How does ShopManager compare with mHelpDesk feature for feature?
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PCX
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You will be happy with mhelpdesk
First off, let me state that I have been trying to look for a good ticketing system to track repairs and invoicing for a long time. Most have all sucked. mhelpdesk is honestly the best thing I have come across so far. The community is great and the developers actually listen to your ideas and suggestions (via community support forum) and implement them.
Unlike ShopManager, mhelpdesk is very organized and well thought out. The interface is clean and relatively easy to navigate and its becoming more and more streamlined with each release.
mhelpdesk imports and exports estimate, invoices and payments into quickbooks, which is great for accounting purposes.
mhelpdesk is a little more expensive ($10) but really, you get what you pay for. What you pay in money, you make up for in time.
The one other thing that I have been looking for in a repair tracking system is an integrated POS. Currently mhelpdesk and ShopManager are both lacking in this area, however, mhelpdesk is integrating a payment gateway in one of their next releases (releases are pretty often).
Other than that, the support is good, the owner is down to earth and all around a cool guy to work with. I think you will be happy with mhelpdesk.
First off, let me state that I have been trying to look for a good ticketing system to track repairs and invoicing for a long time. Most have all sucked. mhelpdesk is honestly the best thing I have come across so far. The community is great and the developers actually listen to your ideas and suggestions (via community support forum) and implement them.
Unlike ShopManager, mhelpdesk is very organized and well thought out. The interface is clean and relatively easy to navigate and its becoming more and more streamlined with each release.
mhelpdesk imports and exports estimate, invoices and payments into quickbooks, which is great for accounting purposes.
mhelpdesk is a little more expensive ($10) but really, you get what you pay for. What you pay in money, you make up for in time.
The one other thing that I have been looking for in a repair tracking system is an integrated POS. Currently mhelpdesk and ShopManager are both lacking in this area, however, mhelpdesk is integrating a payment gateway in one of their next releases (releases are pretty often).
Other than that, the support is good, the owner is down to earth and all around a cool guy to work with. I think you will be happy with mhelpdesk.
ljtechservices
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I've been goofing around with the various platforms this past month.
Background, I've been a Freshbooks user for several years. It was great for keeping tract of my block time customers, however I really wanted quickbooks integration. they don't seem to want to do this. They want to be their own accounting software I think. The service has been phenomenal but it's time to move forward. I have too many customers to keep track of and double entry of invoices has caught me a few times.
I really liked Commit. however I need customer interaction with the tickets and I didn't really want to support a server to do it.
I didn't try shop manager because the goal was quickbooks integration.
After a week of trying to see how mhelpdesk would fit into my organization I signed up.
I'm going to start billing my non-freshbooks customers from there for a few months to see if I can get the work flow down.
After that, if i'm satisfied i'll get my block customers on it.
Background, I've been a Freshbooks user for several years. It was great for keeping tract of my block time customers, however I really wanted quickbooks integration. they don't seem to want to do this. They want to be their own accounting software I think. The service has been phenomenal but it's time to move forward. I have too many customers to keep track of and double entry of invoices has caught me a few times.
I really liked Commit. however I need customer interaction with the tickets and I didn't really want to support a server to do it.
I didn't try shop manager because the goal was quickbooks integration.
After a week of trying to see how mhelpdesk would fit into my organization I signed up.
I'm going to start billing my non-freshbooks customers from there for a few months to see if I can get the work flow down.
After that, if i'm satisfied i'll get my block customers on it.
PCX
Well-Known Member
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- 134
papuchazo
Member
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- 6
I was also on the fence back in December. I had read most of the threads relating to this subject and after seeing CallThatGirl's support of mHelpdesk I decided to give them a try. I was on their 30 day free trial period and ended up subscribing in less than 2 weeks. I really love the simplicity of use if you don't need to customize much, but yet it provides a lot of customization for those that need it.
It also has phone apps for iPhone and Android. I don't have an iPhone but I use it on my android and can say that it has come in handy plenty of times. To top it off, Vincent's fast reply to customer's cant be beat!
It also has phone apps for iPhone and Android. I don't have an iPhone but I use it on my android and can say that it has come in handy plenty of times. To top it off, Vincent's fast reply to customer's cant be beat!
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- Fort Myers, FL
Since I never used anything but Mhelpdesk, I can't really give a good comparison, but to support Mheldpesk I will at anytime if I see a thread here about it.
A+ on the product, support, communications and blogs... and they keep on adding new things for us to make our work better. Overall just a win.
A+ on the product, support, communications and blogs... and they keep on adding new things for us to make our work better. Overall just a win.
cyabro
Well-Known Member
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- 420
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- New Zealand
We also went through this just over a year ago.
We were at the time using TS Man and were finding it slow, unintuitive and the way the company handled the supposed upgrade to the next version was not very professional IMO.
So we looked at most other options like PCRT, mHelpDesk, ShopManager, Commit and a couple of others I can't remember right now.
It eventually came down to PCRT or SM and in the end we chose SM mainly because we all thought that the PCRT GUI was a bit messy and clutered.
The main reasons we didn't go with mHelpdesk is because we really wanted something we hosted ourselves and the cost.
