Jim's Software provides Relational Database Software Solutions for Small Business, Personal, and Educational use via Stand Alone, Open Source, Cloud Spreadsheet Templates as a life-long replacement for Downloadable and Cloud Based Software .
Since the 1980s Mega Technologists have been fighting over your data.
It represents the Gold of the new Millenia.
The US Small Business Software market alone is worth more than $600 Billion a year,
and that makes for one heck of a poker pot to them.
Unfortunately, as time passed, Software Providers like Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, SAP, Sales Force, Intuit and many others, all founded and driven by mad-men and subsequent CEOs, competed harder and harder for your Data, with less and less regard for your wants, needs and personal dreams, until those were almost shattered.
There are only two ways to deflate their game and resume your own.
One is to go Technology-less, but where's the fun in that?
The other is to use foundational Flat-Database Technology offered in a new way which removes your data individually and collectively from their Competitive Software Games for Life, and that's the option we offer.
----------- Summing this up another way... -------------
We provide you with Database Style Software Templates built in Google Sheets.
We show you how to customize them, string them together, and add on until your Heart's Content.
The Templates are FREE. For those with background, there's nothing more to see.
Others will pay us a one time fee for Education, and none need speak with us again.
Just the way it always should have been with Technologists and Crazy Men.
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Our software is generically referred to as "DIY Software", short for "Do It Yourself Software". It was inspired by the folks at the DIY Software Club .
Our software requires users to download templates, download script modules, connect those to each other and then do more manual configuration than most are use to with current software offerings. There is no "executable file" that magically sets everything up for you, and that's a good trade-off, when your realize the level to which you can customize everything. Much like a Lego Masterpiece this can be, once you know how the pieces go together. Thus the reference to "DIY Software."
Some don't call it sexy, but sexy wasn't the goal.
Craig's List speaks for itself, and the Gmail interface has never been sexy,
but my how it stole the show.
We provide our Templates via Google Sheets because Google's version of cloud spreadsheets currently has the greatest feature set for use as a flat-database technology tool ready for user enhancement, but all templates can be converted to any cloud based spreadsheet or stand-alone spreadsheet of your choosing. Some may require no work for conversion. Others may require some or a lot. If you convert them to other platforms, there may or may not be a loss in functionality compared to those we offer in Google Sheets. You'll need to decide what's right for you.
Our Software Templates provide users with the Best of Downloadable Software ( Privacy, Customization and Free or One Time Fees) along with the best of Cloud Computing ( web based application access and sharing, multiple user access, auto backups, and more).
But if you think about the implications for this a bit deeper, it can wake the Deepest Sleeper...
Our Software offers "Personal Empowerment", "Control", and
"PERMANENT INDEPENDANCE from scores of Technology Keepers engaged in countless Technology Wars" .
Neither Downloadable Software nor Web Based Software has offered anything close to this level of Independence and Empowerment since the Dawn of the Digital Age, by the choice of those always seeking a war.
Our offerings represent a major Technology Game Changer, and they represent an open door for all to exit from the Technology Traps set by Crazy Old men hell bent on War.
Most Small Business Owners and Householders have no desire to maintain relationships with Technologists.
They want solutions with and without education, and then they want to continue with their dream, not someone elses. It's a simple concept. Truly.
Technologists, like Engineers, struggle with creating and then letting go. They want to remain relevant longer than due, much like the flu. Few know how to reinvent themselves over and over again, and we hope to help them too.
Welcome to a Software Company that wants you to be a "One and Done Customer"
as much or more than you.
In the 1990's and early 2000s "local computing" was the rage. Developers all over the world were creating and selling downloadable software for personal and small business needs. Data privacy was high for users, costs were generally low due to healthy competition and Developer desires to see their functional Works of Art in production for others. Much of the software offered reasonable customization, good functionality options and healthy integration options when appropriate.
In the early to mid 2000's very talented developers started building out very complex and robust web based, database driven business systems for individual companies. The advantages these offered were significant and tremendous as they related to data integrity, integrated data backup, reduced local networking, local security costs and much more.
