Studio Manager 7.6 FAQ

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Does Studio Manager run well on FileMaker 8?

It runs great! Studio Manager is still completely compatible with FileMaker 7, but we've taken advantage of several FileMaker 8 features that are invisible when you run FileMaker 7 but appear and work really well when you run FileMaker 8.

Why did you rebuild Studio Manager from scratch?

We hesitated for a while because it would have been much less work to just convert the files and adjust them enough to make them run reliably on FileMaker 7. But, we think the biggest and most appealing feature in FileMaker 7 is the ability to have multiple tables in one file. It's cleaner, simpler, easier to work with. All the scripts, fields and layouts are in one place. As a result, you have a completely new version of Studio Manager that is built for 7/8. Not a warmed over FileMaker 6-based version that will run on 7 or 8.

Rebuilding with FileMaker 7 gives us a big competitive edge over non-rebuilt FileMaker-based offerings that address the creative services business space. We aren't going to name any names...

How long will it take to get Studio Manager 7.6 up and running?

It depends. Here are some of the variables that will affect how long it takes:

• Your Experience with FileMaker. If you already use FileMaker, even if it's not FileMaker 7 or 8, you are way ahead. You could be up and running in a week. Doing estimates, entering timesheets and doing invoices.
• How many Employees you have. It takes longer to get a large number of employees going in any particular direction. If you are the only user, you work your way through the start-up section of the user manual in a few hours and go. We recommend a phased implementation where you start with the person whose going to be most involved with the system - often times this is a production manager, coordinator or studio manager. You can go for a while on your own. Involve the owner if possible in decisions about what billing codes to use once you've read the user manual that discusses them. Then, once you are comfortable, get a *good* employee or two doing timesheets. Once they are on board, pick up the stragglers.
• How much Customizing you want to do. I strongly recommend that you use Studio Manager as vanilla as possible - at first. Until you try it, you won't know whether we haven't got a couple good ideas in here that you might want to adopt. You might even discover that something you thought you would need to add is unnecessary because Studio Manager accomplishes the same task more easily.
• How Maxed out you are. You'll need to go more slowly if you are understaffed and stretched to the limit with billable work already. If you are stretched, don't just keep Studio Manager in the box or wait to buy it for the time someday when things will slow down. Instead, put in your clients and jobs and start using it to track your jobs. Job tracking pays off immediately and gives you some good initial experience with the conventions of Studio Manager. Add pieces as time permits.

Do you do on-site training?

Yes. However, we have scheduled appointments with customers to come in and assist with installation and on-site training several times. Almost every time, they have called back to cancel. Why? They read the Studio Manager User Manual and decided that it answered all of their questions and concerns.

We are available if you require this service. All you need to do is pay our travel costs and consulting rates. We charge 1/3rd our rate for travel time. As the chief developer and architect of Studio Manager and a skilled trainer, my consulting/training rate is $150 per hour. My travel rate is $50/hour.

Since not everyone can afford the luxury of flying us in for a couple days of training, we have done everything we could to make the user manual so straightforward and thorough that you don't need us to be there to get off to a good start. The vast majority of Studio Manager customers manage just fine without our handholding. They do well with our remote support by phone and email - answering questions and sometimes doing small or large customization projects.

On the other hand, if you happen to be near us or within short flying distance, we think you would be foolish *not* to take advantage of our proximity. We know of no FileMaker experts with our depth of experience with the creative services industry. And, clearly, no one knows Studio Manager quite like we do.

If you do become a Studio Manager customer and you are in some far off land - we've got one customer in South Africa - let us know if you would like to be informed if we are going to be in your area. We'll be able to cut you a special deal then. We would love to visit some of our favorite customer spots such as England, Scotland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and then do some consulting while we're there so we can deduct the travel costs as a business expense.

What types of businesses can use Studio Manager?

Studio Manager was created as a management tool specifically for designers and other creative professionals. Firms or work groups using Studio Manager range in size from one to 100 people. It is appropriate for both independent design studios and design departments in corporate or education environments. Any creative professional who does estimating and invoicing, and/or who wants to track time and expenses by job will find Studio Manager useful. Related businesses that use Studio Manager are: broadcast design, web design, multimedia design, advertising, desktop publishing, photographers and illustrators.

Studio Manager can be used in any small business that does time and expense billing by the job. Because it is fully customizable, it can be modified to work for a wide range of businesses.

What are the main features of Studio Manager?

