My goal for next year is to streamline and have a kind of order of operations for back of the house stuff. I’m guilty of just having piles of bills to be paid, emails to respond to etc. I’ve had an issue for several years that I can’t seem to find a good solution for. I use a laptop in when im in the barn, the desktop when i’m in the house and my phone when i’m out and about. On each device I write and save pdf invoices, estimates and other documents. But then when i’m on one device and need something from another device I can’t access it so I download and save it on that secondary device and have copies all over the place. I want one central location where everything is stored. What do you smarties recommend?
I’m on Apples’s eco system……so if I’m on one device and switch to another it just picks up where I left off. Have Mac, iPad Pro, iPhone and watch that all sink together. That’s what works for us……
Yeah I’ve used Markate for about 5 years. I want to explore a different one cause I don’t care much for Markate but I’m so established with it I imagine transferring everything to a new CRM would be a big hassle
Mine is could based as well but often when I send invoices or estimates I download them and send them as pdfs through gmail because if I send them directly from markate they get marked as spam when delivered and they may never see them.
Oh I see… my app notified me if the customer has viewed the estimate/invoice and if it’s hasn’t been viewed in a couple days (24-36 hours) I typically will email them and mentioning it may have gone to spam. Regardless though, once you download the PDF and send it, why not delete it? Isn’t it still stored on Markete?
Mine will notify me when they view it too but I’m too particular to hope they get it and follow up in a day or two. I want to be sure the first time that they get it.
I’ve had them go to spam even from my gmail accounts… I guess I’d rather have “read receipts” on though. Either way if I don’t hear back after a few days I’ll reach out regardless.
I started out using Yardbook, which was made/geared toward landscape business, but it was relevant for what I needed at the time. I’ve since switched over to ZOHO, which has served me well.
I haven’t, but I will. I know it would be time consuming but easy enough to transfer the customers info but I would lose all the old work orders etc that I could look back on and see how much I charged for services.
That’s the issue I’m having. Back in the day my wife set up an Excell spreadsheet and documented every single job we did for a customer, sometimes going back 13 years of services. When Excell got cancelled we switched to Zoho but it’s just not user friendly enough for us older folks to figure out. I jokingly say we need a huge Rolodex.
Get you a Dropbox account. 1 tyb of storage for like $110/yr and it goes everywhere with you. I save all my pics there and anything else you want to save and can access from anywhere. With 'The customer facto’r it saves all of everything. I’d talk to markate about stuff going to spam. But you should be able to login to it from anywhere.
I talked to them about the spam and they said it’s up to gmail, yahoo or who ever the customer is using to determine if it’s spam. I’ve heard people here mention customer factor. Is that a CRM?
You could make it work with a cloud based application……easier to me to be on iOS. Or maybe another eco system, don’t care mixing operating systems to much. Just preference, really.
Yes. But from what I hear markate is similar. The Customer Factor does send the quote via pdf however. But whatever system you’re using, should be a record of any transaction. Sounds like you’re making lots of redundant work for yourself. As long as you can log in to your system, not sure why you need multiple copies of items.
I do blind copy myself on any emails sent out of system, so that if for some reason they don’t get, I can just forward them my copy.
I have 3 categories under my client stuff in my gmail - invoices, paid invoices and prospects. Depending on type of email sent, my copy goes into one of those categories.
I think you need to sit down and get yourself a system for all your activities this winter. Pick a day that you spend an hour on bills and accounting stuff each week. Pick a time daily that you respond to emails, etc. In other words, get organized, lol.
Yes, this is very much needed. I’ve gotten so busy with workload and personal life that the back of the house stuff has gotten neglected. That’s one of my winter goals. Create a system that keeps everything on track.
