Ok, the quest for some software to make life easie continues... When I was selling only software I didn't keep any detailed customer records. All orders records contained only the person's name and email address and were handled via email and tracked on PayPal's site. I did dump duplicate information and licensing data into a database on my server for future use.

Now that hardware is also being sold and a new shopping cart put in place, I'm storing more customer data such as address and phone number. I also have to have a more detailed order record and a way to know what to pack and when it should be shipped. Again, everything is being stored into a DB on the server. SKU/item information is also stored in a database.

The shopping system is completely custom and so is the database format - which can be changed/altered.

I'm now looking for a good program to let me look at my orders and manage everything.

Ideally... We need a UI that talks to a custom SQL DB.. so we have to be able to tell it the table structures and how the tables inter-relate and tell the program how to lay out the fields. The program should then let us add/delete/edit the records, run reports, etc.

Using PHPmyAdmin is not pretty and getting to be a right pain in the butt. That can be used to continue to make structural changes to the DB, but it's hardly an interface for browsing/reporting.

I'm trying to stay away from writing or having someething written from scratch. That would put a significant drain on the resources needed to contunue developing the projects we actually intend to market.

Any advice, info or suggestions?