Software for companies

[Dionathan Caetano]

Dear All,

I have recently formed a small multi service enterprise comprising of domestic/ commercial cleaning painting and general building maintenance services.

I been looking for a software where I could have all in such as bookkeeping, invoice, CRM and job scheduling as well as employee management.

I'd be deeply grateful for your time and effort in helping me through this new journey.

kindly,

Dionathan Caetano,
Founder/ Director

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Have a look at jobber. Canadian company. Couple years ago when I checked they ticked all your boxes.

 

[ffox]

I been looking for a software where I could have all in such as bookkeeping, invoice, CRM and job scheduling as well as employee management.

Welcome to these forums. This is a common quest. Everyone wants 'silver bullet' software, a single suite that will do all things the business requires.

While there are many who will offer you bespoke and off-the-shelf package that they 'claim' will fulfil your needs, the sad fact is that there is nothing that does all things well.

There are good CRM packages that do nothing to fill accounting needs, there are good accounting packages that fail terribly when it comes to fulfilment of CRM needs.

You will end up, as everyone else does, deploying multiple packages and 'lacing' them together.

In this you will need to ensure that each package is compatible with all others in your business IT 'tool bag'.

And this assumes that you will know at the panning stage what tools you will need and, also what tools are available.

Unless you have the ability to predict the future you will not be able at this stage to draw up a comprehensive plan. You would be best advised to use good data collection and data production platforms that ensure you have a handle on what data you will collect, produce and retain.

I suggest to take a good look at G-Suite and Office 365 in order to learn how data will flow through your business.

Hope this helps

 

[gpietersz]

@ffox there are options that will do everything well (either by integrating multiple things, or by using something that does do multiple things well like an ERP system).

The problem is that its expensive by the time you pay someone to integrate things, or set up something complex. Not something you want to do right at the start - wait until you know how things are going and that you actually need them before going down an expensive route.

I do not really understand why you recommend Office 365 and G-Suite. I would have thought something simple to do accounting and invoicing would be the best starting point.

 

[ffox]

The problem is that its expensive by the time you pay someone to integrate things, or set up something complex. Not something you want to do right at the start - wait until you know how things are going and that you actually need them before going down an expensive route.

Exactly.

The OP says

I have recently formed a small multi service enterprise comprising of domestic/ commercial cleaning painting and general building maintenance services.

The main key word here is "small". They are unlikely to be looking for costly all-singing-all-dancing solutions. They could follow the standard small enterprise route and read software reviews, maybe get salespeople in to demonstrate packaged solutions, download free software to try, or even ask on forums like this one for recommendations.

Whichever way they jump, they will be making an investment. Even if they download free software to try they will invest time and effort in setting it up and testing it, tailoring the options to suit their business or tailoring the business to suit the software. If they go with some software and then find that they can't scale it or go further forward they will spend more time and effort migrating away from that to something else.

I am suggesting that they take the time to get to know the data they will process and produce and then to analyse the processes they follow. In short, develop a business needs analysis.

I recommend G-Suite or Office 365 as these provide a sound infrastructure on which to test processes. An infrastructure that is secure out-of-the-box and delivers full collaboration without the need for internal networks. No servers, no switching, no cabling - just full, secure, collaboration capabilities

 

[gpietersz]

No servers, no switching, no cabling - just full, secure, collaboration capabilities

That would be unlikely for even the most elaborate custom solution for an SME. Not for a small business, or even those at the top end of "medium". Usually only big businesses would run their own data centres (and these days plenty of them do not either).

 

[ffox]

Usually only big businesses would run their own data centres (and these days plenty of them do not either).

Think smaller than Data centres. G-Suite and O365 often negates the need for any local networking whatsoever. So, no work groups either.

If you are thinking here of tying individual PCs together using cloud facilities like Box etc, look a little further and accept that G-Suite and O365 both deliver a high level of security and compliance out-of-the-box with no need for specialist input.

 

[gpietersz]

G-Suite and O365 often negates the need for any local networking whatsoever.

So do a lot of other things, including things that are better fits for a particular system.

If you are thinking here of tying individual PCs together using cloud facilities like Box etc

You can usually assume that I am not suggesting a cloud solution for anything other than backups or where there is a solution with a really good fit out of the box (typically something designed for a specific vertical).

 

[gpietersz]

@ffox I think we are talking at cross purposes because we have very different things in mind.

You are thinking of integrating services at the PC level, I am thinking about providing and integrating services mostly at the server level.

 

[ffox]

You are thinking of integrating services at the PC level, I am thinking about providing and integrating services mostly at the server level.

Precisely. So 1990s and so expensive.

The OP has a small, new start-up and is asking for advice on how to move forward. Best to use facilities that are low cost, scalable and controllable while they find their feet.

My experience is that once they start to grow with O365, they will never need an internal server network.

 

[PugwashEQ]

OP for what its worth we launched a new Business in july this year (the last business i launched was in 2002, so it was a bit of a shock!)

We looked at all sorts of stuff, and continue to assess, the choices we made are:
Office 365- email, docs and online file storage through sharepoint
vTiger for CRM (although i suspect we'll move to Salesforce as we are opening an international office)
Xero for accounting and payroll- and this is really very very easy nowadays- I made sure we had a bankaccount that worked with it.
Beautiful.ai for online presentations
docusign for e-signing of documents

and then a fair few specicialist databases for our industry.

