Independent Review - BA for Cavies
The following review of Breeders Assistant for Cavies (version 3) was published on the St Austell & District Cavy Club website. It was written by Jennie Wright, Club Secretary. It is reproduced here with her kind permission.
Breeders Assistant Cavy Software
I have been testing the Breeders Assistant software for Cavies by Tenset for the last few weeks. The software was obtained by ordering a trial CD from Tenset via their website. You can also download the trial version direct from the website. This program can hold all your records, such as cavies, pedigree, accounts, contacts, trial matings vaccination records etc. The program is easy to install, I had no problems at all. When you open it, you get the option of a quick tour of feature s for the more competent among us, or the full tutorial, if you are a novice with computers and databases then this is for you. If you have some knowledge then you can dive in and work out how to add data yourself. I chose to print out the tutorial and use it as a reference manual as I was impatient to get started. This program is specifically for Cavies but bear in mind that the software is not only for cavies but for a variety of animals but mostly geared towards dogs.
The hard work, as with all new programs, is entering the data but once on at a touch of button you can find all the information that you are likely to need. When entering a new cavy the details are entered onto a form, some fields are not relevant for cavies e.g. Registration but as with all databases you can use just the fields that you are interested in and ignore the others. When basic details are entered on the cavy record form you can then add ancestors here, as in other parts of this program from existing records or select the add new option to add a new cavy. This information creates a pedigree form. The cavy record can also hold health details, date of death, details of sale, picture of the cavy, notes and user fields that you can define yourself. So far I havent used these extra ones as I have all the fields that I need but this may change in the future as I decide what other features that I would like out of the program.
The trial matings feature is useful as it puts up a pedigree of the prodigy from your trial mating and shows up whether the relationships between the trail pair are too close etc. The mating form records all the details from the mating period, date of birth, number still born, number live, number died subsequently and as before, extra fields to define yourself if you so require. The show records module again is straight forward to use. I havent as yet used the vaccination record but thought that I would use it to record dates of ivomectin doses. The appointments module can be used for show dates, vet appointments etc.
I was most impressed with the reports and search facility and the trial mating has been most useful. The program allows you to search the individual modules on a variety of options, e.g. all abys born prior to 01/01/01 not only can you search but you can also search and tag to select records, enabling you to print reports e.g. to print a list of club secretaries or all cavies that littered prior to 15/06/01. The pedigree and other forms can all be customised by yourself to display your own logo. I have managed to design my own pedigree with my own logo but not quite sure how I did it! This is the part of the program I have not yet fully mastered, I need to spend some more time reading the tutorial as it is not easily obvious how to do it, well not to me any way!
Overall my impressions of this program are that once you have done the hard work of entering the data, your contacts, show records etc you can gain a lot of useful information and statistics about your stud very quickly including how much you are spending on it!!! The accounts module deserves a mention as it quite comprehensive, working similar to most simple accounts packages it offers expense codes for easy cost reporting and it can handle VAT should your stud have such a large turnover to require registration or maybe you breed cavies for your own pet shop?? (You could always skip the accounts module if this is classified info from the other half!!) The accounts is very straight forward to use it can be used in standard mode or tax calculating mode I chose standard mode as it is a hobby and I do not need to work out my VAT. Again it is a question of data entry and the program does the work, although I did find one minor gripe in that the program allows the invoice paid dateto be prior to the invoice date.
It is a very comprehensive program and you need not use all the modules on offer, just as many as will provide the detail that you need. Once the data is on it is a very easy job updating it. As my memory is not to hot these days I run an index card box that travels up and down from the shed so I can jot down descriptions and birth details etc ready to enter on the computer at my leisure.
As I said at the beginning this report it is a result of just a few weeks use I sure that with more time I will find more features to make use of, for instance the Importand Exportof date looks very well catered for although I have not even tried it out yet and the diary recording of appointments etc. looks very efficient. If you are a whizz with Microsoft Access you could probably recreate a lot of this data base but that would be even more time consuming as, as well as the designing you still have the data to enter! So you would need to be patient!
I certainly intend to continue using this program, I am just pondering the uses that I can find for the HTML code that is available for pedigrees and other documents. I will be able to view them on my Internet browser, I can publish pedigrees on to a web site. Web integration has been fully considered in this program, you can also store web sites addresses for your contacts and access their sites directly from this program for ordering etc. There is also a "Genetics" option that can be bought as an additional item, if it is up to the standard of this program then it should be worthwhile. The comprehensiveness of this program is reflected in its price, see the website for current pricing, as I have said it will hold all your information in one place, perhaps the only software you may need to use and if you do decide to buy this program that holds so much information, then remember, Back it up Regularly!
Copyright © Jennie Wright 2001
