About AIM












AIM pricing
AIM does not have a free version and does not offer a free trial. AIM paid version starts at US$995.00/one-time.
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- Industry: Consumer Services
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Its really easy to make reports which is good for this type of software
Pros
I really like how you can easily generate reports, that's important for my business and I believe this software can do the best job of it.
Cons
I don't like that's a little clunky to use, but that should go without saying because this is super complex software we're dealing with here.
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
AIM Software and POS System for retail sales
Positive! Their customer support is exceptional. Their Tech staff are very knowledgeableand patient. In 45-60 seconds, I can be on a call with an English speaking technical representative who knows the Tri-Tech/AIM system.
Pros
Quickly execute sales, tracking serialized inventory and sales is detailed and quick.
Cons
There are a million features! It was overwhelming in the beginning to decide which ones were going to be essential for our business.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Overall great value and awesome tech support
Overall I would buy the software again. Great people, knowledge and they absolutely show concern about your business. The software, on a basic level, is easy to learn for new employees. I've seen many positive changes in the last two years and I'm sticking around to see what's next!
Pros
Easy.......... The fact it can communicate by sending auto calls and text to my customers and helping me to stay in touch along the way. We are a repair shop and this has not only saved us tons of time but this feature has made us lots of money$$$. The POS and customization of the screen and tech support. Tech support is absolutely, hands down, some of the best I've ever experienced. They answer the phone and stay with you until you understand. Very nice people who never make you feel stupid. Also love the fact you can so easily access your data. Other software we've had has limited the backend data to you where as AIM absolutely encourages you to use it. I will say.... a new employee can be taught in under 5 minutes how to check out a customer through the POS.
Cons
Inventory management, pricing and the repair shop module all need some help. All usable and functional. They are just some areas that aren't as polished as other software. Also, if you are a company with over a million different SKU's, beware. The software really is slow. I know! FYI, you'll need own EXCEL and have a basic understanding in order to to manage your inventory as AIM just simply does not have the capability to do so.
Reasons for Choosing AIM
Cost and features. Communication with customers and the fact we could update our on price files.Reasons for Switching to AIM
The support and fact these people answer the phone and speak English. Not trying to be ugly, just a simple fact.- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Pleased!
Overall we are very happy with AIM for our business. The tech support is awesome! They are always ready to help and super friendly. I love that they can remote in and show us what to do.
Pros
We have been using the contract module side of AIM for our instrument rental contracts to keep track of monthly payments since the beginning of our business in 2004. We pulled away for a brief stint to try another company and it was a disaster. The instrument rental contracts are the bread and butter of our business. If it fails, we fail. If the customer doesn't feel like they can trust us with their personal info because the system fails, we fail. It's a reflection on us. We came back to AIM in 2019 and went all in with the full point of sale system and we've never looked back. We highly recommend AIM.
Cons
We do wish that there weren't so many steps to follow. Seems like there is a huge learning curve to this program. Once you live it and breath it like it do it's one thing. But my employees tend to make mistakes often because they miss a step.
And for example: having to get out of one frame and into another one for the same customer with a different question about their account is sometimes frustrating.
Also. I really wish that an email went out immediately to my rental contract customers on autopay when their card is declined. The ability is there, as they receive an email immediately when the payment goes through, but not when it declines. This would help our collection dept out tremendously if this option was implemented.
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Product Review
My overall experience has been great. From the beginning the help to set this program up for our needs was challenging but very successful. Josh, our salesman has been nothing but helpful and informative and always replys quickly and is always checking in. That is very important to us, someone who takes the time to email every so often to check in and make sure everything is going well. If we have a question he always responds quickly.
Pros
The more we use the software the more we learn and love the product. We use this software everyday runnig reports, for our POS, inventory, and much more. We love the button feature to make everyday use easy.
Cons
I find that it is hard to find a credit card company that is compliant with AIM.
Alternatives Considered
QuickBooks DesktopReasons for Choosing AIM
Firearm friendly, customizable to our needs, range compliant.Reasons for Switching to AIM
Again, firearm friendly, customizable to our needs, range compliant, easy to use, and the customer service.- Industry: Music
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Small shop with multiple needs
Overall the POS has helped us make large improvements to how we do bussines. In many small ways the software is inflexable and since we have an owner with a CPA he has noted that the accounting side of the software is not as intuitive as others like quickbooks. As we get more familiar with it things are making more sense but the learning curve for the accounting reports is steeper than expected.
Pros
Customizing the menu system makes it easy to help new users get familiar.
Cons
The bugs that we do have often leave issues that take time to find or resolve after the initial issue is corrected.
Reasons for Choosing AIM
Integrations of different locations inventory. Transfers, repairs, orders ect.Switched From
QuickBooks Desktop- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great POS/Gun book/Range Software
Been a fantastic system....we recommend it whenever we are asked what we use by other gun stores.
