Inventory question

[donh]

I am using filemaker pro 8.5. I have windows xp home, sp2. I have a small business and I need an easy program to manage my inventory. Is this the right program for me? It was suggested to me as a good, easy to use program for inventory.

 

I am obviously new to fielmaker, hence the dumb question...if it is dumb

[Techphan]

What are your needs for your inventory program? FM will do as little or as much as you want it to do. But, the more you want it to do the more sophisticated your skills have to be to "program," or alternatively you can have a professional developer write the solution for you.

[donh]

I have a small business and I want to keep track of my customers and inventory. I would like a notification, if possible, when items become low in stock and need to be ordered. And basically to look up inventory items to see what is in stock and how much, etc.

 

Mostly, it has to be easy to use.

 

If filemaker will do this kind of thing, please advise as to how to do what I need as easily as possible. Thanks

[Sunshein]

Personally, I would create a field in the inventory item table for the item level at which you want to reorder that particular item (some items you would probably reorder at a 500 level and some at a level of 3. Then create a portal on an existing layout like a menu layout, where you will see it regularly, to show the inventory items which are at or below your suggested ordering level.

 

You could also create a separate layout for all inventory items listing them by category or whatever.

[donh]

I assume its quite staightforward to set this up originally. I open filemaker and simply type in the inventory in question.

 

Click people and assets and then click inventory. I dont know why it wants to save a file even though I havent created on yet.

[Maarten Witberg]

Looks like you are trying to open one of the demo files supplied with the software. Filemaker asks you to save the demo under a new name.

[donh]

When I open filemaker, I click file, new database:

 

I get "create a new file using a template" OR

 

create a new empty file

 

 

When I click either of these my documents opens as it looks for a file.\

 

Is this as it should be or am I doing something wrong.

[donh]

I have figured out some of this stuff.

 

I cannot see where it lists in the Inventory report how many of each item I have or if I can make it display an alert of something when an item is getting low in number.

 

Can these be done?

[Maarten Witberg]

Well the template demos as I know them are rather limited. I am not quite sure if we are talking about the same file though. Check to see if there is a report layout that gives you summary data.

 

fwiw you can do almost anything with filemaker short of flying to the moon. It is a program with a low threshold for novice users but it's also possible to make very high end complex databases with it. So all in all it does take an effort to get to know it well. If you are planning to do any business critical development I suggest you invest some time to get to know the program. Here is a good start I guess: video tutorials

A great book for total immersion (once the filemakerin virus has you in its grip :-) ) is the filemaker pro 9 bible

[donh]

No, I;m not using a demo template

[Maarten Witberg]

Then what file are you using?

btw while you were posting I made an extensive edit to the post above... please see the links I posted.

[donh]

I created a new "test" inventory item file.

[Maarten Witberg]

allright, but it is a little difficult to help you out like this for me or any other helpful on the forum. I must stress that it is of great importance that you should familiarize yourself with the basics of database creation. We can give pointers on a forum like this if you're a total beginner but I'm afraid that it will only confuse you if you have not got a very basic understanding of how the program works and what some of the vernacular means. Please take a look at the videos and study the template files, they are basic and limited but good for familiarizing yourself.

[donh]

OK, Thanks

[donh]

Clicked the link you provided for tutorials, but I cannot open them. I do have quicktime installed. I have 8.5 and the tutorials are for 9.0. This shouldn't matter just to view them though, should it?

 

Any tutorials on inventory would be good.