Locksmith Software

Say you wanted to keep track of all your past and current customers, product sales, key codes to vehicles, hold information on your employees, and other details pertaining to running a locksmith business. Just from looking at the first few results of a GOOGLE search, you can see the numerous options available to your locksmith business. The first three locksmith software results come up as Treskat Software, BlackHawk Products, and Real Time Manager.

Treskat has numerous programs for sale, each of which fulfills a different function.

A few of which are:

• CodeMaster—A databank of lock codes and padlock combinations.
• TimeMaster-Creates schedules for employees and keeps track of jobs.
• Advantage 2009 Business Software—Tracks inventory, sales, and customers.
• MaxiKey and MaxiCore—Chooses random number combinations for you to set keys and locks to.

BlackHawk Products also has a selection of lock & key software and a management program. Some of there programs include:

• Desktop Dispatcher—Keeps tracks of services, work orders, histories, employee reports, stores pictures, and stores audio files.
• SCG: The Safe Combination Generator chooses random number for you to set a lock to.
• COD: Codes on Disk is a collection of different types of key codes from automobiles to padlocks.

Real Time Manager is a service management system that is fully online. Instead of selling little programs for each individual function, multiple features are bundled together in a software suite. Here are some of the services offered with Real Time Manager:

• Manage Services, Appointment Times, Service Types
• Manage employees, assign them to services, and set their commission rates.
• Track your technician’s location with GPS tracking.
• View the location of worksites with GOOGLE MAPS.
• Manage Inventory & Sales.
• Process payments: cash, checks, and credit cards.
• Key codes for automobiles.

Each have their trade offs. The programs from Treskat can be used once you buy them, but of course they have updates for you to purchase. BlackHawk products seem to be sold as is, with no further updates. Much of their software is from the mid-nineties so it runs great on DOS and Windows 95. With Real Time Manager, you are renting a service. So you must pay setup fees and a monthly service fee. But there is a nice collection of features. You just have to decide what your needs are.

Tips for choosing a Garage Door.

1. Measure your garage opening to see what size door is needed. Do you need a single door or twin doors?
2. Decide on an automatic or manual garage door.
3. Choose what kind of material you want your garage door to be made from. The usual choices are wood, metal, or fiberglass. Wooden doors look the most natural with your house, metal is lighter and more durable than wood and fiberglass is as light as or lighter than metal, but not as durable.
4. Choose a style of door and other aesthetics like a door with windows. Find out about insulated doors. If getting steel doors, ask about the number of layers the door is comprised of.
5. When it comes time to hiring someone to install it, do your research. Get price quotes from multiple companies. Check the locations of their addresses to see if they are really located there.
6. Ask about insurance and warranties. Ask for referrals from past customers.
7. Find out if they do the work themselves or contract out to other companies.
8. Don’t trust what you see in the yellow page ads, they’ll promise anything in their ads. Call them up and see what they will really do and for what price.
9. As with any construction project, be optimistic but on guard. You want to get the best service for your money. And remember that the cheapest offer isn’t always the best offer.

Your Options for a Doorbell.

The easiest option for a doorbell system is buying a wireless system. A wireless doorbell allows you to place the door bell button and ringer unit virtually anywhere you want to put them. They just have to be within range of each other. The sets come in various ranges depending on how expensive of a model you buy. Unless the door bell chime plugs into a wall outlet, it will be running off of batteries. As will the button unit. So you’re convenience will come at the cost of changing the batteries every so often when they wear down.

Wireless units are great for apartments and rental homes, where you may not be allowed to do any potentially destructive installations or tamper with the electrical wiring.. And on the other plus side you don’t have to hire a locksmith or electrician to install a wireless door bell.

Opposite of the wireless doorbell is the classic wired doorbell design. A wired doorbell will be connected to your house’s electricity, so there will be no need for batteries. This does mean however, that you or someone you hire will have to connect the door bell button and chime unit the wiring in you home. So your walls may be subject to some invasive damage, but it can be patched up later. The distance from button to chime unit can be as long as the length of the wires you use. But most likely the wiring will already be in place just leaving you the job of swapping units.

 Both types of doorbells range in types of models, from the most basic to the fancier expensive units. The basic units will have the typical Ding Dong chime, while the fancier models have melodies, music, and other such chime options.

Welcome to our first blog post.

In this blog we will be sharing information on Locksmithing.

We want to cover topics related to the profession, the hobby, and projects for the do-it yourselfers out there.