[lee_dewing]

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 .

Oh yeh and our washing machine just packed up

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

[poleman]

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

[Village Gleam]

You've got to have george.
You do need a computer plus printer plus internet. You don't need psalm.

[poleman]

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 

[Alex Wingrove]

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

[Cleaner Windows]

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

[chrismroberts]

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

[Sir Squeaky]

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. :

[davids3511]

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.

[Village Gleam]

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.

[chrismroberts]

This job can't be done without george.(realisticly) That's just fact.

Why not? I do absolutely fine without it?

[Sir Squeaky]

I rest my case...

[Alex Gardiner]

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.

[frames to panes]

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

[Cleaner Windows]

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)

[Cleaner Windows]

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

[Tim Rose]

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.

[Paul Coleman]

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 .

Oh yeh and our washing machine just packed up

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.

[Paul Coleman]

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.

[Ravensford]

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