The very first free spyware remover was called OptOut and was created in 2000 by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research. Spyware had then been a problem for Internet users for several years. The first known use of the term “spyware” is from 1995, when a poster in Usenet made fun of Microsoft’s business model. In the beginning, spyware was a term used for all types of espionage equipment, including tiny cameras for microfilming and similar. In 1999, the term spyware was used in a press release for new software from Zone Labs: the Zone Alarm Person Firewall. In the press release, the term spyware was specifically used for malicious software programs that send information back from an infected computer to the spyware owner. Today, the term spyware is rarely used for espionage cameras or other types of off-line equipment. The same year a very popular freeware, a computer game called Elf Bowling, began to spread among the Internet users. Eventually, the users found out that Elf Bowling included Adware, and that information about the players was sent back to the creator of the game, a company called Nsoft.

Today, many programmers and companies have created their own free spyware remover programs. It is very common that a free spyware remover can be upgraded to a more advanced version for a fee. As mentioned above, Steve Gibson created the first free spyware remover – OptOut. He was to be followed by free spyware remover programs from Lavasoft, the Ad-Aware spyware remover, and from Patrick Kolla – the Spybot Search & Destroy. Later SpySweeper from Webroot become one of the most popular free spyware remover programs. Naturally, Microsoft also developed their own free spyware remover. They bought the GIANT Anti-Spyware software and changed it into Windows AntiSpyware. The GIANT Anti-Spyware software is also licensed to Sunbelt Software and used in their free spyware remover program CounterSpy. Companies such as McAfee, Sophos and Symantec are also offering free spyware remover programs as a part of their anti-virus programs.

New forms of malicious Spyware and Adware are constantly created and in order to protect your computer from infestations you must choose a high-quality program and keep it updated. Supportcave.com offer a selected number of the very best free spyware remover programs available for immediate online download

• Great Plains Professional. This is high-end product, which should be capable to automate midsize and large business, it will not have limitation on number of user, payroll employees, modules selection. Database platform is Microsoft SQL Server 2000/2005. Current supported versions: 9.0 (since September 2005), 8.0, 7.5 and 7.0. If you need Service Advantage Suite, Customer/Vendor Consolidation, Lockbox Processing and other modules, targeted for midsize and corporate clientele – you should purchase Great Plains Professional

• Great Plains Standard. This is scaled down version of GP – it is limited to 10 users, 500 employees (this was very large issue when MBS introduced GPS with version 8.0 – version 7.5 of Dynamics on SQL Server didn’t have this employees limit and multiple payroll outsourcing companies used it), also selection of additional modules is restricted. If you are midsize business – please first analyze your needs, more likely you will need GP Professional. In some cases, if you have advanced developers – you can use eConnect to provide simple user interface to GP Standard over the web and resolve licensing. Great Plains Standard is available on MSDE (MS SQL 2005 Express) or MS SQL Server. In case if you would like to use MS SQL Server – ask your MBS Partner to get new reg key from MBS – you will need to prove your MS SQL Server license.

• Historical DB Platforms. Since version 8.0 Great Plains is available on MS SQL Server/MSDE. Version 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0 and earlier were available on MS SQL Server, Pervasive SQL 2000/Btrieve and Ctree/Faircom. If you are on Ctree or Pervasive SQL – you will need to be reenrolled into annual enhancement program, which is 35% (this includes 16% enhancement for the next year, and 19% reenrollment fee). Then, migration tool is $2k and your MBS VAR can migrate you to Great Plains Professional or Great Plains Standard.

• Great Plains Accounting. We are experiencing a lot of problems with this “pre-historical” application. This product is not supported by MBS and you can hardly find consultant on the market who knows this application. What we can do for you is – if something happens – looks technical support database and see if your issue and fix are posted there. We strongly recommend you to migrate to Great Plains Standard. We’ll provide this migration service.

• Switch MBS VAR form. In order to help you with migration, upgrade, integration, reenrollment – we need to see your records in Microsoft Business Solutions customer database. We’ll email you switch VAR form to sign so you can become our official client.

