Method Community

I work for a powder coating company and we are looking into method crm. I was wondering if Method CRM custom screens have the capability to work as a job scheduler. We have a conveyor that runs at a certain speed and we paint parts for customers. We currently use Google sheets but it requires double data entry and there is not any accountability between our two systems. This is basically how our scheduler looks now and how we would like it to look (if possible):

customer 1      color     line time       cost    Time loaded

customer 2      color     line time       cost    Time loaded

customer 3      color     line time       cost    Time loaded

There is obviously more detail about each customer and all this info is saved in our Quickbooks. The scheduler also needs to be able to take input from production so that we know the job is on the line or if it has been completed (time loaded). We also have a sandblast schedule, a batch schedule (for jobs too large to load on a conveyer), and a finished goods section. I think the easiest way would to have these all on separate screens. I called sales but they informed me to place my questions in the forums so I hope this is the right avenue to have this answered. We would like to use method crm but we need to know if it would be able to fit our needs. 

Hi Eric,

You did come to the right place to ask your question, however based on the information you have given it is a little hard to say for sure that we can accomodate for what you are looking for.  In terms of screen customization, from what you mentioned, I believe it would be possible to customize the screens as you are requesting.  For example you can have a screen that would show a grid similar to what you provided above, giving the Line Time and Time Loaded fields as time/date stamps.  You would have the ability to add custom fields in Method that could include any of these fields not already offered in the stock Table.  Color could be a text field or even a dropdown field, if you are working with a select amount of colors.  You could also attach timers to a your custom screens, which sounds like it would be required in your setup.  When you start the Timer, it would create a value for the "Time Loaded" field, then when you stop the timer it could internally calculate "Line Time" based off an internal Math Calculation.

In terms of creating schedules, again this is bit hard to answer without more details.  However if you are setup with a Gmail Enterprise Account, then depending on how you this setup, you should have access to your employee's Google Calendar, and appointments can be setup through this.  You could also share a Calendar that would show all apointments/tasks/activites linked to this calendar, for 1 or all users to see, again depending on your setup.

We do offer a 30-day free trial for Method, which gives you access to all advanced features.  I would suggest if you have the time to try this out, you can also take advantage of our Webinar Videos that discuss some higher levels of Customization that can be done on the Method Screens.  I hope this helps, if you still have more questions, please do not hesitate to ask them here.

-Ben