Re: Keep It Easy Questions
Ok I have given the cloud version of Keep It Easy a good crack for 8 months and feel I should tell my fellow contractors about it. During this time I discovered a lot of functions not working as they should in their program "and there are a lot". As I discovered these things I emailed KIE about them and on each occasion was given a work around way to do the procedures until the issues were fixed. The cloud version does not have all the functionality as the old desk top version, the biggest one for me is their invoicing, you cant put all jobs on the one invoice for a client that has a monthly account like you can in the old version, I tried to manually enter jobs on an invoice and write the service dates for each job manually as their is no functionality for service dates but when you save it ready to email the order you have entered changes so all the dates are jumbled around, this is confusing for the customer and embarrassing for me, I was told by KIE all these issues are being looked at by their programmers.
In Summary the old version has more functionality than the new version. The new version has a lot of functions that are not working as they should. KIE don't inform users of this when signing up to the new cloud monthly paid version, you have to learn the hard way as you use it. There has been nothing fixed from KIE from the many issues I have informed them about nor has any information on these issues in regards to them being fixed in the near future been sent to me from the company during the last 8 months, had this been the case I would stay with them. I cancelled my subscription at the end of June and I have now moved over to Quickbooks. I did enjoy being able to schedule and do my bookkeeping in the one program with the desktop version of KIE but the new version is making it hard and very time consuming not to mention more expensive than QB. It puzzles me when they have a perfectly good program like the desktop version that everyone was happy with as a platform why they have to change the functionality when building the cloud version and why they didn't make sure everything worked properly before taking it to market. I was also concerned that if these issues were not fixed soon then people will quit KIE and move elsewhere and the company would one day close leaving me high and dry.
QB are a huge company so I feel safe in the thought that they wont just close one day leaving me high and dry. It really is quick to use just a shame they dont have scheduling but now I have made the change I have found its no real biggy and it has cut my book work time in half and cheaper as well. I should have listened to Bluey!! would have saved me a bit of time and $$$ but I dont mind at least I know and wont fall into that trap later on down the track and might help a few people when considering a bookkeeping program choice in the future..
Cheers
Dean :)
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
l hope my desktop version never crashes......
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
Thanks for the update. I had considered moving to the cloud version but will now stick with the pc version until it dies.
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
They are on borrowed time with me also. The fact that it does not function as it should, has resulted in me not keeping on top of things.
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
Does not surprise me. As I said previously if your going to be paying more per month for KYE than QB then you want all the bells and whistles. They just took the desktop version and put it on the cloud along with all its problems and deficiencies and it looks like they stuffed it up a bit as well. Operator is not interested in feedback or support only the money which is really bad considering he is a lawnie. Went downhill when Selina sold it I am afraid
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
I am using service m8
It does scheduling and invoicing / quotes
Also sends automated email and sms reminders
Unfortunately only works on iphone / ipads
Once all customers schedules in its easy to keep up dated
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
HI All
I have recently moved over to the cloud version and AJD is correct, much of the good points from the stand alone version have been lost. Any questions raised with the programmers fall on deaf ears. They are not willing to change anything. I do wonder if anybody still uses it. The headings do not make any sense (last job date is next job date according to them) and some of the sorting parameters don't work at all. They do have some good work around ideas - the customer ref field on the job does not copy over to the next job but adding a manual line item with the customer reference does copy over. My stand alone version eventually fell over.
There is no change log available or user forum. Hopefully it's all backed up somewhere.
Nothing else on the market does the job, particularly scheduling, with invoicing. Yardbook would be great but it's for the USA and Canada only and Gopher 4 is great but the programmers do not respond anymore - happy to take your money though.
The KIE quote system is an improvement over having nothing but is hard to use, so I don't bother.
I only really care about the scheduling and invoicing - has anybody found something that works?
Cheers Greg
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
l gave up on KIE a couple of years ago, it was betting a bit iffy with zero support and wasnt going to the cloud based version. Am using Quickbooks now but its a bit clunky (no scheduling either) nice to be able to send invoices after each job though
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Redeye
l gave up on KIE a couple of years ago, it was betting a bit iffy with zero support and wasnt going to the cloud based version. Am using Quickbooks now but its a bit clunky (no scheduling either) nice to be able to send invoices after each job though
Quickbooks for me!
I keep all my clients on an excell spread sheet. Lets me see what the weekly total $$ is each week. I have them all reasonably grouped in areas/suburbs/work type - schools etc
Takes a few mins each day to number the run 1-10 etc, highlight it if needed, change it as needed and really do whatever I need with it.
I slot work into another weeks column to try to balance out my work if things get hectic. Many clients can be put on 2 or 3 weekly schedules and have some who are monthly half day or all day jobs.
It's really old school but works for me:dance. I am now working this schedule on the spreadsheet so I can have 2.5 weeks off at the end of July/August.
We work it with a diary. S*** now where is my Melways:rolleyes:
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
KIE is a PITA and got find it after the trial period.
I use cash books very basic (Acclaim Software) NZ made and supported. 1 of cost about $300, no monthly fees, not cloud based. Lifetime support, easy to use and great for our industry. Unfortunately no scheduling but I get around that.
I spent a lot of time researching and almost impossible to find scheduling non cloud with no monthly fees.
Check their website and they do offer a 90 day free trial period
www.acclaim.co.nz
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
I trailed the KIE cloud based program but found it a pain. Also, there was no way of quickly seeing aging debts like you could on the old system, so I won't be using it. I've been limping along with the old system, so l'm looking for a alternative for invoicing for the future.
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GregC
HI All
I only really care about the scheduling and invoicing - has anybody found something that works?
Cheers Greg
I'm the same scheduling and invoicing the two most important things day to day. I'm using XERO for invoicing and book keeping but still using a diary and spreadsheet for client base and scheduling. I did try Service M8 and it syncs up with xero and it does your scheduling and your invoicing. I didn't end up using it after free trial as we do so many jobs per month I couldn't justify the fees and only currently run one crew. If you're at the stage or greater and running multiple crews/vehicles I'd say give it a try, another mate has 6 staff and he says he doesn't care what they charge for service m8 it's totally worth it for his organisation.
Obviously there's also things like jobber and various other used a lot in the USA.
Good luck!
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
And just like that they fold - ending 31 July 22 - too costly for them - although they don't do anything or respond the queries anyway
Luckily I have moved to Tradify, which has great scheduling, not perfect but pretty good. It feeds into MYOB and other accounting software
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GregC
And just like that they fold - ending 31 July 22 - too costly for them - although they don't do anything or respond the queries anyway
Luckily I have moved to Tradify, which has great scheduling, not perfect but pretty good. It feeds into MYOB and other accounting software
Not surprised they folded and didn’t think they’d last this long..
Re: Keep It Easy Questions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
GregC
And just like that they fold - ending 31 July 22 - too costly for them - although they don't do anything or respond the queries anyway
Luckily I have moved to Tradify, which has great scheduling, not perfect but pretty good. It feeds into MYOB and other accounting software
Hi Greg
What do you like and dislike about Tradify?
I currently use QuickBooks for invoice / quotes / payroll etc which is fine - quotes are fairly basic though
and google calendar for scheduling - I'm happy with that for just using one vehicle but I have an employee out on his own now as well as tree work in a separate truck.... so not sure whether I should jump over to something more sophisticated or not.
Service M8 does look good but only for iPhones and I've got Samsung everything and so do my staff