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EMS is very flexible and a very powerful tool if you have a good training-- but not an accounting tool
Updated September 13, 2019

EMS is very flexible and a very powerful tool if you have a good training-- but not an accounting tool

Ana Fernández Silva | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with EMS Software

EMS is used across Columbia University. My department is using EMS to manage four different departments, one of them is Catering which doesn't have any building related. I am working in finance, so I have a general view of the behavior of these department business and the final procedures like billing, invoicing, and analysis.
I can see how EMS is very flexible in terms of event management, daily reconciliations and implementing resources and categories for types of uses. However, in terms of analysis there's a certain lack of consistency. We are missing an alternative option to void invoices since we don't want our past revenue to change but rather have the alternative of having a credit invoice instead.
  • I can see how EMS in very flexible in terms of event management, daily reconciliations and implementing resources and categories for types of uses.
  • EMS has a very good tools of utilization analysis tools
  • EMS is so flexible that almost any type of business can use for event/bookings purposes
  • We are missing an alternative option to void invoices since we don't want our past revenue to change but have the alternative of having a credit invoice instead.
  • We would like to have more tax detailed reports
  • Query builder is a great tool but there is some room for improvement in terms of making even more easy to use
  • We have fewer mistakes and more control on the events
  • Staff is more confident since they can always check and reconcile their daily/weekly work easily
  • In terms of analytics, we are able to invest in better resources
I haven't any other software like EMS before
Here at the conference I can see how other type of business are using same tools for a lot of purposes and in many different ways
Configuring EMS is not complex at all, but it needs a good training that from my opinion is sometimes limited and expensive. I am missing some training, slices, more videos in the website available for everyone
For any type of event business, EMS is well suited. Businesses like hotels, university, real state business... EMS can be adapted for those necessities.
However, for businesses which need more focus on accounting than event management, I would recommend other accounting tools like Navision or SAP.

Using EMS Software

30 - Different event services provider within the company use EMS, as well as other support department like finance services, technical services, and dining. So, EMS is used in a different way depending on the department but the setup, categories, and resources are the same for everybody, so we are all in the same page.
2 - For a 15 people department, we got 2 IT people pretty well knowledgeable on EMS configuration, so they can support us and configure certain categories, reports, accounts, etc.
  • Booking event services
  • Revenue Tracking for GL Closing
  • Analysis of types of client/revenue
  • Forecasting
  • Tax Tracking
  • AR
  • Analyzing types of clients (how the use the services, external/internal, popular schedules, type of groups...)
  • Forecasting based on bookings 3 months ahead
  • Detecting charges that have not been invoiced and the client didn't pay for
  • Detecting lack of communication between departments
  • Using queries as a quality assurance check before the GL closing
  • Create budget for client based on analysis of what they spent previous years
  • We are trying to use EMS to separate technical services revenue from others
  • We would like to create credit invoices for client's refund
At this point, the department is pretty comfortable using EMS and the advantages are more than the disadvantages. In addition, the fact that we can create accurate monthly forecasting 3 months ahead makes this software a good asset for the Event Management Department and the Financial Services Department. Although, we are trying to clean the very large amount of categories that we created at the beginning and now it may cause inconsistencies.

Evaluating EMS Software and Competitors

Yes - We started using EMS because Columbia University has its own custom software that can not support an event management department. The department started using Microsoft Excel to make the bookings and this custom accounting software for the revenue tracking but as the business were growing, they realized that they didn't have enough resources to keep tracking of all types of food, rooms, tech services that we offer now.
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
The most important factor was the fact that we could create different department that offer a different setups. This was essential since in order to invoice the client we needed to differentiate those departments, keep records of their revenues and maintain an accurate data base. In addition, we needed to automatize the invoicing since the business started to grow. EMS offers the opportunity to review charges and then invoice them automatically daily.
EMS can be adapt to very a diverse range of companies. I am sure that if we had to do it again, we would spend more time configuring a more proper setup for us.