MobileTechie
Well-Known Member
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I thought this might be of interest to members looking for cheap apps to manage their business. I'm not saying anything new but merely sharing my recent experience with things already mentioned on here.
The main apps we tend to need are a way of tracking customer details, a way of tracking jobs and possibly some sort of accounting system. I've been looking around and trying various options for ages but not found what I want for my business which covers residential and business, workshop and onsite. There are some good solutions out there but I've not found one I was happy paying for all the options and that was customisable enough for me.
Thanks to other members (Iptech's posts mainly) I learned about vtiger CRM and have been implementing that. It's really quite amazingly powerful and well done for a free application that stays free no matter how you scale it. It covers companies, contacts, trouble tickets, quotes, sales, invoicing, projects, assets, inventory and so on. It's also highly customisable so if it's all a bit much, which is is for my needs, then you can just turn various modules off and not have to even see them again. You can add blocks of fields to existing modules too. E.g. for the Trouble Tickets module I've (very easily) added the ability to record system info (make, serial, OS etc) and the common tests I do (disk tests, memory, AV and so on) and can select which stage I'm at with all of them. All of this is done using simple settings within the app. It will also handle email, email clients about the status of their job, provide a customer portal so they can login and get updates, allow SMS messaging and so on. I wanted something I could access on site (to get system details or do invoices) and rather than try to get it working on my server I signed up to Siteground hosting (not all positive I'm afraid). Their Cpanel allows fully automatic install of vtiger and hosting for $3.95/mth - that's not just for vtiger which is just one addon application you get when you host a website with them. So now I can access my system from anywhere including on site, via web, mobile web, or via android or iphone. Plugin modules vary in price but to compare - Commit want £149 for their outlook sync plugin. vtiger basic sync is free or you can pay less than £10 for commercial verson. Commit is a fine product but not everyone is in a position to pay that.
It's not all roses however and I've found I've needed to spend a lot of time messing with it and getting various parts to work as I want. It does some odd things like emailing your clients about tickets even if you opt out of that function. I've struggled with the Outlook sync but eventually sorted it out. PDF output for invoices needed editing of php files as did other things. I don't know a thing about php but managed so it can't be too hard. So it does need effort and support is thin on the ground. The forums expect you to have done your homework and you may not get help at all on some problems. You can of course pay for support or configuration if you want. I see people on freelancers getting this done. I imagine with decent Indain pro php developer onside you could develop almost the ultimate customised tech system for not too much money at all.
The second free app is FrontAccounting. It's not as slick as vtiger and again requires some reading to get going but it is a functional accounting package that can be localised. It's also PHP/SQL based. I installed this on the Siteground site I have in a few mins following their instructions despite being clueless and again this makes it accessible from anywhere. As yet it doesn't sync with vtiger (as far as I know anyway) which is a shame but does provide a usable accounting system for zero money.
Anyway, just goes to show that even if you're strapped for case you can get yourself a system that stands up well against the various paid options but you do have to make a bit of effort.
Hope this is of interest to someone. Also if you have other free, open source apps you think are useful to the community then please comment. I'd be especially interested to hear of other php/sql ones that I can attempt to host on my site too.
The main apps we tend to need are a way of tracking customer details, a way of tracking jobs and possibly some sort of accounting system. I've been looking around and trying various options for ages but not found what I want for my business which covers residential and business, workshop and onsite. There are some good solutions out there but I've not found one I was happy paying for all the options and that was customisable enough for me.
Thanks to other members (Iptech's posts mainly) I learned about vtiger CRM and have been implementing that. It's really quite amazingly powerful and well done for a free application that stays free no matter how you scale it. It covers companies, contacts, trouble tickets, quotes, sales, invoicing, projects, assets, inventory and so on. It's also highly customisable so if it's all a bit much, which is is for my needs, then you can just turn various modules off and not have to even see them again. You can add blocks of fields to existing modules too. E.g. for the Trouble Tickets module I've (very easily) added the ability to record system info (make, serial, OS etc) and the common tests I do (disk tests, memory, AV and so on) and can select which stage I'm at with all of them. All of this is done using simple settings within the app. It will also handle email, email clients about the status of their job, provide a customer portal so they can login and get updates, allow SMS messaging and so on. I wanted something I could access on site (to get system details or do invoices) and rather than try to get it working on my server I signed up to Siteground hosting (not all positive I'm afraid). Their Cpanel allows fully automatic install of vtiger and hosting for $3.95/mth - that's not just for vtiger which is just one addon application you get when you host a website with them. So now I can access my system from anywhere including on site, via web, mobile web, or via android or iphone. Plugin modules vary in price but to compare - Commit want £149 for their outlook sync plugin. vtiger basic sync is free or you can pay less than £10 for commercial verson. Commit is a fine product but not everyone is in a position to pay that.
It's not all roses however and I've found I've needed to spend a lot of time messing with it and getting various parts to work as I want. It does some odd things like emailing your clients about tickets even if you opt out of that function. I've struggled with the Outlook sync but eventually sorted it out. PDF output for invoices needed editing of php files as did other things. I don't know a thing about php but managed so it can't be too hard. So it does need effort and support is thin on the ground. The forums expect you to have done your homework and you may not get help at all on some problems. You can of course pay for support or configuration if you want. I see people on freelancers getting this done. I imagine with decent Indain pro php developer onside you could develop almost the ultimate customised tech system for not too much money at all.
The second free app is FrontAccounting. It's not as slick as vtiger and again requires some reading to get going but it is a functional accounting package that can be localised. It's also PHP/SQL based. I installed this on the Siteground site I have in a few mins following their instructions despite being clueless and again this makes it accessible from anywhere. As yet it doesn't sync with vtiger (as far as I know anyway) which is a shame but does provide a usable accounting system for zero money.
Anyway, just goes to show that even if you're strapped for case you can get yourself a system that stands up well against the various paid options but you do have to make a bit of effort.
Hope this is of interest to someone. Also if you have other free, open source apps you think are useful to the community then please comment. I'd be especially interested to hear of other php/sql ones that I can attempt to host on my site too.