Pros
I don't have to have multiple systems running to achieve everything we need to do...AIM does it all
Cons
learning curve....set up and learning the system takes time
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
A jewel in a difficult and expensive industry
We deployed, then 4 years later deployed ecommerce
Pros
Ease of Use, Cost, Customer Service, Merchant Services relationship.
Cons
Canned Reports are often minimal, but I summarize them in complex Xcel worksheets
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
AIM by Tri Tech
Inventory Control.
Pros
Retail POS, Service, Rental programs all in one program.
Cons
When you ring up retail items, a rental, & a service ticket at the same time for a customer it creates 3 different transactions for the same payment, thus listing 3 different payments on your deposit report for 1 transaction.
Alternatives Considered
AmberPOSReasons for Choosing AIM
QB POS did not offer the special features that we needed, AmberPOS customer Service is almost ZERO!Switched From
AmberPOSReasons for Switching to AIM
We tried AmberPOS for about 6 weeks, but their support SUCKS!
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Ok for small-scale non-ecommerce shops
It was a good starting point, but we outgrew this software within 2 years of starting the company. Our eCommerce portal was functional, but cumbersome.
Pros
The tracking data on products was quite helpful. Serial numbers were regarded as individual numbers with unique purchase order receiving data that could be cross referenced with customer service records and trade-in information. Backorder protocol for Purchase Orders is the one thing I do miss about this software.
Cons
Local server based. This made it very difficult to process transactions remotely (tradeshows, etc) or work remotely.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
One System
Pros
I am able to do in one program what I used to have to do in 3 programs!!
Cons
Weekly updates - some of the weekly updates "break" other areas that were working and you may not realize it until there is an out of balance situation.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Amazing POS Software
Problems we have solved with AIM is Inventory control. We have been able to control inventory very well with being able to do spot checks, yearly and mid year inventory.
Pros
The features to our store that is most impactful is the Rental Module. Our music store thrives from rentals and the use of having the contracts and payments all set up through AIM is so easy and finely setup to use.
Cons
If anything for me it would be the smallest things such as getting the barcodes to be bigger. In essence the ease of being able to fix the barcodes that are being printed on the labels themselves
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Easy to use for the non-techy.
If really good. The customer service cannot be beat!
Pros
It is the app that we use for every aspect of our business. From POS to inventory control we have it all in one place. The straight forward menus and feature with in each module is user friendly.
Cons
I do feel that the system is a little over complicated with so many pop up windows. Also, tranactions seem to have too many steps for simple procedures.
- Industry: Retail
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Review Source
Outstanding product and tech support!
Pros
The product I use has made tracking over 12,000 consigned items a manageable endeavor. In addition to the impeccable tech support I receive, the ability to track each and every product in the store, from intake to settlement, has made this business venture a pleasure. I probably only use 50% of the features, but those I use make my job easy. I can readily identify all pertinent information regarding an item, track notes on the consignor's item and sale preferences, and easily upload all information at the click of a button to my website. A few of the key features I use most are the abilities to associate similar items to one another, to produce reports for each consignor on items sold and still open, to create accounting reports on daily activity, to retrieve a customer's information for mail merge at settlement time, to track my inventory on both quantity and revenue generated to determine my seasonality and busiest days, and to un-publish items from the website once they reach quantity zero (can you imagine doing this manually?).
I also enjoy the easy of use in the Aesys admin system. I've been able to manage and tailor the website to suit my needs with little help from the web support team (another great facet of the product). The ability for real-time lookup of shipping costs and credit card processing made the integration of these items a breeze.
Cons
There are times the system will crash if I have the SA Inventory, customer info, receive batch consignment, and the sales invoice windows open at the same time. There are times I need to have these available in the dynamic environment I've created, and the "Swordfish" errors can be a hassle. Also, there are some canned reports in the catalog that don't seem to work, and creating reports with the wizard is not the easiest or the most intuitive.
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Best A&D and POS software I have used
The software allows us to keep all of our records on site and quickly access them from as many terminals as I would like. I recommend AIM to everyone in the firearms industry.
Pros
The team at AIM gave me all the support I could ask for with setting up the software. I can barely turn a computer on and they were able to set it up for me so that I could start using it immediately. Customer support is flawless. The price was well below competing software and still had all the features I could ever use plus some.
Cons
We have experienced some lagging issues, but the team at AIM is working with us to resolve this at no cost.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Very updated interface
Expensive!!!!! Time to "update" to the newest version? Expensive!!!!
