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Filemaker and/or SmartSheet Setup Help? Other estimating/management systems?

S

StacyT

New Member
I have been researching estimating/job management/invoicing systems for a few weeks now and my brain is about to explode. This feels like a full-time job and I'm spinning my wheels.

I'm hearing a lot about Filemaker and I'm intrigued but also overwhelmed because I am not a programmer and I am a one (and a half) person design studio and print shop without the time or knowledge to build a system.

For those of you using it, are you quoting your job, tracking the project and invoicing it in Filemaker and/or SmartSheet? Are you able to integrate with other programs like Gmail, your calendar, Quickbooks or Xero, etc? What about proofing? If I wanted to go this route, I'd need to hire someone to build it for me and I honestly don't even know where to start so I could use suggestions.

To give you an idea of what I'm currently working with:
- One-person graphic designer & printer with one part-time overseas remote assistant
- I need to quote everything from logo design packages to the design and printing of stickers & wide-format signage printed in-house (I run a 30" roland and laminator) as well as print-brokered jobs through subcontractors like 4over and Signs365
- I currently quote using a very robust Excel spreadsheet that I've built over 18 years and LOVE -- I can track my costs, profits, suppliers, etc -- BUT, it doesn't communicate with any of my other systems, all of which are necessary parts of my process.
- I track jobs and communicate with my employee through Trello (this has loads of internal automation but isn't my favorite. Revision rounds get cumbersome to direct and track and details get lost.)
- I proof jobs using Ashore (proofing needs to be robust because of the heavy design component -- I often proof multi-page documents)
- I invoice jobs using Xero
- I collect jobs through email, text and social media.
- No CRM. Most clients are ones I know well but I have ZERO automation other than the auto reminders on proofs and overdue invoices that comes with Ashore and Xero and ones within Trello, moving my cards between lists.

None of these systems currently communicate with one another so I feel like I'm spending A LOT of time manually entering information over and over again with a lot of unnecessary redundancies. I want to work smarter and free myself up from these non-billables.

I'm not afraid to invest a little money in development for the right system or pay a monthly fee for a good fit but my cap would be about $200/month + setup & onboarding based on my sales. I've looking at ShopVox, HexiHub, PrintLogic, PrintSmith, Midnight (Print Reach), ePro, and PrintPlanner. (SignTracker is great, but doesn't have enough of the features that I want.)

So far, it seems like the most customizable options (and the most affordable!) are Filemaker and SmartSheet but I wouldn't have the first clue where to begin and can't afford the time to learn and do it myself or the actual work here won't get done. I also like the idea of owning my content, just in case the vendor starts jacking prices, goes under, etc.

Suggestions on either a different system or a developer? (Also not opposed to discussing compensation for anyone who willing to share a similar system that I can start with.)
 
Pauly

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
I would advice against custom software.

You looked at all those option and yet, nothing good enough? what don't they have that you need?

Theres never a software that'll do everything you need. you need to adapt to how the software was designed.
 
S

StacyT

New Member
Pauly said:
I would advice against custom software.

You looked at all those option and yet, nothing good enough? what don't they have that you need?

Theres never a software that'll do everything you need. you need to adapt to how the software was designed.
Click to expand...
Oh, I understand this well, as my current pricing spreadsheet has been a work-in-progress over 18 years. What I like about it is that I have loads of control over it and I can adapt it to my needs as I change and grow. It's a completely different system than it was when I first started.

On the flip side, what I hate about it is that it's standalone and it while it's accurate, there are other parts of my process that it doesn't help with because it doesn't connect to any of my other systems. I want to be able to create my quote, click a button to turn it into an invoice AND a job, add my notes to my team or about my suppliers, track the job, close it out and keep it connected to my client's profile for easy future reference. Right now, I just have folders of YEARS worth of old quotes that I manually have to go through when a client wants to reorder and while my naming conventions are excellent, it's still a pain when the last time they ordered was 1+ years ago and I have to suddenly pull back up all of the details of the components of the job.
 
Pauly

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
StacyT said:
Oh, I understand this well, as my current pricing spreadsheet has been a work-in-progress over 18 years. What I like about it is that I have loads of control over it and I can adapt it to my needs as I change and grow. It's a completely different system than it was when I first started.

On the flip side, what I hate about it is that it's standalone and it while it's accurate, there are other parts of my process that it doesn't help with because it doesn't connect to any of my other systems. I want to be able to create my quote, click a button to turn it into an invoice AND a job, add my notes to my team or about my suppliers, track the job, close it out and keep it connected to my client's profile for easy future reference. Right now, I just have folders of YEARS worth of old quotes that I manually have to go through when a client wants to reorder and while my naming conventions are excellent, it's still a pain when the last time they ordered was 1+ years ago and I have to suddenly pull back up all of the details of the components of the job.
Click to expand...

Since you like what you've done with excel. This might work for you.

