Appointment / Bookings Manager

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Hi peeps,

I'm trying to help out a startup hair salon. They want to use a PC based alternative to manually writing bookings into a diary.

I've had a look at some things but its a bit like accounting software- you never know till you really try it out or speak to someone using it.

Anyone have any ideas/recommendations.

BTW, Is there a MS Office proggie that might do this as well?

Cheers.

maxheadroom

Outlook?

Possibly Mozilla Calendar - don't know how far advanced it is though.

sceptre

You could use something like the resource scheduling template in Access. Forms created aren't too beautiful though so you might want to beautify it.

No chance of throwing something like PostgreSQL or MySQL on a PC and using php pages on a browser as a frontend then?

ColmOT [MSFT]

As maxheadroom suggests, I think Outlook might be a good solution in this scenario. It has a scheduling component built in. It'll also handle all your contacts, so that you can have all your customer's details & their appointments in the one application.

Since it sounds like you have Office, then you also already have Outlook.

Additionally, you can share the appointments from one PC to another, so if a manager wants to see how many appointments there are, he/she doesn't have to go to the reception desk PC to see these appointments, they can be viewed from another PC in their office.

Just a suggestion...

Emboss

Additionally, you can share the appointments from one PC to another, so if a manager wants to see how many appointments there are, he/she doesn't have to go to the reception desk PC to see these appointments, they can be viewed from another PC in their office.

You're assuming they'll have an exchange server.....

it's a hair salon....

ColmOT [MSFT]

Fair point Emboss...forgot about that!! D'oh!

seamus

It depends on how sophisticated you want the solution...

As others have said, an Outlook/Exchange combo may be useful, but probably overkill for a small hair salon.

Simply having an Excel file on the network may be too simplistic and open to abuse.

If you're going to have a server of some description, it shouldn't be too difficult to whip up a PHP/MySql web app to keep track of it all tbh.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Thanks lads.

I have racked my brain over this one a bit. The situation is that the owners arent that techy so KISS principle is in operation!

I had advised against taking bookings online but bookings can be requested via a contact and then confirmed by the salon at a later date. Something like the system here...http://www.hairsalonmonet.com/contact.htm

Alot of the good PHP/mysql solutions are a few hundred bucks, so in esssence if there was a good industry software solution out there I was thinking it might be better to put the cash into that.

I'm seriously thinking about this one though. http://www.schedule-organizer.de/en/product/demos/ Its got a lot of what is needed but I have used the admin demo and its not that user friendly. I would need to do a lot work on layout and stylesheet.

Outlook is another possibility which had crossed the mind and if they are going to take bookings via contact form they can all be processed there. The exchnage server is another idea. I'm proposing setting up Wireless Lan cos they have nice RoadRunner cable (here in NYC) and they had wires going every angle.


So....OPTIONS:

1.
USe Outlook Appointments/Calendar features with Contacts
Set up exhcnge Server to sync data betw. PC's

2.
Find an industry focused software solution to manage appointments and bookings

3.
Find a good PHP/Mysql Booking /appointments script
Take Bookings by phone/website contact form- store info locally

4.
Find a good PHP/Mysql Booking /appointments script
Take Bookings ONLINE- store info Remotely


Any more thoughts!?

oneweb

Originally posted by maxheadroom
Possibly Mozilla Calendar

Got there before me I'd also suggest it. I haven't used it long but it's quite a nice looking and user friendly app.