JobBOSS² - Avis

We are a small manufacturing facility - but small does not mean we don't need the same data as the "bigs". E2 in it's old form was terrific - however the cloud based version is superior! Functionality - ease of reports, working with other platforms....we can't say enough!
We are now working on customizing some reports and I can't wait til they are part of our daily work!
Great software, great people, great value!

IF we can't figure out a custom report and need some form changes...it has taken longer than we like - however....that is the only downside thus far!

Modules that flow together easily. Also the ability to track clock in/clock out times and amount of time spent on jobs is so simple even someone that does not posses basic computer skills can use the product.

In some areas it is very rigid and does not allow flexibility you would expect from a mid-teir package.

It has quoting, materials, costing, and scheduling, and job status capabilities.

Sadly the UI is severely lacking. And it seems not much thought is given to usability and efficiency.

This software is very consistent throughout all modules which makes it very user friendly. Also, the customer service is excellent. Each time I have encountered any issues, I can get a technician on the phone immediately who can remote in and resolve my issue instantly. They are knowledgeable, communicate clearly, and very efficient.

There is a bit of a lag time in using the online version, but the data is secure and the updates are frequent. Also, it does not retain historical pricing information for cost of materials, which would be useful when analyzing particular material costs.

Easy order tracking system, user-friendly, is now web based.

Adding inventory and parts is laborious.

Web-based, Interface looks nice, Shipment progress is easy to follow

Difficult to learn, Manuals are out-dated, Customer support is hit or miss, Training classes are sometimes less than helpful and leave you desiring that one-on-one instruction.

Ease of use and the integration with Quickbooks for accounting. Reports look great and its awesome that you can get help to customize the reports if you want. It is also very easy to train someone to use even if that person has not had any real experience using software systems.

I really do not like the scheduling module. I don't think it works for our type of work and just is difficult for us to figure out.

Loaded with features. Took my manually operated shop to the next level and then some. We cannot live without it now. Custom applications available that make it even better. I can watch and control my shop from anywhere!

setup was tiresome and takes a good bit of learning.

JobBoss is a manufacturing software that provides a wide range of features to help companies manage their production operations.JobBoss offers modules for tasks such as job management, inventory control, and estimating.JobBoss is designed to be flexible, it can be customized to fit the specific needs of a company.JobBoss has a reporting feature that allows users to generate reports on various aspects of their business operations.JobBoss offers integration with accounting software, such as QuickBooks and Sage 50.

JobBoss is a complex software, it can take some time to learn and master all the features.JobBoss can be quite costly, especially for small businesses.Some users have reported that the software has a steep learning curve and can be difficult to navigate.Some users have reported that the software's customer support is not as responsive as they would like.JobBoss is not as widely used as other enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which means that not all of your partners or vendors may be familiar with it.

The ease of use is the thing i like the most about the software. Support is also very helpful

The cost of maintenance is very high and without it you cannot update which can cause issues with the system

Value is great, and the Cloud Based version is easy to step into. E2 appears to be ahead of the curve with getting their platform onto a cloud system for their customers, and it was one of the deciding factors why we went with E2 instead of other ERP system out there. Because of the cloud-based nature of the system, we have enjoyed the frequent updates to the product, it feels like we should never get behind. This is a comforting benefit as a system ages.

The flow of work through the system is clearly organized to make the use of the system easy to understand for new users. We have background in a couple other standard ERP systems, and moving into E2 has been easy after a few pointers about how the system runs. The home-screen that shows work flow is easy to follow.

Lastly - one of our favorite features has been how easy it is to customize reports. Sometimes it can be tricky, or perform unexpectedly, but all-in-all it workable. A more advanced tutorial on report customization would be helpful

There are not many broad system cons that we have found. We find the system to be simple and that it does what it is supposed to do well. Mostly, we have noticed over the past 10 months features we wish were included making E2 a more feature rich system.

