# Management Software For a Small Shop



## Diesel Tuner (Jan 7, 2013)

I have been looking at InkSoft and DecoNetwork as I am a smaller shop. InkSoft has increased their pricing and Has so so reviews. DecoNetwork has decent pricing and so so reviews. Most of the discussion on these is year or so older. 



Is anyone using these providers or is there a better provider that I should look at. 



Thank you for your time


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## LizardLicked (Jan 23, 2019)

I have heard the same about Inksoft, and that it is geared more for online sales tracking not the actual production side. I am in the same boat, I am at the point of needing a production based management software. I have been told to check out Printavo. You might look at them.

I too am interested in any other software to help me grow and be more efficient.


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## Diesel Tuner (Jan 7, 2013)

I am looking at Printavo but,


1: to get the same level of software, you need enterprise level.


2: One main draw back is that you can not use your own domain. They allow you to use a sub domain off of their domain name.


tshirtselling.com not possible
teshirtselling.printavo.com is how your domain would be and only available on the Enterprise level. Not very professional looking.



I had Printavo when they started at $15.00 per month and were still growing, but a need more and went with a self hosted software. I have out grown what I have now and am looking for something to move to.


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## LizardLicked (Jan 23, 2019)

good to know. I guess my search is still on.


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## Direct Print (Jan 25, 2019)

Hey guys! Hope you don't mind me butting in, I am new to this forum thing and joined simply to find a software for our business in the UK 

Currently looking at Deco, ShopVOX, TradeGecko, Printavo 

ALL have their pros and cons - it is so hard to choose!


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## FatPrints (Jan 8, 2019)

We use Printavo currently, which is great for my production needs, but our company is super multifaceted and it lacks the stuff we need for website integration. We are looking at Inksoft and DecoNetwork right now and I personally believe that Inksoft looks less clunky and has some better options. All of these companies are more than happy to give you a run through of their service, which we've done. I guess I'm just worried that we are going to spend another $1500 on getting the next program, using if for six months, and then searching again because we don't like it. Trial and error is a *****.


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## Direct Print (Jan 25, 2019)

Thanks for the honest feedback it is much appreciated - DecoNetwork gave us a webdemo but told us no trial available? I find it impossible to make a decision on a software without trying it?!


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## FatPrints (Jan 8, 2019)

Direct Print said:


> Thanks for the honest feedback it is much appreciated - DecoNetwork gave us a webdemo but told us no trial available? I find it impossible to make a decision on a software without trying it?!


Yeup, thats what they said to us too, as well as Inksoft.


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## Diesel Tuner (Jan 7, 2013)

I wish Deco and Inksoft would give 30 days trial so I could make a decision on purchasing. I hate the outrageous set up fee those two are charging. One thing I forgot to find out is are they putting you on a shared hosting server or are they using a VPS server for each customer they have. 



I am leaning more towards Deco as they let you use your own domain for your setup. I think this is a big plus for dealing with customers as the would be doing approvals and purchases through your website rather than a sub domain of the company you choose to order from. I


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## johnconvoy (Nov 29, 2013)

The problem I've found with these tshirt builder websites is that they don't funnel in the customers you want. They're all high complexity, low quantity jobs. And very few come in. 

I think shops saw CustomInk saying oh wow we need to be like that. But they spend millions of dollars on marketing a year. 

We're not customink and our big advantages are amazing customer service + personal connections. 

In fact, I'm determined that those designer tools hurt your customer conversions. We have a simple form, that's quick for customers to fill out and we go from there. Plus most of our business is from existing customers as well. 

Just my thoughts


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## asureprint (Feb 1, 2019)

We use shopvox. It works well for us.


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## AMPrideUSA (Aug 1, 2014)

Having a Trial period to play with these software packages would really be Helpful. We actually have looked into both Deco and InkSoft, and actually spent a couple of Grand on the Inksoft License package. Afterwards found out it didn't really work as advertised and their Customer Service was Horrible. Tried to get our money back since we never actually launched it but that didn't happen, even talked to the owner directly....expensive lesson learned. We still have never used the Inksoft software. We still do it the old fashion way; customers email us the graphics and we work our Magic and send them a digital proof for approval. 

You can purchase the same designer software that both InkSoft and Deco use. I don't remember the link, but I found it while searching for other design software options. The software company that has the design software package shows proudly that InkSoft and an extensive list of other companies are among their customers. If you only want the Design Works part of the software I believe that both Deco and Inksoft offer it as a downloadable package to put on your existing website or on your own platform. 

Good luck finding something.


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## ednaknew (Oct 21, 2008)

We use Deco Network and were really upset when we first got it. We paid all this money and felt abandoned after our half hour "Tutorial". I spent months trying to figure out how to get it set up, while still paying the monthly fee. I finally gave up and hired someone to get it up and running. Now that it's working, it's pretty great. As long as I don't have any urgent questions because they are in Australia and there's always a long delay in getting a response. Other than that...


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## Ink Sauce (Feb 18, 2019)

Lots of helpful feedback here. Thanks for sharing.

Would definitely have to agree with @johnconvoy here in regards to the online designer tools.

I think there's a ton of value to creating online stores where you are listing pre-designed product for a specific company, school, cause, etc. And platforms like InkSoft or DecoNetwork and others allow you to do that as well.

But unless you are really driving a lot of traffic to your site, I'm not sure you can get a really good return on the online designer tools.
I've talked with quite a few shop owners and a lot of them don't generate much revenue from the online designer.

