Shop Management Programs

[JBLUE]

I am looking to go with a shop management program for invoicing and quoting. What are you guys using and why? I have my own system and I use Quickbooks but I am looking for something that is more user friendly. Any suggestions? Thanks

[blue moon]

same boat here, but I realize that we will end with shopworx further down the road. Which software is the easiest to convert to SW?

[alan802]

I don't know the answer to your question Pierre, but we do have shopworks and have had it for at least 10 years now.  I've said this a few times already so I'm not as embarrassed as I used to be, but we don't use the program to it's potential and there is a lot for me to learn with it.  I don't do much on the paperwork side of the business but I have sniffed around shopworks for a few hours and have some of the basics learned but it seems like it is an amazing tool that we could benefit from much more than we do.  Now I would also say it's not as user friendly as it could be, I would say that it was easier for me to figure out than the Wilflex Ink Management Software but that's not saying much.  I don't quite know why I struggled with the Wilflex IMS but I still think there is a serious software glitch in the version I downloaded from Wilflex's site.  It crashes all the time if I click a wrong tab or when I try to type something in a value or dialog box.

I guess there is a comparable program out there but I've never heard or seen anyone talk about it, so I assume it's the best out there?

[ZooCity]

Would an industry-specific system help all that much?  From the one's I've seen I could see where we would save a little data entry time possibly and I liked the database elements of some but that's about it. 

I worked out a skeletal management system using the features of our web-based accounting program, saasu.  The program has an "activities" function and I created a set of them based around the custom printing workflow.  When an quote turns live, you manually add the activities and their due dates and can attach files to them, track and sort them, etc.  So far it's done a pretty good job and isn't too god-awful laborious. It could be taken further, and I will, but to get it really humming you would need a skilled api and coding person. I dream, for example, of integrating the activity dates to a google calender for print production where you could bring up "ready for pickup" dates for jobs on one calendar, "on-press" dates on another, etc. 

Search this forum for this topic, or maybe it was accounting/invoicing, there was a lot of feedback on that thread if I remember.  I think someone posted up about doing something like the above with quickbooks. 

I've looked at Shopworks and whoever built those interlocking systems had the same general concepts in mind that I do.  It looks powerful indeed.  I saw a screen shot of a job costing report you can run that shows you stats on a job, margins, etc. and that hd me drooling a little. Cost is epic for a smaller operation though and, more importantly to me, it's not web-based.  But then again none of them are.  Unless there's some way to put that networked system online, I'm not interested. Maybe there is though and I'm just a dumbass about traditional IT stuff.  Print production is in a different locale than our retail front and we have a very small staff so having access to even the basic system I built up from anywhere beats a more intricate one that you can only get to at that location.  I think "cloud" systems are the way to go with this and there's plenty of outfits that will build custom cloud platforms that integrate a bunch of different software as services.

[tonypep]

As an FYI Fast Manager is almost identical to Shopworks at least in theory. Don't know the cost differential. Can be overkill for some.
tp

[shirtz]

We have used Pricelist Professional from SMR software for the last 10 plus years. It's inexpensive and helps to be organized.
They are working on a new version that will be out soon.

[Teecal]

Take a look at Teecal. We just released a new version last month. If you have any questions feel free to contact us. www.teecal.com

[JBLUE]

Is it compatible with Macs?

[Teecal]

Sorry, but at this time it is only PC....

[blue moon]

Sorry, but at this time it is only PC....

I spent a little bit of time on the site (watched few videos) and I would like to give it a try. The big question is going to be, will it actually be time efficient? It just seems like there is a lot to enter. . .

Would you mind posting something in the introduction section or start another post here and give us an overview? Yes, I realize all of this is on your web site, but there is a lot of info and it seems to be version 1.0 in the videos. So if you start a post, we can ask questions and get it straight from the horses mouth!

My first question is: how well is it suited for contract only printers?

[inkbrigade]

Until some thing good that works in the cloud comes out we use fastmanager. It's windows only. So we have it installed on a windows machine at the shop. We connect to it via VNC remotely from our macs. When were at home and needing access we use VPN into the shop and then use VNC.

Sorry for all the acronyms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network