Without getting into all the details: Job tracking, job cost tracking and reporting, estimating, invoicing, timesheets, scheduling, purchase orders, and contact management. There is also a payables module and the invoicing system does accounts receivable. Our Home page gives little overviews of each major component of Studio Manager with links to pages for each component. You can get a pretty good idea of what Studio Manager can do from these screen shots and descriptions. If your interest is peaked, download the free demo and demo user manual.

What distinguishes Studio Manager from other time/expense and job costing programs?

1. 19 years of experience in building custom solutions for more than 100 different creative services firms forms the basis for the features found in Studio Manager.
2. The Studio Manager interface is designed with the critical eye of an artist and designer. Screen layouts are clean, well-organized and intuitive.
3. Because it is based on the highly-acclaimed FileMaker Pro database application and because we don't lock it up, Studio Manager is fully customizable.

Is it for Macintosh only? Can I use it on my Windows PCs?

Studio Manager was originally designed for the Macintosh. Although we continue to do all our development work on Macs, the files can be used from either a Mac or a Windows PC. Not long ago, after working on OS X for a while, we decided to add the 3-digit extension that PCs need to our file names because OS X seems to very much like and use extensions itself. You can serve the files from either a Mac or from Windows. Clients can be on Macs using OS X 10.2, Windows XP or Windows 2000 regardless of the server platform. If you buy our older Studio Manager 4.6, you can also use OS 9 or Windows 98.

FILEMAKER PRO QUESTIONS

Does FileMaker Pro come with Studio Manager?

Although Studio Manager requires FileMaker Pro, this application is not included and we do not sell copies of FileMaker Pro. You need a separate copy of FileMaker Pro on each computer from which you wish to access Studio Manager files via a network (or remotely via the internet). Depending on the number of concurrent users, you may also need a copy of FileMaker Pro Server. You need FileMaker Pro 7.0v3 to run Studio Manager 7 and FileMaker Pro 5-6 to run Studio Manager 4.6.

We've got a couple mini-articles on the Studio Manager home page that you might find useful. The Requirements article is in the left-hand column and discusses details about the choice whether to upgrade to FileMaker 6 and the FileMaker Deals article is in the right-hand column.

Can I use it with FileMaker Pro 5? What about FileMaker Pro 6?

You still have FileMaker Pro 5? Well then, yes, you can.

If you are going to be doing any customization, then it is really worth it to use FileMaker 7 because of the new features. If you are considering upgrading, you may want to see Janet's personal list of 10 reasons to love FileMaker 7 on our FileMaker Kingdom page.

Do I have to buy a separate copy of FileMaker Pro for each person in my office? Even if the only thing they will do is to enter timesheets?

Yes. FileMaker Pro is network copy protected. You are required to enter an installation code when you install FileMaker Pro. If you try to open more than one copy with the same code on your LAN or WAN at the same time, you will see a message to that effect and FileMaker Pro will quit on the machine that is coming in with a duplicate code.

It is possible to create a customized version that will allow time to be entered via browser software, but it's quite a bit of work. The browser solution would only make sense where you really only want users to use timesheets and you have quite a few of them.

For multiple users, do I need FileMaker Pro Server?

If you ever need more than 5 concurrent users, then you need FileMaker 7 Server. The server has a wonderful little backup facility and other system monitoring and messaging capabilities that also make it attractive even if you have fewer users. You might wince at the $999 list price, if you are small firm, but it's nice have a really good server at the helm of your valuable business data. For more information about FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Server, see the FileMaker, Inc. website: www.filemaker.com.

ACCOUNTING QUESTIONS

Can I use Studio Manager instead of my accounting program?

Studio Manager is a business management tool, not an accounting application. The way you manage your shop is as unique as you are. A customizable tool like Studio Manager is ideal for managing jobs, tracking time and expenses and estimating. Accounting is the same everywhere you go. Because accounting requires strict adherence to the rules of double-entry bookkeeping, it doesn’t work to make accounting software customizable. You could customize Studio Manager to include a FileMaker Pro accounting solution, but we do not think it is worth the time, effort or expense. We believe that the two functions are different enough to warrant the small amount of duplication of data entry that may be required.

Does Studio Manager link to Quickbooks?

Actually, we get this question a lot. Probably half our customers use Quickbooks. So we are doing something about it. We've found a good consultant who has some Russian programmers working for him at really nice rates. And he's created a link between Studio Manager and Quickbooks for one of our customers. Works great. Contact us for a price quote. We are in the planning stages for a version for Studio Manager 7 - and considering making it an add-on module.

Can I link it to my existing accounting program?

