capndave Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 has anyone looked into or is using any software to track their machines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allen watson Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I use QuickBooks to track machines, sales, locations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capndave Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 how did you set quickbooks up for vending. i have QB premeier 2013. i was looking to see if they had a templete to set up the company Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 There is no template in QB for vending. There are a few things you can do with it but if you are wanting to track machine level sales, profit margin, over/short, etc., you will need to use software that is specific to vending. To accomplish route accountability on your computer requires some complex programming and formulas that you can't get a spreadsheet to do and requires a database to be used. There are many options out there for you, some into the thousands of dollars. There's one sponsor here called Vagabond software, check the main forums page, but I don't know anything about them. Do some searches within this forum using different search terms and you will find several threads where this has been discussed before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arkhusker Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 Search the forums, we have recently had this discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I just want to make a note that a spreadsheet will do just about anything you can think of but it can take hours and hours and hours and hours of making formulas to make it do what other software will do. A lot of software is based off of spreadsheets. It's just a lot easier and more marketable to use a different interface. With that said, a spreadsheet will work but you need to be well versed in programs such as excel. Quickbooks requires a learning curve. If I could go back, I would have either started with excel or used a program like vagabond. My former employer paid over 10,000 for software that can pretty much manage your business as long as you input the data in realtime. I don't recommend this unless you are over 3M in annual sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allen watson Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I called customer support at QuickBooks and they helped set up my system. It works great. I use "class list" for locations with sub catagories for individual machines. It tracks all my commissions, sales tax, and location/machine sales. I only have about 140 vending machines so it handles it very easily. I even split out all my purchases and expenses for a very accurate profit and loss report. At the end of the year I just send my accountant a copy and they figure my year end tax return for about $400. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexlex Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 I tried a few of the online ones and liked myvendtrack.com probably the best. The hangup I have with most of these is that I want to be able to get my data should I want to leave it and they are just weak in that department. I also tried Excel but figured out with trying to divide the data and join it that I didn't want to take the time for that. I'm a database admin by trade so I ended up creating my own in Access database and it works pretty well. In fact, just two nights ago I was "training" my wife on how to input service reports and she was impressed with it. If I have time I will create a distributable version some day. That being said, try some online ones, many offer two week free trials. Key points are being able to upload/download data and reporting, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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