Good luck and you can always seek our help in customization, implementation, integration and support. Call us: 1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918, help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Germany, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer

Not so, since currently with the use of computers, XML data bases, ESRI software and a better understanding of other complex systems and patterns which we have broken through, we now know it is not only possible, but known that we can predict wind patterns and depending on the number of variables taken into consideration we can be so accurate that we would know wind.

It seems as if many give up just before they figure it out. You see the wind and weather is nothing more than many interrelated yet separate patterns all coming together. Each one is simple by itself, but the huge number of variables make it seem impossible. Thankfully scientists now with super computers are making it all happen and soon weather prediction maybe as exact as looking at a calendar to see what the next day is. Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

With his background in operations and finance in the insurance industry, Mike had confidently and successfully translated some of those service practices into Alpha’s daily staffing and recruiting operations. Now it was time to take the next step, and modernize the hodge-podge of computer systems that until now had been reasonably adequate for their three-office operation.

But where to start? He needed a real staffing software package. Mike knew that the custom system his former employer, an insurance giant, had implemented the year before had done wonders to improve efficiency and overall profitability. It had also taken three years to develop, and another to implement. In fact, when he had left, they were still making “customizations” — a process he figured would go on forever.

Mike didn’t think that Alpha could invest that kind of time or money. Could he could bring in some business software consultants and work with them to develop a tailored package in a shorter period of time? Mike knew that the continued success of Alpha Staffing, and its entrance into new markets and business lines would be greatly dependent on a successful staffing software system implementation.

This reinforced Mike’s doubts that one of the “off-the-shelf” staffing software packages would fit their needs, even if it were quicker and easier to implement. The more he thought about it, the more Mike felt that his decision on business automation would be his biggest, and if wrong, his last. He reached for a bottle of antacid.

Mike’s business is unique, like yours. Special. Unlike any other competitor in the whole wide world of staffing. Your business practices are equally different. As a result, your staffing business requires specialized information technology that addresses those unique needs. You are convinced that with the right IT infrastructure — the right staffing software — you will be more efficient, productive, and profitable. If you subscribe to this common belief, you, like Mike, have three options to achieve that end:

1. Develop your own custom staffing software and technology infrastructure;

2. Hire a consulting firm to develop the staffing software and IT for you;

3. Buy from a staffing software/IT vendor familiar with your industry.

Of these three options, which do you think is most likely to work the best, cost the least, and get implemented the fastest?

If you, like the high-profile public staffing firms of Norrell (now Spherion) and Manpower choose to develop your own software solution, you too may have a very expensive future write-off to enjoy. In fact, Manpower’s write-off for its failed three-year software development effort in the late 1990’s was pegged at $57 Million.

The right answer to this perplexing question is to buy from a staffing software vendor who is intimately familiar with the industry.

Surprised? After all, you’re special, unique, different, right? Well, not exactly. Yes, it is very true that you and your competitors differ in a number of important areas, such as management styles and objectives. However, you and all of your competitors also share a wealth of common traits, such as tracking employees and candidates, performing the business transactions of orders and assignments, making payroll, and billing customers.

These shared business issues are at the core of your staffing and recruiting business, and it is these issues that a staffing software vendor familiar with your industry is best qualified to address. After all, such a vendor has researched the issues to develop the necessary technology. These industry-specific software vendors can often implement a solution that can handle 80 percent to 90 percent or more of your business operational needs. (It should be noted however, that vendor solutions may vary greatly in quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, depending on their expertise and previous success in the marketplace).

But let’s say that the “90 percent solution” that an industry-familiar vendor has to offer just isn’t enough for you. You want it all. Or you want some features or functions that the vendors don’t have.

Your options then are to either do the job yourself or hiring the project out to outside consultants. Both are similar in that you, the client, assume the overall project management risks, and, in the case of doing the job yourself, the programming chores for your unique staffing software. If you decide to take either of these routes, do so with extreme care — as industry surveys indicate that there is nearly a 60 percent probability of its failure.

