“Today’s overhead door dealers are now looking for ways to increase their sales through various marketing campaigns. This includes the most traditional advertising methods like direct mail postcards, yellow pages, radio advertising, local newspapers as well as new technology including blogs, web sites and social media. We are seeing several of our dealers expand their marketing to both existing customers with upsell promotions and new customers. The DoorPack campaign feature will provide them with a real competitive edge in their local market”, says Paul Jacques from Partners Group. “This new campaign feature allows the overhead door dealer to create and track the profitability for each of their advertising campaigns.”

After a new campaign has been set up in DoorPack it is assigned a ‘Source’ name. When a customer calls, the dealer can ask the caller how they heard about them. Each incoming customer call can be tracked by customer and campaign source. If the new call results in a quote being prepared DoorPack will track this customer quote along the closed sale profit. DoorPack’s Marketing Advertising report will provide statistics for the dealer to track the number of responses received for each campaign as well as it’s profitability.

Paul reports that, “this Campaign feature now provides our overhead door dealers with a new tool to not only increase sales but also manage their annual advertising costs.”

DoorPack Software is developed by Fireline Systems. For additional information visit their web site at www.DoorPack.com or call Fireline Systems at 800 890-8614.

Are you aware that your company may qualify to take advantage of some incredible tax deductions this year?

Section 179 of the IRS tax code allows businesses to deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment purchased or financed during the tax year. That means that if you buy (or lease) a piece of qualifying equipment, you can deduct the FULL PURCHASE PRICE from your gross income. It’s an incentive created by the US Government to encourage businesses to buy equipment and invest in themselves. DoorPack Software and computer equipment both qualify for the Section 179 Deductions. For additional detailed information review this website and consult your accountant. www.section179.org

As a Quick Books Silver Developer partner Fireline Systems has created DoorPack Software with a seamless link into Quick Books Software for all accounting functions.  This makes it easy for an existing Quick Books user to add DoorPack  Software and take advantage of all the specific door dealer features.

DoorPack Software eliminates the typical duplicate entry issues that tend to waste valuable time by owners and their employees.  With DoorPack  you are able to continue using all of your familiar Quick Books accounting processes …with the added convenience of DoorPacks expanded customer database history features including: Tracking multiple customer locations, retail sales, work order history, installed customer equipment lists, detailed quote history, scanned attachments for before/after pictures,  scanned customer signed work orders and any other type of customer document. This streamlines your office process and leads to eliminating much of the daily hunting for paperwork.

DoorPack Software provides three main modules with it’s connection to Quick Books:

The Service/ Installation Work Order Module allows the user to quickly find any Quick Books customer and review their complete customer history on one screen. DoorPack’s design eliminates the need to search through multiple menus to quickly find what you are looking for. You can also drill down into the detail of any past work orders or quotes for reference.  DoorPack also tracks each customers installed equipment ( just in case a replacement part is required) along with maintenance schedules, unlimited contacts, agreements, notes, sales activities, attachments, and phone call history.

Work orders for service calls and new installs can be printed and scheduled on Microsoft’s Outlook calendar software for all of the computers connected to the network. Using Outlooks easy drag-and-drop features the work orders can be quickly assigned to a new service technician. When the work orders are completed the labor and parts used can be entered. Each completed work order will automatically create an invoice, estimate or sales order in Quick Books to eliminate the duplicate entry required for billing. This speeds up the normal billing process, reduces the amount of clerical entry and increases cash flow.

The Sales/ Quote Module provides a powerful alternative for the door dealer to automate their quoting process.  DoorPack Software is one of the only software tools which allows the door dealer to prepare residential and commercial customer quotes for multiple door manufacturers and multiple product lines. There are three methods provided for quotes in DoorPack: hand-quotes, Excel imported quotes and DoorPack created quotes.

The quoting module provides a simple tiered method of quoting allowing the selection by manufacturer, by module, by option and then by option item.  Pricing is automatically updated using the manufacturer’s multipliers. Quotes can be reviewed using multipliers and/or gross margin assumptions. After quotes are printed in DoorPack they are tracked in the customer’s history record.  With a simple click of the mouse an existing quote can be turned into an installation work order for scheduling and billing.

DoorPack’s Business Marketing Module gives the door dealer the ability to track the source of each incoming call to better manage their monthly advertising expenses. It also provides a method for creating customer and prospect mailing labels and various mail merge letters for promotions, etc.  The tasking feature for DoorPack links directly with Microsoft Outlook to provide management and the staff with a handy “ToDo” list feature tracking project deadlines and assignments.

Finally DoorPack wraps the entire software product together with a powerful company-wide Informational Dashboard. From one single screen DoorPack allows you to quickly see a snap-shot of your entire company with the ability to drill into the details. This one tool alone streamlines the entire door dealer’s daily operation.

If you are looking for a software solution specifically designed for door dealers which seamlessly links to your Quick Books you owe it to yourself to request an online demonstration of  Fireline’s DoorPack Software.

Many of the west coast dealers took the time to review the DoorPack Software and discuss their office operations and specific needs. Our DoorPack representative provided a slide presentation along with complete software demonstrations for those in attendance.

The Quick Books integration was also demonstrated along with the new Information Dashboard features which were designed to make DoorPack a simple yet powerful tool for every business owner.

As an active International Door Association Member, DoorPack will be in attendance at the upcoming Expo to be held in Las Vegas in 2010.