What's This? A Life Preserver?
Boy has it been an interesting week. Of course, there's the usual everyday stuff to keep up with and then company arriving today. It will be an extra busy weekend but lots of fun I'm sure.
Now for the real news. Sitting at my desk last week working my fingers to the bone (just in case my boss is reading), I get a call. It's Doug from PDG Software. He was so helpful before, I really need to tell him I've gone with another shopping cart. He starts talking but it's not what I thought he was going to say. Excuse me? What's this? An offer I can't refuse? He didn't really use that line, but given the deep water I had belly flopped into, it really was music to my ears. Perhaps it was just lack of oxygen or wishful thinking on my part ..:-)
Doug, waiting on the other end of the line for me to catch my breath, was very patient. What was he offering? Thirty days free with support and I don't swipe my credit card until the end of that thirty days. Good news but nothing earth shattering. They will install the software onto my host. Getting better. They will create the skin to match our web site, no charge. Now he's really got my attention. And... drumroll please..... they now have the ability to integrate with Quickbooks POS!!! This is the part where the planets all line up, the clouds part and the sun shines down to warm my face, and then the birds start singing. This is HUGE news for those of us using QB POS! HUGE! Some of my worst order fulfillment/processing nightmares have been reduced from a mountain into a mole hill. Here's the scoop....
With this feature, our web site can show current inventory.... yes, CURRENT. This should cut down on orders placed for items not in stock since we will have two locations to buy from, brick and mortar and the web. I can't imagine what a nightmare that would be to deal with.
It will "automagically" (new word borrowed from Doug at PDG Software.... Thanks Doug!) create a sales receipt in QB POS for orders placed on the web. This will eliminate manual entry of web orders into the POS for Carol and crew. They will thank me someday...:-)
It will upload new items from our POS into the shopping cart. I will have to add images, more detailed descriptions and weight info since QB POS doesn't handle that yet, but it's still a HUGE timesaver!
We will be able to print our UPS shipping labels right from the shopping cart software, we put it on the package and then flag down the UPS truck and we're done. This will require a special printer but if we do any volume at all, it will easily pay for itself.
Now for the hitch! The version of QB POS we own is old... you know how those software people are... always "improving" things. The PDG Commerce software will not work with our version (just our luck). Specifically, I'm told it will work with QB POS version 5.0 and higher. Since Quickbooks will no longer support our version as of April, I see this as a necessary upgrade soon anyway. Until then, we'll have to muddle through.
Now for the really good part. Doug and his support staff offered to assist uploading my products into the shopping cart if I could provide them an Excel file. All 5000+ items! They got it this morning... done by noon. I'm feeling pretty special right about now...:-)
There's still plenty of work to do before I will be ready for our site to go live... transfer web site to new host, new ssl, set up merchant service, entertain company, celebrate Ryan's 16th birthday (Carol's son) next weekend and move my mother from Salt Lake City to St. Louis... but things are looking up. For now, I could really use a nap.
Till next time, Sandy
