Most reliable shop mgmt program?

[Parker 1]

if another system could import all of t-quoter's information, they would make a mint taking their customers away.

We started using TeeCal this year, and I think all of our customers where imported from Tquoter.

[ZooCity]

Well, we made it out of T-Boss finally, just need to export the outstanding estimates.  We've been locked out for a week, save for one browser tab on my workstation that we have kept open and have been taking shifts on it manually exporting all our data. That was one of the worst possible things to happen right now (we move in three days).  I'll have to get in touch with the T-Boss guy and get his address so I can fly there and punch him in the mouth.  Be careful who you trust with your information folks and always back it up regularly outside of any program.

***
I just set our Printavo account up, seems like it will be the smoothest transition for our clients who are now used to approving online links. Nobody else has this option right now and they look pretty good.

Those of you using Printavo or a similar program that is more of a client interface and has no actual pricing abilities, what are you using to generate pricing?  Just manually adding it up and sticking it in there? All I really need is something to give me a snapshot of the margin on jobs.  My pricing is dialed pretty well but I get freaked out when I'm sending out estimates and don't know the margin on the job.  I could probably just build a fancy spreadsheet.

I'm considering using two programs- one to price with, one to interface with the client.  Then Google Docs for work orders.  All the work orders I've seen so far are junk and I'm tired of my guys having to deal with that. 

All of this will probably be temporary until we can get into Shopworx or have something built.  The other programs I checked out were really disappointing.  I'm leaning toward hiring someone to build us something clean and simple.

[mimosatexas]

I tried Printavo a few months ago, but it didnt really do much in my opinion.  I know there was just a big update, and I also know I didnt really explore it much, so take that statement for what it is..

Honestly, right now I am just using quickbooks for everything.  It has fairly robust customer management, and invoicing, and integrates with the bank.  The invoicing customization is a bit lacking, and it doesn't automate pricing by querying sanmar etc, but once you setup your own line items you can pump out estimates fairly quickly and clients can view the invoice, proof art, and even pay all online.

[gtmfg]

Second week of us using printavo. The update really didn't do much to improve what is there. We are still writing every order to paper po's and every po still gets a manual production sheet, can't see getting away from paper since there is no way to back up files with this system. The San Mar/ Broder pc. that he has on there is quite useless in my opinion, maybe if we could import our pricing from them and set a standard margin.
  So even after the update we're still only using it for scheduling and viewing from all work stations. I like the fact that as it goes through the order pipeline you can set it to email the next person directly. ie  Shipping and receiving checks in the product and clicks on the pre press button - the pre press dept automatically gets and email saying this job is here and is ready to be produced. We kinda use to do this with google calendar but printavo works much more streamline.
 

[TCT]

We tried Printavo a while ago. The owner is extremely helpful and responsive. Printavo has great features and I love that it is web based. It is lacking the pricing/quote feature that is a must for us. We use PriceIt like I have said before I like it a lot, but if there was somehow the two could become one like a PriceTavo. It would handle 95% of everything I would love to have in a program.

A few other options I would love to have in a system is
-barcoded inventory
-quick individual box packing lists
-option where every step could be "tagged" with a employees initials or something so we know exactly who did what.

Suppose I can wish in one hand... as the saying goes:D

[head north]

...but if there was somehow the two could become one like a PriceTavo. It would handle 95% of everything I would love to have in a program.

PriceTavo is exactly what I want too.  I love the web based features of Printavo - being able to approve art online, paying invoices through email, etc.   We use PriceIt because we needed a little extra but I would really love those features.

[Ron Pierson]

Hi to all.

I have been watching this thread and i feel all you'r pain. I had the same situation... Our solution was Shopworks. Now, I know it is massively expensive in compairison to these "other guys" but, from what I'm reading, it HAS SOLVED all these issues. It makes sense to only purchase these management programs once a lifetime.  I'm not bagging on these other programs, I ran all of them through their trials before we made our decisions. It was a long trial and worth the effort in research. Why screw around with something that is only half there, in development, has low support, or all these other issues that you all fight with.

We have 28 users, 34 PC's, 70 employees, 2 shifts and 2 buildings. Sure, the price was large for us but smaller operations won't need this kind of exposure or cost. Shopworks is scalable to use and is complete without having to purchase extra modules. Their support is real good - sure, you may have to wait for a call but is minutes or hours rather than days. In a dire emergency, you get right through, we had ONE since purchase 2 years ago (our fault - server issue). Most calls are..."how do I...?" and those solutions are simple. Shopworks can be set up for how YOU run YOUR business, not the other way around. Thier upgrades are well thought out and well timed for delivery as well. The developers were printers, embroiders, ad spec guys (all in one shop).....

I do not work for them, nor will I get a commission for this comment.

[tonypep]

Agreed

[ZooCity]

We may well go Shopworx, just no time to implement this month.  I spoke with them and it sounds like we could be up and running with it in around a week but we just don't have it right now.  Ron, thanks for that input, it's feedback like that that helps me a lot.  I don't think $7k is much for such a time and error saving item like a mgmt system but I do wonder what someone could build us for that sort of pay at the same time.

All of yinz who are manually pricing into something like Printavo, do you have recommendations on a spreadsheet or simple data base type of deal where you can upload tables of company products and set a few markup fields, etc.?  I'd really prefer to buy a simple quoting module to get us through these next 4 months or so but can't seem to find one.

[Flash Ink]

Just got two emails back to back from our friend over at T-Boss wanting us back in a general way. What a joke, he cant even send emails correctly.

[ericheartsu]

I've been looking at runmyshop.com

waiting to hear back from them

[Get Shirts]

I tried Printavo a few months ago, but it didnt really do much in my opinion.  I know there was just a big update, and I also know I didnt really explore it much, so take that statement for what it is..

Honestly, right now I am just using quickbooks for everything.  It has fairly robust customer management, and invoicing, and integrates with the bank.  The invoicing customization is a bit lacking, and it doesn't automate pricing by querying sanmar etc, but once you setup your own line items you can pump out estimates fairly quickly and clients can view the invoice, proof art, and even pay all online.

To can proof online via quickbooks?

[3Deep]

guess I'm joining the party here, the upgrade to 8.1 has tossed our T program into a tail spin, I'm now looking for something new....what a pain this is

Darryl

[mk162]

darryl, can you run it in compatibility mode?

[3Deep]

Brad I really don't know win 8.1 it is very new to me and some of our old stuff is catching hell trying to get it to work on win 8.1.  Right I think we might be looking at getting a new invoicing system to avoid future problems.

Darryl