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Computers and Software => Business/Shop Management Programs => Topic started by: 1964GN on April 05, 2021, 01:46:27 PM
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Life with only QuickBooks has become to complicated. Now they have eliminated work orders and sales orders. Anyway, we are 2 auto shop and adding a 3rd in the next 60 days, and the lack of a shop management program is starting to wear us down. We are currently doing about 60-70% contract. For one new large contract client, we order the goods on their account. Having a program with TSF integration would be a HUGE plus. Plus, they are our go-to vendor.
In 2021, who is standing out from the crowd? We get that they all will fail somewhere :)
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we are still super happy with TeeCal. It runs the whole shop and for you it will sync with QuickBooks.
The important part though is that they are about done with their API and you will be able to develop your own apps that would talk to it.
We are currently in the last few days of developing a program that will tie it to shipstation.com which connects to Shopify, big commerce, order my gear, ebay, amazon and just about anybody else. We will be able to import the orders directly that are created on all those sites. No more manual entries. Our contract customers will have to enter the orders on our web site which will also go straight into Teecal. All of this should cut our paperwork time in half.
pierre
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Start here:
1. put together a list of wants & needs. You will need to remain flexible on this, ranking them isn't a bad idea.
2. Make sure you note what your goals are. Do you want to streamline ordering/reorders/scheduling?
3. Set a budget, but don't let that be the end all. Also take things into account like processing fees etc. Those are likely to go up...at the same time your clerical time should drop dramatically.
4. Test drive the contenders. Watch all of the videos you can.
5. Nothing is perfect. You will have to make whatever you get work. There will always be something missing, but that one missing thing might be overshadowed by a great feature you didn't even know you needed.
Hope this helps
Here is a list of some:
Teesom (what we run)
Precise by Impress
Price-it
Shopworx
Printavo
TeeCal
Shopvox Apparel
Deconetwork
Corebridge
TeeChimp
Cyrious
Stokkup
The Print Life
This is by no means all of them, and some of them may be gone. I don't know.
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5. Nothing is perfect. You will have to make whatever you get work. There will always be something missing, but that one missing thing might be overshadowed by a great feature you didn't even know you needed.
this!!! As Brad says, get used to the idea that you will have to change some things in the shop. If you embrace that, you can streamline your processes and you'll wonder what took you so long.
pierre
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I forgot which program it was, if any, but the guy who runs Tiny Fish in Upstate NY said they use a software that is open source code so they were able to higher a programmer fairly cheap from Upwork or Fiverr and have them customize it to their needs. They can do similar stuff with Google Calendars. For me, Printavo is pretty much all I need, but I can see custom plug-ins and code coming in handy for larger shops with more unique processes.
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Start here:
1. put together a list of wants & needs. You will need to remain flexible on this, ranking them isn't a bad idea.
2. Make sure you note what your goals are. Do you want to streamline ordering/reorders/scheduling?
3. Set a budget, but don't let that be the end all. Also take things into account like processing fees etc. Those are likely to go up...at the same time your clerical time should drop dramatically.
4. Test drive the contenders. Watch all of the videos you can.
5. Nothing is perfect. You will have to make whatever you get work. There will always be something missing, but that one missing thing might be overshadowed by a great feature you didn't even know you needed.
Hope this helps
Here is a list of some:
Teesom (what we run)
Precise by Impress
Price-it
Shopworx
Printavo
TeeCal
Shopvox Apparel
Deconetwork
Corebridge
TeeChimp
Cyrious
Stokkup
The Print Life
This is by no means all of them, and some of them may be gone. I don't know.
Great response! Thanks. How are you handling contract with Teesom? We did a live demo and did the trail period but that ended up being over Christmas so we didn't really dive in that deep into how contract orders are handled. Our newest client is sending about 50 PO's per week and entering and tracking these is a huge time suck.
I would image we want what most shops want. To speed up the entire process from quoting to delivering. Monday.com has helped a lot with production management but we currently have 150 jobs in house and everything is just to decentralized/scattered. Part of our problem is the lack of experienced help, but that's a subject for another thread LOL
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Our newest client is sending about 50 PO's per week and entering and tracking these is a huge time suck.