For us to get mHelpdesk would cost US$49.95 per month for 4 staff so over a year that's pretty much US$600. Convert that to New Zealand $725 at todays exchange rate, which is actually very high historically so that cost would most likely go up for us.
Also if we got more staff then the cost would go up again.
SM cost us AUS$99 one off fee (special via Technibble at the time) for unlimited staff. We also pay AUS$49 every 6 months (optional) to keep free technical support and upgrades as they are released.
We have found the SM team to be excellent in their support and very quick to respond to any questions or problems.
They have also taken most of our suggestions and put them into the software making it work even better for us.
We were at the time using TS Man and were finding it slow, unintuitive and the way the company handled the supposed upgrade to the next version was not very professional IMO.
So we looked at most other options like PCRT, mHelpDesk, ShopManager, Commit and a couple of others I can't remember right now.
It eventually came down to PCRT or SM and in the end we chose SM mainly because we all thought that the PCRT GUI was a bit messy and clutered.
The main reasons we didn't go with mHelpdesk is because we really wanted something we hosted ourselves and the cost.
For us to get mHelpdesk would cost US$49.95 per month for 4 staff so over a year that's pretty much US$600. Convert that to New Zealand $725 at todays exchange rate, which is actually very high historically so that cost would most likely go up for us.
Also if we got more staff then the cost would go up again.
SM cost us AUS$99 one off fee (special via Technibble at the time) for unlimited staff. We also pay AUS$49 every 6 months (optional) to keep free technical support and upgrades as they are released.
We have found the SM team to be excellent in their support and very quick to respond to any questions or problems.
They have also taken most of our suggestions and put them into the software making it work even better for us.
Thanks for your feedback.
The things you refer to that mhelpdesk has added for you - are these custom features for you specifically, or new product features for mhelpdesk?
What are some specific examples of features that they've added for you, if you don't mind me asking?
IMO there is no software right now that compares to Mhelpdesk.
If you need help with the product or have questions. Simply post in their community forum or you can call their 800 number. Oh yea by the way when you call MH you will speak directly to Vincent who is the CEO and Co-founder.
How amazing is that? Ask yourself one last question before you decide..
When was the last time you were able to call a company for support and speak with it's CEO?
Start the Free trial - I guarantee you, you wont be disappointed.
If you need help with the product or have questions. Simply post in their community forum or you can call their 800 number. Oh yea by the way when you call MH you will speak directly to Vincent who is the CEO and Co-founder.
How amazing is that? Ask yourself one last question before you decide..
When was the last time you were able to call a company for support and speak with it's CEO?
Start the Free trial - I guarantee you, you wont be disappointed.
william_schubert
New Member
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- Location
- Georgetown, TX
MhelpDesk Positives
I picked up MhelpDesk 1 January so I'm just at the end of the terrible start up phase of any new system. I'm in my 7th year of business so I've got a lot of data and it scares me to port it around and have potential for corruption so I was a bit leery of the MH/QB interface. First of all the import of 6 years of QB data that scheduled to do in a block of 4 cleared hours took maybe 15 minutes. It was slick as anything I've seen. Over the course of 6 weeks we've had a few glitches, categories and such but really it just forced me to be cleaner and more precise in how I categorized things.
The three things MhelpDesk does right:
1 - QB interface. Not perfect but damn good and I've got cross referencing all over the place so I can track down everything.
2 - Google Calendar interface. Rocks. I put in a ticket and it is in my tech's Google calendar 15 seconds later. Really nice.
3 - Response. I had a problem, probably caused by me, on a Friday evening at close when all major problems occur. I could not import from MH to QB so I couldn't close my books for the day. Any other service would have gotten back to me on Monday but I received support through email (trouble ticket system is even faster had I thought to use it) almost in real time. Got my account QB interface reset and was all done. Took about 20 minutes.
Any application is only worth its weight in support. They all suck if there's not a team behind them to help and MHelpdesk has that. And if you want to change something you have only to ask. Want colors in your calendar to annotate ticket status? Just ask. Right Dean?
Disclaimer. I've not worked with ShopManager but based on what I've seen I'm sure I made the right choice.
Bill
I picked up MhelpDesk 1 January so I'm just at the end of the terrible start up phase of any new system. I'm in my 7th year of business so I've got a lot of data and it scares me to port it around and have potential for corruption so I was a bit leery of the MH/QB interface. First of all the import of 6 years of QB data that scheduled to do in a block of 4 cleared hours took maybe 15 minutes. It was slick as anything I've seen. Over the course of 6 weeks we've had a few glitches, categories and such but really it just forced me to be cleaner and more precise in how I categorized things.
The three things MhelpDesk does right:
1 - QB interface. Not perfect but damn good and I've got cross referencing all over the place so I can track down everything.
2 - Google Calendar interface. Rocks. I put in a ticket and it is in my tech's Google calendar 15 seconds later. Really nice.
3 - Response. I had a problem, probably caused by me, on a Friday evening at close when all major problems occur. I could not import from MH to QB so I couldn't close my books for the day. Any other service would have gotten back to me on Monday but I received support through email (trouble ticket system is even faster had I thought to use it) almost in real time. Got my account QB interface reset and was all done. Took about 20 minutes.
