Expert: Scottgem - 9/15/2006

Question
I've been trying to find an answer to this question all over the web but I know it's easy for someone "in the know".  I have a very small business and I sell items on the web that are drop-shipped by another company. Currently I have to enter the same info on 2 spreadsheets and also on the invoice. I know there is accounting software that does similar things but I also have to calculate my supplier's portion of each item and add it all up as well as the other recordkeeping.  I want to be able to enter the info one time and it's all done.  Who do I get to design this very simple software? I really don't know what type of person I should be looking for. Are there individual freelancers that would do this more cheaply than big companies? Does one use Visual Basic for this and could I learn to do it myself?  I would enjoy learning it if that would be the right language to use.

Answer
Do you have Microsoft Office with Access? I do freelance application design using Access. What you describe is a fairly simple  and if you want to give me more specific I can give you a quote for the work. If you want, I can also include the source code, so you could learn how to modify and enhance it yourself.

While you could use Visual Basic, that would be a lot bigger learning curve than Access.

If you don't have Access (or don't want to get it), I have the ability to distribute a run time license so you could still use whatever I create for you. Let me know how you want to proceed.

Scott<>