Many years ago, when I first began using GoldMine, I found it to be a great contact manager that allowed me to manage my schedule and track all of my historical activity in the system. What it didn’t do, was allow me to operate and manage my business. I found it difficult to be able to know how much time I spent on a particular task and ensure that my billing was correct, based on that time spent.

In order to be able to do the many tasks than I wanted, in GoldMine, I found I had to have many different add-on products that did the many things that GoldMine couldn’t do or didn’t do well. So, I ended up with a quoting software, helpdesk software, project management software, and billing software that integrated with my accounting system. Each of the systems required me to enter data in different locations and most were not connected to my primary contact information in GoldMine.

In addition, getting the information into a comprehensive report was challenging to say the least; as each of these systems had their own set of data files without a common link between them. Some developers had integrated their software with GoldMine, but none completely integrated or updated the various parts of the GoldMine system. So, my helpdesk and ticketing solution required its own database and didn’t populate the GoldMine record. The quoting package allowed me to pull various pieces of data from the GoldMine system, but it didn’t link to my helpdesk software. To ensure that I had billed for all of the time we spent working on a customer’s project, I had to create specialized reports in order to get all that data in one report.

When I first saw the BestFit Business Manager, I was very excited to see that all of the components integrated together and linked together in one database. Eureka!

Now, I had all the parts linked together to be able to take my billing information on projects and put that data into a quote, import it into my QuickBooks accounting system with the touch of a button, and be able to get complete reports on all work done. My billing accuracy went up, my total billable time increased, and I no longer had to enter data in several different systems to be able to get a complete picture of my company and the work we do for customers.

An added bonus was the ability to link my marketing and advertising activity to my quotes for new prospects and to be able to see which of my activities were generating the most results that converted prospects into paying customers. The fact that the software allows me to assign and track which of the customer or prospect has been touched by my marketing activity, and connect that activity to the quote; that turned into a project or billable support activity allows me to focus my advertising dollars on those activities that truly work. It also allows me to see which activities aren’t working and need to be stopped.

The integration with our QuickBooks accounting system allows quotes, proposals, and billable activity to be automatically imported into the accounting system without requiring my users to re-key that data into the accounting software. Yet it allows me the ability to be able to see, in the GoldMine system, the activity that’s in the accounting system for each contact record.

With the built in reports, designed in Crystal Reports, I now only have to go to one place to get all of the information I need to effectively run my company and to determine our most productive activity and employees. Because the software is utilizing Crystal Reports as the tool to extract data out; I can customize any report I want or create new ones to see exactly what I need to see in my business operations.

After using the BestFit Business Manager for the last five years, to run my entire company, I can’t see using any other software to do it. I get the benefit of a world-class contact management system and business operations software all in one package. I was so sold I bought the company.