We need a developer for an accounts software, for either on line or off line use.
If you are interested in taking up this project, you have to answer all the following questions, and follow our numbering strictly.
Keep your answers from other bidders by putting them on the PMB.
The software is similar but different from sage, the difference is its for learners, simpler, and has much fewer reports. We have our own chart of accounts.
There are two components, the software itself, and the online delivery to learners.
When bidding please provided answers to the following;
1. Comment on the sufficiency of our budget and tell us how much you would want to be paid. You should answer this after going through all project requirements
1b after going through the project requirements, please advise whether the two components should be separated or we should leave it as one project.
2. Have you done something similar to sage? can you prove by providing us with a product to evaluate. This may imply, you will just make modifications and probably take less time
3. How long is guarantee period, during which you will provide support at no extra charge, please state
4. Payment will be in stages of completion. The first installment is put in escrow and money is released after testing the first version of the completed project. You can suggest the stage at which the next installments are paid.
5. Which database will you use and why, (one that doesn't need maintenance)
6. We are designing this for learners. We shall provide each with data for between 10 and 20 businesses for practice purposes. We need to control access to knowledge which is availed on the recording forms ( tooltips ) plus the training exercises, plus the duration which could be 3 , 6, 9, or 12 months . How do we achieve this?
7. They will have data for 10 to 15 businesses to practice with. we shall provide the expected set of results for them to print or view, and compare their results. How do you plan to achieve this
8. We have an eshop with 1 to 1 .co.uk. How appropriate will it be for this purpose.
We are contemplating changing to the amazon webstore, The reason is, we think it has a better search optimization facility, please advise. Do you think we need a specially designed website, or we can manage with the ones which are predesigned.
9. There is a spread for windows forms- farpoint spread ( like excel)
will you use it, or what alternative do you have for the transaction entry screens
10. You provide the completed project in two forms, 1. with source code, for us to modify in future, 2. One that is up and running on our website.(you may prefer to produce one for PC use instead.
11. Central to our guidance are the tooltips. Some of them are half a page long. So we think they should respond and stay open until the mouse is moved, to give them enough time to read. Can you do this, or you prefer the expand and collapse method ?
12 There is an option of displaying the information and having it read out. C# mentions are read out lout facility but I don’t know how it works. Rapid revolution software can convert text to speech, what is your comment about this?
13. How will you update us of the progress during development and at what stages or frequency?
14. You will create two charts of accounts, one for a soletrader and another for a partnership (5 partners ).
15. Can You program debit entries to be in blue, and credit entries in red , all negative figures to be in brackets
16 explain the error correction procedure you are going to set up
17. How will the bank reconciliation procedure operate
18. how will your debtors and creditors control accounts operate
19 We need the business name at the top of each of the reports, with date and time, page numbers , and all reports in a4 paper size
20 Learners should set the financial year , and warnings should be given if the date is outside the set financial year, in sage you are eventually allowed to record
21. Before the software allows the recording of transactions, they have to record opening balances
22. how will you convert closing balances for a previous year, into opening balances for a new year
23 How shall we be able to Communicate with students online. Can we have something like a pmb
24 the working papers or accounts preparation schedules, we manually cross reference them. Can you program that ? against each of the figures on the balance sheet, there is a cross reference number showing the report where its details can be found. For example the details for cash figure will always be on report G1, and that is the cash monthly summary. The detail for report G1 will always come from G3. This reference number could be in a grey box. Can we give the student an opportunity to change it
25 how will your backup facility work? What about restoration
26 how will your search for transactions facility work,
27 can you automate a warning to come up when the period of use is about to expire , and after it has expired
28 a) Vat reconciliation is a mark that prevents a figure from appearing in future vat reports. Its available in sage, how will yours work?
b) Can you insert a reminder after printing the vat report, to initiate the vat transfer wizard?
c) Sage gives an option of whether to include unreconciled transactions for previous periods or not. Can you do this?
29 Please advise on how we shall be able to monitor the enrolled students. How many they are, when they started and when to end, their progress, etc
30. The source of information for practice exercises will be typed out invoices ( between 50 and 100 per exercise) and bank statements. They could be in form of images but my worry is the memory they take up.
We could have a mini screen on the right where the documents are displayed and scroll for ease of recording. They could also have an option of printing out these documents before recording. How do you hope to achieve this?
31 For about 95% of the accounts, learners should not change their names and set up. For a few of them like bank accounts, credit cards, and loans, they need to record the actual name of the bank. They will name the individual debtor and creditor accounts, just like sage
How do you hope to achieve this?
32. The year end has procedures like depreciation, can it be automated. What about the transfer of balances from income and expense accounts?
33 can year end accruals and prepayments be transferred to the actual expense accounts at the start of the following year, automatically?
34. We shall need ongoing support after completion of the project. Will you be willing to offer that, and how will your charges be like?
35. Is there Anything else you intend to bring forward?