Talk about saving time with Qxpress

[tiedeman]

Many of you know that I purchased Qxpress a few weeks ago. I do admit at first I really didn't like the program. Didn't seem that user friendly. But after Paul Jackson walked me through everything I completely feel in love with it.

To show you how much I love it, I decided that tonight I had better start to schedule in my spring clean ups, lawn maintenance, aerations, fertilizations, etc. Sure I already had them loaded in another program back in February that I was planning or using until I bought Qxpress. So I started off by scheduling the customers and their services in with the advantage of the multiple schedule feature (people that use it understand what I am talking about) on Qxpress.

Let's just say that it only took me 2 HOURS to schedule in everybody for the entire year, with their prices. That's right 2 HOURS! All I have to do now is upload it into Quickbooks to print or print it out through Qxpress when I have completed the services. Normally during the year (busy season) I spend 2 hours a night doing the scheduling and invoices 5 days out of the week. That is 10 hours a week. The way that I look at it, Qxpress has saved me approx 340 hours for the year by using this program.

Let me repeat myself, 340 hours!!!!

[Premo Services]

I have been using qXpress since the beginning of 2003 and I am still amazed of the quick and easy operation. Wait until you do the invoices, you will freak out at how quickly it is done. Iactually enjoy scheduling and invoicing now, it makes scheduling one time jobs a breeze.And the best part is it goes with quickbooks like gloves on a hand. I cannot or do not want to think about the time I used to spend doing invoices and scheduling jobs, but it has saved me a ton of time. payup payup ...And the staff there is a pleasure to deal with if you encounter any problems. :D

[Lawn Tek]

Question ? What do you do when you have a equipment breeakdown, job delay , days of rain ? What happens to you scheduling then? I once worked for a company that had us schedule a week in advance and by Monday evening it was useless , because of changes the bigshots made during the week . Thanks

[Premo Services]

Question ? What do you do when you have a equipment breeakdown, job delay , days of rain ? What happens to you scheduling then? I once worked for a company that had us schedule a week in advance and by Monday evening it was useless , because of changes the bigshots made during the week . Thanks

I would just click the mouse on the not done and the program will reschedule the job the next day or it prompts to imput any day you want.
All the things you are talking about are stuff we have to deal with all the time. We make schedules and there are always changes to be made for one thing or another.The discussion here is about the ease of qxpress program.
The program makes contract billing a snap, and all other duties easier for me.

What would you do in the instances you mentioned in your post?

[tiedeman]

yup, pretty simple to reschedule or postpone services to another day. The program will even ask you whether you want to reschedule it if you haven't completed it

[Lawn Tek]

The discussion here is about the ease of qxpress program.

And my question was about how easy it was to rescheule .



What would you do in the instances you mentioned in your post?


Reschedule the work to next available day .

My question was answered

[walker-talker]

Tiedeman, if you havn't already figured it out, I will show you something that will save you time at invoicing. I am assuming that Qxpress and LM invoice pretty much the same. In the sample invoice that I am showing here you can see my logo in the upper left corner. You don't have to have a logo here, but you have the option of doing that or just the name of your business and address. This is extrememly help because you can stuff these invoices in a double payne window envelope and never have to pick up a pen again. This alone will save you a couple hours, if not more at the time of invoicing.

I took it a step further and bought a perforator that I run along the top. This way the client can tear off a stub and send it pack with you, along with their check. You can see the guides I use by the little two greater-less than signs < > on the right and left edges of the page.

[tiedeman]

acutally, its funny that you said that, but I already do that with Quickbooks. I use a double paned envelope, and I have the bottom of mine perforatored as well. It took me a couple tries to the the tear stripe just right. I started doing that about 3 years ago and I love it.

[tiedeman]

hang on a sec, and I will scan my invoices to show you what I do

[tiedeman]

sorry the scan came out really bad. But this is my invoice. You can see my watermark in the background, and below is the stub that I have customers return to me

[walker-talker]

That looks real good Tiedeman. Are those sheets blank to start with? I would like to have the background of mine with a watermark like that....maybe of my logo or something. I don't think I have that that watermark printed at the time my invoice is printed.

So, Qxpress does not print your invoices? I am guessing you export them out of Qxpress and into QB?

[tiedeman]

ya, the sheets are blank and yes I export them out. But, I want to start to use Qxpress for printing once I get my invoice setup in it

[walker-talker]

ya, the sheets are blank and yes I export them out. But, I want to start to use Qxpress for printing once I get my invoice setup in it
Can Qxpress print the watermark for you or will you have to print the watermark using something like Word first and then run it back through when you go to print your invoice?

[tiedeman]

I don't know. I really haven't expertimented with the invoices or changing any templates on Qxpress yet. I would like to eventually use them though for invoices because they can carry over the customers balance even with using invoices.

Like in QB you had to use statements to carry over the balance, not invoices, while with Qxpress you can use the invoices

[KathysLGC]

What software do you compare this too? What's the cost and do you need Quick books to use this?

[KathysLGC]

WoW this is pricey compared to other software....
http://www.qxpress.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/MAIN.Display/id/577/LandscapingSoftware.html
I still would like to know what this compares to as far as other silling software like Gopher, etc. I'll be ordering software real soon.

[tiedeman]

well, I upgrade to Quickbooks Pro, from Basic and then I got this. I think that I spent around $650 time I was done. But I feel that the benefits of the program really outweigh the costs.

Try the demo, and let me know what you think. Don't get discouraged from the program

[KathysLGC]

I don't have QB tho. I'm starting back up so thats why I need to get something real soon. So far I've been leaning towards Gopher. I downloaded the trail but haven't put any one in yet because i don't have any one yet LoL but i'm going to set it up to see how it is. I might also do the QX trial and see how that feels.

[walker-talker]

You will need QB in order to run Qxpress. Lawn Monkey is sort of the Qxpress version without needing QB's. It has accounting features built into it, though I don't use it. I would definitely give Lawn Monkey a go. It is pricy....$849....plus it's going to cost $300 a year for upgrades and 60 minutes of tech support. Both are great programs and I would suggest you DL the trial version....you don't have anything to lose.

[tiedeman]

yup, my suggestion to everyone is just do the trials. Whether it be Gopher, Qxpress, Lawn Monkey, Groundskeepr Pro, etc.

Make pros and cons of every program and what you need. I narrowed my down to Qxpress, because I loved my Quickbooks, yet I needed a scheduling program.

[billc]

I don't have QB tho. I'm starting back up so thats why I need to get something real soon. So far I've been leaning towards Gopher. I downloaded the trail but haven't put any one in yet because i don't have any one yet LoL but i'm going to set it up to see how it is. I might also do the QX trial and see how that feels.
CLIP (http://www.clip.com) has versions that include billing so you don't have to buy QuickBooks.