Contact Information
3
Reviewer Notes
3
System Requirements
3
Other Available Resources and Links
3
Home Inventory Overview
4
Accolades
4
What makes Home Inventory Unique?
6
Common Uses for Home Inventory
7
Customer Stories
8
What’s New in Home Inventory 3.3? - January 2015
10
Contact Information
Diane Hamilton, Managing Partner [email protected] [email protected] Our Website: http://MacHomeInventory.com http://BinaryFormations.com Our Blog: http://BinaryFormations.com/blog/ Company Overview: http://BinaryFormations.com/company/about Find us on Facebook, Twitter.
Reviewer Notes
• Screenshots and icons are available in our Home Inventory 3 Media Kit. • Home Inventory is available on the Mac App Store for $19.99.
• Home Inventory 3.3 is a free upgrade for existing users.
• A promo key is available upon request and will expire if not redeemed within 4 weeks of issue. Email [email protected] for a promo key.
• iOS helper apps, Home Inventory Remote Entry and Home Inventory Mobile Backup, are available for FREE through the App Store.
System Requirements
• Mac OS X 10.7.4 or later
• Optional helper apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad require iOS 7.0 or later
Home Inventory Overview
Home Inventory provides a quick, easy, and accurate way to document and organize your possessions to get organized, track collections, and for insurance purposes in case of the unexpected.
This includes basic information about the items in your home, such as an item’s serial number and purchase price, as well as photos, receipts, and warranty information. You can even keep detailed, dated notes about your items and attach files, such as product manuals.
Home Inventory allows you to capture important information, categorize it, and store it all in one place for safekeeping and reference.
Use the iOS helper apps that scan barcodes, add and edit items and photos and view your inventory on the go streamlining the workflow of maintaining an inventory.
Accolades
Home Inventory is named Editors' Choice, a Mac App Store Best of 2013, a number one pick in New and Noteworthy twice, a top banner feature, picked as Staff Favorite and What's Hot multiple times, and included in the New Year New
You, Get Stuff Done, and Better Together group features. Apple - Mac App Store
"Quick and easy to use"
Farhad Manjoo – New York Times
"easy to use and great for someone who wants to make an inventory but isn't sure how to get started."
Lifehacker
“There are few Mac apps that cost about the same as two trips to Starbucks that could, in turn, be worth many tens of thousands of dollars to you, but Home
Inventory fits onto that small list.”
Alexis Kayhill, mac360.com
“Home Inventory goes beyond a simple inventory.” Name Best Home Inventory Mac App by BestMacApps.com
“Without a doubt. Best product in its class.”
Endorsed by the Inventory Institute: Inventory Institute
What makes Home Inventory Unique?
• Home Inventory’s focus is on being the best general-purpose home inventory
management system available. The feature set is robust and mature with full support for the three core purposes of keeping an inventory: organization, managing
collections, and for insurance purposes. The product was introduced in 2005 and has been continually improved upon.
• Use of iOS mobile devices acting as a helper app to Home Inventory on the Mac to ensure the experience of maintaining an inventory is as quick and as easy as possible and that your inventory is always available and with you wherever you go.
• Home Inventory Remote Entry provides remote data entry allowing you to wander your home or offsite storage units, adding items and photos from the convenience of your iOS device. It also includes a built-in barcode scanner so you can add books, CDs, DVDs and other items with UPC, EAN, and ISBN barcodes to your home inventory simply by “scanning” the barcode with the camera on your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, saving time and unchaining you from having to enter everything in front of your computer.
• Home Inventory Mobile Backup backs up your data to your iOS device over Wi-Fi, via Dropbox, or through iTunes and ensures your inventory is always
backed up and available for safekeeping and viewing on the go.
• The ability to add custom fields, customize field layouts, and customize reporting in addition to ‘out of the box’ intuitive functionality ensures that Home Inventory meets a wide range of needs with ease and efficiency.
• Robust insurance features ensure our customers are properly insured for property loss in case of theft or damage.
• Takes into consideration category limits and warns you when your coverage is not adequate.
• Features help make the claims process smooth and timely and ensure nothing is unaccounted for.
• Integration with Calendar and Reminders for your maintenance schedule means routine tasks is never forgotten.
• The database is file based so it is stored separate from the app and can be kept local to your Mac or in the cloud using a free sync service such as Dropbox. An unlimited number of files can be created.
Common Uses for Home Inventory
To get organized: Home Inventory will let you store all the information about your possessions, including unlimited photos, receipts, warranty information, product manuals, and notes, electronically all in one place. Imagine being able to get rid of the clutter these things create! With Home Inventory, all the information is accessible instantly, whether it’s to check the warranty for the broken washing machine or to get a list of your possessions to prepare for a move or a garage sale. There are endless ways you can make use of the information Home Inventory can store.
For peace of mind: Having an inventory is a necessity because sometimes the
unexpected does happen. Theft, fire, and destructive weather: all of these can turn your life upside down with little to no warning. Personal property insurance is only part of the picture for protecting your financial well-being. When filing a claim, a list of items is required. An up-to-date home inventory ensures this list is always available and provides proof of possession and condition, which is often required. A good home inventory can speed up the claims process and help ensure a fair price is paid. A good home inventory will make sure you are not under-insured or over-insured.
