IT business management software

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Mark Matuschka's picture

Does anyone have any suggestions for business management software that's specifically designed for running an IT services business?

Functionality should include integrated:
- CRM
- Project/contract administration
- Tickets
- Time tracking
- Management reporting
- Billing
- perhaps quoting, PM, sales

I'm thinking cloud-based products like Autotask but it would be interesting to hear what people out there are using.

Comments

I would suggest looking at

chaloum's picture

I would suggest looking at accounting software

EDMEDiA Australia

Good idea

Mark Matuschka's picture

Hi chaloum, good idea - there was a thread at http://groups.drupal.org/node/128099 on this topic. Accounting software doesn't necessarily give you all the other stuff, but I'm interested in hearing about people who are successfully using add-ons with accounting products like Xero.

--
Mark Matuschka
Glo Digital

What about MYOB accountedge

chaloum's picture

What about MYOB accountedge

EDMEDiA Australia

AccountEdge

Beckey's picture

Did anyone ever find a module that will work with AccountEdge Accounting software?

A couple we looked at are:

PNX's picture

A couple we looked at are: http://www.project-open.com (open source) and http://www.affinitylive.com (web service).

In general, we've found these to be "jack of all trades, master of none" and have stuck with task-specific tools.

Task Specific

gamelodge's picture

Hi Mark

Yes I have to agree with Owen, unless you use a full ERP system it may be best to use a combination of tools:

WHMC: Client/Billing/Server management.
Pivotal Tracker: Internal Developer project tracker, with ability to notify client on Delivery of task. Allows for time tracking based on points & velocity, some tasks can allow client interaction and others don't need to. Easy to start using.
Excell/Google time-sheet: for staff clock in/ clock out times.
MYOB: For BAS and transfer of monthly/weekly totals from WHMCS (ie don't track every transaction in myob)

Separation of Client billing, project Management & Business process management, allows for accountability to each section head, for example WHMCS will send our reminders automatically for late bills at times you specify, if client gets angry about this you can blame billing department and still keep a working relationship, as project department is separate, I realise this is a very trivial example, but the separation is important.

Cheers
Andre

flabbergasted

spyjournal's picture

must say that it boggles my mind how blaming the billing department allows you to keep a customer relationship working - especially if the billing department is just your alter ego!
an unhappy customer is an unhappy customer period.
just my 2c

I went through a lot of

gordon's picture

I went through a lot of account applications and the best one I have found which I am happily paying for is Xero, http://xero.com

I will work anywhere I can access the internet, and also it will import your bank statements directly from your bank, and also lodge your BAS directly as well. Also I find it great because all I have done with my tax is give my accountant direct access to my accounts and they are can do them right off my books.

Also it has integration with other products like freshbooks for doing your invoices, and timesheets. Freshbooks is actually free for up to 3 clients so this is a good solutions as well, but Xero can also do billing directly.

--
Gordon Heydon

or Attache

chaloum's picture

or Attache

EDMEDiA Australia

we use autotask

spyjournal's picture

We use autotask for project and ticket time tracking and CRM as well as sales pipeline management combined with quickbooks for billing - and ESM for our strategic management (balanced scorecard)

+1 best of breed

skwashd's picture

This is my quick list of what I've found works best for me and my clients.

CRM: There are a few options here, but I've found they're all too much hassle and don't have the volume to justify the investment
Project / Contract Management: Folder synced with Dropbox
Tickets: Pivotal Tracker (online wall), very nice UI and great functionality. Supports version control integration.
Time tracking and billing: Harvest - does 1 thing and does it well. Android is handy.
Management reporting: No suggestions

Pivotal and Harvest both integrate with Google Apps and offer free trials.

Other things to consider:
* I've been meaning to play with Trello for initial project planning.
* Simple invoices for billing, I used it before switching to harvest because I wanted time tracking.
* Jaconda.im for group chat, it supports multiple (1 per project?) chat rooms which is good for dev chat. github (and other) hooks are useful and it logs everything so you can come back from a day off login and it replays the log.

No Such thing...

cmwwebfx's picture

Hi Mark,

No such thing for specifics of just IT related software to take control of all these features. However as it has been pointed out above by Gamelodge, it is very important to split it up.

For Invoicing/billing/time tracking/expenses I use Zoho Invoice, and wuld never look any further than that software as it is so advanced, yet so functional and easy to use and modify (Free) and has great recuring options for invoicing, great reminder emails that are configurable for different time intervals... oh and if you so desire late payment fees. I have all of thye above and blame the invoicing to the accounts department ( me also ;) )
For CRM, I use Zoho CRM as it integrates with the invoicing nicely, and easy to use... and free.
For the books I use Zoho Books... everything ties in with eachother again... Easy.
I tie all this together with MailChimp

As for WHMCS, you don't need this unless you need a simple hosting solution with very advanced features. Zoho will take control of every aspect of your business, and they cater to the Australian Tax Man.

