SmartVault 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

It makes it easier for me to search for documents, and it also improves my agility in my work

After the initial learning curve, it worked fine. It's a secure and efficient way to exchange and store client documents. The only reason why I didn't renew it is that the plan I was using was discontinued and I was put in a plan that had a minimum of 2 users. I was going to start paying 3 times more than the previous year's fee. They did some improvements but I didn't need those.

Overall, I would say that smartvault was helpful in being able to keep everything I needed for information and organization all in one place.

I attended a seminar with well-know tax attorney. I've attended many of his CPE seminars and I decided to give it a try because that's what I have been looking for. I'm a one-man CPA practice, specializing in tax matters. I figure that this system could save me time and facilitate several functions with my clients, just as they advertised using the testimony of the attorney. The problem is the implementation of the software. The onboarding training for me was horrible. The coach assigned to me for 6 or 7 1-hour sessions of training was clueless. At times, he would spend the entire hour figuring out how to do things in the software and calling other people. They don't give you some kind of a user manual for quick reference. Instead, they have a knowledge-based library on their website to answer questions, but it's not organized in an intuitive manner. After I went through the entire 7 sessions, I was lost. I'm a CPA, but I've always loved computers. I built my own computers. I sought more assistance, but it was like a piecemeal approach and I had a list of significant issues that had not been resolved. That's when I had to reevaluate the value of having such software. I asked myself these couple of questions: Is the software really going to save me time in my practice? Are my clients going to be able to learn how to access their vault and be able to learn DocuSign and other features of the software? The answer to both was "NO." In order to make this software operational, each firm would have to have a person dedicated to handling the software and interacting with clients on a full-time basis. The cost is also a bit ridiculous because I only needed one license, but they make you buy two licenses. They lure new clients with their presentation, which is impressive, and use well-known tax professionals to advertise the software, but it is a big disappointment when you dive into it. I was able to achieve the same results by using the software I had been using for years to manage documents (Filecenter) and Google Workspace, at a fraction of the cost of SmartVault. Another problem they have is the amazing turnover of employees. I had to go through 2 or 3 people who were going to be my onboarding coach before finally ending up with the one that was clueless and a waste of time and money. I should have read some reviews about the software before getting into it. Also, when I called them to let them know I was not going to renew this software, they practically didn't care that much or even ask me what had happened.

Even though I have had issues with the software and it does not meet all of my needs I likely would have renewed had they honored the agreement made when I signed up. You are required to have a minimum of 2 licenses and the agent I worked with was able to waive that requirement and I agreed to use the software as opposed to going with a different provider. They have now decided to unilaterally enforce the 2 licenses even though I was told my pricing would be locked in as long as I remained a customer. So due to the price, because it does not contain premium features, and the lack of integrity I would not recommend this software to anyone.

SmartVault is well intentioned, but misses the mark. The program has the following issues: - Slow. The connected desktop takes painstakingly long to refresh when looking for client data. And when you sometimes have to cross-reference info, it can be very annoying. - Expensive. When we first purchased smartvault, we went with the basic plan. 2 years later they discontinued the plan, and we were forced to spend 1.5x as much for widgets and features that we still don't use. Since we had JUST moved all our clients to that portal it seemed like it'd be a mistake to have to move them to another program immediately. It almost felt like extortion. - Although we've been using smartvault only for about 5 years, they've already changed the layout and look for the online portal several times. I see something completely different than certain coworkers and clients. It's almost as if they only got halfway with this cosmetic transition, then got distracted by other things like a neurotic puppy. - Their support is hit or miss. However, when it's a miss, its a dangerous miss. We had an issue where we couldn't access a clients file. Tech supports solution? Delete everything in the file. They didn't ask before they did this. This included efile forms and copies of returns, now making us non-compliant with the IRS. For an accounting tool, this is a big deal. - Constant glitches. I keep local copies of excel files because I do not trust SmartVault to keep live files safe. Which completely defeats the purpose of a program like this. There are a myriad of other issues. There are positive things about smartvault, but none of which justify the price. If they made a desktop, non-portal version of the program that simply integrates with Lacerte like DMS use to do it'd be much better. But then they couldn't gouge you for all your worth every year on a subscription model, so they wont do that.

Overall, SmartVault provided me a simplified and secure way to store, transfer, and manage documents in a way that felt intuitive and convenient. The shortcut feature was also particularly handy in navigating my folders.

A very useful platform for accessing documents that are not at hand and very secure because each document saved in the cloud will be well protected.

somewhat disappointed since it was not very easy to communicate with clients.

SmartVault helps me organize, store, and protect all my sales and customer documents in one place. This allows my team to access the information they need quickly, increasing our productivity.