Pros
Solid database. Features specifically designed for our industry like lesson billing, rent to own tracking
Cons
Crashes daily because it isn't fully compatible with newer versions of windows. Not easy to use at multiple locations. Requires arcane network setup like environment variables because you have to pay for a total number of "terminals." Very clumsy user interface because you have to start from the master look up process for every piece of data you need to enter. Autopays are only semi automatic because they only run when you tell them to and once again you have to start from the master look up screen multiple times to: generate an auto pay list with manually input dates, transmit the autopays, post the autopays, cancel the denied auto pays, print out a denied list. Lesson billing is usable yet clumsy, lesson scheduling is a joke.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AIM is the best fit!
The software has been just what we were needing for our sales and service business. The support has been fantastic as well over the years. Simply put top to bottom outstanding!
Pros
There are many POS on the market today but not very many geared to our industry. It is flexible and customizable. It is so easy to use.
Cons
There are very few things I like least because when we do , features can be implemented. I guess at this point I like least is we have no way to print a claim check when customers drop off their vacuum. That said I created a feature request that they are working on as I type this review.
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Best bang for buck
I’m happy with the system. I looked at several that cost more and done less.
Pros
Saves time on the Sale, interactive A&D book linked to sale.
Cons
Manual updates to the system. That’s about it
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
AIMsi for Consignment
We use the consignment, customer & inventory modules in AIMsi. Unfortunately we had to purchase the whole software package, instead of just the modules we needed (for example, we don't sell lessons but have that module anyways). This is a very complex software program. We have noticed that there are multiple steps involved for just about everything you want to do, and if it's not done in the right sequence then things can get messed up quickly - try deleting an item from inventory, you have to delete and save on one screen, then save on another screen, then delete again. This software is difficult to use for front end sales staff. The ReportWizard feature is of no help to us as it is extremely confusing to figure out how to build a report. Customer support sent us an excel spreadsheet that's supposed to help, but it's about 400 pages of formulas that we don't know anything about. We are generally dissatisfied with this software.
Pros
The consignment module works well for tracking and paying consignors (if the consignment items are received correctly).
Cons
The software is extremely complicated to use for users. It takes a lot of time to learn and skill to use/understand this software. There are too many modules and features that are no use to us.
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: Self Employed
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Great Software
Aim has been very helpful with helping manage my inventory better than I ever could with other simple solutions. I'm very happy that i decided to use Aim for my Store.
Pros
The software is great with all the different features that it has and offers. I particulary like the reports function that allows me to generate my inventory, sold items, and sales tax reports.
Cons
The system was very easy to setup and intigrate with. There's a lot of functions that the software offers. You certainly need to take a lot of time during the setup to learn about the functions.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Wish I read these reviews before buying
There are much better options. I wish I did my research and read these reviews. I asked for a 30-day trial of the software and they said no but were confident it would be exactly what we needed. Well it wasn't and really bad for software we never plan on using. We decided that if it was so hard to set-up correctly before we even started using it, that it would be a headache done the road. We did set-up and went for our training and passwords wouldn't work. Not even the default. They can't help us. Have to call support and reschedule training. Call support and they tell me I have premium support to use this different access number. They can't transfer me, so I have to call back. I use that different access number and just keep getting shot back to the main menu "Press 1 for Sales, Press 2 for support" At this point, myself and my team are so aggrivated that we decide it's better to go with the current systems we already have Fullslate and Paysimple. They are easy to use. Super intuitive and requires about 30-min of training for someone to learn.
Fortunately, AIMsi did extend a refund for the unused license and workstation, so we were able to get back some of our money. The sales guy I worked with was super nice. None of this is his fault, it's the software's fault and my fault for not trusting my gut that you don't buy something unless it has a trial period to make sure it's the right fit for your business.
Pros
Can be set up for multiple locations
Lots of back-end customizing
Lots of add-ons and modules for customization
Cons
Expensive & hard to set-up
Windows based, so no Mac used
Can set up a server to access remotely but requires you to have multiple workstations as the software is only tides to 1 location
Supposedly there is support but I couldn't get through
Sales team is very active and reaches out to you a lot until you request for money back
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
My experience with AIMsi
We use an older version (v6.0), and I am very impressed with the features. I can only imagine how the newer versions must be. Unfortunately, previous employees didn't understand POS software and we are not using many of the features, as our database is really messed up from being misused over the years. We only use the Long Term Rental Contract features, and AIMsi does a great job. Very easy to use. I only wish it had been used properly from the beginning because it looks like it would save me a lot of work.
Pros
The interface is very easy to understand and use, and customer support is great. It is a feature-rich program, I only wish we had a newer version.
Cons
When printing statements, it prints old accounts with no address. Apparently there is no way to filter the ones with no address out so I have to manually remove them. Occasionally one slips past and they are returned to us by the Post Office.
- Industry: Retail
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Review Source
AIMsi has more and more to recommend it as we learn more about it
Pros
This is a great POS for our instrument sale and rental business. There's just enough flexibility in it without having to do everything freeform. The more we use it, the more we learn about new ways that it can help us. And the support option is great. Their staff is very knowledgeable and has been of tremendous help to us on several occasions. We've used AIMsi for years already, yet we're still finding new ways that it can help our business. The designers seem to have anticipated most of the needs of a shop like ours. Whenever we decide we want to do something new, we find there is an option in AIMsi for exactly that. That's a great sign of a well-designed product.
