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What do you use to manage and track everyday jobs?

charliet

New Member
Hi! We are a small shop growing quickly, we have 16 employees and have been using a paper ticket system. As we grow, we have come across problems tracking jobs and are looking at integrating software to solve these problems. While being able to easily price jobs is a plus, we are more concerned about the order tracking and being able to see exactly where the order is in our shop.

We have looked into SignVox, Cyrious, and Estimate so far. SignVox didn't sees to really meet our needs. Cyrious seems like a great fit, but it is quite an investment. We would love some advice and input from companies who have used or are using some of these programs!
 
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Stormyj

Just another guy
Ive been wondering this also. I was thinking about a white board, carefully organized by day, or job type, jobs needing followup, things like that. Id like to hear what other people do.
 

2B

Active Member
take a look at Trello, we have had good success with this for tracking.
It is a drag and drop gui interface.

https://trello.com/


There are plenty of Youtube Vids showing how it works
 

Kevin-shopVOX

New Member
There is also www.shopvox.com which is order management only, online proofing and resources management. It will show you exactly where your jobs are at, when they are due, who is working on them as well as track the time spent on the processes your jobs go through. Contact me for more information, live demo and a free trial.
 

QuickSilver2605

New Member
We have a big magnetic job board our main room, each job goes in a folder and hung in the appropriate area, Artwork needed/proof to customer/print ect. After reading this I setup a trello account, and that seems to work great for our four person shop.
 

SignVOX

Merchant Member
Check out shopVOX Express....

Hi Everyone,
Please checkout shopVOX Express from the makers of signVOX.
This is just production mgmt only product which will either work integrated into your Quick Books or manually create jobs with a click of a button and perform, online proofing, custom workflow for all the Print products and also machine allocation all in one easy tool.

It takes about 2 minutes to signup and we are giving away free accounts till end of the month before it is officially launched. Have tens of beta customers running hundreds of jobs through.

Check it out and click on the link to get a free trial now or send an email to sales@shopvox.com

http://www.shopvox.com/signup

We have pre-defined work flow templates for Sign, Print, Promotional and Awards Industries setup already.

(right mouse click on images and open in new tab to see larger images of the below screen shots)



View attachment 100928
List View of the Jobs
View attachment 100929
Card View of the jobs in Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production.
View attachment 100930
Workflow view of jobs for different types of products
View attachment 100931
Job Details page with configurable workflows (see the top boxes which show steps in Pre-Production)
View attachment 100932
Job Details page with configurable workflows (see the top boxes which show steps in Production)
View attachment 100933
Job Details page with configurable workflows (see the top boxes which show steps in Post-Production)

Also checkout machine definitions and Machine scheduling of jobs.
View attachment 100934
List of machine/resources define. This could be your vehicles as well as bucket trucks etc.,

View attachment 100935
And here is a list of jobs assigned currently to a given machine in the priority order that needs to be processed.


Try it out today for free before the official release date.

Regards
Rao Meka
 

neil_se

New Member
Where do you think Signvox falls short Charlie? We were using Estimate up until 2 years ago, I think it's good for a small shop but it lacked the features we needed so we moved up to Signvox.
 

charliet

New Member
Where do you think Signvox falls short Charlie? We were using Estimate up until 2 years ago, I think it's good for a small shop but it lacked the features we needed so we moved up to Signvox.

I wouldn't say it fell short, it just wasn't quite what we were looking for.

Thanks for the input!
 
Hey guys. Just came across this while researching something else. Our company has been using Vujade Software for a while now, and we LOVE it! The CEO of that company apparently worked in the sign industry specifically for over a decade and then designed the software. I'm not trying to sound like a salesperson here, but the software is really that good. Everyone is running off of it - our design team, sales, accounting...

Just saying - we love it. You should check them out. www.vujadesoftware.com

- Joe
 

TimToad

Active Member
Wow,

When a 16 person shop is described as small and it reveals its still using hand written, paper orders, tracking, etc... then we must be invisible and in the dark ages. There are three of us, we use Quickbooks for all of our bookkeeping and estimating stuff, a decent work order form and a dry erase board for tracking progress on projects. We do have a fairly comprehensive pricing guide based on local pricing for routine jobs and we use the Signcraft pricing guide as a starting point on unique projects.