To give a real world example: 

- My wife would definitely spend an hour designing a single t-shirt for one of our daughters and happily pay $25-30 for it.

- A business owner who's ordering $1500 worth of screen printed shirts to giveaway at an event is more likely to pay a professional to handle the artwork for them, instead of spending an hour of their time trying to design their own.

Getting back to the original topic,
I wish I could actually count all the hours we spent trying to find the right software in my old shop. Probably 100s of hrs.

I actually put together a buyers guide in an effort to help others find the right software for their shop.

You can find it here - https://www.inksauce.io/shop-management-software/


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## Marti (Apr 12, 2007)

Take a look at Live Designer by Action Illustrated. If you're looking for a designer site like inksoft: https://actionillustrated.com/

Call to get a better deal than online 866-696-8403

I've had it for over a year.


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## rtenbush (Jul 2, 2007)

Marti said:


> Take a look at Live Designer by Action Illustrated. If you're looking for a designer site like inksoft: https://actionillustrated.com/
> 
> Call to get a better deal than online 866-696-8403
> 
> I've had it for over a year.


Or you can use a Wordpress plugin designer for $50 and make your own. 

https://fancyproductdesigner.com/


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## freshbrand (Aug 10, 2018)

HI 
This is a great dilemma. We are using Deco and it is expensive. We are a small shop that wanted web stores because of our business model. We like the workflow of all the stores goes to one fulfillment center, however, the store portion is non-flexible. I think ink soft would be better for that, but really expensive for just that. I hate that there is a one time fee for the product, that's a money grab.


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## austitch (Nov 8, 2017)

LizardLicked said:


> I have heard the same about Inksoft, and that it is geared more for online sales tracking not the actual production side. I am in the same boat, I am at the point of needing a production based management software. I have been told to check out Printavo. You might look at them.
> 
> I too am interested in any other software to help me grow and be more efficient.


Some of you may or may not have heard of Smake german cloud based program for end to end workflow.
whilst it's not necessarily aimed at the smaller end of the market it will allow you to modularly grown yes there are monthly fees and an initial fee with free automatic updates. 
The sole focus is more towards the workflow in the back end and production and will openly connect to other systems VIA API woo commerce, magenta and soon i hope Deco, a lot of the systems dont do the backend production workflow connecting to Digital equipment which is what in the end most of us outside of administrative tasks on current systems are looking for 

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk


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## charleykj (Feb 22, 2012)

Stay away form Inksoft, we had them for just over a year, dumped over 5k into it, made 1 sale, went back to just our old website, Etsy, and facebook, and of course word of mouth, and repeat customers as far as the online designer, 99 percent of our customers didn't like that route, as they aren't graphic designers...just my 2c


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## anbin (Dec 27, 2017)

charleykj said:


> Stay away form Inksoft, we had them for just over a year, dumped over 5k into it, made 1 sale, went back to just our old website, Etsy, and facebook, and of course word of mouth, and repeat customers as far as the online designer, 99 percent of our customers didn't like that route, as they aren't graphic designers...just my 2c


Just curious with all the anti-visual-editor workflow. Do you guys use the visual editor internally at all? For instance for sales person to open a Sales Order on the fly?


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## charleykj (Feb 22, 2012)

anbin said:


> Just curious with all the anti-visual-editor workflow. Do you guys use the visual editor internally at all? For instance for sales person to open a Sales Order on the fly?


99 percent of our sales are in the storefront, so we have everything we need


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## Teesom (Jan 11, 2019)

Diesel Tuner said:


> I have been looking at InkSoft and DecoNetwork as I am a smaller shop. InkSoft has increased their pricing and Has so so reviews. DecoNetwork has decent pricing and so so reviews. Most of the discussion on these is year or so older.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Diesel Tuner said:


> I have been looking at InkSoft and DecoNetwork as I am a smaller shop. InkSoft has increased their pricing and Has so so reviews. DecoNetwork has decent pricing and so so reviews. Most of the discussion on these is year or so older.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


When making a decision about software, focus on time saved and return on investment. What is the software going to provide you that will save you time to go after more sales. Skip any software that will not allow a trial of the program and they should actually minimally help you set it up so that the trial version is usable while you are in a trial period.


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## Teesom (Jan 11, 2019)

binkinfoosl said:


> Inventory tracking and management is such a fundamental part of running a successful business that there are literally hundreds of software options to help you monitor your inventory data. But with so many options, how do you know which platform to choose?


Make a list of everything you want from a Software. When speaking with the software company ask how each of those requests is handled. Decide which ones are deal breakers for you if they don't have it or it doesn't operate as you think it should. It's no different then buying a house or a piece of equipment. Do not be afraid to get your staff involved, even an outside friend, they may think of things that you are "blind" to. Be very mindful of any limitations to a feature. When you have found the first software that you believe you like, let that one set the bar so to speak. The next software gets compare to that one, then decide which of those two has set the bar. Keep comparing until you are only left with one solution. Make sure you are focusing on Return on Investment, not price. Price shouldn't even be discussed until the end, your focus should be am I going to solve my problems and get a quality product at the same time. Hope this helps.


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## Reinbow (May 21, 2007)

Before retirement, I owned a small manufacturing/ retail business here in the UK. The software I used is by acclaim software.Very reasonably priced, and did everything except the washing up! I do believe it’s an Australian company,and offers a free trial - worth a look at least.😉


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