Cons
There are a couple of features that would be nice to have (ability to refund an initial rental payment in the system, reverse an approval return, etc.), but they're just things that would be helpful to us specifically. The only other thing that we really find irritating at all is that the formatting on the straight-to-email option isn't really compatible with Gmail recipients, so the large number of our customers with Gmail get invoices and the like that are very difficult to read and not very professional-looking. We get around that by printing them to PDF instead, but it would be nice to have it work in one step.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AimSi helps to run our store
Have been using this program for about 25 years. It is a great program to run a music store. Plenty of other music store owners to share ideas of how to get the best out of AimSi
Pros
Really helps with the back room duties (accounting, inventory, planning, etc.). Great point of sale program. Bar coding is a must.
Cons
Getting quality support can be a challenge. Program has so many features that better documentation for using the features would help
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Too Much Work
The sales staff is very eager to show how the program works, but they do not tell you about data entry required, that there is only one check template, and that other parts of their program cannot be customized. The rental and lesson modules cannot be turned off, and having to enter tax by zip code is a tedious job that is unnecessary. Other accounting programs will do this automatically. Overall, the program has great features, but if we had not spent money on it, I think I would have knuckled down and gone with QuickBooks, and I hate QuickBooks.
Pros
Integrates POS, AP, AR, inventory, and invoicing, all in one program. They offer complete training and on-site set up, for a price.
Cons
Too much data entry to set up, which they do not tell you. I had to enter: categories (in a specific format, which I had to develop) and tax by zip code (California has over 2700). In addition, their 'conversion' consists of you putting your information in their template, and them writing a subroutine that will insert it into their program. If we had needed multiple stores, or did rentals, then it would have been more complicated. They only have one check template, and if your check does not fit theirs, their immediate response is 'why not buy them from us'. Nevermind that you might have several boxes already printed. Also, entering a customer is a complicated, several step process. For someone unused to data entry or not very computer savvy, it could be a more frustrating experience than it was for me. Their documentation is SEVERELY lacking, as well.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
An overall great product
We moved from a custom AS400 program written for our company to AIM almost 10 years ago. We've been very pleased with AIM & never looked back. No program is perfect & they all have their little quirks, but we've been very pleased with AIM & have no interest in shopping for another platform.
Pros
There is a lot to unpack in this program, but once you've learned the system it's an all-in-one package & is fast, easy & efficient to use. Integration between our website, payment processing, shipping, etc. make our life easier. The program is constantly updated with enhancements & quality of life updates making the software faster & better to use. Tech support is very responsive to our needs & requests, development has made many changes to the software at our request to better fit our needs.
Cons
The Vortx web platform that integrates with AIM comes with a lot of limitations & the custom report tool is difficult to use. The SQL platform version 12 uses is powerful, but the hardware & software startup cost (SQL especially) can be high. There is not a good solution for working with products that are sold in both a physical AND digital format.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Emily's Review of AIM
I have worked with many people at Tri-Tech we have been using there POS for about 4 years. I have had to call the customer help line many times in those 4 years. And no matter how frustrated I am they do an excellent job helping me solve the issues I run into.
Pros
I enjoy the easy of being able to create things and customize the POS easily. The system does all I need plus more that I probably don't know about. Seems like I learn new things about it all the time. My most recent call was with [SENSITIVE CONTENT]. He was very knowledgeable and the questions he didn't know the answers to he was very speedy at finding them. I enjoyed my early morning conversation with [SENSITIVE CONTENT] while he helped me work on multiple issues I was having. We got them all fixed in under an hour (I was expecting it to be a multiple hour kind of call). I look forward to working with [SENSITIVE CONTENT] again.
Cons
The worst part about this POS was the set up. Although I believe that is mostly the fact that we were transferring information from a system that was very VERY old and outdated system. But the service team was there for me whenever I had questions; and boy I had a lot of them. Those first few months most of the service people knew me by first name.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AIM once the sale is made we don't care.
I have been trying for several years now to get this company to finish installing the software with all paid for data transfers. AIM tech support Has been supposedly working on entering my inventory for about four years now.
Every time I call I get the we supplied the software so that I owe for it even though it is totally unusable without my inventory and bound FFL book installed. And just because I paid for extra for data transfer to make the program usable does not mean that that AIM has to actually do it (simple Excel format)
Tech support is useless as none of them have done their job yet. I am going to have to take the time away from my business to take these crooks to court.
Pros
Looks like if it worked it would be nice.
Cons
The way it just sits there with no data for the last several years waiting for AIM software to finish their job.