I've written imports for our larger clients that do similar volume. Strongly suggest anyone in a similar position
do the same. Double data entry is the devils work, and invites mis-keying.
Some clients use spreadsheets for their PO's which are the easiest to import from. Other send PDF's that we have to
strip down to text and then parse through for the relevant pieces. Single click either way.
Having all clients use same PO form would be ideal, but (at least in our situation) ain't never gonna happen.
We'll force smaller contract clients to do so but the larger ones have their own systems in place, and their own
PO forms are part of that.
The thing that peeves me is that a lot of the programs listed can't export data in a format that anyone else can use easily.
We print for other shops and Printavo for example should be able to send PO's as a CSV or any other format we can easily
import. Need to get programs talking to eachother even if they are competing.
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We manually input all of the info for their orders. It's not ideal. We handle it one of two ways.
If a contractor is bringing me g2000's we write them up in the WO as customer supplied. We can easily go back and check what we printed and delivered. I know what garments they printed, and it's easy to trace back.
The other way is when a customer brings in things that we don't get like NIKE that isn't from Sanmar, or say Peter Millar. I simply put the imprint on the WO and the total quantity of garments getting that print.
It's not bad, but if you are doing a lot, it may not work for you. A script that allows you to import them would be ideal. If they are reorders it would still be really fast though with the way Teesom saves the art.
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We have tried a few different software companies in the past few years and the one thing that has been a issue is scheduling different process's on different days on our calender/schedule.
For examples client "A" wants 1000 shirts printed and folded but we need to do this on different dates. If our project managers are slammed and forget to reassign the folding, that causes some major issues in our timelines and the calendar is a major portion in what system we use. Out of the choices in the previously replies, does anyone have any success in multiple scheduling for one PO?
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We have tried a few different software companies in the past few years and the one thing that has been a issue is scheduling different process's on different days on our calender/schedule.
For examples client "A" wants 1000 shirts printed and folded but we need to do this on different dates. If our project managers are slammed and forget to reassign the folding, that causes some major issues in our timelines and the calendar is a major portion in what system we use. Out of the choices in the previously replies, does anyone have any success in multiple scheduling for one PO?
Teecal has different section that can be on different schedules. Right now it's embroidery, screen, DTG and CAD cut. If you don't use one of those you could use its section for scheduling.
This is not exactly what you were looking for, but it's a good example of what needs to be done to make these programs work.
pierre
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we've been on the hunt for a few years, I've tried all the ones Brad listed.... For us, scheduling and quoting are two completely different systems. Scheduling is all done in google calendar with color coding and a series of symbols. I can see at a glance what's going on in every department and the live status for each job. now quoting is a whole nother can of worms... some of those programs are like taking a space shuttle to get groceries...SignVox is one of the worst, WAY too complicated for what it needs to be. The best so far is teesom but the data entry to get started made me go squirrley and I ended up bailing on it.... I won't go back simply because their calendar sucks so I'd still need the google.... It's like these programs are either ridiculously outdated and made on windows 98 or they're for 100+ employees and require a full time employee just to enter quotes...
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I know TeeCal is developing some new stuff and they asked me for suggestions. If you guys let me know, I can pass them on. Maybe something gets put in. . .
pierre
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Pierre, you have convinced me to take a harder look at TeeCal. What version are you on? Their website is light on details.
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It's like these programs are either ridiculously outdated and made on windows 98 or they're for 100+ employees and require a full time employee just to enter quotes...
Exactly
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We use Fast Manager still, which is the precursor to Teesom. Like it, don't love it.
I wanted to like Printavo, but every time I try it im hit with another reason it don't work for me.
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We use Fast Manager still, which is the precursor to Teesom. Like it, don't love it.
I wanted to like Printavo, but every time I try it im hit with another reason it don't work for me.
That was my exact take on Printavo.
Homer is exactly right on Shopvox/Signvox. I swear no one there thinks in a linear fashion.
Teesom needs to improve scheduling, I would agree. They just upgraded their order module so I can order shirts from any vendor that carries them rather than the catalog I quoted from. That has been a HUGE help with the shirt shortages. My understanding is they are working on UPS/Fedex integration now...which will also be a big one for us.
