doing a customer on damp days ie if done on a wet day one month like to do them on a better day next time.
could george cope with this.
any views
thanks lee :)
IMO George is not essential though many on here find it very useful. I had already adapted MSWorks spreadsheet and database to cope with my requirements before I heard about George so I never made the leap. MS Works is usually installed free on computers but I would not recommend using it unless you have the disks and key number to re-install it if something went wrong. Another option may be to download OpenOffice from
www.openoffice.org
It is a word processor/spreadsheet and databasse suite said to be compatible with MS Office. OpenOffice is open source software so is free.
You could save some money by dispensing with the PDA. I've never used one myself. I just commit the day's work to memory and update my spreadsheet and database each evening. Sometimes I leave it two days but if I've done a lot of jobs that's my limit. The beauty of it is that I do a similar sequence each time round so can usually copy/paste much of the info from one part of the spreadsheet to another.
George is excellent if you are not keen on setting up spreadsheets and databases - though George itself is a database really but the front end hides much of that to make it more user friendly.
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
I don't agree about George there Mr Solubility. However, if someone is unable or unwilling to learn how to set up a database/spreadsheet then George (or similar)probably is essential once a round starts to grow in size.
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George is best £50 I've spent on any wc equipment. It lets you concentrate on the important side of the business.
W/C used to be split into three tasks for most people - Cleaning, collecting & the dreaded paperwork. I've always used SAE's so no collecting. The addition of George saved many more hours with little ongoing admin time once all the initial data has been input.
Dave
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
I've managed without George for 22 years (not that it was around at the beginning)! We look after large domestic rounds, some of them sub-contracted out and large commercial rounds. Whilst I'm sure it's a very useful bit of software, you really do not need it to run a successful business plus I just can't be bothered and my wife says I'm tight.
This does surprise me. I got put in my place once before over this by trevor knight who has a bigger business and better software that works out the actual route and best way to do the round and lots of financial stuff that george doesn't do.
The fact is though Alex that you, and most probably your dad spent many hours figuring out the best way to retain and work with the information you need to do your job. I know that Shiner has a very good spreadsheet template set up too, but how many man hours did this take to evolve. George costs £50.
To print off tomorrows work, one click. Who owes you money? one click. New customer, just type it in. Any frequency. How much did you earn last month?this financial year todate?
Are far as cost benefit ratio's go it beats anything.
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
I've managed without George for 22 years (not that it was around at the beginning)! We look after large domestic rounds, some of them sub-contracted out and large commercial rounds. Whilst I'm sure it's a very useful bit of software, you really do not need it to run a successful business plus I just can't be bothered and my wife says I'm tight.
This does surprise me. I got put in my place once before over this by trevor knight who has a bigger business and better software that works out the actual route and best way to do the round and lots of financial stuff that george doesn't do.
The fact is though Alex that you, and most probably your dad spent many hours figuring out the best way to retain and work with the information you need to do your job. I know that Shiner has a very good spreadsheet template set up too, but how many man hours did this take to evolve. George costs £50.
To print off tomorrows work, one click. Who owes you money? one click. New customer, just type it in. Any frequency. How much did you earn last month?this financial year todate?
Are far as cost benefit ratio's go it beats anything.
It only takes a couple of mouse clicks for me to view various reports too.
It's swings and roundabouts I think Mr Solubility.
Bear in mind I wasn't aware of George and similar software when I first set up my templates too.
I acknowledge that I did need to spend a while developing my templates to the way I wanted them and there was a certain amount of head scratching and I also needed to ask a few questions on usenet. However, the flip side of that is that I only had to develop the features that I wanted. If someone wants an extra feature, they must wait until the author of George updates the software (and I understand he is pretty good at adding things). However, if I need an extra field on my database with a formula in it or if I need to manipulate the software to produce a different type of report, I can just spend a few minutes at most making my tweaks.
So pros and cons really.
I spent longer setting it up but it does reflect my needs more specifically.
I can make my own adjustments when I choose to make them but I have to put a little bit of effort in.
Mine doesn't have a friendly looking front end but that doesn't matter if you've set it up yourself. However, this could initially make it a bit harder for others to use.
George does look more user friendly but you might have to wait for an update if it doesn't meet a specific need.
A lot depends on how an individual wants to do things I think.
The right solution for one person might not be right for someone else.
Also, I did get a small sense of achievement from setting things up myself.
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
I've managed without George for 22 years (not that it was around at the beginning)! We look after large domestic rounds, some of them sub-contracted out and large commercial rounds. Whilst I'm sure it's a very useful bit of software, you really do not need it to run a successful business plus I just can't be bothered and my wife says I'm tight.
This does surprise me. I got put in my place once before over this by trevor knight who has a bigger business and better software that works out the actual route and best way to do the round and lots of financial stuff that george doesn't do.
The fact is though Alex that you, and most probably your dad spent many hours figuring out the best way to retain and work with the information you need to do your job. I know that Shiner has a very good spreadsheet template set up too, but how many man hours did this take to evolve. George costs £50.
To print off tomorrows work, one click. Who owes you money? one click. New customer, just type it in. Any frequency. How much did you earn last month?this financial year todate?
