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I am a s/w development consultant who usually has 6 month contracts and a month or so before the end begins looking for the next one.

Sometimes I use scraps of paper, sometimes plain-text files, sometimes just my (poor) memory to record what I have been doing. This is not best practise.

Is there an app to help me organize this better (gratis, Windows and/or Android)?

  • which people at which agencies do I currently have something ongoing with (plus, hopefully, a searchable history) - and their contact details, of course.
  • which companies have I been forward for (with a short description of the position)?
  • who have I not yet contacted, but should?
  • who should I not deal with again (maybe rating agents 1 to 10, or such)?
  • who should I remember to approach further down the line?
  • freehand notes

I realize that it's difficult to nail down exactly what features I need/want. I was thinking of coding my own & continually tweaking it as new circumstances arise, but, before I do so, it is clear to me that there are a significant number of s/w develoeprs active on this site and that some of you must be freelance.

I am hoping for some recommendations, based on practical experience of personal use.

[Update] I like the suggestion of using a CRM, although I think that something server-based is overkill for a single user. Can anyone recommend a goo, free Windows-based CRM which answers the question?

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    This is not free of charge, but you may take a look at Google Apps-Google for work. They have many apps available (with the need of subscription, some are freemium with certain functionality available with options to upgrade) I used one of CRM apps available, if I remember it was Agile CRM, which integrates with your Mail account"at google which is like Gmail but using your own domain name" and keeps tracking of your emails, on the apps page,add clients, tasks, calenders, reminders, leads, opportunity etc. Basically what you are looking for is a CRM.
    – Mohammed Joraid
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 21:51
  • +1 for that, thanks. I doubt that I will pay for it, but you have really stood my thinking on its head. I can see how functionally this is CRM-like, which is something that I had not considered before. I am off now to look for a good free CRM app that suits my needs.
    – Mawg
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 7:38
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    In that case, there are dozens of free CRMs available, many free and open source. Give this bundle a look, once u open the page CTRL+F search for CRM you will fine a few -bitnami.com/stack/xampp There are around 4 or 5 free CRM which you can even open and modify the code if you are familiar with the tech used. Im not sure if you are a web developer or familiar with PHP and XAMPP, but its setup will take only the downloading and installation time and you will have your CRM on your PC. The nice thing about this that it's a web site actually, not just an app, so later you can go online.
    – Mohammed Joraid
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 20:36
  • Is there such a thing as a CRM that just runs on my local PC, not on a server? Can you recommend a free one which answer thsi question?
    – Mawg
    Commented Apr 5, 2015 at 6:23

2 Answers 2

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Promoting a comment to answer.

Well, first download and install XAMPP it's bundle of all what you need to run a server on your Windows machine. Very easy and simple. The amount of tutorial and how-to step-by-step is available on the web. Search for how to run php project on xampp - watch the video on from this page https://www.apachefriends.org/index.html

First you need to set up your server "XAMPP", then visit Bitnami and download one of the free CRM available such as sugarCRM so you can run it on your localhsot- their official site can show you a demo so u can try it first before you bother and download it. You can download the CRM from their official site or from Bitnami or etc etc. Once you download the CRM project unzip in your server e.g. C:\xampp\htdoc\myCRM and access via your browser http://localhost/myCRM and it will ask you to go through the setup.

Free CRM php project needs to run on a server, you can choose to purchase online hosting service or you can setup it up on your own laptop. PHP project need to have Apache-Mysql-PHP to run, all this is provided via XAMPP.

As for the CRM project it self, what you need is the project source and it's database. Good projects will include the database to be setup automatically within the project when it gets setup.

Take it step by step and you will be ok.

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    I have upvoted you, and thank you for your help, but I find that setting up a server is a bit much, so am looking for a desktop CRM program (Windows). If I don't get one, I will do as you recommend. Thanks again for taking the time to help
    – Mawg
    Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 7:29
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Try LibreOffice Base.

It is a database management software that allows you to create, design, and manage your own database.

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