Has Anyone here used Printavo as their Business Management software?

[TXFB.INS]

Because you are asking this question, my guess is you're not quite ready for the software. You're first step might be to ask yourself and your staff what you need a software solution to help you with.

Are you familiar with Excel? Do you want to consolidate and share separate spreadsheets in a more convenient manner? Could you use job tracking, logs of time sheets, purchase orders, suppliers, site surveys, etc.? Remote data access from phones and tablets? The list goes on.

I would look at the feature list from the various software providers and consider exactly how the solution might help me in those particular areas. Then I would try to learn exactly how the software provider could make that happen after I talked with their happy customers. More than once.

I would beg to differ slightly.

having worked here for eight years I have seen SEVERAL versions of processes and software tried.
The last software was such a waste it never went live, even after countless hours of trying. There was a total loss of money.
On a side note if the company offers a test period for their software / program......... take it, do NOT rely on their website, YouTube videos, or sales pitch. they only showcase the high points

currently in place are written work orders, Excel Files, PDF files, Quickbooks, job packet sleeves and Trello.
while this combination of steps is getting us by,some days better than others, we are currently a shop of 6 and looking to expand both in physical and E-commerce.
Which will require more streamline, efficiency.and automation

Then to add another wrinkle is the range of items that are offered, wide format, screen printing, paper printing, engraving, etc...

too often I hear, "hey I have XXXX on the phone and wants to know where their order stands?" or " I can't access the XXXX Excel file, who has it open?", "why are there 5 versions to the XXXX file" "what orders are approved for production?" "what material was quoted for this order"
Then when you add in the sales guys working out of office who are either calling or Emailing in, for any of the above or to make changes to orders.

By the end of the day, it seems like more time is spent playing hide n seek and maintaining what is there vs improving.


Finally there are no better critics than end users, hence this is why this forum is here.
What points work best for you, what did you find that needs to be addressed, etc.
If all sales pitches, descriptions, software, tools, etc. were full disclosure and transparent and did everything asked of it, then we would all be happy and cheerful like a litter of puppies.
OR if someone wants to provide an open / unlimited credit line I would more than happy to test the different software and compare them
Cause in point, CoreBridge has live demos, but for you to "test" it, there is a $1,500 set up cost.


Just yesterday, we had to disassemble and repair one of the Roland printers because the tech that replaced the head put the capping station head on backwards and caused a loss of vacuum, which caused the vacuum pump to burn up. all of this happened AM and there were 3 rush jobs that had to be completed by that afternoon.
Called the tech, "my bad those darn things can fit either way, I can come out next week for the repairs"

 

[ColorCrest]

The biggest thing missing from corebridge that I'm finding in my company is a intelligent, intuitive communication of the product you are wanting your production team to make.

I don’t know what a CoreBridge work order for sign production looks like, however typical work orders for sign graphics manufacturing have at least the following for each line item…

#####
Line Item ID Number
Customer’s reference name or description for the line item product
Internal name of the product
qty
size
—
machine & print mode
each layer of materials
each layer of labor process (if necessary)
—
possibly each art file name for this particular line item
possibly special production notes for this particular line item
#####

So, do your production people not have the information of the layers or “parts” (between the dashes above)?

This block of text should automatically be formed from merging previously created text strings held in other specific fields from a database of products or parts and I would hope CoreBridge has that functionality.

 

[ColorCrest]

having worked here for eight years I have seen SEVERAL versions of processes and software tried.

I empathize with you, truly.

Tell me this; do you have Excel sheets for the following: staff, customers, suppliers, purchase orders, materials, products, quotes, work orders, production list with due date, and possibly invoices (before entering into QuickBooks)?

Do you consider your Excel sheets to be well structured? There is a concept of "one-fact, one-field." ALL of the spreadsheet columns should have only a single type of data. For example a person's first name is separated from their last name and their address is separated by the street number, city, state, zip code, etc. A date column is just that, a date column and not a number column, etc.

These are steps to get something working for you.

