Total Office Manager is Awesome!

We have been using TOM since 2007, at that time i personally had no software training and was a working owner that still had my tool belt on. It was very simple to learn this program and that can be an issue i know for owners that transition form the field to the office.

Pros

The ease of the program is outstanding, we can be working on an accounts payable entry and within a couple of clicks we will be on our schedule board setting up a service call. The program has everything in one place so there is no importing or exporting to get your accounting to show up, truly a simple program that does everything we need it to.

Cons

I cant think of anything that we do not like, there are a few reports that we do outside of the program but we are working on our end to be able to do them inside of TOM. The ability is there but the way we setup our technician time tracking is limiting us form getting good billable reports, again this is something that we did when we set the program up.

Easy to Use and Learn System

There have been some issues with e-mailing through Total Office Manager and Outlook. I know that it is being worked on and will be corrected soon but it has caused some issues in the office.

Pros

It is very easy to use and can be adjusted to how you want to use it. You create and set it up how it best suits you.

Cons

Some of the reports are difficult to find at the beginning. You have to play around a lot to find exactly what you are looking for.

Administrative Review

We use the mobile application and has saves many hours daily for office and field staff. Needs work but Aptora is updating frequently.

Pros

I feel software is quit easy to train new staff in their field of use. Support is excellent and updates are very frequent. Seems that Aptora management is responsive to the changing requirements of clients

Cons

Inventory is the weakest section of Aptora. It has improved considerably over the past couple of years. Aptora does not have ability to buy in one unit of measure and sell in another. Pipe is often purchased by 20' length and sold by foot. this is not possible in Aptora. Managing specific vender part numbers for venders is difficult requiring multiple screens and many keystrokes. Viewing the different vender parts numbers is almost impossible. Pictures of product should be on main page of parts form, but requires several keystroke to view.

The Literal One-Stop Shop for a Service Company

Pros

I like so many things about this software I literally cannot list one. Dispatching, Estimating, the Sales Opportunity Manager (!!!), the Schedule Board... my list could go on for days.

Cons

The migration process is bumpy (we are on day 3 of using the software, training since September). I would suggest spending the extra money on bringing someone to your location for your Go Live week... be sure to plan this up front rather than waiting.

Flexible, Feature Rich, Mobile User Support for Field Techs, Great Value, Solid Support

I have installed numerous, integrated software systems for various type of companies (manufacturers, professionals, educational organizations, service companies, insurance, etc.) over the past 30 years. I understand the VALUE they bring to the table, and I understand the difficulty of launching company-wide software systems. The long-term gain is well worth the cost of short-term pain. TOM is a tool that will enable you to examine many aspects of your business. It will provide you with data that allows you to make informed decisions regarding your company's current performance and future direction. The most important benefit that TOM brought us is the ability to perform job costing. It has enabled us to truly figure out what types of work we perform well, and what types we don't perform well. Additionally, the ability to stop using multiple pieces of non-integrated software from different vendors to manage our business … dispatching, quoting, inventory control, financials, field service tech invoicing … and handle all of those functions in one package is a HUGE advantage. There is a steep learning curve with a software system this complex, but the end results is very, very good. Aptora is a great company with which to partner, especially when you are working to grow your business as we are. I highly recommend Total Office Manager and it's companion products such as Mobile II and Form Builder. Their system is a great value.

Pros

Total Office Manager (TOM) is a feature-rich software system. It is a fully integrated system that won't require me to run multiple, discrete pieces of software to manage my business. We can manage our inventory in multiple warehouses, process our financials (including job cost analysis), link our field techs directly into our financial and inventory systems in real-time, handle all of our dispatching and scheduling needs, and easily export data into Excel for in-depth analysis. All that and more wrapped up in on package!

Cons

Because of the flexibility of the system, it takes a while to get all of the settings and features figured out in order to best fit your business. It was a bit of a long-term struggle, at times, to get there, but we are now pleased with the end result (have been using TOM for 15 months).

Many Features, More Needed

With our previous software we could not view history of items or invoices with ease or even at all. Aptora we can find quickly if something hasn't been invoiced to a customer or anything else really. There are many features we have yet to start using even after almost 3 years, but within 6 months we were almost fully up and running when we first started. I feel the company listens to our requests for features, we would just like to see them come to life a little sooner.

