Question for guys with shops

[Definitive Dave]

My best friend is an expert coder software developer, certified genius (written for Apple, NASA, Pentagon, Air Force, Wal Mart), the salesman always promises things the coders haven't done and then expects miracles from the guys with their fingers on keyboards, my sincere advise is only pay for what software does, not what it will do in the future.
I worked for the largest landscape company in Ohio and they decided to use Palm pilots (early PDA) for on the job timekeeping and job logging, prebilling, etc.
I spent days on they phone with them trying to get them to add the functionality they sold our company. Crazy expensive initially plus hardware layout and an additional several hundred dollars per hour to have phone time trying to trouble shoot their buggy software.
I am very interested in hearing any solutions or even half baked ideas.
I would love to have my web store work as well as Ebay does with out ruining the Ebay setup in the process.
I found a company that sold me a solution that "integrated" everything (name of company was Stich by the way) and what it really did was cost me $600.00 per day in sales starting the very first day we enabled the software, yep a 60% drop in sales, whoo hoo that is awesome

 

[Definitive Dave]

Check with a local high school computer teacher for a likely data entry candidate, you will be amazed how efficient and fast a 17 year old is at tasks that are slow and monotonous for us
We did exactly that years ago and it was a godsend.
Dave

 

[fordf150]

thats what i am trying to avoid. quickbooks claims to export your inventory list but that exported list doesnt work with ebay or my online store and it also doesnt work the other way round....every manufacturer has a price file that doesnt import into quickbooks either.....everything i have online has to be manually entered, if i want to keep inventory on the website...it has to manually be updated one item at a time, so i chose not to show inventory unless its a semi fast mover that the distributor doesnt keep in stock or its something im trying to purge from inventory.

@Definitive Dave you'll appreciate this story.... I just got bit today....sold the last splitter i had in stock saturday, i thought no biggie i will jsut order monday, saturday nite a customer orders one so monday came and i ordered 12....they had 2 in stock. monday nite i sold another one...not a biggie because i have 2 that were supposed to show up today so customer number 1 only has to wait a day for his to ship and the second customers tool will ship the same day he orders it. bet you would never guess what happened....apparently UPS doesnt like delivering in the snow and while i am trying to figure out why my order isnt here yet customer #3 orders a splitter before i can go in and change my online store inventory to 0 in stock and not allow purchases of it. Live inventory would have saved my butt but instead im still back in the stone age using quickbooks and have to explain to customer #3 that i am out and dont know when more will come in.

What I am looking at will probably be overkill for what you need but will gladly share anything i learn along the way. Thats why i started this thread....hard to imagine there arent more shops out there in the same boat i am in....outgrown quickbooks or the old index card system but overwhelmed by the choice when stepping up into dedicated OPE management software and looking at price tags of $1500-$4000 initial upfront cost plus a monthly maintenance fee of $100-$400 is a big investment/commitment for us small guys but it seems almost mandatory in todays world

 

[fordf150]

BTW @Definitive Dave whats your paypal and how much do i owe....maybe in open forum on a thread your following this wont get lost in the shuffle.

 

[Rockjock]

http://www.powerprodms.com/
http://www.idealcomputersystems.com/business-management-software-outdoor-power-equipment
http://chartersoftware.com/ope?view=fjrelated&layout=blog
http://www.nizex.com/outdoor-power-equipment/

We use Ideal and it works great. We are able to import the Stihl, Western, Echo, Toro etc part numbers and costs into the system. Inventory is just a print out and a manual check. Parts are in sections, fuel lines air filters, carbs etc.. IIRC it can handle 1.5 million parts.

We stock the common parts but most can be ordered and a day later they arrive.

 

[fordf150]

We use Ideal and it works great. We are able to import the Stihl, Western, Echo, Toro etc part numbers and costs into the system. Inventory is just a print out and a manual check. Parts are in sections, fuel lines air filters, carbs etc.. IIRC it can handle 1.5 million parts.

We stock the common parts but most can be ordered and a day later they arrive.

Any quirks to it that make you wonder if it was really the right choice? Does it really save as much time as they claim on you data entry? How does it handle your stock orders.... Any way to import your orders and update stock or does every order you receive have to be manually entered?

Ideal is one of the ones on my short list.

Lizzy is crossed off completely so I'm making progress

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

What's the price on Ideal?

Several I looked into were 5-10k to start plus 100-500 a month. I tried to find something that was maybe $200-300 one time fee.

 

[Rockjock]

Gents price I do not know. But I have placed orders with it and it works quite well. Our system is we use color coded notebooks for the suppliers, mechanics or sales staff enter in the part and quantity we need. Then we input that into Ideal and we now have parts on order. Call in the parts order and when it arrives we receive it in ideal, now the parts are in inventory. At first I thought it a daunting task but seeing it in operation it works very well. Stihls does take a little longer as we input it into idea, color coded book and onto stihls website but seems to work well. They only issue we have is that Ideal is very slow for us because we share the same server with 3 locations. But that too is manageable. From putting in a work order to sales receipt it does a good job. Inventory tracking, adjusting quantity etc it does a good job.

 

[Rockjock]

What's the price on Ideal?

Several I looked into were 5-10k to start plus 100-500 a month. I tried to find something that was maybe $200-300 one time fee.

I think it would depend on how big your operation is really. We service pretty much everything. OPE to tampers, water pumps, pressure washers, ploughs, quads, salters, generators, and I am sure more. A good team is needed and cross training is also needed. The sales guys know how to sell the product, order and receive parts enter work orders .... that way it never is on just 1 persons shoulders. Software will never be the end all be all it is the people that make it work and work well.

