Jonas Enterprise Software

Many thanks to Jonas Management Team and Jonas Support Staff for fantastic adventure at work during past 5 years of using Jonas Software!

Pros

Logical, intuitive software to work with and timely, accurate reports
Actually able to be creative with Design your own report module.

Cons

I find that Help Docs search is not giving the desired outcome. I like better Video Tutorial Section.

Pros

There is nothing about this software that I like.

Cons

Every module has issues and it is obvious that it was not written by an accountant

Pros

Fully integrated software that brings all of our accounting, payroll, and field mobility needs together under one umbrella.

Cons

As with any software, setup, training, and getting to know the in's and out's has been time consuming and, at times, daunting. However, the promise of greater control of our productivity makes the investment of time and resources worth it.

Pros

Jonas provides many modules of an ERP system. The electronic timesheets module is excellent! Remote users can easily enter their time from anywhere they have access to the internet.

Cons

The user interface of the inventory management component is a bit dated. Need to move to web based platform.

Pros

The software gives us all the tools we need to run efficiently with modules for Financial Reports, Payroll, Inventory, Project Management, Subcontracting, and more.
There is plenty of training available both online, by phone, and in person so all questions are answered in a very reasonable time. Comparable products are considerably more expensive and do the same things Jonas does for a far more reasonable price. the value cannot be overstated.
Most importantly, Jonas is one of those companies that truly takes an interest in their clientele and it shows.

Cons

The transition process is intensive so time and dedication is required initially, but once it is done things flow very smoothly.

Pros

Overall the products are pretty accurate in processing data and generate financial reports, most of data can be downloaded in Excel for us to analyze.

Cons

The system should not allow unbalanced JEs to be posted, in addition, it should make it easy to run reports by Dep. IDs

Pros

I have enjoyed working with the VP Business Development, hopefully he will be able to move us forward and enable us to give a better review in the future.

Cons

Many of the screens are not linked for example I had to search an invoice but couldn't jump from that invoice to the Work Order associated with it, I had to go out of the A/R area and then into the Service Billing area. It takes a LONG time to run reports. One report that I need to run twice a month takes 3 hours. We have owned one module for 3 years and have not been able to implement it due to certain set-up items in our system but we have still been charged every year for this module and no one at Jonas has been concerned that we are not using it.

The customer support are amazing and really know their product!!!

Pros

The customer support whenever you have an issue, question or concern is outstanding, when you log a case they get back to you very quickly.

Cons

The system can be a little overwhelming if you do not have some training, but once you have been working with it for awhile (if you have worked with other accounting software) it is very user friendly at least for the general areas of each module. If you search in the tutorials Jonas is quite good at supplies assistance for most of the modules.
Therefore I can not really find a con.

Our company switched software products to Jonas just over 1 year ago. We had outgrown our old system. We've been extremely pleased with both the Jonas software and the Jonas staff we've interacted with. Our company has just over 100 employees in four office locations. This system can handle our multiple divisions without being too complicated or cumbersome to use.

Pros

The primary issue with our last software was an inability to get good reporting and data from the system, especially for our multi-divisional operation. The report writer in Jonas is a very useful tool, and the financial drill-down capabilities are excellent. We also now have real-time job cost data, and more detailed P&Ls, which has helped our ability to manage construction work.

Cons

No software product is perfect. We've had to adapt a few of our internal processes to fit the way Jonas is made to operate, but nothing has come up that we haven't been able to work around. The Jonas trainers are also an excellent resource we've utilized to make the system work as best it can for us.

Jonas is our third ERP software program we have used in 20 years in business. Learned a lot about selection process' by knowing my experiences with the first two. I also learned none of them do everything, all of them will hiccup from time to time. So my selection of Jonas centered around: 1. Is their customer service responsive (yes), 2. Do they constantly try to improve the product based on customer input (yes), 3. Is the product fairly priced (yes). and is the annual fee structure reasonable (yes). We also needed a strong field mobile platform as we have used wireless field mobile solutions for many years. Jonas has worked very well for us, we continue to get training on new modules and features we can use to make our company process/ better.

Pros

Constantly looking for ways to improve a product and they do not wait until year end to release updates if they are ready they release them. Customer service is very responsive if you need immediate help. Training is very high quality, conversion from our old to the new system was without trouble and well planned.

Cons

Dispatch board does not schedule projects or long term service work well (works very well for day to day calls) but they developed a project scheduler that looks promising for that.

We have been live with Jonas for a little over a year. As with ANY software, it isn't perfect and will not suit every need. It is impossible for a software to please everyone as we all run our businesses differently. We shopped several software options, and for our medium size company with a service department, Jonas fit us best. I agree, the reports are very simplistic in format and do take some getting used to. I had to look beyond pretty pictures and format as what is really important to us is the data.

