What shop management software do you use (quoting, invoicing, job process, etc)??

17034 Views 29 Replies 18 Participants Last post by edward1210, Mar 17, 2021

Greatzky

Discussion Starter · Apr 14, 2014 (Edited)

I know this has already been asked before, but I am not as interested in what is available as much as I'm interested in what everyone is using and why you picked it.
-how easy is the quoting and invoicing process of your software? This is the most important to me as I usually quote every customer individually and crunch numbers until the quote feels right. I'd rather have something that just gives me a price so I don't try to mess with it and short myself.
-Do you pay monthly or did you pay a one time fee for the software?
-Does your software import price lists from your distributors?
-Does the software handle finances/accounting as well?
-Can you send mock-ups to the customer for approval with the software? Does the design stay with the order so it's shown on your work order?

I was in the original trial of Printavo, but stopped using it after my free membership expired. I can't justify paying $50/month right now for a product I was testing for free.
I am looking into FastManager, FastAccurateBids, and Teecal currently, but their pricing might be an issue as well.

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bilalhk

· #2 · Apr 14, 2014

Pay dirt is easy and a hustler package is 16 USD per month

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TraxlerTees

· #3 · Sep 22, 2014

Greatzky said:
I know this has already been asked before, but I am not as interested in what is available as much as I'm interested in what everyone is using and why you picked it.
-how easy is the quoting and invoicing process of your software? This is the most important to me as I usually quote every customer individually and crunch numbers until the quote feels right. I'd rather have something that just gives me a price so I don't try to mess with it and short myself.
-Do you pay monthly or did you pay a one time fee for the software?
-Does your software import price lists from your distributors?
-Does the software handle finances/accounting as well?
-Can you send mock-ups to the customer for approval with the software? Does the design stay with the order so it's shown on your work order?

I was in the original trial of Printavo, but stopped using it after my free membership expired. I can't justify paying $50/month right now for a product I was testing for free.
I am looking into FastManager, FastAccurateBids, and Teecal currently, but their pricing might be an issue as well.

We use FastManager, will not switch to Printavo, they are not nearly as robust and piecing things together with multiple softwares is counter intuitive (they don't seem to think so). FastManager isn't pretty, we often have issues with the DB and easily uploading images since we have it hosted on a server where the files do not live (just adding them to the quote or work order can be tedious sometimes).

Currently looking for a new solution as well. I am willing to pay $1250-$2500 for something as long as its reliable and fairly easy to use once set up... T-Works Manager seems to be nice however the threads on this site indicate there are issues... and the developer is not easy to communicate with.

Looking forward to input from others here!

keepitspinning

· #4 · Sep 23, 2014

We use FastManager and like it. You can set up pricing for different customers (over the counter, contractors, etc). It makes quoting very fast and it stores everything. Catalogs from all of the major suppliers we use are easily loaded into the program and you select weather you are on end column pricing or not.
Set up does take some time to get you pricing in, especially for screen printing but for the time it saves, it is well worth it.
Now for the negative. Even though we've been using the program for 7-8 years, i still have not figured out how the program calculates mark up. I've experimented to get it to get it to be where I want it to be, but it does not make mathematical sense to me. I've questioned tech support about it, but never get an answer that allowed me to make sense of it.
I did extensive research before I jumped on the bandwagon. No system is ever perfect and you will have to adjust your ways to fit the programs available, and this one required the least in that way. We pay by the year (because it is cheaper), but I believe it can be month to month. They have a trial version you can download to try. Good luck

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hbapparel

· #5 · Sep 23, 2014

Tee Cal all the way. I have spent the last six months trying to find a cloud based system to use with sales people and since we are moving our production to another building. No luck, and Tee Cal has been the best and most robust for the money.

lvprinting

· #6 · Sep 23, 2014

I created my own Excel spreadsheet where you enter the quantity of shirts, the wholesale cost, the number of print colors for each area, (and more), and it gives me a total price along with the price per piece. I created a separate "Price" sheet so I can easily change the values later.

