adamOVD Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 I've been half tempted to offer to fill out people's month end reports for them for 200$. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlickFloss Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 Realistically excel is a very powerful program and there are some gnarly smart kids in college all around where ever any of you are at. Hire a kid to program you an excel sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenlyon Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 We switched to DistillX5 about 5 months ago. It's excellent software but we have not been able to make it work for us and we are currently abandoning the system. It's very expensive and probably best suited for bigger distilleries with limited skus. One of their sales lines is (roughly): "X5 takes the anxiety out of distillery management." We found it did the opposite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skaalvenn Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 We are also looking for a replacement for Whiskey Systems due to the pricing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveflintstone Posted June 3, 2021 Share Posted June 3, 2021 distillx5 certainly sucked for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluestar Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 What should have been done years ago was to create an open source project on a GitHub for the small craft distillers. We are still rolling our own combination of spreadsheets and databases, because every time we check out a commercial solution, they are more expensive, and can't support our current workflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kkbodine Posted June 4, 2021 Share Posted June 4, 2021 2 hours ago, bluestar said: What should have been done years ago was to create an open source project on a GitHub for the small craft distillers. We are still rolling our own combination of spreadsheets and databases, because every time we check out a commercial solution, they are more expensive, and can't support our current workflow. I'm in the same boat. Every time I get frustrated with the 2-3 hours I spend at the end of the month (including my winery and all my state reports) I think about buying something.... until I remember the prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mt-Defiance Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 Our Whiskey Systems CORE subscription is still $199 a month. We are happy with it at that price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enzymeman Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 29 minutes ago, Mt-Defiance said: Our Whiskey Systems CORE subscription is still $199 a month. We are happy with it at that price. They changed CORE to What is now Whiskey Systems. It removes some functionality. If you didn’t use it, fine. If you did you now need to pay more to get it. Also if you had Pro at $450 you may now be charged even more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lenerz Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 We were paying $350 for Pro and it went up to $450. Not super happy about that, but thought I could live with it. Then last week, when the plan changed over I lost a bunch of functionality, including some of the key things we use. Since they are in an add-on package now they want us to pay $600 a month for something we were paying $350 for. At this point we are seriously considering going back to spreadsheets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 We are in same boat as most of you, whiskey systems just isn't working for the price it takes a couple of hours to wade thru all the entries, is anyone using a spreadsheet that some of us can adapt for our individual operations, that gets the job done? I cannot afford the updated cost so I'm now thinking about On Batch at the $99.00 A MONTH but how long before a big software group buys them out and up go the cost ! Lorenzo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamOVD Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 @Lorenzo This is the sheet I made. I have a very basic form I use to fill out my month end reports that is attached to a previous post. Honestly though, I had basically zero Excel experience, and this didn't take me long to make. If you sketched something out, any savvy office worker could make something like this in 30 minutes. Probably even one that adds columns automatically. Distillary Production Log.xlsx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captnKB Posted June 7, 2021 Share Posted June 7, 2021 Im currently on the same system but currently using it in limited capacity as we are still starting up. @Tom Lenerz can you speak a bit more to the specifics of loss in functionality? Im worried about it and want to be prepared for the problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lenerz Posted June 8, 2021 Share Posted June 8, 2021 17 hours ago, captnKB said: Im currently on the same system but currently using it in limited capacity as we are still starting up. @Tom Lenerz can you speak a bit more to the specifics of loss in functionality? Im worried about it and want to be prepared for the problems Hey Cap, With the old Whiskey Systems Pro at $350 we had access to a whole slew of reports, sales tools, and barrel tracking tools. The biggest thing that is driving me crazy is that I have every stack of barrels assigned a location in whiskey systems, and while not perfect, it worked well enough. On June 1, we started Pro Tier 1, which doesn't include the ability to update barrel locations any longer, meaning I would have to manually track them separately from whiskey systems or pay another $150 on top of the $450 to get advanced barrel management. Which includes other things we use like barrel history for our barrels that get refilled. Accounting wants to get one number out of a finance report and to add that would cost another $100 a month for the accounting support package. The justification for this splitting is "to keep prices down on lower tiers" which doesn't make any sense in anyway as the software is already developed... For the record, I get that they are a business, and costs go up overtime, I understand that since we are also in business. But you can look at this attached sheet and see what each chunk costs. They took a ton of the functions out while increasing the price by $100. Then to add back all the stuff they took out, it would cost a total of $400 more, which equates to a $500 price increase per month on a product that was $350 per month. Whiskey Systems Add-Ons.