IT Support Software, Tickets, Invoices, Inventory, Finance system, Reporting

[Up2Date]

Hello People

I know this topic has been done a few times over and over. Though I'm hoping this will be a little different and you could point me in a few directions.

My IT Support company is based in Australia, wouldn't be hard to find with google

We are a family business been running for over 6 years. only the two of us and a receptionist. We pride our selves on our level of support.

We are looking at expanding. Though i fear without a good system behind us we will not know how we are going.

I'm after a software package to help manage our business. I'd like it to be an all in one scalable system. I really don't want to have to go get another one for many years.

I've been looking for years, tried several, never implemented any. I expect the software to be an investment in the business, so spending a bit to get what i'm after i consider worth it. The bigger packages or companies you can not trial and their websites to tell you much.

My problem so many out there i really don't know who to trust or go with. I'm after someone with a package already happy to recommend one.

I'm open to this, though not a huge fan of purchasing a package hosted by a company. I would prefer to host the package myself on my systems.

Also not a fan of web based applications. Ie apps that run in a browser. slow !!. Though I'm still open to all.

So what am i after.

One important function is the ability to get reports of how much a technician has billed at any given time. I want to know when we are not making enough money.

Dot points for the rest.

• Job Tracking
• Invoicing
• Finance control, (replace MYOB or Quickbooks)
• Customer HW / SW Inventories
• Reports and more reports.
• automated emails
• quoting

these are what i'm after now, though i'd like a package i can build on.

ie, Stock control, customer login, marketing, PDA apps, CRM.

Sorry for the long post.

Thanks in advance for reading the post and any help you can give.

regards,

 

[Kitten Kong]

There are a huge number of trackers out there on the market. Some of which our members on TN have written.

A few of these are listed here below. Many of which have a trial version for you to check through.

Commit CRM
VTiger
TSMan2009
Shop Manager
PCRT

If you google each, im sure you will find something you like the look of. Some of them you can use straight from the box so to speak. Others you will have the basic foundations, and its up to you, to build the rest as to how you like it.

I'm sure each of us on here, who use any of the above will have their opinions of their favourite crm.

 

[MobileTechie]

Do any of them perform all the functions on that list, including replacing an accounting package? None of the ones I've used (vtiger, tsman and Commit) do that.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Apologies, I didn't read that part. As far as I am aware, there isn't one which will also do the accounting for you.

If the accounting package was the deal breaker, then I think the op would need to have a programmer write the program from scratch. Which would invariably cost quite a few thousand £/$.

But, if it wasnt a actual prerequsite then any of the above would suffice. Like you, I have tried a few tsman, pcrt, vtiger. I use pcrt now, after being fed up of the promises of tsman and the new version.

 

[MobileTechie]

Apologies, I didn't read that part. As far as I am aware, there isn't one which will also do the accounting for you.

If the accounting package was the deal breaker, then I think the op would need to have a programmer write the program from scratch. Which would invariably cost quite a few thousand £/$.

But, if it wasnt a actual prerequsite then any of the above would suffice. Like you, I have tried a few tsman, pcrt, vtiger. I use pcrt now, after being fed up of the promises of tsman and the new version.

I think it'll have to not be a prerequisite to be honest. Accounting s/w is a whole different product. The best you can hope for is invoicing and maybe a sync option. Sync to Quickbooks exist for Commit and Vtiger but they cost.

Of the paid options, the happiest users seem to be the PCRT users from what I've seen. Blanchesoft say the new TSMan will be out in the next couple of months. However I'm using vtiger now and it'll need to be something special to pull me away from that now, despite its difficulties.

 

[iptech]

vtiger has its own in-built invoicing system, but natively there's not full accounting functionality. You can add an accounting function to vtiger with the addin module from AxialBlue, alternatively you can purchase Sage ACT! which integrates with Sage Accounts.