To manage collections: Home Inventory provides the ability to track items as a
collection. Whether tracking baseball cards, stamps, guns, kaleidoscopes or something totally different, Home Inventory can store information about the collection as a whole as well as the individual items.
• Track the value of individual items as well as the entire collection, which can often times be more than the sum of the individual items (a complete set of baseball cards for a given team or an entire comic book series).
• Keep important documents, such as receipts, photos, and appraisals, for proper valuation or in the case of a claim.
Customer Stories
Our customers are putting Home Inventory to use for some pretty cool things. The following are stories direct from them on how they find Home Inventory useful: Scuba Dive Trips and Travel
“Despite its name (Home Inventory), HI is mainly useful to me out of the home. I got HI specifically to help me create packing lists for dive trips, which are (as you’d guess) logistical challenges to say the least.” For the full story:
http://binaryformations.com/blog/?p=522
Moving an elderly parent
“...The thought of a move after being in the same home for over 20+ years can be pretty overwhelming… so we needed to come up with a plan to make the move as stress free as possible for our mother without taking over the decision making...” For the full story: http://binaryformations.com/blog/?p=499
Valuations and Personal Property Insurance
“...I have been meaning to call our insurance agent for a long time to make sure the [guitar] collection is sufficiently covered in case of unforeseen circumstances… Here is where the most productive 5 minutes in a long time come in thanks to Home Inventory...” For the full story: http://binaryformations.com/blog/?p=486
Theft
A long time customer was the victim of theft prior to purchasing Home Inventory. A total of $30,000 in jewelry was stolen from his home. He found out during the claims process that, as typical of most polices, his policy had coverage limits for jewelry. He had a $1000 deductible and the covered value of each piece was limited to $2000, with a total coverage amount of $5000 for all jewelry. He was out a significant amount of money because he was under insured.
He contacted us when he found Home Inventory to let us know he really wished he had had it prior to the theft because of our coverage analysis feature, which can alert you when your coverage is inadequate.
Theft
other items that were missing. Later, my insurance agent wanted to see the final police report and spend more time going over the list with me. I was able to discuss values with her because I had the data, pictures, i.e. the damaged screen door for the screened-in deck that was shipped thru Lowe's from Florida because they had
aluminum doors with only screens in Florida not with storm glass included like at our PA stores. Again, item numbers, price, etc. added to my credibility. I imagine agents face all kinds of issues with truth in reporting. My new HDTV was their prize - (I told the police that I have 3 still-working TVs 25+ years old that I would have paid them to take -- after looking at their faces, I also had to tell them that I was just kidding.)”
Damage to equipment under warranty
“I also recently used HI when the plumber was fixing something in the basement and spotted the water softener. He said it was ready to 'go' and it wouldn't be long until I had water all over the floor. It still 'looked' pretty good to me. After he left I checked HI and found that it was still under warranty for a month or two. Strange how that happens. Lucky break for me with that plumber. I called in to the company and gave the rep all the info he needed to verify the warranty term. He gave me some info to provide back to the plumber and asked that the plumber get back to him for the final details. I paid only for labor. I don't think I would have saved that info if it weren’t part of HI -- but then again -- maybe I would. Nonetheless, it was easier for me to access everything from my digital files as opposed to lumbering thru paper files.”
Tracking possessions between homes
One of our customers moves between homes throughout the year. They like to have certain items with them based on the season. With Home Inventory, they always know where an item is and if it is not where they need it, they can arrange to have it moved ahead of them.
Tracking Cattle
Yes, that’s right. At least one customer uses Home Inventory to track their cattle
What’s New in Home Inventory 3.3? - January 2015
1. Home Inventory's user interface has been redesigned for OS X 10.10 Yosemite with changes to details both small and large including: Translucent sidebar,
Streamlined toolbars, Redesigned buttons and pop-up menus, More elegant font, Changes to color, Removal of shadows, New and refined icons, and more. 2. A brand new free helper app, Home Inventory Remote Entry, for adding items to your
inventory using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Includes an offline mode that lets you enter items, categories, collections, conditions, locations, tags, photos, and receipts when not connected to Home Inventory. This information will be added to your Home Inventory file the next time you connect to it. This app replaces the Home Inventory Remote Entry app.
3. Share item information, photos, receipts, and file attachments via email, Twitter, and elsewhere using Yosemite's share sheets (Yosemite only).
4. Rewritten built-in image editor now displays within the main application window instead of a separate window, improving workflow.
Walk-through of Key Features
Getting started is a breeze
The intuitive interface with standard locations and categories means no setup is required. You begin in the Item view and can easily switch between the other main features. The User Guide, available from the Help menu, provides a set of best practices on creating a home inventory.
Manage items Manage insurance coverage Create and run reports Maintenance schedule and property info Manage photos and receipts Navigation list
The information is presented in a way that is most beneficial to you. Quickly add items and view your inventory detail by location, category, collection, or tag all from the main view.
