Software for managing quotes and inventory

[paulowen]

Hello everyone,

I would like to improve the efficiency of my store by centralizing the management of my business. I am looking for feedback on software that simplifies the management of customer quotes and the tracking of our baguette and glass inventory. I would really like to save time on administrative tasks so I can focus on the technical side of things.

I have seen that in other industries, such as short-term rentals, there are “all-in-one” systems that synchronize all management tasks. Is there an equivalent in the framing industry that allows us to centralize order management to avoid errors?

[Justintime]

Hi Paul, I'm not sure that I can be that much help but here goes..
From memory, Estlite pricing software allows you to manually input moulding stock and then it will warn you when you need to reorder. I now use frameR by Framiac which I believe is a better software for pricing but doesn't have the moulding stock feature. I've not come across a pricing software that allows for glass stock to be recorded.

[JKX]

FramR did stock control when I used it, there was talk of linking the feature to your supplier orders too, so the feature must have been dropped altogether.

I used it for a short while, just for mouldings (sheet materials would only show full sheets) and the problems I found were that although it may show that you have, say, 8m of a particular moulding - it wouldn’t know that was all in offcuts of less than half a metre or whatever, that you’ve tossed out - I can’t imagine what the fix for that would be bar manual adjustment.
Also orders on arrival had to be entered manually and it was all just too much to keep on top of.

It’s very good for quotes and orders though …. and of course it’s main function, pricing!

[JFeig]

I have seen that in other industries, such as short-term rentals, there are “all-in-one” systems that synchronize all management tasks. Is there an equivalent in the framing industry that allows us to centralize order management to avoid errors?

Yes, it can be done; however the cost of maintaining such a system from a software creator viewpoint is a very costly proposition in most cases with a very limited market to sell their system. From my viewpoint the cost of the custom picture frame POS systems are very economical in comparision to other industries. Two of the largest systems in the US are Lifesaver and Frameready. Both are owned and maintained by a single company with a total of about 1,500 subscribers between them. To my knowledge there are no bigger software developers than these two. Based on 700 subscribers @ $50 per month that amounts to less than $500,000 per year for revenue per system that requires a marketing staff, data update and customer service people, software developers and owners not to mention overhead and other costs.
.
As of about a month ago the company that owns both systems announced that Frameready will become an orphan system where there will be only updates to the supplier data and not updates to the actual system.

The problem with the custom picture framing industry is that it is very fragmented and contains very few multi-person production facilities with a professional management staff. Some got into the industry as an offshoot to being a crafty person, family business, or wanting to work with their hands. Many of the owners are in their "second" career, not all, with even less management skills to oversee a team. Out of 100 projects we do, very few are identical materials, size, and contents wise. We are very similar to the bespoke furniture or cabinet industries regarding consistency of what we make.

What you are comparing your request on is mostly generic retail functions that are not as sophisticated from a cost accounting standpoint. Your comparison to a "short term rental" business is apples and oranges in complexity.

The POS management of glass, board, and moulding is very complex considering the problem of scrap and use of "leftovers" from previous jobs. A periodic manual inventory of this stock is necessary for accuracy.

[Tudor Rose]

In the UK I'd recommend FramR (Framiac) and yes, it does have a stock control section for moulding. But not for board materials or glazing. You would need to go into the stock part of the settings and input your current stock levels and then any new stock delivered to keep it up to date.

Most framers don't bother with that part of the software because of how time consuming it can be to do and as John mentioned, you have to manually check that what you have in stock matches requirements anyway. It is one length or multiple off-cuts for example. Using the stock required report works well for us, and just involves a quick manual check and a note of anything needing to be ordered.

The software is fully up to date with UK suppliers and does have updates to keep it running smoothly. It is excellent value for money.

[Barry James]

Problem I'm finding with FramR is that it calculates cost without adding VAT - Has anyone been able to address this?

[JKX]

The software covers it, you can opt to add VAT to your suppliers’ list prices or your own final retail price depending on if you’re VAT registered or not, respectively.
That’s how I remember it at least.

[Tudor Rose]

Exactly that. In settings just specify whether you’re VAT registered or not.

[paulowen]

Thanks everyone for the detailed insights, it’s really helpful to hear about the pros and cons of FramR and other systems, especially regarding stock control for mouldings, glass, and board. It seems that while these tools are excellent for quotes and pricing, keeping accurate inventory still requires a fair amount of manual oversight due to offcuts and scrap,
Your points also make me realize that what I was hoping for, an all-in-one, fully automated system like those in other industries (short-term rentals, for example), is tricky in the framing world due to the bespoke nature of most projects. I came across a discussion of centralized management systems in other sectors (https://channel-manager-experts.us/), and it gave me some ideas about how certain principles of synchronization could still be applied here, even if the software isn’t tailor-made for framing,

I think a combination of FramR for pricing/orders and a disciplined manual check for inventory might be the most practical route for now, but it’s good to know the broader landscape of possibilities, thanks again for all the tips,