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We have tried a few different software companies in the past few years and the one thing that has been a issue is scheduling different process's on different days on our calender/schedule.
For examples client "A" wants 1000 shirts printed and folded but we need to do this on different dates. If our project managers are slammed and forget to reassign the folding, that causes some major issues in our timelines and the calendar is a major portion in what system we use. Out of the choices in the previously replies, does anyone have any success in multiple scheduling for one PO?
I call these "Production Groups" and they are key to successful scheduling in any shop that might take in 500 shirts and then screen print, sew, tagless label, fold, bag, tag, label, etc. before sending back out the door. Everyone that is doing more than one thing to the product they receive is working in Production Groups, whether they know it or not.
Sadly, this concept is absent from nearly every app that I've trialed. Inksoft does now have them in their production module but, like any of the apps, it's missing some basics on the production side. To be fair, it is a challenge to create a gui that will successfully visualize this to humans but I think it's one that can be met...or perhaps we don't need to successfully visualize all these Production Groups at this point because any robust software utilizing them could take great advantage of even rudimentary AI and machine learning to do the heavy lifting and then distill it down into a simplified visual for humans.
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the biggest issue with all of these softwares, is that textile screen printing, quite frankly, just doesn't really generate enough money to really dive into these areas.
Printavo in my opinion seems to be the most forward thinking of them all, but even they'll agree they are missing some really key and crucial components. I have seen the roadmap, and it is being worked on though.
In the past 6 months i've begun implementing Shopworks, and Impress, and i gotta say, i was super unimpressed with both, and am actively looking for another solution.
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When someone properly figures out how to be Monday.com, Flock/Slack, and Fast Manager/Teesom/Printavo all in one........ They gonna own it all.
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Monday.com + Google Calendar integration + Quickbooks works out fantastic for us. Dive deep into all of the features of Monday.com and you can structure it the best for your shop.
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we use Monday.com and Price it -(Price it for maybe 8-10 years.)
One reason I like price it. If I need anything I call, and I talk directly to them.
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the biggest issue with all of these softwares, is that textile screen printing, quite frankly, just doesn't really generate enough money to really dive into these areas.
It's true. I've reached out to other co.'s that make wonderful apps for other industries and there's just zero reason for them to touch a market like ours even if it's just adapting their core to it.
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the biggest issue with all of these softwares, is that textile screen printing, quite frankly, just doesn't really generate enough money to really dive into these areas.
It's true. I've reached out to other co.'s that make wonderful apps for other industries and there's just zero reason for them to touch a market like ours even if it's just adapting their core to it.
Seems so dumb, between the 13+ listed on this thread they all suck and miss the mark when our industry is so simple. Why there can't be one that actually listens to their customer to make what is needed...
I feel like there is so much money to be made with a SAAS that charges small transaction fees at order processing, shipping, ordering blanks, so you don't even feel like you are paying for it could extract a good amount of money without even having to do $78 a month or $750 a month or whatever these things are charging. YTD we have had ~1600 invoices, with ~450 being over 1k, for a good system I would pay $2-3 per invoice over $1000 and $1 under 1000 if it could automate a lot of the processing / invoicing / notifications, ect. Or YTD $2050 just from ordering and in this model I didn't even feel like I was paying as it was a pass through at the time of invoicing, vs ~$1800 we've paid for Impress which is a turd. I'd pay more if it happened at the moment of truth, $50k a year is scary, potentially 50,000 $1 fees for processing a invoice online is not, we succeed so would the software company.
So there is enough business to support 13+ shitty systems, but nobody is interested in just making one good one.
I'm surprised Sanmar or S&S doesn't tackle this project, they could charge a margin to automate ordering through their competitor and make some money rather than no money, and they have developers already that could build something, as well as it would bring more business for themselves if it made it easier. The reason I sell product from S&S the most is because their website is the best, and product shots are the best.
A pay as you go model that the customer is actually covering the cost of the software at the point of payment / shipping / purchasing / could be super profitable, instead we have a bunch of shitty programs that so miss the mark.
Here is another not listed previously - https://hoopscrm.com (https://hoopscrm.com)
apologies my writing is all scattered, I just rage that there is no company that listens to their customers or no developers that are interested in building something simple and functional for decorators that do more than one embellishment per order.
