Clarity or others, opinion please

[Robert Lambie]

i was considering clarity too warren. heard lots of good reports on it from users here on the boards. since then i have been sidelined and not moved on anything as yet. so will keep reading this thread for feedback too…

Clarity have seven videos loaded on their isigntube.com channel as well as this one…

<embed width=”452″ height=”361″ quality=”high” bgcolor=”#000000″ wmode=”transparent” name=”main” id=”main” allowfullscreen=”false” src=”http://www.isigntube.com/player/vPlayer.swf?f=http://www.isigntube.com/player/vConfig_embed.php?vkey=265b790965a275b53ae5″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash”>

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[Peter Dee]

This is what we use
http://www.quotewerks.com/prodinfo.asp

[Martin Pearson]

Thought you used quickbooks Robert, what is it that you think clarity will do any better than quickbooks does?

[Lee Attewell]

Estimate for the win guys.

Been using it for years and it’s never let me down. Operates across platforms as well.

L

[Lorraine Clinch]

Me too, I really need to organise a better invoicing/quoting system, ASAP.
Estimate looks good, but looks very ‘Americanised’. Is there a UK version does anyone know?

[David Rowland]

Network installation – 2 user and 1 QB license and SQL store on Server with the intention of going 5-6 multi-user.

hi, with regret I had to cancel Clarity after a year of not really getting it setup correctly. The software is very comprehensive and is supposed to find time to reduce your workload by taking quoting away from you. But, we are unfortunate to be unable to get up and running within a reasonable amount of time, finding the time to tune the application and understanding how the internal side calculations works with measurements.

The software comes with wizards to assist quotations for vinyl/digital printers/flatbeds which are additional costs.

The training is instructor led, at cost.

We found it very "mm" and not "mtr" using it as quote, decimal points not allowed.

There is open workshop days, at cost.

The manuals are comprehensive, but hard to understand.

Limited amount of videos to explain the inner workings of the software.

QB software link could not be updated until Touch wrote the modules. So we had to delay updates.

The software feels like it is written for every industry but has wizards to simply for sign making, there is many sides to it from production to marketing now and if setup correctly for your business I am sure it will be great. But it really does need some kind of "Sign Makers Starter Kit" where it could setup or guide you into setting it up correctly for your business type.

Thats my review, we have gone back to Excel.

[Lee Attewell]

I’m pretty sure you can trial Estimate for 30 days at no cost. It’s now a subscription based product and costs me about $90 a month to use for two users. Bear in mind that this programme is being used every minute of every day so it’s well worth it.

It’s easy to set up and works on your own overhead. I can’t recommend it enough.

[David Rowland]

Lorraine / Lee
Yeah, Estimate I think was very American/Australian feel to it. We love are £’s and p’s

[Lee Attewell]

Bugger!!! LOL I didn’t even think of that. I’m a bad Englishman 😉

I just had a look in my settings to see if I could change the currency. But couldn’t see if I could or not. Surely they’d be able to do it for you.

[Lee Attewell]

Ok… Just checked and it does work in pounds and pence. It takes the currency from your operating system currency settings.

/Whew

[Jason Xuereb]

Anyone know of any web based systems or shared systems that also do job management mainly for digital work?

[Lorraine Clinch]

Lee, thanks for taking the time to check
.
I liked the look of this programme, but I think it is probably way too expensive for a small operation like mine, but I am not discounting it, I shall have another look at it.

Lorraine

[Peter Dee]

Clarity started out from a program which Touch Systems purchased called SignTific. This was a purpose built program for the sign industry and had a loyal user base for them to move forward with. Unfortunately support for it ceased as Touch migrated it in to their own program Clarity, so all the loyal users had to upgrade or stick with the old program.
They continued with their aim to widen the program to all trades, with modules for certain types.
It is a long term program which builds and becomes more useful as time goes by, much like any database software.
The main problem I had with Clarity was the inability to tinker with layouts etc without paid input from Touch Systems. Their stranglehold was what was bringing in the money.
The other is that it does not link up with Quickbooks.
Anyone who has ever dealt with Intuit (Quickbooks) will know that there is no help whatsoever without payment, even though it might be a software problem rather than a user difficulty.
Well Touch Systems are just the same imho; money up front or sort it out yourself.
I think that it is really aimed at companies who would have a large number of users (seats), as that’s where the real support money starts rolling in.
The free version is just a spratt to catch a mackerel. (just wait for the sales calls once you register your details).

[Neilly]

We’ve got 5 users on Clarity and it works well for us.

