In our company we use Quickbooks Online for all of our time tracking and bookkeeping/accounting. I really like it even though it can be a pain sometimes. For communication we pay for microsoft 365 business. That gives use our own email domain and access to all the microsoft tools like excel, word, outlook, and teams. It's the standard for most businesses I think. For an actual CRM, the only one I have experience with other than quickbooks is Jobber. I used it personally for a small landscaping business I had for a while. I liked it, but it didn't blow me away. They are a huge marketing company. I think for a small business they are good, but for a medium to large business, there are better options. I have recommended them in my videos before for people starting out. For service work I'm about positive Service Titan is the gold standard. I have seen it used first hand and been told by many people that it is by far the best one out there if you are a service heavy business. Free tool options that I know of are the google tools like google drive and gmail. Sadly, I can't think of many others. What is the specific type of work you are doing the most or plan on doing the most?

@Bailey Stotts are you mostly commercial or residential?

@Bailey Stotts https://youtu.be/ICGNj8uvqLM?si=2HjhJgslO2b8e3Zg

I’m kind of long winded but I wanted to share our recent experience on this specific subject

@Tim Brauer Keeping track of it using the built in reports on Quickbooks wouldn't be horrible. I'm not sure what software you use, or how you keep track of time. TVE has used QuickBooks since day 1. It's a pain sometimes, but overall I really like it. The time tracking is incredible I think. Makes it easy to pull project time reports broken out by employee. What software are you using for time?

@Tim Brauer she’s the most important employee haha! Keep treating her well 😂

@Bailey Stotts Have you found that having an inventory system works well for your team? We have a small shop with overstock from all of our projects through the years. We pull anything we can from it. We have never tried any type of actual inventory management system. I'm curious to know your experience though.

@Eric Ravak You're welcome! Any insights on things you look for in your P&L?

@Igor Zhogan It is difficult for sure! It's hard too because most public school systems these days don't really teach financial literacy very well (at least in my experience). You just kind of have to figure it out on your own unless you go to college.

@Eric Ravak Absolutely! Showing your high value team members your books and explaining things like GP, NP, and COGS to them can help them take a more vested interest in the business. It helps them understand why standing around for 30 minutes every morning can really hurt a jobs GP and other things for example.