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I don't see anything getting us off of quickbooks. There's all of the accounting tools, we do our payroll through there, it allows us to easily deduct our health insurance and retirement plans from paychecks...I don't see how a screenprinting specific system can incorporate all of that powerful stuff that you need to run a business. I think we'll always need two systems here, one for the business-heavy stuff, one for the scheduling.
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I don't see anything getting us off of quickbooks. There's all of the accounting tools, we do our payroll through there, it allows us to easily deduct our health insurance and retirement plans from paychecks...I don't see how a screenprinting specific system can incorporate all of that powerful stuff that you need to run a business. I think we'll always need two systems here, one for the business-heavy stuff, one for the scheduling.
I agree, QB has waay too much in it so any solution would be inferior to it. Most of the programs sync with it already so there is really no need to reinvent the wheel.
pierre
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the biggest issue with all of these softwares, is that textile screen printing, quite frankly, just doesn't really generate enough money to really dive into these areas.
It's true. I've reached out to other co.'s that make wonderful apps for other industries and there's just zero reason for them to touch a market like ours even if it's just adapting their core to it.
Seems so dumb, between the 13+ listed on this thread they all suck and miss the mark when our industry is so simple. Why there can't be one that actually listens to their customer to make what is needed...
I feel like there is so much money to be made with a SAAS that charges small transaction fees at order processing, shipping, ordering blanks, so you don't even feel like you are paying for it could extract a good amount of money without even having to do $78 a month or $750 a month or whatever these things are charging. YTD we have had ~1600 invoices, with ~450 being over 1k, for a good system I would pay $2-3 per invoice over $1000 and $1 under 1000 if it could automate a lot of the processing / invoicing / notifications, ect. Or YTD $2050 just from ordering and in this model I didn't even feel like I was paying as it was a pass through at the time of invoicing, vs ~$1800 we've paid for Impress which is a turd. I'd pay more if it happened at the moment of truth, $50k a year is scary, potentially 50,000 $1 fees for processing a invoice online is not, we succeed so would the software company.
So there is enough business to support 13+ shitty systems, but nobody is interested in just making one good one.
I'm surprised Sanmar or S&S doesn't tackle this project, they could charge a margin to automate ordering through their competitor and make some money rather than no money, and they have developers already that could build something, as well as it would bring more business for themselves if it made it easier. The reason I sell product from S&S the most is because their website is the best, and product shots are the best.
A pay as you go model that the customer is actually covering the cost of the software at the point of payment / shipping / purchasing / could be super profitable, instead we have a bunch of shitty programs that so miss the mark.
Here is another not listed previously - https://hoopscrm.com (https://hoopscrm.com)
apologies my writing is all scattered, I just rage that there is no company that listens to their customers or no developers that are interested in building something simple and functional for decorators that do more than one embellishment per order.
I actually would not like that and probably would not sign up for it if at have a choice. We are close to spending a $1k each month for various subscriptions and that's for non activity based. If we went the other way, we would be spending a lot more.
pierre
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Just did a zoom with PriceIt and I have to say, it ticks off most of the boxes for us.
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Just did a zoom with PriceIt and I have to say, it ticks off most of the boxes for us.
It does for a lot of people. My big hang-up years ago was 17 line items for an invoice. Did they fix that?
It's a good program.
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Just did a zoom with PriceIt and I have to say, it ticks off most of the boxes for us.
It does for a lot of people. My big hang-up years ago was 17 line items for an invoice. Did they fix that?
It's a good program.
I'll let you know soon. We just pulled the trigger with them. Also, they are very interested in the connecting with monday.com concept. They are going to remote in tomorrow to see how we use it.
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Just did a zoom with PriceIt and I have to say, it ticks off most of the boxes for us.
It does for a lot of people. My big hang-up years ago was 17 line items for an invoice. Did they fix that?
It's a good program.
IMO monday is key, if someone can link those 2 up seemlessly its going to be epic.
I'll let you know soon. We just pulled the trigger with them. Also, they are very interested in the connecting with monday.com concept. They are going to remote in tomorrow to see how we use it.