Depending on your accounting program, this can be done by exporting summary records to tab-delimited text files, from which you could then import into the accounting program. It would only be a semi-automated solution unless you really get fancy and add Applescript to complete the automation - we haven't tried this and are leery because of unforeseen data matching errors that could cause problems - such automation would only make sense if you have a very large number of monthly transactions - say 300 or more. The difficulty of the customization may vary depending on the accounting package. For Mac users, the best accounting software option at this time is probably from MYOB, especially now that you can import your old QuickBooks data. But even with MYOB, we still do not recommend importing from Studio Manager data unless you have a very high volume of transactions as mentioned above. Keeping financial accounting and management accounting separate gives you more flexibility. Studio Manager covers the mission critical functions of a creative services business. Accounting programs keep score, a conveniently reconcile accounts, print checks and help with end-of-year tax preparation.

If I need customization, do I have to hire you?

Nope. Frequently we are asked to customize Studio Manager. We like to do this - we get to learn more that way. However, we also (1) often refer our customers to authorized studio Manager consultants (see below) when there is one close by to a customer location and (2) consult with our customers who want to do their own customizing.

We almost always have at least one active customization project in our shop. The advantage of working directly with us is that we are the developers, so we know Studio Manager better than anyone. The disadvantage is that we are a small shop, so we may not be able to start your project immediately. Also, there are a small number of areas of FileMaker Pro development that are not our particular expertise. If you have customization needs that we cannot address directly, we will let you know and make a referral to another qualified consultant.

Do you have consultants you can refer me to?

We have an authorized consultants program and make referrals to qualified independent contractors in the US, New Zealand, Japan and Canada who are familiar with Studio Manager and/or whose integrity and skill we trust and respect. We are more than happy to refer you to these consultants if you want help modifying Studio Manager. Any agreement you make with a consultant outside of Tokerud Consulting Group is strictly between you and that contractor. [For more information, see the Consultants page.]

What about updates to fix problems?

We are committed to offering a reliable product, and like all software, ours does not seem to be perfect. We keep thinking it is and then we find out it is not — very humbling. Whenever we find any inconsistencies or problems with Studio Manager, we notify all our customers. For example, we made the 4.0.8 update because two customers found minor programming errors. That's not many out of our entire user base, but we take every problem very seriously. All our customers received a detailed description of how to correct the errors. Most of them made the corrections to the files themselves. A few sent us their files and we made the fixes for them, free of charge of course. Should you decide to become a Studio Manager customer, this is the kind of support you can expect from us. We haven't had any actual new bugs detected in Studio Manager since version 4.08 - we are now on 4.6. However, when we introduce new features, there's always the possibility that a situation that we haven't tested will cause an error. Please report any suspected bugs to us immediately.

How do you deliver Studio Manager and upgrades? Do you email or is it just posted on the web?

Right now we deliver only via email. We are investigating options that will allow customers to purchase and download. That may make it more convenient, but it removes us one step from the process. Our personal customer service is not only an advantage of working with us, it is something we enjoy.

MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS

Do you have references I can contact?

Yes. We do request that you be at the point of purchase with a need to check references as your final step before we release references just so that we don't inconvenience our enthusiastic customers unnecessarily.

Is it web-enabled? Can I access Studio Manager via a web browser?

Some of our clients tell us that they have put Studio Manager on an internet server and are currently accessing certain features via a web browser. You could simply create a special layout in the Contacts or Jobs files, for example, that you serve to the web. We strongly recommend that you be using FileMaker 7 which offers an improved set of instant web publishing capabilities. As far as the possibility of web-enabling the Studio Manager product itself goes, we have so far had our hands full perfecting and supporting the FileMaker-based LAN version of Studio Manager. Because accessing Studio Manager via FileMaker Pro clients is so much more robust, we think most design firms will prefer this option. If you have a lot of remote freelancers or a really big important client who you want to provide limited access too, though, you could add some limited access via the web for those specific situations.

Do you have a version for the Palm Handheld devices?

No. So far we haven't seen enough demand for this to warrant our adding this capability to the product. However, you can rather easily set up synchronization with a Palm device to meet your unique requirements. We recommend that you use the FileMaker Mobile synchronization product to do this. It is likely that we will release some technology for Studio Manager in this area. When we do, we'll make sure that we publish how we did it so that the heavy customizers can benefit from our technology even if they don't replace their files with ours. This is more knowhow than anything, but we and our authorized Studio Manager consultants around the world will also offer customization services to upgrade your customized version of Studio Manager with this feature.