The fact that I was charged for software and data transfer and received software without data transfer so it is useless. I have been waiting so long it was called AIMsi when I bought it.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Great feature set and support. Very poorly implemented.
The product has features that no other has, especially for the musical instrument rental business. However, it is showing its age. The worst thing is that it wasn't written well even to standards that we had 30 years ago. (I started in the IT business in 1986.)
I would recommend it, with a great many warnings, to a musical instrument rental or similar company, but absolutely not to anyone else.
Pros
The feature set for the rent-to-own business is good. So far as we have been able to discover, there is no other product at any price that supports our business. (If there was, I would be on it like a duck on a June bug.)
The support staff is excellent!
Cons
I would have fired an experienced programmer or seriously chewed out a beginner 30 years ago if they designed a user interface that was so poorly implemented. You never know from screen to screen what you have to do to do a "find." Sometimes you have to hit Tab for the program to work, sometimes you have to hit Enter. The mere fact that in a good many places the programmers apparently elected to use the tab key or enter key events rather than the OnExit event is inexcusable. (Click the OK or Save button without first tabbing out of a field and there is a great chance that the changes to the field you were last in were not saved.) Things as simple as standard naming conventions for naming reports are just an example that someone either didn't understand design or didn't care. (The reports aren't in report name order because some inept person decided to put "Print" or "List" in front of the report name, thereby making the lists sort out without rhyme or reason. Having a table of variables to STORE system options is fine. It's even okay for a first release. However, how a system that has been on the market this long without having a user interface on said table indicates a huge lack of caring. The user interface flaws cannot be excused by the fact that the programs are old. The design flaws would not have been acceptable in a DOS or even a CP/M program.
The back end modules are simply sad. The fact that they decided to write the back end all over again in the new system that they plan to release someday indicates a huge lack of judgment. Why the devil would one reinvent the wheel, especially after doing such a poor job the first time around, when one could interface to any of several well-written, mature, user-friendly and well-supported G/L, A/P, A/R, etc. systems and focus on the specialized modules that make me use AIMsi to start with? (QuickBooks immediately comes to mind.) Doing so would save well into six figures of development cost, give one a solid base on which to build, and even give one a huge marketing opportunity by being an enhancement to a widely-used system rather than being a home-rolled thing. It would also give me some hope that the new release would be available in my lifetime. They are simply burning man-years of programming effort and stretching lead times unreasonably.
As bad as the G/L module is, their "Purchase Order" module simply boggles the mind. They make a sad effort to somehow combine P/O and Customer Order Processing while making both the COP features and the interface to A/P damned near unusable. One need only looks at the database design to see that whoever wrote the COP programs had never actually worked on one before. No Order Header and Order Line Item tables? Really? They sort of sludge everything together in something that they dreamed up from scratch. Even the terminology used for field names and labels is non-standard. "Picked" has a very well understood meaning in the COP industry. They have a whole new definition.
I could go on forever...
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AIM software makes my job easier!
My interactions have almost exclusively been with the tech support team. I am a musician and I don't think like an accountant; they are always helpful and efficient. The support is peerless - I don't think we have ever stumped them!
Pros
We have been using AIM for more than 10 years. It allows us to manage daily sales, keep current track of our inventory, and to update, receive, and transfer inventory as needed. The A/P invoice feature makes accounting a much easier process. The software is reliable, and the reports it can generate are tremendously helpful.
Cons
We are a musical instrument store that is run by musicians, and it took us all a bit of time to learn to "think like the software" in more complicated processes. The availability of tech support being there to bail us out made that transition easier.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
It's a shame - good ideas, bad execution.
There are a lot of good ideas in this software, but things like a staff that's not on the same page, and a long-awaited refresh of their base tech keep AIMsi a frustrating software package. We stay because our lesson program is to big to be handled by any other solutions we looked at, but I would advise others to hold off until their promised rebuild is released.
Pros
Lesson management is good. Inventory management and sales are serviceable.
Cons
Built on outdated technology, which means the system will get slower and more bloated as your business grows. Simple ancillaries (like date lookup) require Googling to find outdated Microsoft files when you replace computers, and support won't have those files available. E-commerce is excruciatingly complex to execute; why must it be this complicated when options like Squarespace and Shopify exist? They don't require the user to learn XML to take full advantage of their features. The PO system is convoluted, the workflow makes no sense. Inventory management could stand to lose some processes to speed things up and make it more understandable. Reporting doesn't make much sense, either. But the most frustrating part for us has been the staff. Calling support is rarely a good experience; it often sounded like someone was paging through a manual to find a solution. Recently, I found out why: support is tiered, and we are on the lowest tier. I've been using this software for 5 years, and no one at TriTech offered us an upgrade. Online help files don't offer much more in the way of assistance. Navigation is clunky, and entries are often incomplete or outdated. We've also experienced the classic "sales promises features that developers say can't be done" routine. The most recent involved running their product on a Windows tablet - sales said it could be done, but later, support said it was only possible using Remote Desktop Protocol (a thing I wish I knew before I purchased the Windows tablet & an additional license). More than once, I've been scolded by sales for "not understanding how [their] software works." They require you to buy gift cards & hardware through them, at a substantial markup. I'm getting frustrated just thinking about this stuff...
