Catchin' Up

Wow! That month flew by - October came and went in a blur. I thought I'd offer up a few updates to what's been going on over the course of the last month.

I've been using a client's iPad for the past month while working on what was going to be an app to help his salespeople better communicate item details to the customers. The iPad has been great - I have no idea how I'm going to live without it. I'm going to try and hold off for the next version, but I have a bad feeling I may not be patient enough. The project switched gear after we talked more about what they needed the app to do. Rather than write an app, I decided to set them up with the Filemaker Go app for iPad. A few years ago I helped the purchase an iMac to digitize their customer contacts and inventory (they were using 4x6 notecards in a file cabinet previously). I created a Filemaker database for them to keep track of customers and be able to print mailing labels. That made the Filemaker Go app for iPad a logical choice, as I was able to create a new database for the details he needed for this new project and incorporate their existing databases in the iPad version. I designed the interface to be similar to an iPad app so most people at first glance wouldn't notice the difference. Because of the nature of the app, I'm not comfortable showing actual screen captures from it. Once it is finished and delivered, I'll describe it in more detail.

This past week I received my Square credit card reader enabling me to accept credit cards on the spot using my iPhone or iPad (the iPad app is really awesome!). Square is a really interesting service, giving the apps (iPhone and iPad) and the reader away for free, there is no monthly fee, and a very reasonable 15 cent charge per transaction and a fee of less than 3% of the charge total.

After swiping the customers card, they approve the amount and then sign for it using their finger on the screen. Rather than having to print a paper receipt, you can send it to them via email, which also includes location information of the transaction. It's a great service - if you need to accept credit cards, you should definitely look in to it.