I just purchased Bottom Line Software for $595 and think I am going to have to chunk it. I came to that conclusion after about 30 minutes of messing with it. It is very cumbersome to use. You cannot cut and paste in many places etc. The help screen will cause the software to freeze if you minimize it and not close it. The only way I could get it to restart was to restart the computer!!! It is pathetic and not "like windows" as they so loudly proclaim.

THEY DO NOT GIVE REFUNDS, NOT EVEN A 24 HOUR WARRANTY!

I'm looking into Acowin which was developed in partnership or such with Quickbooks. Being integrated we won't have to key in things twice. It is pretty full featured and you can dispatch to a PDA, Cell phone, pager or laptop with it.

Just don't know yet what it costs. Anyone got any thoughts???

Many good software companies give you a trial period, I tried many service programs over the years, and finally settled on Aya Nova, they had a trial period, and excellant support, the software is well tested and used world wide, the price on single user was $150 US, It does more then we need and it can be linked to QB and Web devices with modules.

The custom features are unlimited and they don't penny you to death.

Thanks for the reply LK. We looked at that a while back and if I remember right they have no "live" support whatsoever. You have to email and wait for a responce. Is that still correct? Though I never used it it did seem to have a lot of features.

Two things I really want to try is field data entry from my guys and integration with QB so were not entering stuff twice. Do you use QB?

Their e mail support is out of this world, they get back to us with real solutions fast, better then a salesman who has no idea of how the software works, which many of the other companies have for support.

Yes they do have a web version that can support other users.

I only use QB for journal entries, since I have been using Aya, The Aya software offers better tracking then QB IMO.

I quote, create workorders,schedule, dispatch, and invoice all from Aya.

I have a link to my site with some samples of what we use http://www.millelectric.com/epg.html

You can make these custom templates yourself or purchase, them from many vendors.

Every template can be customized any way you desire. with easy to use template editors.

On the computer locking up, sounds like you may need more memory, most of the scheduling software out there, really eats up memory, and requires newer computers with speed.

We looked at several and decided on Aya Nova. Best decision of the year. Their online support has been almost instantaneous. We've had virtually no problems running it on a Vista machine.

We did have to reload it because I setup the numbering system wrong on the invoices. It's strictly sequential.

The customer database has been great. We now can log the source of every job lead - and pull it up for tracking.

We have not yet linked it to QB though, and may never do so. I like keeping my admin and my service manager on separate computers.

PE: Doesn't that mean you have to build all the invoices separately all over again?

We don't use it for billing. That has always been in the QB software. The next step will be to import the customer name database to QB (to eliminate the double entry work). I don't want to use it for billing.
There is a certain trust limit that I can put on any employee. Turning over an entire customer list with billing records to a single employee concerns me.

Well the sales dept. at Acowin (acowin.com) offered to do an online demo for me to show me how their software works. They spent two hours working with me and answering my questions. The guy also was QB certified and helped me with a couple of things there also.

They have a new something coming out which they won't reveal any details about now but it comes out in Sept or so. Says it is going to be a revolution in the field to office communications link. Supposed to be so obvious to use that your field guys won't need any training to use it.

I've still not decided yet who to go with but I'm leaning towards them at the moment versus Wintac. I've taken a relook at Ayanova. I had some questions and got an email that said to download the operator manual for more info. It is a 700+ page document. After spending a half hour or so on it I decided to not persue that option. It is very well priced and may work very well but there are other programs which offer more things to help your business operate more efficiently that I couldn't tell if Ayanova offers them or not.

I had a thought and I'm looking into having my web guru make a page for contractor software reviews. I thought I would include catagories for review such as their support, annual fees, initial cost, cost for additional license, usefulness, refund policy and of course a overall ranking of 1-5 star popularity.

I and many of you have spent countless hours searching for the ultimate software for our situation such as accounting, estimating, service management etc. only to not find anything to help with the decision process.

It won't cost much to get it up and running and I think it will be a great help to those contractors looking to make a good purchasing decision. It is bad when you purchase something and find out it is not what you're looking for at best or worse, it's worthless and/or they refuse to issue a refund! If I decide to go through with it and make it a reality I'll post a link to the page.

Very good advice and recommendations.
What is a website for AYA software?

I can not find anyhting when i do a search.

Thank you.

ayanova.com I think. I'm doing a demo of another company now. I love it so far. It's $2500 for two licenses now, which I need. Acowin is around $3700 for same.

Here is a simple WO management software to generate and track WO's. I don't think it has any dispatch capability but it has some type email client built in and may be what some of you could use. You can use to do invoicing also. It's only $40 to buy and is free to try out. Here is the link http://servicemaster.dawsonmobilepc.com/servicemaster.htm

It is also rated 5 stars on cnets download.com here. http://www.download.com/Service-Master-Software/3000-10743_4-10706235.html?tag=pub

Ayanova is only $175.00 . There is additional charge for each scedulable user. That way the little companies can afford it and it will grow with the company. We are using it on a Vista softwared pc too.

Being you and LK are using Ayanova, how about you listing a summary of features. Ie, Quickbooks interface or just journal entries to QB, dispatch capabilities, PO generation for trucks and shop, barcode interface, tool tracking etc. I've yet to find a comprehensive list of features for Ayanova.

PS The one we're inclined to go with now is Electronic Service Control found here ESC

It has many time saving features such as caller id WO generation. If your customer's number shows up on the screen, it finds them in the database and asks what you want to do. Click and you open a WO pre filled out with name, address, contact info, most recent job info etc. Will allow the service manager to clear the phone lines and create the WO faster. This software was recommended to me.

PS I made contact with a guy today who is going to set up a page on our site for contractors to submit their software to the site's database for review by contractors. I'm hoping this will allow us all to make informed decisions much more quickly and accurately for our next software purchase. I'll post a link when it's up and running.

LK,

I see that you can create multiple lines for each work order. Do you use Ayanova for tracking larger project costs or just for managing service calls?