What's your paperwork / filing system?

X

xhaust50

New member
Hello. I have been considering starting a part-time mobile detailing business and was wondering what sort of paperwork and filing system everyone here uses. For example:



1. What sort of contracts do you have the customer sign beforehand, agreeing to a certain price?

2. What sort of receipt do you give out?

3. What type of filing system do you use that allows you to keep track of customers, dates of service, products used, etc.

4. Any other paperwork-type forms come in handy?
 
I have a dateabase on ACT with all of my customers info. Everything is electronic and I can access the database via my Motorola Q. I give them a printed receipt that was made through my software called Quickbooks. It is biz banking software that is 2nd to none. Most of my customers I do not have contracts. I have yet to have a problem when I agree to a price and them not honor it. In the service line of any business, less paperwork the better.
 
You can buy a cd with most of the forms that you mentioned, I generate them myself and have my own system for keeping track of details and customers.
 
Keep it simple IMHO. I use some small carbon invoices from NEBS, customized with my business name, address, phone, and tag line. I use MS Excel to store revenues and costs. I built a simple MS Access database for my customer info. I also keep a written back up copy of my revenues in a marble composition book. Unless you are very busy detail shop with multiple revenue streams and tons of costs, and payroll, I would avoid professional accounting software. A professional accountant did recommended Quicken to me for simplicity.
 
All the stuff you listed that you use, can be had with QUick Books...Check with your accountant again, because most experts will tell you that Quicken is fine for personal finances, but QuickBooks is made specifically for small businesses. It will do P&L reports, invoices, all of your vendors and millions of other things.
 
joshtpa said:
All the stuff you listed that you use, can be had with QUick Books...Check with your accountant again, because most experts will tell you that Quicken is fine for personal finances, but QuickBooks is made specifically for small businesses. It will do P&L reports, invoices, all of your vendors and millions of other things.
Click to expand...

There is nothing wrong with the accountant, he just recommended something that is simple and easy to use.
 
No, I didnt mean that their is something wrong with your accountant at all...What I was trying to say, was that check to make sure they are familiar with quickbooks. The reason I said it was that Quickbooks is an oversize and saturated version of quicken. Same interface, but made for a business. In the end, there is no reason to use quicken, Nebs, and all these other things, when Quickbooks does all of that for you, for basically the same cost, and is just as easy to use as QUicken.
 
joshtpa said:
No, I didnt mean that their is something wrong with your accountant at all...What I was trying to say, was that check to make sure they are familiar with quickbooks. The reason I said it was that Quickbooks is an oversize and saturated version of quicken. Same interface, but made for a business. In the end, there is no reason to use quicken, Nebs, and all these other things, when Quickbooks does all of that for you, for basically the same cost, and is just as easy to use as QUicken.
Click to expand...

There is a version of Quicken that has small business funtions. He recommended Quicken over Quickbooks because it is less complicated. I see no reason to use a complicated accounting program. Using Excel, Access, and NEBS works out just fine for me. Being able to hand write invoices comes in handy when I do mobile jobs.
 
I also have an ACT! database set up with all my customer info, and I have also customized it to include the fields that I want.... This way, not only do my activities remind me of a follow up, but also I can run certain mailings and campaigns...
 
I have been using Quickbooks point of sale. Its kinda overkill for the amount of business im doing , but works great anyhow. I also got the cash register,card swiper and reciept printer for it, but like I said overkill unless your doing allot of business and sell retail items ,oh well maybee I will be able to fully utilize it someday.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top