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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

At the beginning TOM was great, sure it had small issues that I was certain would be addressed and everything would improve, but that is all wrong.. They spent lots of time and money making a stupid message reporting system so they could search if anybody was texting a bad word to somebody else, and you could make a pie chart of how many times somebody said one stupid word or another LoL. Meanwhile, TOM continued to get more bloated, top heavy, and cluttered with more crap and less organization. I made countless pleas to consolidate and organize menu's to be more consistent with each other even gave detailed mathematical examples of how many hours over the course of a year could be saved to make the software better and how to better streamline menus, but excuses were made to avoid any improvements after I proved without any doubt efficiency could be increased. Aptora wasnt interested. Eventually I was having problems with my TOM and I wanted to upgrade to the latest version. The rep I talked to was a nube, It was a Friday and I had a lot of catch up work, so they took my money and had no more interest in making sure anything worked.. I told nube dont run off till the registration error is fixed. Nube told me it will be later, after everybody is gone. Well no it didnt. I was screwed all weekend scrambling with work arounds and Monday they called ready to help, but I was up all night all weekend and demanded a refund, now they are pissed and dont want to take my money anymore..

Local server, can do a lot, have loads of things on one screen by having line items occupy a small space rather than most cloud or others that little information occupies much screen real estate.

Cluttered, chaotic GUI with the right click menus inconsistent with each other. Mobile app operates differently than Total office manager. For example, when making a change to an invoice in TOM, TOM then goes behind our back and completes the invoice without saying or asking if we want the invoice to be completed.. I have constantly suggested to fix the problem, it has cost us much, but they said thats the way it is suppose to operate while Mobile on the other hand, will ask you with a pop up window, if you want the invoice to be completed, I suppose thats the way mobile is suppose to operate as well, completely different than TOM, When I say "mobile" its like a new arm to TOM that likes to slap you in the face occasionally.. TOM and Aptora mobile compete with each other rather than integrate with each other.. The schedule board for example, there is a new and an old, you can use either one, they work quite differently from each other.. There is an old schedule board, which is a lot faster than the new one and integrates well with TOM, and the new one seems like its a completely different transition into a completely different operating system. The SQL server setup utility is pretty much a complete fraud by claiming capabilities it does NOT have.. Not sure why that utility keeps getting worse over time, but not a single attempt has been made to fix the "enterprise server utility" but rather work arounds have been created without instructions..

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.

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.

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.

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!

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).