Pros

My favorite thing about Aptora is it's ease. Within just a couple clicks you can find the history on almost anything. This abilities allows us to ensure everything is being taken care of from start to finish.

Cons

1) Average cost. The software does not allow us to chose a different method like LIFO and FIFO. Not every company works on Average Cost and it causes a LOT of extra work on our end to keep it "fixed" as we work off LIFO costs. 2) Proper inventory management between branches. It's a little convoluted the way we have to keep up with it.

Updates are Rough

It seems to be a good system and has many capabilities. But the constant issues with each update can be crippling, and takes us extra time to back track and find the issues and point them out so we do not mess up the data in the software. Knowing that at any update something can change the data or how a feature works is very concerning.

Pros

There are many options for this software.

Cons

I dislike that every single update changes something in the software. The coding always has some sort of adverse change in the software. And we have to find out what happens after things have changed through the update, where we are always questioning the validity of the data inside the software. Then when we call, the answer is always.... have you updated to the next current one? It should be fixed through that.

TOM review

We are processing all service call work orders and invoicing through TOM. It's been working fairly well and is nice to be able to email invoices direct to customers through TOM and Mobile application.

Pros

It has flat rate and t&m capabilities for techs in the field via Mobile application. We had used Aptora's flat rate program via printed books in the past, which was a plus for our techs, and TOM integrates with Flat Rate Plus.

Cons

Training of the techs has been rocky; I would recommend having an Aptora rep come to your business to train in person. We tried live training via web, but found it was difficult to keep all techs at same pace to keep up with trainer.

Total Office Manager Review

So far, the software has demanded a tremendous amount of time devoted to troubleshooting and fixing bug problems. There is lots of room for user error and redundant data entry. Support is hit and miss, depending on who responds. Very frustrating!

Pros

The flexibility to customize the software to operate around how you want your business to operate, not the other way around. Integration with accounting within the software.

Cons

Lots of bugs. They also dont test updates very well before sending them out, which only causes more frustrations with staff. Often times an update will fix one bug but create new bugs. Retail prices mysteriously change on their own which is very disturbing.

Easy enough

There are helpful people within company. I just wish that there were fewer bugs in the software

Pros

I like that it is designed for contractors.

Cons

There are multiple bugs, sales rep seems to be non existent and the yearly upkeep charge for no support but updates is high

Great Software With Helpful Support

This software has changed the way we do business. As the owner of a smaller company, I don't have time to create reports from various data. TOM has been a game changer for us in getting real time reports with the data we need. We have been able to make so much better business decisions quickly because of this. We utilize it for accounting, payroll, inventory control, dispatch, flat rate, marketing and so much more. I believe It could take you years to realize the full potential of this software. One of the best business decisions we have made in 22 years in business.

Pros

We used to use multiple software platforms for accounting, inventory, dispatching, etc.. The problem was there was either no integration or not helpful integration. We did a demo with several companies and graded them on what we were wanting to have the software do. Aptora was the only one that hit all of the marks. It has proven itself, in the little over 2 years we have used it, to be exactly what we were looking for. The customer support when we have a problem has been great. I would definitely recommend this software to anyone looking to streamline their business.

Cons

It does take several users to get the most out of the software. We have dedicated dispatch, warehouse, admin and accounting people so it works for us. Since you can customize the software and use it in so many different ways, establishing YOUR process is extremely important. If you don't, you will spend a large amount of time fixing things. I say this from experience. However those are user issues, not software issues. When updates are pushed out, sometimes something will break and you don't find it until days or weeks later. They are good about fixing the problem and providing a way to fix your data.

All in one, fully loaded

As Somebody who has been dealing with dispatching software since the mid 90’s and then management software as a whole from 2001, I have tried many many different options. Aptora is my personal favorite. It has a very easy 3rd party billing like I’ve never seen. Over all, even with the little things that bug me, I can’t see ever changing. Updates are good and improvements are continuous and enhancements are well thought out.