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AIM Software
Overall experience has been amazing. Tech support is there to help us out when there are questions. The training videos are full of good advice and very helpful hints to make the software work better for us.
Pros
For an all around software, for several different industries, this software is well thought out. We have used this software for many years, and have gone through several of the upgrades. When there has been an issue, tech support is right there to help resolve problems or to escalate to developers to create what we need. The training tutorials are a huge help. The software is very customizable for our needs.
Cons
We have not really run across any negatives. Tri Tech is always improving the software. The one downside is not having tech support there on weekends if we have an issue. We have only run into one or two times we have really needed them on a weekend in all the years we have used the software.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
One of the worst business decisions I have made.
We gained POS software with serialized inventory track-ability from this software, something that we were lacking with QuickBooks.
Pros
It can handle a lot of inventory and a lot of different skus. The POS module is decent as far as keeping track of a lot of customers and barcodes. If you do opt for this software, stick with the very basic POS module only.
Cons
There are sooooo many things....
First off, the platform itself is extremely outdated. The only people who like this software are companies who have been using it for more than 10 years and haven't tried anything newer.
Our IT guy HATES it, and TriTech wants you to spend thousands of dollars on an old-school server set-up because it can't be set up with any sort of cloud system. One thing to keep in mind is the relatively cheap up front cost is just the beginning, as the hardware costs are going to get you BIG TIME when you have to keep going backwards in time and adding hardware, IT, and specialized accounting costs on top of everything else (did I mention our accounting costs quintupled when we started using AIMsi?!).
You can hardly ever correct a mistake, and we found this out right away when even TriTech support messed up trying to help us correct a simple mistake early on. Making corrections is tedious if not impossible, and yet the program is so counter-intuitive it's very easy to make mistakes even if you've been working with it for awhile.
The accounting module is a joke, and this is where I feel like it was truly a bad business decision. We went live officially in 2016 after practicing for about 6 months, and after 11 months of trying to get off of QuickBooks completely and get on only one reporting software we finally gave up on AIMsi as we started losing sight of numbers and business goals.
Bottom line, there are way better options out there than AIMsi.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Phenomenal Experience
We were having problems remembering who put what in the system and if it got logged in correctly and whatnot. The ATF Compliant Bound Book completely mitigates that problem. The Technical Support team has been able to answer each and every question I've had, which is incredible, considering I've called them many times when I've in the middle of a process (both on the test system AND live system) I don't understand or forgot how to continue on. They've been wonderful and have not at all made me feel crazy or gotten tired of answering my questions. I cannot say enough good things about my experience. We did have a small issue with a scanner, but the way it was handled was done so professionally and so well, that I consider it a privilege to have dealt with the company in this manner. It showed me that they really care about their customers and back their products and will make it right, no matter what.
Pros
We have been utilizing the POS (Point of Sale) System, and it's very intuitive. You go through a couple test transactions, and it's like riding a bike. You can do it so quickly and effectively. We used the testing system and were able to play around it a lot without worrying about mistakes that will mess up your entire system. We have the label printer, the receipt printer, and the wireless scanner, and they have made our little gun shop look SO professional and streamlined. Gone are the days of handwritten receipts! We can now track customers to see what each person buys and can add notes and wish list items! The Bound Book is ATF compliant, and it has made checking the firearms in and out a breeze. We are going to be purchasing the PO module next, so I can't wait to implement that!
Cons
I can't really say there are any Cons...I would just say it is a bit of a learning curve and can be a bit overwhelming at first, but the support that is offered is just phenomenal.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The BEST option for almost any industry.
Pros
It is very customizable. Along with automating some processes, you can have everything completed with a click or a touch
Cons
Be prepared to watch a lot of videos to learn how to set up and use AIM. You will also need to build your specific training documentation for your company.
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AIMsi Does it All (almost)
Been using the software for two years now, and it seems to provide a solution for everything. I wish there was a bit better integration across the different modules, such as allowing station rentals, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, and contract payments to all be made on the same checkout as regular sales orders, instead of needing to process them all at once. The payroll area also needs some improvements, it is good for recording payroll expense, but you will need a separate application to actually do the real payroll tracking/deductions/taxes. Otherwise it handles everything from rentals, bay/station rentals, it has full accounting, chart of accounts, general ledger, integrates to your purchasing/receiving, has full inventory tracking with multiple locations. Basically you can run your business with a few minor outside resources, from this one package. Even managing employees/time tracking etc...
