The Caesar Creek Soaring Club (CCSC) is using an old FoxPro database
that has been functionaing as our financial package tracking
membership, flights, shares, billings and expenses. As the computers
keep evolving, the software does not and it is getting increasingly
difficult to update our systems and keep the software running. I am
interested in what software other clubs are using and what they have
found as limitations of their use. Anyone who has recommendations is
encouraged to respond to this group or directly to president(del)
@soarccsc.com. Delete the (del).
Thanks
Rolf Hegele
President CCSC

On Jan 20, 8:58*pm, Rolf > wrote:
> The Caesar Creek Soaring Club (CCSC) is using an old FoxPro database
> that has been functionaing as our financial package tracking
> membership, flights, shares, billings and expenses. As the computers
> keep evolving, the software does not and it is getting increasingly
> difficult to update our systems and keep the software running. I am
> interested in what software other clubs are using and what they have
> found as limitations of their use. Anyone who has recommendations is
> encouraged to respond to this group or directly to president(del)
> @soarccsc.com. Delete the (del).
> Thanks
> Rolf Hegele
> President CCSC

we are a new club planning to use Quickbooks

We use Quiken Deluxe 2010 in our club, and prior versions since '92

For flight scheduling, I reccommend web based PilotSchedule (free)

aerodyne

we have been using QuickBooks for years.. our tax accountant helped set up
the configuration for account categories of income and expenses.

the members are "customer" billings with accounts

"Rolf" > wrote in message
...
> The Caesar Creek Soaring Club (CCSC) is using an old FoxPro database
> that has been functionaing as our financial package tracking
> membership, flights, shares, billings and expenses. As the computers
> keep evolving, the software does not and it is getting increasingly
> difficult to update our systems and keep the software running. I am
> interested in what software other clubs are using and what they have
> found as limitations of their use. Anyone who has recommendations is
> encouraged to respond to this group or directly to president(del)
> @soarccsc.com. Delete the (del).
> Thanks
> Rolf Hegele
> President CCSC

My only problem with Quickbooks is that our accounting folks tell me
that we cannot do any sort of direct export from our online roster
(database) into Quickbooks. I have to give them a hokey Excel/CSV
export with date fields showing when the members last updated their
info - then the accounting folks manually enter any changes that have
been made since their last billing cycle... argh!

Other than that, it seems to work well for our club.

--Noel

Take a look at FlightSchedulePro.com. Our club uses that for
scheduling aircraft, but they also offer billing and accounting aspect
(which I haven't used yet.) The downside would be that it is a fee
based service around $40/mnth , so you're looking at a significant
recurring cost. The upside is that it is an online tool, can be made
to accept credit cards and will get you off of the unmaintained path
with the custom software and would likely replace some of the other
tools you're currently using.

You can get started with the scheduling portion for free and I think
they offer a couple of weeks free trial for the accounting aspects.

Morgan


On Jan 21, 12:35*am, "noel.wade" > wrote:
> My only problem with Quickbooks is that our accounting folks tell me
> that we cannot do any sort of direct export from our online roster
> (database) into Quickbooks. I have to give them a hokey Excel/CSV
> export with date fields showing when the members last updated their
> info - then the accounting folks manually enter any changes that have
> been made since their last billing cycle... argh!
>
> Other than that, it seems to work well for our club.
>
> --Noel

MGSA (Mid-Georgia Soaring Association) has been using QuickBooks
continuously since 1992. We also used it last year at the 2009 15 Meter
Nationals. That made my life easy with a full contest.

It is quite robust and serves all our accounting needs. The reporting
abilities are quite flexible and allows me to drill down as deeply as
needed.

The only shortfall is its inability to track ship time, that is done
separately in Excel. Maybe there is a way to use QuickBooks, I haven't found
it yet.

Mitch Deutsch
MGSA Treasurer


"Rolf" > wrote in message
...
> The Caesar Creek Soaring Club (CCSC) is using an old FoxPro database
> that has been functionaing as our financial package tracking
> membership, flights, shares, billings and expenses. As the computers
> keep evolving, the software does not and it is getting increasingly
> difficult to update our systems and keep the software running. I am
> interested in what software other clubs are using and what they have
> found as limitations of their use. Anyone who has recommendations is
> encouraged to respond to this group or directly to president(del)
> @soarccsc.com. Delete the (del).
> Thanks
> Rolf Hegele
> President CCSC

>
> The only shortfall is its inability to track ship time, that is done
> separately in Excel. Maybe there is a way to use QuickBooks, I haven't found
> it yet.
>
> Mitch Deutsch
> MGSA Treasurer
>

Maybe if you set up each ship the club owns as a vendor, and every
flight time as a purchase? then, you could keep track of the flight
time? I have seen it done that way with tow ropes, and number of tows
in quickbooks. Seems to work.

