My car has a trunk that holds all of my stuff. Act has a trunk, sort of. Act’s trunk is called a table and understanding what tables are can help you understand how you can potentially expand the capabilities of act.

So you have a dilemma. You have been using act for a long time and it’s just not cutting it for you. Your business has expanded and you need to track a lot of information and act does not have that capability.  Or does it? Does act have the capability to expand to hold more information?  Well, the answer is sort of. I’m not a software engineer and I am not going to go all technical on you. As you saw in my first paragraph I compared act to my car. This is about the depth of my technical analysis regarding the underlying technology that runs act.

So let me describe it this way: Think of act as a car with a trunk. 

If act’s trunk is like my car’s trunk, it has a lot of boxes full of stuff or technical information that is hard to find and keep organized.  You most likely have a lot of information in act after many years of use, and all of that information is stored in tables within act. You do not have access to all of those tables, so it is hard to sort and organize that information in a way that makes act work harder for you.

So why is it important that you know about tables if you are an act user?

Many act users start to outgrow the software. With this comes a reasonable amount of effort to explore other software options. Regardless of the option you choose, you have to start all over again by learning new software. Then you have to train your staff and anyone else that use to use act. It is a pain in the you know what! It is important to know about tables because it might be possible to use tables to your advantage, to expand the capabilities of act.

How can you extend the capabilities of Act?

There are two companies that make tools that work with act tables and therefore extend the functionality of act. The first product is called Topline Designer ($99 | $69 until 12/31/16) and the second is Durkin Computing’s tool called Impact Suite, which offers a yearly subscription and a perpetual license option as well.  Impact Suite comes with more than one add-on product or tool.

Jim Durkin is the owner of Durkin Computing.  Impact Suite allows you to create and customize tables that extend the capabilities of act. Let me state right up front I am not an expert at tables and I find tables very confusing. I have never had a compelling reason to use Jim’s software to create tables for my clients. Frankly, it scares me a little bit because it is an unknown entity to me. I know the software is out there but I’ve never quite figured out a good way to go about using it. Every now and again, I revisit the software to see if it makes more sense to me.

In my opinion, it is time to forget about tables.

Unfortunately, my experience has been that sometimes people give you too much information. The reality is that you do not have to know about tables to effectively implement these tools. In fact, I think talking about tables tends to confuse what these products can do for you. To paraphrase something I once heard, let me describe it this way:

There are three things you do not want to see made: laws, sausages and act add-on products.

Are you Really Outgrowing Act?

Let’s face it, act is the devil you know. If you are researching other software it is going to be a project and take time and energy and new learning time. It might be worth it to you to invest some time and money into exploring tools that extend the capabilities of act. If you make a decision to try an act add-on I think you should consider the following:

• at the end of the day, working with an add-on product will most likely be cheaper than investing in completely new software
• recognize the fact that the add-on product is completely separate from act
• don’t compare it to act
• look at it for what it does on its own
• Sometimes, add-on software does way more than what you need.
• Stay focused on the need.
• consider getting and paying for customized support (it will save you time and money and energy)
• recognize the fact that the makers of the software are often highly technical in nature and not the best teachers
• practice with it before you introduce it to others in your organization
• if you use QuickBooks or Sage 50 and are trying to extend the connection to act, look for products that will connect act
• it is vital that you have clear-cut goals and the vision for what you are trying to accomplish
• don’t reinvent the wheel

To start you off with the concept of tables I’m going to introduce you to Jim Durkin’s video about creating custom tables in act via his product, Impact Suite. Yes, the video is more than 30 minutes long. But I mentioned to you the fact that you need to invest time and energy to make act do more for you. This is a good first step. In my humble opinion.

Jim Durkin is an expert at tables and simplifying them. Jim Durkin makes software for act that allows you to make act more productive. So before you drive yourself crazy researching other software because you’ve outgrown act, give Jim a call and visit his website www.DurkinComputing.com.