Specific Shop Management needs

[Stinkhorn Press]

We need to find a shop management program before year end. If you are a vendor DO feel free to sell me, contact me.

I have NOT looked at all the offerings, I'm going to lay out what I need, want, and don't need and see who can recommend (or recommend against) any particular product. Feel free to PM if you don't want to step on toes.

DO NOT NEED:
pricing help: i have a homemade spreadsheet, it's more complicated than a price matrix, i have my doubts that my system can be built into any existing shop software as it now sits.
scheduling help: we do this on a big, physical board, pretty much a IRL version of the digital ones. i'm not shrinking it to a screen.
releasing approval at each stage of the job: we do this physically as well. (it's mostly on the schedule board)

I DO NEED:
I want to enter orders (estimates etc) ONCE and have them populate everything needed - production sheets, invoices, customer/job notes.
NEED to have robust reporting possible, by time frame, comparisons, cost analysis, throughput... it doesn't need to have perfect reporting IF the info is available to be entered in the right spot and exported to other report-making functions.

Pluses, but not needed: play nice with QB (desktop not online!) when setup right
play nice with major wholesalers (translate an order over to a wholesaler, is that possible?)

Mainly I want: a very usable production sheet for jobs, a way to enter jobs one time and populate everything needed, and the ability to produce robust reports.
That's what we need right now. Pretty simple. Of course in the future we'll want other controls. Cost is of a concern, but NOT my greatest concern.
1 auto 1 manual shop. 5 employees. 12-15 screens per day.

I know almost NOTHING about the possible options and varieties of management programs so please treat me like I'm 5 when explaining things, thanks!

[ericheartsu]

as far as I can tell, none of the software out there autopopulates all the info you want. Shopworx might, but even that is very very very detailed in terms of info you need to put in, to even get there.

[Stinkhorn Press]

as far as I can tell, none of the software out there autopopulates all the info you want. Shopworx might, but even that is very very very detailed in terms of info you need to put in, to even get there.

I'm assuming you're anticipating something more than I mean:
previously entered customer? all their info is there (and any customer level notes)
when the order is placed, the garment/breakdown (we enter) is populated on the production sheet. that's all. enter pertinent info ONCE and have it go to places it will be useful.
I'm assuming this is a very basic function for pretty much any shop software?

[KevinO]

You should really check out Shopworx, it isn't as fancy looking as some of the web based brands but it is a very powerful tool and you can really drill into some data! We ditched Quickbooks all together and use the in software accounting system. Once again it's not a fancy as Quickbooks, but it is very utilitarian.

[Dragonfly]

Priceitsoftware.com   I have been using it for years and feel I made a good decision.

[ericheartsu]

as far as I can tell, none of the software out there autopopulates all the info you want. Shopworx might, but even that is very very very detailed in terms of info you need to put in, to even get there.

I'm assuming you're anticipating something more than I mean:
previously entered customer? all their info is there (and any customer level notes)
when the order is placed, the garment/breakdown (we enter) is populated on the production sheet. that's all. enter pertinent info ONCE and have it go to places it will be useful.
I'm assuming this is a very basic function for pretty much any shop software?

Most software will be able to track customers, and their notes. However some don't offer to much in terms of the notes you can put down.
Your comment about wanting all pertinent info going to multiple places is something i've been lusting after for years.

 It's almost there in Printavo.

Stokkup has a system that works, but it's still very much under development.

Arrow keeps saying it's coming, but i haven't heard anything for a bit.

[Stinkhorn Press]

We run QuickBooks now.
I use it in my office to keep my books, run payroll, pay loans, enter/pay bills, etc. Desktop version. For my accounting needs, I don't see that I'd ever get rid of it - I assume shop management software doesn't do most of that.

We ALSO run a semi-dummy QuickBooks at the front desk. It's used to create estimates, invoices, keep track of receivables, customer notes, etc.
I want ALL the (limited) functionality of how we run QB at the front to be taken over by a management program, plus plus plus.

[RICK STEFANICK]

Here at Image Branding Group they use Impress.

[Stinkhorn Press]

Oh man, this is trickier than I thought.

Shopworx is ugly commands a steep learning curve, but it being so old, it's added so much usability and quite a few bigger dogs swear by it. Almost to the point that if you're of a certain million dollar plus, more than 4 autos shop - it's that or custom made stuff.

Printavo is beautiful compared to everything else out there, and adding functionality all the time, but we're ANTI-cloud based here.
TeeCal seems to be Shopworx baby brother. Ugly, functional, not even in the same universe price-wise. I wasn't super impressed when Pierre and Ross walked me through some of how they use it, but I wasn't aware just how not-great the competition that existed was.
Impress, Cyrious, PriceIt all have their advocates.

We use QuickBooks for invoice/estimate/pdfs to email/AR and AP/payroll!!/taxes/loans/bank account/reporting.
It's not great at invoicing (or we haven't learned it well enough maybe) in that it can't reference wholesaler garment options (prices). It doesn't help create a usable production sheet from that invoice. It's not super good at reporting (but everything but Shopworx seems to be in that same boat). It's fantastic for payable, receivables, keeping record of financial accounts, running payroll and making my accountant happy. Looks like we'll be stuck keeping it (and it's cost - $500 a year for payroll, update costs every 2 years to stay current) UNLESS we go Shopworx and squeeze everything we can out of it's accounting end.

Leaning towards TeeCal and MOSTLY using the estimate/invoice/production sheet creation bits to start, relieving QB of those duties.

[tonypep]

Impress would be at the bottom of my list

[aauusa]

We use QuickBooks for invoice/estimate/pdfs to email/AR and AP/payroll!!/taxes/loans/bank account/reporting.
It's not great at invoicing (or we haven't learned it well enough maybe) in that it can't reference wholesaler garment options (prices). It doesn't help create a usable production sheet from that invoice. It's not super good at reporting (but everything but Shopworx seems to be in that same boat). It's fantastic for payable, receivables, keeping record of financial accounts, running payroll and making my accountant happy. Looks like we'll be stuck keeping it (and it's cost - $500 a year for payroll, update costs every 2 years to stay current) UNLESS we go Shopworx and squeeze everything we can out of it's accounting end.

we use QB as well(desktop).   for production work sheets, we have a special template that we use with 1 click from an invoice.  so if everything is inputted on the invoice correctly, sizes, colors, garment etc then it makes the  worksheet from the invoice minus anything you do not want to include (prices etc.)   draw back it does not allow you to place artwork(art mock with pictures of color and placement) on the worksheet but you can however attach customer artwork to a specific invoice or to the customer profile for easy retrieval when a repeat order is done.

[Stinkhorn Press]

Impress would be at the bottom of my list

care to expand on that, as to why? thanks

[Stinkhorn Press]

we use QB as well(desktop).   for production work sheets, we have a special template that we use with 1 click from an invoice.  so if everything is inputted on the invoice correctly, sizes, colors, garment etc then it makes the  worksheet from the invoice minus anything you do not want to include (prices etc.)   draw back it does not allow you to place artwork(art mock with pictures of color and placement) on the worksheet but you can however attach customer artwork to a specific invoice or to the customer profile for easy retrieval when a repeat order is done.

that would get us halfway there (with only a little bit of repeat efforts) PM'ed!

[tonypep]

Impress would be at the bottom of my list

care to expand on that, as to why? thanks

Too rigid and inflexible. It was designed for apparel manufactures originally and tweaked for decorators. Worst I've ever used. Pretty unwilling to modify and update

[RICK STEFANICK]

Seems to be working  pretty well here. They process 150-400 orders a month. I know they have made a lot of improvements.