According to one survey of thousands of software projects, conducted by the Standish Group of Hanover, Massachusetts, four of 10 software projects failed outright. To make matters worse, an additional 33 percent of software projects were completed late, went over budget or were completed with fewer features and functions than originally specified. Can your staffing business afford to make that kind of risky investment?

In an even more unexpected finding, the study also revealed that the use of IT consulting houses — even highly respected companies such as Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and Lockheed Martin — increased the risk of a project’s failure. This is astonishing because such consulting firms have staked their reputations on and are hired for their claimed expertise at developing or implementing enterprise software from such giants as SAP and PeopleSoft.

But the reason for their poor results is not so surprising — as it pointed to business practices that leave a lot to be desired, frequently at the considerable expense of their clients.

It should be no wonder then that dissatisfaction with IT contractors has reached an all-time high. A poll of 200 MIS managers conducted by Information Week revealed that 63 percent of them had either eliminated or rebid an IT service contract within a year. This was typically due to unacceptable performance or failure to deliver as promised.

Why the low success rate of home-grown “Do-It-Yourself” software projects?

With a success rate of only roughly 40 percent, you might be tempted to accept the premise that the very complexity of custom software would have a bearing on the success or failure of project. To a degree, this is true, however, the three main causes of software development failure, as determined by industry surveys, are not related to the technology itself, but to experience, management, and politics. They are:

1. Inexperience: Technologies and programming methods change rapidly. This means that both business-side and/or contract programmers and program managers are not always up to speed on the latest development technology. What is more important, IT-oriented program managers and programmers are rarely totally familiar with the business issues to be addressed, and so may not be able to make the connection to the best technology needed to address them.

Consulting companies, including the largest and most well-known of the accounting/IT consulting firms, often use novice talent, fresh out of school, to handle programming and management chores. This inexperience leaves clients open to potentially massive cost-overruns or, worse, a system that never works even after years of development.

You probably won’t hear much about these consulting firm failures though; both the firms and their clients have a vested interest to keep such admissions of failure quiet. Only when it reaches the “public scandal” or “write-off” stage does such information become public knowledge.

2. Management mis-objectives: Any firm trying to develop a staffing software project for itself must first fully and clearly define the objectives for the project. Few do this to the extent needed.

Software development and implementation is an incredibly complex process, even for a moderately sized firm. Senior management must be involved from the get-go. End-user considerations are paramount if the technology is to be fully accepted. Questions regarding business practices, methods, and future business or technology possibilities must be answered.

Critical to the success of the project is both established accountability and an understanding that software development is inherently risky due to rapidly advancing programming technology. It’s useful to remember that the billions of dollars allocated to correcting Year 2000 computer problems were the result of management and programming decisions made, in some cases, in the 1960’s.

At a time when CEO’s often focus on the performance of the next quarter, trying to plan and manage something that may take years and millions of dollars is difficult at best. Even with long-range planning and management, mis-steps are fairly typical. And it takes unusually strong and pragmatic business leadership to admit that they’ve taken the wrong development road and make any needed course changes.

3. CYA CIO’s: The CEO who does not want to get involved in software or IT projects is often tempted to place all of his eggs in the basket of a trusted CIO or similar IT manager. Doing so may set the firm up for a humpty-dumpty fall.

Years ago, the MIS department was often referred to as the “glass house”, where massive mainframes resided, presided over a technical priesthood whose mystic incantations were the interface between the “big iron” and the information needed to run the business. Today, business-savvy CIO’s and networked computer systems are the rule.

However, the firm’s CIO and the MIS department may still have a vested interest in the technology and methodology with which they are already familiar. They may want to protect their turf at all costs. As a result, their tendency is to do things “the way we’ve always done them”, only bigger and more expensively.