The Pro and Con to Jonas is it is HIGHLY customizable. With that, there needs to be a very thoughtful process to how you set it up in the beginning. Which is a challenge since you won't know how some things work until you are using it. It is a very robust software for the price, in my opinion, and will take patience and time to learn all it can do. I found that the very basics such as entering A/P, work orders, creating jobs are very easy to learn. The complexity comes when you want/expect to rely less on outside software and spreadsheets.

Our company borders two states, one with a multi-jurisdiction sales tax schedule. Every payroll or sales tax requirement Jonas has been able to handle. Jonas is able to handle multi-state, multi union payrolls. Something we found not very many programs could throw in a service department and it became very small unless I wanted to buy a program that equated us to driving a bus down the road for 3 people while spending 6 figures. No thank you.

Pros

My favorite is the Project Control screen. From there, our project managers can drill down and get all the information they need in one quick and easy place. Each person can customize some of the drill down screens to tailor to their individual needs. AIA/progress billing is easy with the step by step menu. It is also easy to go back and adjust if needed. The ability to set controls across the various modules. Your voice is heard. I have always been able to talk thru a challenge with support and management. They listen and if the demand is there they will put it in the next product update.

Cons

The stock payroll reports haven't fit very well for us. But Jonas is working on that. Cluttered menu items that hang in there because their long-time customers still use them. It is confusing when you are first learning.

cumbersome and not very user friendly
reporting is terrible

Pros

complete set of modules

Cons

reporting and user interface and ease of use

Advice to Others

This is not a good product for a small to medium service company that only wants to take advantage of some of the available functionality/features. i think it is better suited for large construction companies.

Use this all the all the time for work. Great product!

went from using multiple programs to using one integrated program that produces a consolidated financial statement, that then allows for drill down into the different income streams for profitability and accountability.

Pros

The company culture that nurtures growth and change to meet the clients changing world.

I like the standard reports that are readily available and the Project Views that allow me to configure data points keeping me tuned in to my progress reporting. What I like more about JONAS is the option to customize reports with its Report Generator, while it has its own limitations it provided me a tool to create my weekly Project Status Review system. This reporting tool in Excel which I called PSR is a view of project status at a point in time. I always wanted to make it in real time. Now that I have DATAMART which we purchased a couple of months ago, my PSR is now live. While it is too early for me to comment more about it I can only imagine a more timely and meaningful management reporting system in the near future.

Likes Best

The main parts of the product work well and there is good integration between the modules.
The Vendor stands behind their product and will work to ensure that the client is satisfied.

Likes Least

Daily reporting from the field is problematic if you do not have dedicated internet access.

Recommendations

The Payroll and G/L are great.
For Job reporting ensure that you will be able to get your data into the system and included in the reports within the timeframe that you want.
The after the fact reporting is great. There can be weaknesses in trying to get accurate daily results if your processes do not mesh with their processing.

Likes Best

A progressive company that melds the accounting systems with the ease of use for those whose primary job is in the filed.

Likes Least

old program functions that haven't been fully removed. This may be because there are still some customers using them, unfortunately it become clutter.

Recommendations

evaluate the easy of use by the field staff, often the office staff's needs are meet at the expense of the field staff. Then your left struggling to get field staff to use the technology properly.

Likes Best

The software is very user friendly and the support is always ready and available to help if needed.

Likes Least

I have had a couple of experiences where Jonas has malfunctioned. I had struggled to figure out the problem and when I contacted Jonas for support they already knew of the problem. Had Jonas contacted their members it could have alleviated some headaches!

Recommendations

There's no problem to small or big for the Jonas support staff. Call to avoid some frustrations, they always have a fix!

Likes Best

The ease of use compared to the previous system that we were using. this also includes the reports and views that we get

Our trainer rocked. the VP's that I have dealt with and a few of the help desk staff - they are very patient

Likes Least

there are too many ways to do things (not necessarily a bad thing except when learning it), I am pretty sure the developers have never used the system as some things are a bit weird.

lack of listening skills

Recommendations

make sure that Jonas understands EVERYTHING that you are looking for in a program and get a trainer that has used the product and takes time to listen and understand your company, work flow and how you wish to use the system.

Likes Best

I love the capabilities and the flexibility of Jonas software. I love being able to e-mail earnings statements to employees and create custom reports in Report Gen.

Likes Least

I wish I could add cost items on the fly when I'm entering an invoice.

Recommendations

Take your time and ask lots of questions! Make sure to take advantage of a demo company and enter as many transactions that you can to cover all areas of your business.