InFocus A Great System

With hundreds of projects and five offices our managers need to stay current on the status of their work and have the tools to develop new proposals. InFocus is indispensable for personnel management and project performance. Plus it provides financial statement and accounting data that is crucial for senior management and independent accountants. The data available and the variety of the reports are limitless. Also, our clients want their invoices and reports in a wide variety of styles. The open structure and adaptability of the InFocus system is a constant marvel at design and intuition.

Pros

Its flexibility, power and data retrieval ability. We have forty-five people in our company, with five office locations and six profit centers (disciplines). Of these forty-five people, more than two thirds are field personnel that are often asked to work in various disciplines or support the work in our other offices. At any one time we have a couple hundred projects open for scores of clients. Keeping track of this is incredibly difficult. We worked with Clearview for a couple of months in order to transfer our existing clients, projects, time records and accounting records to our new system. With over 16,000 historical projects and a current work in process in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, we matched to the penny. Working with them is a pleasure.

Not only is the InFocus package all that it claims to be, the folks at Clearview are great to work with. Sure there is a bit of a learning curve, but the answers are so intuitive you can’t believe you did not think of it yourself. Their support literature, training videos, white papers and support site are extremely helpful.

There may be comparable products out there, but I seriously doubt there is anything better. If there was a better product or solution, these folks would match or exceed it. We all have competition; we need competition to push us to do a better job.

Cons

Getting others in our organization to appreciate and better use this management too.

Accounting and IT Manager

Choosing InFocus is one of the best decision we've made. Training can be a challenge when adopting any new system. Clearview offers extensive training videos, consultations, and webinars. Considering most software products continue to improve and implement client-suggested upgrades, I appreciate Clearview's workshops, where users can continue their InFocus education on advanced levels. Having the opportunity to attend has helped me to really hone in on configuring our InFocus database in ways that are compatible with my company's workflow. I also picked up tips and tricks other users developed for their needs. Customer service is also very important to me. I appreciate responsive, knowledgeable technicians and staff members who listen. They do not over promise, over-sell, or mislead when discussing requests, issues or customization. They believe in empowering their users. I LOVE THIS!! They offer a workshop for those wanting to learn advanced report writing. Support staff will work through any issue or request until it has been satisfied. InFocus demonstrates its value. Invoicing is fast. Communicating project details flow more smoothly. Preparing invoices in various formats are easier. All this and more are offered for a low monthly cost per user. They even offer a training version of our data for a very low monthly fee, and any user can access it. This has been crucial when I'm working through project setup options and need to test my ideas. Overall, I love it.

Pros

It's easy to navigate, more intuitive than other products we've used, and customizable. It's difficult to pick my favorite aspect; it's such a great product overall.

Cons

I wish user's could change the color of the Sandbox (training environment). Having it the same color as the live version can make it a bit confusing when training others.

Functionality at its Finest

Being a newer accountant in the engineering industry, I had a bit to learn about how jobs are billed, tracked, etc. It is definitely a different process than accounting for goods being sold! I came into my job as the implementer of InFocus and learned A LOT simply by learning the system. InFocus is so easy to use and straight forward. If there is something that I don't catch onto right away, the Clearview support team is always ready to help and quickly help resolve the issue. As the years have gone on they have updated the system based on feedback from their clients, which is amazing! The changes they have made make things run more smoothly and it is great to know that they are listening to the needs and desires of their clients. InFocus also has a built-in reports, but also its own report builder tool if the report you need isn't automatically there you can create it yourself! Overall, I would definitely recommend InFocus to anyone looking for new engineering software. The program is easy to learn, easy to maneuver in and provides everything you would need. Even your specific need isn't met you can simply reach out to their support staff and be taken care of. It is a great software, but even better customer service - thank you Clearview team!

Pros

Ease of use, availability of support staff, resolution of issues, suggestion forum Clearview provides

Cons

Export to excel needs manipulated often, if modified the journals will show both versions

Great SAAS accounting solution for an ACEC firm

All accounting software and data is offsite, no servers or data to worry about locally! :)

Pros

* No need to keep software on servers on site. Everything is in the cloud.
* Local client install.
* Easy to use trouble ticket system when there is an issue.
* Since it is cloud based, it is always up to date.

Cons

* Occasional data slow downs which we have no control over because the software is running on Clearview's servers.
* The Microsoft ClickOnce technology used for the local client requires web browser ClickOnce integration which is built into Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers, but doesn't always work well with edge. You can get a ClickOnce plugin for Google Chrome, but it's not a transparent "click the icon on the desktop" scenario there either.
* No hosted SMTP server. If you want to send email, you'll have to utilize your own SMTP server, at an additional cost and there is also a charge if you want Clearview to help you set it up. This is my only real "gripe" about the service. It should come with it's own email capability for the cost and to truly be a service.
* I think it is a great Software As A Service overall, but you should know about the weaknesses going in.

InFocus for engineering firms

Overall, flexible software accommodating engineering firms and great support team to work with.

