I really appreciate it when software goes beyond being code that fulfills a function. I have brought some great deals at Appumo, this could be another.. It is deceptively simple, has thought through its functionality and gives me more than I ask it to do.

It calls itself a business management platform, which I don’t need so I nearly did not test it. But I have been looking for an agency booking app for a while, one that people who see software as a necessary evil could use and ‘Oode’ I think I found one (google translate says oode means wait).

Starting with the cons

-Although I linked it to my google calendar it did not synch my availability based on my settings AND my google calendar
-Setting availability - I chose to set a detailed availability for the next 12 months with different availability every day, a maximum of 4 bookings per day and 15 minutes break between them. It took me less than two minutes no manual required. BUT it would have been even quicker if the date range of the years actually went forwards rather than back in time so I had to go through all 12 months to get to 2024. (Same thing when I select this week, I expect to see the upcoming week not the last week)
-The fields to fill in email test for email campaigns are rather small, I get that they also work on mobile but on both they are fiddly
-For more than 7 services the layout gets out of balance on the landing
There is currently no support for resource management or digital products
-I could not seem to send an estimate to a pre-existing contact without getting the pop-up error - “Contact's email existed, please try again” - yet clearly I should be able to send estimates to pre-existing contacts.
-A dashboard telling me the number of bookings and money generated had some unexpected information. It had 2 out of 3 of my bookings as paid revenue (without stripe payment link)and one as pending. I might have to go through a manual of sorts to see what is going on here.
-Uploading receipts did not work for me

This is not a small list. And I have to say I bought trafft waiting for development of essential functionality and have been sorely disappointed. So why am I going all in?

What is there today?
-The easiest way to set up availability for booking, like, ever!
-A simple, clear and timezone correct email invitation (Hootsuite has lost me so many international calls by messing up timezones)
-An easy overview of all the bookings that have been made (so if I have to manage my bookings from here, so be it)
-A simple but it makes so much sense emailing ability (both individual and batch/campaign)as follow up. Apparently I can send 5000 emails per month for every sub-account which is not too shabby
-A split between contacts and clients
-Just enough CRM to be useful for new coaches and entrepreneurs but not enough to needs a huge amount of set-up. I have suitedash and vbout, both powerhouses, both needing almanacs to get going. I was ready in under 10 minutes

Contd..