Likelihood to Recommend In working with Ascentis in payroll, the program makes my job so much easier. I am new to this position and the learning process has been so much easier with this product than those in the past. I appreciate the patience I am given when I call in for assistance as well.
Read full review If you are handling a large client list, and are selling services, it is dead easy. If you are managing/selling a physical inventory, it seems like it has great options to do that quite well (disclaimer, I do not use those functions, but I have paid attention as that functionality was built into the software). If you want to link your bank account to a bookkeeping platform, this is not the software for you (at least so far).
Read full review Pros Easy to use software. I have had several new HR employees comment on how easy the system is to learn! Problem Solving- Ascentis is always problem solving! When we were in the process of selecting a new payroll company, we needed unemployment claims management assistance for our locations, something Ascentis did not currently offer. The sales rep went out of his way to find a unemployment claims management company that would work with Ascentis and us. That company has helped us keep an 80% win rate for our claims! User conference- Engage is an awesome way to learn more about the products Ascentis has available as well and meet up with the staff you work with every day! Read full review AccountEdge has a robust report menu that allows a user to slice and dice data for analysis. Report on projects for the life of the project across fiscal years. Report on different departments with segregated income statements. For users who want to run payroll in house that is easily done through the payroll module. Print physical checks or direct deposit to employee's account, process payroll taxes and file year end W2s. My personal favorites are time billing and retainers. As a service based business I can at my fingertips review how much money a client has on deposit with me and how much of that will be billed out at the end of the month. The integration with AccountEdge Mobile rounds it all out with being able to log my time on-site. Last but not least AccountEdge Mobile in general, as the companion app for the desktop software is invaluable. My heaviest use is the spend money feature. Excellent for logging travel receipts & cash expenses while they are fresh on the brain. Really cuts back the data entry at the end of a trip and trying to recall what something may have been for. Read full review Cons Updating the system so it is one platform and not two. Create changes to the benefit enrollment process and upgrade the system so hire dates do not need to be changed to trigger benefits for status changes. Focus updates on HR Admin, mobile application, ATS and transitioning to one platform. Larger areas of focus have been on the payroll portion of the system with a few updates to other areas. When something is broken, quicker turn time on fixing the issue. System needs updates to support AAP reporting. Read full review My biggest frustration, and one that I've mentioned to Acclivity for many years, is that it only permits opening nine windows at a time (plus the home window). I hit that limit almost daily, and then I have to decide what do I close so I can complete the transaction that needed the "9th" window. The Accounts section includes two quick reports, "Analyze Profit and Loss" and "Analyze Balance Sheet. These can be filtered for the current month or any prior month in the current fiscal year. And that's fine most of the year, but at the beginning of the next year, when I haven't yet started the new fiscal year, these only go to December of the prior year. The regular reports for these can select "next year;" why can't these? It would be helpful if the journal entry number would have one or two additional digits available. For example, when I am entering journal entries for a client, I would like to use a number such as CPA2014001, CPA2014002, etc. to distinguish what I enter from the "automatic" entries that AccountEdge does. But that's one more digit than AccountEdge allows, so if I had over 100 adjustments, I would run out of entry numbers. Read full review Likelihood to Renew This rating would be a 10 if it were not for some issues we have been having recently with the benefit carrier connections. The carrier connections are critical for us so how these issues are resolved will be key in our renewal decision.
Read full review Without a doubt, when you need to do accounting use the program that will get the job done in the least amount of time with the least amount of errors. Once you are using a program that works you stay with it year after year and you will find yourself even excited about the updates
Read full review Usability I'd give it a 7.5. If the modules were easier to access and not so buried (or placed in left field to find), I would give it a higher rating. As I said, as the potential to be great if ACCESS to other modules was easier.
Read full review The intuitive interface does all the tasks we need our accounting software to do. Some tasks are slower to process than I would like but overall very usable. Customizable forms let us choose to either go with the easy ready-made out-of-the-box options or retool them to better fit our specific needs.
Read full review Reliability and Availability They normally give you notice when an update will affect the use of the system. Otherwise, when we have an error , we send a message to the support team. Sometimes someone will get right back with you and sometimes it takes a while.
