What is Front Desk?

Program names sometimes accurately describe their programs and sometimes, well, what does Jazz imply to you? Front Desk is a particularly accurate and descriptive name for this scheduling and record keeping program.

Front Desk was designed to handle the scheduling needs of the small professional office. It can handle up to 15 people, places or things. A single consultant could use it to track clients or a small group medical or law office could use it to schedule people and/or treatment and consultation rooms. While designed primarily for professional offices,

Front Desk can also be used in other situations to schedule fixed, billable resources. For example, a tennis club could both schedule its courts and keep track of income using this program.

The Front Desk manual should be studied by all Mac documentation writers. It's clear and describes the program in sufficient detail without bogging the reader down in masses of unnecessary verbiage. Front Desk is complex enough that the manual should be read before setting up the program. The first and most important step in using Front Desk is setting up. There are three basic steps. First, the calendar is created, then the resources are defined, and finally services are defined and valued.

Calendar creation is straightforward. Users select the time period each screen will cover, how many past time units will be retained and who or what will be covered by each screen. The program works in 12-month periods, but allows multiple files.

After the calendar is created, the resources and services are defined. Services are assigned billing rates (either hourly, flat or no charge).

Any value — calendar, resource or service — can be changed at any time. If the boss decides to close the office for two extra days, the calendar can be easily changed. And if someone resigns, that person is simply deleted from the resource listing.

Once the program is set up, use is intuitive. For example, double-clicking on a calendar date displays a detailed schedule for that day. Scroll boxes let users freely move over the calendar's time span. This portion of the program is particularly well designed.

There is a Search function, which is unfortunately somewhat restricted. It only works on the Name field, and while the whole name does not have to be entered, the beginning of the field must be. For example, users can search for Jones by entering "Jon," but not "nes."

Front Desk has powerful report generation abilities that go far beyond merely printing out schedules. The appointment analysis report can be a valuable tool for determining who or what is profitable, and, equally, who or what isn't producing.

Front Desk has only a few drawbacks. When used in a busy office, it almost requires its own Mac to be used most efficiently. It should be running most of the time. The ideal way to use this program is with Switcher and a hard disk, so it is always available. Consultants who use it to track clients may find it more useful.

Due to the graphic nature of its reports, it doesn't support the LaserWriter very well. And its user agreement restricts it to one machine. That might not be acceptable In an office where the scheduling chores are split among several machines. A one-owner, multimachine agreement would seem better.

Front Desk is a very good program for many small offices, but users should carefully evaluate their own situations to be sure its restrictions will work well in their environment.

Bobker, Steven. (December 1985). Front Desk. MacUser. (pgs. 37-38).

Download Front Desk for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac