Features and Functions

It is great to be able to connect and view other employee schedules, as well as client information that is pertinent to my job requirements. I love being able to schedule and adjust appointments for clients as well as being able to update programs and target goals for a client so that my team can know what we need to work on and focus on while they are with a client.

Pros

There are a lot of available features to Central Reach, some of which I have tried using and they are for the most part straightforward and easy to figure out. Within my company, we seem to use a smaller subset of the available features that Central Reach offers, though these are the bulk of what we need and utilize within the ABA services of the company, such as the sessions, data collection, program books, and graphs of the data collected during sessions.

Cons

There seem to be a number of functions that aren't accessible to everyone, which is fine as I may not need to utilize it for my own job. I would like to have the opportunity to play around with some of the functions for instance in the reporting tab to see some of the charts and graphs in there and to see how they could relate to my own job areas. I do realize though that this would be something my company may need to provide access to.

CentralReach

Overall my experience has been pretty good with CentralReach but I have had some hiccups that have a driven me crazy.

Pros

I like how easy it is to take data on each client and how easy it is to add a new goal. I feel like all school systems should use a program like this to have their special education teachers take data and allow the para professionals that are in those special education classrooms to take data easier and more streamlined I feel like all school systems should use a program like this to have their special education teachers take data and allow the paraprofessionals that are in those special education classrooms to take data easier and more streamlined.

Cons

when running a therapy session with my client in Home I use my cell phone to login via the Internet and I have to keep logging in several times over the course of the therapy session that last for several hours and feels like the software runs really slow and doesn’t always add my data. I recently had to log out and log back in several times for it to even begin to register that I was trying to take data and the session wouldn’t load properly. Seems like there are a lot of online app technical difficulties while using the program on the Internet via a Mobile device. I have also had issues with the program being able to load my session notes section properly on Saturdays. Very frustrating that on Firefox on a Mac session notes works most of the time but on a PC trying to Do session notes there’s a lot of difficulty with drop-down boxes not being activated when I know they should be and this happens frequently on a Saturday.

Great for billing, terrible for accounting

Overall this software is a mess from an accounting perspective. Reporting is seldom consistent and it is incredibly difficult to tie out Central Reach to an accounting system like Quickbooks that it cannot integrate with directly. Central Reach is great for billing from what I understand but if you plan to implement this software please be prepared for your accounting team to face challenges with using it.

Pros

This software is great and flexible with client billing in my experience. There are many modules and options to customize the CRM aspects of Central Reach

Cons

Dealing with Central Reach as an accountant is an atrocious experience. Two people running the same revenue or AR reports can show different numbers, and the live accounting system means that running a report on 7/15 for data ranging from 1/1 through 6/30 for example would actually provide data through the exact time you are running it, meaning 7/15. If you want a report showing data only through a certain date you will need to run the report on that exact date but the issue for larger organizations means that RBTs and other employees will have unconverted appointments which throw off the reports.

The ideal solution for ABA providers

I’m constantly impressed with Central Reach’s comprehensiveness, incredible customer services, and constant development. We’ve been using them since they first arrived on the ABA business management scene and it’s been incredible to watch the thoughtfulness in which they’ve grown and developed into a system that can handle HR, Scheduling, Billing, Data Collection, Client management, File Management, and Analytics, and have ambitious plans to also tackle needs with curriculum and more. They really are the one stop shop for the core business needs of an ABA practice.

Pros

I love that Central Reach has an emphasis on ABA providers and is constantly updating and developing to find technology solutions to a whole wide range of challenges as they arise in our industry.

Cons

The product is extremely comprehensive, and with that comes complexities. We learn something new about it every week, and we’ve been using it for years.

Central Reach Review

I am in the Human Resources department and use CR for onboarding employees and maintaining employee files. I also help connect employees and clients within the company and help assign service codes. It works well for everything I need to complete for my tasks.

Pros

It is very easy to use and great for ABA companies. We used it at my last employer and we use it at my current employer. I am still learning new functions within Central Reach. Maintaining employee documents is easy due to the document management report.

Cons

I wish there was an easier way to delete documents that are uploaded by accident and locked. Being HR, it can create issues when documents are locked and need to be renamed.