Sign quoting / Job Tracking software solutions

[RL67POLO]

Hey guys,

I'm a second generation sign guy and designer and just took over my family's 25 year business very recently.. Originall posted in the premium section but havent gotten any responses to my thread so i figured id give a go around in the open forum

We've been looking for quite sometime to get a pricing and job management software for my shop but can only seem to find cloud based software targeted for our industry. Do any of you have experience with local hosted non cloud software that has helped structure the flow of jobs and pricing at your sign shops?

The issue is Im having a hard time coming from design and labor aspect into the business/backend and its really hard as the shop was run very oldschool with pricing and job tickets ( I do like the system but its sometimes inconsistent and not enough tracking or consistency)


There must be something out there...We have looked at Cyrious / Estimate as well as a custom FileMaker option but would I'd like to hear input from other people in the same biz. Ive done tons of googling and reading etc but would like to here some personal experiences


really appreciate any advice on this

 

[JJM7288]

We use Cyrious Control, could not imagine operating without it. There is a learning curve but once understood quite easy and intuitive.

 

[DirtyD]

I have used Cyrious Control.. That program has everything.... It does have a learning curve.. Kinda steep and VERY setup heavy but it's worth it. I used that at a company I worked used to work for, now I am on my own and am looking for software as well.. I would go back to Cyrious but cannot afford it at this time...

I am using a trial of Sign Tracker and not really enjoying it, seems to generic I can't even email the customer the quote thru it.. I have to download - save - upload to email- then send... Wasn't to impressed with Estimate either, or Graphix Calc.... Going to try the new Shopvox trial, but to get what I need It's $200 bucks a month..That's a lot of green..

 

[jtinker]

We had cyrious. As a software engineer I could not understand how something could be so expensive and so buggy at the same time. I would say just get estimate + quickbooks. Thats what everyone else seems to be doing. Although I would like to ask, why are you shying away from cloud software?

 

[DirtyD]

I can't speak for him personally but in my experience "most" do not like files and info on the cloud, I do not mind it,, if I want hard copies then I can save it.. Am I scared of a hack or breach.. a little, but not so much that it would prevent me from doing it

And Cyrious is waaay expensive.. and your right it is buggy, I still like it though, but that price

 

[RL67POLO]

Ya cyrious did look pretty buggy initially but I cant speak for it as I havent used it just have seen the demonstrations etc. Ive tried estimate and it seems good but still in the demo I cant get the price setup properly.. It does look like a great piece of software though

As for why no cloud, I used to do unix and linux programming when I was a young kid and have never been a fan of wireless or 'cloud' I have seen things that make me not trust data floating out there.. to me its just someone I dont know and in the same industry as me holding my company data co-location and very high security risk. Not to mention my monthly overhead I could be paying for 4 ferrari enzo car payments and really cant afford to shell out 150-200 a month on something that will also have me not feeling 100% on

Call me nuts but why in every other industry ie: construction, liquor stores, retail etc do they have local installed software one time payment and can run circles around our industry software?

Honestly someone really should make a solid software that is one time payment that can do what we need not try to hose us.. just sayin

 

[rjssigns]

Estimate with QuickBooks here. I have very little interaction with it though. Wife is the accounting whiz.

Maybe there is some open source stuff floating around on the web? Never looked...

 

[jtinker]

Estimate with QuickBooks here. I have very little interaction with it though. Wife is the accounting whiz.

Maybe there is some open source stuff floating around on the web? Never looked...

There is something called CreateAbid I'v used it to test it out. Its free to use with a paid version. It works, but it is in my opinion underdeveloped. The website looks very bland, like the starter kits you get when you buy a domain.

Creating software for a strictly retail enviroment is easy. Just like the process of buying from the stores they serve. Sign manufacturing is somewhere between small jobs manufacturing and retail storefronts. Most would not think of creating the software unless they are 1. In the industry or 2. Have a deep knowledge of the industry / need. You couldnt pull subscriptions with retail software because there are just so many out there. You need to make your money quick and dirty. But with the signage software development industry there are a few big boys and a couple little fish. The little fish usually opt out for the one time payment but with that you get a software that is lacking in many ways (signimate, signestimator, etc) Usually beefed up excell sheets.

Data security especially for cloud based software is safer in my opinion. Even the most basic server companies have backups for all data for all customers in at least two locations around the world. Lets say there is a fire, or a flood, or a theft of the machine. All your data is gone.

The cloud computing industry has come a long way in a very short time. I could have 1 terabyte of server information transfered from a server in germany to a server in california in a couple of miniutes with no downtime for users if the boxes were virtual.

 

[RL67POLO]

Im totally cool with the cloud, My own cloud. We have our data backed up on site and off site at a co-location for complete redundancy incase of disaster

Its not that I dont trust the cloud I dont trust my business info,numbers,etc with people who are in my same industry hosting it

 

[JJM7288]

I like having our file server in our building in a nice locked, cooled room. We utilize off-site backup with a local provider.
Cyrious has (had) a few glitches but they are very responsive and treat us very well.
I would not want to operate without it.
Call them, I'm sure they have an affordable payment method.

