# Is anyone still using fast manager software?



## oldmoneybrand (Jul 7, 2012)

I've been looking at some accounting software that is specific to the screen printing business, there are a few options available, but one that keeps coming up in my searches is fast manager.

I don't want the Q version, while it looks helpful i'm looking for software to handle everything money wise.

First off, it looks like they no longer offer support or update their software, is this true? The price tag to buy the license out right is a tall order but might be worth it if there will be continued updates and support.

The fact that they do not support apple(mac) systems is alarming because I mostly use macs around my shop and at home(as do most graphically inclined people), the only computer running windows in our shop is for an ancient plotter that we never use. I used to design for programers that developed on Xcode in Objective C the OSX language, from what I know of it its very simple to code in, if a piece of software was worth while, why wouldn't the developer(s) port it to MAC and double their sales? I don't want to run it on bootcamp or parallels, so you can save it.

The fact that they keep track of pricing from wholesalers is a selling point for me because not having to readjust my pricing every couple days would save me countless hours. How good is this feature? Is it realtime, or just sporadic? Do they support most wholesalers big & small? Do they also support supply wholesalers like ryonet?

Is anyone using this or anything else I should know about? Please let me know!

I've also looked at things like "Printavo", but it just really doesn't do much of anything for the price(monthly).


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## beanie357 (Mar 27, 2011)

We use fast manager.
Networked.
No issues.
1.5 years so far.
Still not using it to max, but that's a 2013 to do list item.


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## Preston (Mar 21, 2006)

You may want to look at PriceIt Master from PriceIt Software - Screen Print & Embroidery Software

It should do everything you want. Windows and Mac versions. Quickbooks integration. Ron has about the best support there is.


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## Riph (Jan 11, 2011)

I am using the Q version for quoting only. I have good experiences with them especially on the support side. I have had two issues which they solved quickly and professionally - the guy who does their support is quite good.


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## Hegemone (Oct 18, 2011)

Have you tried the quickbooks for money management and the a shop-manager like tworks manager or Printavo or any of the other budget minded packages for production management. That's where I am at at this point because I simply haven't found any accounting software that handles management or management software that a small shop can afford and handles accounting well enough to be an all in one-der.


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## Preston (Mar 21, 2006)

oldmoneybrand said:


> First off, it looks like they no longer offer support or update their software, is this true? The price tag to buy the license out right is a tall order but might be worth it if there will be continued updates and support.
> 
> The fact that they do not support apple(mac) systems is alarming because I mostly use macs around my shop and at home(as do most graphically inclined people), the only computer running windows in our shop is for an ancient plotter that we never use. I used to design for programers that developed on Xcode in Objective C the OSX language, from what I know of it its very simple to code in, if a piece of software was worth while, why wouldn't the developer(s) port it to MAC and double their sales? I don't want to run it on bootcamp or parallels, so you can save it.
> 
> ...


Fastmanager used to be part of the USSPI offerings and when they went belly up it was taken over for distribution by a company in Florida. They made it into a SaaS software for awhile but the last I looked it seems they dropped that.

To answer the question of why they (or other developers for that mater) do not offer Mac comparable software or are dropping Mac compatible software boils down to numbers. Macs typicality dominate the graphic industry because they use to teach people in school and Adobe also has a large offering of software for them. But when it comes to the textile decorating industry Macs are a very small percentage of the computers used unlike printed media like magazines and news print where Macs dominate. Add to that the fact that the largest majority of people in the garment decorating business do see the benefit and value of a shop management software and will never buy or subscribe to one and those numbers even get lower. It cost a lot of money to develop software for a platform and with the percentage of Macs being used in the garment decorating business getting smaller every year, the ROI on development and support for Macs is just not there anymore.

To give you an example. It would cost me over $2,000.00 just for the development software to be able to create a Mac version of software. Then I would have to buy a Mac with the proper OS level on it in order to compile the program. All of that before thousands of hours doing coding to create the application. The ROI is just not there.

I am not sure about Shop Works but most all the others do not live feed pricing from distributors. They use the most current published catalog pricing from the vendor so at most the pricing gets updated every 6 months at best. This is usually not a problems because most shops do not offer customers a better price when a style is on sale from a vendor. Stop and think about it, you give someone a quote and you use the sale pricing for a shirt to base the pricing on. If the customer confirms the order the following week and the sale is no longer in affect, you just lost a lot of money or you have to tell the customer the quote is no good anymore.

Now all that said, one of the best out there that has a Mac version is Priceit Master from Priceit Software But it like the rest is not an accounting program. However it will link into Quickbooks.


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## edkocol (May 7, 2013)

I'm not here to bash Fast Manager nor extol the virtues of T-Works Manager but here is my recent experience.

T-Works Manager 2.0.9 has some bad quirks and some blatent problems. I did speak with Joe and he told me that he was indeed out of pocket for quite some time but he is now back on track to continue to improve his product.

I sent him an email with 12 immediate issues I have had. Well, one was a feature request but the others were ranging from very annoying to down right unworkable.

I got an email from Joe yesterday saying all but one item was fixed and I should expect notification of an update this weekend. The 12th item that was not fixed (according to hime) was an issue with the look of the mock-up when converte/saved/printed to PDF. He said he is still looking into that issue.

Now, I down loaded Fast Manager yesterday and spent 15 minutes with it. All I can say is that IMHO it is not as intuitive as T-Works Manager.

FWIW, I purchased T-Works Manager. I do not own Fast Manager. I was evaluating it "in case" I decide to abandon T-Works Manager.

If my immediate issues are in fact resolved and the coming Quickbooks integration is not too expensive I may just stay with T-Works Manager.


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## Preston (Mar 21, 2006)

edkocol said:


> If my immediate issues are in fact resolved and the coming Quickbooks integration is not too expensive I may just stay with T-Works Manager.


Depends on how he does it but the cost of the Qodbc driver alone would be $200 or $500 depending on what capabilities it has plus the cost cost he decides his programming is worth to make it all work together. There are cheaper ways to integrate Quickbooks but those usually require dumping to Excel and then pulling that into Quickbooks.


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## Poochnaa (May 31, 2017)

I found a copy of the FastMANAGER Shop Management Software, fro US Screen Printing for .10 cents at a Thrift store recently..I am looking forward to using it for my new biz.It contains; Order entry,Quotations, Production Scheduling, Purchase Orders, Design Detail, Sales Analysis, Customer Detail...etc.it has alot more. There are 2 disks with it. Can't bet that deal! Good Luck!


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