Pros: Accounting, Rentals, POS Touchscreen support, Integrated Credit Card, Employee Management, Membership Modules, Integrated Gift Cards, Inventory Control, Invoice Management
Cons: The systems don't all share one checkout - each type of transaction (rental, station, contract payment, merchandise sale) must be rung up separately - The payroll is not very robust
Pros
Accounting
Rentals
POS Touchscreen support
Integrated Credit Card
Employee Management
Membership Modules
Integrated Gift Cards
Inventory Control
Invoice Management
Cons
The systems don't all share one checkout - each type of transaction (rental, station, contract payment, merchandise sale) must be rung up separately
The payroll is not very robust
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Legacy database that our company is slowly replacing with more modern systems
Years of data can be searched through. We currently use it for recurring billing via credit cards for monthly rental and lesson tuition payments. Those recurring charges must be manually triggered every day though.
Pros
Does not have glitches or communication errors. Data that has been input stays there forever. Interface has never changed, ever. So if you are familiar with it, there is a comfort factor.
Cons
The user interface has very few, if any, task stream allowances or cross linking between data entry areas.
The typical interaction with Aimsi requires starting from the home screen and navigating the "Module" you need, selecting the "Find," searching for the correct customer account, pulling up the relative info about them.
Then...
Restarting from the home screen, module you need to add or edit part of the changes that are needed, "find," find that account again..
Then...
Restarting from the home screen, module you need to add or edit the other part of the changes that are needed, "find," find that account again...
While there are hot keys to speed up this process it is still a very primitive workflow. Newer systems have you choose the customer account first, then proceed to enter new data, while Aimsi requires finding the module, and then the account, over and over again.
Networking your store for Aismsi to work off of one of your local PCs requires above average networking skills. Backups and hardware upgrades are your problem and responsibility. You will need someone on call unless you happen to have above average IT skills.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AIM v12
The AIM team is generally responsive to our requests though we do tend to have issues due to the large database size that difficult to diagnose.
Pros
I like the ability to save an update information efficiently.
Cons
Tracking various types of purchases is still very difficult and conversion from rentals to purchase.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Great Softrware, and even better customer service
Pros
Three (3) years ago, as I was increasingly becoming frustrated with my previous POS system, I researched various options. In doing so, I discovered a software system called AIMsi, which is a Tri-Technical system. I was contacted by [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and walked through the process and signed the agreement. Admittedly, navigating this software was a bit intimidating I became frustrated with the learning curve and gave up on the software that I had paid for. A few months later I was contacted by [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]to see how I was liking the software. I described my experience with the software thus far, to include my frustrations with the setup, navigation, troubleshooting, etc. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] was extremely patient and professional. Additionally, rather than treat me as a generic customer, he listened attentively, was compassionate and did not close the discussion until he identified a path forward for which he could properly resolve my issue. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]expressed a great deal of concern, acknowledging the cost I paid for the software and that it was of the upmost importance to him that I experience the full range of the product. Thereafter, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] registered me for training sessions, at no cost, and followed up with me repeatedly (2-3 times weekly) until I was comfortable with using the software. The software is great and the staff who have all been friendly and willing to help when I called for tech support.
Cons
sometimes the software can appear to be complicated gaining a understanding of its functionality helps
- Industry: Wholesale
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Experience with Aim
Overall experience with Aim has bee satisfactory.
Pros
User friendly, tech support is good and a fair price.
Cons
Integration with previous inventory got messed up and we had to do much more work to get corrected.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Many Tools/
Good overall. Many problems arise on a weekly basis but phone support are always their to help.
Pros
I do like that there are many features available. Scheduling, rentals, repair, short term rentals, etc. They are always trying to update and get better. I believe the repair and rental contracts are the strongest features of the software. A lot of the active e features are nice as well.
Cons
With what I like about the software is also where some of its problems arise. There are some parts of the software that lack features within its functions. Short term rentals is confusing and not completely ready in my opinion, not many ways for loaners to be customized ( no options for automated late fees or charges), Package deals are not easy to update. There are tons of features but some have issues.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Retail software
We started as a small company in 2004 using Quickbooks. Then I hired a developer to develop a product for retail, rental processing and inventory control. After a year and $50,000 later that failed. AIM was discovered and did everything that we needed. Those were bad times during all of this. Their software is greatness. the support is 100% perfection. These guys are obsessed with solving a problem and do take care of any needs.
There is a 60 day period that you will deal with using the software until you are proficient with it. After that you will be very happy. The option of a second web hosting company is a real downside and expensive.
Cons
They are limited with only one web hosting company that is not good. This company is very expensive and a security liability.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Small Business Review
While the program itself has given us some trouble, the customer support is excellent!! [SENSITIVE CONTENT] have been especially wonderful and patient with us and spent an abundance of time on our issues to help us get what we need and understand how to do what we need to do. Amazing customer service.