For example, inventory management could be more feature rich, including categories for non-inventory items (e.g. tooling, etc.) as a default option out of the box, or multiple pricing structures based on vendor, beyond the simple standard cost. We also wish it were were easy to reserve parts being made on a STOCK job to a newly entered sales order. There may be a way to do this, but it has not been immediately clear

For incoming material, it would be nice to have the ability to receive parts/material via the data collection terminal right on the shop floor, rather than having to use a full license to perform what is a basic transaction. Furthermore, the ability to print an "Incoming Material" report for each purchase order (service or otherwise) would be helpful for a shop management. This way there is a paper record of what is coming in on a PO.

For work flow, it'd be nice if there were options linking to create an invoice directly from a packing list (e.g. a save and create invoice option in the save button).

Some of these missing features we find to be inhibiting our efficiency of implementation, so far we are working around them.

In general, it's easy to use. Each module has similar buttons and interfaces. I think the AR/AP modules work well since it's not the primary focus of the software.

Quote entry has extremely limited ability to adjust margins (it can do it, but it's not easy). Adjusting margins are key for job shop environments. After speaking with support about my needs, they told me to quote outside of the system. Which means, I was literally told not to use your product.

Legacy fields get stuck in the system. There's a lot of clutter in our system because we need to change user defined fields but they're not available in the find/replace utility.

Scheduler is very poor. Difficult to use, glitchy. Doesn't (automatically) schedule for available labor resources, which is a huge part of a job shop environment. Reviewing scheduling during quoting doesn't account for current back load (or didn't at the time we last considered it).

The recent "facelift" was atrocious. It's actually a huge deterrent to updating versions. What benefit is this facelift to me?

My perception is that there will be no feature additions to the core product. Any improvements come in the form of custom utilities with additional cost.

The user interface is easy to understand and navigate. The routing and BOM functions work well. Outgoing paperwork (packing slips, vendor returns, RMAs...etc) are generated easily. The quality module works well for us. Ultimately its a great software for smaller job shops; ie, less than 25 employees.

The scheduling system doesn't work. The system consistently puts out a schedule that doesn't make sense. We are a quick turn, CNC machining job shop, and need a software that enables us to understand our capacity. Often times, jobs that are due tomorrow are on the second page of the report, and jobs that aren't due for 6 weeks are at the top of the list. We worked with tech support and cannot get a resolution. We implemented E2 in 2003 and only started trying to use the scheduling module in the last year. It was a great software initially, but now that we have grown we need software that does what we need it to do. Beyond that, items frequently go corrupt. Unprocessing and reprocessing anything (work orders, purchase order, NCs, CAPAs...etc) risk corrupting the file. If you double click on certain things the system crashes. If two people are in an item at the same time, quantities and/or lines duplicate. Once supplies are received or product is shipped, the system will not allow certain changes to be made. The personnel efficiency reports generate numbers that don't make sense. We've visited this repeatedly and cannot sort out a solution. Just last week I reviewed the efficiency reports for our production crew, and a job they were given 4 hours to setup showed "ESTIMATED SETUP" time of 2.27 hours. Our settings are correct but for some reason the system comes up with understated estimates, despite what we tell it to do.

E2 creates a clutter free work space with a simple layout and design. Shop Tech has broken down the manufacturing process to get a true understanding of how our company really operates. The bolt on modules allow for greater control of specific functions in particular departments. We specifically use the Scheduling and Custom Order Import Automation functions. Scheduling give us a top level view, department view, work center view, and all the way down to a view of sub parts that make up a single part. This tells us exactly where an order is as well as if we are under or over loaded at the work center and department level. All I have to do is pull up the schedule, click a button for the level of detail I want to display and away it goes. The Custom Order Import Function has allowed us to automate the order entry process by simply downloading a file from our customer, pointing where I saved the file, and clicking "Import". This function creates the order and based off our custom company settings which we have setup to automatically pull from stock jobs, inventory, post a quantity to make or a combination of all of the above. We can then run a requirement report to see what we need to make to fulfill open orders or to make stock for inventory. It really doesn't get easier than that.

The extra modules do have a cost but they are well worth it. On the plus side of that, E2 will demo the modules with full functionality and if it doesn't incorporate everything that you need you don't have to purchase it.

Being its cloud based that's great because it keeps you virtual anywhere anytime. The system randomly glitches and shuts down and when it does if you haven't saved your 3-5 quotes or orders all those hours of work is all lost.

