Dear Contractors

WHY USE MULTIPLE PROGRAMS TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS...

WHEN YOU CAN HAVE ONE DO IT ALL...

AND DO IT BETTER?

Dear Fellow Contractor:

Thousands of service contractors struggle year after year. Their operations are not finely tuned. Profits never seem to climb. The stress level is always high. And their owners never seem to have enough time for relaxing vacations or much-needed family time.

To make matters worse, many of these businesses are completely dependent on its owner's daily involvement for its survival. On any given day, if the owner is not on a service call, he or she is out somewhere fighting a "fire."

But now there's a solution to this common dilemma: Total Office Manager®. It is the only software application designed to help run all aspects of a service contracting business--from full accounting, payroll, dispatching, scheduling, work orders, contact management...to equipment tracking, inventory management, service agreements, purchase orders, and proposals and estimates.

I've Been in Your Shoes--Twice!

I'll tell you more about Total Office Manager (and how it could help your business) in a minute. But first, I should tell you a little about myself so you'll understand why I'm writing you.

My name is James R. Leichter, president of Aptora Corporation. I'm better known as "Mr. HVAC" to thousands of contractors who've visited my website, heard me speak at industry events, or used my software or other specialized contractor business tools to make their contracting businesses more profitable.

Like many of you, I've done my time in the trenches. My career in the contracting industry began 20 years ago as a $5/hour helper for an HVAC, electrical, and plumbing contractor. Eventually, I went out on my own and launched two very successful mechanical contracting companies.

We started out using QuickBooks®. Although we really liked QuickBooks®, we always wished it could do a little more. (For example, we really wished it had a powerful dispatch & scheduling board, the ability to track service history on customer equipment, serial numbers, and inventory by truck.)

I continued to confront the same problem after I started my contractor consulting firm: No software package out there could do everything my service contractor clients needed to run their operations well. Most had outgrown QuickBooks®. Others were tired of maintaining 3 or 4 different software packages, none of which were even tailored for the construction industry.

About five years ago we set out to create the ultimate accounting, dispatching, and scheduling software program for service contractors. Our hope was to create a program like QuickBooks®, but with a dozen or more must-have features my clients really needed and wanted.

So I assembled a "dream team" of folks that truly understood the service business. A team that consisted of QuickBooks® experts, accountants, service technicians, owners of contracting businesses, business consultants, electrical engineers, refrigeration specialist, and even a noted tax attorney.

Four years, and about 30,000 man-hours later, we released Total Office Manager.

One Software Package to Run Your Entire Service Business

By creating a comprehensive office management solution for the service contractor, we've done something no one else has ever done before. We've thought of everything to make this software tool as comprehensive and as user-friendly as possible. And we've included all the tools you need to manage virtually every aspect of operating your contracting business--whether you use them all right out of the gate, or gradually implement them as your business grows.

Here's a list of just some of the features:

• Dispatching
• Scheduling
• Personal and private appointments
• Reminders and alarms
• Work orders and call slips
• Customer relationship management
• Contact logs for customers, vendors, and employees
• Detailed marketing source tracking
• General ledger
• Industry specific chart of accounts
• Accounts receivable and accounts payable
• Credit management
• Fixed asset management, including tracking of company property, depreciation
• Inventory control, including multiple locations
• Serialized equipment tracking
• Multiple markup and costing methods
• Service agreements
• Purchase orders
• Proposals and estimates
• Payroll with commissions, including performance-based compensation
• Job costing
• Cash flow management
• Comprehensive customer service history
• Comprehensive customer financial history
• Flat-rate pricing
• Bar code labels
• Telephone messaging
• Paging
• Detailed reports
• Automated backups with reminders
• Order Entry
• Technician tool lists
• Assignment and tracking
• Direct Deposit
• Credit card processing
• Financial ratio analysis

And much more!

Get the Information You Need to Improve Your Business

Imagine being able to quickly look up customers and jobs using almost any criteria imaginable. Think about the time you'd save if you could track detailed service history, service agreements, serial numbers, payables, receivables and more--just by opening a simple form, and without having to run a report.

Imagine having an automated scheduling and dispatch board that allowed you to easily coordinate sales calls, service work, and installations. Or what about having a tool that allowed you to easily produce a mailing or marketing list based on buying history, equipment or accessory ownership, or other important criteria?

The Industry Has Taken Notice

Since we launched Total Office Manager, the industry has quickly taken notice. Total Office Manager was recently voted "#1 Business Management Software" by the 2004 HVAC Comfortech Product Showcase Awards, based on design functionality and its ease of use.

Additionally, the CPA Technology Advisor gave Total Office Manager a 4-star overall rating in its April/May 2005 issue--praising it for its short learning curve, functionality, quality of support and training, reporting capabilities, and relative value.

Remember Why You Started the Business in the First Place?

If your goal is to grow your company into a financially successful service business--one that enables you to live your dreams...to spend more time with your family...to take more relaxing, non-working vacations (all the reasons you probably started the business in the first place!). If you think there may be a better way to run your operation, to increase profits, and to start enjoying your work again...you owe it to yourself to find out more about Total Office Manager.

And the best way to see if Total Office Manager may be for you is through a free, interactive, no-pressure online demonstration. In just one hour we can show you how this unique software application can help you and your team increase productivity, improve customer service, increase sales and profitability, reduce headaches, and keep you from having to constantly fight "fires."

Don't put this off. You have my assurance that we will never pressure you in any way to buy anything. If you see value after the demo, you tell us what you'd like to do next. And if you don't see value, or if you think this is not for you, we will simply thank you for your time and move on.

By the way, should you have any questions about scheduling your demo, feel free to contact my associate, Ray Ruecker at 877-232-7978.

Sincerely,

Quickbooks® is a registered trademark of Intuit™