Anyone for new software?

[P4dstar]

Does Squeegee have an integration with QuickBooks or do you copy everything across manually?

I'd argue that you need both. Sales receipts in Xero/QB and a complete (all-time) nitty-gritty clean history in your round management software so you/accountant/HMRC (if ever audited ) can dig into the detail/context if they need to.

That's why I built CP to be rock-solid on the transaction/reporting front. The guys who've been on their a decade can still go back and see what the note was on a clean back in 2014 if they need to. Extreme example but you get my point.

To be fair those reports for bigger/older accounts might be getting a bit slow by now, but we'll put an end to that in Overture - speed will be the same (fast) regardless of account size/age. No excuse for slow down with modern tech.

As far as I'm aware there is no integration. We manually input the data. It's approx 10-15 mins work each day as it only takes a few seconds to load each customer on QB but it is a task that wouldn't be missed. You need to match each customer to the QB customer. I think integration would likely just be for the days sales if it did exist. I have tried to make us bulletproof on information as far as HMRC are ever concerned.

I think one of the big things with data is the loading of records. Squeegee app needs to be archived when you've a large amount of data because loading it slows the app (it used to crash it) I would imagine the info you suggest could be cloud based and cut out a lot of the local data and load time nowadays?

 

[ks789]

oh wow what a skullache, I'll stick to my pen and paper accounts as long as I can. As a one man band, roughly 300 customers, I find it a doddle. Hopefully come the future when things get really stupid I'll have finished. Dont like the tech world much. utube on tv is handy but I dont like keep having to update/change and keep having to learn new things every bloomin month. Lifes too short and all that stresses me out, I know some are like a duck to water with stuff like that but no

You seem a bit like me, I don't like change as some things can stress me right out, which is my own doing as things shouldn't bug me as much as they do,

Yeh Im not against these things as such, its just I begrudge wasting precious time having to get the hang of new stuff. especially in my late 50s, I'd rather have a nice pint at pub or enjoy some good tv and countryside. Looking forward to this promised warm up next week, 13 degrees!! bring it on!!

 

[Iron Giant]

Thought for the day right there @Iron Giant

Definitely, I spent almost an entire week stressing about something and it wasn't until yesterday that I stopped stressing and finally made a decision this morning after changing my mind multiple times

 

[A D]

Window Cleaner Pro, check it out.

 

[Iron Giant]

Window Cleaner Pro, check it out.

20 years ago maybe

 

[robmorgan]

Window Cleaner Pro, check it out.

Ah yes WCP. Was the gold standard when I started building CleanerPlanner. Most of our initial users were on it. Had a rock-solid worksheet-based workflow which was particularly good for employers, which I can't deny we took some inspiration from.

Must have done hundreds of WCP imports, each one as painful as the last Fun fact: WCP has no export facility. We had to build a custom tool to scrape the data from the screen, and then tidy it up manually The WCP developers basically kept your data under lock and key (encrypted), because they wanted to force you to use their paid "cloud backup" service. No idea if that's still running! The website is still there and hasn't changed in at least 15 years.

Interestingly, no WCP users on the Overture beta list so far. Maybe they've mostly all moved to CP or Squeegee by now. One or two George though!

 

[Boxingpro1239]

How much will this cost me per month?

Breakdown of the prices please!

 

[robmorgan]

How much will this cost me per month?

Breakdown of the prices please!

Thanks for asking - I saw you asked this on the beta signup form and was going to email you

Too early to nail down pricing but it's definitely something I'm mulling over and talking to people about, as I think pricing has gotten a bit out of hand in this space (and tbh a lot of small business software is getting way too expensive).

What I will say is two things:

1. Squeegee's pricing for multi-van is completely out of touch. I know you guys can make decent money, but when employing you've obviously got wages and other costs to worry about, and expecting you to pay hundreds of pounds a month for a round planner just isn't realistic. Hence why (I hear) people are forced to either run everything through one account, or set up separate accounts on a lower plan (one for each round/van) and hope that Squeegee don't find out Even if you can make this work it's error-prone, glitchy, you have no central dashboard, and you often have no choice but to give your workers full access to all your data. CP's pricing and the way the system is structured for teams makes much more sense, so we'll be doing something similar with Overture.

2. I'd like to offer a really basic, and that bit more affordable (~£10/month) entry-level plan, for one-man bands who just want a simple app on their phone, that tells them what jobs they need to do on a given day, keeps track of who's paid and who hasn't, and that plugs into MTD so they can keep their nose clean with HMRC! Nothing more than that. Won't suit those who want to save lots of time through automation, but will offer a "way in" for people who have maybe been resisting getting an app because of cost and complexity, and are still stuck on Excel or pen and paper!

In between those two (i.e. single user needing pro features) I think CP and Squeegee's pricing is about right, and we'll be competitive with them taking into consideration the features we offer.

