Staying Organized!

[Shawn F. 14]

I thought there was a thread like this here already but for some reason I cannot find it. Anyways what I am trying to figure out is how to stay organized and help myself remember things such as past jobs, scheduling, keeping up with receipts and invoices, taxes, etc.

Besides programs like Turbo Tax and Quick Books, what are some other programs that you guys use to keep track of jobs (past and present), tax info such as how you were paid and how to keep track of what you were paid, etc. I was going to use a program like excel (I am on a mac so it's not called excel) and make a bunch of columns with the customers name, number, address, last time I worked at their home, work performed, price, and when to follow back up with them. After analyzing this more it just seemed too much to keep up with on excel spreadsheets.

Do you guys use a laptop with programs or do it by hand on paper or what about phone apps? I have the new Evo 4 HTC phone and wouldn't mind a handy business app to help with thinks like invoices and receipts I can mail the customer or even use a laptop with a portable printer to hand print receipts and invoices for those who do not use email (older communities).

I'd greatly appreciate any information or help here to help me and others reading this stay more organized and remember past jobs. If there is a thread like this already then I apologize.

[OSMjo 15]

Here are a few:

http://www.serviceceo.com/

http://www.servicetycoon.com/industries/

http://www.servicesidekick.com/

There are lots of people just using Excel and the Outlook Calendar.

Use what works for you!

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

We use ACT and QuickBooks for customer management and accounting.

Rod!~

[Shawn F. 14]

Rod, I forgot about ACT. That is another program I need to check out and learn. Can you use it on a smart phone do you know?

[Scott Stone 604]

Google calendaring works for me. It can track all phone nunbers etc. You aldo can access the quickbooks online service from your phone. It isnt a perfect solution, but it is possible with an android phone

[Ron Musgraves 240]

Google calendaring works for me. It can track all phone nunbers etc. You aldo can access the quickbooks online service from your phone. It isnt a perfect solution, but it is possible with an android phone

My only worry is security?

[Scott Stone 604]

IT is as secure as anything else. It is all password protected. You can also go the app route. I found a couple of free app's in the Android Marketplace that do customer tracking, and one of them was even highly rated. You could use that to keep it local to you.

[Shawn F. 14]

Thanks a lot for the info guys! I am going to look into ACT and Quickbooks Online and see if just those two programs will work for what I need. I was going to buy ACT about 2 years ago and never did since my plans changed but I think it's time I buy it or do the trial version first and go from there.