OfficeTools Software

Pros

It helps a lot with client management, time tracking, scheduling and reporting, and billing and invoicing. I like that it shows me my tasks and the status of them. The calendar is also linked with all the users to make scheduling very effective.

Cons

The system is not user friendly and requires quite a bit of training. However, training costs even more money. The customer support is almost impossible to get in touch with making the system very difficult to use.

Pros

This is a business management and professional services solution for accounting firms and other practices. It can help with client management, project management, time tracking, billing and invoicing, scheduling and reporting. It helps seeing what tasks I have on and what the status is of them. The calendar is very useful as all users can keep track.

Cons

You will need training for the system and there is a cost for this. I struggle to get in touch with the support team and so it make's using the system difficult at times.

Pros

I like the recurring invoice feature and that I can find documents easily. It doesn't alter your files the way eFileCabinet does and so if you want to change software, no exporting is necessary. I also like that it syncs with Lacerte, QuickBooks and Outlook.

Cons

It is very difficult to figure out on your own. You have to pay for training and there are not enough online resources to figure out how to change settings yourself. Since the middle of 2017 support does a terrible job of returning your call or email. You will have a very long hold time. I left a message to schedule training (which I will have to pay for) and they never returned my call. Though most of their clients are CPAs they took presidents day as a holiday, even though it is tax season. I have an immediate need but will have to wait until tomorrow to even get an appointment to get on the schedule.

Pros

Easy to use and pleasant interface - enjoy having billing, projects, time, and calendar tracking in the same place

Cons

Cannot use on hosted environment other than cloud9 (which is awful)
Price increases over 50% after purchased by Abacus
Several limitations in more complex functions

Pros

It has time keeping, customer data and billing most of what one would require using a management software.

Cons

Technical support is most times hard to reach which can be a bit frustrating but that's the only issue I've had so far.

Pros

I like that there are so many different features and functions available within Office Tools. It is very user friendly once you figure out what you need to do and how it needs to be done.

Cons

The numerous features are hard to figure out and not readily apparent unless you're told about them in a tutorial or by a coworker, etc. It's not very easy to just play around with and figure things out.

It does the job but the company that purchased and currently manages the software has turned it into a commodity. There's better options out there with better service, support, and pricing.

Pros

It has most of the features one might look for in a practice management software. Time keeping, billing, and customer data.

Cons

Pricing triples out of the blue, customer sales and service is worse that dealing with the IRS, Tech support is typically unavailable, and a lot of quirks with how it reacts with other programs on your computer. Time for us to move on to something else.

Pros

Time tracking, client notes, database management, scheduling, and reports used to track productivity. I also like how the portal syncs up to client document folders. I also like the recurring billing feature which allows you to automatically bill time on a recurring basis.

Cons

Difficulty to learn. Training is expensive and hard to get certain times of the year. Now that Abacus is the owner of Office Tools, I feel that customers are dealt with in more of an adversarial way. They are likely going to drive me away as a result.

Client info, notes and documents are all in one place.

Pros

It keeps Client info, notes and documents all in one place. It will keep permanent notes on clients plus

Cons

The dashboard is visually overwhelming. It is really hard to see what you need to do at a glance. Way to many places to enter dates for a project. Overall it is cumbersome to use. Plus you charge us to have people help us understand the overly complicated program.

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

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

track my staff, track my workload

Pros

Staff time linked spent linked to the projects they are working on. This way I can analysis the best use of my staff time. This tracks their hours, which I use to pay them.

Cons

it seems expensive for a small accounting firm like mine, however, other programs have way too many options that I would not use and a much larger price tag.

The ability to keep track of clients and where their files are and how the projects are progressing.

Pros

This is the best program that I have seen to keep track of billing, projects, client calls, to do lists, and much more. Everything is easily found and gotten to.

Pros

The office tools software package has a great document folder system and an excellent time billing program.

Cons

The project and workflow is a bit overwhelming. I went to two seminars and used a few hours of support and still cannot implement the use of programs. It might be due to the high volume of small projects that my firm has.

Pros

The organization is what I like the best about the software . It makes things simple and you know as long as you use it nothing will be forgotten .

Cons

the learning curve . Navigating the system and learning what it can and cannot do is sometimes frustrating but with time this will be quelled .

Document/contact management

Pros

Good Product. OTP good service - but only on West Coast Time - need to expand hours . Staff, particuliary Mike G and Jarred F, are great to work with.

Cons

Company bought by Abacus 5/31/17. Sales now handled by Abacus. They want a 3 yr contract!! No upgrades of any kind since Abacus - but price increase and they want a 3 yr contract. Seem to be pricing themselves out of market for small firms. First comments were that I should just pay the increase because of the buyout. I think they should improve my value before raising prices! Three year contract is not competitive!
Like the new weekly training classes, hope they will keep these archieved so we can use them for staff training

Pros

We bought the Program because it interfaces with QuickBooks and had a scheduling program. I gave customer support the best rating bc they are lovely and patient when you talk to them. The employees really are your best asset.

Cons

The software has had several technical problems. It doesn't seem to easily showed budgeted time for scheduling purposes like we thought. It doesn't sync with QuickBooks easily (invoices show up skewed). There are so many boxes to click and items to fill out that it makes entering information time intensive. And some of those items really don't do anything (click the Extension box on a project, but there is no Extension report to show who you have on extension as an example). Crystal reports are clunky to work with. I gave training a higher score because they are lovely, patient and informative, but an issue we have with training is sometimes the trainer will tell us to do "x" but doesn't explain how that will effect "xy&z" down the road. I really wanted the software to work well for us but it really has been difficult.

The scheduling and the to do list is great.

Pros

The "scheduling" and the "to do" functions are great. Customer service is helpful in assisting with questions.

Cons

The software is not easy to figure out on your own and although I am sure there are a number of things within the software that are ideal to use, it is not user-friendly.

Pros

Time allocation by customer very detailed easy to purchase. Support was good and efficient with menu options

Cons

You need someone on a full time basis just to manage this software. It defeats the cost. saving and any kind of efficiency

Pros

OTP is very easy to use. There are a variety of reports available and the customer service is exceptional.

Cons

If you are itemizing a bill, there is no way to line it up. You have to export to word and do it that way.

billing and time tracking, easily tracking phone calls

Pros

the billing and tracking features are very useful. logging phone calls is a very useful feature. support team is very nice. support legitimately wanted to help and resolve issues.

Cons

implementing the software, working out bugs, still are bugs in the program which slow down use and entering info