1st, see if you can use nocodb. It is like excel but its a database tool. if you can build you quoting engine in that, then you'll be able to do further automation and have other board views like a Kanban.
https://nocodb.com/

If that doesn't work then you should use Excel 365 or google sheets.
Now you can connect Zapier or n8n to the document and automate a few things.
e.g on a new row, you could send it to nocodb as a job, or to xero as an invoice. or both.
you could set if the job on nocodb status changes to complete, sends customer an email.

I feel like this is the path you're looking for.
 
S

StacyT

New Member
Pauly said:
Since you like what you've done with excel. This might work for you.

1st, see if you can use nocodb. It is like excel but its a database tool. if you can build you quoting engine in that, then you'll be able to do further automation and have other board views like a Kanban.
https://nocodb.com/

If that doesn't work then you should use Excel 365 or google sheets.
Now you can connect Zapier or n8n to the document and automate a few things.
e.g on a new row, you could send it to nocodb as a job, or to xero as an invoice. or both.
you could set if the job on nocodb status changes to complete, sends customer an email.

I feel like this is the path you're looking for.
Click to expand...
I love the idea of being able to somehow use my existing spreadsheet and then build automations between that and my other systems but that's where I hit a wall. I'm so used to using it a certain way and I have such limited understanding of coding that when I attempt to use Zapier, I really don't understand the options and how to properly implement them. This is where I could use someone to help me set it up, but I have no idea where to find such a person.
 
Pauly

Pauly

Printrade.com.au
StacyT said:
I love the idea of being able to somehow use my existing spreadsheet and then build automations between that and my other systems but that's where I hit a wall. I'm so used to using it a certain way and I have such limited understanding of coding that when I attempt to use Zapier, I really don't understand the options and how to properly implement them. This is where I could use someone to help me set it up, but I have no idea where to find such a person.
Click to expand...

YouTube. Watch some tutorials.
Even ask chat gpt. You'll be surprised on the answers you get.
Since you've done excel yourself, learning zapier, will move you forward. Then you can tweak your workflows.

Also check out nocodb. If you can use that to replace excel, you'll get even further.

I'm not sure how your excel worksx especially with the calculations. But if you can find a way to build that in nocodb, the only tasks you'll use zapier for is creating invoices from Nocodb to Xero.
Eventually you'll automate other tasks.
 
S

StacyT

New Member
Pauly said:
YouTube. Watch some tutorials.
Even ask chat gpt. You'll be surprised on the answers you get.
Since you've done excel yourself, learning zapier, will move you forward. Then you can tweak your workflows.

Also check out nocodb. If you can use that to replace excel, you'll get even further.

I'm not sure how your excel worksx especially with the calculations. But if you can find a way to build that in nocodb, the only tasks you'll use zapier for is creating invoices from Nocodb to Xero.
Eventually you'll automate other tasks.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I will definetly be doing my research on this.
 
pro-UP

pro-UP

New Member
Someone on this forum is looking for beta testers for custom software they just made: BrysonMichael

It sounds like something that may fit what you need. Good luck (this is a painful and time consuming process).
 
G

GB2

Old Member
Stacy, Filemaker is a great solution but for someone with no experience to start from scratch and try to develop their own robust system, it would not be easy. There are Filemaker developers that you can hire to get your started, just search that term Filemaker Developer. There are many people here that dream of that perfect solution that you seek, we should get a few to go in together and get this done once and for all. If you hire someone to develop it for you, just be sure that in the end you have an unlocked program that you own. After using it for a while, you will come to understand how it works and probably will be able to maintain it into the future yourself.

There is a free program at RC Consulting that can be used as a starting point and then customized for your business. This process is similar to a website....you can struggle trying to figure out how to build a website yourself, you can buy into a templated, canned website or you can hire a website developer to create a custom website for you....so which one would you be?
 
D

DARRELL OAKS

Premium Subscriber
StacyT said:
Oh, I understand this well, as my current pricing spreadsheet has been a work-in-progress over 18 years. What I like about it is that I have loads of control over it and I can adapt it to my needs as I change and grow. It's a completely different system than it was when I first started.

On the flip side, what I hate about it is that it's standalone and it while it's accurate, there are other parts of my process that it doesn't help with because it doesn't connect to any of my other systems. I want to be able to create my quote, click a button to turn it into an invoice AND a job, add my notes to my team or about my suppliers, track the job, close it out and keep it connected to my client's profile for easy future reference. Right now, I just have folders of YEARS worth of old quotes that I manually have to go through when a client wants to reorder and while my naming conventions are excellent, it's still a pain when the last time they ordered was 1+ years ago and I have to suddenly pull back up all of the details of the components of the job.
Click to expand...
We have been using Filemaker for years and would recommend it as it can evolve as you do. You don't have to be a programmer (I'm not). Call Claris and talk to them, buy the program, I hate monthly bills. If you don't want to program it you can hire one of the memebers to create your database to get you started and learn as you go so to speak. we started with one copy and now run five throughout our shop. Great for invoicing, inventory and quotes, everything is in real time. Best part is when someone call we can pull up the job there are talking about and see a picture of what was done. No canned program i going to have everything you want. With Filemaker you can make it a simple as you want or as complicated up to you.
 
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