JobBOSS² Reviews

Pros

JobBOSS as a standalone is good, with some nice Crystal Reports added on. What makes it great is that there are quite a few add-ons available (for Quality, CRM, etc.) , plus it it stores all of its data in a SQL format that works well with Microsoft products.

Cons

I work mostly in the Finance/Accounting side of the business. There are some basic things that could be added in the next version upgrades.

Pros

Ease of use and good tech support. Very similar to quickbooks

Cons

When allocating stock to jobs, unless it was purchased specifically for that job, it is a bit cumbersome so we had a custom report written to allow the tag number of the inventory to be scanned.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing JobBOSS²

Reasons for Switching to JobBOSS²

Pros

Absolutely Nothing. There was nothing that we liked about the software

Cons

The Description field for parts is limited to 30 characters. The database does not include a vendor/manufacturing part number field as a standard filed and you have to do workaround to get it to show on your purchase order. The software is completely non-intuitive, is extremely cumbersome and non-flexible and then they nickel and dime for every single change. The implementation phase was a total joke where after 9 months it still was not doing what we need it to do.. And then they to not make it clear that it is an annual subscription and that you need to provide a 30 day notice prior to renewal which they do not even inform you that it is a renewal. They simply tell you a few days ahead of time that you need to upload a license key.

Pros

This program allows us to manage our parts, all the way from quoting, to shipping and billing. Once you learn the system, there is a lot of information available that allows you to track, schedule, and make sure your products follow all of your customers requirements. If you fully utilize what's available, you have a lot of information available to you, to make your business efficient and make sure you're making a profit on your parts.

Cons

There is some chunkiness to the program. There are things that take more steps than necessary to find the information you need. There are some things that you can double click, and it redirects you to a different area of the program, which is good. Other things, you not only can't double click on, but it doesn't allow you to copy, necessitating manually writing it down and navigating to the other part of the program. There are a few other features I'd like to see. Things that should be available, but haven't been implemented. I feel all of these issues can be solved with future quality of life updates.

Pros

I like everything about this software. We have two sites, although we are considered Aerosafe Companies we are in fact two separate companies with their own receivables and payable. I like that I can switch back and forth with ease. I use the accounting modules mostly which are wonderful, I have never had a problem with them. I also use the Purchasing module as I order tooling, material, supplies etc., The Inventory module is great allowing me to allocate all items to a GL code I have set up.

Cons

There are no cons as far as I am concerned and would recommend it to anyone. I have done so on more than one occasion.

Pros

Gem-Trim is a small manufacturing company of control valve parts. The E2 Shop System fit our company perfectly with the three modules we needed (Manufacturing, Financial, Quality). E2 is not a multi layered system like some of the other systems we looked at. Gem-Trim uses all three modules to a high degree and the three modules compliment each other and provides management to a vast amount of information. The E2 System is an extremely user friendly product but still gives a small company the big company profile.

Cons

There were some minor obstacles in the program we had to overcome and adjust to, but the support from the E2 staff was a tremendous help and assisted us through those situations.

Pros

The software can handle all the process in your facilities from sales to delivery to the customer.
form SO to the customer, pass throug jobs (WO) and invoices to delivery product. it handle fine partial delivery so it can be accurate all invoices.

Cons

once you have all modules set up. it can work. but you need to get assistance from an partner to get all the information and help to set up all the process. it can't be set by yourself.

Pros

Good first level entry product. Lots of options for expansion. Priced well. works well for most of what we do

Cons

Could be easier to use. Search in fields could search the whole field instead of just in order. Need ability to reschedule batches of jobs or ops. Looking in the future to need better paperless abilities for the floor. This would be drawings, capacity dashboards. Also as things become more connected we are going to need ability to integrate to nesting

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to JobBOSS²

Pros

E2 Shop is very user friendly! It is easy to navigate and easy to understand.

E2 Shop has the best customer service we have experienced and has a wonderful online discussion board and help documents to help along the way.

Cons

We have experienced a good amount of "glitches" and software "hang-ups" that require a system repair which we were advised to do every 2 weeks. (All have proven to be software related).

Pros

The versatility, working with the custom development team and being able to get features that aren't out of the box. From the end users perspective it's easy to use.

Cons

I have no complaints at this time. Very pleased with the product.

Pros

E2 has really helped us streamline all of our processes: from initially purchasing, through receiving, invoicing, check writing on the AP side; to processing POs from customers, generating orders, travelers, packing lists, and invoicing on the AR side. I can't imagine going back to what we did before! In the E2 system, once a part number/PO is entered, all of that information travels through all of the processes and handling of that item. No more repeated entries, with that time consumption and potential for error--one entry and you are done!--the processing of the PO or part number then goes through the whole shop and out the door. And I am not even including the ease of quoting and routing, which is less in my area of work, but is the area where most parts "begin" their life with us. E2 takes these parts all the way through, including the generating of Return Authorizations and credits when those are needed, in a seamless way.

