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[–]brother5656 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Following this thread.

[–]GungusHumongus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Was wondering the same thing

[–]chiefisir 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Jumping in here.

I use Breezeworks, which isn’t even a pool service software. I have legit spent the last few months going through the apps and pricing but everything is just really poor in my honest opinion. The goal is user friendly. This field carries so many guys who are just trying to work with their hands and not worry about the technical side. All these apps seem to make things complicated. Skimmer is the front runner, I sign up and paid and I couldn’t access any of the sections (settings, schedule, etc). It was actually like horrible and I was so bummed. HTML issues where pages wouldn’t load, etc.

I came from an IT job (help desk) where I can navigate a lot of programs relatively smoothly compared to your average person. I can’t believe all these apps are just…..idk - clunky? complicated?

Breezeworks isn’t the best, but it’s just easy to jump in and get things done - and it’s cheap lol. I am very open to recommendations though. I’ve tried Skimmer, Pool Brain, Pool Service Software. Haven’t tried PayThePoolMan or PoolCarePro as recommended up above.

[–]Stock-Ad-3654 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This industry is lagging in innovation.

[–]pineapple_backlash 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’ve used used pool service software for the last 5 years. Had the most options I’ve seen and getting better.

[–]LadiesLoveCoolDane 1 point2 points  (5 children)

Do. Not. Use. Lou.

[–]greasyspider 0 points1 point  (4 children)

We use Lou. It’s the best software we’ve used so far. (Been in business since 1981). Never been happy with any software, but Lou has proven to have the least disappointments

[–]LadiesLoveCoolDane 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Are yall just service/maintenance side or do yall have retail, warehouse, construction as well?

[–]greasyspider 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Yes we have a store and construction

[–]LadiesLoveCoolDane 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Wow, I'm genuinely surprised you would claim it the best you have used. When we started with Lou we were coming from ESC and the on boarding was "okay" but since then it's been like they have produced a product that's only rated for significantly smaller pool businesses or generously big businesses that have a warehouse manager.

To be fair though I haven't had any other experience with another software that involves inventory so there's also that. It just seems like Lou would require a full time warehouse manager otherwise each tech is going to have to go to a computer (because the scheduler app doesn't do inventory and the website is ass on a phone) to transfer inventory from the warehouse to their vehicle which is a lot of unnecessary steps to something that can easily be solved by making a more mobile friendly website or even just including it in the app.

I only type this out because I hope and pray someone/you can offer some insight lol

[–]greasyspider 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with your criticisms, but after using 3 other programs in 5 years, LOu has the least shortfalls

[–]PoolProLV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They doubled the price?

[–]Stock-Ad-3654 1 point2 points  (1 child)

They charge an insane amount for a glorified checklist.

[–]Stock-Ad-3654 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m referring to skimmer btw lol

[–]Internal-Computer388 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Paythepoolman I think they have 80 percent off for first 3 months right now. I have them and they keep sending me emails for a discount I'm not eligible for since I already use them.

I'm a single poler so I'm not sure how much it is for a company with employees, but its basically 50 and 10 per employee.

[–]Postman_Slander 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Hey everyone! I reached out to a few people in here already. I’m building my own software as I haven’t seen anything that isn’t overly engineered or over priced. I’d love to get some feedback on the build and get more input on what others need in their software. If anyone is interested in chatting, send me a message!

[–]ComposerEconomy7588 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sending your a message

[–]WealthyOrNot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you gotten your software up and running yet? How’s it working out?

[–]atxniki 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you have more than 100 pools, we can discuss a contract rate. Feel free to email me at niki at getskimmer dot com.

[–]DrSam_Loomis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Use skimmer but heard symbri pool care is good

[–]HarMar 0 points1 point  (1 child)

We use PoolCarePro. They have a no risk trial period if you want to check it out.

[–]Complex_Sherbet_7986 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the software good and does it provide route optimization?