The system isn't streamline. There aren't many good things to say. It's been a horrible experience.
Sales team over sold us on the product. When we launched with their cloud based system it was still in BETA which we where ok with at the time because they made us a deal to work with them while their in BETA and they wont charge for user maintenance thoughout the duration. Next thing i know problems still arent resolved and its out of BETA. That was 8 months ago when we found out, guess what problems still arent solved and they dont expect them to be for quite a while. Nor could they promised it would be solved.
Here is some ex's: You cannot download any CAD/CAM documents/drawings on their cloud based system. It has to be a image such as: PNG.. NOTE i said PNG and not PDF, DWG, DXF, STEP, etc. That really hinders our flow of operations from the office to the floor.
OVER WORKING YOURSELF: Every step takes 2-5 steps to complete. Such as: Making a simple print, whether printing piece of paper or emailing or viewing a document.
There accounting software is a joke. You cannot take Ccard transactions. We use SYnc option for QB's pro, That doesn't work at all. When it did work it wouldn't close out the invoice on shop side once its been transferred. Believe me when i say this ppl stay away there are MANY more problems than what was listed. I was warned before we bought it and should've listened.

The software is very easy to learn and the interface is extremely easy to navigate. The modules provided exactly mirror the processes in our business so almost every part of the software is applicable to our day to day operations.

Having our business data archived, accessible and organized has sped up and simplified many of the tasks that used to take much longer. Estimates are now completed much faster and processes such as material receiving, shipping or the production of purchase orders for our vendors have become standardized and much easier to do. The time savings and insights into our business / production processes have made us more competitive and our customers (especially our larger industrial customers) see value in the advantages we've gained from the software.

The one part of the software that we find of little value is scheduling. This may not be the case for other users but as a job shop we've found that the scheduling module simply doesn't work with the realities of our production processes.

E2 user for 13 years, sequel version. Most manufacturing companies hardly utilize more than 50% of an MRP/ERP, and don't put the effort to truly comprehend the system to ever fully utilize. In those cases, this would be a good system to use. It does a lot of muscle work for you if you use it right. If you are truly ok with simply letting their scheduling module spit out a generic schedule that is limited in work-ability, this would be a good system. The most updated version has more bells a whistles which is nice but for us was fundamentally lacking in real change and not worthy of the investment to upgrade - plus the fact it is an entirely new system where you would lose all your history was additionally disappointing.

The system has way too many issues. The purchasing module is as stagnant and rigid as it gets. No room for flexibility. The estimating module is also disconnected on very basic levels from the purchasing side. The scheduling module has not been updated in any sort of substantial way since the beginning and is entirely too slow to be of use if you actually want to actively manage your variables. It crashes a lot (and yes, we had it set up by them so no reason there). The support is BASIC. Within 1 year, I was more knowledgeable than the staff trying to help me with questions I had. Constant system issues where quantities duplicate on their own, or system crashes when running a report (which some of them take a really long time).

We're a growing company and as such have turn-over and new personnel growth. E2 is intuitive and our new employees seem to be able to adapt into the system with minimal effort and training. As the IT person here I have witnessed that peer-to-peer training seems to be all that is required to have that new person up and running on E2 within a short time and with little involvement from me, that's a big help! From Shipping and Receiving through final Billing, if our new hire has basic computing skills, their transition into that respective E2 function hasn't been a major training concern.

We're a service and repair facility and it took considerable effort improvising and rethinking to adapt the system into our way of doing things. Initially the software seemed to be over-kill and confusing for our needs but with time we were able to merge our methods with the system and adapt.

The thing I like most about E2 is that it is so user friendly. The process of training new employees is very simple due to the ease of E2. E2 is very functional. It works wonderful for all our departments: AR, AP, Quoting & Estimating, Receiving & Shipping, order entry & purchasing, job tracking and all accounting and inventory reporting. The online forum, tutorials and customer service alone are reasons enough to purchase E2. Their customer services is top rated. I have always received help and been completely satisfied with the results each and every time I've contacted E2.

