Job management

[altereddezignz]

I have read through several post about managements and things like that. Most of them have to do with hiring someone or what software to use to quote jobs.
What i am looking for is a way to track jobs from start to finish to make sure nothing is being left behind and that it is completed on its due date and things like that.

I would be mostly the only person top use this but at times 1 or 2 other people might enter an order so it would need to be simple.

I had thought about building a spreadsheet and building a data base with cost of static materials like sign blanks and so on.

I already have a spreadsheet that allows you to end the size and qty of the items to tell you your exact cost.
This only gives you a ruff idea of labor costs as i am working on that now.

Sorry i got a little of track so anyways back to the original question.

Easy way to track incoming and out going jobs. Due dates, reminders maybe, weather the proof has been apprived or not, Changed needing to be made after the fact and so on.

Thanks everyone.

 

[bannertime]

What you're looking for is called project management and CRM software. SignTracker is the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[myront]

Software? Might be nice. Have to check into it. We use custom designed paper workorders.
1. Order comes in and the sales staff fills out the workorder with all the particulars.
2. places the workorder and any supporting documents/illustrations into a "job jacket"
3. Place the job jacket into the "New Jobs" basket
4. Write it on the centrally located "big dry erase board" as "proof" under the appropriate date and in the appropriate color and also under the promised by date.
4. Designers grab the stack, sort them by due date and place them into another basket
5. Designer takes job jacket and proceeds with the layout, prints an 8.5 x 11 proof sheet and places into the appropriate salespersons basket for review and/or email.
6. Once emailed for review it goes into a "proof" basket" waiting on customer approval
7. Upon approval it's stamped and placed into the returned proofs basket. And the job listing under the approval date gets circled indicating it's approved and waiting for print
8. Designer exports to appropriate RIP station for print
9. Places job jacket in printer personnels basket
And...

More simple than it sounds here

 

[Pete Moss]

http://blog.capterra.com/free-open-source-project-management-software/

 

[JoeBoomer]

Software

Good print shop software is:

Shopvox is pretty good - Might be a little overkill, and a bit of a learning curve.

Cyrious or Corebridge - Even more hardcore, but lots of functionality


Good Project Management software (not necessarily good estimating though)

- TeamWork Project Management - Super easy, can e-mail files and info directly into system w/tags. Great for task management and keeping all details of a project together.

- BaseCamp - Dumbed down version of TeamWork




I really like TeamWork, but it might not be the best solution for you. It's worth a trial.

 

[hcardwell93]

The job jackets and a well played out whiteboard are very useful.

 

[myront]

The job jackets and a well played out whiteboard are very useful.

Years ago I tried to make my own sort of spreadsheet that everyone could keep open at their desktop and update as needed but no one seemed to be able to get the hang of it. I thought it worked pretty good but...

"yeah, I'm calling to get a status update on my banner." salesperson replies "What's your name and what's the banner for? Ok, let me go see where it is in the production process"

Sure would easier for them if they could just see that info right at there desktop.

 

[Ditchmiester]

We've been fighting to find a good fit for our business for project management software for years. Everything off the shelf doesn't seem to fit our business model. Unfortunately the best option is to find one you like and adjust how you do things to fit it. You will never find the perfect software.

 

[Antnee]

I use Trello.com. Its probably the cheapest system you can create. I made tabs for Design/Prepress, Print Production, Finishing etc. Projects can be dragged and dropped into each area. Its cloud based and you can have multiple people use it.

 

[2B]

I use Trello.com. Its probably the cheapest system you can create. I made tabs for Design/Prepress, Print Production, Finishing etc. Projects can be dragged and dropped into each area. Its cloud based and you can have multiple people use it.

would also suggest you look into TRELLO.COM

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

I thought Trello would be a good fit for us, but it wasn't. It may work well for a small shop that has "linear" projects that follow a prescribed path through the workflow. For our operation, we have projects that have multiple departments working on different phases of them at the same time. Unless we did a lot of double entry in Trello, we couldn't use it. We started using Zoho Projects and we're still working out the bugs, but we can setup task templates that can be assigned per department and will show project completion percentages and allow us to "Tag" the next person involved in the project once a task is completed. We use a separate accounting package to manage all of the financial dealings.

 

[hcardwell93]

I forgot about Trello, but that is an awesome suggestion! Create the boards you want with customer jobs underneath. When it moves from Sales to Design just drag and drop the job to the proper board.

You can add lists, due dates, attachments, notes, etc.

 

[daenterpri]

This is why I came on the boards today, to see what people are using for sales and production management. We had been using a combination of things for sales and then using Trello.com for production. We actually really like Trello for production.

We looked into ShopVox and even signed up for it yesterday after a webinar, but already we are seeing the following problems:

1. It's kinda slow and lags for a while depending on the page. It feels kinda buggy in some places.
2. If our production manager tries to look at the job board on another computer it logs him out of the previous computer. They do this so that people will not abuse their licensing, but in our scenario, we have way more computers that need access to the production board than actual workers. Trello doesn't limit us this way.
3. The support guys are all in India and they don't quite seem like they relate to you when you ask questions.

So even though we signed up just yesterday, we will likely cancel ShopVox for now.

Our goal is to integrate our sales (CRM) with our production so that all of the customers information stays in the same place. And of course, something that is nice to use. Any other suggestions?

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

Zoho has a CRM module that we use with project management. It's a little clunky though. You can check it out for free for a limited number of users.

 

[Sidney]

We would love to personally answer any of your questions. GraphixCalc Sign Estimator is an incredible Sign Pricing Tool that began in 2003.

Call me Directly at 754-610-5955 (Florida Location)

 

[James Burke]

We ditched the whiteboard and made a magnetic Kanban board. See it in this thread

order management??

 

[JJM7288]

Our workflow is very similar. We use Cyrious Control, very organized workflow through multiple (process) stations. On-time, the very-time, can't imagine operating without it. The learning curve and setup is challenging but once fully implemented, absolutely wonderful.

 

[JJM7288]

On-time, every-time...damn auto fill.