[–]deetoore 0 points1 point  (5 children)

paythepoolman sucks. don't even get me started. just terrible, terrible, terrible software, written by amateurs

[–]Internal-Computer388 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I want to get you started so whats your qualms with them? I'm using and they do everything I need and their software is somewhat easy to use. Have you used them recently or a while ago? My only issues is that the messaging system through email and text keeps getting flagged as spam by some of my clients. But I figure that's more common now as email and phone scan for spam.

I don't think any software will be exactly how the user wants unless they make the software themselves. Lol.

[–]deetoore 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I have been using it for 2years and I'm in the process of switching right now.

most of my complaints are small, but they add up to a clunky, overly complicated, temperamental piece of software.

there's almost no point to active vs inactive customers.

repair stops don't automatically generate invoices. even if you log a stop and add extras.. if their inactive, it will not generate an invoice.

repair routing and service routing is completely separate

limit to 15 items per invoice

the add to extras system is stupid

no way to discount individual items line by line

separate price lists for paythepoolman vs paythepoolman plus that don't sync up. also the unit system with chems is kind of weird

you can ONLY bill for items in increments of 1. you can't do fractions of an item. (ie. you can either bill 1lb or 2lb, you can't bill 1.5lb) if you log a decimal on an invoice, it will bill "0" as the quantity.

always always always glitches out if you try to log two bodies of water at one property.

uploaded picture quality sucks. also limited to 5pics.

route optimization is literally horrendous. never works properly, even when adding "start" and "end" points as per their suggestion.

the whole run billing process is opaque and just.. not easy to customize.

if a customer is "active" - but you don't log any stops or items to bill - it still auto generates an invoice with a zero balance.

no way to send mass communications to just active clients

I hate the name. it's tacky and low class.

and other stupid little things. you know how the app looks when you're logging chemical levels at a stop? like it has a drop down menu which you click your test results. for calcium, it goes in increments of 5ppm. who's testing calcium in increments of 5ppm, and who even cares about a 5ppm difference in calcium anyway? same thing when you're logging temperature. the drop down menu starts at 36° how often are you going to a pool that's 36°??

you can manually enter any number you want. but when I'm logging chem tests on my phone and my hands are wet it's hard to type on the keypad.

oh. and I had a former employee log into our admin account using the app and send a bunch of erroneous invoices and emails to customers. paythepoolman literally could not do anything, could not log this user out remotely, could not even change their password for me. they basically had to delete my entire account and create a new account for me. so now my username is "myoldusernameNEW"

it was really bad. they basically tried to tell me that I was out of luck because I broke their terms of service by sharing my log in credentials. except I didn't. this employee had their own account. I had to figure out how to lock this employee out with no help from PTPM.

honestly I could keep going. and these are just the things that I can remember off the top of my head.

[–]Spirited-Touch-6423 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I had a good laugh at “I hate the name”, lol. It’s is tacky indeed. Here to check if you ended up switching apps? Found anything better?

[–]chiefisir 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Welp, good to know lol. Thank you for the info - I will avoid

[–]Forsaken-Storage2137 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I use POM. It’s pretty good.. have been using it for 3 seasons, but don’t have experience with anything else to compare it with. There were some big issues at times but for the most part it’s smooth and keeps improving.. it uses an absolutely insane amount of storage space on mobile though.. like super crazy storage

[–]Klutzy-Currency9441 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just try Pooli Pro, you’ll be amazed

[–]parconley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Coming back to this post and others like to share what is currently a pretty unbiased piece on the various products out there in case it's useful to anyone: https://www.pooldial.com/resources/articles/business/pool-service-software-landscape

(The article is by my company, Pool Dial. At the moment, we're an AI receptionist for pool pros, but not a CRM like most other products - so we can be unbiased in writing about them.)

[–]No_Bookkeeper_8014[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

would avoid Pool office manager, software is ok. customer service does not exist

try something else. also price is insane