Hello from Wyoming!

[user 24326]

Hi, everyone! Some years ago, I had the urge to make biodiesel and I started collecting vegetable oil from the restaurants. I made some test batches, but never did finish the processor. But the oil kept coming. So almost two years ago, my wife wanted to do _something_ useful with the oil, and we started making soap. And we haven't stopped. To make sense of our batches, I have been programming a web based inventory system. It is far from complete, but it is useful to me and I plan to make it available to everyone so I can get constructive feedback. I see there is a huge amount of knowledge here and I look forward to learning all the things I did not think to ask.

 

[Kamahido]

Is your system similar to Soapmaker 3?

 

[SoapTrey]

Hey 2buck... that's really cool. Do you plan on hosting the service? Have you seen Craftybase? I tried it for a month and it's really nice but needs more work and is a bit expensive for what you get for personal use. Now if you link it to your e-commerce site... then it would probably be very nice and worth the cost.

I do have SoapMaker 3 and it's awesome. I used spreadsheets for a while but that was a real chore. SM3 makes it so very easy. It's not web based though and is a bit quirky and 'old school' if you will, but would never go back to how I did it before. The cost is nothing compared to the time you save. In fact I'm kinda surprised it doesn't cost more.

Anyway... Welcome

 

[user 24326]

Hey 2buck... that's really cool. Do you plan on hosting the service?

I will put up a demo for people to play with, but I have no interest in hosting. I would help others install it on their hosting, though. It will be a small number of PHP files and it will use the host's MySQL server. I will probably make it free on github, since I use git for version control.

Have you seen Craftybase? ... I do have SoapMaker 3 and it's awesome.

I have no knowledge of any soap sofware. I use spreadsheets and the software I am writing. Thanks for the welcome!

 

[bathgeek]

I will put up a demo for people to play with, but I have no interest in hosting. I would help others install it on their hosting, though. It will be a small number of PHP files and it will use the host's MySQL server. I will probably make it free on github, since I use git for version control. I have no knowledge of any soap sofware. I use spreadsheets and the software I am writing. Thanks for the welcome!

Hi there, I'm an accountant by training, let me know if you'd like to bounce things or ideas around or chat! I've used Craftybase and am not happy with it from the accounting side of things, so at this point I use two Excel sheets for my inventory and cost calculations, and Gnucash for the accounting.

I'm also a somewhat-but-not-hugely proficient user of computers and use a self-hosted solution, so if you need a non-techie who can help bridge the gap between programmer and layman, I'm available too.

 

[Saponomancer]

Thats pretty awesome! Welcome to the forum

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[user 24326]

Hi there, I'm an accountant by training, let me know if you'd like to bounce things or ideas around or chat!

Okay, once I have a demo on the Internet, I will be ready for feedback. Right now, I am going slowly and working on the things on my priority list. I am sure others will have ideas for features I have not thought of.

I'm also a somewhat-but-not-hugely proficient user of computers and use a self-hosted solution, so if you need a non-techie who can help bridge the gap between programmer and layman, I'm available too.

Sounds good! So far, I have three modules.

"Batch" shows all the ingredients and costs, and takes a batch number, date, #bars, and the ingredient counts. It then shows the batch information and cost per bar. It puts this information into the database.

"Report" shows the soap names, ingredients, and location groups. It will give a report on the batches and inventory counts by ingredient(s), name, or inventory location.

"Inventory" adds a batch to inventory or removes (sells) bars from a location. There are a modest number of "location groups" and each group can have any number of locations, like a drawer number or shelf label.

The report module is very useful for printing a report of how many batches of (for example) shea butter soap, counts, and locations. With this printout, I can use a highlighter to pick the batches and counts to go into a variety pack.

What is missing is the module for admin, for the soap names, updating ingredients and prices, and adding new storage locations. I do this directly with the database right now.

Thanks for listening!