I know this isn't a straight answer for now but hopefully gives you an idea what I'm thinking! I want to strike that perfect balance between simplicity, features and value for money. Watch this space!

 

[Boxingpro1239]

£10 a month? Wow sounds to good to be true and very cheap, what do you mean by entry level?

 

[Boxingpro1239]

£10 a month? Wow sounds to good to be true and very cheap, what do you mean by entry level?

 

[robmorgan]

£10 a month? Wow sounds to good to be true and very cheap, what do you mean by entry level?

I've added all the detail I can at this stage above

It's not about being cheap, it's about offering good value for money and straightforward options for different types and sizes of business, especially for those who don't need every feature going (and who find too many features overwhelming).

It's also about recognising that in a muti-van business, workers don't need the same features nor level of support that the business owner does. Tbh when I was running CP, I can't recall getting a single support request from a worker.

As I say, too early to nail anything down, but I'm keen to get the balance right, and will be talking to beta users about this as we move forward!

 

[RyeCleanLiam]

If stripe could be integrated too that would be grand. As I've got a few customers on both Stripe and GoCardless. I do like the automation of Squeegee. But I do think there are only a few things that really need to be automated, reminder texts, payment processing and invoice emails or texts. If I'm honest the invoice feature of CP was what put me off that software. It seemed convoluted to me to have to log onto the computer to send the invoices from the main account online. Just like I also didn't want to log on at the end of the day to run the GC payments. If there was a software between CP and Squeegee I think there would be a good market for that.

 

[P4dstar]

£10 a month? Wow sounds to good to be true and very cheap, what do you mean by entry level?

You're like that impatient person clock watching in a restaurant haha

I'm fairly sure when Squeegee first launched it had a real entry level version, possibly even free. This contained very little other than the ability to load a round in? I could be misremembering this. Also worth noting that Squeegee core is currently £15 a month. What Rob is going for is to offer an alternative somewhere between Squeegee and Cleaner Planner. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it.

 

[robmorgan]

If stripe could be integrated too that would be grand. As I've got a few customers on both Stripe and GoCardless. I do like the automation of Squeegee. But I do think there are only a few things that really need to be automated, reminder texts, payment processing and invoice emails or texts. If I'm honest the invoice feature of CP was what put me off that software. It seemed convoluted to me to have to log onto the computer to send the invoices from the main account online. Just like I also didn't want to log on at the end of the day to run the GC payments. If there was a software between CP and Squeegee I think there would be a good market for that.

Thanks @RyeCleanLiam - yep, Stripe and GC are a given. Stripe was a bit clunky in CP though so we'll improve on that. Tbh I think the GC integration could be smoother and more automated too.

You're right, invoicing in CP is a bit convoluted if you prefer to do everything on your phone. Again, something I'd like to improve on with Overture - make the mobile app more powerful for those who need it, while keeping it really simple for those who don't - e.g. workers, and/or those who just want a simple to-do list for the day and a debt list.

 

[Richyconnett]

I’d pay £10 a month for a simple app. I’m still running George and it does everything I need so you could hoover up all of us if it’s kept cheap and simple

 

[robmorgan]

You're like that impatient person clock watching in a restaurant haha

I'm fairly sure when Squeegee first launched it had a real entry level version, possibly even free. This contained very little other than the ability to load a round in? I could be misremembering this. Also worth noting that Squeegee core is currently £15 a month. What Rob is going for is to offer an alternative somewhere between Squeegee and Cleaner Planner. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it.

Squeegee is £15.83/month if you pay yearly, £19/month (+VAT) if you pay monthly, but you don't even get a visual planner for that.

Though if you don't need a visual planner, if all you need is job scheduling, debt list and possibly MTD integration (if you currently do your own self assessment), all on your phone in a neat simple app, £10/month (+VAT, to be clear) seems fair to me.

On the other hand, a "price war" is just a race to the bottom It's easy to undercut but much harder to build something people actually find useful, and to support it well and keep it running, updated and maintained 24/7.

I was able to pull that off with CP and hope I can again. It's early days, but I think if I keep listening closely to what you guys need, just as I did first time around, we've got a good chance of building something great for the industry.

 

[ched999uk]

Squeegee is £15.83/month if you pay yearly, £19/month (+VAT) if you pay monthly, but you don't even get a visual planner for that.

What is a visual planner? Squeegee has overview, Day Pilot, Work Planner, and Multi Planner effectively all showing what jobs you have today, just different view points.

 

[robmorgan]

What is a visual planner? Squeegee has overview, Day Pilot, Work Planner, and Multi Planner effectively all showing what jobs you have today, just different view points.

Tbh I'm not 100% sure! Just that on the pricing page, "Visual Planner" is something you don't get in the bottom/core plan.