Epicor Eclipse Review
Updated September 10, 2019

Epicor Eclipse Review

Erik Hall | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Epicor Eclipse

Epicor Eclipse is being used across the entire business. We use it for Purchasing, Sales, Inventory Control and Accounting functions. It addresses the need to keep accurate track of inventory and all other aspects of our business. Since the software was designed for the area of business we operate in, it is a great tool.
  • It's very easy to use. I have used more complex accounting software and this is so simple.
  • It has some powerful reporting tools.
  • It can be used at a sales counter to handle walk-in customers.
  • The version we use is a non-windows based version, we chose this due to pricing since we are a small company.
  • Their Tier 1 level tech support leaves a little to be desired.
  • It would be nice to switch between open windows/screens.
  • I'm fairly certain the return on investment has been tremendous, having used the system for so long now and it requires less effort than their previous methods.
  • I believe the inventory accuracy has improved significantly as well.
  • I believe that there has also been a positive impact on the customer billing and accounts receivable functions.
  • SAP and Great Plains
Epicor Eclipse was here when I started 2 years ago. SAP and Great Plains were used at previous employers. Epicor Eclipse versus the others, I would say that Eclipse has the edge in terms of the learning curve for new employees because of how easy it is to use. However, it is not as robust in terms of finding exactly what you want or need to find a certain screen/module. So because of how easy it is to use and learn the edge has to go to Epicor Eclipse.
It is well suited for plumbing wholesale business, distributorship, with walk-in sales customers and a large inventory, or a manufacturing environment. I'm not sure how well it would work in a service industry like a mechanic, or consulting type of environment or a financial type industry. I don't think I would try to use it in a really small company either.

Epicor Eclipse Feature Ratings

Accounts payable
9
Accounts receivable
9
Primary and Secondary Ledgers
8
Journals and Reconciliations
10
Configurable Accounting
6
Standardized Processes
9
Billing Management
8
Cash and Asset Management
Not Rated
Travel & Expense Management
8
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting
Not Rated
Period Close
10
Inventory tracking
10
Automatic reordering
9
Location management
10
Pricing
9
Order entry
9
Credit card processing
Not Rated
Cost of goods sold
9
Order Orchestration
Not Rated
Dashboards
Not Rated
Standard reports
7
Custom reports
9
Not Rated
API for custom integration
Not Rated
Plug-ins
Not Rated
Role-based user permissions
10
Single sign-on capability
Not Rated
Award Lifecycle Management
Not Rated
Budgeting and Forecasting
Not Rated
Project Costing
Not Rated
Cost Capture
Not Rated
Capital Project Management
Not Rated
Customer Contract Compliance
Not Rated
Project Revenue Recognition
Not Rated
Project Planning and Scheduling
Not Rated
Task Insight for Project Managers
Not Rated
Project Mobile Functionality
Not Rated
Definable Resource Pools
Not Rated
Not Rated
Bids Analyzed and Compared
Not Rated
Contract Authoring
Not Rated
Contract Repository
Not Rated
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated
Not Rated
Supplier Management
Not Rated
Risk Repository
Not Rated
Control Management
Not Rated
Control Efficiency Assessments
Not Rated
Issue Detection
Not Rated
Remediation and Certification
Not Rated
Transportation Planning and Optimization
Not Rated
Transportation Execution Management
5
Trade and Customs Management
Not Rated
Fulfillment Management
Not Rated
Warehouse Workforce Management
Not Rated
Not Rated
Production Process Design
Not Rated
Production Management
Not Rated
Configuration Management
Not Rated
Work Execution
Not Rated
Manufacturing Costs
Not Rated
Forecasting
Not Rated
Inventory Planning
7
Performance Monitoring
8
Proposal Management
Not Rated
Product Master Data Management
Not Rated

