Spruce vs. JobBOSS²

I think my single most surprising and satisfying experience with ECI and its RockSolid Maxx and then Spruce products was the ease of implementation and rollout -- both on the hardware and software side. ECI seems to have mastered the idea of using an integrated team along with robust tutorials to make that process easy.

Incentivized

Jobboss2 helps with creating routings, tracking hours towards those, and tracking inventory for discrete orders. It does not work well for blanket orders, consignment, or long-term agreements-type contracts with customers. Raw material tracking is completely ineffective with Jobboss2. Costing is quite ineffective with Joboss2. Production/lot planning & scheduling is ineffective and is a huge limiting factor. All of these items require manual tracking in spreadsheets. Jobboss2 has helped us get away from tracking routings with pen and paper and timesheets with pen and paper... but we're still having to use Excel to track consignment, blanket orders, job planning/when to launch new travelers, and costing/quoting. Going from pen and paper routings to digital has been a huge help overall, but the other limitations are incredibly concerning, which has led us to research & possibly switch ERP platforms.

Incentivized

• We have particularly pleased with the 'Payables' part of the Spruce suite. It's easy to use and functionality is light years better than our previous software.
• Shortly after making the switch to Spruce our business underwent a detailed sales tax audit. Spruce's reporting functions were a godsend to us as we were able to easily address the questions posed us by our auditors.
• Our sales force is staffed by multiple people with years of construction experience but little familiarity with computer. The ease with which they mastered the POS system surprised me.

Incentivized

• Estimating is great once you learn how to use it, and it makes repeat estimates easier than ever.
• Time tracking is amazing for us. It has taken some time to figure out exactly how we want to use the tracking parts, but it's only because it has multiple ways to do the same thing and finding out what works best for us took some time.
• Billing and Purchasing are a breeze. The full package is worth the money to fully integrate the entire business into JobBOSS² since it can handle it all.

Incentivized

• Quick response to support tickets.
• Access to a SPRUCE support technician when calling.
• More support personal so you are not waiting days for a response.
• Available support customer service when you call, even for small items.

Incentivized

• Custom reports - support for this should be included, and not an added cost.
• Margin Summary cost data is broken, duplicating costs. Cannot be used for analysis.
• Scheduling module is difficult to use, difficult to adjust for changing team size and capacities.
• Subassembly jobs show $0 Job Value; this creates a mess when trying to gauge the $/hr profitability of individual job numbers. Because all of the profit is in the parent assembly, most of the hours are stuck with the child jobs showing $0 in sales value.
• My customer service rep cannot answer any technical questions, I'm referred to a support queue.
• Support reps are quick to call an issue DONE and close out my ticket, without verifying that my problem has been addressed.
• I cannot look at my sales backlog and show how many dollars from jobs are scheduled due for this week, next week, the week after, etc.

Incentivized

The staff enjoy the use of JobBOSS2. We don't have many complaints or issues with the software that are not solved. Support for the product has been improving and that is important for long term success. The cloud application is continually being developed and updated. New abilities are being added to assist with the customers that have strict requirements things like governance items

Incentivized

It is extremely easy to learn and use E2 Shop System. It provides everything a manufacturing company might be looking for, starting from entering a new PO to shipping parts. Routers that get created from E2 Shop System also help track parts on the shop floor and is accessible from every where. E2 Shop System also now has an app, which is great when it comes to scanning router steps directly from your phone.

Incentivized

For the most part when there is internet, we are able to log in and proceed to do our daily tasks which is very helpful, but we have also encountered a glitch on our laptop that we use to do inventory that switches to the last branch that was used. This, in combination with Spruce logging out of the remote connection daily, can cause issues if the person accessing Spruce does not have the remote connection password.

Incentivized

Have had no issues with availability

Incentivized

Have only had minimal issues with slow processing

Incentivized

Ashlee Ware- Product Support Specialist. We had a wonderful experience with support from Ashlee Ware and she has since become a hero in our company. Ashlee helped us research and clear several open Purchase Orders from 2015 and beyond that were still showing on the open purchase orders report in 2023.

Incentivized

Our trainer was very knowledgeable and helpful.

Incentivized

The videos and live seminars were helpful but not all were as in-depth as needed.

Incentivized

I assumed there would be more assistance from JobBoss for implementation of the software. I felt it was very independent on my part and I felt unsure a lot of the time

Incentivized

Spruce is possibly just above average. Not super impressed with usability and especially not impressed with tech support who is rarely able to answer questions on the first call.

Incentivized

JobBoss is much more user-friendly and cost-efficient. JobBoss also allows for greater shop visibility by enabling shop employees through mobile devices to track costing. JobBoss seems to be a better fit for us as a fabrication firm to be able to plan and track shop functions.

Incentivized

• Solid operations.
• Handles inventory.
• Cloud based.

Incentivized

• We have seen improved visibility of our jobs and on how we quote our products to our customers.
• It is nice to be able to see what is running on each station, who is running it and what part of the process the job is currently at.
• I also like the Data Collection module as I can see in real time what all the employees are currently doing.

Incentivized