The hard truth... it's great, does what they say, but does have some constraints
Updated April 11, 2024
The hard truth... it's great, does what they say, but does have some constraints
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with JobBOSS²
We use JobBOSS² to manage our work, finances, and scheduling. This package takes you from an estimate through to an end-of-year financial review. You can track virtually everything you could want. It comes out of the box with most reports and functions you could want and is easy to learn for someone computer savvy. If you struggle with technology, you can still use it just fine; it might take a little more time to get up to speed. We were not really digital before this, which has allowed us to get a much better grasp on our business without needing to create elaborate spreadsheets to look at data. We are only in our first year, but it already saves time for us from quoting to managing work. The team that sells JobBOSS² is well-informed and honest. I think most shops could have the basics down within a few months and within a year be fully utilizing the software, but to truly get all the benefits, I think it will take a few years to get everything exactly how we want it. Overall, couldn't be happier with JobBOSS² and their staff.
- Estimating is great once you learn how to use it, and it makes repeat estimates easier than ever.
- Time tracking is amazing for us. It has taken some time to figure out exactly how we want to use the tracking parts, but it's only because it has multiple ways to do the same thing and finding out what works best for us took some time.
- Billing and Purchasing are a breeze. The full package is worth the money to fully integrate the entire business into JobBOSS² since it can handle it all.
- Automated reporting would be great. We can build custom reports, but have to do automated tasks entirely different and having the option to send multiple reports on schedule would be great.
- Custom reports and automated tasks through knowledge sync are incredibly complex to setup. I am very computer savvy with sql database experience and the way that all works is highly convoluted whether by design or necessity that is my biggest gripe.
- More customization options to better have this fit our business instead of generically a manufacturing business. For example, if I have a customer that wants price breakouts on individual parts, but wants them as part of a lump order, I cannot lump two estimates together and remove setup, I have re-create multiple estimates. Or, more specifications for time/labor, like weekends are always OT, not the 2 option only system it is now. I have a ton of ideas but they may be more specific to our shop, like selling sheets by the square foot, while also allowing me to set a markup rate rather than a sell rate. I hate the sell rate system, everything is markup based and having it designed for sell price rather than markup on cost seems backwards. Shops that use this are not retailers so prices fluctuate and having to work around everything using sell price is a pain.
- Allowing us to track gross profit rather than net profit would be great. I like seeing net profit, but the system of burden rate, avg labor rate, billing rate, etc etc is just another weird system making it hard. I assume this is because this is built for machine shops that run a machine at a price but even that seems weird because I enter a work center to run a part at xx price per hour and the ticket is created but needs to be scanned to track it's work, but a guy has to monitor it to ensure the ticket doesn't stay scanned too long even if the machine stops. It would be nice if I could make the software just calculate the cost regardless of whether someone scans the "cut" task for a cnc machine.
- More than pays for itself if being used properly, we saw a nearly immediate 3x ROI
The ability to manage all aspects of the shop in one place is the biggest benefit so far I have seen with JobBOSS². We all work under the same standardized system and process. While it's not perfectly suited to us, we are all on the same page now. Even if there are times when we are all confused, we are all in the same boat instead of one person leading with how they do things and then trying to mesh all those different systems together. It's also been great to allow people access to information they previously didn't have like an estimator knowing what has or has not been billed.
Do you think JobBOSS² delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with JobBOSS²'s feature set?
Yes
Did JobBOSS² live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of JobBOSS² go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy JobBOSS² again?
Yes