Inventory and Pricing Software?

Hi all,

I am back with yet another tedious business related question! :)

Do you use an inventory and pricing software? If so, which one?

I have recently bought the "Jewelry Designer Manager Pro" software and have found it to be very dissappointing. I am wondering if anyone else uses it? I'm sure I've seen postings about it before, but not sure where.

The main problem is that is uses a US pricing formula (and it is really odd!) to price finished jewellery and there is no flexibility to change this. It allows you to override and calculate your own prices, but that kind of defeats the whole object of the software. It basically means that I may as well keep my current Excel spreadsheets with pricing for finished jewellery and in that case there is no reason to have this "glorified inventory system" as I already have that, albeit in a simpler form, also in Excel.

So, my question is, if you use this, how do deal with the odd way of calculating prices for your finished pieces. Or do you use something else?

Would really appreciate people's input on this, I am ready to ask for a refund, but I would really like to be able to sort the problem instead...

Cheers,
Carin

I'm afraid that as technology and I usually end up falling out, I don't use anything at all sophisticated Carin, so can't help.

Me neither.

Thanks for replies!

Soo what do you guys use, Excel spreadsheets, pen and paper? :)

We use a combo of Excel spreadsheets and Access, but then my OH was a programmer, so has sorted the whole thing out for us. We use a variety of ways of calculating prices, depending on what metal we are using, copper or silver etc, but can override/change the calculation so it suits what we are making. (Hope that makes sense?). Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

We did look at jewellery software, but thought they were overpriced for what they actually do.

Similarly, I'm in the process of putting together a database to handle stock, contacts, SOR agreements, invoice issuing etc. Spreadsheets are not databases, although they do seem to end up used as them far too often.

Thanks for replies.

Well, I am a programmer and so is my husband, so this is not exactly something we couldn't do ourselves, but I was hoping to save time (and therefore money!) by buying a ready made piece of software. The people making it don't seem particularly knowledgable and also can't tell me what features are going to be in the new version or when it will be available, pretty poor I think!

Unfortunately I didn't start using the software straight away, so now that I have found out that it isn't fit for purpose, they won't refund me.... NOT HAPPY! $260 down the drain.

I will end up developing Excel/Access stuff I guess, but this is so annoying. So basically, this is me saying DON'T BUY Jewelry Designer Manager!

I would love to hear from anyone who uses it and how they make it work for them, here in the UK. They claim to have customers all over the world.

Carin

Could you ask them to recommend a UK user to you that is happy with their software and happy to be contacted, so that you can work through the issues that you have?? (it would be interesting to see if they can), if they have so many users all over the world, surely their will be a few in the UK??!!

Thanks Tabby, I did think of doing that actually. I haven't yet responded to them after saying they won't refund, as I was so pi**ed off that I might have written something I might later regret! :)

I will do just that, ask for a UK user and see what happens.

Carin

Hi,

I am using Google drive and microsoft onedrive both free. and back up my files. there a lot of spreadsheets templates for free that can be modified or programmed by yourself to suit your needs.

Paul

I would recommend craftybase.com. I tried it and worked great for my set up. They are relatively new in the business, but gradually getting their customer base.

Daniel

LoveSportsJewelry on Etsy

I use pen and paper Im a cavewoman LOL
I keep meaning to set up a stocktaking spreadsheet and also my accounts on one but still not got round to it...

Hi, I am a novice jeweller - and also happen to write my own business software. I am curious to know what you want from 'inventory and pricing' software, i.e. what are you aiming to get from the software?

Hi Larry

As a technophobic jeweller
I want a computer to handle all the inventory recording and calculate pricing from raw materials
So that I can get on and make jewellery instead

A textbook use case... :D