Buying Software Guide

Which software should we buy ?

 With have noticed software for roof estimating is all over the internet, we will provide some tips and information. Every roofer needs different things from software and most specialize in certain types of roofs. For instance a roofer with only a couple roofers who mostly does re-roofing does not need software that keeps tract of plan numbers and lot numbers. On the other hand a large company with a 100 roofers doing tract work does, but both roofers can use a address book to enter information for repeat customers.

 So we will start with what we feel is what every roofer has to have to do a roof estimate.

• Easy to use. (Most roofing contractors are not computer wizes)

• A place to enter the customers name, address and contact information.

• A place to enter roof measurements. The software needs to total these measurements into something useful.

• A way to determine how the measurements display meaningful information.
  Eg; 20 feet of valley = 2 pieces

• A way for the roofer to determine and change how measurements do calculating.

• A way for a roofer to enter and pre-set prices so the software will calculate a bid price.

• A way for a roofer to change the name of the item being calculated.
  Eg; 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 dripedge to 2"x 2" dripedge etc

• Flexible, to allow a way for the roofer to figure any kind of roofing material.

• A way to save the estimate with a meaningful name with little effort.
  Eg: Smith 167 Oak Ave.bid.

• A way to print the estimate with meaningful information.

• A simple way for a roofer to find and recall the bids.

• A easy way for a roofer to get specific help on anything at any specific item.

Policies of the company or website selling the software.

• Can you try it before you buy ?

• Can you get a full no questions asked refund if you are unhappy?

• Are upgrades free?

• How are updates obtained?

• Is this the last version of the software?

• Can you use the software on more than one computer?

• What are the response times to emails?

• What other ways can they be contacted?

• What are the business days, hours?

Experiences we have had buying software-services on the internet.

  We bought some software a few years ago that downloads your whole website with just a button click for $29.95. We were not given the option to try it before buying. We thought this would be great for backing up our entire website. After using it we found that it only copied pages with an extension of .htm and most of our pages are .asp pages. We contacted them by email wanting a refund. After a couple days we received a reply saying too bad. 

 We have determined that software vendors that sell software cheap with no recourse if unsatisfied count on people like us to just forget it rather than hassle trying to get satisfaction for a small amount of money.

 We have had a couple other similar software buys and have received the same response or no response at all.  A small portion of our software was made with software purchased from other companies. eg; Software to create help files, software that creates setups that installs our software on users computers. These are very good. 

Our policies for buying services software on the internet.