Using Epicor Eclipse

20 - The business functions represented are, Sales, Warehouse/Inventory, Purchasing, Accounting, Accounts Receivable, Accounts payable, a portion of payroll, and finance. Specific departments would be Warehouse, Salesmen, Accounts Payable/Receivable, Accounting, Human Resources, and Management. It is a company wide tool and necessary for everything we do as a Wholesale Plumbing Supply Company.
1 - To be honest, I really don't know what specific skills would be necessary to be effective as a support person for Epicor Eclipse. I am our main go-to for any issues with Eclipse. My personal background is primarily in Accounting, but I have implemented several systems at several different types of companies in the past. I have the basic knowledge to be a tier 1 tech support person on-site.
  • Probably the most important would be Inventory management.
  • Second would have to be Sales functionality.
  • Third would be the accounting aspect, in this scenario I am including Accounts Receivable and Payable in the same use case.
  • Our organization hasn't really been innovative in their use of the system. They know how it works and that's how they use it.
  • One way they could use it in the future would be to add on an E-commerce module.
  • Maybe in the future they can utilize the cycle count features.
For several reasons. First, they have used this system for 20 years and to change would be costly, not only for a new system but also to try and train everyone on said new system. Second, the system is ideal for our industry and very easy to learn for any new employees that come into the organization. Third, I'm fairly certain the powers that be wouldn't want to try and learn something new and deal with the usual bugs that go with implementing a new system (the special nuances that each company has that can get overlooked when they are in the process of implementing software).

Evaluating Epicor Eclipse and Competitors

  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Third-party Reviews
I wasn't with the company when they chose this system, but from what I have been told, they made the decision after seeing it at a trade show. They spoke with the representatives of the company and discovered that the system was actually tailor made for the plumbing/electrical supply industry, which is exactly the type of company that we are. With that being the case, they like how easy it was to use and chose to implement it. I should also point out that prior to this system, everything was done manually in handwritten ledgers and type (on a typewrite) invoices.
I personally would have opted for a windows based system. It's easier to use, more customization is available and it is more like what the users see in other applications. This creates a better feeling about the system and less hostility. A few other things I would insist upon is a better support package, so when we bring on new people (which doesn't happen very often at all) they can get the same high-level of training that is provided when the system was installed without the high cost of occasional training sessions provided by Epicor at various times through the year.

Epicor Eclipse Implementation

I don't really know about the implementation, it was back in 1998 and I didn't start here until 2016. By the time I started here they had been running it for a number of years and most of the people that were here when it was implemented are no longer here, and the ones that are don't really have much to say about how the implementation went either bad or good.
  • I don't know I wasn't here when that happened.

Epicor Eclipse Training

  • Online training
  • In-person training
  • Self-taught
The training classes that I have attended have been top notch. The presenters are extremely knowledgeable on their subject matter, including real-world application of the system. They aren't just software techs training end users, they seem to be end users that have become experts in the over functionality and capabilities of the system.
The on-line training is very good, and it is taught by the same people that do the live in-person training sessions. The difficult part of it is, asking questions about your specific company's nuances or special circumstances. I don't remember if you can access the on-line training sessions after you have taken them for reminders purposes, but if so that is a great asset.
I did a lot of my self teaching just by going into various applications and seeing what the screens looked like, figuring out what went where and how to properly use certain screens. The best thing is that as long as you don't save your work, you can't really mess anything up, Eclipse is goos in that aspect because you can abort almost any process before it can be saved.

Configuring Epicor Eclipse

I don't know how complex it is to configure. I think we primarily use it as it came straight out of the box, so to speak. We don't have complex needs or transactions or difficult uses for the system. We are pretty much happy with the way it is and don't have a lot of special requests.
I really couldn't say, because I don't know what is configurable and what isn't. I guess my only recommendation would be, to make sure you map out what you want from the system, what you need from the system, and what you would like from the system before you implement. That way you can know whether it is for you and your needs or not. You may have to settle or compromise between your wants, needs and likes.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
I really don't have anything else to add on this topic.