At the other extreme are sometimes visionary CIO’s who see a new IT project as an opportunity to bring in the latest and greatest technology, without fully understanding it or its applicability to the business. Here, they may apply an attitude that if the business sotware is “not invented here”, it won’t work right.

Either way, the firm loses, (although the CIO and MIS department staff may gain some new programming skills they can use on their next job).

Can you ensure the success of any “Do-It-Yourself” home-grown software project?

With so many variables — technology, management, business practices, internal politics, competitive issues, and more, it is virtually impossible to predict the success of any custom software development project. At best, you’ve only got a 40 percent chance of success. You can, however, improve your chances somewhat by following a few simple guidelines:

1. Establish goals. The most important thing is to define, exactly, what you want to accomplish. What is your firm’s business plan? How does IT relate and contribute to it? What should its objectives be? Be realistic in setting the goals, then document them. Get buy-in on these goals from senior management all the way to end-user.

2. Establish budget and time specifications. No matter how you cut it, software development is all about time and money. Working from your goals, consider the cost to develop the software, AND those areas where budget and time requirements can increase exponentially. This includes testing, documentation, implementation, and end user training. And don’t forget ongoing support, development, and “bug” fixing.

3. Establish project milestones. Hand-in-hand with establishing your budget and time-frame — determine what goals you have to achieve in the development process to complete the project on-time and on-budget. Some of these milestones should be, as NASA says, “GONO GO”, milestones; that is, if not achieved, the project doesn’t fly. Remember, 40% of all projects fail outright, so be prepared to cut your losses.

4. Obtain warranties and guarantees. When dealing with outside consulting firms, this is crucial. It is all too easy to point fingers after the fact, less so if clear communication between client and consulting firm spells out the expected results. And the consequences of failure. Have a “Plan B” that you can, if necessary, fall back on.

5. Avoid “mission creep”. There is often a temptation to add features and functions beyond the scope or goals of the project as it progresses. This is especially true as new technology raises the “wow” factor of the possible. Stick to the established goals and avoid the quick-sand of the “never-ending” software development.

Can you succeed with the pragmatic alternative?

If all the preceding talk of the failure rates of custom software development makes you think it may not be worth the gamble, you’ve one viable option left. Go back and talk to those industry-specific staffing software vendors some more.

Find out exactly what they have to offer, and what they have on the boards for the future. Can their “90 percent” software be customized for the other five percent or ten percent you believe you just HAVE to have? Or, do you really need that five percent more?

Look at your own business with a critical eye to determine if your business practices can or should be adjusted to fit the available IT solutions. Remember that with any highly experienced staffing software vendor you’re buying all the improvements they’ve made over the years for many, many clients. You may find that, while the software solution offered may not be exactly what you want, it will in all likelyhood measurably enhance the productivity of your current operations.

Above all, remember that you’re in the staffing business, not the speculative, expensive, and time-consuming software development business. Stick to your own core business competencies, with the understanding that software and technology should support and enhance your business operations, efficiencies, services, and profits.

And what about Mike Dunville and Alpha Staffing? Well, he thought it through, had a lot of talks with everyone on the staff from top down, rated all of the staffing software vendors to find the one that met 80 percent of their expected needs and had the most experience and the best R&D and support capabilities, and bought it.

That was last year. So far this year sales are up 15 percent, billable hours per desk are up 20 percent, and net margin is up 12 percent. They’ll add two more offices soon without a hitch, and staff retention is better as well. Mike really enjoyed passing out the big bonus checks to everyone. And getting one himself.

*Mike Dunville is a fictitious character, as is Alpha Staffing. His story, however, is fairly typical of the clients who have come to VCG, Inc. for their staffing software needs.

