A CRM that knows
what a decoration is
Every generic CRM was built to sell software to software companies. Then somebody hands it to a promo rep and says good luck. SIPS (Stout Intel Promotional Software) was built the other way around: on a working distributor desk, by the guy who had to use it on Monday.
Jobs, decorations, supplier POs, true margin on every line, and the in-hands date the whole thing counts backward from. Paste a CommonSKU share link and the entire job lands on its own.
I am Logan, a working promo rep. I run my own desk on this every day, which is either the best reason to trust it or a sign I should have quit while I was ahead.
The whole machine,
mapped.
Every system, every button traced to the row it writes, the data model, the security, the way it ships, all in one interactive atlas. Read the architecture before you ever get on a call. It lives behind an application: show me you’re in the trade and I’ll hand you the keys.
Apply for atlas access →No re-keying, no API, no import template. The client, the contact, every line with its decoration and true price, and the in-hands date the job counts backward from.
Spring Member Kit
Cottonwood Trail Co.
The problem is not that your CRM is bad
It is that your CRM has never heard of your business. It knows a contact, a company and a deal. It has no idea what a job is, cannot tell a screen print from an embroidery, thinks a supplier PO is a PDF you attached, and calculates margin from whatever number you typed in the value box while you were on the phone.
So you do what everybody in promo does. You keep the CRM half updated for the pipeline meeting, and you keep the truth in a spreadsheet, your inbox, and your head. Then somebody asks what the real margin was on the Q3 kitting job and the honest answer is a forty minute archaeology dig.
I did that for years. I am a rep. I built this because I got tired of being the integration between two systems that both technically worked.
You are already paying for this problem
Just not in a line item. It comes out in the order that shipped at zero margin, the reorder nobody chased, and the hours your desk spends being the human bridge between CommonSKU, a CRM that does not get promo, and a spreadsheet. SIPS is not another subscription on the pile. It is the thing that clears the pile.
Three tools doing one job badly
CommonSKU to quote, a generic CRM you keep half updated for the pipeline meeting, and a spreadsheet holding the real truth. You pay for all three and still retype the same job into each one. SIPS collapses that into a single record and reads the CommonSKU link for you, so you stop paying to do the work twice.
The zero margin order
When margin is a number you typed into a value box, a decoration setup can quietly eat the whole job and you find out on the invoice, three weeks late. Margin calculated per line means you catch it while you are still quoting. Catch one of these a year and the software has paid for itself.
The reorder nobody chased
The two months after Closed Won are where the reorder actually gets decided, and a generic pipeline goes blind the second the deal closes. In Production and Shipping stages, plus a portal your buyer will actually open, keep you in front of them exactly when it counts.
Your desk as the integration
A rep re-keying jobs across systems is doing the most expensive data entry in the building, and it never shows up as a bill. That is the cost I felt first. Absorption and one job record hand those hours straight back to selling.
Add it up honestly and most desks are bleeding more every month than SIPS costs to run. One zero margin order you catch before you invoice it can pay for a year of it. That is the whole business case, and it is why I priced it the way I did.
Same words, different software
This is the whole pitch. Not features, structure. A CRM can only report on what it can model, and generic CRMs cannot model promo.
| Object | A generic CRM | SIPS |
|---|---|---|
| Client | Company record | Company, plus every contact with shirt size, jacket size, allergies, do not gift flags, and the birthdays that win you the reorder |
| Job | Does not exist. You get an "opportunity" | A real job with a job number that ties the estimate, the sales order, and the invoice into one living record |
| Line item | A price and a quantity | SKU, supplier, quantity, unit cost, unit sell, and the margin on that single line |
| Decoration | A note somebody typed | Method, colors, locations, setup charges, run charges, and the imprint area that decides whether the art even fits |
| Supplier PO | An attachment | A record tied to the job, with its own status, freight, and in-hands math |
| Margin | Deal value minus a number you typed | Calculated per line from real cost, so you find the zero margin order before you bill it |
| In-hands date | A close date | The date the whole system counts backward from, because it is the only date the client cares about |
What you get
Pipeline that ends where promo actually ends
Every generic CRM stops at Closed Won. Promo does not. SIPS adds In Production and Shipping, because the two months after the handshake are where the job gets lost, the client gets nervous, and the reorder gets decided.
Quoting with the margin visible while you type
Cost in, sell out, margin showing live per line and for the whole job. If a decoration setup is quietly eating the job, you see it before the client does, not on the invoice three weeks later.
CommonSKU absorption, no API required
Paste a public share link. The client, contact, line items, images, SKUs, quantities, cost, sell, real margin, decoration detail, artwork, in-hands date and ship-to all land at once. Estimate, sales order and invoice collapse onto one job instead of becoming three records.
Client portal your buyer will actually open
Order status, tracking, artwork approvals and reorders in one branded place. Fewer "hey, any update?" emails. That alone pays for a lot of software.
Production, kitting and warehouse
Proof approvals on the record, task sequences that write a whole follow-up cadence in one click, kitting quantification, and a floor designer for the storage you are probably billing wrong.
