Quickbase for Manufacturing Structural Steel
Updated April 15, 2020
Quickbase for Manufacturing Structural Steel
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Quick Base
Quickbase is being used by the entire organization. We use it to track all current inventory, to create new orders, follow the orders, check them in, get them to the jobs that require the material, view the process of the job and all related tasks, make sure it's ready to be shipped out, and track it to it's destination.
- Everyone has the access to the same information at the same time
- All edits made can be instantly viewed and reflected on
- It has great control over users access and permissions
- Great ability to use different applications for different needs in the company
- Customizable with layout as desired and adding personal code and scripts
- Some times, it is difficult to search through some tables and applications
- Grid edit needs to be used in a slightly more integrated way with APIs
- Speed is a great concern for us, and when Quickbase is slow or the database is dragging along, we're hurting.
We have been able to make great use of the applications. It has aided us to view the jobs we do and maintain great track of them.
- Improving our ability to drive insights from our data
- Improving collaboration across one or more teams
- Solving a specific business challenge
- Building and deploying an application (or multiple applications) that meets our exact needs
There is hardly any difficulty at all, thanks to some great templates that anybody can use. They also come with examples sometimes, so that you can see how the application is intended to work. There might be some need for IT aid when the solution requires programming languages, but Quickbase can be run quite smoothly with little to no programming knowledge.
We have an application that is designed to track changes in Quickbase, Audit Trail. When we first implemented it, we could not believe how quick we got it going and how great it's functioned until now. It's been doing great and gives us great insight into the jobs that we perform and that happen.
Quickbase Feature Ratings
Integrations and Governance
- Our Timeclock information, for tracking our time
- Quickbooks, for passing on some information
Some of this integrity is deep, but not too complex. A lot of the information that is passed on is usually an export of a .csv that can be used elsewhere.
The integration between Quickbooks and Quickbase has been something that we have been working on. Capturing payment information as well as customer information has been rather seamless. And Quickbase has been there to help us every step of the way, providing support for when do get stuck and getting us out of a pickle. Quickbase has also been helping to capture employee time and importing for payroll is a future step that I know that Quickbase has the capability to do. Quickbase can do quite a lot with Quickbooks.
We usually have all employees sign a policy for usage of internet, specifically how they use Quick Base. All information is typically handled at the user level through permissions and access to need to know information. Not all users have access to all information and the information that is most vital is handled through the executive branch (CIO, CFO, and CEO). We have had instances of users taking information, but it is always of minimum impact, as that info can be suppressed.
Using Quick Base
95 - Accounting, Finance, Operationas, Procurement, Shipping and Receiving, It
3 - Knowledge in Quickase, they way the tables and apps work together and common business practices.
- We use it to track our raw material from when we order to when it leaves the company
- It hosts all of my backupos and the custom code that we have made for a few of these applications
- We're able to prioritize the jbs that we have on hand by the status that we can make in a field for each record
- API calls to use scanning in the workshop
- The ability to create a full page to work on information that we needed that was incorporated to the records
- By incorporating the information from external apps and using it more and more in Quickbase
- It has been able to maintain all of our information in a centralized format and easily accessible webpage
- If Quickbase is ever down or has an issue, we cannot work. If Quickbase goes offline, we cannot work completely.
Evaluating Quick Base and Competitors
No - We were really only using Excel spreadsheets that were being shared on a shared drive
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Third-party Reviews
This was a program that was going to be available to everyone at the same time
Try it out first. We jumped in and trusted the program, and this worked out greatly for us
Quick Base Implementation
- Implemented in-house
not applicable
No - not applicable
Change management was minimal - It was implemented very simply
- Making sure that we had access to the internet throughout our entire company
- Making sure that everyone could log in correctly
Quick Base Training
- Self-taught
It was pretty simple to learn the overall, but to get more and more of the specifics, I had to get more in depth with it and create testing pages and tables. In the end, I learned a lot, but it would have definitely helped to have gotten more help from someone with a ton of knowledge on the system.
Configuring Quick Base
Make sure to take advantage of the URL pages that you can create to aid the page. You can make these pages and API calls to get the information that you need without having to necessarily use the exact form type of the Jobs page.
Yes - we have customized the interface extensively - We wanted different roles to have different access to the information in the table and we like to highlight for them the information that is necessary for them. Some reports make sense for some roles, so we have to customize it for them. Not only that, we constantly add our own code/pages to give even more help.
Yes - we have added extensive custom code - Custom code lets us show the page that we desire and print out the information in a specific format that greatly aids us in getting the right info in the right format out of it. There are forms that Quickbase is limited to that do not allow us to print it out the way that we need it to, so we'll create a page that lets us do that.
We like to change the colors of the pages to match our company colors. We've also used a ton of API calls to do tracking of changes to jobs. Lastly, we like to have many of our documents shown in a custom coded page with information being pulled from Quickbase itself.
Quick Base Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
Yes - It can accelerate the speed of the response from support
No - not applicable
We lost a ton of information one time, so we had to reach out to support to get the most recent back up of the app. Support was able to respond quickly, and in less than 2 hours, we had a copy up and running and we were ready to go.
Using Quick Base
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Convenient Feel confident using | Slow to learn Lots to learn |
- Customizing the fields that are needed for the tables that we require
- Creating specific reports that we need and being able to filter it down to exactly what we need
- The formulas are sometimes difficult
- Not being able to catch the form rules of grid edits
Yes - Not well for the purposes that we need to use it for
Quick Base Reliability
Integrating Quick Base
- None at the moment
This does not apply to us
- File import/export
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
None that apply
Make sure that you continue to hold our hand through the integration, as I can see that having issues with this could lead to very unhappy customers.
Relationship with Quick Base
Fair, monthly payments that were offered at a discount that suited the team.
Patience and clearly speaking out what it is that you need.
Upgrading Quick Base
No - None that we have been made aware of. Everything has worked swimmingly for us.
- Faster load time
- Better reports
- More concise Report building
- Grid Edit triggering Form Rules. This is really killing us.
No - We have everything that we need on this platform