Once built out, the developers realized they could add a "parent table" to their systems and turn what was meant for one customer into a system for dozens, hundreds or thousands, often times with very little other modifications. This concept of offering one instance of web based software to multiple customers with privacy between their customers came to be referred to as "Software as a Service" (SaaS). This new type of Product Offering is one of the Technology developments that lead to the Globalized California Gold Rush of the 21st Century.
Most of these SaaS systems were slow to roll out. The introduction of smart phones and tablets threw a wrench in some things as designers now had to decide how many modalities of interfaces they wanted to try to support. These systems eventually arrived with pros and cons for users. The pros were related to more flexible access, and data backup. The cons were related to a loss of individual and industry related privacy, reduced functionality compared to downloadable software, a lower level of customization and quite a few other technical drawbacks.
To the folks in Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and all other Cave based Commercial Pirates around the world, the SaaS Model represented a Race for the Ages.
Any company capable of creating the "best paper clip" for a given application was going to be worth billions of dollars. From that point on, the Venture Capitalists and Hedge Funder Managers have put the full court press on to wipe out all individual, downloadable software solutions while buying up competitive Saas Solutions with a singular goal of becoming the sole provider for a given industry or need.
And while this War sounds like "fun" to those in the Technology Race, the users caught in the Crossfire have stepped into Technology Traps of Epic Proportions that have now stolen many a dream.
Some users have realized it already. Others are waking to it now. The rest will come around in a short time.
The Venture Capitalists, the Hedge Funders and the Data Miners are being exposed for acts of Social Piracy well beyond some of the wildest dreams. Some User have been silently building out the Gallows for their very old Foes, but until now few options have surfaced for a workaround for these Cocky-eyed Joes.
Users want the Privacy, Customization and one Time Costs of the downloadable software, but they also want the benefits of Cloud Computing.
Most currently have no clue they'll find their home with our Google Sheet Templates or the same converted to an advanced spreadsheet platform of their choosing.
Ironically, these solutions in slightly lesser form could have been rolled out 20 to 30 years ago or so had those that control the Technology today not been working hand in hand with Educators, the Media and Financiers to make sure all suggestions for technology skill sets needed by small business people and individuals were pointing in the wrong directions.
Most want independence from the Technocratic minds and the Financiers that enable their limited software markets, but that seems like such a long shot, even in a dream, that most don't verbalize it yet.
It's only after the suggestion has been planted that the answer has always been there, just hidden a bit by those with motives of profits, that the masses will start to demand that which their heart of hearts and minds eye knows to be an alignment second to none.
Our initial offerings are designed for Current Small Business Users in need of healthy solutions, as well as Educational Institutions and individual Students who realize that teaching and studying "healthy computing " with a "commercial component" as part of Grade School and College Level Curriculum is a worthwhile pursuit.
Our first competitive goal is to penetrate the Intuit Monopoly. Intuit owns 80-90% of the US Market for Small Business Accounting Related software. Their current sales are in excess of $6 Billion, which means they only control about 1% of the US Software Market. While seemingly small, that which they control is the key to unlocking the door for all the rest.
Although they have a 35 year head start, they actually make for a very easy target because they have a Global, Self-Employed User base that is one of the most unsatisfied found in any industry.
Their user-base has been pinned in for three decades by two founders who had no small business experience when they set out to create a Digital Checkbook. By luck, hook and crook, along with an unusually excessive amount of banker support, their company has grown into the largest software publisher of sub-par offerings currently seen on the software landscape.
Their Financially Intoxicated Technologists in San Jose CA have steered their entire user base away, and now all that's needed to call them in is a soft and sincere "Hello".
Quickbooks comes in a downloadable solution and SaaS solution. The Downloadable Solution is reasonably functional as long as you ignore their Balance Sheet troubles. If you include those, it's a non-starter, but few fully understand that yet. From an industry perspective, the Downloadable Solution should have been obsolete a decade ago, given the volume of money that Quickbooks could have made by forcing it out of existence with a superior web based alternative. Their downloadable solution is still very relevant to all who are trying to maintain their sanity because their web based developers built their cloud solution on a bed of archaic technology that will never make anyone happy. In addition, with their web based solution, they allowed interface bloat to get in the way while while charging arms, legs and first born for those pinned in enough to need it. You only need to look at their own continuation of their Desktop Solution to realize there are major problems with their Cloud Based offerings. Thus, their very own incompetence is the reason their own downloadable software isn't obsolete yet.
