business apps

[zman764]

I own a bowling alley pro shop and I am considering getting an ipad to help me run the business.

I have binders of literally hundreds and hundreds of sheets of fit sheets

These are one of the main reasons I am considering an iPad. Is there an easy way to essentially keep a blank fit sheet on the ipad and every time I needed to fill one out on a customer I would just launch it, the blank fit sheet pops up and I just fill in the customers information and save it eliminating the hundreds of sheets I have?

Also I have been searching the app store for business apps looking for an inventory management type of software. Basically something that I would be able to enter new inventory every time an order comes in and enter inventory as sold every time I make a sale? And have it track my sales tax, sales, ect?

Thanks for any advice that can be offered!

 

[SweetPoison]

Welcome! I moved your thread to our App Section ~ might get better responses.

 

[zman764]

Thanks I was in a toss up between the two ... I'm not really finding any apps that seem very useful on google :/

 

[SweetPoison]

Have you tried the iTunes store and search "business apps?"

 

[DontUnderstandMyIpad]

Let's see:
1) Most apps don't support templates. A workaround would be to have your main sheet saved as a PDF in Goodreader and whenever you want to fill it out, use Goodreader's Open in feature to open it in another app, such as Note Taker HD.
You will most likely need to use two apps, because if you start editing a file, the app will always save that change onto the file, meaning that the template or source file needs to lie outside the editing app, in order for it to stay untouched.

2) Regarding sales tax: QuickSale might be of interest to you.

 

[EgoProwler]

Grab Bento for iPad App. Create a template that suits your needs and stores the results to a database. If you have a Mac you can purchase the desktop version of Bento and sync the database between the iPad and your desktop.

 

[zman764]

Walk me through this Ego...
I would buy Bento for my macbook pro and ipad ... then I could create the fit sheet and every time I fill one out on a customer save it as their name and have all fit sheets on my ipad?

 

[EgoProwler]

Bento is a database application. You can create a GUI front-end template that interacts with the back-end database. You wouldn't be saving files; rather, you would be saving fit sheet results to a database and recalling them for later review on the iPad or desktop application.

I would highly recommend you go check out the Bento website and even check out templates that people have created, so you can get an idea of what the application is capable of.

Check out the demo downloads of Bento Desktop at the FileMaker website and make sure the features you need are applicable to the versions you purchase.

 

[zman764]

Thanks!

 

[Pagliacci]

If your considering Bento you may want to have a look at the Tutor for Bento (Mac)app. Essentially 60 min tutorial on geting started with and using Bento. I am a new Bento user and found it very useful .

Pagliacci

 

[blarb]

Found something

Hey, I know the post is a bit old, but I found an inventory management app that seems a bit more advanced. It looks like it supports labeling and barcode scanners and everything. Check it out, it may be of help, you can find them at sassisystems.com