OVER 2 YOU, 158 (02/12/03)

HOLIDAYWARE

I run a small business letting holiday apartments. We would like to accept credit card payments for deposits via our web site. I have taken a look on the Internet and the majority of companies that deal with this (mostly American based) require monthly fees that with our turnover would not make it viable. Any other suggestions please?

Ted Wooller, via email

There are several simple online payments methods that could be used. The best and most cost effective is www.fastpay.co.uk run by National Westminster Bank.  It offers payments to and from anyone with an email address or mobile phone!  Personal accounts (free to join) have no fees to the receiver of monies; the sender pays a 20p fee per transaction. Merchants are charged 3% plus 10p to receive money only. This is minimal so could be absorbed by Mr Wooller or his customers. 

Marsha Millar, via email

You could set up a NoChex account (www.nochex.co.uk), which would allow you to take payments from UK debit cards only, the charging on this service is levied when you transfer the received funds to your bank account and costs either 99p or 1% of the balance transferred, which ever is higher.

Adam Hinchliffe, via email

Ted Wooller should have a look at www.web-form-buddy.com. This site offers just such a service (with industry standard 128 bit SSL encryption and credit card validation). The price is £25 per year and there is no software, script or certificate to install on the server.
Richard Morris, Truro, Cornwall

May I suggest that Mr Wooler takes a look at PayPal (www.paypal.com) the method used by millions of people making purchases on the ebay online auction website. Both parties would need to sign up for an account - which is free - and payments by credit card would be transferred from one account to another. Like a buyer on ebay the person sending the money isn't charged for this service and, similar to a seller, Mr Wooller (or the company he represents) would be charged around 3% of the sum sent.

Ashley Ponter, via email

I have a similar business and we ask the client to send us two emails. The first one details the cardholder’s name and the first half of their credit card number. The second one includes the remaining half of the number and the card’s expiry date. This system has been working well with no problems to date and I know of several other businesses that use the same method.

Chris Benson, via email

VILLAGE HALL BOOKINGS

I do the bookings for my village hall, which also includes sending out bills, receipting them if asked, recording and banking the payments. I need a simple accounting system, which will store names, addresses and telephone numbers of club treasurers or individual hirers. Then to record dates of hiring and to generate bills, record and send receipts, and show banking details.

Has anyone, preferably with experience of village hall or similar bookings, where there are historical and ethical reasons for treating everyone as a person, who could help me to devise a system, or advise me of any suitable off-the-shelf software?

Mike Bull, via email

I suggest that Mr Wooler contacts David Kingston of www.SecureGiving.co.uk He is setting up a similar system for the charity that I am involved with and has special charges for smaller organisations.

Hugh Willmore, via email 

Provided you’re not in too much of a hurry you might like to investigate a program that’s currently in development, called Hall Booking. Who knows, maybe they’ll sign you up as a tester? It sounds as though it could be just what you are looking for. You can request more information from: http://www.ewizard.info/productintro.aspx?id=10

Cliff Peyton, via email

You can download a trial version of a program called HRC with what looks like it has all of the features you are looking for, including a Hall Booking feature. There are more details on the HRC website at: http://www.hrcsystem.com/uk/

T. James, via email

There is a French product called BookingBoard (http://www.bookingboard.com/) that covers hotel room bookings, though I don’t think it would be entirely suitable in this case. I’m pretty sure there isn’t anything specific on the market. I have been asked this question several times, and whether my system (Holiday Letting System, www.holletsys.co.uk) can handle this kind of application, so I’m thinking of adapting it, anyone interested please get in touch.

Brendan Blake, bblake@holletsys.co.uk

I have developed a package called Wizard CRM, which offers most of what is required, for more details please contact: Wizardcompserv@aol.com

Wendy Osbaldestin, via email 

We have just completed the development of a program to support the activities of amateur sports clubs including contact management, facility bookings, first line accounting etc. which could provide all the functionality for which your correspondent is looking. Have a look at our website: www.bellmontsolutions.co.uk

Ned Wayne, via email

ROLLING COUNT

I am trying to set up a "rolling count" formula in Excel whereby a column of
movements in daily stock index data is analysed for the frequency of particular events. The normal COUNT function works with a range of data set by the user but I wish the formula to perform a rolling analysis on a column of data, for example, on a moving 4-week basis. Any ideas?
Mark Wright, via email

Here’s another suggestion for your rolling count query. Define a Name (use the insert name from the toolbar) as Date and reference F3. Define a Name as Criteria and reference G3.

Column A is labelled Date and column B is Data.

In column C on the first row of data enter the formula ‘=If(A3>=Date,A3,””)’. Copy this formula down as far as you require (use C65000 if you want to fill the whole sheet, keeping back spare rows.) Under the last row enter =CountIf(C3:C65000,Criteria)

Hide Column C.

Label F3 as Date, G3 as Criteria and H3 as Count. In H3 enter ‘=C65000’. Set the date as required in F3 and enter the criteria to count and H3 displays all the criteria met on or after the set date. To take this further, you can use the WORKDAY function in the date reference. In F3 enter =WORKDAY(TODAY()-28) to see the count for the last 28 working days. This is rather static though and not as flexible. If you label F4 as Days to Count and use the formula =WORKDAY(TODAY()-F4 you have more control. Note: You will need to install the Analysis Toolpak to use the WORKDAY function.

Myke Anton, via email

SPEEDO CALIBRATION

I live in dread of being ‘flashed’ by speed cameras. I do not knowingly exceed the speed limit but I have only my car’s speedometer to rely upon. Reports that speeding tickets could be issued for breaking the speed limit by only a couple of miles an hours prompts me to ask if anyone can suggest a method of checking the accuracy of my car’s speedometer, possibly using my laptop PC and some sort of distance/speed measuring software?

Arthur Kennedy, via email

I wonder if your correspondent has tried a ‘Snooper’ type device, which detects the presence of speed cameras and radar traps.  I know it will not assist in calibrating his speedo but he would probably be pleasantly surprised, as I was when I fitted mine, to find how few of those ghastly yellow boxes are actually activated.  In my neck of the woods it is a case of plenty of boxes but too few cameras to go round but beware of being over-confident, those few cameras can be (and are) craftily shuffled around!

Richard Johnson, Lancs

CAN YOU HELP?

I need to create around a dozen small cardboard boxes with lettering and graphic designs on four of the six faces. I’ve made a prototype blank template and it fits easily inside the area of an A4 sheet of paper so I can print it on thin card using my PC printer. Can anyone recommend any software that will help me with the layout and printing?

Penny Taylor, via email

I want to be able to correspond with Japanese colleagues. Can anyone recommend teaching software that will help me to learn the language or Japanese text recognition programs that work under Windows 98?

Nick Hughes