It calculates markup per shirt, markup on printing if the customer supplies their own shirts, specialty inks, extra freight charges for wholesalers who don't offer free shipping, screen charges, color changes, and more.

I also created 4 more sheets that allow me to easily quote up to 5 styles of apparel with the same design, all with their own price per piece. My last step, the easiest part actually, is to add an invoice page which will pull the total costs, screen charges, etc and all fit within the margins on a 8.5x11 piece of paper. There's already a front page which has all the customer info along with specific order details.

I'm considering selling copies once I'm done for small shops or busy printers who need something quick.

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tshirtgirl214

· #7 · Sep 23, 2014

I use Ms. Tee's T-Shirt Calculator. Its fast and easy to use. Actually something my company created because we needed something that didnt cost use a arm and leg. The software is stictly for quoting and invoicing fast
I give 60 second quotes and that's what matteres to us.
There are alot of others or there that will do the job they are pricey.

hbapparel

· #8 · Sep 23, 2014

It really boils down to what you need for your shop and where you think or want to go in the future. Pierre from Blue Moon told me 2 years ago to find something that you can grow with and works so as employees come with the growth you can easily train them and they can get used to it. For me and for someone like Zach, we need a more robust system to deal with the volume, and production sheets to deal for other employees who are doing the receiving, printing, invoicing, etc. Tee Cal handles all of that well. For someone who might be by themselves, or does low volume, an excel spreadsheet works great. For me, something that saves us time saves us money, not cost us. Excel sheets became to cumbersome to go between multiple programs for us. My advice, if you plan on growing or know you will be growing, start getting a shop management software now!

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jepaul2198

· #9 · Sep 24, 2014

I use impress with 30 licenses. We use it for the EDI capabiliy and inventory management functions. The CRM is awful though and we use sale force for that.

garmentdecor

· #10 · Sep 26, 2014

We use Deconetwork Business Hub.

1. We love the quoting and invoicing aspect of the business hub. It is great because on each estimate, it will automatically showcase the product spec and design information on the estimate. It gives your customer the ability to leave notes, approve/disapprove quote, and enables your customer to leave a deposit/pay in full. Each customer has their own custom backend and they can review previous quotes/orders.

I have had times where I would e-mail an estimate out on a friday and a customer would make payment on it over the weekend without me having to be there <---I LOVE THIS!!!

Its also great because the estimate/invoicing looks highly professional. I had a customer tell me the other day that he only went through me because he liked the "sophisticated" estimate I sent him!

2. I pay monthly. 150/month to be exact. Totally worth it

3. Yes, they import prices from over 10 (or more?) different distributors. When you pick a product from these distributors, it automatically updates the estimate with the correct product information, sizes, and colors.

4. Ehhhh...we use quick books and the two don't go hand in hand. Only negative with this software but the positives totally outweigh it

5. Yes, yes, and yes! The customer can approve/disapprove the mock-up and it stays with it on the workorder.

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tancehughes

· #11 · Sep 27, 2014

Don't get t-works. We have it and have had loads of problems. Everything everyone else has said about it is pretty much spot on

headfirst

· #12 · Sep 28, 2014

garmentdecor said:
3. Yes, they import prices from over 10 (or more?) different distributors. When you pick a product from these distributors, it automatically updates the estimate with the correct product information, sizes, and colors.

I just cancelled DecoNet last week primarily because it didn't do this. The prices it was pulling from AlphaBroder, Sanmar and Bodek and Rhodes were completely off. I spent two days on the phone with them and the end result was them telling me that they don't have live pricing.

I was using FastManager the past couple years and it worked great, I even upgraded to Premier, but the past few months it started crashing almost hourly and we had to find something else. I did only use DecoNet for a week, but it just wasn't a good fit. I'm now in the process of configuring Inksoft. I think it's going to work well.

samjosh

· #13 · Nov 11, 2014

Does any now of software that works with the screen printing/embroidery side and the sign/digital printing side all in one?

samjosh

· #14 · Nov 11, 2014

Ok thanks for the input

Preston

· #15 · Nov 11, 2014

If you are looking for a true "Shop Management Software" solution I would suggest you look at Priceit. Ron provides outstanding support. It is only available on a subscription bases though.

