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Home inventory software?

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Cubytus

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2007
1,436
18
Hello all,

for insurance purpose and although it's not required by my insurer, I still wanted to keep a clear inventory of what is in my apartment, telling apart which are landlord's goods, and which are mine. I know there's the traditional Excel sheet, but find it somewhat cumbersome to integrate pictures or videos in it. Some Windows software for the same purpose use a hierarchical view, which may or may not be so useful in my case as I only have a large room, and a few other objects in the kitchen, corridor and bathroom.

For that matter, do you know of any home inventory software that would be both quick to fill in, free (don't need to use it as regularly as I would see the value of paying a premium for it), and that would export to a universal computer-read format (to play videos, if integrated) and a PDF (essential)?
 
nuckinfutz

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603
Jul 3, 2002
5,539
399
Middle Earth
rhett7660 said:
Out of the two you listed which one do you like better and why? I was looking for something like this and came across this thread.
Click to expand...

I've done most of my work in Compartments because I like Little Fin Software (I use their Chronicle for my bills) and haven't checked out Home Inventory as much as I'd like to. I'll do some tinkering tonight and report back on my initial feelings.
 
B

bannie

macrumors newbie
Dec 4, 2012
2
0
I'm really involved with this topic. When can I find out more selective details all-around this? Or, when you can pursue this further more here.
 
C

Cubytus

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2007
1,436
18
Export format is extremely important. There's no point in making an inventory if you can't pull a list and print it easily when needed (typically adds up to the already great stress of having to file a claim and live with the loss).

I could see there are lots of inventory software for iOS. Do anyone know about one of them?
 
K

klhamilton

macrumors newbie
Feb 4, 2008
2
0
Mechanicsville, VA
rhett7660 said:
Out of the two you listed which one do you like better and why? I was looking for something like this and came across this thread.
Click to expand...

You can't go wrong either way. I'm the developer of Home Inventory, so I'm a bit biased, but Compartments is a great product as well and the developer, Mike, is a class act. Both products have trial versions available you can download to see which one you prefer:

Home Inventory

Compartments

Regards,

Kevin Hamilton
Binary Formations

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Cubytus said:
And what format are they exporting in?
Click to expand...

Home Inventory exports to CSV. Photos and receipts are exported to JPEG (photos and image receipts), RTF (text receipts) or PDF (PDF receipts) with paths in the CSV to the exported photos/receipts. We import from CSV as well. In both cases you can choose which fields are exported/imported.

Kevin
 
rhett7660

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,221
4,297
Sunny, Southern California
Kevin..

Thank you for the response! Will do the trial version.

Thanks again. Have to warn you though, now that you have made yourself available on the boards! You might get loooooots of questions! :)
 
nuckinfutz

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603
Jul 3, 2002
5,539
399
Middle Earth
rhett7660 said:
Wow that would be great! Thank you!!!!
Click to expand...

See below

klhamilton said:
You can't go wrong either way. I'm the developer of Home Inventory, so I'm a bit biased, but Compartments is a great product as well and the developer, Mike, is a class act. Both products have trial versions available you can download to see which one you prefer:

Home Inventory

Compartments

Regards,

Kevin Hamilton
Binary Formations

----------



Home Inventory exports to CSV. Photos and receipts are exported to JPEG (photos and image receipts), RTF (text receipts) or PDF (PDF receipts) with paths in the CSV to the exported photos/receipts. We import from CSV as well. In both cases you can choose which fields are exported/imported.

Kevin
Click to expand...

The maturity of Home Inventory shows. I like that you can edit or manage custom fields. This will certainly be a nice feature if you wish to track something unique about your items. Being able to add items via their barcode and reference Amazon or Google for these barcode lookups is a nice touch though I haven't tried it yet.

Home Inventory give you a bit more granular control in adding photos or other attachments with the ability to browse your filesystem or even snap a quick Facetime pic, Scanner etc.

Compartments is clearly less ambitious and has a somewhat less database like "look and feel" I feel like it's ideal for those that just want a running total of their items and don't anticipate the need to really flesh out their data. If you are the more fastidious type of person Home Inventory may not be as pretty but it makes up with it with more control and customization of the data.

Both are solid apps and thanks to Binary for providing a demo.

Whoa! Pretty classy guys

This is why I like supporting independent developers.
 
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rhett7660

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,221
4,297
Sunny, Southern California
After reading through the sites this passage caught my eye:

Collections

The collections feature provides an easy way to organize related objects, such as books, CDs, video games, and movies.

Home Inventory offers flexibility in calculating the value of a collection. For example, a set of baseball cards for a team from a given year may be worth more as a complete set than they would be if each card were valued individually. Likewise, a set of fine china may be purchased as a whole instead of one piece at a time.
Click to expand...

This alone is huge for me. Going to be trying the free software.
 
