Quickbase as a Purchase Tracking Tool
October 18, 2016

Quickbase as a Purchase Tracking Tool

Liz Salamanca | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with QuickBase

Currently, we are using QuickBase in the Wind technology of my company. We use it as a workflow to assign purchase requests to users, to provide users with updates or additional information in a transparent way so that the whole team is on the same page, and now we are starting to look at the reporting capabilities.
  • Allows users to communicate in a transparent fashion without getting lost in emails
  • Allows users to decide what types of reports would prove useful from the information input in Quick Base
  • Can be customized based on user's company or departmental need
  • I wish there were tutorials or chat sessions available on how to set up templates or rules for the app the user is creating. This can be confusing at times when trying to make changes.
By implementing Quick base, my department has been able to better plan for upcoming purchases, but it also allows the manager the ability to see the requests that are coming in and reject them before they begin to be worked on if needed. We are still evolving the app we created so that it can be used interdepartmentally. Many of our colleagues now want to use Quick base because it has been so helpful in streamlining our processes and communications with one another.
It is not very difficult to build an app on QuickBase but I find it does help significantly to be strong in Excel. The reason I say this is because when inputting rules to your app - like mark as Closed once this button is checked - is very much like building If statements in Excel. I am sure even without an Excel background many people could still figure out how to get their app put together, but I do think it helps.
  • 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
Recently there was an oversight in status of purchase Requests in our app. Sometimes we have to send a request to Procurement to have a contract created, but we initially had it set up so that once it went to Procurement, the item was marked as closed. In order to capture the steps that take place after that point, I had to add in another section to my form and change the rule I had initially set. It took less than 20 minutes.
This system works well when trying to keep multiple people in one department up to date with information regarding a project. It's also very helpful if you often need to create tables representing information that is being entered in your app. It is also helpful that you can store attachments without having to send large files via email. The app may not work well if you are trying to gauge how long it takes to complete a request where it may be put on hold for a period of time.