Sales System Templates

Testimonials > Sales Systems

We initially were not planning on publishing sales systems on this website, but we realized learning about Sales Systems and Bookkeeping Systems simultaneously is a benefit. Together they give a fuller picture of a healthy accounting system and when presented as two separate systems with no data exchange, as should be the case for most Small Businesses, they expose a clearer delineation between between Managerial/Cost Accounting and Tax/Financial Accounting that is otherwise far more fuzzy in Quickbooks or other solutions where the functionality is all mixed together in a single interface.

The two individuals below are the owner-operators of very complex, multi-file Sales Systems used for prototyping larger systems. Ric was doing about $180k in annual sales and Kristian was doing about $350k in annual sales. They were both trying to use the Quickbooks for invoicing, bookkeeping, payment processing and much more with stressful, costly and lackluster results. Neither could actually get the reports they needed due to lack of functionality and standard small business complexity on the Managerial/Cost Accounting side of their business. In both cases, the final solutions for them does things one could never do in Quickbooks due to custom needs.

The information below is half testimonial and half case study. These two are great users of their systems but these systems are large, and complex and not easy to describe succintly, thus our support with the testimonials.

NOTE: In November 2021 we started publishing introductory, single file, stand-alone Sales System Templates for Education and Business Use. These are slimmed down versions of far more complex, multi-file modular systems that were prototyped and Beta Tested in 2016 and 2020. Once we get testimonials for the smaller, stand alone systems and related education, we'll add those testimonials and separate them from these more complex ones. The complex systems these two individuals use are not currently public, but photos of them are. We expect to share these via this website or another as time and interest progresses.

Ric Valentine, Owner, Ric Valentine Acupuncture
Monterrey and Prunedale CA www.ricvalentineacupuncture.com

I am an Acupuncturist and Clinical Nutrition Practitioner. I currently see 25 to 40 patients a week, and I do an additional 10 to 25 transactions a week in product sales. Some of those are walk in sales. Others are call in with drop ship requirements. Some were insurance patients which is a separate problem unto itself. Thus, my “Point of Sale” Transactions range from 35 to 65 transactions a week.

In 2015 I was attempting to use Quickbooks as 1) my customer database 2) a vendor database 3) my products database for over 400 items 4) my Point of Sale System for check out and order processing 5) an Invoicing system for after the fact billing and collections 6) my credit card processing system and 7) my Bookkeeping System

It was simply awful, and no one could provide me with proper pointers to a better system other than a fully manual one, which truly might have been a better option.

With Quickbooks, the entire check out process could take as much as 15 to 20 minutes if anything went wrong technologically or via user error. As a late comer to technology I was constantly messing it up to the point where I could not finish the check out process properly myself.

When people weren’t ready to pay for services or were only able to pay partial for one reason or another, in theory it had a way to manage that, but it was beyond me and my office support to get those processes right regularly. And then when the clients paid off the balance of a partially paid invoice, properly closing out open invoices, if in fact they had been created properly was complex.

But what about Insurance Clients? How on earth was I supposed to handle them? These are people I served who wanted a receipt, but I wouldn’t be able to tell them what the cost of their visit was nor how much they owed for 3 to 6 weeks? And what about my “production report”? How was I supposed to figure out what kind of week i had financially or operationally, when most folks paid, some folks didn’t and others were on insurance?

The entire suite of ZAP Accounting Software offerrings was actually initially built just for my needs in 2016, so in that regard, I am a little special!

