The amount of information this product can provide has been a powerful tool for our firm. It has significantly reduced the amount of time it takes to setup new clients because we have been able to reduce the amount of software our company uses. It also is a time saving tool with the automatic email and text appointment reminders.

We love that is a one stop shop for all of our practice management needs. We have been able to reduce the number of programs our company uses because of this. The software is also incredibly easy to navigate. The team at OfficeTools is great if we ever have an issue that we can not resolve ourselves or with the online support.

The only con we have found with this software is with some of the reports we want to see, it doesn't appear the program can produce. Luckily, there are workarounds for this.

This tool helps me to keep my daily accounting and numbers data practice run on time with so many different features like Clients time tracking, scheduling, processing signatures, mass data sharing, and easily get control on data sharing. In long term it helps us to show that where we are standing when seeing our tax returns at the end of year. Also have a good metrics in terms of dollars of where and how we are spending every day.

Lots of functions are not used by our company. So they should give an option to the company of what tools will be used based on that payment should be decided. - Canon Scanners (We don't use canon scanners) - Portal not the way we want to organize it or modify it

It taught me not to believe the features you read on websites.

The days it works without data loss or speed issues. More often than not, it is extremely slow and non-responsive. We have an amazing cloud environment with more than adequate resources for this basic application. Office Tools is the only program that is slow or non-responsive on a daily basis.

There are many many little glitches that we have not brought to supports attention because we were told by your support team: "glitches must have been previously identified to exist". Your engineers told my IT consultant that we were not using the software properly, which resulted in the DATA LOSS we were experiencing. This is complete crap, as I witnessed the issue with my own eyes and know that Office Tools has a critical engineering issue that can result in lost data. I have also experienced the data loss issue across two separate companies (and IT environments) and have experienced this issue as far back as 2014. But that's not important, right? The ABOVE MENTIONED ISSUE IS PROJECT ASSIGNMENTS CAN REVERT TO PREVIOUSLY ASSIGNED ASSIGNMENT WITHOUT ANY PROOF THE NEW ASSIGNMENT WAS EVER CREATED. THE PROFILE SYNC DOESN'T WORK. THE CEO ACKNOWLEDGED THIS AS A KNOWN ISSUE YET THE COMPANY IS STILL SELLING IT AS IF IT WORKS. ACCOUNTS WITH THE SAME PRIMARY CONTACT MAY HAVE THEIR FILE NAME CHANGED BY OFFICE TOOLS WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO CHANGE IT BACK TO THE PROPER NAME. THE SIN (CANADA) NUMBER DOESNT SHOW PERIODICALLY UNLESS YOU HIT THE EDIT BUTTON, THEN IT MAGICALLY APPEARS. Overall the software is not reliable and the company culture is disappointing. I brought the data integrity issue to the CEO and he brushed it off as a non issue, despite it being mission critical for his customers. Never will we recommend this software to anyone. It sounds better than it is.

keeping everything straight. with so many clients and "projects" its imperative to know where everything stands. who has it, whats being done, whats missing, etc. having the documents in the system attached to everything (be it a meeting, a call a project) is a huge positive.

Everything you need to know about any client, contact, etc. is all in one place. whether it be an email, a phone message, document, meeting notes, client files, projects, time and billing. we can research anything and find anything on them. one stop shopping.

Much easier for billing purposes, tracking projects and allowed us to reduce the number of software products used in a day.

Quick and easy entering new contacts. Many ways to classify and group contacts. I'm also a big fan of the "bill to contact" feature. It's easy to focus on the clients you need to contact.

Only one email can be utilized per contact. Not easily managed when contact name has to change and they often do in cases of marriage, divorce, death of one of a couple or sale of company etc.

Trying to get answers to specific questions is futile. There is no attempt to identify a problem. They are dismissive if they have never seen it before . As you show them, on your screen, what the problem is and ask for a solution you get - "you need the newest update, that will get rid of the problem" or "it is your fault" or my personal favourite - "that doesn't happen" as they watch it happening on the screen.

Love the time feature. It is easy to record the time you spend on a file. You can have multiple timers going to track clients that you have stopped working on while you answer the phone, or wait for info from them. Our billings went up 20 % immediately because we were keeping track of our time better. The project management is great as long as everyone is vigilant about tracking their files. It is a constant challenge to get employees to record the movement of a project but constant vigilance and discussion gets the point across to new staff quickly.

There is no follow up on queries, compliments or complaints. They only call if they want to sell you more. It could be a great product if the customer service was there. Someone that will look at the problems and discuss possible solutions or a work around. But that doesn't happen so thank you Capterra for giving us alternatives to look into.

Great office hub.

70-80% of the features provided are very easy to use and very intuitive. The navigation getting from task to documents to calendar etc is super easy. You feel like a power user almost right away. Documents and the portal system are easy to use and very intuitive. Same with ToDo's, Calls, and schedules. Instant success. Billing is easy at it's basic level but as you get into options and features it can take some time. A fair trade off for the feature set. Time tracking is available for evey screen in the software so that's great.

They have an amazing base product. They need to stop shooting them selves in the foot on updates, new feature roll out and customer relations. Examples are: 1. Pacific time support hours only. If your on the east coast and you have a problem in the morning, you get to deal with it until 11am. That's a problem. 2. No user community. Facebook and linked in are not user communities. They need to have a place for users to gather, ask and answer questions, and post information about services and updates so users can be informed. 3. Being proactive when there is a system wide issues. Like every software company, things happen from time to time. I have no problem with that. But when it does there should be an e-mail alert to all users and it should be posted in the user community. I should not have to check face book on the off chance something is posted. 4. Loosen control of system variables. The report function, which is very good, hits strong limits when you can only access certain variables from the system depending on the report type. There is no reason to limit access to variables. Multiple reps from inside the company agree with this and have for years, yet no change. 5. Online helps and training. Office tools has some excellent online videos and resources for using their software. But they tend to not be updated regularly and are hit and miss on what they cover and what they don't. There is little consistency in online help. 6. Out of room!!!

Having all my firms client info in one place. Being able to track projects through the office.

I like having everything tied together, having all a single client's info in one place, being able to link related clients, have all notes in one place, etc.

There are some bugs, it's also a very hefty program so it sometimes runs slow on our aging server. Also it's pretty complex to learn and some features are counterintuitive.

I think the interactivity of this program makes it a winner and puts it at the forefront of innovating in its industry.

All client information is available to each member of the team, and viewing the progress of the tasks being completed is very easy. In a virtual environment it has become more important to be able to monitor one another on a team without “micromanaging” and constantly having status meetings, so this is fabulous.

Sometimes the video tutorials are a bit confusing, so I prefer speaking to someone through the phone support. Reading the articles isn’t as self explanatory as it is made out to be, but this can be different based on who is using this software.

Excellent -- we rely on it to keep our systems working. It offers a lot of functionality including communication among the office and ease of retrieving prior information.

We appreciate the ability to have one software that provides so much utility -- Contact info, Notes, Documents, Projects, Calls, etc

There is a learning curve on how to use the software fully. And the reports are a bit difficult to decipher.

Terrible all around - would not recommend to anyone.

Office Tools was very good at client tracking, recording activities and histories.

There is no project management and their customer service is by far the worst I've ever been in contact with. Our renewal was up in 45 days and I sent them an email to let them know that we had fewer employees now and needed fewer licenses. They said I needed to send them notice via certified mail 60 days before my renewal date and they went ahead and renewed us at our higher seat count for another year. I tried calling and emailing to no avail - buyer beware!

It has all in one capabilities such as client management, time tracking, billing and payment, reports, scheduling, and document storage. The platform layout is clean and user friendly. The learning curve to its features is low to mid-range which can be credited to it's design functionality. It does utilize some integrations well such as the Dymo label printer and Drop Folders. Overall, calls to Customer Support have been adequate with at least 90% problem resolution. I do have to knock the Customer Support to 2 stars because they do not have any early morning east coast support hours. If I have an issue with Office Tools I have to wait 4 hours to reach anybody on the phone. Half of my day is now gone.

Communication from Office Tools to its software owners is horrible. Known disruptions in services was communicated after the fact. Software updates are non-existent. As of this review, 10/19/17, there has only been 1 public release update to the software in all of 2017 (v2017.019) and that was in January. That is unacceptable. The Contact Screen has a narrow scope in what it allows for user input. I believe there are only 5 open variable fields that we can alter to collect data specific to our practice. The rest of it is dead white space underneath of it. Software only allows one taxpayer's information to be displayed on the main Contacts screen with the spouse relegated to a "More Contacts" tab. It is more efficient to have all contacts displayed on one screen. Client portal only allows for 1 contact email address. The portal is not a responsive web design and certainly not friendly to mobile devices. There are buttons in the portal that are only seen when scrolled over (Pay Now buttons on invoice tab). Payments made via a portal invoice do not sync down to the billing screen. Downloading multiple documents from the portal is inefficient. There is no "Download All" button. E-signing process is convoluted to the signer and has bugs which have not been fixed. Form letters do not give you access to all collected data variables. No user community to introduce or vote on feature requests. LinkedIn or Facebook aren't the solution.

Not happy at all, would not recommend.

Intergration with other applications like quickbooks

To complicated to run, not user friendly at all. Poor support.

We use Office Tools for our companies billing, tracking time, tracking our projects for our clients and for our scheduling appointments with clients. We have used this product for nearly 14 years and it helps our office run smoothly. We have access to each others schedules and daily tasks. Everything is right at our fingertips.

I really love that it is user friendly. It really helps keep me on track with my tasks with all the projects that have been assigned to me and when it was assigned. It really helps me not forget about projects. I love all the available reports that you can print. There are reports to help track or Work in process and reconcile our billing and many many more.

