ACT! vs. Goldmine

What is your Contact Manager?

  • Goldmine

    Votes: 1 3.7%
  • Act!

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • Custom contact manager / other

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • Contact Manager - Whats That?LOL

    Votes: 12 44.4%

  • Total voters
    27

Tim Mcculla

Tim McCulla
What contact manager are you using?

I'm looking at ACT! and Goldmine. I downloaded the trial version of Goldmine and having problems - with basic tasks. I really don't want to look at ACT! because it will not allow me to import my QB Pro 2002 data.
 
Tim Mcculla said:
I really don't want to look at ACT! because it will not allow me to import my QB Pro 2002 data.


Why not? I did that a couple years ago and transferred my customers basic info........it didnt sync the notes or invoices of course, but name address and phone numbers went over just fine..........

Would the fix be to upgrade your quickbooks to a newer version?

You might also check out www.actaddons.com
 
Ron, after all these years you are still the man! I don't even know what "wireless and intergrated" is but I'm still impressed.

After all this time, I'm still a cave dog. I abandoned the notion of goldmine - just using Q-books and a bunch of time to get things mailed out.

Peace, Tim
 
I've used Goldmine for probably 10 years now (not for PW). We still use Goldmine v4, though we did attempt to go to Goldmine v5 when it came out but we had major difficulties. Personally, I absolutely loathe Goldmine, but I have to be fair and say that the current version could be vastly superior to version 4, but version 4 is what I base my opinion from and therefore I would never recommend Goldmine to anyone.
 
Do you ALSO pull your hair out, over keeping up with customers, and job scheduling info?

I don't know about you, but, one thing I can't stand is having to use MULTIPLE Software Programs that don't interface well at all, just to get simple bookkeeping and contact management and marketing done in a timely manner.

It's both frustrating and stressful....and I know I'm not alone.

I don't know why anyone here has not mentioned the Canadian firm, Multimedia Interactive, that manufactures Maximizer, one of only a handful of mature Complete Contact and Relationship Management Business software solutions. He's a plug for them. I have been using MAXIMIZER for several businesses over the last 15 years and it is awesome for all the reasons Goldmine isn't. Maximizer has matured into one on the most POWERFUL customer relationship solutions I have ever had the opportunity to work with. You have to do a google search and check it out.

Also, it is far superior to ACT as well and merges with PALM and WINDOWS based PDA's and mobile Phones. However, if want to really get a handle on your business and your contacts and Payroll and all accounting within one piece of software there is one program the reigns supreme over all and it has not even been discussed here as its been a secret weapon of the elite in the industry....until now.

This is the software that we all wished we had that really DOES IT ALL and VERY WELL but nobody had the insight or money to fully develop...until now.

I found out about this important business tool after much exhausting research and at first, honestly, I wanted to keep it for myself since it is so ultra powerful and tailors itself to EXACTLY my needs, plus I didn't want my competitors to have it so I always stay a few steps ahead. But, my feelings have changed and I feel that every pressure cleaning company has a right to use this and that there is enough work for everyone so I'm going to let the proverbial "cat out of the bag".

Unlike all the others, this tool allows the software to mold and evolve itself to your pressure cleaning business, and not the other way around.

Plus, the parent company has countless hours of FREE training as well, available both live and online to get new users up to speed fast. And, unlike the many other greedy companies that charge HUGE consulting and training fees, just so you can get set up to use the complicated software, this training is FREE and built in and made really easy to get your head around for anyone that owns the software. And unlike every other solution I have looked into, this software does not require more and more purchases of additional modules. It's like "PREGO", Spaghetti Sauce, "Its' IN THERE"

If you want to know what this king of the hill software is...and from what I understand, which has been several years in development and costs tens of thousands in programming and coding costs alone, just email me or ask me and I will put you in direct contact with my personal account executive for my cleaning business and he can walk you thru a personalized hands on LIVE online session, in the comfort of your office or home, so you can see eyeball to eyeball, how perfect this software is for doing the EXACT kind of business we do, contract cleaning.

This is one Business offer you shouldn't ignore.

This is a opportunity to grow your company with the best service business tool in the business.

