John Bassett Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 We have been using Whiskey Systems Basic and its been serving our needs. However, they issued a very large price increase today, starting October 1st. We are a nano and the cost increase is too much for us. What is everyone else using? We have been looking into Onbatch. I also was looking into trying to write my own module in NetSuite, but that would take a ton of time. I am also wondering if someone has some simple spreadsheets that they use to produce the TTB Reports. Our needs are simple. Please let me know your thoughts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whiskeytango Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 How much are they charging? Onbatch is $200 p month. Its ok but defining has plenty of bugs and needs a few features added that would dramatically increase functionality Im my opinion anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MKT Distillery Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 The email last night told us that for our level they were increasing from $199 a month to $421.79 a month for month to month. However, if I signed a contract, I would only have to pay an additional $125 a month - $325 per month. We have been with Whiskey Systems for 4 years. I would strongly doubt that starting October 1st that Whiskey Systems will improve our distillery and our overall operations by $125 to $222 a month. We will definitely be using someone new in October. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bassett Posted September 2, 2022 Author Share Posted September 2, 2022 30 minutes ago, MKT Distillery said: The email last night told us that for our level they were increasing from $199 a month to $421.79 a month for month to month. However, if I signed a contract, I would only have to pay an additional $125 a month - $325 per month. We have been with Whiskey Systems for 4 years. I would strongly doubt that starting October 1st that Whiskey Systems will improve our distillery and our overall operations by $125 to $222 a month. We will definitely be using someone new in October. Absolutely agree. I got the same offer. $421.79 or $325 if we do a yearly contract. I already started saving off the excel and PDF files. We are moving elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kindred Spirits Posted September 2, 2022 Share Posted September 2, 2022 Yeah, for most small operations, I get my clients set up with a nice system of excel workbooks and they can fill out TTB reports with no issues. If you take a couple hours and generate an excel file that meets your needs everything can be easily managed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pour Decisions Posted September 8, 2022 Share Posted September 8, 2022 On 9/2/2022 at 7:38 PM, Kindred Spirits said: Yeah, for most small operations, I get my clients set up with a nice system of excel workbooks and they can fill out TTB reports with no issues. If you take a couple hours and generate an excel file that meets your needs everything can be easily managed. Do you offer these as stand alone? If so, I'd be interested in taking a look. I'm very small and no way I could justify the costs associated with these programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kindred Spirits Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 I sure do, I can help you build a simple file that will work great for your distillery. Sent you a PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorenzo Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 Hi Kindred, I'm in the same position as Pour Decisions, can't afford any more price increases, we are a small operation and really could use some help with coming up with a simple file to help with the reports. Regards, Lorenzo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kindred Spirits Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 Hey Lorenzo, sure thing, sent you a PM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bev Posted November 1, 2022 Share Posted November 1, 2022 I have been using Whiskey Systems since we started in 2018. After their first big price increase I downgraded to a basic subscription and gave up some tools I really appreciated. With the latest increase I did the year-long contract to get the better pricing and thought that would buy my way back in to all the premium features I used to enjoy. Of special interest to me were the "Business Development" tools that helped determine pricing and profit margins, particularly for new products. Well guess what, those are features "were removed" and Whiskey Systems told me if I want them back I can pay special development fees to recreate them for my distillery. What a crock. WS won't generate costs from a product master and recipe, only from bottled goods! All the data is there of course, but after paying $325/month I still have to do a bunch of number crunching to extract the data for which I previously got by selecting a report. Bugger off to Whiskey Systems. They simply do not care about their smaller customers, which you can tell from their pricing--they add a least $0.42 cents per bottle (if you do up to 1900 PGs--more if less than that) and $0.0590 per bottle for 95,100 PGs. Kind of sickening and obvious, really. @Kindred Spirits can you DM me with your spreadsheet deal, too? I need to get the hell out of WSs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEWTOTHIS Posted November 2, 2022 Share Posted November 2, 2022 I have to tell you I was looking hard at WS for a full in house solution for my distillery and to be honest I was seriously floored at how proud of the program they are by the cost of it. I appreciate you @BEV for letting me know how they feel about their customers. I'll likely move on to my second choice. I mean I know how to create an excel spreadsheet and report. Thank you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pour Decisions Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 They have got to be losing customers left and right lately! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jocko Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 This is such a niche market, one wonders how they can afford to simply rely on the largest distillers. We've looked at it, but its so hard to justify $325/month while still very small. It would seem they would be trying to get every brewery, distillery, rectifier, winery, etc. but are instead culling their smaller customers and (I guess) focusing on the larger ones that can afford a bigger monthly payment. I suppose there's some strategy behind it, but it doesn't make sense to me. Would you rather have 5,000 customers each paying say $200/month or 1,000 customers each paying $400+/month? I suppose the support costs per customer are not insiginificant, but they could keep monthly costs low, and charge for support beyond X calls per year. Also, have and support an active user group community where self-help becomes a way to offload support costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bev Posted November 3, 2022 Share Posted November 3, 2022 Update--I heard back from WS and they said the Business Development module WAS still available--as an add on for $75/month. But, as a courtesy, they are letting me use it free for 6 months. Woo-hoo. Getting COGs and profit margin information from your "full-featured" $325/month software program should not COST EXTRA. They should just include it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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