Karbon is presented as a collaborative practice management solution for accounting firms. It includes communication and workflow tools to streamline practice operations, with task automation for common processes, and scheduling data collection. Its features encompass: Client Management - tracking the relationship with all the firm's customers. Knowledge Centralization - A single source of truth for job tracking. Business Analytics - Insights to guide firm…
I used CCH Prosystems for many years and in different variations and versions. I found that the training provided was lacking and the program was not user friendly. My former firm paid a great deal of money and we didn't use half of the functions it claimed to have due to the …
Before Karbon we had 3 + systems for task tracking, email, team correspondence, invoicing, contract management. Karbon has allowed us to switch to one platform for client management and streamlined our processes.
XPM (Xero Practice Manager) was what we used before Karbon. While it covered the core practice management requirements, it didn't give us the same level of visibility across the team. We were still managing a lot of communication through emails, it was harder to see exactly …
Having a tool where all of our task management and communication internally and externally is connect is a big pro for Karbon. When we made the switch we were able to eliminate multiple 3rd party tools we were using that didn't talk to each other. They are always updating and rolling out new features so you can stay up to date with what comes next to help your business. Being able to see all of the work agreed to for a client, all of the time budgets vs actual time, and then the specific tasks with specific notes, along with attaching all of the documentation (bills, emails, cc expenses ect) to the work items and having it all in one place so that the client work can be done by multiple people in our office has been a game changer for us for capacity and just not having one person hold all of the knowledge.
Resource management: Ability to view workloads of team members and reallocate easily in the event a team member is on leave.
Workflow management: Repeating workflows allows consistency of work and visibility of where work is up to.
Communication: As a remote team, communication is vital. We use tagging and assigning to ensure relevant team members are across the information they need to be. The client portal is handy for keeping sensitive information off email.
Time integration with XPM: We use fixed fee billing through Ignition, with invoices flowing through to XPM where we manage WIP against time. At the moment, time recorded in Karbon needs to be manually entered into XPM. A direct integration that automatically pushes Karbon time into XPM would remove this duplication and improve accuracy. Alternatively, if Karbon could pull the relevant Ignition billing information through in a way that supported WIP management, that could remove the need to maintain time separately in XPM.
Intelligence and reporting: I find the Intelligence area quite clunky for the management reporting we need. It can be slow to load, includes former team members who are difficult to exclude, and it is not easy to quickly produce a clean report with the key information required to manage the business.
I would like simpler, faster reporting around measures such as team productivity, revenue compared to payroll costs, utilisation and other operational performance metrics. Ideally, these reports would be included in the current subscription model, easy to filter and export for use for management decisions. The current experience has not provided enough value for us, and as a result I cancelled the Intelligence section of our subscription this year.
Bulk workflow updates: Making changes across a large number of recurring client workflows can be time consuming because many updates need to be made individually. While Karbon allows bulk updates using standard work templates, applying these can overwrite or remove client specific customisation, so it is not always practical for established workflows. It would be useful to be able to add a new task section to existing recurring workflows in bulk, while leaving all existing client specific tasks, settings and customisations intact. This would make it easier to roll out process improvements across the client base without having to manually update every workflow.
Karbon has provided a much larger positive impact on the firm than any of the negatives. The ability for team members to easily manage their work and management to have immediate insight to any efficiency decline is worth the premium price.
I used CCH Prosystems for many years and in different variations and versions. I found that the training provided was lacking and the program was not user friendly. My former firm paid a great deal of money and we didn't use half of the functions it claimed to have due to the unfriendly nature of the platform.
