Business fulfillment software

September 17, 2007 7:44 AM

I run a small mail-order shipping business and for years have been using an Excel spreadsheet to process and fulfill orders. Is there a database-based application that will do this instead?

My main problem is keeping track of who ordered what, when, seeing what's on backorder, identifying open purchase orders, printing invoices where necessary, and seeing graphs of various product sales. Right now I'm doing all this manually.

I've seen a few programs but they cost a hefty sum and alternatives are difficult to search for.

No server-based solutions, please, as I want a self-contained solution and don't want all my data locked up with one company.

posted by zek to computers & internet (5 comments total)

MS Access. Yes, it's got problems but you can really do a lot with it.

You'll need to learn how to use the program, build queries and forms, etc. However, it's quite powerful. It's "Database 101". You might use their sample database(s) to learn - I think it's called Southwind.
posted by powpow at 8:00 AM on September 17, 2007

An off-the-shelf program like Peachtree, Microsoft Accounting, Quickbooks, etc. Many of them have the purchase orders, printing invoices, graphs, etc., but I am not so sure about what's on backorder. You will want to make sure you have time to train yourself and/or others on how to use this software.

From experience, I would definitely not recommend Peachtree because it is so easy to change things without leaving some sort of audit trail, or any bread crumb trail for that matter.

A database in Microsoft Access might also work. The downside is that you would have to set it up (which would take awhile), or you could hire someone to build it (not sure where to start with that).
posted by toaster at 8:00 AM on September 17, 2007

Oh, for graphs you'd probably need to export the data or make a macro (and/or VBA module) that puts it into excel and pops up a chart. You can probably find samples on the web.
posted by powpow at 8:02 AM on September 17, 2007

If you want to give Access a whirl, Microsoft has a Customer Orders Database you can download and use for free.
posted by junesix at 8:26 AM on September 17, 2007

Access seems like a good solution here. You can import from Excel and even link straight to Excel sheets (and work with them as if they were tables, with some limitations, of course). It's not perfect, but the 2003 version is a good deal friendlier than previous ones (I've been using it since the 2000 version).
posted by wheat at 12:47 PM on September 17, 2007