Are far as cost benefit ratio's go it beats anything.
I'm sure you're right, that it's a very good bit of software and I'm sure if I used it I would swear by it, but I was just making the point that it is not essential to establishing your business. In fact, in the early days you have more time than money available, so the time spent developing a paper system costs you very little (you also do not need any PC or PDA to run it). Our paper systems were developed years before most people had computers, they work, so we've stuck with them.
One day I may get round to downloading a free trial of it. You never know, I may become a convert :)
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
I've managed without George for 22 years (not that it was around at the beginning)! We look after large domestic rounds, some of them sub-contracted out and large commercial rounds. Whilst I'm sure it's a very useful bit of software, you really do not need it to run a successful business plus I just can't be bothered and my wife says I'm tight.
This does surprise me. I got put in my place once before over this by trevor knight who has a bigger business and better software that works out the actual route and best way to do the round and lots of financial stuff that george doesn't do.
The fact is though Alex that you, and most probably your dad spent many hours figuring out the best way to retain and work with the information you need to do your job. I know that Shiner has a very good spreadsheet template set up too, but how many man hours did this take to evolve. George costs £50.
To print off tomorrows work, one click. Who owes you money? one click. New customer, just type it in. Any frequency. How much did you earn last month?this financial year todate?
Are far as cost benefit ratio's go it beats anything.
One day I may get round to downloading a free trial of it. You never know, I may become a convert :)
Alex,
you're a person always trying to improve the look and access of gardiners website/shop so I would suggest you try George for FREE on trial.
I bet you'll try it and buy it to make paperwork easier and to save time writing out work schedules for your employees if nothing else. Give it a try, what have you got to lose?
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
I've managed without George for 22 years (not that it was around at the beginning)! We look after large domestic rounds, some of them sub-contracted out and large commercial rounds. Whilst I'm sure it's a very useful bit of software, you really do not need it to run a successful business plus I just can't be bothered and my wife says I'm tight.
This does surprise me. I got put in my place once before over this by trevor knight who has a bigger business and better software that works out the actual route and best way to do the round and lots of financial stuff that george doesn't do.
The fact is though Alex that you, and most probably your dad spent many hours figuring out the best way to retain and work with the information you need to do your job. I know that Shiner has a very good spreadsheet template set up too, but how many man hours did this take to evolve. George costs £50.
To print off tomorrows work, one click. Who owes you money? one click. New customer, just type it in. Any frequency. How much did you earn last month?this financial year todate?
Are far as cost benefit ratio's go it beats anything.
One day I may get round to downloading a free trial of it. You never know, I may become a convert :)
Alex,
you're a person always trying to improve the look and access of gardiners website/shop so I would suggest you try George for FREE on trial.
I bet you'll try it and buy it to make paperwork easier and to save time writing out work schedules for your employees if nothing else. Give it a try, what have you got to lose?
It's abit like saying, "There's nothing wrong with a tea strainer - so why bother with a tea bag?" kind of backwards thinking.
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I suppose you'll be telling me next that I should be using one of these water fed pole thingies.
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As someone said earlier that they just print off the accounts on George at the end of the year and hand it to the accountant.... well how do you add extras you do throughout the year, con roofs, gutter cleaning, any other odd paid jobs....or dont anyone bother including these ;)
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wash your mouth out with soap! :o :o :o :o :o
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There is an option for one off jobs.
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You absolutley don't need it & to be honest, in your circumstances only a fool would consider such a total waste of money.
some people love to just over complicate the uncomplicated ;)
couple of A4 diaries & some paper, oh, yeah & a pen or two. :)
And before anyone starts, when he does become a multi-millionaire with 50 wfp vans on the road etc. etc yawn, urg, hum. then, yes he may need it.!
tony
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
This is the most stupid statement i think i have ever seen on this forum :o
What hope have newbies got when this utter tripe is put before them ???
tony
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We specialise in tripe on this forum Tony. ::)
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There is an option for one off jobs.
Go on then Dave, do tell, I haven't come across that one ???
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There is an option for one off jobs.
Go on then Dave, do tell, I haven't come across that one ???
It's found under frequency of cleans :)
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There is an option for one off jobs.
Go on then Dave, do tell, I haven't come across that one ???
It's found under frequency of cleans :)
Where's that hiding, and how do you do it?
Ta :)
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when you create a job click on the frequency button then weeks and drop down menu appears, then right at the bottom it says once only. ;)
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when you create a job click on the frequency button then weeks and drop down menu appears, then right at the bottom it says once only. ;)
You learn something every day ;D
Thanks
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This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact. Being able to do internet banking with your custies paying straight in is another advantage.
If you just want to earn a living you don't need it. If you want to move forward you do. It's not about keeping up with the jones. When you've got it you'll see for yourself.
This is the most stupid statement i think i have ever seen on this forum :o
What hope have newbies got when this utter tripe is put before them ???
tony
Cheeky devil. Actually the guy who asked the question is a real trier. He goes to the library to get onto the internet to find out what we have to say a day later. He is smart enought to know that his work is 30% underpriced, and listens to advice that is given to him. If any one deserves to succeed it's him, and I'm sure that in time he will, George or no George.