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Brandt, if you are interested you should reach out to Price It. I think the more they can learn on how we use Monday.com the better. No promises of course but the fact that they called me back about it saying they were "intrigued" gives me some hope.
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Brandt, if you are interested you should reach out to Price It. I think the more they can learn on how we use Monday.com the better. No promises of course but the fact that they called me back about it saying they were "intrigued" gives me some hope.
I actually like Fast Manager, its not perfect by any means, but I dig it.
If price it figures out how to make Monday work with it id get it a serious look though.
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Start here:
1. put together a list of wants & needs. You will need to remain flexible on this, ranking them isn't a bad idea.
2. Make sure you note what your goals are. Do you want to streamline ordering/reorders/scheduling?
3. Set a budget, but don't let that be the end all. Also take things into account like processing fees etc. Those are likely to go up...at the same time your clerical time should drop dramatically.
4. Test drive the contenders. Watch all of the videos you can.
5. Nothing is perfect. You will have to make whatever you get work. There will always be something missing, but that one missing thing might be overshadowed by a great feature you didn't even know you needed.
Hope this helps
Here is a list of some:
Teesom (what we run)
Precise by Impress
Price-it
Shopworx
Printavo
TeeCal
Shopvox Apparel
Deconetwork
Corebridge
TeeChimp
Cyrious
Stokkup
The Print Life
This is by no means all of them, and some of them may be gone. I don't know.
Imprintnext is missing. I like their screenshots and webpage. But not their pricing
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Start here:
1. put together a list of wants & needs. You will need to remain flexible on this, ranking them isn't a bad idea.
2. Make sure you note what your goals are. Do you want to streamline ordering/reorders/scheduling?
3. Set a budget, but don't let that be the end all. Also take things into account like processing fees etc. Those are likely to go up...at the same time your clerical time should drop dramatically.
4. Test drive the contenders. Watch all of the videos you can.
5. Nothing is perfect. You will have to make whatever you get work. There will always be something missing, but that one missing thing might be overshadowed by a great feature you didn't even know you needed.
Hope this helps
Here is a list of some:
Teesom (what we run)
Precise by Impress
Price-it
Shopworx
Printavo
TeeCal
Shopvox Apparel
Deconetwork
Corebridge
TeeChimp
Cyrious
Stokkup
The Print Life
This is by no means all of them, and some of them may be gone. I don't know.
Imprintnext is missing. I like their screenshots and webpage. But not their pricing
That pricing isn't bad. I don't know how they make money with it though. A one time charge is rare these days.
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Order My Gear....I asked them about a year or two ago if they ever planned on developing a management tool and at the time, they were not planning on it but I will ask again or keep bugging them until they do. They already have most of the moving parts in play....I'm not an IT guy but I don't understand how every one of these companies miss the mark, do they not talk to shop owners?! I may end up caving and going back to two different programs for apparel and signs... which is not ideal in any way
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Imprintnext- $4k one time for all that? I think that's a screaming deal if it works. Will look into this one further soon.
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Just did a zoom with PriceIt and I have to say, it ticks off most of the boxes for us.
It does for a lot of people. My big hang-up years ago was 17 line items for an invoice. Did they fix that?
It's a good program.
25 now lol
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YoPrint is another one to check out. We tried it right before the pandemic hit and at that point put the breaks on everything. But its pretty robust and the tech support was super responsive.
Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk
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Hey folks. We use PriceIt in our shop. Full disclosure: We developed it. Not gonna go into a bunch of salesy talk here but just reach out to us at https://www.PriceItSoftware.com (https://www.PriceItSoftware.com) if you're interested. Thanks!
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Hey folks. We use PriceIt in our shop. Full disclosure: We developed it. Not gonna go into a bunch of salesy talk here but just reach out to us at https://www.PriceItSoftware.com (https://www.PriceItSoftware.com) if you're interested. Thanks!
hey Larz, you should start a thread about your software and get ppl talking about it. Might get some good suggestions or answer the questions about the features.
pierre
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Hey folks. We use PriceIt in our shop. Full disclosure: We developed it. Not gonna go into a bunch of salesy talk here but just reach out to us at https://www.PriceItSoftware.com (https://www.PriceItSoftware.com) if you're interested. Thanks!
hey Larz, you should start a thread about your software and get ppl talking about it. Might get some good suggestions or answer the questions about the features.
pierre
I love that idea. Am I allowed to do that here?
