Does Company Management Software Exist?

The small company I work for uses QuickBooks with an integrated additional inventory management software package called All Orders by Number Cruncher.

It isn't perfect but it does most of what we need at a much cheaper price than the high end management software packages.

Thank you. I'll look into it.

Peachtree, or Job Boss will. And as mentioned earlier, QuickBooks is good also for smaller manufacturing, and is more affordable.

I utilized Peachtree on my manufacturing business, Also used Job Boss.

Just remember, that you need to customize your forms. And plan ahead when entering your inventory.

The Job Boss looks great!

I liked it, I was hired on as a contractor/consultant at a company that was using Job Boss, and I was using it the first day. (Of course it was already set up) It is a few thousand though, but if you do 3-4 million/year its not bad.

I think Peach Tree was about $1200.00 to upgrade it every year. I don't really recall though.

Access.

I believe Access is less turnkey than I would like. But thank you.

A package like Microsoft Office contains all the tools to create your own management software. It has database, number crunching and word processing. It's more work than a dedicated management software.

Yes, I considered that. But I didn't want to have to re-invent the wheel. I want something comprehensive that updates all areas when one area is updated. Everything linked together. And... I've been given the opportunity to buy something like that for the company, so I'm going to take advantage of it.

One would like to have software that is integrated with other tasks.

Such as Inventory and costing, Venders/Suppliers, Payroll and its taxes, AP/AR, Check reconciliation, Employees info, (SSN, education, job title, experience, birthday), Project costing and tracking (Job Boss is better at this)

After its set up, it runs pretty smoothly.

I do like the Birthday feature. Will know when to bake the cakes!

Thinking about it, I think the secretary had dob on another sheet, for an occasion. I like cake.

And right off the shelf as well. OP doesn't say how many projects are on the go at one time or how many different projects in any time period. We handle up to 120 different jobs a year, and,, we did make a database in Access to track a lot of things, but it doesn't "automatically" generate everything. We still use spreadsheets for a lot of things and a lot of them do have links between them.

Most important thing for keeping track of what is or isn't done, are simple check lists either electronic or hard copy just as long as someone is responsible for updating them and does their job.

Since no one has mentioned it yet, yes proper custom software is available that links all these in a custom designed database and access system that can extend company wide.

They are common but can be a pain in the ass and are prohibitively expensive for small to medium sized businesses (5-7 figures all up, possibly more).

SAP is common but is VERY rigid and inflexible. Seriously, ask someone here who works with SAP. EPICOR is more flexible but 2 years on ours still isn't working right and we have a dedicated EPICOR rep working on it since startup. Quite annoying.

I recommend neither unless you have lots of money and a small simple application. This is only my opinion, others may have had more luck, I am only including the above for completeness and to give you an idea of the very high end management products for reference.

EPCOR is actually one of my options, as one of our other divisions uses it. When it was explained to me, I thought "there's gotta be a better way"... and that's why I came to CR4 to see what other suggestions there may be.

Great to know my thinking wasn't to (wait for it.................) "out of the box" for you.

I will insert obligatory groan here: ________

This may help.

Or this.

Sadly, no good groans readily at my fingertips.

You have to be careful with customize software that built for your company....

1. Failure Rates are high
2. You need an army of programmers to maintain or correct issues that did not crop up until you are established, that may require reprogramming.

Even larger companies, ($500 Million+/year), the problem is, the investment they have in, they hesitate to 'Kill' it.

So far JobBOSS is looking pretty good. Customizable, but not too customizable. Apparently, there is unlimited free training.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!! My company uses SAP. The world's most un-intuitive software, with arcane icons that look like nothing that the function actually does, horrible navigating, obscure execution codes, endless trees, useless help dialogs, no search functions for transactions, but other than that, it's great.

There are several available one of which is Maintenance Management Systems and another is SAP which is really gaining ground in the business world today. It doesn't cost anything to obtain a BETA version and give it a test.

So I heard SAP is "very rigid and inflexible". But I will include it when I do some comparisons. Thank you.

By very rigid and inflexible I should have said more along the lines of "set in stone once it is implemented so make sure you have every possible eventuality covered because chances are you wont be able to make anything but very minor changes if any at all". Ok for some businesses but not for a jobbing shop or custom OEM manufacturer for example where product flow is not always clear.

Again only my opinion and those that have discussed it with me that use the SAP system. If I had known you actually were looking into these sort of systems seriously I would have been a bit clearer.

By all means get comparisons but like most things in life take what the sales people or literature says with a grain of salt, it hasn't made my life in general much easier compared to our old system. If anything its harder.

Just saying......

Hi OoBE,

I was told by one user SAP stands for Stops All Production.

John

I worked for a large company that uses Plexus-Online. Controls every aspect of your business. They are considered the "Cadillac" of the line, so it may be pricey. It was first developed for the forging industry, but has grown exponentially from there.

www.plex.com