The thing I dislike about E2 is orphans. Orphans are little glitches that are caused when something goes wrong. E2 doesn't go backwards very well, meaning you have to be very cautious when undoing / unwinding things. Some of my fellow employees fail to unwind things the proper way so we get an orphan occasionally. Although I must say, orphans are an easy fix for E2 customer service reps.

The product is a comprehensive job tracking system. When using the individual "modules" in the correct order in creating parts, quotes, jobs, purchases, shipments, etc. you will be able to trace, track, run reports and get great information. Shoptech as a vendor has always been extremely helpful when you contact them. You will not sit on hold for hours like with some other vendors. You will find both basic information and more extensive information on their website either through webinars, help papers, virtual training classes and also User Discussion Boards. Should you not find the information which you are seeking, their staff is very informative and will not leave you in a bind.

The vendor is very upfront about what their system will and will not accomplish. I miss my accounting bells and whistles with having real time reporting at my finger tips (however, they do provide a "Quick-view" area in which to get real time data for various areas in the system such as job status, parts/customer/vendor inquiries and information, PO status, etc. The worst issue that I can state is that in order to take a look at where items are hitting the G/L, the month in question has to be posted. In order to make any changes, the months have to be unposted. Users should not be in the "Accounting area" when this is being done. AND the worst part in using the audit trail to see which user possibly edited something, no matter where in the system, the audit trail will only tell you who viewed, possibly edited, but will not give you further information to solve your puzzles as to who did what, when and why.

I have used multiple ERP systems some of them rather expensive with a large learning curve, when I went looking for a ERP system for our machine shop, one of the leading criteria was that the ERP would have, or support the AS9100 standard. E2 was the only one that offered a QA module to help create our AS9100 documentation, then as a bonus E2 had a consultant come out and help set up our AS9100 Quality Management System, to top it off, another consultant came back out a few month later to do an audit of our documentation to make sure we were ready to take on the AS9100 registrar. E2 does have an AP & AR module however we wanted to be able to keep our financial information separate in QuickBooks, this ERP system allows you to flow order and purchase order information seamlessly from E2 to QuickBooks by syncing this information over. I really hope companies that are looking for an ERP system make E2 their choice. I did a lot of painstaking research on this and wish I would have found reviews of ERP systems like this to help me along. E2 does what it takes to run a business effectively and as an added surprise the software is cost effective as well.

The only Area I have had a challenge with would be the timeclock buzzer, the timeclock portion is provided by one of E2's partners and we recently had the buzzer stop working well, the e2 sofware is pinging the correct signal however the buzzer is not working correctly. So really this doesnt seem to be a E2 issue it is a computerwise issue (computerwise is the timeclock system)

Easy use for an ERP System. I enjoy all the help and support when I was leaning this software a few years ago. the transition from the old software to the new software was very easy. Your team is very helpful when teaching others how to use the software. The classes are a huge help. Thank you.

I could see improvement in offering the old live classes in the old E2 software. My old job, I used the old software then transitioned my team to the new we based software. Now, I am back using the old software until I move them to the web based software, and the classes are only in the new web based software, so it is difficult to teach a new team how to use this software when the video's only show the new web based version.

Experience: We are a small family owned business that needed to get ISO certified as a requirement by our customer. We did our research and E2 was the best company to offer shop control and offer ISO certification. We have been using E2 since 2012, we have been ISO certified since 2012. We were eager and became ISO certified within 6 months (take a lot of work and dedication to get it done quickly).

Overall E2 has been a great resource for us.

Pros: The software is easy to use, the information that you are able to get from reports is helpful (only as good as the information put in).

Easy for all employees to use with all computer skill levels.

ISO documentation was extremely helpful with becoming ISO certified.

Customer service is always helpful, you always get a real person to help you with your needs.

Software does not allow you to do multiple things at once, it is very simplistic which might be best.

Difficult to customize it to you specific needs, it can be done but there is a cost for that. If you are a start up company this software would be great to get you going with all aspects, if you are an established company you might need to adjust how you do things.

We still do all of our accounting and customer quoting from QuickBooks as that works best for our company.

We do not use E2 for scheduling as we are a fast pace job shop and things change on the fly and difficult to schedule within the software.