Sparkrock

Score9 out of 10

14 Reviews and Ratings

What is Sparkrock?

Sparkrock’s cloud-enabled solution helps organizations manage their finance and accounting, human resources and payroll, human services case management, and donor and fundraising activities.

According to the vendor, key benefits and features include:

Finance Management with capabilities to help organizations increase transparency and reduce risk.
Workforce Management to help front-line employees deliver services to clients, with tools that help them to be more productive on the go and help manage them more effectively.
Case Management so organizations get the critical information needed to ensure the quality of care and program delivery.
Donor Management to provide a complete view of all donor activities, helping to build relationships with donors, and improve fundraising effectiveness.

Sparkrock partners with Microsoft Dynamics to build a solution with vertical-specific functionality based on over a decade’s worth of experience working in the nonprofit sector. Additionally, the vendor says this means users get a solution that has cutting-edge technology and unique capabilities that are meaningful to them and their organization.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

1 / 8

Direct deposit files
Category average: 7.6
API for custom integration
Category average: 7.6
Single sign-on capability
Category average: 8.4

Forecasting
Category average: 7.3
Inventory Planning
Category average: 7.4
Performance Monitoring
Category average: 7.2

Andres Pirela Loyo View profile

Director of Residential Sales in Professional Services at Green Lawn Fertilizing (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

This software is very efficient and fully complies with the need to organize the company's employees and keep order with payroll and finances. It is cloud-based which saved us the tedious task of installation and congestion of our computers. Everything has been excellent with this tool.

Pros

It contains all the complete accounting management to keep up-to-date payments with debtors and suppliers. I can have all the information in the system and make payments through the same means.
It allows us to issue customized invoices quickly and recurring billing is very agile as well.
Payroll is handled perfectly with the software, as we also manage the employee management and hiring process there.

Cons

The problem with a cloud-based program is that it is impossible to work it without a connection or bad internet connection, which is a big limitation.
Not all the functions are used and there are so many that can become overwhelming at the beginning of the use of the software.
They could have configured in a more organic or friendly way the main panel so that it would be a much more navigable experience for the page.

Return on Investment

This is a great software that allows you to keep up to date with the workforce and the company's financials and payroll all in one program. It is getting the whole company on board and the pace of work is improving and being productive. Activities are performed more efficiently and employee monitoring is achieved in real-time. The performance of activities has increased considerably thanks to Sparkrock.

Usability

Malcolm McAuley View profile

Director, Information Systems in Information Technology at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

Data collection - the system is robust and we can tailor it to collect the information we need.
Easily configurable - the system is easy to configure to meet our specific business needs.
Reporting and data extraction - the system allows for easy access to information that helps inform business decisions.

Cons

Learning curve can be a challenge for some, but by having dedicated support channels to help users find the answers to questions they need, users can adapt to the processes quickly.
While reporting is a positive, the sheer robustness of the system can be overwhelming for some. Understanding how to extract the exact data they want can be challenging at times.
The system is huge. There is so much to learn that getting users to focus on the basics first can be a challenge. That said, we'd rather have a system that includes many areas of functionality that we can grow into than feel limited by lack of system potential.

Return on Investment

In some cases the system has helped bring efficiencies to our world. The workflow capabilities of Dynamics CRM are extremely functional and helpful.
The learning curve can be challenging for some. Those that are overwhelmed by technology in general can struggle with understanding how the system works and where to find what they need.

Alecia Lantz View profile

Superintendent of Business & Treasurer in Finance and Accounting at Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board (201-500 employees employees)

Pros

Altus Dynamics is very customer focused! Altus Alliance is just one example!
Offers an integrated product which meets the needs of the users!
Continuously invests in the product to make each release better than the last!

Cons

Building in additional training support for end users as part of an implementation or upgrade.
Sharing of best practices amongst like minded organizations and creating system and or reporting standardizations where possible.
It would be great to see a "cashless schools" module as part of the product which integrates into the financial system!

Return on Investment

With using Kwiktag as part of our solution we are now able to provide our auditors with a computer and read-only access to our solution which has saved both parties considerable amount of manual labour in digging through files. Everything is available electronically at our fingertips.
We have also saved extensive hours of filing. We use to file invoices for example, by vendor and now through the integration of Kwiktag we are able to file by batch.
The solution has helped to transform the roles within our organization from being data input in nature to being more analytical in nature. This is a result of now having "real-time" data available at our fingertips.

Phyllis Fidler View profile

Manager of General Accounting in Finance and Accounting at King's University College at the University of Western Ontario (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

Integrates finance with payroll. Many solutions still run these as separate functions and this was one of the deciding factors for King's when purchasing Microsoft NAV in 2005.
Altus has added an employee web app that seamlessly connects the outside 'users' to the information they require.
HR position management has taken the many details of an employee in this environment and allowed each position to be tracked individually.

Cons

Many of the improvements are being met with each upgrade. Altus Dynamics has an idea portal that customers can add ideas to and vote on other customer ideas. This means that most issues that come up are resolved with each new upgrade.

Return on Investment

There has been no increase in finance staffing over the last 5 years.
Purchasing is more effective and employees in other departments are able to take control of their own purchase orders.
Employees can check pay stubs, update personal information and submit expenses. This not only empowers others it allows finance to focus on other areas.

Other Software Used

OneDrive, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Exchange

Shaun Sinden View profile

IT Supervisor in Information Technology at Calgary Real Estate Board (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

Dimension combinations allow us to report on expenses in various ways.
The support from Altus Dynamics is superb. They truly understand our business processes and help mold the software solution around that.
The migration to the Altus Dynamics ERP is one of the smoothest deployments of my career.

Cons

Custom development/reports are difficult to do on our own, however Altus Dynamics is open to assisting with that.

Return on Investment

As a technician it's hard for me to say what effect the ROI has had on our organization, however our finance team seems satisfied on it. We look forward to deploying the staff dashboards for better financial tracking throughout our whole organization.

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