Read full review One of the finer advantages of desktop software, it's always available. AccountEdge doesn't suffer from outages or sluggish internet like web based applications do. It's always there when you power on your device!
Read full review Performance Yes, this pages do load pretty good but there are times when things are slow and I believe that's because they are sometimes trying to do updates.
Read full review Support Rating Support is attentive and quick to answer the call and get the answer for you. If they for any reason cannot answer right then, they are back to you within a day and always seem to have a sense of urgency. You truly get the impression that they are aiming to make you happy.
Read full review On the few occasions we have needed tech support over the years, they were responsive and worked to get to the root of the issues. However, even though Checkout POS is a separate application, it was pitched to us as a natural extension of the functionality of our AE software that would integrate seamlessly. The company's support for Checkout has been minimal at best, and now totally abandoned. That colors our view of Priority's support unfortunately. And to be honest, that's why it's a 9 instead of a 10. So to be fair, AccountEdge's support itself has been very good over the years.
Read full review In-Person Training First, to clarify our "in-person" training was done mainly through Web-X meetings and conference calls. It was the closest thing we got to as far as an "in-person" training for this software. However, for the large majority of it, this type of training worked out well. We were able to share our screens and the trainer was able to share his/her screen. We could follow along with what we were doing in our database in real time and see how different functions worked and how manipulating our information could produce different results. It was also nice in that it provided for real-time results if something hadn't been coded correctly or we were having issues as to why something wasn't working the way we thought it should be. However, it did have some downsides in that we often had to rely on a conference phone and that made it difficult to hear people on both sides. Also, sometimes the trainers had internet difficulties when working from home and that caused issues with the WebX meetings.
Read full review Online Training Ascentis HR has a number of online training videos to watch on a number of different topics. I gave it a lower rating because there is not much interactivity with the videos and it seems to cater to really only one or two learning styles. Plus, one has to be pretty motivated to go to a separate area to access the videos and then pull up a specific one to watch it and then learn. From my experience, people know that they are there, many just don't take the time and effort to go find them and actually watch them - especially since the username and password are different from their normal username and password.
Read full review Implementation Rating It was very easy to implement, but the customization pieces should really be fleshed out in order to determine the full need of an organization at the time of implementation. I believe if a little more time was spent on the requirements, the recruiting module would not have to be customized again at a cost at a later date.
Read full review unfortunately no.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Ascentis has far better customer service and the implementation experience was also better. The ability to do a lot of customization is also easier with Ascentis as it's smaller organization. The payroll has positive and negatives compared to ADP but the accuracy is the same in both. Ascentis just started their community site which doesn't have a lot of traffic but hopefully can become more like ADP's community site, which was extremely helpful to me as an administrator.
Read full review For Mac enthusiasts, AccountEdge is the complete installed software solution for small to medium-sized businesses, as it has so many capabilities that QuickBooks for Mac lacks. However, it holds your hand less than QuickBooks for Mac does, so you ought to know what your are doing in keeping business books properly. If your needs are simple, QuickBooks for Mac may be a better solution. QuickBooks Online and Xero are excellent cloud accounting solutions that can be used on the Mac equally well as on Windows. QuickBooks Online offers a similar set of features as QuickBooks for Mac, with the addition of anywhere, anytime access. Xero is a great basic accounting solution in the cloud that can also be used equally well on Macs and WIndows, and offers endless customization and flexibility through its extensive third-party app integration for almost any need.
Read full review Scalability Large acquisition would be very complicated, seems more appropriate for companies under 100
Read full review Return on Investment HR DPT. is much more effective, as we can assess any employee information no matter where we are, etc. This helps to provide information immediately when requested! Employees have access to Ascentis, and therefore to their timecard, open enrollment, etc., from anywhere at any time! Time, PTO requests, employee goals, and evaluations can be approved from anywhere at any time! Recruiting can be accessed any where at any time, and this helps with hiring, internal communication, etc. Read full review Increased employee efficiency - Time is no longer spent switching between programs because all of the information can be found in one place. Customer service has also improved because employees find the program much easier to use, even at the point of sale. Better record keeping - AccountEdge has a very simple invoicing application that allows us to keep track of and balance our accounts. Read full review ScreenShots Ascentis (discontinued) Screenshots Priority AccountEdge Screenshots