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Hey folks. We use PriceIt in our shop. Full disclosure: We developed it. Not gonna go into a bunch of salesy talk here but just reach out to us at https://www.PriceItSoftware.com (https://www.PriceItSoftware.com) if you're interested. Thanks!
hey Larz, you should start a thread about your software and get ppl talking about it. Might get some good suggestions or answer the questions about the features.
pierre
I love that idea. Am I allowed to do that here?
absolutely! welcome to promote the product as long as it's done politely. You can start thread to discuss the features or what ever else you want.
You can post advertising in the advertising section.
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I don't want to speak for the group, but I find a forum like this one is a great place to promote your product, but also to answer any questions related to it.
There are a lot of outdated opinions on software because they are updated(or should be) frequently. It's nice to have the developers here to explain what has changed and why things work a certain way.
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Just did a zoom with PriceIt and I have to say, it ticks off most of the boxes for us.
It does for a lot of people. My big hang-up years ago was 17 line items for an invoice. Did they fix that?
It's a good program.
We did address the 17 line items. It's now 25. (among other really really cool stuff)
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Just did a zoom with PriceIt and I have to say, it ticks off most of the boxes for us.
It does for a lot of people. My big hang-up years ago was 17 line items for an invoice. Did they fix that?
It's a good program.
Should be unlimited, just sayin' I've had some $30,000 invoices that were easily 75 line items by the time everyone ordered 2-5xl, ladies, different colors, etc. and T-quoter handled it just fine...and that program hasn't changed much since 2006.
We did address the 17 line items. It's now 25. (among other really really cool stuff)
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Brandt, if you are interested you should reach out to Price It. I think the more they can learn on how we use Monday.com the better. No promises of course but the fact that they called me back about it saying they were "intrigued" gives me some hope.
Thanks for the heads up on Monday.com! We're looking at it very seriously now. (more news to come later....) :)
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We didn’t like any of the scheduling software available so we hired someone to create a database for us. It’s strictly for scheduling and integrates with accounting. Jobs can be filtered by any possible press, decoration, date, status, etc. jobs are assigned to each press with tablets at each station. Every computer has access and it keeps things on track.
If anyone is interested in looking at it let me know.
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This old topic again - so where did everyone end up? I'm once again trying teesom and I don't think it will work. I'm leaning to Printavo, believe it or not...
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This old topic again - so where did everyone end up? I'm once again trying teesom and I don't think it will work. I'm leaning to Printavo, believe it or not...
Still use Fastmanager and we use Monday to create our schedule.
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went to teesome from printavo. A lot to take in. Much more in depth and customizable than printavo and cheaper. I still can't get over the limit of price matrices they have. Teesome is unlimited so I have been making one for everything as I go.
I am starting to use monday for calendar and updates. still learning everything.
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Heads up we've got our first version of a Monday-like experience in Printavo going live at Long Beach next week :)
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Heads up we've got our first version of a Monday-like experience in Printavo going live at Long Beach next week :)
is this the feature where you can break up line items for different production days? That is one feature I would need for sure.
I found Teesom to be a bit too much. I tried. I just can't....
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For anyone still battling this issue like we were, check out the new and improved ShopVox...It's like a Printavo, Teesom and Monday all mixed together. I hated this program like no other when we used it years ago in the sign department but they rebuilt it from the ground up and put more focus on screen, embroidery and promo products. It's super robust but it's not overwhelming like Teesom, the workflow actually makes sense...Pricing isn't bad either...
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For anyone still battling this issue like we were, check out the new and improved ShopVox...It's like a Printavo, Teesom and Monday all mixed together. I hated this program like no other when we used it years ago in the sign department but they rebuilt it from the ground up and put more focus on screen, embroidery and promo products. It's super robust but it's not overwhelming like Teesom, the workflow actually makes sense...Pricing isn't bad either...
that's good to know. I hated that program back when. It was way too complex and clunky on the backend. Glad to see they adjusted.