Project managment I use Zoho Project as well as synchronise folder sharing with dropbox as Skwashd pointed out.
For Customer Support I use Zoho Support
For Project Planning and ToDo's I use Zoho Planner
For Colaborative Meetings 1 on 1 Use Zoho Meetings, more than 1 guest in the meeting will require a subscription per year, then it opens up a lot of options like the reporting tools for your meetings.
For advanced reporting I use Zoho Reports. The reports it punches out are incredible. You will just have to see how it all ties in smoothly.
For the more advanced user there is Zoho Creator... It allows you to customr build nearly any application you want or think of. Drag and Drop Interface, Workflow and Business Rules, Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting... the list goes on. I have toyed with it, and WOW, I would be surprised in what you cannot make in there.

All of these can be easily customised to display your business in the most professional way. Oh, and for free at that. www.zoho.com And no I am not a representative of the company.
But I certainly love using it.

CiviCRM

Pat Redmond's picture

Have you thought of using CiviCRM for your CRM? It is an open source Drupal component.

If you don't have a CRM, take

gordon's picture

If you don't have a CRM, take a look at RedHen which is a very new CRM and is totally integrated into Drupal unlike CiviCRM which can be a bit overwelming to people who have never used a CRM.

--
Gordon Heydon

two completely different schools of thought here

spyjournal's picture

must say im quite surprised by the marked differences between the responses here. at the same time in not that surprised - the drupal developer community is diverse.
my surprise is around the two opposing schools of thought between separating all the functionality of business management between different providers / software and keeping it all in the same system.
for example ciaran puts nearly everything into Zoho - we do the same with autotask, others like mark and owen split everything out to what they obviously find best for each function.
my question to the split side is this:
how do you integrate / share databetween each app - do you ahve a data warehouse or EDI layer that creates/shares commonality and provides data integration, or do you just double enter everything - eg customer details
for those who like to use jsut one maor piece of software, are there down sides - eg some functionality that doesnt work as well as you would like?

for example for us - autotask doesnt handle our multiple entity internal trading well - we are actually working on some customisation to the software to workaround that. however we consider that cheaper than trying to integrate multiple packages together. (Quickbooks and autotask have a built in API connection for invoicing)

be interested in others responses

my question to the split side

PNX's picture

my question to the split side is this: how do you integrate / share databetween each app - do you have a data warehouse or EDI layer that creates/shares commonality and provides data integration, or do you just double enter everything - eg customer details

  • A bit of double entry occurs, but Xero as our accounting software tends to be the master repository for all critical information. Most big web projects tend to be relatively simple from that perspective - monthly or project-based invoicing. It's definitely not ideal, but that one magic piece of software that does everything how you want it to is pretty elusive.

The other big factor is some clients will want you to use their project management systems (e.g. Jira) on integrated projects, so the all-in-one model falls down in that circumstance.

Jura looks interesting

chaloum's picture

Jura looks interesting

EDMEDiA Australia

Look forward to reading this

chrischinchilla's picture

Look forward to reading this post properly, but summary seems to be there never seems to be anything (at any cost) that dosn't everything people want… We use Redmine for todos and basic project management, and a bunch of Mac applications for billing (Express Accounts and timeEdition).

For CRM we use CiviCRM

http://www.cyber.com.au/produ

kattekrab's picture

http://www.cyber.com.au/product/allocPSA/

http://www.redmine.org/

and I've really been getting to like xero - Linux Australia is using it, and I have access to manage DrupalDownunder finances - been thinking of moving CC to it after years of our own homebaked approach to accounting.

Donna Benjamin
Former Board Member Drupal Association (2012-2018)
@kattekrab

Maybe only suites half of

dgtlmoon's picture

Maybe only suites half of your requirements, i wouldnt use GnuCash for ticketing etc, BUT

I'm old school-ish and go with GnuCash

  • Easy to do invoices (exports to PDF, if you're a web-mail nerd you have to email it yourself or write a wrapper)

  • Double ledger accounting keeps my accountant happy

  • QIF importer (see my QIF python regex category sorter script) keeps the categories for expenses and income good

  • XML or MySQL backend, the data is totally yours

I also do some cunning stuff with the XML and render it out as an iCAL so i can see which days i have not invoiced for, and which days i have not worked, also gives me a nice view "at a glance" of how much billable work i've really been doing

  • Desktop app (makes a nice solid change from dicking around with websites all day)

Australia

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