I just took over this company May 1st, so the priority has been to keep the work going out the door, improve efficiency and make systemic and infrastructural improvements as we go.

I've looked at Cyrious and Signvox and will add the others mentioned to my list to consider for implementation by years end. It might take me that long to keep up with the workflow while trying to organize my predecessor's byzantine and cluster (you know what ) file organization processes.
 

paul luszcz

New Member
We tried a number of more expensive solutions but are currently using and loving Basecamp.

It's a generic program that's not at all specific to the sign industry, but it keeps everyone on the same page, notifies team members when they get an assignment, compiles and labels (Approved, etc) files and emails and much more. The founders of Basecamp describe it as a communication tool more than a project management system.

We set up project templates with to do lists and use them to start projects, customizing them as needed.

All in all, because it's so flexible, we find it much, much easier to start up and use than more specific programs.

I just spent a week in the Caribbean and reviewed everything my team did the previous day with a simple Basecamp summary that everyone gets every morning. I was on the beach by 8 AM each day.
 

2B

Active Member
"not trying to sound like a salesperson here"..... says the person that has the company in their name?? :noway:

Stay classy, San Diego.

If you're going to try to break the rules you would think you would at least pretend to be smart about it.

As for your software, it looks extremely over-priced and under-developed, especially when compared to software like SignVox.

+1 :Big Laugh:popcorn::ROFLMAO:
 
I was looking at sign trackers 1-3 package. Does anyone have experience with this?

I was looking at signvox, but I can't justify paying for 10 users when we don't have that many that would be logging into it. I would love to try it and see if we can justify it.

This Vujade software looks very low budget. There website looks low budget. I would not pay $1320 for initial setup, then $385 a month, then have to pay for support. If I pay you $1320 and $385 a month you better be giving me premium support. Looking at their website, what is a "4GB CPU"??????? Maybe 4GB of ram, or 4core CPU? Sorry guys, a side from a lot lacking from your site, trying to advertise somewhere people are looking for information is irritating.

Cyrious looks like a great software. I've spoken to them and they were very nice. It just looks very windows 95 to me.

So guys, for me right now it's sign tracker or signvox... signvox is a stretch but I love the vehicle wrap add-on and that it's really pushing me that way. I just emailed them about a free account.
 

SignVOX

Merchant Member
Check out shopVOX

Hi,
If you are just interested in job management then our new offering, shopVOX Express is the best bet. It only costs $49/Month (includes one user) and $10 per extra user.
Also you can try it out for free for 15 days.

However if you are looking for full suite, CRM, Pricing, Order Mgmt, etc., then signVOX is the right choice for you and take a webinar and see how $139 is worth all the money.

Here are some screen shots (right mouse and open in new tab/window for larger images) for shopVOX Express (Job Management only with configurable workflow, online proofing, resource allocation and syncs with your QB desktop and soon with QB Online to get the estimates into as work orders).

shopVOX - comes with 15 day trial and you can check it out without any commitment and it is easy to use and you will be up and running in 10 min.
signVOX - take a free webinar any time and then you can decide to use it or not - again no long term contracts , month to month, pay as you go.

Let me know if you are interested to take a look into one of the products.
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Joe Arenella

Customer Care
Sign Tracker provides a huge value for the cost.

Would encourage everyone to take advantage of the free trial for Sign Tracker. The pricing is based on users, and it caps out at 99.00 per month. Easy job flow system, simple quoting, crm and more all included!

Joe
 

Joe Arenella

Customer Care
Stealing software

Rao (Rav) and Kevin,

It has taken me a week to cool off and talk to an attorney, but it is clear that you signed up for a free trial of Sign Tracker, hired one of our former employees, and now you come out with a job flow board that is exactly like our software.

You have an army of developers in India, and the resources to research and develop whatever solution your clients need. You do not have to steal from us. It is completely unprofessional and dishonest.

I am requesting that this situation be resolved amicably by either: A. remove the job flow board from your system, or B. compensate us for the IP.

Your prompt response is of the utmost importance. We are trying to help sign shops with the most affordable solution, and I have even recommended SignVox when SignTracker was not a fit for some shops. I have had open and friendly conversations with you both, and see this as very unethical move on the part of your company and leadership.

Please let me know how you intend to rectify the situation.

Respectfully,

Joe Arenella / Sign Tracker
 
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