Gobo Inventory Tracking

[icewolf08]

I am the ME at the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City, UT. We at PTC try to share as much resources as we can with the University of Utah Theatre Department. One of the big things that we share are templates. I keep the template stock and try to keep track of which student productions we lend templates to. What I am looking for is some kind of software solution that I can use to keep track of the inventory, and who has what. I have fiddled around with FileMaker Pro's inventory templates, but they all want each individual item to have it's own entry as opposed to allowing me to say I have X number of Y gobo and so-and-so has Z of them so the total left in inventory X-Z.

I have scoured all my online resources and I have not been able to find a good solution, os if there is anyone who has software that can do this, or the FileMaker know how to build me a database that can I would love to know.

Thanks.

[soundlight]

Microsoft Access? Seems like you could custom-build your entry system for having manufacturer, pattern name and/or number, quantity, and location. It's a great program if you know the ins and outs of it.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by soundlight

Microsoft Access? Seems like you could custom-build your entry system for having manufacturer, pattern name and/or number, quantity, and location. It's a great program if you know the ins and outs of it.

2nd that, i say.

[jwl868]

A less rigorous approach would be to use an Excel spreadsheet. (Though I don’t know if it gets you out of the situation where you have more than one identical gobo, and my approach has a line for each gobo. On the other hand, “Sort” will put identical gobos in sequence.)

Still, make whatever columns you need or are relevant: size, category of pattern, pattern, material, vendor, vendor’s number, etc, borrower name, borrower organization, show, date borrowed. (The number of columns will depend on what sort of questions you want to be able to answer quickly.)

Unless you have a need, I wouldn’t bother with a date returned column.

You can use the Auto Filter function to readily see what is in-house, or who has borrowed which items. It takes a little diligence for the entries to make the Auto Filter most effective. For example, only use a last name for borrowers names; always use the same ID for the same organization, for example Drama, or Drama dept, or UDD. (Auto Filter function has some similarities to Sort, but you can accidentally screw up your database with Sort.)

The draw back to this approach is that the spreadsheet always changes and you won’t have a continuous record of the borrowing history of a particular gobo, nor will you have a record how long particular gobos are kept, nor how long a given organization holds onto them.

Joe

[icewolf08]

It is my understanding that Microsoft Access, which does not run on Mac is a far inferior database program compared to FileMaker Pro. I am familiar with basic FileMaker database programming, just not the formulas and relationships that I would need to make a library database work. I currently have my inventory in excel, all nice with the images and quantities in each size.

I suppose I could just keep it to the bare minimum and add columns to my Excel spreadsheet that are "# of templates out" for each size and then a total "still in stock column". That doesn't let me know who has what though, and with at least two University productions being simultaneous to my own it is nice to know.

The downside to having a separate line item for each individual template is the fact that I have near if not more than 1000 templates in stock, so that is a lot of data entry.

I appreciate all the suggestions, so far it seems like I just need to piddle around with FileMaker more.

[Van]

Originally Posted by icewolf08

It is my understanding that Microsoft Access, which does not run on Mac is a far inferior database program compared to FileMaker Pro. I am familiar with basic FileMaker database programming, just not the formulas and relationships that I would need to make a library database work. I currently have my inventory in excel, all nice with the images and quantities in each size.

I suppose I could just keep it to the bare minimum and add columns to my Excel spreadsheet that are "# of templates out" for each size and then a total "still in stock column". That doesn't let me know who has what though, and with at least two University productions being simultaneous to my own it is nice to know.

The downside to having a separate line item for each individual template is the fact that I have near if not more than 1000 templates in stock, so that is a lot of data entry.

I appreciate all the suggestions, so far it seems like I just need to piddle around with FileMaker more.

If you already have the inventory in Excel, the addition of the # still in stock column is simple and if you add a page into your workbook you could use a call function from the second page to push/pull data from the first page. Say joe has borrowed four apollo # 3245's < Don't yell at me I don't know there real numbers.> simply enter the name have a column for the gobo, which is tied to the first page, a column for the return date, and a column for comments. Excell is more than capable of simple database managements like this. I had a setup similar for the loan of platforms, flats, and other stock scenery I'll see if I can find it.
Oh and BTW I hate Filemaker, but that's just me. I'm used to the PC interface and learned Excell from the very begining, plus I don't usually have to mucch need for a database program. Our theatre used to run it's entire box office system with a custominzed Filemaker program. It completely sucked COnstant crashes, constant loss of info, but it was being asked to do too much. Now we run Tessitura.

[soundlight]

That's the thing though...Because Microsoft Access is so much lower than FileMaker Pro, it's much easier to do what you want the way that you want to. You should be able to get a Mac compatible version for it in Office:Mac. If not, just use excel. Quick, easy and printable.

[Van]

Originally Posted by soundlight

That's the thing though...Because Microsoft Access is so much lower than FileMaker Pro, it's much easier to do what you want the way that you want to. You should be able to get a Mac compatible version for it in Office:Mac. If not, just use excel. Quick, easy and printable.

I don't understand what you just said there. AFAIK MSAccess is not availible for Mac, as it is a usefull bussiness software solution, not a "pretty picture" maker. < oooh that'll rattle some cages.> As stated in the previous two posts;
A. He already has the info in Excell.
B. Excell is capable of doing what he needs, he just needs to learn how to do it.

[soundlight]

I meant that Microsoft Access is not as complicated as Filemaker Pro (from what I understand of the two programs).

And by Office:Mac I meant the mac version of office, but I don't think that it has Access.

Thirdly, I did mean "continue to use excel" instead of "use excel". Sorry there.

[Van]

Originally Posted by soundlight

I meant that Microsoft Access is not as complicated as Filemaker Pro (from what I understand of the two programs).

And by Office:Mac I meant the mac version of office, but I don't think that it has Access.

Thirdly, I did mean "continue to use excel" instead of "use excel". Sorry there.

I agree with you 100%, When I first started here I had to, was forced < with gun to my head> to use a mac for for running office software. The only thing I liked about Office:mac was Entourage the mac equivalent of Outlook. < oh and the cool CD case that mac Office came in, still have that.>