Customer Database - in a stand alone google sheet file with lookup and query functionality along with some supplemental technology for managing infrequent bulk mailing. They are also entered and stored separately in my Google Contacts.
Products/Services Database - in a stand along google sheet file with lookup and query functionality
Invoicing System - In my “Point of Sale” google sheet file. My customer database fo;e and my products/services database file are linked to this file for full relational database functionality.
Accounts Receivable System - In my “Point of Sale” google sheet. I use a simple "Bar Tab/Bar Bill" system. While entering amounts due on the invoice to close them out for production tracking purposes, I add the amounts due to a separate data table for tracking. The trick here is I don't ever go back and close out my invoices. The are falsely closed out with amounts due noted at time of creation. The amount due is a presumed sale for production purposes, and I only track my recieveables in my Bar Bill system.
Production Reports - In my “Point of Sale” Google sheet. We modified the system so we could allocate an arbitrary/estimated amount for insurance fees on initial invoices to allow me to track my production in an easy way.
Credit Card Processing - via Square and/or other third party systems not connected to any of my software, just like many Pizza Parlors.
Bookkeeping - in a separate Google Sheet template NOT connected to any of my other templates, because it has no need being connected and that keeps things far simpler.
Vendor Database - In my Google Contacts and in a separate google sheet.

All these different files sound like a lot because it is a lot.

It takes a lot to actually put together a holistic digital system for a business. It requires far more than any single software vendor can provide properly, especially when most of the software vendors for small business only really care about getting your credit card processing business.

We use the bookmark bar in the Chrome Browser and a tab set management app to quickly access and manage all the files as if they were part of a single software interface.

I’ve never seen modular commercial software for much larger companies personally, but I’m told the data architecture for what I have most mimics those.

Given my experience, I can understand why the big companies would do things in a modular way as we have done. Once this got setup I could see how it was customizable and scalable in ways that I could never envision with Quickbooks or on my own.

Without seeing the ZAP Sales Systems and the ZAP Bookkeeping System in concert with each other but not connected, it might be hard to “imagine” what or how they all go together.

Once you’ve seen them working together, and once you’ve spent even a small time with them, the chances of you ever selecting another option are extremely slim.

While you may incurr some initial setup costs if you don't have someone that can do it for you, the ongoing subscritpion cost of zero, the customization capabilities and application privacy are impossible to beat.

Please see my review for the bookkeeping template on that bookkeeping template review page.

Ric Valentine LAc
Licensed Acupuncturist and Clinical Nutrition Expert
Professional Bartender, Exceptional Cook and Story Teller

Kristian Crump, Owner, Dusk Industries Lighting and Design
Monterrey CA

I am an electrical contractor.

I needed a customer database and a way to manage properties and/or projects separately for each of my customers. I needed a system for giving my customers an estimate as well as an invoicing system to get them their bill in a timely manner.

I needed complex journalling systems for time and materials for job cost accounting given I do a fair amount of higher end work on a time and materials basis. I needed a system with a complex sales tax tracking functionality because I have to collect based on resale amounts on products per county. I needed an Accounts Receivable system with a payments journal so I can keep track of invoices that have been paid, and ones that are still outstanding.

I started my business on Quickbooks. It had 80% of what I needed, in theory, but I never felt I had control of my data or processes due to the highly rigid and un-user friendly nature of that software along with a lack of digital journalling I needed which they did not support.

Everyone that I know in business uses Quickbooks, and no one I know knew how to use it or how it worked. It was as if we were all locked in the same trap with no way to escape.

After a 3 month side by side trial between Quickbooks and the custom invoicing solution built for me with ZAP Invoicing technology, it was a no brainer. The level I can track a single contractor with multiple jobs or projects was amazing; something that was not possible with QB.

Cloud based spreadsheets meant I didn't need to continuously back up my data with fears of losing a previous version and being able to access my sales system from anywhere without paying a monthly fee for access is a game changer.
I can easily send out professional looking estimates and invoices and keep track of payments without the hiccups that were common in QB and the systems I can assure you, the systems I have now for digital journalling for time and materials are not found in any commercial software solution. They are very custom and perfect for me.

I am thoroughly glad that I switched from Quickbooks to ZAP technology. I immediately noticed an increase in my financial awareness and understanding and I noticed a dramatic decrease in my stress levels around my billing and accounts recievable processes.

FREE FOR LIFE for this type of customizable solution has no equal. Spend some time and possibly some money if you can't get it all configured on your own in a way that is custom for you, and then enjoy it.

Please see my review for the bookkeeping template on that bookkeeping template review page.

Kristian Crump
Managing Member, Dusk Industries and Lighting Design LLC
Distinguished Toastmaster