Pros

Absolutely incredible customer service - a great team of highly skilled professionals providing a quick answer via an open ticket, a walk-thru via Webex or customization via a Work order.

Customization in data presentations, security, permissions, reports. An end user can do a desired customization him/herself or ask the Clearview team to run a script to implement it.

Constant development and training. Workshops, webinars, announcements, updates. Continuous improvement in all InFocus features and options. Clearview team always moves forward to the new advanced ways to use the system, always up to date with technology.

Cons

Whenever and whatever we like least in InFocus, we bring it up to the support team and try to change it to the way it would work out for us or find the best solution for it. In most cases it is all repairable and we get the changes we want to use InFocus more efficiently. InFocus team is open for ideas and suggestions and many improvements we asked for have been already in place and we use them routinely now.

Great SAAS accounting solution for an ACEC firm

It's a more cost-effective option than Deltek Vision. If that's your comparison as an ACEC firm, I'd say go for it! :)

Pros

* Reasonable setup and ongoing price per seat. Monthly billing available.

* Quick and easy setup. We were online within 24 hours and had our data converted from Deltek within 7 business days.

* Great technical support via dedicated user login message board interface. Answers/response are usually taken care of in under 2 hours for non-critical/emergency issues.

* InFocus Custom Reports and Invoice Designs can be created and edited using the SQL Business Intelligence Development Studio 2005 from Microsoft.

Cons

The only real downside so far has been speed of the interface. We had this as an onsite server and response times were awesome with our own dedicated server. I would have hoped that with SaaS that the background horsepower for their servers would be a little better than what it is. Requests take approximately 4x as long to process as when we tested it as a local SQL installation. Please keep in mind that this is a "feels like" statement and not a technically measured out in milliseconds statement.

Clearview is for Everyone!

One benefit I have realized is the ability to make minor edits to Accounting entries without having to go back redo something. The flexibility of this software is unmatched.

Pros

One thing I like most about Infocus are the Gridgits on the dashboard that provide various information all in one place. I also prefer this program because of the flexibility in entering data so there is no more deleting something because you have to make a minor change. Infocus has a variety of reports that are easy to understand that provide a wide array of data. I also appreciate check processing in Infocus for Accounts Payable and Employee Reimbursables because it is very easy to use especially with the recent transaction tab. Timesheets are very easy to enter and approve in Infocus and benefits hours are easy to see for each employee.

Cons

One thing I like least is that some functionality of Infocus is not user-friendly (i.e. having to use F4 instead of Enter). I also would like to see benefit accrual more automated and payroll integration with outside software (i.e. Pensoft) made more seamless for companies that have salary plus employees.

Its a must have for keeping track of your resources.

It's been great experience! We have been working with the Clearview team since 2012, the staff is not only professional in their approach to develop and improve the software but they genuinely care about their clients. We feel that we have had the opportunity to develop a partnering relationship with Clearview's management and staff. This relationship, and using the InFocus tools effectively have allowed us to do a more efficient job at managing our current operations and planning for the future.

Pros

The analytics help me to keep track of multiple data points without spending tons of time reviewing data. With a few clicks of my mouse I am able to see resource utilization in any timeframe I need, department and associate availability at a glance, projects that have budget concerns, I can see how well we are spending against our plans and easily track opportunities/proposal status at a glance. It's help make my job easier.

Cons

We use Project Planning and Resource Scheduler frequently and it works fine but I would like to see more effort go into improving the functionality of its components i.e. Earned Value, Change Order tracking and just having better tools to manipulate the scheduled data.

Clearview Software Review - Infocus

I am extremely happy with Clearview Infocus. They have been amazing in their customer service department and help when I need it with trouble shooting. They have gotten better about adding tutorials and training modules, and even adding in person workshops to help expand my knowledge and learn more about the software. They are always listening to their customers and adding updates to include features their clients want to see.

Pros

I like that the software is able to integrate all aspects of our business, from timesheets to expense reports, invoicing, and bill payment, etc. It is a one stop shop kind of software.

Cons

The hardest part of the software is getting it to generate the reports you want if they are not already built into the system, if you want a custom report do you do need to know some sequel background to run a report. I have also found that it is an extremely powerful tool but I am only scrapping the surface, and if I knew more information it could be even more useful. Adding custom boxes to applets to make it more specific to our business.

Top Notch Product

We are a small architectural firm and opted to change to Clearview InFocus when the program we were using was getting too complicated and too expensive. InFocus met our needs in all our required billing, project tracking, etc., but for a smaller investment. I would highly recommend this product to anyone who wants a workhorse software. I can't say enough about it.

Pros

I like the ease of transition from one software to another. It is a very easy software to learn and use. I have been using since 2010, and it has progressively gotten better and better. New features are always coming on board. Trust met...you will like it!

Cons

Reports are good but I required a great deal of customization to get the results needed. The one downside is that it does not have a payroll application. If you do in-house payroll, you will need a separate software to run along side InFocus.