OfficeTools by CARET vs. CCH Axcess vs. Zoho Projects

For a small office or team keeping track of multiple projects at once can be a challenge. OfficeTools provides an all-in-one affordable (less than $60 per month) and accessible (cloud based) project management solution to keep your team on task. If your organization uses products such as Quickbooks or Outlook you can easily integrate them into this software solution. I honestly cannot think of an organizational structure that would not benefit somewhat from integrating OfficeTools into their operations

Incentivized

This application is best suited for enterprise use cases. It interfaces with almost every other major platform at the enterprise level and is scalable to the nth degree. But that comes at a high price tag, given that it integrates with everything and is used relatively ubiquitously. Any recommendations that I would give on the platform would be based on enterprise applicability.

Incentivized

My work involves projects of 5-15 people with numerous projects running simultaneously. Prior to Zoho, I did not have a central location from which to view all project statuses at once. Zoho looks to provide this and also looks like it will deliver. I am anxious to see how our organization's use of it develops. At this time, I feel I am likely to recommend Zoho Projects because my organization has made great software decisions in the past so I have a level of trust already that the research has been done that Zoho is the best solution for our line of work.

Incentivized

• Software Integration (i.e. Quickbooks, Outlook, etc.)
• Project Management
• Time Management
• Billing/Invoicing

Incentivized

• CCH Document - It's cloud based. The program is user-friendly and easily customizable.
• CCH Tax - Relatively easy system navigation. It satisfies all our tax return filing needs.

Incentivized

• We use it to manage our sales orders as there are lots of moving parts which are necessary to get client orders done properly.
• I use it anytime I have a new idea I want to put into motion. As I can create a list for brainstorming, feedback, specific actions necessary in order to test and or implement the idea.
• Unrelated to business, it's a great way to plan travel in order to make sure you don't forget those important things like passport, flight arrangement, client meeting confirmation, and meeting prep as far as what specific documents or things do you need to bring with you.
• And since everyone is on the go and expected to keep up with work, the mobile/tablet app makes it a breeze to keep up, work on, and create new projects.

Incentivized

• Customizability (i.e. font size, workflows, etc.)
• Increase access to trainings and educational enrichment opportunities
• Customer Support (tends to be slow)

Incentivized

• Customer support does not know their own product!
• Rep for the company does not know their own product!
• Hidden add-ons that they deceive prospect into believe is apart of the system.

• There is no ability to add custom fields in the "Bugs" module - for example, if we want to add fields such as Version Number.
• Reporting is not integrated - its a fairly expensive add-on.
• There is no easy way to track actual and completed dates for tasks - so historical variance analysis is not easy.

I've reviewed about 8 other project management solutions and Zoho Projects is the best I've seen without being overly complicated. Zoho Projects keeps getting better! Recent new enhancements makes it even easier to navigate. There are new keyboard shortcuts that cut my time way down. The tools are very easy to use.

Zoho Project has been very user-friendly. As a small business, we have a diverse group of people with varying skill sets. This platform has been easy for our team to learn, implement, and succeed with. The mobile version is also very handy for our team.

Has not been down to my knowledge.

Speed meets my expectations.

Although it might lack intuitiveness, once you get a hang of how Zoho Projects works, you can do a LOT. The impact good project management has on profitability is huge, and it has helped not only improve communication and coordination when working on a project, but more importantly have adequate tracking of time, due dates and potential bottle necks

Incentivized

OfficeTools is by far the easiest project management tool that I've ever used. It is very user friendly and easy to pickup. That cannot be said for other products that I've used in the past

Incentivized

CCH Axcess was very comparable to Thomson Reuters. They are both large companies in their fields and have similar resources. We ultimately went with Thomson Reuters because we bundled with their other softwares for a better price and it makes sense to be with one company to deal with one customer support line.

Incentivized

Zoho Projects provides a more limited set of functionality and customization options than other task/bug trackers on the market, but what it lacks in functionality it makes up for in ease of use. It probably has 80-90% of the features of its competitors but takes about a third of the time to get up and running and realizing value.

Incentivized

• We needed a system to organize our growing business, so anything was better than what we had, which was nothing.
• Recording time spend is a huge reason for using project software. It has made me aware of the tasks that are taking too long and where we are not being profitable as a company.
• It has kept our team accountable for what needs to get completed and when projects are not in motion or completed timely. It's helpful to know in order to get billing out faster.

Incentivized