At a glance, my team can visually understand we are in a monthly close. It is a low cost way to host account reconciliations in the cloud for our auditors to access 24/7. The automatic account reconciliation process is the way of way of the future and I highly recommend researching this solution for your accounting department. My accounting department really likes this solution.

It speeds up our internal process to approve and process electronic account reconciliations with an audit trail that is easy to follow.

We did not start looking at using this service earlier.

paperless, Central location for all recon's. Although we don't use the tool in the capacity it can be used, we like how the top page gives us uniformity. We have saved time by giving our internal auditors log in's to retrieve what they want instead of the accounting team making copies or sending emails.

I like the tasks portion. Although we currently use it to track our journal entries, I see it as a great monthend check list. We have two companies, one on each side of the country and we both use the tool for recon's. It is a great way for the east coast to see the recon's for the west coast without having to travel. Out internal and external auditors have all the recon's at their finger tips along with the sign off trail.

We need a way to have the preparer "take back" there recon after they submit but before it's reviewed. The instructions can be a little more detailed. We like to read and do ourselves. Helpful tips should be on the site.

Have not had a feature that stood out as something that is likeable other than it is a tool that appears to work.

1) It can't or doesn't remember your log-in ID so you have to type it in each time. Other programs will at least remember it and only the password is needs to be entered. 2) User's can load another month's recon until the prior month is reviewed/approved. Becomes a roadblock to processing and workflow as recon may be okay but reviewer just has not gotten to it. 3) Multiple step process to save and then submit a recon. If not aware of proper steps, then recon is identified as not being done when it is. If "submit" is clicked it should be the 1 and only step. 4) Should be able to see past comments without having to go to the particular month for the reviewer to see history of review notes on particular account 5) Not intuitive on the some of the functionality to get reports out 6) Going back to undo a step, e.g. take back an approval, sends it back to preparer rather than putting it in the "to be reviewed' stage. It was approved once and maybe it is just the reviewer that wants to make a change to the review note but it goes back to preparer it seemed from the occasional times this was done.

We definitely use a lot less paper as documents are attached electronically which means less paper storage is needed. It is also convenient for our auditors since they can log in and review. For me, this is a faster and easier than before the conversion to ART, but part of it is because our managers seem to expect less support to be attached than I previously printed. In addition, several accounts that I have to reconcile can be grouped together and supported with perhaps one document. That saves a lot of time, not having to access each individual account and attach support.

I don't find this software to be very intuitive. I've used it each quarter for a few years and every quarter I need to refresh my memory on how it works. It seems like there are too many areas to drill into in order to complete and too many sign-offs. Sometimes there's no change in an account balance yet management wants a current document attached and these can be easily overlooked since they aren't flagged as needing to be reconciled.

It's like that older but reliable car, it starts up everyday and gets you from point A to point B but doesn't have all the flashy bells and whistles.

Simple, nothing complex, ability to update frequency of recon, good basic documentation for any newbie to figure out, few errors/issues/down times

Recon view is not user friendly or easy or easy on the eyes. It would be nice if it was easy to see any variance and explanation right at first glance and know where to go to view a document. The ability to customize a report, no great out of the box reports. It would be nice to have the ability to deactivate/remove accounts (rather than just set to not reconcile), just in case they were imported incorrectly to begin with.

From an Internal Audit perspective, ART works well as an archive facility.

Ease of Use. Setup was a bit challenging in terms of the re-occurring / auto-reversing transactions that are necessary.

The ad-hoc reporting is a bit primitive / not as sophisticated as needed. Unable to traverse across fiscal periods for reporting. Hyperlink functionality between tasks would be welcomed and would assist in our productivity.

Our experience has been great. Customer service is responsive, and the improvements made are helpful.

The software is easy to use and administer. We use the reconcilations and the tasks all across our accounting departments

At times the system is slow. It slows down our close process when the processing time is long.

We use ART to manage our monthly, quarterly, and annual closing processes. As a Regulatory user, my function is to reconcile the many GL expense and revenue accounts I touch through-out the month. I find my recon processes are so easy to manage and track using ART. I have the ability to attach permanent or temporary support documents and make several reconciliation decisions (eg. reverse at close) with each entry. ART clearly shows me the variance from month to month that I need to address and gives me the GL balance I'm reconciling to.

Since I am simply a user and do not get involved with the deeper features of the program such as account set-up, defaults, approval trees, etc. I don't know what might be helpful in those areas. As a monthly user, I find the program easy to use to submit my reconciliation documents and comments and I am able to keep my revenue and expense accounts clean and balanced.

Overall, as an auditor, the tool is an awesome enhancement for my purposes.

I like that I am able to go into ART and pull information in relation to reconciliations without having to bother staff for the information. ART allows for attachments to support the reconciliations and that support is critical to my auditing.

There are multiple areas where attachments can be added. As such, I have to be careful to look at all areas to make sure I have all pertinent attachments.

