Production Software Help

[tonyt79]

We are trying to decide on a good software for our shop. I would like something that will invoice,  track orderes,profit,and even exspencises so that i can maybe get rid of quickbooks and do everything in one place.

We are a small shop what recomindations do you have on workflow software?

What are pros and cons to your favorite software ?

[Frog]

Have you browsed the threads in this section?
Just a quick glance shows folks discussing T-Quoter, Printavo, T-Works, T-Boss, and Shop Worx

[tonyt79]

Yeah I was reading on there today, saw a lot of it was kinda old so figured they all had probably changed some

[Gilligan]

Not sure I'd ditch QB completely.  And I HATE... HATE QB and their business model(s)!

There are alternatives but I'd recommend something for the books that a CPA is more familiar with.

[TCT]

I could be wrong here and someone that uses it will know for sure, but I think Shopworx can do everything you want so Quickbooks can be a thing of the past. Not cheap though.

[mk162]

Yeah, here is my issue with ShopWorx...

Payroll for us comes in an iif file to import into QB, our payroll service does this for us.

Our CPA logs into QB and preps our books.  He moves things around to help with writeoffs and such.

Shopworx is killer though.

I have been emailing with the t-quoter folks and it seems they have virtually zero plans to upgrade the software.  we are shopping a new system as well.

[TCT]

We run PriceIt and have for years. I like it and we probably don't use half of what it can do, Shopworx really seems sweet and I don't think I have heard one complaint about it program related. It just seems like such a drastic difference between other options out there. You can have $30/month, $60/month, $100/month and then it jumps WAY up to like $450/month(my numbers are probably off, those are just rough numbers off the top of my head). I would love to have something a bit more capable than PriceIt, but a bit less extreme than Shopworx.

[mk162]

the problem is I always feel like I am picking the lessor of the evils with these programs.

Honestly, back in 2006 when we bought t-quoter, it was really headed in the right direction...but it hasn't changed much since then and I don't pay anything for support since I make my own pricelists and handle all my own tech support crap.

[tonyt79]

the problem is I always feel like I am picking the lessor of the evils with these programs.

This is how I feel based off of just shopping around. I have started a trial of Printavo. I do like the way it is set up. The calender with the colors based on status of the jobs is a nice reminder of what needs to be done. One thing I do not like is that quotes can be sent and approved by email(which is great) but it takes the customer to a website to do so. Which I think could be a turn off for some folks and could even be blocked by some email set ups. I have been also reading up pn tee-cal, which looks pretty nice,

I could be crazy but here is an idea of what I am wanting a software to do. I am not a fan of 100% web based. I would like something that can sync or back up online but dont want to rely on internet to work. I also want something that will keep tabs on what stage of the flow a job is in and have notifications if something is sitting still to long. I would like somthing that can keep track of my cost on the job also, so I can see if i need to start making increases to my pricing. I am not real interested with syncing my price lists. That just seems like a headache to keep up with.

I am a very small shop with my wife and 1 plus 1 part time helper. So as it sits right now I am not needing something that can handle payroll and such. Like I said before I would like to do away with quickbooks. If that is something that is not possible, then I would like to be able to go bare bones on the quick books.

I know that is probably some rambling, but any input would be great. Thanks

[DeeSolution14]

@ mk162 &  TCT  When I was evaluating different programs I was able to complete a live demo with a sale rep from ShopWorks. I had my production manager and accountant sit in the call to fire away questions, I found this very helpful because my main concern was theses two departments. I found the single solution very detailed for the embellished industry and worth every dollar, I look at it like this if you want quality you sometimes or most likely will have to pay a little more but I look at the long haul and not just a quick fix. I have seen my return in the first quarter, you be the judge www.shopworx.com.