About VCG, Inc.
Our focus is your success. Since 1976 staffing firms have counted on VCG, Inc. for staffing software solutions that help them improve the productivity and profitability of their operations. Founded by staffing professionals and technologists intimately familiar with the business of staffing, VCG is the staffing industry’s largest and most experienced dedicated staffing software development firm. VCG solutions today power hundreds of successful staffing companies and 12,000-plus staffing professionals throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia. VCG, C-PAS, StaffSuite, TempWare-V, WebPAS, StaffSuite WorldLink, and WebPAS WorldLink are registered trademarks of VCG Inc.
VCG Staffing Software

Phil McCutchen is Marketing Manager for VCG, Inc., the leading provider of staffing software to the staffing industry. He has been associated with the staffing industry for nearly 14 years, and has more than 25 years of marketing related experience.

Let us describe you – programmer, software developer typical cases of MS CRM Customizations.

1. Integration with SQL Server application. If you have legacy system on MS SQL Server – let’s say you are transportation company and have in-house developed cargo tracking database. Now in MS CRM you want lookup the shipments for the customer (or account in CRM). This is SDK programming and calling SQL stored proc to retrieve cargo info. Instead of SQL Server you can have other database (ORACLE, MS Access, PervasiveSQL to name a few) – you can access multiple Database platforms via ADO.Net connection from your .Net application, which is easily integrated into MS CRM Account screen.

2. Email capturing in MS CRM. You have customer with email Bill@customer.com. Now you want all the emails that you receive from customer.com domain to be attached to Bill who is account in CRM. This is more difficult customization – you have to create MS CRM SDK web service, that one will be creating email activity and call it from COM+ application – Microsoft Exchange event handler (ONSYNCSAVE database event sink). This example maybe complicated with the following requirement. Imagine that Bill, instead of answering to your email (sent from CRM and processed by CRM-Exchange connector) sends you new message from MS Outlook. Then this email will not follow into MS CRM (because it doesn’t have GUID in the header and so is ignored by CRM Exchange connector). If you want to capture these emails – you have to do it in Microsoft Exchange event sink. There maybe scenario when you want to capture and analyze in the sink all the outgoing emails – this is even more complex – y!

ou have to place the sink on transport event.

3. ASP Application integration. You have legacy ASP application, where you capture orders from your customers and you want these orders be transferred to the CRM as activity. Here you understand that ASP doesn’t deploy Active Directory security – and the best way is to create HTTP handler and call it from your ASP page. This HTTP handler in turn will call MS CRM SDK web service with predefined (web.config) Active Directory credentials.

Some cautions. Never create your custom SQL objects (like stored procedure, SQL view, table) in MS CRM database. Instead, create your own database and place your objects there. When you see the first caution – you will never try to alter existing CRM objects, like adding new field to the table.

Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Oregon, Arizona, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Microsoft CRM SDK, Great Plains Dexterity, SQL, C#/VB.Net and Crystal Reports developer; akarasev@albaspectrum.com

Let’s assume that we want to load several MDI child forms, allowing each of them to be loaded only once, and of course to know when one of the child forms is closed.
Since we have several forms to load we would like to use the AddHandler and RemoveHandler keywords so we can be flexible and write the minimal code we can.

Let’s get dirty.

1. In each MDI child form we have to declare a public event.
Public Event FormClosed(ByVal f As Form)

2. In each MDI child form we have to use the Form_Closed method which handles the MyBase.Closed class and raise the FormClosed event.

Private Sub Form1_Closed(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)  _   Handles MyBase.Closed   RaiseEvent FormClosed(Me)End Sub

3. On our MDI form we need to declare two member variables. The first’s of type Form and the second’s type is ArrayList.
Private m_f(0) as Form
Private m_sLoadedChildForms As New ArrayList

4. We need to implement a method the will search the MDI child forms that are loaded. We’ll also use this method when we unload the MDI child forms.

Private Function SearchChildForm(ByVal strSearchForm As String, _Optional ByVal idxEventHandler As Long = -1) As Long   Dim i As Long = 0

   For i = 0 To m_sLoadedForms.Count - 1      If m_sLoadedForms.Item(i) = strSearchForm Then         Dim j As Long = 0         For j = m_f.GetLowerBound(0) To m_f.GetUpperBound(0)            If m_f(j).Name = strSearchForm Then idxEventHandler = j         Next j         Return i      End If   Next   Return -1End Function

5. We need to implement a method to load the mdi child forms and use the SearchChildForm method in order not to load the same mdi child form second time.

