help with type of software/actual applications

[hobey19]

my boss emailed me the following and asked me to find him a decent program that accomplishes these tasks:

* Ability to assign workers & parts to jobs
* At a glance display of job status (pending, in progress, waiting on parts, needs to be scheduled, etc.)
* Ability to schedule recurring items, like scheduled maintenance
* Ability to track Purchase Orders, Components Received, and Components Used
* Ability to track billable hours at varying pay and bill rates
* Ability to export information to Excel or comma separated values.

problem is, i don't even know what type of application this is called, so i have no idea where to begin. i know he wants to keep price as low as possible, but is aware that it could cost a decent amount for such a program. do any of you know of a good application that fits this description, or can point me in the right direction? thanks a lot

craig

[flanzig1]

Looks like you have two major areas that may need seperate programs. One is a billing and purchasing program and the other is a service management type program. I would start by calling up your local commercial computer/software places to get ideas for programs.

[hobey19]

well, that at least gets me started. i appreciate the input. aside from Best Buy, we don't have a whole lot of software places around here, but i will give them a shot

thanks
craig

[Panama Red]

I googled "manufacturing software" and this is one of the best looking hits. Seems to cover many of your needs. Coupled with something like Quickbooks or Peachtree and this might be an answer for ya, Craig.

http://www.the-job-master.com/

[hobey19]

i had originally mentioned quickbooks to my boss, and he was none too thrilled about that suggestion. apparently he had a bad experience. i am not familiar with peachtree, but i will definitely take a look at it

thanks for the link PR

edit: just checked out peachtree, and it actually looks like they have approved add-ons that will do everything we need

thanks for pointing me in that direction! hopefully this will do it for us

craig