 

[DavidF]

I've trialled numerous CRM and job tracking databases (and still am)
For my purposes I've come to the conclusion that for the time being at least there are no packages that will do both job management and financials acceptably.
The best work around I can find is to either:
Track and invoice through a CRM and then enter monthly/quarterly or yearly info into a dedicated accounting package or:
Track jobs through a CRM and use MYOB/Quicken etc. to generate invoices and track financial info.
I use the latter method using vTiger and MYOB.
Nirvana for me would be an accounting package which has a web based CRM and gcal or Outlook integration.
I'd be interested to hear what you decide on

 

[iptech]

I use vtiger and the inbuilt invoicing module and the timcontrol invoicing extension. This allows me to directly create invoices & sales orders from Trouble Tickets. This means I can also easily print-off invoices whilst on-site which is a big help for cashflow, and allows me to keep tight control on my monthly account customers. At the moment I use DIY Accounting (an Excel spreadsheet solutions produced by a Chartered Accountant) for the business in/out accounts, the invoice data from vtiger being easily exported as an xls file.

 

[tarik]

have you had a look at Mamut One? I know its web based but they do offer a 30 day trial for you too have a look at.

 

[Up2Date]

Hello

Thanks for your replies.

I have looked at all these products. They are all excellent products though none of them really are what i'm after.

Commit CRM is the closest to it, though i don't want quickbooks. I want one products to do everything.

VTiger again looks great. But it's open source, gone down that road.

i'm after someone that has experience with a bigger package.

one post said "Mamut One"

if i do a quick google search i see some others.

example sysaid, autotask

even this one that Technibble advertise mhelpdesk.com looks ok though still need quickbooks.

i guess that main thing is. i don't have time to ie. go with vtiger configure setup test and make work. if someone is aus can get Vtiger working for an it company and support me i'll be interested to speak to them.

Regards,

 

[iptech]

If you go onto the vtiger support forum you'll find several members who can help you set-up the system, however most this is offered as a commercial service. As a tech it shouldn't be beyond your reach to install & configure it, there is an all-in-one Apache/PHP/vtiger installer package available for Windows that requires almost no input to setup for a local configuration.

The thing with any CRM system is to implement it in stages, if you try and do it all at once you'll likely get in a mess. A good CRM system will allow you to turn on or off modules as-and-when you need them.

For me, vtiger being open source was a big plus point in my decision making, locking your vital company data into a single online vendor account seems too risky to me. Some of the commercial packages may sound reasonable at first glance, but the cost of add-ins (for which there are no alternative suppliers) the costs were way too high. For one leading CRM package I evaluated the cost of the Outlook add-in was £100, for vtiger a similar add-in was just £10.

Download it and try it, it will cost you nothing and you can evaluate it for as long as you like.

 

[Up2Date]

i installed vtiger today. Sorry i don't like it.

Just doesn't flow right for me. I don't want to purchase any modules when i'm not really happy with the product to start with.

The ticketing system is ok, but the invoicing side of things i don't like.

Plus it's web based, to many edit links. just want to type not click edit wait then type.

fussy i know. but why go down the road if the road looks bumpy.

like a product with less CRM in it.

i think i'll give CommitCRM another go and might have to bite the bullet on quickbooks.

 

[iptech]

i installed vtiger today. Sorry i don't like it.

Just doesn't flow right for me. I don't want to purchase any modules when i'm not really happy with the product to start with.

The ticketing system is ok, but the invoicing side of things i don't like.

Plus it's web based, to many edit links. just want to type not click edit wait then type.

fussy i know. but why go down the road if the road looks bumpy.

like a product with less CRM in it.

i think i'll give CommitCRM another go and might have to bite the bullet on quickbooks.

The reasoning for allowing fields to be individually edited is to allow for role-level security, other CRM systems use similar approaches. vtiger is primarly PHP coded so it does require a web server (application level as opposed to a hardware device) to run, but this can be done on a standalone PC, much software works like this these days as it allows for easy scalability and does not require specific client-side applications to be installed and thus kept updated.

You're absolutely right to be fussy and evaluate several systems to find the right one that works for you. Any CRM system is going to require a significant amount of input to work correctly, so getting it right the first time is important.

Let us know which system you go with and also your reasons for choosing it as this question is often raised on Technibble.

 

[Up2Date]

Hello

I'm going to be having a look at the below two products.

Connectwise
&
Jim2 an Australian company

Leaning to Connectwise at the moment.

Jim2 looks good, it's a complete solution though i fear it might be out of my price range.

Anyone using either of the two products.