raw materials

I may have mentioned before that we are using MYOB AccountEdge to do our bookkeeping. They are on the cusp of releasing information on their next version, as they kept reminding us when trying to sell us the support plan that would get us a free upgrade.

Because a new version of QuickBooks for Mac was just released, I decided to download the free trial and make sure we didn’t want to switch before signing up for the support contract. The new version of QuickBooks looks pretty good — a lot more Mac-like than AccountEdge, for sure. The showstopper was reading about their support plans, though — the software cost is lower than AccountEdge, but the difference in price on the annual support plan bridges the gap, and doesn’t include software upgrades.

So while I wish that AccountEdge were better, there didn’t seem to be much about QuickBooks that made me want to make the leap. If I had any sort of spare time to speak of, I would probably try to whip up something that did the minimal accounting we need. The integration between AccountEdge and Checkout has turned out to be rather minimal, and there is a ton of stuff in AccountEdge that we just don’t need and mostly gets in the way. For example, there’s a lot of workflow for printing invoices and bills and checks and so forth, none of which we use at all.

If you have been following our Twitter updates, you may have noticed that we have been getting in a number of magazines. There aren’t a lot of distributors for magazines, and particularly the sorts of fine-art magazines we’re trying to carry. Today we learned that one of them, Ubiquity Distributors, won’t even deal with us because we won’t be bringing in enough titles that they carry. So here we are, a small, independent art supplies store who can only get Ingram Periodicals, pretty much the biggest magazine distributor, to let us buy magazines.

Unfortunately, Ingram doesn’t carry every magazine we wanted to carry, so we’re having to get in touch with some of those magazines to either get them directly, or encourage them to let Ingram carry them.

Our 50% off canvas sale continues, we’re bringing in more eco-friendly, “green” options in art supplies, and we’re establishing everyday low prices on a variety of art essentials:

• Golden and Liquitex acrylics at 20% off
• Gamblin oils at 20% off
• Graham oil, watercolor & gouache at 40% off
• Strathmore pads and sketch books at 20% off
• Canson pads and papers at 15-25% off (plus a $2 mail-in rebate on select pads)
• MABEF easels at 40% off

We’ve expanded our store hours. Our new hours are:
Monday-Friday 10am – 7pm; Saturday 11am – 5pm

As one of the sponsors of the Downtown Art Walk, we will be open until 9:30pm every second Thursday of the month to accommodate downtown art walkers. We’ve started implementing some of our sale pricing in advance of this Thursday’s Art Walk – Strathmore pads are 20% off! Also, you asked for it and now we have it – books and magazines are in! We have Artforum, Modern Painters, Art in America, Wallpaper, and more.

We are still setting up shelves and awaiting delivery of more inventory from our distributors, but we’ve had lots of new stuff come in the past few weeks. The store is filling up nicely as we gear up for our Big Grand Opening in November, but more on that later. If you haven’t been in lately, stop by, check out our progress, and give us your feedback (or just say hello).

Raw Materials is participating in a global artist trading card swap – express yourself in a small format and promote yourself in a big way! Create your own holiday or winter-themed trading card and in exchange, you will receive an original piece of art from another artist somewhere around the world. We have trading cards, entry forms and information at the store. Read more about artist trading cards and The Great Holiday Swap on the Strathmore website.