 

[Graphic Extremes]

are their any updates to this topping

 

[ColorCrest]

are their any updates to this topping

I too, wonder what the latest takeaways are after some have visited the trade shows they've mentioned.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We are nearly fully converted... the only issues we are majorly having is quickbooks sync is horrible for us and doesn't work. we are having to convert to manual which sucks

 

[ColorCrest]

We are nearly fully converted... the only issues we are majorly having is quickbooks sync is horrible for us and doesn't work. we are having to convert to manual which sucks

Thanks for the update! Would like to know what the staff thinks in a few more weeks or so.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

My staff has a love hate with it right now... There is alot going on and so much info. Info organization is the biggest complaint

 

[Graphic Extremes]

Thank you on the feed back for this. I am currently looking for something to manage my shop.

 

[TXFB.INS]

are their any updates to this topping

I too, wonder what the latest takeaways are after some have visited the trade shows they've mentioned.

tried to visit with them at the NBM show in Texas, but they were not there this year.
They were supposed to be at the Florida ISA show. did not go there though so cannot comment

 

[TXFB.INS]

2CT Media
curious how the integration went

for that matter if anyone has dealt with CoreBridge and what you think of the software?

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

2CT Media
curious how the integration went

for that matter if anyone has dealt with CoreBridge and what you think of the software?

I will say it's not perfect, for us there are just as many issues as shopvox... but there are a lot more features, and I can access all of our data at any time, where unfortunately shopvox holds you hostage. They literally want us to access each invoice and download them individually as PDFs of we want access to each line item.

That said I dont know if our standards are just high or our logic works differently but eventually we are going to build our own solution.

 

[Bly]

2CT Media
curious how the integration went

for that matter if anyone has dealt with CoreBridge and what you think of the software?

We've been using it for 3 or 4 months now and are finding it great.

 

[Bly]

I will say it's not perfect, for us there are just as many issues as shopvox... but there are a lot more features, and I can access all of our data at any time, where unfortunately shopvox holds you hostage. They literally want us to access each invoice and download them individually as PDFs of we want access to each line item.

That said I dont know if our standards are just high or our logic works differently but eventually we are going to build our own solution.

What's it not doing for you?

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

What's it not doing for you?

Its just convoluted in some areas, glitchy in others, and not inclusive for other parts... I could write a long list but we are working through it and in a few weeks they are discussing new features that may help us.

 

[ColorCrest]

Ducks in a row…

The first step (which seems many people do not sufficiently accomplish) is to create a single list of materials, machines, and services. The second step is to notice how the list should be grouped and optimized*. The list may start as a text document but should evolve into a spreadsheet where it will ultimately become a table in a database. The table will use a simple but strict structure of discrete column names (attributes) and unique row (record) identifiers of a number and material name combination of (usually) up to three primary attributes; category, nomenclature, size / color, etc., e.g., Substrate/Gatorfoam/1x48x96 black.

* Where I feel some of the solution providers are failing in their effort toward customer satisfaction. They’re not adequately explaining and helping enough with this task.

It's not uncommon to have upwards of 1000 materials in the final table but realize the vast majority are just variations of the root material. Same goes for the final table of Products / Services.

 

[mjkjr]

We were also with Vox, really did not like it, went with Sign Tracker® | your business. simplified. ... not as much detail but way more user friendly

Holy heck, this looks like the product that I've been wishing for for a while now! Thanks for posting this! It seems to address several problems that I've been trying to overcome (mostly quoting and work order generation). And it's reasonably priced for a little shop like mine to get into I can't afford most other products like this as I just haven't grown big enough. The catch 22 for me has been some of the issues that this software would solve would help streamline my process, but I can't afford to pay during the lag time between getting it set up and getting results that cover the cost of the software.

I'm going to go watch all of their demo videos now to make sure it's everything I'm hoping before signing up for the trial. I wish I wasn't so busy right now so I'd have time to invest in setting a product like this up. Add it to the list I guess.

 

[sam gha]

We have been users of the SignVox/ShopVox product since 2014... It has become grossly apparent that they will never change, in fact their most recent upgrades has literally caused us to work 3 times as hard and it's getting old and expensive!

We have been on the hunt for other solutions and I have come across Printavo but I have only found 1 "Sign" shop that has written a online reviews of them. I was wondering if I the vast knowledge base here if anyone of you have any experience with them.

I hear ya, we're in the same boat, been using signvox since 2013, time for changing, it's becoming so old and expensive, tried to switch with to a cheaper option, shopvox, not convinced, the only reason I came today to the forums is to look for a different option, It looks like the option you selected is not cheap also, please keep us posted with the integration, thanks for the info.