Quickbooks core functionality is a giant bowl of Accounting and Small Business Soup with noodles strewn everywhere. It is topped with a very poorly canned Sauce that has nothing to do with Good Italian Cooking, nor good Mediterranean Cuisine, nor anything from any race with a Healthy Ethnic Pride in their Sauce. It includes Bookkeeping, Invoicing, Payment Processing, Customer Management , Vendor Management and reporting for Tax Accounting, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting and Cost Accounting, all smashed together.
The problems with QuickBooks are many, but their Moats are large and their Towers are well guarded by Financiers and the Media. However, there is a week spot that is easy to exploit related to "Dramatically Simplified Accounting Education" which reduces the complexity of use of their software as well as others. 1) Intuit and Quickbooks failed to educate their Users on proper and healthy separation between Tax/Finical Accounting and Managerial/Cost Accounting either out of ignorance or with intention AND 2) they encouraged users to focus on their Managerial/Cost Accounting needs first, implying the Tax/Financial Accounting should be deemed an after thought, and that's where the Trojans roll in AND 3) they never dreamed a of the return to Positive and Negative values as a replacement for the Debits and Credits system that only has a place during the darkest of non-technology times.
With a better mentality, Quickbooks is a better product. But unfortunately for them, with a better mentality, Users realize they can migrate away from Quickbooks one step at a time or all at once. Thus, if any of the Financially Intoxicated ones even realized their flaw was in their education, they would have also realized that providing the Healthy Education that was missing would have made their User Base even more dis-content given a clearer understanding of what was omitted to start with.
Without education, their Monopoly was always destined to be short lived. It's lasted longer than it should have, but time's now up.
Our initial offerings are modular. They can be used as stand alone templates and/or multiple templates can be strung together in to build out Modular Software Solutions.
Our initial offerings include Customer, Product and Service Databases
Our Initial offerings include a Point of Sale System, most appropriate for small low to mid volume retail locations and wellness offices. Functionality is built in to assist with Sales Tax reporting and all other relevant reporting.
Our Initial Offerings include Quoting, Invoicing and Accounts Receivable Systems for those in the Construction and/or hourly billing industry. Functionality is built in to assist with Sales Tax reporting and all other relevant reporting. (this would be substitute for "Point of Sale" in the image to the right)
Our Initial offerings also include an Educational Series for ZAP Accounting Software's Bookkeeping System for Tax/Financial Accounting. NOTE: Your BOOKING KEEPING SYSTEM for Tax/Financial Accounting should NOT be integrated with and Invoicing or Point of Sale System for the healthiest of Software Solutions. This is a key fact and feature we will get into later that will be key to recognizing the unnecessary complexity with Quickbooks.
Once a user becomes familiar with general Template structures and techniques to build templates, they will have the ability to modify our templates and/or build new templates from scratch to meet other needs.
Our Templates and those created by users in a similar fashion can be used to create ERP Systems (Enterprise Resource Planning Systems), CRM Systems and most other database driven systems used and/or found in Small Business with moderate functionality.
We break our initial offerings into:
1) Managerial/Cost Accounting Systems (Boxes 1-4)
2) Tax/Financial Accounting Systems (Boxes 5 and 6)
This separation is a structural model put forth by ZAP Accounting Software which we use for education.
Most people don't currently realize that your "bookkeeping" for Tax and Financial Accounting,(box 5 in the diagram on the right) should be done fully "in arrears", which means "after the fact". To do that, you do your bookkeeping from your Bank Statements, not your receipts and this is done because it's the date on the Bank Statements which is required for getting a Balance Sheet to Balance with totals that can be easily cross checked as opposed to dates on receipts.
