Likelihood to Recommend Well Suited: Construction cost estimates for new larger projects where the construction will start within the next 6-9 months. Budgetary estimates for future buildings through its square foot models. Not Well Suited: Not accurate enough on small projects where labor, travel to sites, and OH&P are a higher percentage of unit costs than on larger projects where these costs are spread out across more units.
Read full review QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is very flexible. When you have made a mistake, most mistakes are fixed easily. This is wonderful if you know what you are doing. If you don't know what you are doing QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise gives the user, the ability to do many things incorrectly. If you are not an accountant, you don't know you are doing it incorrectly. That can be a problem.
Read full review Pros CostWorks is very good at generating quick and valid estimates for standardized facilities such as office buildings, schools, etc. It allows you to validate other cost estimates at the UniFormat level when doing an estimate validation. CostWorks' database of detailed line-items is a very resourceful asset when it comes to finding a very specific line-item. Sometimes, when using Success or MII, I will have CostWorks open on the other screen so I can find an item that the other softwares just don't have and build it into the other software from the CostWorks entry. CostWorks does a very good job of generating reports that are both well-developed and have enough detail at the summary level to be able to sit with a client or a project manager and have them follow along and understand without being overwhelmed with detail and numbers. Read full review Detailed organization of financial information Several security measures and double check systems to ensure incorrect entries aren't made. This prevents accidental errors and protects the company from fraud. Ease of overall use Reporting can be as detailed or as general as you prefer. Each report allows you to look at the overall picture or access specific details of each aspect of the company financials. Read full review Cons small project costs where labor is a bigger portion than materials on cost markup factors on governmental projects Read full review I would like to see more ways to customize reports and have that process be more user friendly. I would like to see the process of creating year end giving statements be made more user friendly. Since I only do it once a year, I have to figure the process out every year. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We've been using QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions from when the business started, 11 years ago. I don't see us changing programs any time soon as it is working pretty well for us now. It would be extremely time consuming to start from scratch with a new accounting or inventory management program.
Read full review Usability QuickBooks provides all staff immediate access to the data in whatever form each person wants it. The balancing on entries prevents incorrect data entry on payables/receivables. Reports are easy to customize and save for future use. The records are easy to audit.
Read full review Reliability and Availability They have always been available to meet our needs when we need it. We have had zero complaints with getting the assistance we need.
Read full review Performance QB is a good and reliable system. We probably should have explore the other modules rather that jump in to the conclusion that we needed a new ERP.
Read full review Support Rating I've never had the need to discuss CostWorks with a vendor.
Read full review Very rare do I call the Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions support staff and I get a customer service associate quickly. On average, my wait time is near an hour, and at times even longer. After spending the first three minutes discussing my problem, they then begin to poke and prod around, sometimes the questions continue. But 80% of the time, the problem is over their head and they have to escalate the issue. The only problem is this escalation arrives usually after spending forty-five minutes poking and proding around but learning nothing. In short, my experience is rarely all that well, let alone great
Read full review In-Person Training It is a very easy system to learn, so with the help it was even easier. QB is a good solid system, but it lacks some of the complexity other systems have. with QB you need to get additional modules to get the same functionality that other systems offer standard
Read full review Online Training easy to learn system, specially with some kind of support. Just like with any other system, things get lot easier if you have guidance to lead you in your search for answers. having said that, QB is very easy to use and very easy to teach. you wont spend much time memorizing where to click.
Read full review Implementation Rating If you're loading QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions onto a computer that you're going to directly log into, you should be able to do it yourself. If you are going to connect to a server through a network or remote connection, you should probably have a professional IT person set it up for you.
Read full review Alternatives Considered CostWorks is a unique software for estimating as compared to the other softwares I have listed above. PACES is mostly used for federal modeling and really cannot be compared to Costworks. It has its own developed modeling database and has its own quirkiness and issues. MII has been developed for the USACE and utilized a user-developed folder structure and RS Means Database. I use CostWorks along side this software to find line-items that are not in the MII RS Means Database. Success has been developed for NAVFAC and again, utilizes a user-developed folder structure and RS Means Database. When I use this software, I ALWAYS have CostWorks open on the other screen as Success' RS Means database is extremely lacking when it comes to the number of detail line-items. Timberline is by SAGE and I use it mostly for DOS and FAA work. Of the 3 RS Means Database softwares, this one has the most detailed database for reference, however, there are times when I do have to look up an item that Timberline does not have and the first software I open is CostWorks.
Read full review We have selected this product as it is affordoable in terms of pricing and features too. Our clients is geeting lots of benefits by using this product. By using QuickBooks desktop client also manage the information realted to financials and also get the clear picture for the future by using the accounting information from this product.
Read full review Scalability It has worked for our small company in every way. We have very little issues with the software and when we have had problems, Intuit has stepped up and resolved in promptly.
Read full review Return on Investment I don't really see any "negative" impacts on my business or my ROI by purchasing CostWorks. It's a valuable tool that we use, however, some of my colleagues do not use it or use it very infrequently. I find it well worth the cost even though we don't develop complete estimates in CostWorks due to client dictated softwares. It has provided very quickly-built estimating models that let our team and project managers know that the RFP or the task that they are contemplating bidding on or starting to work on is actually feasible to construction given the budget and directive. Read full review Good value for the price. The initial setup was quick and easy. When properly set up and processes are followed it's decent at managing inventory which is something we had problems with. Have to have a dedicated employee to builds. Rolling up costs in multi-level BOM's is a project each time we have to review costs, it's very time consuming to manually update all assemblies. Read full review ScreenShots