Reporting that matches your commission statement
Margin per job, per client, per rep, per month. Built by someone who has argued with a commission statement, which turns out to be excellent product research.
It reads CommonSKU. It does not need CommonSKU.
CommonSKU has no public API for distributor side automation, which is why most shops still retype everything by hand. SIPS goes around the front: it reads the same public share links your team already sends to clients, and absorbs the whole job from them. No special access, no integration fee, no waiting on a roadmap.
If you do not run CommonSKU, none of that matters. SIPS is a complete CRM on its own and it sits happily next to SAGE, ESP, DistributorCentral or whatever else your shop already pays for. Enter jobs by hand, import them in bulk, or paste them in. The CRM does not care where the work came from.
Paste one of your own CommonSKU share links and watch the job land as a CRM deal, line items and margin included. It takes about fifteen seconds.
Nothing is stored. The link and everything read from it are discarded when the page closes, because it is your client’s data and it is none of my business.
Honest comparison
The enterprise promo suites are genuinely good software. They are also priced for a company with a controller. This is the part of the market they leave alone.
| SIPS | Generic CRM | Spreadsheets | Enterprise promo suite | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understands a job, not just a deal | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Margin calculated per line | Yes | No | Sort of, until someone breaks a formula | Yes |
| Decoration, setup and run charges as real fields | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Reads CommonSKU with no API | Yes | No | No | No |
| Stages after Closed Won | Yes | No | If you remember to update it | Yes |
| You can afford it on a one person desk | Yes | Barely | Yes | No |
| Month to month, no enterprise contract | Yes | Annual seat minimums | Yes | No |
It’s built. The question is fit.
SIPS isn’t a someday idea. It’s the software I run my own desk on. So this isn’t a trial you set up alone, it’s a look and a conversation. Kick the tires yourself, then get on it in your own workspace with your data loaded and me on the other end.
Kick the tires
Paste one of your own CommonSKU links and watch the whole job land, no signup, no pitch. It’s the fastest way to judge whether this thing is real.
Then apply to see the full system mapped end to end, the architecture atlas.
Hosted SIPS
Same software, running in your own isolated workspace, kept current, backed up and supported by the person who wrote it. Branded to your shop, with your data loaded.
Month to month, no contract, and if it is not a fit I will say so. For most shops it is a fraction of the stack it replaces, and it replaces the stack.
Built on a desk, not in a boardroom
I am Logan. I sell promo. I still do, every day, which is either the best possible credential for building this or a sign I should have quit while I was ahead.
Every feature in SIPS exists because something went wrong on a real job of mine. The In Production stage exists because I lost track of one. Per line margin exists because I once found a zero margin order after invoicing it. The client portal exists because I got tired of answering "any update?" eleven times a week.
That is the entire product philosophy. I am not guessing at your workflow. I have the same one, and I got annoyed at it first.
Straight answers
What does SIPS stand for?
Stout Intel Promotional Software. It is the one name for the whole platform. If you have heard it called Project SKU or "the Brand and Aid platform," that was the same software wearing an older name tag. Yes, it also sounds like a drinkware pun, and no, that was not an accident I am willing to admit to.
Do I have to use CommonSKU?
No. CommonSKU absorption is the headline feature because it saves the most typing for the most people, but SIPS is a complete CRM on its own. Plenty of shops run on SAGE, ESP, DistributorCentral, or a spreadsheet held together by hope. SIPS sits alongside all of them, and you can enter jobs by hand or import them in bulk.
Is this really cheaper than the big promo suites?
Yes, and the reason is not generosity. I built this for my own desk first, so there is no sales team, no office, and no investor expecting a return on a category that is only so big. You are paying for hosting, updates and support, not for someone else growth plan.
What happens when CommonSKU changes their page layout?
The parser breaks, loudly. That is the honest cost of the no-API approach and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. It is built so a layout change produces a visible failure instead of silently wrong data, and the fix is usually a small update to the parsing rules.
What does it cost, and am I locked into anything?
$250 once to set up and load your workspace, then $99 per user a month. Month to month, no annual contract, and if it turns out it is not a fit I will tell you and we shake hands. For most shops that is a fraction of the tools it replaces, and you are paying for hosting, updates and support, not for someone else growth plan.
How long does it take to get going?
A hosted workspace exists the day you say go. Getting your real clients, jobs and history in is the part that takes actual time, and it depends entirely on what shape your data is in. I will tell you honestly after looking at it rather than quoting you a number now that we both know is made up.
Is my client data safe if you host it?
Every workspace is isolated at the database level, not just by a filter in the application. That distinction matters and most people never ask about it, which is exactly why I am mentioning it.
Who is this not for?
If you do under about a dozen jobs a year, a spreadsheet is genuinely fine and I would rather tell you that than sell you software. If you need deep ERP accounting, inventory financials and multi-entity consolidation, you want one of the enterprise suites. SIPS is for the working distributor desk in between.
Bring me a real job
Not a demo dataset. One of your actual messy ones, with the weird decoration and the in-hands date that should not be possible. That is the only honest way to find out if this fits your shop.