Advice on keeping track of what I do for customers

[NJW]

For tracking things like that, paper is hard to beat. ... Finally, right before you leave take a picture of the list with your phone.

Exactly my workflow. Notes are taken in a small hard-cover notebook, one double-page spread per incident.

I thought I must be the only one still using paper and pen, but it's so much more flexible. The phone camera is also really useful on site – record model/serial numbers, take screenshots, see the back of a system unit without pulling it out (use the front camera and view in real time), note the Wi-Fi password – the list goes on.

Oh, and if you're writing in a notebook, you're clearly making notes. Not checking email, Facebook, whatever, in the eyes of the client.

 

[ChrisTech]

I have been exactly the same - looking a day or two later and the "oh s**t what did I do for 2 hours" moment comes along. When you're going from job to job its difficult to drop everything and religiously fill the paperwork in with everything you've done, but you've simply got to force yourself to update the paperwork asap, preferably onsite.

This has been an interesting thread as a major PITA for me as a one man band is the follow up emails / customer relation side, after invoicing has completed, to keep the brand in people's minds and build a relationship with customers. I've looked at all the suggestions in this thread but unfortunately, Repairshopr doesn't integrate with my online accounting - Kashflow (a popular UK based company).

Bryce's Newsletter helps a lot, but I've been looking for something that will help me coordinate things (such as follow up emails, etc.) and at the moment I'm toying with the idea of using a CRM called Capsule, which integrates with Kashflow Accounting.

 

[timeshifter]

The other thing that is really important if you can get yourself into the habit is to record all of that either from the car before you leave, from the car somewhere nearby but not in the customer's driveway/parking lot, or at least that evening. I know I suck at doing that and end up poring through calendar entries, text messages, email, voicemail and location history tracking down what I was doing where for who and for how long, but if you can track it ASAP it'll help and you can add any additional notes while they're fresh.

Been there, done that, way more times than I care to admit.

However, since starting with Tsheets a couple of years ago that's not been too much of a worry. Also, I have Automatic Pro
https://www.automatic.com/

It's a device that plugs into your car's OBDII port and has it's on 3G data connection. All my travels are logged. I can go to my dashboard online and see everywhere I went, the time and see it on a map too. Very cool. If you're interested don't be sucked in by the light version. The bluetooth syncing was hit and miss. Not very useful when there are gaps in your logs.

 

[timeshifter]

I'm slowly warming up to the idea of switching to RepairShopr. I know it's way overkill to the question I asked originally. But, it answers other questions / problems I've had. Like keeping track of my to do list for customers. That's mostly done by hand on paper and sometimes an Excel spreadsheet. It's not done consistently. Putting everything in as a ticket seems like it would help with the front end of my workflows.

$49 a month sounds like a reasonable price and I'd get a lot. Only concern is the 75 ticket limit. My quick estimate is that I might have about 60 a month, but not really sure. If I go over 75 tickets per month then I'm using more that the $49 plan allows and would have to double my monthly costs to $99. Anyone know if they have a hard stop at 75 tickets?

 

[fastremotehelp.com]

Another vote for Repairshopr. It FORCES structure on what would otherwise be chaos. Wonder what you did for customer x last March? Repairshopr knows! Using it has transformed my computer repair service. Using it has allowed me to transition to MSP, where the recurring revenue is. It's essential, get it!

 

[Choppie]

