Filemaker Pro

[lumpy790]

I am looking for a PC & Ipad2/Iphone 4S app program for business records, product inventory and invoicing.

Anyone have experience with Filemaker Pro? It looks like it may do what I am looking for.

For Ipad

http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/ipad-at-work/docs/iPad_at_Work_Business_Processes.pdf

For PC

Database Application By FileMaker | FileMaker Pro 11


Or any other products that will do this that you have used?

 

[AgentGreen]

Yes it could be what you are looking for

Hi, I am an ipad2 user.

IMHO FileMaker could well be what you are looking for. I am a FileMaker developer by the way and develop my own apps for use on the iPad. The question is finding whether there is the right solution designed in FileMaker for your business. FileMaker go is used to open files made with FileMaker pro which is used on macs or pc's

FileMaker has its own free starter solutions that could be of use and there is an excellent piece of free software called fm starting point (google it) that is packed full of features and can be adapted using FileMaker pro on a mac or pc.... FileMaker Starting Point - A Completely FREE FileMaker Template Designed for use with FileMaker Pro 11[/url] . That's just for starters, there are a wealth of free and pay for options out there. I am biased of course but after 18 years of using FileMaker, I find it the best way to rapidly develop something cost effectively that can change as quickly as your business can I love it !

If you need something bespoke there are a huge community of professionals like me to choose from who can help, or if you are into programming you could learn FileMaker yourself, but often it's best to pay a developer and save expensive mistakes ...it really depends on your situation and point of view. Hope that helps !

 

[madhatter61]

Hi, I am an ipad2 user.

IMHO FileMaker could well be what you are looking for. I am a FileMaker developer by the way and develop my own apps for use on the iPad. The question is finding whether there is the right solution designed in FileMaker for your business. FileMaker go is used to open files made with FileMaker pro which is used on macs or pc's

FileMaker has its own free starter solutions that could be of use and there is an excellent piece of free software called fm starting point (google it) that is packed full of features and can be adapted using FileMaker pro on a mac or pc.... FileMaker Starting Point - A Completely FREE FileMaker Template Designed for use with FileMaker Pro 11[/url] . That's just for starters, there are a wealth of free and pay for options out there. I am biased of course but after 18 years of using FileMaker, I find it the best way to rapidly develop something cost effectively that can change as quickly as your business can I love it !

If you need something bespoke there are a huge community of professionals like me to choose from who can help, or if you are into programming you could learn FileMaker yourself, but often it's best to pay a developer and save expensive mistakes ...it really depends on your situation and point of view. Hope that helps !

I love FileMaker ... EZ database program to use. Can it compete with Excel in some of the spreadsheet needs areas?

 

[AgentGreen]

It depends exactly what those need are IMO - could you give me some examples ?

Excel has some fantastic capability and I have seen some people push that to the limits, but much of the freelance work I get is from Small businesses who have organised everything on Excel and outgrown it - at the end of the day its not a 'relational database' and you can't craft a nice user interface that most business want / need for there users. Accounting departments seem to stick with Excel and specialist financial apps in my experience but Filemaker has some very nice financial and mathematical functions that can be used.

Having said that there has always been a difficulty in Filemaker recreating some spreadsheet views where you want to scroll both horizontally and vertically. For example if you have a spreadsheet with a years work of dates on one axis and a large number of users on the other axis that can be difficult to do with Filemaker.

In the instances where business have wanted that its often a case of providing a very suitable alternative way of organising and viewing the data.