On 1/21/2010 7:59 PM, Mitch Deutsch wrote:
> MGSA (Mid-Georgia Soaring Association) has been using QuickBooks
> continuously since 1992. We also used it last year at the 2009 15 Meter
> Nationals. That made my life easy with a full contest.
>
> It is quite robust and serves all our accounting needs. The reporting
> abilities are quite flexible and allows me to drill down as deeply as
> needed.
>
> The only shortfall is its inability to track ship time, that is done
> separately in Excel. Maybe there is a way to use QuickBooks, I haven't found
> it yet.
>
> Mitch Deutsch
> MGSA Treasurer
>
>
> > wrote in message
> ...
>> The Caesar Creek Soaring Club (CCSC) is using an old FoxPro database
>> that has been functionaing as our financial package tracking
>> membership, flights, shares, billings and expenses. As the computers
>> keep evolving, the software does not and it is getting increasingly
>> difficult to update our systems and keep the software running. I am
>> interested in what software other clubs are using and what they have
>> found as limitations of their use. Anyone who has recommendations is
>> encouraged to respond to this group or directly to president(del)
>> @soarccsc.com. Delete the (del).
>> Thanks
>> Rolf Hegele
>> President CCSC
>
>
Quickbooks is an outstanding general purpose accounting package used by
90% of the small businesses in the USA.

A typical club needs to track 3 items: Dues, aircraft usage, and tows.

In Quickbooks, each member would be set up as a customer. You can then
set up saved invoice transactions for each member for dues. You can
specify the schedule and automatically generate these invoices.

For billing aircraft usage and tows, you can take your daily log sheet
and create an invoice for each member showing the tow charge and glider
rental for each flight as a separate line item. You can set up a
separate dept for each aircraft, so that the price per minute or hour
can be different and total usage can be tracked separately for each
aircraft.

One big plus that Quickbooks has is that invoices and statements can be
automatically e-mailed to customers. If you want to spend the money,
the "customer" can electronically pay his monthly statement.

Finally, if none of this works, you have the option to create your own
software for tracking aircraft utilization. Quickbooks has a complete
set of APIs so you can transfer this data into Quickbooks and use
Quickbooks for billing, AR, and financial reporting.

Mike Schumann

--
Mike Schumann

I was treasurer at a 100+ member club using Quick Books. It was fairly
good and set up as follows:
Members = Customers.
Glider rentals = products => xx Minutes of G103, xx minutes of
2-33, etc.
Tows = products => xx feet of Pawnee tow, xx feet of Scout tow, etc.
Winch launch = product.
They also track instructor flights, and tons of extra info.
Dues are automatic recurring monthly charges.
It sends bills via email in PDF format.
It creates summaries that look good at the club meetings.
If you get QB or some other s/w, I'm sure you can find more detailed
help in RAS. Heck maybe treasurers could form their own group and
share ideas.

On Jan 23, 5:33*pm, Barny > wrote:
> I was treasurer at a 100+ member club using Quick Books. It was fairly
> good and set up as follows:
> * Members = Customers.
> * Glider rentals = products => *xx Minutes of G103, xx minutes of
> 2-33, etc.
> * Tows = products => xx feet of Pawnee tow, xx feet of Scout tow, etc.
> * Winch launch = product.
> * They also track instructor flights, and tons of extra info.
> * Dues are automatic recurring monthly charges.
> It sends bills via email in PDF format.
> It creates summaries that look good at the club meetings.
> If you get QB or some other s/w, I'm sure you can find more detailed
> help in RAS. Heck maybe treasurers could form their own group and
> share ideas.

I use QB for my businesses and our club treasurer uses it also.
Certain features expire with age, like disabling the ability to mail
PDF invoices or statements unless you upgrade to the latest version.
Personally I prefer QB over Peachtree, mostly due to the backend
complexity of Peachtree. I know (and host) businesses that absolutely
swear by Peachtree.

Frank Whiteley