Apricot is customizable, user-friendly and truly useful. The "360" upgrade is maybe only at 180 so far, but will get there
May 17, 2020
Apricot is customizable, user-friendly and truly useful. The "360" upgrade is maybe only at 180 so far, but will get there
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Apricot 360
Overall Satisfaction with Apricot by Social Solutions
My organization uses Apricot 360 as our case management and outcomes database for school-based social work across roughly 30 sites. Social workers use Apricot to document all student services with written case notes, track school-level interventions, as well as to conduct assessments that we have built into the system, set and track progress on counseling goals, and record important student information.
- Apricot is highly customizable even for those with little technical knowledge, which has allowed us to modify our system over time as we adapt both our program and what we track.
- Apricot is generally user-friendly for our staff, in part due to the interface, and in part, due to how much we are able to customize it to reflect our program. Staff who have had to use ETO or EMR systems tend to prefer Apricot.
- In addition to what Apricot offers, Apricot 360 has some added features for communication with clients, gathering information from clients and other non-users, and reporting that we are just starting to fully explore and that are quite useful.
- The Apricot Insights/Apricot Impact reporting was launched before it had the same user features pre-built out as ETO has with the same 3rd party software. This made the learning curve even steeper with trying to wrap our heads around a very different and more difficult way of reporting and having to set up literally every aspect ourselves.
- Regular Apricot reporting has always had many limitations as well. The inability for IF/THEN logic is a major gap, and the ability to choose the hierarchy in which filters apply.
- Some of the features of Apricot 360 that were heavily promoted when encouraging us to upgrade have been disappointments so far. They do not tend to have the flexibility or ability to customize as with the rest of Apricot, and the specific way they were built out was not usable for our program. For instance, the dashboard can only report on attendance and only for a program that takes daily attendance in the registration grid. You cannot report on workflows (how many started/completed, for whom they have been started/completed), and even in the workflows section of the system, it cannot identify which clients have workflows in progress.
- We have saved a lot of time on documentation and made it far easier and more efficient for managers to review the work of their direct reports.
- Apricot has allowed us to streamline invoicing procedures with government funders, and made foundation grant reporting far easier as well.
- Apricot has allowed us to better understand our service delivery in a way that was not possible when we had a system of paper and Excel spreadsheets. We can identify and easily answer questions.
I have not used similar products.