I am thinking about buying some new software. I currently am using excel to bill my customers but I want something a little more professional looking. What are you guys using? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
Hi zgrrl,We do 30% lawn mowing and 60% Fine Garden Maintenance about 10% Install.
I run 1-2 employees a day besides myself, am in the field as a technician.
Two years ago went from Excel to Quickbooks...what a huge benefit. Agree with Darryl B above:
Learn how to set up your Lists and Chart of Accounts properly. I paid a bookkeeper to show me how to set up and use. We set up a dummy company first to make mistakes with.
I still schedule with a planner and excel (and can link worksheets to Materials Needed for example).
I like Quickbooks Pro, for the invoices, estimates, customer database management, labels for mailing, and the reports. Reports have really helped me see where I'm making and spening money.
However, had to upgrade a year ago to retain the 'benefit' of sending invoices by email. No choice there.
Thanks for the discussion..I'm going to look into jobber and hindsite.
I was using the older version of lawn pro. 3.13. the newer version really sucks. has more bugs than the White house. Use quickbooks for billing and expenditures. big learning curve unless you have a degree in Accounting.What about LawnPro or Gopher software they are both rated good and they download to Quickbooks, is anyone using them?
Darryl,Jeff - I just wanted to say that I think you're doing a great job of promoting your product here. It seems like you're being honest about what your product will and won't do and where it fits in. That's refreshing...some reps make it seem like their product is the only way to go and that it will do everything for you including doing your laundry. I run a small operation and scheduling the number of customers I have isn't much of a challenge, so I'm not likely to become a customer any time soon, but if I were looking for something to complement QB I'd give your software a good hard look.
OK, I don't want to push to hard and completely contradict your wonderful feedback. However, we have saved some pretty small companies big $ when it comes to bookkeeping and admin time/fees since Jobber automates the billing when you mark the job complete. Then you just sync it with Quickbooks at the end of the month if you use that for taxes etc.Yeah, but I hear your leaf mulching capabilities are less than stellar.
I have a pretty simple system set up with QB and a day planner. It works well for me at this point. My invoicing is done monthly from my office.
If you are into Excel spreadsheets it's important to know that Quickbooks lets u export most forms like reports for example into Excel.QB Pro is good. Along with spreadsheets like Excel. Excel is pretty powerful if you know how to use it. There are plenty of excel templates out there that give you a headstart.
Rick
Hey TMI,We have been using quickbooks pro and qxpress platinum for the last 4-5 years. The qxpress program is really pretty good. It's syncs well with quick books and it is very easy to use. It is not perfect by no means. It does not do snow removal very well, but you can do it. They don't update it like the use to, but they got it were it is pretty glitch free, however. They mobile functions are lacking. They mapping has never worked really well because it always gets hung up on certain addresses.
Hey Jeff. I signed up for the 30 day free trial about 2 weeks ago but never received the email with the link to activate my account. Can u help me out here please. I'm really looking forward to using Jobber & I want to become fully intigraded with the program by the time we start up the landscape season. Please help.Hey TMI,
If I may, I just wanted to suggest giving the 30 day free trial a shot if you would like. It doesn't sound like you are all that happy with the solution you have now. Maybe just a case of sticking with what you know...
We see that a lot but I'm sure it would be worth your time to spend an hour investigating another option if it could save you tons of time and headaches down the road. We can eventually import your client list easily if you like what you see and the guiding principal of Jobber is to make it simple and painless to learn for the user. We are really proud of that.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there since we are pretty good at some of the things you mentioned that are lacking currently (snow removal, have constant updates, amazing mapping, and fully mobile).
Thanks for your ear! As always, just reach out if you have any questions.
Thanks,
Jeff
Hey Sensation Man,Hey Jeff. I signed up for the 30 day free trial about 2 weeks ago but never received the email with the link to activate my account. Can u help me out here please. I'm really looking forward to using Jobber & I want to become fully intigraded with the program by the time we start up the landscape season. Please help.
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Sure, I'll take a look right away here.Jeff,
Can you check out the thread below? Maybe you can provide some insight on my and a few others questions?
http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=390883