Organizing outsourced jobs?

[GoodPeopleFlags]

Long story (I won't bore you with the details) but I've started a new business and most everything is outsourced. We're starting to pick up steam and I realize that I need some sort of spreadsheet or program that I can enter the orders as they come in, the date, the name of the job, the date I ordered it from my vendor and the date it should be ready for pick up. The orders come in via 3 sources and it's getting tough to keep it all straight.

I could just keep a notebook and write them down. I could just create a regular spreadsheet in Open Office. Or, could this be done efficiently in QuickBooks? I really just wanted to see if you guys had any better solutions.

 

[2B]

trello works good for us for tracking projects and keeping all information together for said project

 

[JJM7288]

Curious Control. It's scalable to growth, creates value and affordable.

 

[TrustMoore_TN]

Curious Control. It's scalable to growth, creates value and affordable.

IMO Control is a huge investment for a new shop. It would certainly do what he's asking but I think it's overkill in this situation. You could look a project management solution. We use the Zoho suite in part for project management and CRM. The 1 user license is free and if it works for you, you could upgrade with more users. Takes a little bit to wrap your head around everything, but that's the case with any thing like this. www.zoho.com
Good Luck!

 

[Gene@mpls]

Trello for us but I can see Smartsheet working for some people as well.

 

[rossmosh]

Via Quickbooks you can generate PO's which will allow you to maintain order. Another option is a calendar program. Thunderbird should be able to offer you quite a bit of options, especially with their various add-ons. It has the potential to do what you need and give you various reminders to check up on orders or let you know when orders should be coming in.

 

[T_K]

I'm just getting the new printing department set up for a marketing firm. Right now, we're not making enough off the printing side to justify purchasing a software program...yet. We just don't need all the functionality for the volume and dollar amount at this time.

I've used CASper before, but it was pretty gimpy in my opinion.

What I'm using now is an excel sheet where I list out the information needed. Customer name, contact, order number, dates, etc.