Epicor Eclipse Support

The tier 1 support is trying, and sometimes they are successful. Sometimes they aren't. This topic isn't as black and white as the questions might suggest. Currently their Tier 1 support team is over seas, all items automatically go to Tier 1 and then when they can't help they either escalate it or tell me they need to check with someone else and they will get back to me. If they escalate me to Tier 2, then the issue comes back to the States and the support is usually at a higher knowledge/experience level and it can get resolved fairly quickly. If they don't escalate, then it might take weeks and multiple follow ups on my part before I either get a satisfactory resolution or finally get escalated.
ProsCons
Problems get solved
Support cares about my success
None
We had an issue with Sell Matrices and nobody here either knew or remembered how they had been set up or how to fix them. The tier 1 support guy was great, it took a little bit longer but he stayed with it and escalated it to get assistance from tier 2 in order to resolve the case.

Using Epicor Eclipse

This is very easy to use for someone that hasn't ever used the system before. Despite any preconceived notions about how a system should function they can learn this and become efficient with really not a lot of effort. I have used many systems and this is probably one of the easiest I have ever had to learn to navigate and use.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • General ledger journal entries are very easy.
  • Cash applications are very easy
  • vendor and customer ledger review is very easy
  • Report writer is somewhat difficult to master
  • inventory look ups are not clearly identifiable in the menu

Epicor Eclipse Reliability

I don't really know about the scalability. It's the same as it was when I started, I do know that you can buy more user licenses, but I think they come in packs of 5, which can be a problem if you only need 1 and will never use the other 4. But, again I'm not sure on that.
I haven't experienced any outages in the two years I have been using the system. It is always available as long as the computer is up. The only time I have seen it not be available was on occasions where we lost internet, or power and then we lost access to everything, not just Epicor Eclipse.
Everything in this system moves fairly quickly, that may be in part because we are a small company with only 21 users on the system at a time, or it may just be a the way the Epicor Eclipse works for any size company with any number of users. I can only speak for what I know and say that it is fast for our purposes.

Integrating Epicor Eclipse

We didn't have anything integrated with Epicor Eclipse. My rating is based on how easy they are to work with and what I would think would be an easy integration, because using the system is so easy.
  • none
We don't integrate anything with Epicor Eclipse. Primarily because we don't have a need to. We can run everything we need in either Epicor Eclipse or one of the Microsoft products (Word or Excel).
  • None
I know that they do have some systems that can be integrated and those are suggested by Epicor Eclipse, but we have none that we would like or need to have integrated.
We don't have anything integrated and I don't know any of the specific systems or technologies that can be integrated into Epicor Eclipse.
I can't provide any advice or tips on this subject since we didn't opt to integrate anything.

Relationship with Epicor Software

The vendor is very easy to work with in most cases. The salesmen are pretty good as well. MY only criticism is that sometimes I think they might be spread too thin. I can't always get in contact with the salesman in as quick a manner as I would always like.
They really seem to be very easy to work with both before and after the sale. I have not heard any complaints from management about working with them or any difficulty surrounding the capability to work with them.
I wasn't involved in the negotiation of any terms. As far as I know there wasn't any or much negotiation to be had, since we were looking or a system and theirs did exactly what we needed for our industry. It was almost a perfect fit.
I have not tips or advice in regards to effectively dealing with the vendor. I don't think they would be completely unreasonable, if they were they wouldn't have many customers, but I don't know that for sure.

Upgrading Epicor Eclipse

Yes - Yes, the upgrade was simple. I came in on a Saturday morning and the upgrade was complete in less than 2 hours. That was the first time, which was a multiple point upgrade. The system hadn't had a point upgrade in several years when I started and that was one of the first things I had to accomplish. They provide detailed instructions for preparation and what will happen the day of.
  • We had current available processes
  • Any bugs from prior upgrades were worked out
  • I really don't know what to expect, we just had one in December and there were really no noticeable differences based on our particular set up.