Client tracking, invoicing and accounting

[Martyn]

For the last 3 years I've been using PCRT for handling my jobs and invoicing. I have been doing my accounts with an Excel spreadsheet and I'm very lazy leaving the accounts to the end of the business year then entering all the data(running costs and purchases). PCRT have no plans to do full accounting so I'm looking at a full solution mainly for the home or small business market. I'm trialling MHelpdesk who have given my a very good price which previously has stopped me using it at all. I'm thinking of a solution of MHelpdesk and QuickBooks Pro(online and desktop) which they support. I like also the calendar and scheduling feature of MHelpdesk as most of my work is on the road. I used my Ipad a lot for invoicing but mainly add jobs on my desktop. Is anyone else using the combination I'm using and if so how does it work for you? If not what other combo are you using?

 

[PCSupportGlasgow]

i dont think there is any all in one solution.

i'm guessing you've hit that point that we all reach where basic packages just lack those bells and whistles but more robust apps price themselves out of the market.


personally i prefer to keep accounts and invoice/customer service totally seperate.


My advice as you dont have any major accounting requirements is look after the customer service side first and foremost then once you've decided on app for that choose an app that integrates invoicing easily. From there your simply chosing an accounting package that you like.

i know most will give all in one solutions but your not going to have much tim,e overhead keeping accouning seperate.


happy clients and easy billing then worry about accounts.

 

[Martyn]

i dont think there is any all in one solution.



i'm guessing you've hit that point that we all reach where basic packages just lack those bells and whistles but more robust apps price themselves out of the market.





personally i prefer to keep accounts and invoice/customer service totally seperate.





My advice as you dont have any major accounting requirements is look after the customer service side first and foremost then once you've decided on app for that choose an app that integrates invoicing easily. From there your simply chosing an accounting package that you like.



i know most will give all in one solutions but your not going to have much tim,e overhead keeping accouning seperate.





happy clients and easy billing then worry about accounts.

Thanks for the input. What are using for client tracking, invoicing and accounting? I'm quite busy these days and I'm trying to get my wife to do the paperwork and make it easy entry for her. I was fine doing it in Excel but she isn't that great on a computer. I'm paying her through the business so I thought I would get her working

 

[marley1]

i use repairshopr for clients, tickets, estimates, invoices and just use QB for the money end. I do not sync invoices, i just put my expenses and collections in QB.

Works well for me.

 

[4ycr]

I am about to take another look at Affinity live and maybe switch my bookkeeping to Xero.

Xero is easy to use but I just need a demo of affinity to make sure it fits my needs.

 

[mrapoc]

Keeping an eye on this. I wish PCRT did put in some kind of cashflow accounting - nothing too special.

but yeh so far I've been using PCRT for everything but need a solution, whether it be a spreadsheet or QB or something to keep tabs on payments and spending.

 

[dombooth]

I use PCRT for jobs/invoices/quotes/stock/pos

Then I have a spreadsheet which my parents passed onto me that works really well and includes fields for:

Money in
Paid into bank
Paid for expenses
Paid for goods for resale
Weekly cash balance (formulas from above to work this out)
Weekly bank balance (formulas from above to work this out)

And so far it's worked perfectly.

Dom

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We've been using mHelp and Quickbooks for about 2 years now.
We track our onsite work, parts used, in mHelp desk. And submit the tickets to our office manager. She then enters those parts and hours into Quickbooks.

We also use Quickbooks for estimates for clients, that way can get flipped from an estimate to an invoice and assign a PO to assign to orders to the vendors.

 

[acscva]

I am also looking for a new solution....I am currently using mhelpdesk for sales/service tracking and then take the payments and enter them as a deposit in quickbooks. Been doing it this way for 12 years and has worked well. Previously using a retail point of sale software that handled service management but switched to mhelpdesk to get a cloud based solution.

My issues is that I also use ACT CRM for my complete contact management solution. I also use ACT for keeping all of the customers information about their network, software, logins/passwords, etc. Tracking every contact with my client as well as emails being sent and received by the client. I also am going to be using it for email marketing soon as well.

The issue I have is that I have to keep the customers up to date (name, address, phone, contacts, etc) in both ACT and mhelpdesk. Would love to have sync capability and then I wouldn't be looking to change.

I have looked at Affinity live but just don't like the layout compared to mhelpdesk. mhelpdesk is very powerful and easy to use.

YeOldeStonecat how are you doing contact management?

 

[cyabro]

We finally got around to purchasing RepairShopr, decision made easier now that they connect to xero.
Just got to get it all set up now.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

YeOldeStonecat how are you doing contact management?

We really don't as far as a "sales" "new leads" thing....we're quite flat out with our current list of clients. Growth is slow...but we also don't want it to be fast, so it's easy to just whip up a quote for a potential new client in Quickbooks.