This INDUSTRY SUPERIOR software combines all the best of ACT, GOLDMINE, MAXIMIZER, ROUTE SCHEDULING, MARKETING, CONTACT and CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT and integrates seamlessly with QUICKBOOKS and MS OUTLOOK & WORD, EXCEL and more and is the ONLY software of its kind that is tailored to our pressure clean/roof clean industry!

By the way, I am NOT affiliated with this software development company but I too, have to provide for my family as do you, and as such I want to be upfront and mention that I do have an agreement with them that will help my business if this software helps YOU SUCCEED in YOUR business. I believe this is only fair, don't you? So, you haqve nothing to lose and only the opportunity to fully manage ALL your business aspects from within ONE software programs INSTEAD of SEVERAL which will save everyone in the contract cleaning business a ton of paperwork and integration headaches normally associated by using ACT or GOLDMINE to manage comntacts, Quickbooks to do payroll and accounting, MS WORD, EXCEL, and etc. and still have major headaches with the merging of information between the different file formats. This will hopefully be a THING OF THE PAST.

Again, to find out more, I only request that you MUST, no exceptions, use my company, AACTION Mobile Power Wash and name, David W. as the reference as to how you learned about this amazing pressure cleaning/ roof cleaning business building tool that is the king of the hill. My email is dmw12767@g-mail.com
Here's Wishing you much Business!
Warm Regards,
Dave W. "The Redneck Roof Cleaner"
 
Last edited:
1) Your post sure appears to be nothing more than an ad for Maximizer.

2) I have tried several versions of Maximizer, and while I have not tried a new version in probably 4 years or so, I didn't find Maximizer to be any better than Goldmine.
 
I use Act, Quick Books and a palm treo smartphone...... Everything interfaces flawlessly..... I have act on all the laptops as well... you hit the sync button and all of the data is updated on the mainframe and the laptop. The mainframe act is set up and interfaces flawlessly with quickbooks pro... I want to do an invoice from act, select link QB and I can then make an invoive from ACT or QB.

The Palm Treo phone interfaces with ACT on the mainframe. When I hotsync the palm, it updates and merges all of the new info on the phone and mainframe. It is kind of convienent to have my customer database out in the field.

As far as client management.... Act database is an out of the box program and in less than 5 minutes after installation, you are inputing client data. The templates can either use Word format or the act word processor. The templates are easily cutomized. We print all correspondence from act and have detailed estimates that we print as well (just change the price and edit / add / delete to the quote as needed).

When you go to print an ACT generated document, the program prompts you to "add document to history". When you go and click the history tab for any client, all documents with document history appears and are easily retrievable. When I print from one of the laptops and add it to history on the laptop, the document is copied to the mainframe when I sysn the laptop.

Overall:

PROS: easy to use, inexpensive (99 bucks on ebay for act 2008) and interfaces (plays well with others, no limit to clients (we have 985 clients in the DB.

CONS: They offer upgrades annually, we upgrade every three years or so.

I will bring my Laptop to Pheonix RT if anyone wants to see it.

Matt
 
We use Quickbooks Online. It costs about 20.00 per month but I can access all my info out on the road at any time. I bought a couple of panasonic police laptops (you can run over them with a truck) from an auction and with a cell phone card I can access everything on the road.
Whenever I contact a customer I put the contact in as an "Quote" and it is saved permanently in their register. A comments line lets me put in details as to what I spoke to them about.
I also use "Quotes" for reports to customers and I can email them immediately from that page. I'm trying to get away from mailing invoices and deal with email and automatic credit card billing as much as possible. I'm able to do everything with one program.
This comes from my days of owning a dry clean delivery business where I customized QB with codes for each piece of dry cleaning as a piece of inventory i.e. 1.1 = white shirt 1.2= black shirt 2.1= white pants etc. It took me almost a month to get all the codes in and my tagger (being paid by the piece) was making $4.00 per hour at first as he got used to the codes. But after 4 years he was making $22.00 per hour!
Here's what a report looks like in the customer's email and they can also print out a PDF that looks like an invoice with a zero balance.
 

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