Rant Estimating Nightmares

[Bretbyron]

Been struggling with Shopvox for 8yrs! It's F'n killing me.

It's ok with screen printing, but loading new sign products and then being able to find them in all the drop downs is a living nightmare.

An estimate with multiple items and services should not take 4hrs. to two days. Otherwise, it's just "custom Item" over and over w/ copy/paste product descriptions. Had to make "custom Item" without Tax also.

 

[WhiskeyDreamer]

i don't use shopvox. been using QB for ages. could you possibly have too many sub categories? maybe an overhaul of your product mapping could make it easier and quicker?

 

[ColorCrest]

but loading new sign products and then being able to find them in all the drop downs is a living nightmare.

Do you use a naming convention for the products which might help finding them easier / quicker?

Otherwise, yes, the software does not use the best layout for entering products with their components.

 

[rjssigns]

Sounds like the OP could benefit from a custom Excel setup. Trying to use a "one size tries to fit all situations" program for highly specialized number crunching usually causes issues.

I've been watching my wife write "programs" in Excel for her employer. They managed to get rid of some software and the associated fees.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Sounds like the OP could benefit from a custom Excel setup. Trying to use a "one size tries to fit all situations" program for highly specialized number crunching usually causes issues.

I'm a huge fan of doing this. In fact, there was another estimating software thread the other day as well that this was the suggestion (and almost immediately dismissed it seemed to me, how I was reading it anyway).

If it is just estimating, that could easily be handled with an excel type of program (I tend to favor libreoffice calc, but almost any would do). Save it as a template (that way it forces each time that the template is opened to rename something else and the odds of overwriting the original is really really out there). Now, it may take some time from the outset to set it up, but I doubt it would come anywhere matching the fight that you have been having with your current setup the past 8 yrs.

Depending on how well versed in your spreadsheet program of choice and what all you are trying to handle in the estimating would determine how long it takes. Nothing fancy, with a pretty gui around the cells, shouldn't take all that much, but it does depend on those two aforementioned factors.

 

[LCS]

For job management we us Trello. We have a basic breakdown chart that gets adjusted each month for pricing.

 

[Bretbyron]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into them more and report back.

I do remember a program awhile back that was Excel based, i'll see if its still around.

What sucks is Shopvox loads products from 2 of my apparel vendors, but no sign vendors.

 

[ColorCrest]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into them more and report back.

I've looked at Shopvox help and tutorials since your first post. No wonder there are such challenges for you and others. They don't mention, at all, the importance of naming conventions for Products and the use of Templates. Certain best practices are essential for organization and the speed of use. Product names should use a broad term to put then into groups, then further grouped by machine / dept, etc., then identified by specifics such as color, finish, size, etc.

The good place to start is by using a spreadsheet view to get an overall aspect of how the very long list is taking shape for good organization.

Maybe more later if I find the time.

 

[ColorCrest]

See the attached image. The mock-up shows 21 products in a scrollable list sorted from 700 total products offered by an advertising / exhibit production company.

The layout demonstrates how a user might create a sign product listing by using a carefully conceived naming convention making them easy to find and sort. Also here, it is easy to duplicate an existing product to be used as a basis to create like products of the same category. Just apply different components and update specific parts of the product name and the customer-facing description.

Ducks in a row, they are.