I am in the same boat. I dumped Intuit products when they started forcing the upgrade and demanding you to have a login account on their online site attached to your quickbooks and your private data. On top of that, a few of my clients got locked out of their software because intuit decided to change their password requirements without notifying anyone, including me. I had to get them on the phone, and 2 hours later I had access to my own data on my own laptop after sending them LOTS of my personal information.....total bull ****. Two of my clients called me up in the middle of the night and told me they called intuit (USING THE PHONE NUMBER ON THE CARD BOARD THAT CAME WITH THE QUICKBOOKS DVD) was redirected to a call center in India, the guy was logged into his computer and told him he needed a complete repair package before they could help him with quickbooks.....in other words intuit outsourced the support and the support took advantage of it and tried to rip him off 5oo dollars!!! I told him to pull the plug on his modem NOW. That was my end of quickbooks. I have built a database using MS ACCESS and it goes back 15 years but i need it to be live on my webserver, so now I'm looking at what is called CRM, Customer Relations Management software and its all (nickel and dime) you do death, however. I found something that is SIMPLE and seems to be good enough for me as a small one person shop. The free one is Invoiceplane and the paid for is FusionInvoice. The guy writing the code gave away to the open source community and the name was changed to Invoiceplane, free, you self host it. FusionInvoice is 60 dollars and you OWN IT. Free upgrades for a year, and the guy takes suggestions and works them into the code. Auto invoicing, Proposals, invoicing , accepting CCs, Paypal, all running from your server which you can access 24/7 from anywhere. It has a bootstrap responsive template and you can even buy invoice templates, or tweak the code yourself... I haven't tried it yet but I'm in the process of installing it and have 2 copies for two other customers as well

http://fusioninvoice.com

 

[sapphirescales]

I use a simple notepad you buy in bulk for less than $1:

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics...qid=1499332205&sr=8-2&keywords=yellow+notepad

Chicken scratch the thing enough to explain it to your client, then write up the invoice on the spot. Then get them to sign and agree to the invoice and you're off! Print out a copy of the invoice or use a copy on a touchscreen laptop or tablet and mark off each item as you get it done. This really isn't that hard. I don't need fancy software to do what I can do using my brain and a little yellow notepad. I've been doing it this way ever since I started about 10 years ago and it's always worked great for me. I've never misplaced a computer or forgotten what I'm supposed to do.

And no, I'm not some fossil that hasn't adapted to new technologies (I'm 25). I've checked out all these fancy programs and frankly, they all suck from Quickbooks (including online) to Repairshopr and everything in between. I've thought about writing my own program but honestly I'd have to market and sell it to others in order for it to be worth my time, and I don't have time for that. Too many computers to fix, and too many impatient clients.

 

[HCHTech]

Most of the time I don't keep good note or any notes.

I think any solution will involve addressing this fundamental problem. Somewhere on the continuum there is an answer. From carrying around a paper notebook on one end to finding an automated solution like RS or PCRT or mHD on the other end. All involve keeping notes in one form or another. It's the only way to avoid having to remember what transpired after time has passed. Changing habits is hard. Maybe focus on the goal = more billing because keeping notes lets you remember everything...

 

[Vyper28]

I tried repairshopr and it was good but not quite right for me.

I started using freshdesk last year (started with free, just upgraded to the pay tier). It's great, the app is great too.

When i receive an email to my personal address, if it is a problem of any type, i forward it to support@mydomain.com, freshdesk gets all those emails and instantly creates a ticket. At the end of my day I open up Freshdesk on my phone and close all the tickets I worked on, adding 1 little comment at the end with the time it took.

It also helps a lot when it comes to my invoicing because I can just open up freshdesk on another screen and look at all my closed tickets for teh week. Free tier is good enough for most people!

 

[timeshifter]

I tried repairshopr and it was good but not quite right for me.

I started using freshdesk last year (started with free, just upgraded to the pay tier). It's great, the app is great too.

Are you using freshservice? Looks like an IT focused version of freshdesk.

https://freshservice.com/

 

[Vyper28]

Are you using freshservice? Looks like an IT focused version of freshdesk.

https://freshservice.com/

I am using just plain old FreshDesk, I wonder what the differences would be, It feels like freshdesk is I.T./DevOps focused anyway so I'm not sure how it could improve things but I will take a peek!

 

[Stooges]

I'm not sure about repairshopr as I strated to use it, but feels it's too clunky when needing some stuff, like I understand some important things can be inserted but sojme I feel repeative. I will have look into freshshop or freshservice.

 

[techlink]

I'm using PCRT. The only issue is that it doesn't have an integration with QuickBooks. Otherwise is good for what i need. I like the idea of one time payment instead of paying monthly for a cloud software.

 

[marley1]

Ticket all
Ticket all
Ticket all

On the cheap use a surface and one note

Repairshopr works for me