Cross checking receipts with Bank Statements can be done if desired, but if you do that, it should be done in a separate spreadsheet as part of your "Cash Flow Management" process and "Managerial Accounting". (This type of reconciliation would be categorized in Box 2, Advanced Accounting Systems, not Box 5, Bookkeeping).
If you can grasp this new, more granulated way to think about Accounting Systems, you will be well on your way to using Quickbooks, our Solutions and all other Accounting Solutions in a more healthy manner.
Taking this one step further, with some "Best Practices", the key to healthy use of small business software is simple:
Your Managerial/Cost Accounting systems (Boxes 1-4) should NEVER be digitally connected to your Tax/Financial Accounting Systems (Boxes 5 and 6) There is no need to connect those. Doing so creates unnecessary complexity and a loss of flexibility for life. Quickbooks doesn't explain what they've done by mixing these two together because they want users to remain confused in a complex ecosystem. Confusion is directly correlated to Profitability when you own a Monopoly or shares in an Oligopoly.
Your Credit Card processing system (Part of Box 3) should NOT BE directly connected to your Sales Systems (Point of Sale System, Invoicing System or Booking System) found in Box 1. Likewise it should not be directly connected to your Tax/Financial Accounting Systems (Boxes 5 and 6) either. Doing so creates a Technology Trap with a software vendor that can become very complex and costly over time.
NOTE: There are some extremely attractive invoicing systems combined with payment processing systems coming out from Intuit and others right now. They truly are coming of Age with some of those and they are a good fit for many people. It may be hard for some of you to imagine working without those, but.... We believe once you learn about the data mining and teh potential damage that can have on you and/or your industry, many of you will forgo those, while others will not. No matter your choice related to those, your Bookkeeping related to Tax/Financial Accounting should NOT be done in a manner that is integrated with any of your invoicing and collection systems. So at very least, split off that portion of your system with ZAP Accounting Software as a partial replacement for that portion of your accounting system, and your life will become simpler with healthier more transparent, lower cost software.
For Managerial/Cost Accounting there are generally three types of "Sales Systems" that may be required, and they depend on the timing of money exchange as it relates to the timing of products and/or services provided.
Booking Systems - Systems where money is collected prior to a product/service delivery.
Point of Sale Systems - Systems were money is collected at time a product/service is delivered
Invoicing Systems - Systems where money is collected after a product/service is delivered.
Some businesses will need functionality related to two or more of the items above. That's fine. It can all be worked in any way that is required.
The "other systems" a business needs are typically similar to others in the same industry, and often times they are similar to others in different industries too.
We refer to these other systems as "Advanced Accounting Systems", "Payment Inflow Systems" and "Payment Outflow Systems".
Take a look at the lists of Systems in the red Circle for an idea of the other systems that fall into these categories.
Your Tax/Financial Accounting Module should always be separate from all other Accounting Modules. There are numerous, healthy strategic reasons for this.
Jim's Software has a partnership agreement to provide Training and Documentation for ZAP Accounting Software's Bookkeeping Template as well as many of their other templates.
All ZAP Accounting Software Templates are based on the DIY Software Clubs standards as well, so the look, feel and function all build on each other.
Four of the primary contributors for Jim's Software, excluding Jim, have over 80 years combined self employment experience. These four have horror stories to share about Quickbooks Desktop and Cloud Solutions, as well as horror stories related to Professional Bookkeepers and CPAs who have taken advantage of them and others in a myriad of ways while leading all astray.
Jim's Software was created to provide others familiar with the Quickbooks Monopoly an escape hatch to a better future permanently.
Jim's Software was created to help current small businesses and households who have stayed away from Digital Software due to complexity, cost and confusion to feel better about a more holistic and honest solution.
Jim's Software was created to provide up and coming Small Business Owners and Householders understanding related to Technology Traps before being snared by them, with an option to avoid them completely if desired.
Jim's Software will be starting out in English, but the world is our Oyster.
We hope to have our product offerings up soon.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
9/30/2021. A day late, and a few dollars short, but better late than never....