We track our work, "customer management", in mHelp. But as far as a CRM in the direction of "salesforce"...we don't need.

We are very much looking forward to implementing N-Ables "Help Desk Manager", which they streamlined into their product after the acquisition by Solarwinds.
http://www.n-able.com/products/help_desk_manager/
and
http://www.webhelpdesk.com/
It's much much more geared towards MSPs than retail shops and residential guys...so it will fit us better.

We've just been so unbelievable flat out, haven't had the time to implement it.

 

[emsbronco]

I'm looking for something similar. I am currently using a POS solution that has an integrated service module and that has worked well for break/fix.

Now, I am looking at adding MSP services to my business. I plan on using GFI and have been looking at the PSA systems that integrate with GFI. The problem is that I have a decent amount of retail traffic and do not want to track billing and inventory in 2 systems. Heck, I don't even want to know how difficult it will be to keep 2 inventory systems updated manually.

My dream solution is a PSA/CRM tool that either has or integrates with a POS system that handles CC payments directly at the POS and also has integrations with an RMM tool like GFI.

It seems like the software companies don't take into account businesses that want to run both MSP and Retail or even to handle the transition between the two models.

 

[scottay]

I've used MHelpDesk, and it does a very good job. It wasn't quite doing what I needed it to in relation to QuickBooks, though. For example, if I needed to sell a new product I had to create the product in QB, then sync it before I could use it in MHD. If I created it in MHD it would throw an error when trying to sync. This may be fixed now, but it drove me mad. The calendar in MHD rocks, and it does a very good job of tracking tickets, making estimates and invoices. If you're looking for a basic, affordable approach to running your IT business I think MHD will suffice.

MHD really gave me the stepping stone I needed to start getting involved with service tickets and such. Prior to MHD I was doing everything in QB and my Google Calendar. I've recently taken "then next step," though. In Feb I purchased a server that I'm hosting N-Central on, which has been working absolutely wonderful. In March I subscribed to ConnectWise with their Procurement module for tracking purchase orders and inventory. This has been a truly amazing and robust pairing. My RMM alerts trigger tickets in CW, allowing me to easily stay up on everything from one place. All of the devices that I monitor are also in CW including serial numbers, etc. Service tickets can be tracked against them, automatic events can be triggered on warranty expiration, etc, etc. I track all my leads, purchases, estimates, invoices, clients, etc though CW. CW also does a very good job talking to QB. That was the fallback I had with MHD - it did a great job at what it did, but I found myself still needed to use QB for a lot, which then had to be synced. It got a little cumbersome. With CW and N-Central, I can run my entire business outside of QB, then push any relevant information into QB for taxes, paying bills, and doing the normal "bookkeeping" of the business.

CW is insanely customizatable and is capable of doing way more than my little one man show needs. That can be one of its downfalls, too... It may be a little much for just doing the basics, but if you are looking for something that will allow you to run your business I think it's more capable than MHD at this point, especially if you do any sort of purchasing. The downside is it's definitely more expensive than MHD. Per license it's not much more than MHD, but they have a 2 licence minimum. This worked for me because my parents help answer phones, so they can create service tickets and such. Also, the procurement module for inventory and purchasing is an addon. All said I'm spending just over $200/mo for it. Well worth it to me since my business is ready for that "next step." Combining the PSA aspect of CW with the RMM aspect of N-Central, I have completely revolutionized my business this year. If you're ready for that step take a look at that pair. If you're just looking to maintain your clients, provide estimates and invoices, track service tickets and don't do much purchasing or inventory stick with MHD (or something similar) for now. I'm definitely not trying to discount MHD in the least, it's phenomenal. I liked it a lot better than ZenDesk and the like, so if that's all you need it for it's really the best option that I've found.

Hope that helps!

 

[ComputerPro]

Quickbooks

We use mHelpdesk for main POS and ticketing. And Quickbooks for backend accounting. For the life of me I can't see how it could be done any other way lol. Quickbooks is really accounting. It sucks to use it as POS etc. But it is the most popular accounting solution and used by almost all CPA's in our area. Usually they just get a copy of your company file and take it from there for quarterly / monthly reports, year end stuff etc.

I should note that we use PayChex for payroll. That way they are responsible for any errors with employee tax issues. They aren't all that expensive really and we've never had an issue with them.

 

[CompConfig]

Wet use Repair Shopr and Quick books as our business is almost all on-site work. When I was partner in a store we used and they still use Quick books POS for everything. To manage a store it does a very good job as it tracks inventory, and which tech worked on a computer. Client history.

On-site is all about schedule, tickets and we can run the business from a smart phone or tablet using repair shopr