[ale] Looking for application software for a small business

[Jim Lynch]

Greg Freemyer wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 9:00 AM, Jim Lynch
> <ale_nospam at fayettedigital.com> wrote:
>   
>> Geoffrey wrote:
>>     
>>> Jim Lynch wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> I have a dear friend that runs a small beauty shop/spa with 3-4
>>>> employees and is tired of running over to the shop when someone calls
>>>> during off hours to schedule an appointment.  I told her I'd see if
>>>> there was any open  source software that might help here.
>>>>
>>>> I googled for scheduling and appointment calendars but didn't come up
>>>> with anything.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone have experience with this?
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> What kind of functionality are you looking for?  You've got simple
>>> calendars that can sync to portable devices and have reminders, such as
>>> jpilot, sunbird, kpilot, korganizer and the thunderbird add-on lightening.
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> She's barely above novice level with computers and has just expressed an
>> interest in moving from paper to the computer.  At this point she
>> doesn't have a computer in the office, but getting one is not an
>> obstacle.  Obviously she's going to need internet access if she expects
>> to access it from home, either from her office computer or a third party
>> website, like Google.
>>
>> Since she has more than herself to schedule, a system that allowed
>> multiple people to be scheduled is preferred.  The simple calendars you
>> speak of appear to be personal rather than group calendars.  I don't
>> think she needs/wants the ability to sync.  A web based system would
>> probably work just fine.
>>
>>  It would be important to have a way to backup the data locally or even
>> on paper at the beginning of the day in case of network or systems
>> outages.  It would be somewhat of a disaster to lose all your
>> appointments and not be able to schedule new ones.
>>
>> Jim.
>>     
>
> Jim,
>
> With gmail you can create multiple calendars, one per employee.
>
> They are even color coded.  If you click on Agenda in the upper right
> corner you get a nice text listing the shows everyone if you know what
> color is whom.
>
> There is a print button, but I've never used it on the calendar.  You
> would have to experiment to see if that worked for you.
>
> Greg
>   
Hi, Greg,

Can one person edit another's calendar?  In a spa, you usually have one 
person answering the phone and scheduling for everyone.  It would be 
frustrating to have to log in as another person to change her calendar.  
Even more so, if the client wanted multiple procedures. (Is that the 
right word?)

Thanks,
Jim.