Author Topic: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software  (Read 9251 times)

Offline Shanarchy

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Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« on: June 10, 2016, 03:53:43 PM »
What's available that's cloud based/can be accessed from any computer?

Printavo (I am playing with the demo now)
Shopworx (Too far out of my price range)
Ink Soft (Which I have now. Not sure if this is true shop mgmnt software though).

Anything else?


Offline ericheartsu

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2016, 07:54:36 PM »
What's available that's cloud based/can be accessed from any computer?

Printavo (I am playing with the demo now)
Shopworx (Too far out of my price range)
Ink Soft (Which I have now. Not sure if this is true shop mgmnt software though).

Anything else?

price it, is another option.

Printavo is what we use now, it's fine, but has a ton of limitations on it.
Shopworx, everyone says it's the industry standard, but i really don't like it. I also don't think their "cloud" software is anything than teamviewer on a computer they own.
Ink Soft, from what i've seen is not mgmnt software.
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Offline TCT

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2016, 08:11:56 PM »
I wouldn't consider inksoft shop mgmnt software. We use priceit, but it's not cloud based. Shopvox is another one we were browsing
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Offline Be3305

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2016, 08:50:23 PM »
We just started using Shopvox about 30 days ago and we are very happy. Free trial, cloud based file storage, awesome user interface. We are only using it for art and production right now but it looks like it has good quote/sales order/CRM functionality it if applies to you business model.

Offline Ryan

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2016, 05:12:30 PM »
Fast manager is going to the cloud....if they can finish it up. They have been saying it for well over a year now and its still not ready, but I am using that now and waiting for the change over. Worth looking into while you are looking at everything else

Offline Shanarchy

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2016, 03:38:28 PM »
Thanks guys.

So it's looking like Printavo or Shopvox would both be $100/month. Shopworks is way out of my budget, and I have a call in with FastManager to see where they are with a cloud option.

I may try to work with ink soft for a bit being that I already have it. It's definitely not shop management from what I'm seeing. But they do offer a quote option which the customer approves and can be converted to an invoice. And it looks like a calendar for scheduling. You can have it create your pricing as well, but I'm still playing with that a little more. It feels a little clunky/slow, but this is the main thing I want to be able to accomplish quick, nice looking quotes that either I, or someone else can login and create. The Printavo demo looks a lot nicer, but I was really looking to spend less than $100/month.

Offline GoWestRob

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2016, 04:49:38 PM »
If you've got some time to dial it in, we use a mashup of google sheets & google calendar, it's cloud based and totally free.  Then we do invoicing and purchase orders in Quickbooks.  Shopworkx looked amazing and has some great functionality, but overall I didn't like the interface and the price was way too high.  Our staff can check the production schedule from their phone, home, office computers and there are no limitations to number of users.  There are some things I wished was better but our system is pretty damn solid for free. 

Offline Shanarchy

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2016, 05:06:01 PM »
If you've got some time to dial it in, we use a mashup of google sheets & google calendar, it's cloud based and totally free.  Then we do invoicing and purchase orders in Quickbooks.  Shopworkx looked amazing and has some great functionality, but overall I didn't like the interface and the price was way too high.  Our staff can check the production schedule from their phone, home, office computers and there are no limitations to number of users.  There are some things I wished was better but our system is pretty damn solid for free.

How are you handling doing quotes? That's the main thing I need to better at this point.

Offline AntonySharples

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #8 on: June 13, 2016, 05:11:55 PM »
FWIW, We were on TeeCal,DecoNetwork,tried to build our own on Filemaker, Quickbooks Online, Printavo, and now we are back to TeeCal and we are not going anywhere. We wanted the cloud based option too, but none offered what we really wanted.  I like Printavo for ease of use and the quoting/invoicing, scheduling, but it lacked the production side and the catalog features that a stand alone like TeeCal offered.  You can use TeeCal and use logmein or teamviewer to use it remotely.  But really check out Tee Cal.  After sitting through a demo of Shopworx, Tee Cal is damn near identical in a lot of ways, but for $40 a month.

Offline Shanarchy

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #9 on: June 13, 2016, 05:22:39 PM »
FWIW, We were on TeeCal,DecoNetwork,tried to build our own on Filemaker, Quickbooks Online, Printavo, and now we are back to TeeCal and we are not going anywhere. We wanted the cloud based option too, but none offered what we really wanted.  I like Printavo for ease of use and the quoting/invoicing, scheduling, but it lacked the production side and the catalog features that a stand alone like TeeCal offered.  You can use TeeCal and use logmein or teamviewer to use it remotely.  But really check out Tee Cal.  After sitting through a demo of Shopworx, Tee Cal is damn near identical in a lot of ways, but for $40 a month.

