Office Tools has streamlined our office, we now only use 1 program where we used to use three.

Everything is in one place. I can track the progress of projects that co workers are doing, so when someone calls and can tell quicker where we are on there return or other accounting service.

Pros

Can add To Do's in program for reminders to do several things. Keep track of appointments easily. Documents are easy to find. Can add notes about clients. Can track status of projects and set due dates. Can send documents out for esignatures securely and its easy for clients to sign and return.

Cons

Wip and A/R balances don't match from end of month to beginning of next month. When adding Wip to invoices, system writes off balance to zero instead of showing profit if billed amount is still over the amount of WIP on bill. Documents for business clients is harder to sort, employees like to have folders.

Great productivity tool but has some issues

It streamlined our business and made every step clear for each team member. The projects flow nicely from one person to next. Especially while we work remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it allows us to work efficiently without missing a beat.

Pros

OfficeTools creators have thought of every aspect of the business and that's what we loved. Any questions that we had "can we do this or can we do that" the answer was yes. You can create projects, assignments, To Do and have it set-up anyway that works for your team. You can use it for marketing emails with groups, etc. Very well designed.

Cons

It has glitches and it takes some time to learn how to use it. For instance, I don't need to use Lacerte, but I had to have it installed so I could use OfficeTools, otherwise, I kept getting error messages. And then, you have to make sure you are logged in to Lacerte every morning or the program won't work properly and the only way you realize that is when you are looking for an assignment or a document and you don't see it - then you inquire from your team and they say "Oh, it's there, I can see it..." then you realize you need to log back in for the software to refresh and show you everything. It doesn't notify you that Lacerte has been logged off. Also, the training module and how it works was a bit confusing for us.

Hard to find any other option that's as simple and powerful.

Great office hub.

Pros

70-80% of the features provided are very easy to use and very intuitive. The navigation getting from task to documents to calendar etc is super easy. You feel like a power user almost right away. Documents and the portal system are easy to use and very intuitive. Same with ToDo's, Calls, and schedules. Instant success. Billing is easy at it's basic level but as you get into options and features it can take some time. A fair trade off for the feature set. Time tracking is available for evey screen in the software so that's great.

Cons

They have an amazing base product. They need to stop shooting them selves in the foot on updates, new feature roll out and customer relations. Examples are: 1. Pacific time support hours only. If your on the east coast and you have a problem in the morning, you get to deal with it until 11am. That's a problem. 2. No user community. Facebook and linked in are not user communities. They need to have a place for users to gather, ask and answer questions, and post information about services and updates so users can be informed. 3. Being proactive when there is a system wide issues. Like every software company, things happen from time to time. I have no problem with that. But when it does there should be an e-mail alert to all users and it should be posted in the user community. I should not have to check face book on the off chance something is posted. 4. Loosen control of system variables. The report function, which is very good, hits strong limits when you can only access certain variables from the system depending on the report type. There is no reason to limit access to variables. Multiple reps from inside the company agree with this and have for years, yet no change. 5. Online helps and training. Office tools has some excellent online videos and resources for using their software. But they tend to not be updated regularly and are hit and miss on what they cover and what they don't. There is little consistency in online help. 6. Out of room!!!

Disappointed

Support - was a joke in year 1 of our contract. It took at least 3-5 days or more for someone to get back to us. One day I got lucky and [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] called me. She is the best asset your company has. She knows how to provide support. I even tracked down someone at the Abacus Next Conference to make sure they knew how valuable she was. Shortly after, [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] had to inform me that I was no longer allowed to email her directly and I had to go through the ticket system. I complied with her request and now I'm back to hating your support. I know we are just a little guy in your eyes. I am the type of person when I love something I tell everyone about it. I also tell everyone when something is not right. I could never refer your product. We will be switching to another product as soon as we can.

Pros

Firm has been using for 4-5 years. It has served us well and we use most of the functionality.

Cons

Lack of technology development. When it was announced there was a QB online integration we were very excited and converted. Our 150 clients are on QBO, however we remain on the desktop version due to Office Tools. We then learned it does not integrate with QBO Accountant. We then had to convert back to QB desktop version as it was our only option. We patiently stuck with Office Tools on the belief that the software would continue to be developed and evolve. At this point we wished we had not signed our last 3 year contract. With the signing of the 3 year contract we were given/comped 3 hours for training. When we went to use them we were told those hours had to be used in the first year - WHICH WAS NOT TOLD TO US. I had our sales rep check into it and the "board" advised the hours were expired. WOW was I shocked. I had never been given something from a company that was complimentary to then not advise me that the hours had to be used in the first year. Who ever made this decision just made our final decision for us. We will NOT be renewing our software when the contract ends. Too many disappointments.

Fine for us, for now

I can't easily get reports I feel I should be able to get. Such as all clients who came to us in 2020. If that is possible I don't know how. I find the training to be less than helpful. I've watched videos, but they frequently don't look like the product I'm using and never seem to be to the point. If I could easily switch to another product I would likely do so. But my information is captured in Office Tools and I can't get it out and don't want to lose it. So I'm stuck.

Pros

The software does a good job of keeping our database of clients and their personal data. We use the Contacts features, Notes, ToDos, Calls and Schedule features. We do not use the other features such as Projects.

Cons

I think it's expensive for the features we use. I think it is better suited to a larger organization who want communication among users who are not in the same office together. I have difficulty getting out letters and distinct lists of information. If you don't do those tasks very frequently you forget the process and it takes too long. As with every database it take constant and I mean constant updating. In the midst of a busy time we do not have the time to keep the database up to date so every few months I have to give a chunk of time to getting it back to rights.