BidsMaven

· #16 · Nov 12, 2014

samjosh said:
Does any now of software that works with the screen printing/embroidery side and the sign/digital printing side all in one?

Our software covers pricing for screen printing, embroidery, and D2G. Our focus is apparel decoration pricing. The website is FastAccurateBids.com - Estimating Software for Screen Printing, Embroidery, and Other Apparel Decoration.

EstiMate Software provides pricing software that covers pricing for signs and apparel decoration but not embroidery. The website is EstiMate: Sign Pricing & Sign Business Management Software

lvprinting

· #17 · Nov 12, 2014

There are some really nice calculator/bid/quote software suites out there. What I'm seeing is that the wholesale pricing for these shirts is different than what Sanmar and the wholesalers are actually currently charging because the pricing in the software application is coming from the yearly price sheets.

This is resulting is higher prices for the customers when providing these quick quotes. In the case of one application demo I watched, the price of a t-shirt was $.78 more per shirt than the price I just checked on Sanmar's site (and a price that I have historically known to be at this price point over the past few years) which will skew the pricing with or without an upcharge as while some apparel pieces will match the yearly catalog, others seem to always be on sale.

So I guess like anything else in life, you can pick 2 out of the 3: cheap, fast, or accurate. I'm working on a solution that will be cheap and accurate for us slower folks, haha.

Preston

· #18 · Nov 12, 2014

lvprinting said:
There are some really nice calculator/bid/quote software suites out there. What I'm seeing is that the wholesale pricing for these shirts is different than what Sanmar and the wholesalers are actually currently charging because the pricing in the software application is coming from the yearly price sheets.

This is resulting is higher prices for the customers when providing these quick quotes. In the case of one application demo I watched, the price of a t-shirt was $.78 more per shirt than the price I just checked on Sanmar's site (and a price that I have historically known to be at this price point over the past few years) which will skew the pricing with or without an upcharge as while some apparel pieces will match the yearly catalog, others seem to always be on sale.

So I guess like anything else in life, you can pick 2 out of the 3: cheap, fast, or accurate. I'm working on a solution that will be cheap and accurate for us slower folks, haha.

Sanmar, like other distributors, charge different prices to different buyers. With Sanmar you have to call them and specifically ask for case pricing before they will set that to show when you log in on the web. The catalog pricing provided by these distributors is set at a median wholesale price that does not reflect any sales price.

When pricing your end product to the customer you should never use any sale pricing for the garment when calculating the price to the customer.

All that said, any product price data, markups, decorating charges that ship with any program is example data only and should be checked by the user of the application and then adjusted to their specific cost. This is true for any pricing application in this industry from the 8 grand applications down to the 25 dollar applications.

lvprinting

· #19 · Nov 12, 2014 (Edited)

Preston said:
Sanmar, like other distributors, charge different prices to different buyers. With Sanmar you have to call them and specifically ask for case pricing before they will set that to show when you log in on the web. The catalog pricing provided by these distributors is set at a median wholesale price that does not reflect any sales price.

When pricing your end product to the customer you should never use any sale pricing for the garment when calculating the price to the customer.

All that said, any product price data, markups, decorating charges that ship with any program is example data only and should be checked by the user of the application and then adjusted to their specific cost. This is true for any pricing application in this industry from the 8 grand applications down to the 25 dollar applications.

Well that basically confirms what I have been doing and what my quote application will require. Either way, wholesale pricing is confirmed for each order which is what I have always done and you agree should be done (at least once) when using these types of applications.

And where are the $8k applications? I want to see demos of those!

Preston

· #20 · Nov 12, 2014

lvprinting said:
And where are the $8k applications? I want to see demos of those!

Here one that depend on what all you want can cost from 4k to 8k plus a hefty yearly fee.

http://www.shopworx.com/

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