Pros
The program has tons of features, functions, and reports which is a definite positive for businesses that need to keep track and monitor various aspects of the business. For a larger company that has a wide scale business this program would be a very useful asset.
Cons
We are a very small business and this program for us was- and is- very overwhelming to learn and operate. Part of that is our fault for not having the time to watch the tutorials and explore the program to its fullest since we only have a few employees and are only open three days a week. For us, a simpler program would probably have been a better choice but for larger companies this would work great.
- Industry: Retail
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Review Source
After ten years, I work with the system reluctantly.
Pros
You can open the system multiple times on the same computer. In the middle of entering a sale, cust wants to try on a helmet or gloves, or just gets distracted; you can switch to another copy of the system until the customer is ready to continue. When using the computer to work on customer information or inventory, you can switch to another copy to verify or copy something. For instance, combining two customers into one, can copy email and then compare or enter.
Cons
The system is absolutely opaque, not intuitive, and byzantine. To deal with a product, it is impossible to find S/A Maintenance unless you know how to find it. Way too many arbitrary clicks and decisions to find anything in the system. Especially annoying is the inability to go back one level, if you make a mistake in these decisions; you have to go back to the beginning, and you might not even remember which decision was the wrong one.
The lack of a training program to teach new employees how to use the system is something I have been thinking about for ten years.
The rental module does not lend itself to quick service, renting 100 bikes on a busy day.
If you suspend a sale, you can't open it and suspend it again; therefore you can neither edit, nor even reprint it.
You can't analyze sales data from a sector of the customer data base. For instance, you can't separate the customers from A to M and compare them to the customers from N to Z. This would be useful to analyze the effectiveness of advertising. We could contact all the customers from A to M, but not N to Z, and then compare the results.
There's more, but that will do for now.
- Industry: Sporting Goods
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Great Customer Support
Our company spent a lot of time looking for a new POS system. After a ton of research we decided to go with Tri-tech. We could not be happier. Our Rep was very nice and not pushy. We've had the POS system for just about 2 years and my rep that sold me the system told me if I have ever need anything just to call him. I've held him to it and he has definitely kept his word. They're tech support has been great but, if I have to have one negative thing it would be on the tech support. The problem is when you call tech support for a question you just get a random person. The person you talk to will help you fix the problem you're having but, if you call back for the same issue, you get a different person that has a different way to fix the problem. So it could get confusing at times. I talked to my rep and he assured me they were making changes to make sure the support you get is more consistent. But honestly its a very small complaint and in no way affects the 5 star rating. If your looking for a new POS system I would strongly recommend taking a look at Tri-Technical Systems.
Pros
The customer support was great. It seemed the easiest to use. We are not a big company and this seemed to work best for us.
Cons
Tech support is a little confusing. I described below, when you call customer support you talk to a different person. That can cause an issue because each person has a different way to fix the problem you're having.
- Industry: Retail
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
ABC RC & Hobbies Review
Pros
I purchased it because the active e Capability and find it is a bit awkward and confusing to use
The software basically works well but a long learning curve because it is trying to work for every body
Cons
Long learning curve and support is expensive
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
AIM Review
Overall it is very good. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] in tech support has been our go-to guy. He has been extremely helpful especially when it comes to the scheduling module. He has been willing to test issues that we have come across and implement changes to the software. I personally can't thank him enough for his patience and willingness to continue to work with us to make the scheduling module the best it can be.
Pros
We decided to go with AIM because it was an all-in-one POS system. We have retail sales, charge accounts, repair tickets, lessons scheduling and rentals/payment plans. To have all of that in one system was the most important to us. We also did not want a subscription based software. We wanted to own the product. That was a close second in importance
Cons
It can have it's issues. It takes a long time to understand how things work.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Baums Music
I have been an AIM user since 2003 and overall I have been extremely pleased. I have been working with [SENSITIVE CONTENT] and he has been extremely helpful in my last issues.
Pros
From POS to backroom accounting and inventory management the software integrates seamlessly. Also support is crucial and they have that covered well.
Cons
Seems to need a lot of updates to fix issues.
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great product!
Overall the experience has been great! Our business has been using this software for almost 20 years and any time we have a question or an issue, customer and technical service is always easy to access and help with the problem.
Pros
Easy to navigate through the menu options. Simple layout among the different screens.
Cons
We have not upgraded our software to version 12 yet. That being said, the version we are currently using is not online integrated as far as the lesson module goes. If that has changed with the newer version, then I have no cons
- Industry: Music
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Cardinal Percussion Mark Tirabassi
AIM over has been good not great. [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
has been the reason I feel we can make it work.
Pros
I like that it seems customized for the music industry.
Cons
Lang in correcting system issues. Not being able to request a specific Support Tech and the Support Tech not being able to call me. I really think [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
is amazing. Super helpful and knows the product. You have a gem and I would highly suggest that AIM take the steps to secure him long term.
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