Any application is only worth its weight in support. They all suck if there's not a team behind them to help and MHelpdesk has that. And if you want to change something you have only to ask. Want colors in your calendar to annotate ticket status? Just ask. Right Dean?
Disclaimer. I've not worked with ShopManager but based on what I've seen I'm sure I made the right choice.
Bill
PCX
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 134
Bill is absolutely right. Out of the box, most everything is what you would hope for in a ticketing system. However, some of us are more pickier than others (myself included) or simply have different needs and so we just suggest our ideas and in most cases they are implemented. Sure, not everything is going to be implemented and not on your time line, but I have not seen any other company implement as many new ideas from their users as quickly as they have. Most companies wait 6 months to a year or more before they implement new ideas. Mostly because they are trying to soak up as much money as they can from the older releases before they try to sell you on a newer one. Not so with mhelpdesk. I have seen feature requests and ideas be implemented that next day. Bugs, fixed almost immediately. Bigger issues or feature requests usually get done with their new releases which usually happen every few weeks to a month or so. Either way, feature requests, ideas and bugs get taken care of faster than any other application I have ever worked with.
BTW. Bill mentions me because I probably ask more of mhelpdesk than anyone else
BTW. Bill mentions me because I probably ask more of mhelpdesk than anyone else
I plan to trial it, thanks, but I do like discussing the software with current users.
Can all support ticked info (emails) be forwarded to my personal email (my gmail is copied to me locally)? I like this kind of duplication as there are times I lose access to the internet, unfortunately, for hours (due to our crappy local cable provider). I'd still like to be able to operate and have some information on my pc to do my support work by phone with clients.
The service/support sounds great but is this a one man business? What happens if, god forbid, something happens to him such as a freak plane crash or car accident? I have no problem with the SAAS model but this is just a practical question.
Can you backup all the data locally on your computer? This would be a must for us, as I'd hate to lose the database of info if the firm went kaput.
I was looking for the price tag and was unable to find it. Apparently, you have to sign up to glean the price schedule. Can someone tell me the price schedule for a 2-tech shop - I cannot find this on their website?
Thanks for the information. I'm sure many others are looking at these same questions, also.
PCX
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 134
I plan to trial it, thanks, but I do like discussing the software with current users.
Yes
The service/support sounds great but is this a one man business? What happens if, god forbid, something happens to him such as a freak plane crash or
7 man crew and about 1700 users. Several on the community forums willing to help.
You can download and print reports and export all the information to QB, so yes, you can backup the data.
$30 is the lowest package for unlimited customers and tickets. This package includes 1 tech. I have a shop run by 3 techs, but we do not assign certain jobs to certain techs, we pretty much work on everything together and just keep our tickets up to date, so we don't need additional slots.
Yes
The service/support sounds great but is this a one man business? What happens if, god forbid, something happens to him such as a freak plane crash or
7 man crew and about 1700 users. Several on the community forums willing to help.
You can download and print reports and export all the information to QB, so yes, you can backup the data.
$30 is the lowest package for unlimited customers and tickets. This package includes 1 tech. I have a shop run by 3 techs, but we do not assign certain jobs to certain techs, we pretty much work on everything together and just keep our tickets up to date, so we don't need additional slots.
william_schubert
New Member
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- Location
- Georgetown, TX
Info to Gmail
As the lead admin on the account I get a Gmail notification for every job and every change or log entry that is entered. If I were to IMAP or backup Gmail to desktop as I would if my internet connection was iffy I'd always have them. As it is as long as I have PCS I can scroll through the messages on my phone and see them. It is a pretty good failsafe. Here is one of the messages:
A help request has been submitted on 2/13/2012. The request has been processed, and the following important information has been listed below:
Customer Name: Teresa ******
Customer Email:
Account Name: Teresa *******
Service Request ID: 121675
Status: New: Scheduled On Site
Priority: 1
Appointments: Assigned to: *******, Josh; Date/Time: 2/14/2012 11:30 AM; Duration: 2.00 hrs;
Subject: Teresa *******
Description:
eval pc errors
I have them set to archive to a folder where they are easily found. With the data imported into QB each day it is as safe as it can be.
As the lead admin on the account I get a Gmail notification for every job and every change or log entry that is entered. If I were to IMAP or backup Gmail to desktop as I would if my internet connection was iffy I'd always have them. As it is as long as I have PCS I can scroll through the messages on my phone and see them. It is a pretty good failsafe. Here is one of the messages:
A help request has been submitted on 2/13/2012. The request has been processed, and the following important information has been listed below:
Customer Name: Teresa ******
Customer Email:
Account Name: Teresa *******
Service Request ID: 121675
Status: New: Scheduled On Site
Priority: 1
Appointments: Assigned to: *******, Josh; Date/Time: 2/14/2012 11:30 AM; Duration: 2.00 hrs;
Subject: Teresa *******
Description:
eval pc errors
I have them set to archive to a folder where they are easily found. With the data imported into QB each day it is as safe as it can be.