View by category, collection, location, or tag Sort by name, purchase date, or value Show item thumbnail, detail, or name only Toggle between item info, photos,
receipts, or attached files Categories, collections, locations, or tags Add/remove category, collection, location, or tag
Toggle between item detail and category, collection, or
Get rid of the clutter
Go paperless and store unlimited digital copies of photos, owner’s manuals, receipts, warranties, notes and other digital files. Everything for an item is available in one place and immediately accessible.
Drag and drop photos,
receipts, and files to
your items
Add photos, receipts, and files directly from your file system, iSight, or scanner
Use your mobile device to build your inventory faster
The free helper app, Home Inventory Remote Entry, allows you to edit existing items and add new items, categories, locations, and collections as well as photos and receipts to your inventory using your iPhone , iPad, or iPod touch. With it, you can wander the house and quickly build out your inventory instead of bringing the information back to your computer to enter.
You can add and edit items through Remote Entry in two different ways:
1. Add and edit items in your inventory on your Mac by connecting to Home Inventory over your home’s Wi-Fi network.
2. Add items offline when you’re away from your home’s network. Home Inventory Remote Entry will add these items to your inventory the next time you connect to Home Inventory over your home’s Wi-Fi network.
After downloading Home Inventory Remote Entry from the App Store, make sure both your mobile device and your Mac are on the same Wi-Fi network
Browse your inventory by category, collection, location, or tag. When browsing offline, you will only be able to see the items you’ve added offline and have not yet uploaded to Home Inventory.
Tap the + at the bottom of an item, category, collection, location, or tag list to add a new item, category, collection, location, or tag. Tap an item name to edit it.
When connected to Wi-Fi Home Inventory Remote Entry also features a barcode scanner so you can add books, CDs, DVDs and other items to your inventory just by scanning the UPC, EAN, or ISBN barcode, saving lots of time. Home Inventory will lookup the barcode online and automatically adds the item to your inventory.
While connected to Wi-Fi, the number to the left
of each item tells you how many photos or receipts are attached to the
item
Switch between Photos
and Receipts Barcode Scan Add
When adding or editing an item, Tap the scan button above the keyboard to scan information from a QR code, barcode, or Aztec code into the current text field. Use the < and > to toggle between fields.
While connected over Wi-Fi Home Inentory will log all activity in the Remote Entry connection window on your Mac.
Your data is always safe, secure and available
• From the file menu, you can password protect your data.
• Home Inventory is a multi-document application, so you can save your inventory file on a sync service, such as Dropbox or SugarSync so your data is automatically backed up to the cloud.
• Home Inventory’s local backup feature can be used to create a backup of your inventory to another location on your Mac’s hard drive, external hard drive, or a USB memory stick. If you use Dropbox (http://dropbox.com) you can configure the backup folder to reside in the Dropbox sync folder.
• Best of all, you can take advantage of Home Inventory Mobile Backup to backup to, restore from, and view your inventory on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Your inventory is always available remotely should you need it.
• There are three methods to backup and restore inventory files with the Home Inventory Mobile Backup app:
• Use he backup to Dropbox feature in Home Inventory and sync with Home Inventory Mobile Backup.
• Back up and restore over a Wi-Fi network. • Drag and drop files in and out of iTunes.
To backup over Wi-Fi select Home Inventory Mobile Backup from the
After downloading Home Inventory Mobile Backup on the App Store select to backup your inventory file over Wi-Fi or download the backup file from Dropbox.
To backup via Dropbox select Backup to Dropbox in the Home Inventory Backup Preferences. When prompted Select the
Dropbox root directory
Your entire inventory is safe and available on your mobile device for viewing wherever you go.
Policy information, photos, receipts and file attachments are available for viewing.
Record home details and build a maintenance schedule
Use the Home View to record your home’s stats, create a maintenance schedule and keep track of your property assessments. If you are using OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), maintenance tasks can also be added to Calendar and Reminders.
Drag and drop photo Schedule maintenance
Manage photos and receipts from one place
The album view allows you to dump multiple photos or item receipts into Home Inventory all at once and attach them to individual items at a later time. Consider it a visual in-box.
Filter options
Know whether you are adequately insured
With real-time coverage analysis and reporting you will know whether you are over-insured or under-over-insured for each item, category, or household based on the value of your items and collections.
Attach your policy for safekeeping
Customize how and what you want to track and view
With customizable fields and field layouts by category, you decide what information is important to you.
Track your collections and choose how to value them
You can value a collection based on the sum of each individual item, the collection as a whole or a combination of both. You decide the best method for each individual
collection.
Double click your collection to select
Multiple currency support and conversion
Home Inventory can automatically convert the price or value by entering the currency code and each inventory file can use a different currency. This is great for international travelers.
Use the ISO in the Price or Value field in the Item Detail Set ISO currency
Run reports to save or share
Standard reports for detail and summary item listings, coverage analysis, moving list, warranty analysis and photo sheets are provided. Custom reports let you decide what items and information to include and how the information should be displayed.
Custom Title Page
View, print, or save to PDF
Add custom reports
Custom Content
Your data is never held captive
Your data is yours and can be exported to a CSV file at any time. Home Inventory also provides import from a CSV formatted file if you are moving to Home Inventory from another product.
