I have been looking through all the shareware sites and search engines and I can't find any prewritten client databases that would be suitable for a web hosting business.

I am sure their used to be a couple, but I can't find them.

Anyway, I don't really want to spend Christmas writing an Access database if I can possibly avoid it so if anyone knows where I can get one I would be very grateful.

Gordon

Ho Gordon,

I hear the instabase 5.0 is good, not sure if
this will help you or not.

http://instabase.com

Instabase only designs flat-file databases (not relational) so it probably won't do a heck of a lot of good. And Gordon, you're probably better off designing the database yourself since you can then customize it to your own specific needs.

Besides, what could be more fun than spending December 25 designing a brand-new scalable database-driven web application? I bet that's what Santa's gonna do after he gets done all his deliveries and stuff (well, after a few random slappings of the elves!)

Yes
I came to the same conclusion.
Although it doesn't need to be a web application.

I used to design databases as part of my job, which is why I try and avoid it as much as possible.

Anyway, here I am on Christmas eve with MS Access open.
I use a paper system at the moment so it quite easy to turn them into tables and forms.

The reason for the sudden need is the impending arrival of a new server from Ultraspeed USA, and all the trouble I had doing my accounts last night. I kept thinking, if I had a database I would not need to do all this.

I took a bit of a cash flow leap ordering a new server but just after I did it I took over $1000 in orders so its definitely going to be the right move.

Well, I have done the basics with the database, no more work now till the 26th.

Happy Christmas everyone, and may all your support calls over the festive season be simple ones!

Gordon

If you end up creating something nice, and are willing to share/sell it, let me know via e-mail. I'm in the same situation, because I'm moving my Alabanza servers to UltraSpeed USA.

Hello
I have written an MS Access application that stores customer details and has a related transaction/communication table.

It has some basic reports like :
annual accounts due between dates (you put the dates in - it finds them)
E-mail addresses: find and deduplicate for bulk mailing.

Basically it works, but I have it set up to handle products like DNS services and Domains that we also sell, so it might not be of use to anyone else.
I will keep working on it and adding reports as I need them.

When I am happy with it I will give it away to my resellers (when I start having them).
Anything that helps them keep track of their customers should help my business as well.

The other thing I am planning is to export it to Star Office (free) so that you don't need to have MS Office in order to run it.

I might even give it away in general but I would need to be happy with they way it works and I won't be until I have used it for a while.

BTW I am in the same position, moving to Ultraspeed USA.

Gordon