C

Cubytus

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2007
1,436
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waloshin said:
Microsoft Access.
Click to expand...
While you're at it, why not FileMaker?
This is not a topic to joke around. Thanks.
----------------------------
I may try both Home Inventory and Compartments, but knowing insurers will do anything in their power to reject a claim, better be on the safe side by giving even extra information, right?
 
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ejb190

ejb190

macrumors 65816
Apr 5, 2002
1,381
286
At the intersection of Indy Cars and Amish Buggies
Cubytus said:
While you're at it, why not FileMaker?
Click to expand...

I could probably put something together in FileMaker in a matter of hours. Having FM Pro Developer, I could even make it a stand-alone app. That said, there's no way I could match the functionality of Home Inventory or Collections in such a short time.

There is also a Home Inventory section in some versions of Quicken.

A friend of mine went home for Christmas during college. While she was there she took a video camera and walked around her parents' new home filming every room so she could show her friends. A couple months later the house was destroyed in a fire. Her parents were shocked when she produced a video that basically worked like a video inventory of the house.

And thank you for the reminder that this is something that I need to update over Christmas vacation.
 
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C

Cubytus

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2007
1,436
18
ejb190 said:
I could probably put something together in FileMaker in a matter of hours. Having FM Pro Developer, I could even make it a stand-alone app. That said, there's no way I could match the functionality of Home Inventory or Collections in such a short time.

There is also a Home Inventory section in some versions of Quicken.

A friend of mine went home for Christmas during college. While she was there she took a video camera and walked around her parents' new home filming every room so she could show her friends. A couple months later the house was destroyed in a fire. Her parents were shocked when she produced a video that basically worked like a video inventory of the house.

And thank you for the reminder that this is something that I need to update over Christmas vacation.
Click to expand...
Some here don't get sarcasm, it seems. I don't have to spend hours just building the tool. I want to spend 2-3 hours entering stuff, no more.

I don't give a **** about Quicken, I never used it and probably won't in any near future.
--------

So, here I am with 2 applications to test. Any other?
 
ejb190

ejb190

macrumors 65816
Apr 5, 2002
1,381
286
At the intersection of Indy Cars and Amish Buggies
Cubytus said:
While you're at it, why not FileMaker?
This is not a topic to joke around. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Cubytus said:
Some here don't get sarcasm, it seems.
Click to expand...

Yah, your sarcasm was so obvious. :rolleyes:

Cubytus said:
I don't give a **** about Quicken, I never used it and probably won't in any near future.
Click to expand...

If you happened to use Quicken, it hits two out of three of your criteria from your first post. While this might be your thread, you don't need to get huffy about it. This is MacRumors. Other people browse through threads and learn from the questions and answers there. What may not work for you may be the perfect option for someone else. And besides, a simple "Sorry, don't use Quicken," was all you had to say - if you needed to say anything at all.
 
C

Cubytus

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 2, 2007
1,436
18
Quicken is an accounting software first, and doesn't respect the criteria stating that it must be cheap or free ($50 doesn't qualify as "cheap"), nor the one stating it must be very easy to take in hand. I don't see the link between an accounting software and an inventory software intended to group various kind of info, missing monetary values, and following spatial distribution in the apartment. And FYI, there's no obvious place where a "home inventory" would sit in Quicken Essentials for Mac, and it's not even advertised anywhere on Intuit's page. At best, 1 out of 4 criteria is met, export to PDF.

This is not getting huffy, this is getting annoyed with out-of-topic answers that will, in the end, force other users to post yet another thread about the same topic because it wouldn't have been answered previously. Yes, I adhere to the "one user, one issue, one topic" logic.

On the other hand, I am very surprised that no one here even suggested an iOS-based inventory software, considering there are much more than on Mac, and cheaper. An augmented-reality interface would definitely ease entering new items.
 
stringent

stringent

macrumors 6502
Jan 27, 2011
295
59
London
I know this is an old thread, I started doing this (the old fashioned spreadsheet way) but looked at Home Inventory because of the iPhone helper Apps to take pics and link it to the database on the Mac. Personally, I feel better for having the database on my Mac rather than my phone as once its done I don't want it taking up space on the phone. Anyway, after trialling it, I can import my spreadsheet (as a CSV) and map to fields, and even create custom ones so they all fit.

One thing I have noticed, I can't change the currency symbol. Being in the UK the $ is a bit off putting, other than that so far it seems good.
 
rhett7660

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,221
4,297
Sunny, Southern California
stringent said:
I know this is an old thread, I started doing this (the old fashioned spreadsheet way) but looked at Home Inventory because of the iPhone helper Apps to take pics and link it to the database on the Mac. Personally, I feel better for having the database on my Mac rather than my phone as once its done I don't want it taking up space on the phone. Anyway, after trialling it, I can import my spreadsheet (as a CSV) and map to fields, and even create custom ones so they all fit.

One thing I have noticed, I can't change the currency symbol. Being in the UK the $ is a bit off putting, other than that so far it seems good.
Click to expand...

So you are using the app Home Inventory? If so are you so pleased with it?
 
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