How I Use FileMaker #1

So I’ve mentioned FileMaker Pro a few times on this blog and in other social locales. I know some people are curious about how I use it. So here’s the first installment (note – there are only two installments).

These are screenshots of my Royalty FileMaker. Obviously I smudged out all my earnings info since I don’t want the world knowing stuff like that. 😛

First up is the Book List. This is a list of every title for which I have an ISBN (ie – my contracted titles).

Each title leads to a full information page where I can enter my sales figures by date and vendor. Also on this page is a running tally of books sold and royalties earned.

From the above two databases, I can create sub-summary reports that shows my royalties (and earnings) by year and month.

And by year and title.

I can create other sub-summary reports that breaks it up by year, title, and month as well.

So that’s my setup for my royalties. It took a little bit of fiddling and Google-searching to get this database the way I wanted it, but all the effort is totally worth it. Inputting and tracking my royalties is so much easier now.