Real Green Software

[Turfdoctor1]

Originally Posted by ted putnam

Josh, they were calling me about once a week for a month or 2 back in the summer. I've heard others on this site mention that they've had trouble getting assistance from them when the "chips are down". I've also heard 2-3 different prices on what you pay. I'll have to admit that I've never been quoted a firm price from them personally so take what I'm saying and do what you want with it. I'm not going to try to sell you on anything but I did give some contact info in my last post for another software company. I've always been straight up with you on here and on the phone...It'd be worth checking out.

thanks Ted.

as alwasy, i appreciate your advice! I will definitely check it out.

[Rayholio]

Price: $10K = software (with mapping), PC, New laser printer, bar code scanner, some startup forms, Training (you pay for travel) etc.. Again.. NOT A BIG DEAL.. Much like a ride on spreader this cost is easily justifiable based on $$ saved and generated with it. and you're still gonna have this after you've wasted 4 ride ons..

I negotiated and did not pay $10k for the software.. I feel that I would be doing RG a disservice to tell everyone exactly what I paid.. I actually agreed not to. they will negotiate.

Forms: If you want to have the professional looking invoices, with cabon copies, and upsale boxes.. they are only mass produced by realgreen. If you use those, you then need an envelope with windows in non-stanard positions.. buy it from RG.. The pre-pay forms.. same thing.. This isn't a BIG deal, because RG is affordable on these products if you buy a couple years worth at a time.. it's actually kinda hard to beat their pricing on this stuff.. You can print on standard white paper.. however you lose a lot of the appeal of the software by doing that.

Tech Support: I agree, once you get them on the phone, they are great.. and sometimes I call and I only wait 5 minutes.. recently that has been the case.. but I think it's worth mentioning that waits exist, and it's not expected when you're paying over $3.00 per day for tech support regardless of if you're using it.

[Josh.S]

Originally Posted by Rayholio

Price: $10K = software (with mapping), PC, New laser printer, bar code scanner, some startup forms, Training (you pay for travel) etc..

Well that makes more sense. I don't think it's fair though to include a computer, printer, barcode scanner, and forms in your cost for setting up Real Green. It puts the impression that the software and installation cost $10k, when it does not. (Unless you have severs and such)

I know you said it was the cost to get setup, but you would have had to buy all this stuff anyways regardless of the software. You don't even have to have a barcode scanner.


Forms: If you want to have the professional looking invoices, with cabon copies, and upsale boxes.. they are only mass produced by realgreen. If you use those, you then need an envelope with windows in non-stanard positions.. buy it from RG.. The pre-pay forms.. same thing.. This isn't a BIG deal, because RG is affordable on these products if you buy a couple years worth at a time.. it's actually kinda hard to beat their pricing on this stuff.. You can print on standard white paper.. however you lose a lot of the appeal of the software by doing that.

I agree, RG is affordable on the prices of these products. It's not fair to say how you "have" to buy the forms from RG when really we're just buying the forms from them because they are good quality and affordable. To be clear to everyone, you don't "have" to buy the forms, but they work very well (especially invoices) and look very nice. It's more of convenience than anything else.

Text above.

[Rayholio]

if you get away for 8 grand, you did pretty good really.. I think a lot of people have to upgrade (replace) their pcs when they get set up.. that's why I included that in the price...

on the forms what I'm saying is RG doesn't use standard quickbook forms or allow you to move totals, ads and such around to suit whatever form you have.. IF you want to upsale on your invoice, or IF you want to use the layout that looks professional, you're either going to have to get custom printing, or buy it from realgreen.. You WILL NOT be walking into office max and buying any forms that work with the software.. It was worth mentioning, for those who don't like to be 'held hostage' by one company..

Again, it's not a problem right now, as realgreen is plenty affordable on thier forms, and I'm happy to be using them.. but if they decided to double their prices tomorrow, I would HAVE to pay the extra.. or my billing, and invoicing image would go down the toilet, because my only other option would be printing on plain white paper..

[phasthound]

Originally Posted by ted putnam

I don't know because I'm small and I'll be the only one using it and I haven't asked. You'd really have to ask for yourself. John has already given me an online demo once with generic data. I was impressed. He has now entered all of my data into the program and customized it somewhat for me. He will be giving me a demo again using my info probably Monday. I'm pretty excited about it. He seems to be able to make it do just about anything you want. I don't know why networking would be a problem but you'd probably need to ask for yourself. His e-mail is support@customizedbusinesssoftware.com.
office-201-620-8566
cell- 201-835-4755
He's been easy to work with and understanding about what I need and my particular situation. They offer easy terms and 0% financing with a minimal down payment. The price that I have been quoted is $3,500

Ted,

Did you have your meeting with billmaster? What can you tell us?

[ted putnam]

Originally Posted by phasthound

Ted,

Did you have your meeting with billmaster? What can you tell us?

Barry, I've been trying to finish up my year productionwise during the day and had unexpected issues to deal with in the late afternoon/evening the last 2 days. However, I just got off the phone with him and everything went well. He gave me another demo using my information this time. It was interesting to see. Every question/ concern I could possibly come up with was answered with "it does that automatically" or I was shown how it could be accessed with the stroke of a key. He also showed me a map feature where you type in a starting point,say your shop(address) and then type in the address of where you want to go(if it was a current customer a keystroke did it automatically) and it gives you the distance from point A to point B. If you kept zooming it will bring you right down to a section of 3 or 4 streets on a city map. You could also switch over to an aerial photo of the specific address. I believe it was Google Maps. It could store and connect up to 6 separate locations for you. He is working on expanding this feature more (more locations stored I believe). Anyway, long story short. I'm sold. I'm buying and with a 2-3 hr initial training I will be able to accomplish basic tasks with ease( So he says. I don't think he realizes just how technologically challenged I really am)

[grassman177]

the bill master sounds nice, i may look into it further because we are not running as efficient as we could via a nice industry specific data system

[lawnrx]

I have a MAC and their software will not work on it. The rep said that may-be one day they will try to make the software MAC compatible.

[ted putnam]

Originally Posted by lawnrx

I have a MAC and their software will not work on it. The rep said that may-be one day they will try to make the software MAC compatible.

Not sure exactly why, but my wife would like a Mac. The computer I presently use is about a n 8 yr old Dell. We didn't want to take a chance on getting this new software and adding one more thing to something that could go any day so...yesterday I bought a new Toshiba laptop at Best Buy 18 months, zero interest. I will have the new software downloaded onto it today. We figured the laptop will be more convenient. I'll be able to take it out to my desk in my shop or use it in my home. I was shocked at just how inexpensive computers have become. I bought the Dell before you could even buy them retail and it was very close to $3000 at the time. It looked like you could get a very nice PC for $11-1200 now.

[grassman177]

yeah, prices have really fallen. even computer accessories have gone down, i have a 500GB external drive that my dad got for me that he said was like on sale for $40. cant beat that.