Private Sub LoadChildForms(ByVal f As Form)   If m_f.GetUpperBound(0) > 0 Then      ReDim Preserve m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0) + 1)   End If   m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)) = f

   If Not SearchChildForm(m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Name()) >= 0 Then      m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).MdiParent = Me

      AddHandler m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Closed, _         AddressOf UnloadChildForm      m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Show()

      m_sLoadedChildForms.Add(m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Name)   Else      If m_f.GetUpperBound(0) > 0 Then         ReDim Preserve m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0) - 1)      End If   End IfEnd Sub

6. At last we need to implement a method to take out our mdi child form from the array list so we can load it again if we want.

Private Sub UnloadForm(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)   Dim i As Long   Dim s As String = sender.GetType().Name   Dim IndexForEventHandler = -1   i = SearchChildForm(s, IndexForEventHandler)

   If i >= 0 Then m_sLoadedForms.RemoveAt(i)

   If IndexForEventHandler >= 0 Then      RemoveHandler m_f(IndexForEventHandler).Closed, AddressOf UnloadForm      m_f(IndexForEventHandler) = Nothing   End If

End Sub

Thomas is an experienced Visual Basic developer, with expertise of 7+ years developing especially financial applications. His main IT skills are VB, SQL, Crystal Reports – should you need a Visual Basic developer for your projects feel free to contact Thomas through his personal website Kaloyani.com or through VBprofs – the newest Visual Basic and VB.NET resources portal.

Now with CAD in picture, which is known as Computer-aided design, you need not fear about many of your drawings that are lost or destroyed, there is a booming service industry, which is at your doorstep to create computerized CAD drawings & designs in 2 Dimension & 3 Dimension of existing buildings.

CAD can be utilized for architectural as well as mechanical services. CAD is a hardware & software combination that caters to architects, engineers and consultants in the real estate & manufacturing industry globally.

CAD can be used for 2D drafting, 3D modeling, animations , interactive presentations, data managements, 2D – 3D CAD modeling & animation, architectural CAD, mechanical CAD, drafting and design, 2D 3D graphics, paper to CAD conversions, structural CAD drawings , 3D visualization.

In Mechanical CAD services it can be utilized for 2D Drafting, 3D modeling, 3D assembly, 2D – 3D sectional views.

The best way to have a good idea of CAD is by having a visit at this URL http://www.bluentcad.com). This one gives you some idea of the services which can be offered by CAD.

I hope the above information, which I have shared with you, is going to be resourceful.

Webmaster
-http://www.bluentcad.com
CAD@BluEnt.com

SMGlobal, Inc. manufactures FastMaint CMMS software. This program comes in basic, standard, and professional models, with the price ranging from $495 for basic to $2495 for the professional edition. Some of the features included in all editions are the ability to schedule maintenance work by date and to adjust the date, track inventory and supplies, and predict maintenance costs. FastMaint is easy to learn and can be used for a variety of facilities.

Sigma Data Systems, Inc. produces “I’mOnIt!” preventive maintenance software. This program costs $499 and has available support packages for $99 per year. “I’mOnIt!” can be used to track an individual worker’s productivity and expenditures, create a database of work orders, automatically schedule maintenance tasks, and record any emergency repairs made on equipment. “I’mOnIt!” is a useful program for any type of equipment maintenance and is useful for record keeping as well.

The Smartware Group produces the Smartmaintenance preventive maintenance software program. Several editions are available, ranging from a stand-alone version that costs $1,395, a network edition for $2,995 and $300 per additional user, and a handheld version for $650. With each edition, users have options for scheduling maintenance, ranging from hourly to annually, or to correspond with mileage or a meter reading. Smartmaintenance is used by such prominent companies and institutions as Du Pont and the Federal Reserve Bank.

