Shop Mgt Software Recommendations

[40_Tudor]

Looking for a program to replace the old Card File, for the shop I work at, to track customer information, print labels for customer mailings etc. The bosses son has bought out the shop from his dad and is updating some long over due equipment and software. We have Mitchell's On Demand 5 but not the management part.
Has anyone used this or can recommend any others?
I haven't been logging on for a while because my wife is seriously ill and it's been a full time job taking care of her.

Thanks in advance.

[enjenjo]

Sorry to hear about your wife, hope she is getting better.

I use My Invoices for tracking customers and billing. I am happy with it, but it may take some setting up depending on your volume. Once set up, it has been pretty much trouble free. The only glitch I have, the customer name is case sensitive, so if you are not careful, john smith has a bill, if John Smith or JOHN SMITH pays it, it doesn't show up. It also does a great job of tracking parts.

[Bob Paulin]

I've used QuickBooks Pro for a while, now.

You can do invoicing with automatic labor rate calculation.....do a parts inventory with locations, automatic pricing calculation, etc., and a number of other things.

In the past, I've downloaded vendor-supplied cd parts lists into QuickBooks Pro. I have, more recently, done my own parts inventory.

It's really quite versatile for a generic business management and day-to-day operations piece, IMHO.

A friend of mine operates an oval-track speed shop with QBP, tracking new and used parts.

I would rank it somewhere between starting fresh with Excel and Access, and some of the more-targeted, professional auto shop operations software such as All Data's shop management program.

I've used the "My Invoices", and "My Mailing List" programs in the past, and agree with Frank on their basic usefullness, but I would now prefer QuickBooks Pro over the "MY" programs.  

The "My" programs cannot be beat for price, but there are some shortcomings if you really want to work them hard.....again, IMHO.

My entire NASCAR mailing list was maintained on My Mailing List.......but, one word of caution.

If you choose to keep records on a floppy, change it at least once per year. I crashed an old floppy, and my assistant had to spend three days re-building my mailing list.

The QuickBooks Pro also links up to Turbo Tax.....but will also give tax-year printouts - among other weekly, monthly and annual management reports - for people who do not use TTax to do their taxes.

It is somewhat more expensive than the "MY" programs, but only a fraction of the All Data-level shop management programs.

Hope this information helps you decide what is best for you.

B.P.