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mt-Defiance Posted June 8, 2021 Share Posted June 8, 2021 Here is another summary of what you get at each level. They have also takien some small items of functionality, like being able to include custom text on case labels (we use this to include batch names) and made them a “Pro” feature. Annoying. Whiskey Systems Full Feature Comparison (2).pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnBatch Posted June 9, 2021 Share Posted June 9, 2021 Hey all - with all the conversation going on about software, I thought it might be helpful to provide a quick update on where the OnBatch team is at, as of today (June 9th). Here’s where we’re at: We have a group of features that we are planning to release in the next two months. Some of these features are completed and going through testing. Others are still being built. Once this group of features is released, our dev team will begin refactoring code. Shooting for a July start date. This process will stabilize/optimize the platform and give us a more solid foundation to build out our long-term roadmap. It will take approximately 10-15 weeks. Refactoring code is a big undertaking, but users will see improvements with each day/week. In tandem with refactoring code we’re focusing on migrating clients from HoochWare. Our goal is to make their transition seamless, and to ensure they move onto a system that is well optimized. By doing this now, our HW clients will transition with the features and stability they’re used to. We're excited to work through this process and deliver our innovative features on a stable platform. We have a long term vision for OnBatch and this is just the next step in that process. Our focus is on building the best product for our clients and continuing to build the team needed to reach that goal. We have no plans of being acquired, and have declined offers in the recent past. Please feel free to DM/email/comment if you have any questions about the company or the product. We also have a monthly newsletter if you want an easy way to stay updated. Shawn Patrick CEO & Founder, OnBatchshawn@onbatch.com 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bconley Posted June 16, 2021 Share Posted June 16, 2021 We have a scheduled sit down with OnBatch next week to see how it compares to Whiskey Systems. The recent price increase forced us to look into alternatives. Whiskey Systems seems to be okay with losing smaller distilleries in the hopes the bigger ones will pay the increased prices. We will see if it's a wise move for them in the long run Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBink Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 Hey all, Curious on when you all implemented a software program? We are not yet producing (nearing end of planning) and wonder if it would benefit us to get used to the software early. As a startup, are we better off going the spreadsheet route for awhile or jumping into software ASAP to familiarize ourselves with the system? Thank you for any/all input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
38° Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 1 hour ago, BuffaloBink said: Hey all, Curious on when you all implemented a software program? We are not yet producing (nearing end of planning) and wonder if it would benefit us to get used to the software early. As a startup, are we better off going the spreadsheet route for awhile or jumping into software ASAP to familiarize ourselves with the system? Thank you for any/all input. We started with the system as soon as we had recordable transactions and equipment. I think it has been incredibly helpful to be set up from the start. We hit the ground running and wouldn't have time to devote to a proper implementation if we tried to do one now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enzymeman Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 We also started using software once we were in production and we found helpful for learning the rules. It is important to note that you need to send in reports starting the month you receive your federal approval even if they are just all zeros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBink Posted July 21, 2021 Share Posted July 21, 2021 15 minutes ago, enzymeman said: We also started using software once we were in production and we found helpful for learning the rules. It is important to note that you need to send in reports starting the month you receive your federal approval even if they are just all zeros. Thank you! That much I understood. I was considering getting the software sooner to 'play around' but it sounds like it wouldn't be worth the added expense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bconley Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 We are trying to make the switch from Whiskey Systems to OnBatch, and it has been...interesting. I'm not sure if anyone else has had the same experience, but it feels like I've been given the keys to a car that I can start, but don't know how to make it move, and there's no instructions or FAQ. I had a personal Zoom call with their team (who are all friendly and willing to help, to be fair) where we laid out step by step how to do everything, and then a week later it turns out "no, you're missing steps" 🤨 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenlyon Posted July 23, 2021 Share Posted July 23, 2021 It was much the same experience when we signed on to DistillX5. After a couple of very frustrating months we threw in the towel. The software is probably just fine, but it is extremely difficult to maintain accuracy, especially if more than one person is interacting with it. But what really bugs me is the subscription model. I'm sorry but the math of alcohol doesn't change. Why do we have to keep paying for the same thing over and over? All you are really paying for is database management - that you have to manage yourself anyway! Diabolically clever. At this point I'm back to my excel spreadsheets. Perhaps not the best solution but a hell of a lot cheaper when you consider how much alcohol you'll have to sell to meet the monthly subscription fees. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JailBreak Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 On 6/3/2021 at 8:57 AM, AK2 said: We also dropped Distill x5 due to the high price. Currently I am using TTB Tamer. No where near as sophisticated, but works for me. I believe they charge us around $70 a month??? Adam, would you care to share your experience with TTB Tamer? We started with Distillx5 but the owners didn't see the justification for price so we switched to OnBatch. It was fine for a few months and if I encountered any bugs they were quick to respond and fix. Lately, though, I have been experiencing something wrong basically weekly. I haven't been able to do any real work for the last two weeks and their customer service is now leaving me on read. Extremely frustrating. Anyone thinking of OnBatch, be prepared to pay $200+/month to be a beta-tester until they work out all the bugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK2 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 For me TTB tamer works well. Again, no where near the power of other systems I tried, but very simple to use. If I screw up and can't figure out how to fix my mistake the owner usually gets back to me same day via email. I know for a fact that if you do something stupid like wait until the last possible moment to fill out your report, and you discover an error that needs immediate attention, he will pick up his cell phone. In my opinion data entry is very intuitive and much less complicated/time consumer of my pervious software. I believe it is worth what we are paying per month, which I believe is $70. Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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