Consulting Services
We offer consulting services for a wide variety of business technology needs. What makes our consulting so valuable to your business is that we can tell you not only how to use technology, but what technology can make your business better!

We have over 25 years experience working with technology with many kinds of businesses. Not only recommending technology, but in most cases working with the customer to develop the technology into an asset for their business. Because of our "hands on" approach to business technology, we have the depth and breadth of experience needed to get the right technology to your business the first time.

And, we provide the Technology that works with you!
Custom Programming
Our custom programming service allows you to have a program written or modified to your specifications. This can be a program for a web site (such as a program to capture substription info for a newsletter), changes to our accounting package (for example, different paper size for a specific report), or a project completely unrelated to any of our pre-existing software (such as modifying the programming on your cash registers to do something they can not do now).

We have over 25 year's experience doing custom programming, using a wide variety of programming languages, databases and operating systems. These include several forms of BASIC (including Visual BASIC), HTML/XHTML/DHTML/XML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, MySQL, ForTran, DOS, Windows, Unix and Linux.

Spectra Software does custom programming either on a time-and-materials basis or by bid. While custom programming is relatively expensive (certainly more than just purchasing a program "off the shelf" in some store), it can be cost-effective for businesses. The thing to remember is that custom programming is a Capital Investment. That means that it is an investment in the future of your business. You pay for the programming once, and you get the benefit of that programming as long as you use it. So, let's say your thinking about spending $5,000 on some custom programming. Wow, that's a lot of money. But, if that programming saves you 5 hours per day of labor and your labor cost, including taxes and benefits, is $15/hr then you are saving $3900 per year. That means you will break even in 15 months! That is an incredible break even point for a capital investment! If you don't believe me, just ask your accountant. They usually consider a break-even of 5 years to be a good investment!

So, while custom programming can be expensive, it doesn't have to be. And, the question to always ask when considering custom programming is "What is the break-even point". The answer to that question will never steer you wrong.

If you have any questions about our custom programming services, including custom web sites, please click here to go to a form to submit your question. Or, if you are not yet ready for specifics, perhaps you would like to click here to sign up for our newsletter!
Web Hosting
We also do Web Hosting, which means that we have servers that "host" (provide a place to live for) your web site. We use our own, custom distribution of Linux (based on Slackware) for our web servers. This allows us to completely control the server environment for your web site, which translates to more features at a lower cost plus better system reliability.

One important aspect of our web hosting is our service and pricing. You can find web hosting for less than we charge. But, when you have questions or problems, how can a company that only charges $5.95 per month afford to have a live person answer the phone and help you? The obvoius answer is that they can't if they want to make a profit. They have priced their service so low that customer service has to suffer or they must run at a loss. There is no "free lunch" - the laws of economics are just as real and just as powerful as the law of gravity.

We have chosen to charge more for our web hosting service than our low-cost competitors, and provide the higher level of service that web site owners want and need. We are not the most expensive service, but neither are we the least expensive, Our pricing is perfect for the level of service that we provide and is very competitive at that level of service.

Of course, users of our services and equipment (which includes web hosting) are subject to our Acceptable Use Policy. Please review it for further information.

If you have any questions about our web services, including custom web sites, please click here to go to a form to submit your question. Or, if you are not yet ready for specifics, perhaps you would like to click here to sign up for our newsletter!
Accounting Software
Our accounting software is a mature product, which has been used in dozens of businesses up and down the West Coast. The core elemts were originally installed in production in July 1977, and it has been through 2 entire re-writes and numerous updates since then. All of our core mudules provide the following:

1. Supports Multiple Companies, Divisions and Branches
2. All period-end reports can be run on demand
3. Can auto-post transactions to General Ledger
4. Has very tight checks and balances to insure accurate records

Here is a list of our base accounting software modules and some highlights about each one:

• Accounts Receivable:
1. Supports Open Item and Balance Forward accounts
2. Supports complex customer transactions, such as unapplied cash and transfers
3. Supports Custom Dunning letters
• Accounts Payable:
1. Supports Factoring
2. Supports default G/L expense account by vendor
3. Tracks transaction summary by year within vendor
• General Ledger:
1. Supports user-defined P&L and balance sheet
2. Supports Fiscal periods that do not match calendar months
3. Supports budget by G/L account and comparison to actual
• Fixed Assets:
1. Supports Multiple Depreciation Methods for each asset
2. Supports Property Tax Report with multiple user-defined categories
3. Supports 2 levels of classification for each asset
• Payroll
1. Tracks basic hire and fire data, plus tax deduction info
2. Supports multiple departments
3. Supports local as well as state and federal withholdings
4. Provides Tax Table Maintenance program, so you can update tax tables as needed

Demonstrations are available upon request. If you use our accounting software on our servers and then decide to purchase a copy of the software, we can transfer your data from our servers to your local system for a small fee.

If you have any questions about our accounting software, please click here to go to a form to submit your question. Or, if you are not yet ready for specifics, perhaps you would like to click here to sign up for our newsletter!
Fund Accounting Software (for Non-profits)
Our Fund Accounting System is designed for the small to medium-sized non-profit. It allows all the accounting functions of the organization to be automated, with the very clear audit trails required for non-profits. Because our Fund Accounting System is based on our standard accounting package, it has all that package's features and functions.

The big difference between our standard Accounting Software and our Fund Accounting Software is that the Fund Accounting has a "Project Sub-Ledger", which is tightly tied to the General Ledger. This allows you to track income and expenses not only by G/L account, but to track those same income and expenses by Project (e.g., Admin Expenses, State Grant for Healthcare Initiative, Federal Contract to research AIDS vaccine, Actions). Cost codes are defined to further break down income and expenses within the projects.

Demonstrations are available upon request. If you use our Fund Accounting Software on our servers and then decide to purchase a copy of the software, we can transfer your data from our servers to your local system for a small fee.
Bookkeeping Service
More info soon!
Warehouse Distribution Software
More info soon!