Remote access could be another option I didn't think about. When I used Logmein years back, it was VERY slow and clunky. Is this still the case? I need to make this set up so someone can work off location and be able to do quoting, etc. So it wouldn't really be for emergency access, but more for day to day use. The price is where I was hoping to be.

Offline AntonySharples

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #10 on: June 13, 2016, 05:45:31 PM »
Logmein works fine.  I don't like it on the Surface just because of the smaller screen and so much going on, but as a remote user, works great.

Offline ZooCity

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #11 on: June 13, 2016, 05:59:41 PM »
I've trialed them all unfortunately and nothing stands out as an all around winner.  I really liked the back end features of TeeCal if I recall, excellent scheduling which is paramount and a massive labor saver for medium and up shops.  I couldn't swallow the PC only thing combined with the invoices that look like they were drafted on a word processor in 1995.  But I'd put TeeCal up there as best bang for the buck by a long distance if you can get over those things I couldn't.

FastManager looked pretty good as I remember it and if it went cloud could be a contender.  Can't find anything online about this aforementioned move to the sky however.

We're on Printavo which has a great look for the cal and client interaction but desperately need more backend functionality.  To that end I'm starting to use API to get the true mgmt functionality going via other apps, namely using javascript in the giant, gmail integrated gantt chart that is our CRM.  Trouble is, the API is missing core fields like due dates...so we'll have to ramp it up into web hooks, or whatever the term is for essentially "plucking" visual data form a web page and inserting into another and such. 

Eric and I took an initial stab at developing our own at one point and I've continued that conversation with all sorts of folks, most recently one whom did dev at Microsoft and Amazon and barring the massive free time and funds needed to actually roots up develop something it feels tying together multiple cloud apps may be the direction to look in.

Offline GoWestRob

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #12 on: June 13, 2016, 06:04:56 PM »
Shanarchy, we're using Quickbooks for quotes since that's where we will eventually invoice it.  It's pretty easy and quick to write an estimate.  For what we do, Quickbooks is fantastic, especially for accounting purposes.  We handle payroll through QB and we have 5 simultaneous users that can invoice, write purchase orders, receive bills, write checks, etc.  You'll be able to find a post here where Kitson @ Mind's Eye mentioned that if he wanted to find out how many red Gildan #2000s he sells on Tuesdays, he could do that through Shopworkx.  That's pretty awesome and nothing is going to be that, however Quickbooks Pro for accounting paired with Google's cloud Apps for scheduling has been a decent system for us.

Offline ericheartsu

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #13 on: June 13, 2016, 06:47:52 PM »
I've trialed them all unfortunately and nothing stands out as an all around winner.  I really liked the back end features of TeeCal if I recall, excellent scheduling which is paramount and a massive labor saver for medium and up shops.  I couldn't swallow the PC only thing combined with the invoices that look like they were drafted on a word processor in 1995.  But I'd put TeeCal up there as best bang for the buck by a long distance if you can get over those things I couldn't.

FastManager looked pretty good as I remember it and if it went cloud could be a contender.  Can't find anything online about this aforementioned move to the sky however.

We're on Printavo which has a great look for the cal and client interaction but desperately need more backend functionality.  To that end I'm starting to use API to get the true mgmt functionality going via other apps, namely using javascript in the giant, gmail integrated gantt chart that is our CRM.  Trouble is, the API is missing core fields like due dates...so we'll have to ramp it up into web hooks, or whatever the term is for essentially "plucking" visual data form a web page and inserting into another and such. 

Eric and I took an initial stab at developing our own at one point and I've continued that conversation with all sorts of folks, most recently one whom did dev at Microsoft and Amazon and barring the massive free time and funds needed to actually roots up develop something it feels tying together multiple cloud apps may be the direction to look in.

 We've also been having developers look into custom coding of printavo back end, as this seems like it could be a viable cloud based option. but we haven't found the right people yet.
Night Owls
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Offline Larz

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Re: Cloud based Shop Mgmnt software
« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2016, 12:14:39 PM »
I wouldn't consider inksoft shop mgmnt software. We use priceit, but it's not cloud based. Shopvox is another one we were browsing

We're cloud-based now. We've made a ton of improvements. Check it out on our website. PM me if you need the link.