There is not any thing really in particular right now that I would say I least like about the software. I find that if I have an issue with the software I can call technical support and they are always very helpful.

Overall, I've been very satisfied with Office Tools. In the past, I was a member of the firm that developed its own computer-based time and billing system. Office Tools offers all the recording and analysis tools we strove to provide in our package and integrates nicely with document management and contact management.

Office Tools provides all the elements required to manage my small accounting practice. Contact management, document management, time, billing & collection are seamlessly interfaced. The Office Tools modules that I do not use do not interfere with the use of the elements that I do use.

it is difficult to find something to dislike about Office Tools. It is sometimes difficult to find where, in the program, adjustments to certain settings should be made. Also, occasionally, it seems that updates are promulgated, of which I do not received notice.

I like OfficeTools and will continue using it. I wish they would work on some issues and make it more user friendly.

I like that it works with QuickBooks and Lacerte. I like the reports that it offers in order to track performance and efficiency.

I am not happy with customer service. We I have a problem or issue it takes days and sometimes over a week to return my call. I wish it was more user friendly. It can do a lot but it is difficult to figure it out. I would love to use the Pay Now feature but it locks the invoice and you can't add or delete time to it.

Originally used Cloud9 to host all applications, AbacusNext bought Cloud9 and pushed to have users move to APC Cloud. Horrible experience - see reviews for AbacusNext. Also used OfficeTools which was purchased in 2017 by AbacusNext. AbacusNext would not let me renew my OfficeTools licenses because I no longer hosted my other apps on APC Cloud, even though I moved away from AbacusNext legally and ethically. They held me hostage as Abacus gave no prior notice that they would not renew my OfficeTools license. Ended up without a practice management software for 3 months while I searched for and implemented a new one.

It's a great practice management software for small accounting firms; workflows, reminders, time & expense all good

When AbacusNext bought out OfficeTools the culture and professionalism went down the toilet.

For the most part we are pleased with the functionality of Office Tools. The help sections needs to have a few more topics that it will help with.

It makes organizing files very easy. There are money sort options to choose from when searching for documents. The time tracker is really useful when working on large accounts.

It does not require an account to have a designated number. It stores information by the name on the account. If there is ever a name change, (such as with a marriage or divorce) all documents assigned to the original name disappear. Also in the billing feature, there is no report that you can run that will let you search by a specific invoice number.

I don't recommend them. Poor customer service, no resolution to issues.

In the beginning, this software was great. Great user-friendly product, had some shortcomings with projects and tasks, but it was workable.

It has some major glitches they take no responsibility for. We lost like a hundred clients' information. All documents. Office Tools blamed it on us. They said that we had used all caps for the names of the clients, (which they never advised us on) and that had caused the software to malfunction. Customer service and management made no effort to correct the situation. They just wiped their hands clean by saying it was out mistake.

Overall experience has beeen great! We are learning new things every day that we can accomplish with Office Tools and it’s been very beneficial to our growing accounting firm.

It does everything from scheduling, time tracking, document organization to project management. All of our clients information is together in once place and every one in our office has access to it. I can see who has worked on which projects, for how long and when they’ve been completed. It also tracks our invoicing and will sync emails to each clients document folder which is super helpful!

Access to all of the features can be modified for each employee, however changing it to allow access isn’t very clear and doesn’t give detail on what it allows them access to. Overall great software!

I had a very positive experience with Office Tools. It was very easy to use and could store a lot of data. Opening, copying, and saving documents was also very efficient

I liked how user friendly the software was. It was easy to store and save data as well as track workflows.

Creating workflows wasn't very intuitive

Not the best experience but could be worse.

This software has all the vital functions you would expect. Invoicing, Billing, Project Management, File Storage

This software is constantly freezing and giving error messages.

It was initially great integrating one CRM database between QB/Lacerte. Recent updates has caused the office staff to update multiple databases which increased error rates of different client information in OTPS and QB and Lacerte. Prior to the update we would update one database.

The database it creates and the custom project tracking for accountants and tax offices

Customer support and the ballooning cost year over year. The more I pay the quality of the support goes down as well as the ability/reliability to synch with other software

What I love about this suite is that it includes a bunch of software that you would typically need for billing, invoicing, tax, etc., and provides them in a nice one-stop-shop package. All offerings are well integrated with each other and handle simple to complex scenarios. My most used and I think their best feature is their invoicing. Very easy to customize, apply markup, and set up for an ad-hoc or a reoccurring subscription.

If you are only planning on using the basic functionality, then you will get a big sticker shock. This product is very expensive, especially for a small business. Also, make sure you set a reminder before renewals. They add you to auto-renewals without specifically notifying you.

We use OT the most for billing clients. It does a great job tracking employee hours and allowing the flexibility to change bills.

The favorite thing about Office Tools is the to-do list. It helps keep me on task and remembers the important tasks that I need to be sure to remember.

The letter writing function is difficult and time consuming. What you see in the letter screen is not always the same format that is printed. It takes a lot of time to save any changes that you make.