Recommend a simple CRM / online Order Management System?

Hi,

I'm helping a friend with a simple service business. Basically he helps people by being their representative to submit certain type of forms from the clients to a local government entity. He adds value by understanding the process and being able to do it in person for these people since most of them will order this without being in town.

He is getting sales, but the order & fulfillment process leaves some to be desired, which is where I'm helping him. His business is much smaller than what I normally consult for, so my experience in this realm would be overkill for him both cost and tech wise so I'm hoping others would have some ideas beyond my Googling for solutions.

Here's how the process works:

1. Customer sends email to either get more information (sales lead) or with the documentation (ready to order) but usually the documentation is missing 1 piece.
2. Customer is sent a paypal request for $
3. Customer pays said request
4. Application is submitted
5. After X time (usually between a few days to a week or two depending on the lead time) the deliverable is picked up
6. Deliverable to customer is emailed

Currently he is just using a Gmail account but as the business is picking up there are more and more opportunities for something to slip through the cracks. I'm trying to help him find a simple and cheap (or free) solution that would do the following:

1. Customer adds the item to cart
2. Checkout requires upload of the specific documents
3. Once paid order processing begins (customer is notified of status change)
4. Order can be moved to "waiting" phase when it is waiting for application response from government agency
5. Once application has been processed (approved and/or denied) order status is updated, the approval or denial is attached and customer is notified.

Alternative to a cart could be a lead form to CRM with required uploads. The payment request can be sent manually from there, but automating it would be preferred for obvious reasons.

This is a small margin side business so there isn't a lot of room for overhead. Ideally $20/m or less. I have considered shopify but they charge extra for using paypal which would eat into the margin.

Thanks!

submitted by /u/mlepisto
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