 

[DirtyD]

They do have a monthly payment plan.. It's $1000.00 down for setup and training then $99 a month

 

[gnemmas]

Cyrious here also, more than 15 years. Very reliable, fast, take seconds to generate a quote. Not like other cloud based that make you jump hoops to generate a simple quote.

Other objection for subscription type is the cost. $140/mo seems cheap to get in, (that is exactly their plan), compare to lease a car, $140/mo can get you a $12,000 car. So basically, they are valuing their software at more than $10,000. In that sense, $3,500 Cyrious is more reasonable. You OWN it, well, you own the license to use it indefinitely.

Plus, the payment is perpetual, can increase at their desire, (one increase already in the short period time since available).

 

[RL67POLO]

Thank you to everybody who chimed in, actually a lot of great info has been posted in here. I still think its unfair when I google other industry's and they have all kinds of one time payment decent-good software that is not cloud based. Still cant figure out why the sign business has to be so complicated with its software, If I owned a liquor store I would pay $2000 and have inventory tracking, polling, pricing, e-ordering for product from vendors, reports of sales to the day year month etc..

Ive re contacted cyrious and will see if they have a solution for my shop.. Will let you guys know how we do!

Would still love to hear any other opinions from you guys, I know a few mentioned excel spreadsheets , This seems like something also that could be really handy for quick pricing/estimating

 

[DirtyD]

You can always get a local POS system designer, design one to your liking, They know what they are doing just have to let them know what you need it to do, then they can implement it to work they way you need it instead of the way they think it should work like the software we've been talking about

 

[nikdoobs]

We created our own estimator and project tracker in Excel. They work great for us

 

[Gino]

Okay, I hafta ask. When tracking these things, what are you guys/gals tracking ??

• How many of a particular sign group you sell ??
• To what kind of customers buy the most type of a sign ??
• What does something cost along the whole trail of making a sign... large or small ??
• Are certain people costing you too much in the shop ??
• What every screw and piece of vinyl costs in any particular project ??

I'm not from an accounting background, so I'm sure what this portion of the software does. Perhaps, I missing out on something, I should've been doing for years.

Gino​

 

[CanuckSigns]

Cyrious here also, more than 15 years. Very reliable, fast, take seconds to generate a quote. Not like other cloud based that make you jump hoops to generate a simple quote.

Other objection for subscription type is the cost. $140/mo seems cheap to get in, (that is exactly their plan), compare to lease a car, $140/mo can get you a $12,000 car. So basically, they are valuing their software at more than $10,000. In that sense, $3,500 Cyrious is more reasonable. You OWN it, well, you own the license to use it indefinitely.

Plus, the payment is perpetual, can increase at their desire, (one increase already in the short period time since available).

I agree, I'm not a huge fan of the monthly subscription model, I don't have any issues with the cloud.

My biggest pet peeve with all the software I've looked at is the price per user, in our shop we have 1-2 people quoting/creating work orders, however there are other people who need access (bookkeeper, production staff) and once you start adding up the users, the price per month skyrockets! The kicker is that except for the 2 people quoting, everyone else is just a "read only" user (viewing existing workorders to get information), but you need to buy them a full licence.

We currently use Estimate (desktop version) for quoting and quickbooks for invoicing, Estimate recently completely discontinued all support of their desktop versions, to the point where I can't even buy a second copy.

The monthly subscription model does nothing to benefit the end user, it is 100% completely to increase profit and provide a monthly revenue stream to the software company.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Okay, I hafta ask. When tracking these things, what are you guys/gals tracking ??

• How many of a particular sign group you sell ??
• To what kind of customers buy the most type of a sign ??
• What does something cost along the whole trail of making a sign... large or small ??
• Are certain people costing you too much in the shop ??
• What every screw and piece of vinyl costs in any particular project ??

I'm not from an accounting background, so I'm sure what this portion of the software does. Perhaps, I missing out on something, I should've been doing for years.

Gino​

I can't speak for everyone, but we track the progress of a job, so everyone in the shop can quickly tell where any job stands. I.E.

-John's Barbershop sign is ready for installation
- We're waiting on acrylic for Jim's garage sign face
- while i'm ordering vinyl for Jim's sign, I can also order vinyl for these other 3 jobs to save on shipping.

etc. We don't keep track of job expenses or what does/does not sell, most of that is still in our heads.

 

[JJM7288]

We maintain our tech support subscription, monthly cost for (6) licensed users is $140 or so. Licensed users include, estimating, accounting, shipping and me. Of course production station is on every PC in the shop and all stations use it. We are still barely scratching the surface of Control features but continue to implement features as we go. I was just adding install dates and assigning personnel in activity manager.
Think big, the benefits far outweigh the price and profit is guaranteed, at least from material/labor and supply point of view. The best time to implement is when you are starting out.
Please ignore me if you are in the Indianapolis area, We want to maintain our advantage!

 

[DirtyD]

At my last company I got us Cyrious, We tracked job cost from ink, media, substrate, time, grommets etc. We also kept records of our pipeline upto 3 months, with sell price and then another log for margin to goal etc. We were using 8 different excell spreadsheets at any given time.. We got Cyrious to be able to handle all of what we wanted with a few clicks.

We were creating our own reports but retyping and copy pasting over and over when Softwares do it in the background.. Thats why we primarily had it..