Each of the above listed preventive maintenance software companies produces products that can be adapted to work for many different applications. When choosing a preventive maintenance program, it is important to keep the specific size and scope of your organization’s needs in mind. Each program comes with a 30-day trial to ensure a good fit prior to purchase.

Preventive Maintenance Software Info features detailed information on preventive maintenance software for health care and correctional institutions, computer hardware, and personal assets, as well as reviews of preventive maintenance software companies. Preventive Maintenance Software Info is the sister site of Fleet Maintenance Software Web.

• Agent Settlement. Freight forwarder usually deploys agents to deliver shipment. And agents are usually paid on the monthly or semimonthly basis. This means that you should have agents as customer.

• Daily Agent MBL invoices/statements. Assuming that agent is handling several shipment with Master Bill of Ladings (MBL) and House Bill of Ladings (HBL) per day – freight forwarder emails to the agent daily invoices. Then these daily invoices are settled and paid one time per months

• Cargo Tracking System. This is usually custom in-house made system, specific to each freight forwarder or industry specific stand alone software. The important requirement is the integration between Shipment Tracking System and ERP, such as Great Plains

• Accurate in-time payments. Payments are required to stay in highly competitive business, such as freight forwarding

• Bill of Lading report. Where you usually need additional info to standard invoice form: Carrier, MAWB, Airport of Departure, Airport of Destination, Flight #/ETA, Weight in KG, Lbs, number of packages, etc.
Technologies and customization tools:

• Great Plains Dexterity. This is Great Plains Software and currently Microsoft Great Plains programming language and IDE. It will allow you seamless integration with Great Plains user interface. You should realize agent settlement screen and inquiry, MBS/HBL profit/loss inquiry form and probably Bill of Lading in Great Plains Dexterity.

• SQL Integration. Integrating with Cargo Tracking/Delivery system should be done via SQL stored procedures. Use ODBC Linked Server to link to your tracking system database (MS SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, Unidata, Pervasive SQL, Ctree/Faircom, mySQL).

• Web Order Entry. Use eConnect to avoid high user license cost in Great Plains. eConnect is SDK to reference Great Plains objects – you will need SOP and POP orders entry

• Customer/Vendor Consolidation. For agents, who are customers and vendors at the same time use consolidation module. It is available for Great Plains Professional only – if you’d like to stay with Great Plains Standard – use Great Plains Dexterity to program the consolidation.

Good luck in implementing and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, UK, Australia, Canada, Mexico and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com

Whichever, it is very much dependent on the entries that have been made in the Bank Account in the Balance Sheet section. It is used to ‘tick off’ the entries that are showing in the Balance Sheet Bank Account in the accounting software ledger against the statement that your bank has sent you.

It is one of the important checks and balances that you should regularly carry out in your accounting software as you can pick up if any errors have been made when you have entered customer cheque details against their account or supplier cheques that you have issued.

Before you can do the bank reconciliation properly you will need to make sure that you have entered all of the bank charges as well as any direct debits and, or, deposits.

With bank charges you simply debit the Bank Charges account in the Profit and Loss section and credit the Bank Account in the Balance Sheet section.

A Bank Reconciliation report in your accounting software could be presented in several different ways but essentially will tell you the following once you had ticked off all of the items on the bank’s statement (using hypothetical figures) -

Balance Sheet Bank Account Balance10,000.00

Plus un-shown deposits 5,000.00

Less unpresented cheques 6,000.00

Bank Statement Balance 9,000.00

This means that the last balance on the bank statement should be $9,000.00

I have been involved in all aspects of the accounting software industry for over 20 years. I run several websites that specialize in various subjects including http://www.diyaccounts.com.au that gives advice on all aspects of accounting software from choosing, setting up and using it. Amongst other sites that I run are http://www.sense-now.com that helps newbies understand what internet business will probably work for them and what won’t. http://www.oumas.com.au is all about arts, crafts, hobbies, wine and beer making and much more.