We’ve never managed to set up the quotation wizards as they are just too complicated and intricate. I think they’ve tried to accommodate every permutation that’s been thrown at them and it’s just gets confusing. I’ve stuck with my own Excel worksheets.

The Pricelists are handy but take a while to set up – easy to update though.

Not yet tried the email marketing but will give it a trial at some point.

Reports are good. We’ve had them write a couple of bespoke ones for us and they charged £75 each which isn’t bad.

Telephone support is very good.

[David Rowland]

I do agree with that Neily, Excel is easier to use and Clarity formulas are ‘vast’

[David Hammond]

I’m useless when it comes to Excel formula’s.

I have a spreadsheet from another printer which works OK, but sometimes I think it comes in a little to cheap, doesn’t account for trimming time, waste etc.

I’m happy with Sage for sending out quotes, but I’d like a quick and accurate way to quote jobs, then input that figure into sage.

[Neilly]

Get a couple of days Excel training David, you should be able to find something fairly reasonable near you. You won’t regret it as it’s a powerful, yet simple, tool once you understand how it works.
I’m no expert though so I got a friend who works with it every day to set up the calculators as I wanted them. I gave her the parameters – costs, rates etc – she put in the ‘if’ ‘true’ ‘false’ etc formulas which work in the background.
One word of caution when using any automatic quotation software or spreadsheet – it’s quite easy to miss something or type in the wrong figure so you still need gut instinct to ascertain whether a price ‘sounds’ correct or not. Therefore it can be a dangerous tool to give to someone who doesn’t understand the trade and just accepts what the computer tells them!

[Neil Davey]

We use Estimate, have done for years.

Nuff said 🙂

PS works in £’s and P’s

[Warren Beard]

Old thread yet same question 2 years on ……

…… over the last year I’ve tried to get Clarity to sell me their software, yes you read that right I’ve been trying to get them to sell it to me

After speaking to them 3 or 4 times and finally having a date and time set up for a live demo they just didn’t "show up"

At this point I wrote them and their software off, however at Sign UK this year I saw them there and as I had one of my guys with me and wanted then to see it and give me their opinion as they they would also be using it I approached their stand and spoke to one of their "representatives" he didn’t know much about much to be honest and I almost had to figure it out myself in our little demo and show him what I wanted rather than him show me. Anyway I advised him about the issues and lack of responses I had had from them over the year (even though I still received the odd sales call from them every few months, expressed my interest and then nothing) He apologised and assured me that the following week after the show somebody would be in touch to help me.

Yip you guessed it, Sign UK was in April and it’s July now, still waiting !!!

As I’m about to hire my 4th member of staff and with all our expansion over the last few years I feel it’s time to really push forward and move on to a better system over our excel spread sheets and paper production sheets.

So the BIG question is do I just purchase Clarity without demo or sales people etc and hope to hell I can figure it out and get the after sales support I’ll need or do I go with something else?

Without knowledge of any out there I don’t want to go with something else if Clarity is a better product even if it is a little more of a struggle because the sales department are useless?

Thanks

Warren

[David Hammond]

Yes you can buy Clarity. We ‘rent’ it which gives us support and all the updates.

They quoted for 3days training (it will make your eyes water) we only took one day ‘training’ which I would say is essential. They will set up all the wizards/price lists and show you the basics making sure it’s prices are correct.

If you’ve a few staff members, 2/3 days might be right, it could be worth training 1 or 2 members of staff who can train internally.

Much to my dad’s surprise its revolutionised our work flow, our entire business revolves around it.

Oh and the sales module is very useful, we only started using it this month lol

If you have any specific questions ask and I’ll try and help.

[Ewan Chrystal]

Ive been using clearbooks for about 6 months now and i cant fault it. Think its £20 a month, the online support is fantastic and they do weekly webinars which are great for picking up hints and tips AND its quite straightforward to navigate round and set up

[Chris Williams]

I have used clarity, accura and filemaker in the past. I would say for a sign company workflow, Clarity is certainly the most widely used. It’s a simple system to use and will certainly change the way you work overnight.

I would say they are hard to get hold of and expensive to keep the system once you have it. I had meetings with a company called Tharsten too who I think you should give a shout. They may work out cheaper and will give you a demo no problem.

Depending on the price your going to pay, I would even recommend paying a developer to build you your own. One time payment and you have full control over what you want it to do. A good developer could build a similar site bespoke for you in around 3-4 months.

[Simon Worrall]

Whaaa?! I never had a clue all this was available!
I have been quoting by calculator since forever!
I just downloaded Estimate for the 14 day trial period.
No offence to the others, it was a random pick 🙂
Simon.

[Cheryl Smith]

Let us know how it goes Simon…