Cons

Honestly, I can't think of any significant cons. We have had the occasional glitch or problem with usage, and there are some areas where I wish we could use the system even more, but for the massive amount of work we do use it for, it is excellent!

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

What we like most about the E2 Shop System Software is the ability to expand and customize our databases. We purchased the SQL version which allowed us to put the E2 OEM program on steroids. We added custom fields and tables of things that were very specific to our manufacturing business. We also added a custom front end for our customers to access things like detailed part specifications, testing data, sales history, package tracking, and much more. We also added a custom backend for our employees to enter non E2 items into separate database tables and link the information to the customers and vendors already in E2. The best part is, we have a very high end custom solution at a fraction of the cost of some of the other solutions on the market. We have the ability to barcode scan, track employees time for payroll, calculate exact labor costs based on actual production times, track inventory, import our invoices into Quickbooks, perform accurate estimations / quotations and much more.

Cons

We started off with the Access database version which is limited in scope, but soon realized that the SQL version was much more powerful and allowed unlimited growth.

Pros

Simple navigation, use of Favourites shortcuts, level of complexity is perfect for smaller organizations.

Cons

Would like to be able to access more information directly from the Job (ie from an outside process, be able to access the Purchase Order that is linked to it).

Pros

The level of detail available about any project, material requirements for the project, routing steps, and tracking of progress.
A complete system available to manage every aspect of the shop from scheduling of employees and jobs, payroll, materials, and more.
XML support to allow you to use external programs to exchange data with JobBoss.

Cons

Inability to really drill down from a broad overview of projects in the shop down to specific details of a single job.
Customer support for using XML extremely limited. Poor documentation on using it.
Does not allow you to require completion of a routing step before beginning the next. Ability to track progress is 100% dependent upon employees logging into a job and recording their progress without any enforcement policy within the program.

Pros

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.

Cons

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).

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to navigate through. We do not utilize everything E2 has to offer. We create orders, packing slips, invoices and vendor PO's with E2. We are in an internet deadzone and have really bad service in the shop so we are unable to use the data collection portion and we use QuickBooks for our billing. for what we use it for it works great. The traveler make sense, creating packing slips and invoices is simple and the customer service is top notch.

Cons

The interface is not really intuitive, there was a big learning curve for my team. For example, when we were first trying to print job travelers we were hitting the "print" button in the top right. This was not the correct button. The correct button is "reprint" on the left side of the screen. Why would we be "reprinting" something that we haven't even printed yet? And why have two print options when one isn't even really an option? Another example with some of our frustrations is with the GL accounts. You have to assign an account to a tool in order for it to be properly assigned in QuickBooks. When invoicing, you are required
to enter what GL account you would like that invoice assigned to, but it does nothing. The GL accounts are attached to tools, not invoices. If you do your bookkeeping in QuickBooks it is pointless. It would be really helpful if you could assign your GL account in the invoicing stage, but you can't.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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)

Pros

The system does have some great capabilities, it allows full visibility for our production floor. It also encompasses added features such as Quality, Accounting and Scheduling.
And customer support/tech support is amazing. If it wasn't for their support your software wouldn't be as successful as it has been for me. And lastly your help section has improved light years, that too is so Helpful!

Cons

The software can be cumbersome at times and too restrictive. The way it ties together orders, work orders, inventory and purchase orders makes it next to impossible to make changes once processed, We work in an ever changing environment and the software makes it next to impossible to be able to support our customer changes without a LOT of extra work behind the scenes. You also need to focus on adding the "bells and whistles". Minor add ons often make the user experience so much more pleasant, Lastly there is a major lack of Note fields throughout the modules and your CRM portion could use lots of improvements as well.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

The customer service was terrible and we do not have any pros to say about this software.

Cons

We hired a representative from their company to fly out for some help with direct training and accounting fixes. We had to prepay for his services. Upon arrival he informed us that he too was unfamiliar with the accounting portion and couldn't help us much. His services totaled over $6000.00 We finally resorted to paying our CPA office several hours to go through the process with us and balance the books.

In short, $37,000.00 later, not only we would NEVER recommend this product to any sized businesses, but if you're thinking of viewing this product, don't waste your time. They will show you a demo of software that's already setup and operating smoothly, which is NOT what will happen when you implement. As of January 2021 we have since, happily moved on to new software, but recently been forced to pay for the last six months of (non) tech support or risk being sent to Collections from Shop Tech. Classy Shop Tech....very classy.