Pros

I like it’s completness, and the fact I can buy it and not rent it except for the map, I don’t rent that, but I think there is a very very small single digit rental fee just to pay google last time I checked. Business coaches and franchises always say when you start a business think of an exit strategy, but if they recommend something like service Titan which screwed up my entire business, I was forced to use it for franchise by dwyer group, don’t get me started, or any other cloud based service management software, then they are hypocrites. Cloud based software had my business hostage, I don’t care what they offer, nothing is good enough to allow someone else to posses and charge me rent for my heart of operations. I could infiltrate a cloud based software company, set up shop next to a successful business, spy on everything they do, and then put them out of business because they might have been smart in business but stupid with software by using the cloud. Don’t get me started. With aptora it has its own exit strategy built in, when u execute exit strategy Aptora adds a serious value to the business as a whole to be an asset and NOT a cloud based liability. I suspect franchises don’t say that because they want to watch your every move. If I had a business coach recommending cloud based software, I would get a different one. Yeah they say u can download database but just wait till u try it, then try to organize it or do anything with it LoL. I can also see profit per tech

Cons

There are a few lose ends with so much going on, no big deal, just a little bit of too much stuff on the mobile for techs to look at, much of the menu items will never be used by techs, but that’s not a deal breaker. Picture upload from mobile should be a background operation rather than having to wait for upload to complete.. Total office manager still has a little bit of a DOS feel to it and doesn’t have the option to save the desktop so when signing in we can get all of our favorite windows up and in place. And when making adjustments to an invoice, even just the memo, total office manager will complete the work order without anybody knowing unlike mobile will ask first if u want to mark work order as complete with a pop window, so a little inconsistency in operation. And renting the mapping goes against non cloud based concept in my opinion.. I think Aptora should set up a deal with Garmin and dump google maps completely. Garmin owns the skies in gps, they aren’t going anywhere. At least all the cons are minor small things.

Just Crossed the 2 Year Mark

Outstanding. You will not be upset with the move. You may be frustrated during the transition and team training, but the end results are worth it.

Pros

The software is like others in that it will only give you what you put into it. The software takes awhile to learn, but is intuitive. The entire company is using Total Office Manager as our backbone for communication and data information. It's really nice to be able to pull any data, CRM, Accounting, Financial, Trucks, etc. from one place. The team at Aptora is also easy to work with.

Cons

Like all software, there is a learning curve. Expect a year or more to fully integrate it into your business.

Aptora, good and not so good.

I still like the program because I see the potential. After having the program over 5 years, we still only use a percentage of the program that we should but again, that is mostly on us. I have hired a few people that their main objective was to learn and utilize the program. We are getting better but it is taking too long. We did look at other software this past winter that was far easier to use but is limited in what it could do. I do wonder if sometimes we are too optimistic in thinking one day we will use it as it should be. But were not ready to quit yet.

Pros

It has a ton of potential but is not for everyone. If utilized as designed, it is a great tool to help run your business efficiently and track financials.

Cons

My bookkeeper and wife, who used to do our books before she was deployed with the US Navy, are not to thrilled with the accounting portion. They are ok with it, but like QB a lot better. I have no say since I am not versed in either. As well, we are too slow to utilize many of the functions due to lack of training, which I blame mostly on us. Your cost to train is rather expensive so I would like to see either a 3rd party trainer available or even an open forum amongst other users of your product. You do have a lot of glitches also but to be fair, seem to take care of them rather quickly.

Have Been Using It For Over 7 Years

Our overall experience has been incredible, and I highly recommend it.

Pros

Total Office Manager has drastically improved the efficiency of our business. The all-in-one functionality is the biggest advantage. We previously used 3 different programs before switching years ago. It is extremely user friendly, and we have found that new employees catch on very quickly. If you have a desire to learn more about any feature there are numerous training videos available. Their tech support staff are easy to get in touch with, and the people great to deal with, should an issue arise.

Cons

As others have indicated already the frequent updates periodically cause an issue with other functions. However I greatly appreciate that they are continuing to make the software better for the users, and they are quick to respond and correct the issues.

Best software on the market!

Overall Total Office Manager has allowed me to run my business very efficiently. I am grateful to have this software available to me.

Pros

I love all the features and the ability you have in the software to run your business any way you choose. I love the support you receive from everyone at Total Office Manager. I love how I only have to worry about one software to run my business. All my accounting info is in Total Office Manager.

Cons

They are missing a customer portal for approving estimates or making payments. Not a big deal as I know they are working on it and hopefully will be available soon.