Great platform to organize reconciliations. Lots of helpful filters and notifications.

The task module is hard to navigate and I wouldn't say that it's intuitive. The overall visuals can be tricky to learn.

I like being able to copy over last month's open items.

It would be nice it ART didnt calculate after each entry. Would be nice to have a refresh button so could make a lot of adjustments and refresh when needed. Since the ART refresh takes forever. Also, software times out even when I'm actively using it.

The ability to use the software at home and at work

The ability of this web based software that will allow you to access your balance sheet reconciliations at work and at home at any time of the day. You also have the ability to store via pdf scans, all of your supporting documents

Sometimes the server slows down during certain periods of the month especially when everyone is trying to get the balance sheet reconciliations completed.

ART is a great way to have a controlled system for subsidiary reconciliation.

ART requires individuals to be assigned accounts and then reminds them automatically of what needs to be done and when they are/were due. The system keeps clear delineation between periods so as not to confuse the situation.

ART has a number of what I would call "quirks". Some examples: 1.) On some screens, you can only look at one page (10 accounts) at a time, while others allow you to view up to 500 at a time. 2.) There are screens that list the accounts in numerically low to high, while others are in the order in which they were added or assigned . 3.) User Manuals do not cover everything. There needs to be a FAQ sheet for the odd situations.

We felt strongly that ART was the best solution for us and was much more reasonably priced than competitors. We have never regretted the decision to go with ART.

Ease of use, meets all internal and external audit requirements and the customer support is excellent!

There really isn't anything we don't like about ART. The one thing I would probably name is the number of "clicks" to move around within the product.

Allows easier reconciliation than past systems I have used.

Easy to show reconciliation, easy to attach docs and comments. Overall great tool and gets us away from using Excel as we always have in the past. Also quick to be able to go back to prior periods and review outstanding issues.

Least is that the upgrades are done in the middle of the day when we are trying to use the system. Upgrades should always be done overnight when fewest users would be on. This could be my company's issue rather than the system, if it is then please disregard and everything is great.

Keeps track of all reconciliations. I like the reminders. I like that you can bundle r econciliation

The required check lists could be more user friendly. There is often a system pause. The screen is a little hard to read and I often select the wrong drop down menu.

We are better able to standardize our reconcilliation process

Ease or intargration thru out a global company

It is sometime difficult to determine why I am getting errors

The software is straightforward and easy to use both from an admin and user perspective. Set up and monthly maintenance is simple. The different monthly reports are helpful especially when it comes to tracking work status and keeping track of who and when changes are made in the system. What I like the most about using ART is the customer service. The response time is quick no matter what time I reach out to them for help.

The person who provides us support is very nice and responsive. It is definitely possible that some of the negative aspects I perceive are based on minimal training, but I would think that for this type of tool, it would be considerably more intuitive.

It is a single source that allows us to create a binder for the auditors, and there are some interesting features with account mappings. I like the overall concept of ART, but it is cumbersome to use. The support is very responsive.

It is incredibly cumbersome to use and become comfortable with. Preparing BS analysis is a task, and I'm not certain how ART is easier for the accounting team than maintaining a physical binder. It has a very outdated feel.

We use this product for our monthly reconciliations. It has been very easy to use and implement. We have been able to automate a great number of our reconciliations and it has been a huge time saver. We love ART!

We have not had any issues with ART, it has only made our lives easier.

This helps us track and be able to review our balance sheet recs. more accurately. This definantly beats doing manual balance sheet recs every month.

I like that this avoids any manual reconciliation. It allows us to also go back and review period months and reporting periods.

It doesn't always update when we approve certain balance sheet accounts. The approval process seems to duplicate from approver to submitter. At times, this causes us to think the recs. and signed off, when in reality we have to go back in and approve.

I wish we had partnered with SkyStem much earlier! SkyStem ART has been both a valued time-saver and much-appreciated simplifier for our Accounting team. SkyStems's ART system was easy to learn, significantly reduced our team's reconciliation prep time, and has done so at great value. The implementation process and learning curve was straightforward, and their customer service has been outstanding - throughout implementation and ever since. Thank you!

We have used the ART product for several years now. We have been pleased since day one. Accounts are reconciled much timelier as opposed traditional paper reconciliations. Further, Management loves the visibility provided by the product. Management can ensure proper and timely completion, verify support is adequate, provide additional staff training when needed, etc. Our Audit department is also a fan because they can retrieve information on demand. This helps them achieve their goals more efficiently and often eliminates much of the administrative burden placed on Accounting when fulfilling Audit documentation requests.

positive.

In general, it is an effective accounting software.

there are some limitations such as size of files to be uploaded.

I am using this software for reconciliation of hundreds of accounts. It is time saving, especially because you can set up net accounts.

It took a while to figure out the settings, add accounts to already set-up net accounts. It is not easy logging in or changing the password sometimes.