Twin City Garage Door

Web-Based Quote Application

Twin City Garage Door came to Ignus to design and develop a custom garage door quoting and invoicing system after evaluating all the alternative packages on the market. The existing packages were all determined to be inferior due to their high cost, complexity, inflexibility and other limitations. Ignus worked with TCGD staff to take information they were previously handling through paper-based forms and filing cabinets and convert it to the most streamlined quote and work-order processing system possible – tailored exactly to fit TCGD’s needs.

The TCGD staff is given access to a web-based system through which they can manage customer information, create sales quotes, convert approved quotes into work orders, and transfer work order information to the accounting system once the work has been completed.

Access is role-based, which means staff are given access to the features and areas of the system they need to effectively carry out their responsibilities, but blocked from accessing other areas which are not necessary for their duties and may contain sensitive information.

Throughout the process, each screen is tailored to fit TCGD’s exact needs and only present the information that is essential to TCGD’s business without cluttering up the display with non-essential or useless data. This streamlining benefits TCGD by reducing confusion and simplifying the process which in turn leads to greater efficiency for the staff.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, Ignus chose a standard accounting package for TCGD which supports general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, etc. The package chosen was Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Accounting.

To make the two systems work harmoniously, Ignus created a web-service on top of the MS Small Business Accounting API which allows the quoting system to transfer data directly into Small Business Accounting through a standard interface. Utilizing a standard interface was important to Ignus because we did not want the system to break in the future when a software update causes incompatibilities in the way data is accessed. The final system has proven capable and robust at the same time being a perfect fit for the way TCGD does business.