Jim



>Oops. Let me try that again...
>
>Al,
>
>>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>> I am developing retail Point of Sales System. I have a question that, How should I manage stock. Should I keep my stock status base on invoice basis or summary basis
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Invoice Basis
>>>>>>Every item from each invoice will be recorded in table which store the current item's qty. Therefore, item will be sold base on invoice or FIFO basis, all return, transfer, and etc have to refer to invoice no and supplier no.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Summary
>>>>>>One record per item.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>How would u design it in real world? Is FIFO here is very important? DO you think design it in invoice basis is too troublesim.complicated for user and also developers? What do you think about both method, or do you have other suggestions?
>>>>>
>>>>>The main question you have to answer here is, "Am I reinventing the wheel?" There are literally hundreds of POS software systems out there, for almost every conceivable industry.
>>>>
>>>>Al,
>>>>
>>>>Well if I got a contract to do a POS, I'd take it.
>>>>
>>>>I wonder how there got to be "literally hundreds" otherwise??????
>>>
>>>I wouldn't, if there already was an industry-specific package available. To me it's just not right to charge $5 or $10K for a custom package when you can get one off-the-shelf for under $1K.
>>>
>>>As for how literally hundreds got to be, "industry-specific" is the key again...
>
>I'd look for an appropriate one first (if the client hadn't already and made the decision to have their own) and discuss it. If that suited them, fine.
>
>As for "industry-specific"... there truly are not "literally hundreds" of industries. I would say there are less than 50 in fact, off the top of my head.
>
>Cheers

Indeed. I think it's almost unethical to charge to write something already 'out there.' OTOH, in that case I'd have no problem at all for charging for my time to find, research, possibly install & support a 3rd party solution. Only fair and I'd think the client would appreciate you watching out for their bottom line and I'd bet you'd get future business as a result.