Job ticket system for a small shop

[gnubler]

Looking for recommendations/suggestions on a job ticketing system for a small shop. We do mostly wide format & screen printing along with sheetfed offset.

For those of you who do or have worked in a smaller shop what have you used? Is there an online software that worked for you? Something like PrintSmith is just way overkill for our level of business. I think invoicing is done with Quickbooks if that means anything.

Thx!

[t-pat]

if printsmith is overkill, I'd go with a manual system with NCR sheets. It really depends on the level of staff and workflow you have.

I shopped a few years ago for a place I managed, and it was all very expensive. I wound up printing 4 part ncrs numbered and that worked better than what they had, which was absolutely nothing.

[Joe]

It's pretty easy to roll your own with FileMaker Pro. You can export any info you create as .csv, .xls, etc...for import into something like Quickbooks.

[gnubler]

...we need something on a network (whether remote or local) so every staff member can see all the jobs in the shop, enter new jobs, move them to diff departments, see what's due and when, etc.

Right now this shop is using a free online project management thing called Wunderlist but it's not exactly robust. It would be nice to find something that also generates some sort of consecutive job number.

[Farabomb]

We use NCR forms and a cork board for all the jobs we have. Seems to work well enough.

[Joe]

...we need something on a network (whether remote or local) so every staff member can see all the jobs in the shop, enter new jobs, move them to diff departments, see what's due and when, etc.

Right now this shop is using a free online project management thing called Wunderlist but it's not exactly robust. It would be nice to find something that also generates some sort of consecutive job number.

That is pretty much what we use with FileMaker though you have to create it yourself and everyone has to have a copy of FMPro.

Does it need to be Mac or PC or both.

[gnubler]

Both.

We also have local network "issues" in the shop which is why I've been looking at online services.

[Sabrina The Turd Polisher]

Both.

We also have local network "issues" in the shop which is why I've been looking at online services.

So, you'll be in the 'cloud'.

[Joe]

Does it "have" to be free?

[Joe]

AceProject

BaseCamp

ZOHO Projects

Huddle

I think these all have "free" options but the free version may not be enough for what you need.

[gnubler]

Free is better but you get what you get. We just need something that works.

[t-pat]

At that same shop I did a shared google docs spreadsheet that I had to manually populate, I used it for scheduling. That place had no money.

[Joe]

Google docs is pretty good. You can also do scheduling with Google calendar.

[Syphon]

Management uses Printsmith but the bossman writes up a list on paper what everyone needs to get done then makes copies and pass them out. I do not know why he just use something like google docs...oh, yea, I forgot that our management doesn't want to do things efficiently.

Our shops motto is "Three steps forward, Two steps back."  :angry:

[gnubler]

Sounds familiar.

Half our jobs don't get job tickets and there are constant problems because of it. It boggles my mind. I try to decipher the scribbled note or email and then fill out a job ticket form by hand.