Our 2010 Web Site ReDesign

Author: Jerrald Hayes; Published: Feb 17, 2010; Category: News; Tags: Web Design, WordPress; No Comments

In preparation for the release of 360 Difference 3.2 later this winter or early spring we’ve redesigned and reorganized our website.

We stepped away from the HTML table based design we had here and remodeled the site this time using CSS to format the presentation and WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS). To do that we took the Evo4 CMS WordPress Theme developed by Ray Gulick of Evolution Web Development as a development framework and modified the CSS to look like another Macintosh inspired WordPress theme we’ve used before called iTheme design by Nick La (our design for the HowToDisposeOf.com website uses Nick La’s iTheme as a framework and we just we made changes there to the CSS too to get the right look for that site).

You can see from the screenshots on the right of the two designs that they have a very different look so when you see how the Evo4 theme can be CSS coded to look like iTheme you can begin to see the power and design flexibility that CSS gives to web designers.

Our choice of using WordPress as a Content Management System also enabled us to use the WP e-Commerce plug-in from GetShopped.org to organize and run The 360 Difference Store.

As we continue to add software products this spring and post training videos and answer support questions in our FAQ we hope you’ll all tell us how this new web design looks and works for you.

How Much Should I Charge by Ellen Rohr

Author: Jerrald Hayes; Published: Feb 17, 2010; Category: Books; Tags: Accounting, Markup; No Comments

How Much Should I Charge?:
Pricing Basics for Making Money Doing What You Love

By Ellen Rohr
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While she never uses the phrase ‘Capacity Based Markup’ in plain simple language that anyone can understand Ellen Rohr lays out and explains the mechanics of setting a price for your work using what is essentially a ‘Capacity Based Markup’ methodology.

Also I highly recommend her companion book:

Where Did The Money Go?- Easy Accounting Basics for the Business Owner Who Hates Numbers

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It a great book for gaining a simple understanding of the accounting basics as contractors we often seem to skip over when we first go into business and don’t really pick up on or get interested in until we’re inspired by a crisis.

Running a Successful Construction Company by David Gerstel

Author: Jerrald Hayes; Published: Feb 17, 2010; Category: Books; Tags: Markup; No Comments

Running a Successful Construction Company

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Running a Successful Construction Company by David Gerstel is considered by many to be a seminal classic book on running a building and/or remodeling contracting business in addition to giving us a great explanation and the definitive phrase "Capacity Based Markup".

Is in Chapter 5; Estimating and Bidding, and more specifically on pgs 167 through 168 that Gerstel talks about using what he calls a “Capacity Based Markup” which is the same thing as what is otherwise known as a PROOF or Indexed or Labor Allocated Markup which Irv Chasen, Ellen Rohr, and I all talk and write about and why it’s a safer better bet for a new contractor with a varied mixed of projects to use.

FAQ: Switching from the Runtime 360 Difference to the FileMaker Powered Version

Author: Jerrald Hayes; Published: Oct 3, 2008; Category: FAQs; Tags: None; No Comments

Question:

If I purchase a 360 Difference Runtime application now what will it cost me to upgrade to the FileMaker powered version sometime in the future is I decide I want those additional features? ( the ability to create Adobe® PDF or Microsoft® Excel files)

Answer:

At the present time the 360 Difference portion of the upgrade if FREE. You will have to make arrangements with us to move your data over into the new system but even that service is free.

You would obviously however need to purchase a copy of FileMaker Pro 9 to power it. It is currently (Oct 3rd, 2008) only $267.99 through our Amazon store but making the 360 Difference switch is free and we’ve made it like that to help encourage the switch. We think the PDF and Excel creation capabilities are well worth it plus there are other FileMaker powered solutions that come from FileMaker Inc as well as many other 3rd party vendors that businesses will find very useful. Visit Made For FileMaker to see some of what’s available out there.

FAQ: I’m having trouble getting 360 Difference to start up.

Author: Jerrald Hayes; Published: Sep 27, 2008; Category: FAQs; Tags: None; No Comments

Question:

I’m having trouble getting 360 Difference to start up.

Answer:

Well there are a couple of reasons users might have trouble getting 360 Difference to start but generally speaking the answers are pretty simple but before I get into them the first and most important issues is the User Name and Password for the demonstration version of the program.

In version 2.x we had a Getting Started page that somehow some people were just missing and not connecting with which instructed demo users to use Account Name: Demo and leave the password field blank. We’ve changed that with Version 3 and now the demo log-in instructions are right there on the welcome page. With version 3 you now log-in with a user Account Name of Pat Macintosh and the password is "demo" (and passwords are case sensitive).

Some of the other problems we found that new users sometimes have is they don’t have the version of the program that they really need.

• Some demo users using the FileMaker powered versions can’t seem to get past the program log-in page even though they are following the procedures on the Getting Started page exactly. The problem we have found then is they are using FileMaker 7. While the three letter suffix at the end of each 360 Difference file reads .fp7 360 Difference requires FileMaker 8.5 or greater.
• Also some demo users try to use the FileMaker powered version of our progarm without having FileMaker at all. In that case we recommend either going to the FileMaker site and downloading a Free Trail Version of FileMaker Pro 9 or going back to our site and getting either the Run-time Mac or Run-time Windows versions of 360 Difference.

If all that fails please don’t hesitate to give us a call 9-5 EST M-F at 914 301-5838 and we’ll be happy to see what we can do for you.

The 360 Difference “Dashboard” Home

Author: Jerrald Hayes; Published: Sep 24, 2008; Category: 360 Difference Files; Tags: None; No Comments

360 Estimating Dashboard: The 360 Dashboard is your starting place that displays a list of the estimates you have to work on along with the most recent and urgent To Do List Items you’ve created while estimating and a list of the notes you have attached to any of the records in the various database tables.

On the right hand side of the screen is dual portal that displays buttons that take you to the List View screens of all the tables in the module or displays buttons of the common task you perform while estimating to put you in the right place and get you started without wasting anytime poking around.