Suggest an invoicing program?

[idahodogs]

Hi Programmers, I need your help. I am looking for an invoicing/customer database program for a tree service business. Hopefully there is one out there already. Here is what I need:

Keep track of each job - who was the customer, what did we do, how much did it cost

Keep track of each customer - their personal info, what work we have done for them (link to invoices maybe), and when.

The goal is to look up a customer by name or adress and be able to talk to them about any work that we have done for them OR to look up all the customers who we did a certain type of work for (say pruning fruit trees) so that we can send them a mailing (a reminder that it is time to prune fruit trees).

What I do not want: accounting software (we already have that), web-based or server based (we only have 1 computer), inventory software (we don't have physical inventory, its a service company). I don't need to keep track of whether they've paid or not, we don't have many customer and I can do that by hand.

I am really looking for something as simple as possible since I am pretty programming illiterate and this is a very small business.

Thanks in advance!

[lykwydchykyn]

I'm no expert, but it sounds like what you need is a CRM program (Customer Relations Management). There are quite a few CRM systems out there that are F/OSS, though I don't know if any of them will do invoicing as well, that seems like something your accounting software should be doing.

Most F/OSS CRM apps are probably going to be web-based, but there's nothing that says you can't run a lightweight web server on the workstation. Besides, doing it that way will make it easier to scale up when the business takes off and has an office of 50 :).

I'd recommend doing a search on "Open Source CRM" and see if anything looks like it fits the bill.

[bcz]

I have a system that seems about right for you running on Ubuntu. It is designed for use on an Acer Aspire One netbook so anthing with a screen greater than 1024x600 will be fine.

However it is not open source as I live from my programming. You can contact me on misoftware@netspace.net.au

Rgds Bill