FW Editor: What are your plans or objectives in the near future?
Miles Williams: As a holistic health care practitioner, Energy makeover Services, intends to continue offering its bio-energy related services and to extend its foray into software development -- not only in holistic health applications, like its Holistic Health series, but also in secondary areas, much like The Weekend Retailer has done.
FW Editor: How and when did you start writing the code for The Weekend Retailer? What inspired you the most? Do you plan to develop new software, or are you more focused on optimizing the current ones?
Miles Williams: The Weekend Retailer was conceived in late August 2010. I was aware of many holistic health practitioners who offered products such as fragrances and essential oils, charged crystals and gemstones, ebooks, etc., and not just services. Many of these individuals are involved in weekend or part-time sales. From a conversation with a colleague, I realized that there was a need for a simple software application that would be straight-forward and user-friendly, that could keep track of sales transactions, sales revenue, sales tax incurred and sales tax remitted. A standalone spreadsheet model was chosen because it would provide a sense of familiarity and diminish any learning curve. Depending on user feedback, The Weekend Retailer may be expanded to include recording sales expenses(cost of goods sold), providing a simple method of inventory tracking and offering the means for computing
a current and year-to-date (cumulative)
FW Editor: Why would you recommend The Weekend Retailer over a similar product (like MS Excel)?
Miles Williams: The Weekend Retailer was done as a Gnumeric spreadsheet because of ease of use and to afford the user the benefits of open source, benefits such as having installations on more than one computer and the option of making personal changes to the structure of workbook itself. MS Excel could have been used, but there are still many users who do not prefer or understand the ribbon that is in use in MS Office 2007 and 2010. To them, the menu system is confusing and convoluted and many have decided to continue to use Excel 2003. Gnumeric's user interface is much like, even easier to use than, Excel 2003. That fact and the fact that no other application has to be installed on the end-user's computer, in order to run The Weekend Retailer, makes it ideal for users of not just MS Windows but of all other platforms as well.
FW Editor: Can you tell us more about the most important functions available in The Weekend Retailer?
Miles Williams: The Weekend Retailer functions as a comprehensive sales revenue and sales tax system. It hot-links and summarizes 104 different worksheets, one for each Saturday and Sunday in an entire year. Because of that, the user can observe the summary worksheet in order to see the sales revenue and sales tax results for any and all preceding sales periods. Sales tax remittance entries can also be recorder and accumulated on the summary worksheet. It is also worth mentioning that The Weekend Retailer is flexible in the manner in which it allows a user to record a sales transaction. It allows the user specify a price proposed and an agreed price which can identify haggling. It will allow a user to utilize bundles at a set unit price when multiple items are sold that have varying unit prices. The application comes with a concise Readme-Overview file that provides insight for unorthodox sales transactions.
FW Editor: The Weekend Retailer has quite a strong competition but, so far, it succeeded in making a name for itself. What do you think about the huge success of The Weekend Retailer?
Miles Williams: I think that simplicity of use and power in design enable the Weekend Retailer to have appeal to prospective end-users as well as actual users. It is also modestly priced for an application that can provide for 100 transactions per period over a 104 period year. The fact that it can be reused at the end of a year makes it hard to out grow even for the most active and demanding part-tine retailer.
FW Editor: Is there any customer support service for The Weekend Retailer users?
Miles Williams: Energy Makeover Services provides email tech support. Contact mileswms@energymakeoverservices.com
FW Editor: It is possible to create graphs using The Weekend Retailer?
Miles Williams: The data recorded and accumulated in The Weekend Retailer does not really lend itself to graphs. Graphs are useful for showing a relationship or making a comparison between different data sets. Since each sales period is independent and separate from one another, there is not much need for graphs.
FW Editor: Now, to end our small interview, is there any message you would like to send to The Weekend Retailer users?
Miles Williams: I would like to caution any end-user that is interested in making structural modifications to the workbook to be mindful that the delicate balance that links the 104 worksheets can be irreparably upset unless the exact relationship between the summary worksheet and the period worksheet is fully understood before the changes are implemented.
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Energy Makeover Services is a holistic health care practitioner. Its primary concern is providing clients with access to different methods of bio-energy which can greatly relieve stress and cause relaxation which in turn creates favorable conditions for the body to heal itself. More recently, we have made a successful foray into software development.
The Holistic Health Series, consisting of three separate applications, was the first offering. Our most recent software offering is The Weekend Retailer.
