New and confused

[FBM]

Most likely the wrong place but here goes.

I currently have a site working/ish it was designed by a someone several years ago and the site now is old and clunky and tbh doesn't do the stuff he promised.

I think I've decided to cut my losses and just go for a total new build. However I'm loath to leap in and spend more money I cant afford as I'm very much a wysiwyg software girl. Is Actinic really that easy?

I have several criteria that has to happen on site.

1) all my products are technically VATable however if you have a medical condition you are exempt. There are exceptions to this rule, charities, businesses (care homes) and people buying the product because they want to wear them (yes I do attract an odd group) - has the issue of being able to declare VAT exemption been dealt with via the back end software? currently my clients tick to state they are exempt and its up to them to be honest.

2) My client list is on I believe SQL database is this going to be easily transferable or is this going to be lost?

3) Many of my orders are MOTO either because the client doesn't have internet or is calling on behalf of a patient. I currently use a control panel to place the orders and collect the card details. Is one Actinic software better than another for this process.

4) I'm probably being a total numpty but I want to be able to do the rebuild whilst my current site is still up and running then up load the new look say 1st November, I cant see this obviously.

5) Just playing with the trial and adding a new customer/order, its asked for email address, many of my clients dont have this can it be over ridden?

I did call someone who said 'watch' the videos

thanks
kerry


www.freedomhealthcare.co.uk is the current look (ugly isn't it?)

[jont]

Welcome to the Actinic forum.

Actinic is very good at day to day running of sites - adding new products, changing details and taking orders etc. It is semi WYSIWYG in that you can change a lot of design stuff via the wizards and drop downs and you can preview the changes instantly. Any more fundamental changes need some basic HTML knowledge.... although to be fair there are several new themes available straight from the box which work quite well and would be a huge improvement on the existing site.

The SQL customers from your old site would need adding into Actinic. This is going to be either manual entry or you may find a database guru who could write a script for you - this may be expensive as it requires matching tables and fields and is no simple task.

You can put the site into test mode but I would suggest simply creating a folder on the site such as www.site.com/test/ and load Actinic into that.

The email can be made optional under Design > Text > Website (cont) ..... that is my v9 setting as v11 is currently in use but I expect it is the same.

The business flavour or Actinic is the best to go for as it allows a bit more flexibility which you can guarantee you will need at some point. I honestly don't think it is worth the savings for the loss of functions.

How do HMRC audit your vat exempt sales? That must be a nightmare as I would have thought the onus is on you to ensure they are genuinely exempt - otherwise you could just put everything through as being exempt.

[chris ashdown]

Could the excemption be applied by a little work on the present vat excemption facility so they just added their NI Number or whaterver number they get to say excempt

[FBM]

Vat exemption

The exemption is self certifying meaning that the onus is on them to tell me the truth, all I have to do is produce a signed form that they state they are buying for themselves or another, there is a warning that these are handed to the HMRC

[chris ashdown]

No doubt you could get someone like Jonty to make a downloadable form they could print out, sign and post to you after placing the order