When a proposal is complete, what happens to it?

The proposal is a full, single file, with all of its programming as a part of it. The programming of the proposal will always remain with it so it can always be opened and re-worked for another client. You just need to know the proposal's original client name to call it up. It exists as a separate file not as a report from database entries.

f I have 7 different clients all at the same company, how will the client database deal with it?

You will have 7 different and discrete "client" accounts. The database will check for duplicate entries of name and company as you input so that your duplication of entry is lessened but we do feel that you are better off with a separate entry rather than a "master account" of the company with 7 different "contacts" within it.

My client contact files are stored as an Excel spreadsheet. Can B & B import those details into its own client database.

Yes, the underlying IBM®/Lotus® will almost (you get to correct its auto-assigned field to field matches) automatically do it for you, with prompts and excellent help files all along the way.

We keep all of our information within our accounting package program. How can B & B work with it, so that we are not having to enter information twice?

1) Import should be no problem at all, if your accounting package uses standardly accepted database file types such as:

.dbf
/xls( excel)
SQL Server
ODBC
QMF
Microsoft Access
Foxpro
ODBC for Oracle
Oracle7 & 8
Informix
Sybase
Pervasive ODBC Client & Engine
.txt ( delimited and fixed length)
.csv
.123
.apr

2) If your accounting package allows for import (some proprietary packages force you to buy extra parts to accomplish this), it should be possble to import into your accounting package and write a program to automate the dump for you.

How difficult will it be to adapt my menu formats to Bread and Blossoms Catering Proposal an Back Office Management Suite? -- in my current software, I just get a report listing and I need a more gracious lay-out than that for a $110 per person dinner.

You can, indeed, lay-out your own menu formats with all design capabilities - but the menu must, for automation purposes, fit on a single page lay-out.

If you need to go to another page, I've not yet solved that issue - except by using another one of the three menu pages, for the three different visual menu options, that I've artworked.

Because the presentation proposal is not a "Report" compiling different database entries, but is a fully art-worked page by page lay-out in a spreadsheet program that interacts with your databases, there are few design limitations other than keeping to the one page format.

Another caveat here is that , for "fit" purposes, your font size should not be more than 12pt for the menu copy. Again, dropping in and fitting line by line is the issue here.

If you don't want to fiddle with the design, I can do it for you as part of the package that you start off with. so that you are up and going faster.

I also give you a set of menu designs that you can chose from, proposal by proposal. You do not choose one and then have to use it forever, or until you change your database options.

What will happen to the china and glassware in the catering software automation system, if we use some of our own stock and then rent in some stock: a mix and match?

The engine can handle this but, first, we do have to work out the products that come from your own warehouse and the ones that you rent in - that relationship needs to be a constant. Then you choose to do a "Mix and Match" set-up, say for glassware and the engine takes it from there. Same is true for china and flatware.

If you idle the engine, you can adjust anything that you want to by hand but, then, as your guest count alters, you will need to continue to change by hand., which, of course defeats the purpose of this automation engine.

What happens if I just want to get out a "quick and dirty", pure speculation proposal?

Yes, you can do that in the catering software: say a front page with visuals, a basic, simple, even boring, page with menu and basic rental details and a total /contract page. You can even, just ball-park as a single, all-inclusive figure that you arbitrarily set based on what you think will get you the job. You can then choose discount options, freebie inclusions, etc.

Then, if you get the job, you can go back and fill-in all the parts that you need for it and you'll then discover how much your ROI is projected to be in real terms.