 

[ffox]

We looked at all sorts of stuff, and continue to assess,

Hi. As part of your continued assessment it may be useful to look at using MS Lists to replace the CRM, It may also be beneficial to see what can be done long term with regards access to the specialist databases through MS Teams.

Take a look at my blog (in my sig) to see some of the useful things that can be done with your existing O365 subscription. You're already paying for it, so you may as well get as much as you can from it.

 

[gpietersz]

Precisely. So 1990s and so expensive.

Using servers is so 1990s and expensive? I would have thought quite the opposite - in fact, you are advocating moving to cloud which is moving to servers.

My experience is that once they start to grow with O365, they will never need an internal server network.

What sort of thing do you have in mind when you say "an internal server network"?

 

[ffox]

What sort of thing do you have in mind when you say "an internal server network"?

Anything that has an internal network of any kind. In a good cloud infrastructure any device, PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone, can be brought onboard as a productive IT machine.

There is very little limitation on operating system and the processing power of the device can be quite low. The only absolute requirement is a means to access the Internet.

Even where there is a need for more heavy weight processing, such as database hosting, this can be accommodated using cloud resources.

Cost is scalable as the business pays only for licences used. Onboarding costs for IT are absolutely predictable and redundant resources can be reused or disposed of very simply.

 

[gpietersz]

@ffox I understand the pitch for the solutions you are advocating.

What I do not understand is what alternatives you have in mind that require a significant amount of "switching and cabling" that an SME might use.

 

[ffox]

@ffox I understand the pitch for the solutions you are advocating.

First of all there is no 'pitch'. I am not selling anything, just offering advice based on much experience.

Collaboration is cloud hosted software and services. Connectivity is via any computer to Internet access that is appropriate in the circumstances. This might be a single broadband connection serving a small office, several BB connections serving several small offices, several BB connections serving a larger office, PC onboard 4G or 5G, 4G or 5G MiFi hubs.

Connection to hubs can be cable or WiFi where appropriate, but this depends on the particular business need.

Locally installed software is often necessary, again dependant on business need, but rarely requires a machine with a server level operating system, and the data input/output is shared across users according to Team, Group and individual business need.

Security is, of course, paramount and is done via a simple Admin panel where user access is monitored, new users added and authenticated, old users disabled and mobile device management is performed.

Central services, such as backup, bulk printing and the like can be handled in one or more workplaces, equipped with the necessary devices.

If this is not clear please take time out to read some of the posts on my blog, it's all free.

 

[gpietersz]

@ffox you keep describing the solution you advocate.

Saying you are not selling anything seems to contradict your signature which says you provide services to "customise Dynamics, or utilise the full power of O365."

What you have not done is answered the question I asked.

 

[ffox]

What you have not done is answered the question I asked.

UKBF is not a sales vehicle for my business. You asked some questions and I answered to the best of my ability.

I'm sorry for being so dense, but I'm not sure what the question is. What is it you want to know? - how many meters less cable is used to connect a cloud collaboration system over a local area network, or how many less infrastructure devices are needed?

Please feel free to ask again and I'll try to be more specific.

 

[Zak Cee]

We run several small businesses and unfortunately there is no single onestop software solution.

We use the following and it will be trial and error until you find the right mix of software products that will work for your business. This can take many months to figure out.

You will have to use some of them, some as others have suggested and then re-review in 3/6 months time and fine-tune what works and what doesn't;

The following is our setup and has been for a number of years.

Hubspot: CRM for client management
Office 365: Emails, documents, etc : (word, excel, outlook & PowerPoint)
Google Drive/One drive: Managing and sharing files, folders for client & personal docs etc :
Quickbooks: CRM/Invoicing
Google keep: making notes the move and syncing them across the cloud.
PoweredNow: for sending out quotes to clients while on the move and on-site

That should be plenty to run your business fairly streamlined, along the way you can tweak, remove & add as you see fit.

You don't need bespoke or custom software to make it work and nothing too expensive or fancy. We turnover in excess of £400k and all works well.

We started of using office 365 and slowly added the above to become leaner and more efficient. We continue to learn and improve our processes each and every quarter and tweak what best suits.

Hope that is helpful.

Good luck with your business.

 

[biobob]

"Zoho One" has a lot of features including invoice, crm, bookkeeping and a whole host of other features for meetings, online drive, email etc there are 40+ apps that some you might not use, it is $30 per user per month and each user will need a licence so might get expensive if a few members of staff.

 

[busowner987]

We had mares with emails - then we found 'helpscout' - Really helped us out and keeps things organised for us.

Then again me and emails never got on. I'm the guy with 5000 emails haha

 

[Dionathan Caetano]

I would like to thank you all for your time and effort in replying to my question.
I feel very humbled but all of you taking your time and wanting to share your experiences, tips and advice.
I'll take them all onboard and trying what works well for my industry and sectors.

I came across ServiceSight from Protean software. They seem to have a comprehensive amount of tools for CRM, Employee management as well as invoice, quote, bank account integration and you can create many types of jobs listing for scheduling work.

Have you guys heard or come across it?