 

[Rockjock]

DD I tend to say away from the " expert coder software developer, certified genius (written for Apple, NASA, Pentagon, Air Force, Wal Mart) " guys. There is never 1 perfect solution but what you can hope for is the software is flexible enough so you can work around its limitations.

 

[fordf150]

thank you @Rockjock very helpful. every auto shop has alldata/mitchell...i kinda figured most larger OPE shops would have some purpose built software but i guess not. quickbooks has been great and it is a decent enough product but it just seems like you have to work around an awful lot of obstacles. tech support is non existent for quickbooks....thats one of the big aggravations of it.

 

[fordf150]

What's the price on Ideal?

Several I looked into were 5-10k to start plus 100-500 a month. I tried to find something that was maybe $200-300 one time fee.

Quickbooks/peachtree??.....thats the only thing your going to find that is one and done for $300 or less......so far my search has led me to a starting price of $1500 setup fee plus $150 a month on the extreme low end for a 1 user system all the way to $4000 setup and $500 a month for a 3 user system. add another $100 per month for partsmart being integrated directly into it which by the demo i got this morning is awesome

 

[AKDoug]

I am lucky. When I started dealing in Stihl I already had a superb point of sale system in place for my hardware store. It's as expensive as hell, so if I didn't have the rest of my business to help share in the cost, I probably wouldn't have it. Quickbooks is used for my backroom accounting, but that is it.

I don't know how high tech you want to go, but my wife uses a program called "Shop Keep" www.shopkeep.com She uses it for a small arts and crafts co-op she manages. You are only looking at $49.95 a month. She still uses Quickbooks on the accounting side.

As for parts storage, I managed to secure an bunch of Hillman bolt bins with slide out trays for my parts. Because I am Stihl only, I label the fronts with the part numbers contained within the drawer and the part numbers run sequentially. Because my parts shipments usually take three days, I don't keep many big dollar parts around.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I think it would depend on how big your operation is really. We service pretty much everything. OPE to tampers, water pumps, pressure washers, ploughs, quads, salters, generators, and I am sure more. A good team is needed and cross training is also needed. The sales guys know how to sell the product, order and receive parts enter work orders .... that way it never is on just 1 persons shoulders. Software will never be the end all be all it is the people that make it work and work well.

Same, though just 2-3 people deep total and more like just me that would use a computer.

 

[Grande Dog]

Howdy,
The interface is the tough part. We've been using QB Pro for financials, and QB point of sale. We use the attribute column for location data. We just customized our invoices, purchase orders etc... to show the attribute column. It's getting us by until we can afford something slicker. State of the art you're in high 5 figures.
Regards
Gregg

 

[GCJenks204]

I really feel for you. There are so many systems out there and each industry has it's specialized supplier. I will say something, if you find a system that works go for it and forget about the cost. You really are talking peanuts with those numbers.

We are not a 3 man show, we are 600 employees in 22 location in the electrical & plumbing distribution industry. Add about 17 locations that are public retail locations as well. It was decided a few years ago that we needed a new (slicker) system by one of the owner's sons. After an exhaustive search ( 6 months ) and testing by our 5 person IT team we selected a system. I am sure initial outlay was 2 to 3 MILLION and ongoing about user fees. Out IT team is now 12 plus and it still has it's quirks.

Just this morning it allowed me to sell more of a discontinued item than I have even though all the stock I have is reserved for other customers. Still haven't figured this one out but...

Any new system will be both a joy and a curse, it will have its wins and losses. You just have to roll with it and hope business growth is easier because of it.

 

[fordf150]

Supposed to get another demo tomorrow and still waiting to hear back from 2 more companies. Learning allot and seeing lots of things that would save some time.... In some cases it would save lots of time. Guess I will be the guinea pig and i keep you guys posted on what comes from my software hunt. At the rate I'm going it will be another couple months before research is done and I'm up and running with something because I've made the decision already that I'm buying something

 

[Definitive Dave]

DD I tend to say away from the " expert coder software developer, certified genius (written for Apple, NASA, Pentagon, Air Force, Wal Mart) " guys. There is never 1 perfect solution but what you can hope for is the software is flexible enough so you can work around its limitations.

I go the opposite way, when the smartest person in the room offers an opinion on his subject of expertise, I listen and try to remember
That's kinda like saying if your cardiologist recommended a stint and a low fat diet you would go home and stick your hand down the garbage disposal instead
Dave

 

[Rockjock]

I go the opposite way, when the smartest person in the rom offers an opinion on his subject of expertise, I listen and try to remember
That's kinda like saying if your cardiologist recommended a stint and a low fat diet you would go home and stick your hand down the garbage disposal instead
Dave

That is not what I meant. Look at what you wrote he worked in all these places, that means 1 or 2 things he was fired or he got bored and left. All too often they make you something custom then they lose interest or they make it so complex that another coder will not be able to make heads or tails of it.

 

[Definitive Dave]

ah ok, yeah he worked for several of them simultaneously on specific projects as the head of some research grants at OSU. He eventually retired for the first time at 32 when he had to buy a suit and make a presentation at the Pentagon (ex-military with clearance), more of a shorts and t-shirt kinda guy
He used to tell me stories about the ridiculous stuff that salesmen would promise a client and then write up in a memo to the developers like it was as simple as fixing a typo