Accelo is a professional services automation software featuring an end-to-end cloud-based platform that manages all aspects of client work delivery, from prospect to payment, including sales, projects, tickets, retainers, timesheets, resourcing, and more, regardless of where you are.
Capabilities |
|
---|---|
Segment |
|
Deployment | Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone |
Support | 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support |
Training | Documentation |
Languages | English |
The comprehensiveness of the platform is incredible. Before Accelo we were using multiple programs to get everything we needed done. Accelo offered everything in one program.
I’ve yet to find a dislike. As mentioned above, it is very comprehensive and perfect for what my team needed
Instead of paying for multiple programs, tracking tasks in multiple places, and invoicing elsewhere, we are able to use Accelo to handle all of this and more.
That it is totally free, thus it's subject to 100% ROI. Auto email capture keeps me updated on business procedures.
From early last year, I have never had issues with with Accelo.
Business procedures automation. Managing clients info in one region. Time and issue tracking on projects.
I like the quality of support services offered by the Accelo team. Moreover, setting up Accelo is very easy for me. With Accelo, we run our firm well because the tool allows us to have a proper relationship with our customers. It is a productive software.
I am glad because Accelo has not been a nuisance at any single time. It is the best platform for invoicing and time tracking. The user-friendliness of Accelo is amazing.
Accelo is a problem solver that boosts multi-tasking. It makes our projects to be highly effective. It is the project management. Offers the best CRM services.
We have transitioned all of our internal administrative tasks to Accelo. We can track and follow a client and its progress from start to ongoing. Easy to use.
I am not aware of any issues with the system.
Simplified process that enables to keep track of all of our clients and maintain a steady flow.
Team collaboration and clients follow up. Knowing what is exactly happening amid tons of tasks is of great help. All previous client interactions/communications/minutes of the meeting are recorded perfectly. I'm also happy to be able to understand the time spent on various tasks (billable vs non-billable hours)
I would not call it a pure disadvantage, but any new user should invest time to understand/use the various functionalities.
Tasks coordinations, effective team collaborations, clients followups and being up to date with what is going on.
We have one platform for all our needs. This reducing in team on-boarding, allowing the team members to focus on what they were hired to do.
Wish the resource management tool was more robust.
The Agency was using too many platforms to manage the business. We were able to consolidate our Business development platform, Agency projects, timesheets and a portion of invoicing through Accelo.
Accelo has helped our firm: 1) Standardize our workflow on tax work. This via Accelo project and or retainer custom workflows. 2) Automate some tasks that would have usually required a manually follow up. This via Accelo Triggers. 3) Provide better client communication via a self help portal that can provide file/current engagement views. This via Accelo client facing secure portal with very customizable user permissions build in. 4) Wonderful integration with office 365.
1) Syncing with QuickBooks desktop and online works but is not a true bi-directional sync for customer information and invoice changes. Accelo is working on this thou and it seems to be based on a limitation from an intuit API perspective which is updated regularly. So we have high hopes that the sync will be a true bi-direction sync in the future for customer information and invoices. 2) Office 365 calendar, email, and contacts are flawless. Tasks are another story. This likely based on an API limitation based on outlooks tasks. We would like to see as a replacement a Lync with SharePoint as one possibility
Specifically the following: 1) A bottleneck of open items and questions to complete tax work. By utilizing Accelo triggers - custom retainer fields - and Accelo work flow progressions we have been able to send automated email reminders to clients every week. This has helped clients follow up quicker and when deadlines approach removed the issue of "why is my work not done". Accelo is all about communication with clients we have found. 2) Follow up during the year. By utilizing the office 365 integration and the Lync with clients in Accelo a trigger has been setup to send a friendly email to those clients where communication has not been made for 60, 120 days. This simple email trigger has improved client retention as well as led to further billing opportunities basically paying for the Accelo service fees. 3) Improved overall work quality by forcing the tax professional both at the prepare and reviewer level to follow a preset yet flexible workflow that communicates with the client every step of the way. Accelo has helped us provide a more informed client experience with a better product/service overall.
The Sales Component of Accelo is great. We manage 100's of sales at the same time. We can keep track of of the sales cycle efficiently with out having to print anything out. With every client at different stages of the sales cycle (a cycle being up to 9 months long) Accelo enables myself and my team to stay on top of every sale and minimise mistakes. Accelo allows us to customise the sales cycle putting checks and balances in along the way.
I would like to facility to print emails and change the text of emails. ie HTML.
Staying organised in a paperless environment. Email tracking allows you to capture everything that you and your team has communicated with clients. If there is a dispute we can easily go back and find the email regardless who sent it.
I have tried many, many CRM's before but Accelo has proved the one that provides all the different elements that I require to run my business. The setting up and importing my client data is straightforward and it has all the 3rd party integrations you could hope for. I now have true insight into how my business is performing.
There are no downsides that I have come across yet. As with all CRM and similar applications you only get out what you put in.
Tracking work done against retainer contacts and being able to provide this information back to my clients via the client portal. This provides a degree of transparency for my clients so they know exactly what I am doing on their behalf.
The fact that with so many variables they had to work with, be it our Support site, or the billing or any of our multiple departments, they have created a product that Is easy to use, easier to understand and easy to integrate i whatever your business needs are.
There is nothing about this product that I dislike, It's AMAZING
Support Tickets, from my side only, bu then there are many more departments that also use the Accelo product with seamless integration
Accelo's focus on Professional Services has allowed us to integrate client service, sales, and project management on one platform giving us a central place to get insight on what's going on around the business. Because of these integration we have are able to provide a more centralized customer experience as we scale our business
There are some features that the product still needs like bulk editing capabilities. Also some areas of the program are a little older and lack some a little bit of of consistency in design. But the Accelo team is constantly listening for feedback and making improvements on a consistent basis.
We are able to get a better perspective on what's going on with a customer at a glance. We have also moved a few systems that were disconnected on to the same platform which has allowed us to automate some processes.
It is easy to use. Accelo's recorded video training has been beneficial. It uses a simple system language that even a non-technical person can understand easily.
I hope they have an easy-to-edit dashboard where we can update the project status.
We look forward to track our project and billable hours more efficiently in Accelo.
I like that accelo tells me what is due today and in the future. I can plan my weeks/ months out in advance so i can see what is due and what I need to do.
Sometimes there are bugs and task cards go missing in accelo. Dont like the speed and which some things load especially when timesheeting
billing time to clients. Giving overview of each persons capacity
The platform is easy to use and get started with, and keeps task and project management in one place.
Caution is required when logging time on a task or project.
Task management including attachments in a collaborative environment.
Easy to use platform. Very user friendly.
Hard to navigate at times. Slow to load at times too.
Time management issues have been solved
I love that you can log time to a project so easily as well as see your to-do items at a glance.
The system could be more helpful with suggestions of where to assign logged time towards. It doesn't prioritize tasks assigned to you and doesn't prioritize items that you just recently logged time into.
We use Accelo mostly for client billing but also as a contact resource management database. Sales opportunities are all tracked within it as well.
I like the dashboard and how clear it is. As a robust system, Accelo can be overwhelming with the abundance of functions, but the user-face doesn't throw everything at you at once. Once you have a strategy, it's straightforward to follow. I am not necessarily tech-savvy, but Accelo makes me feel like I can conquer the world with the functions, customer support, webinars, and other resources they offer.
The amount of things you can do within Accelo is overwhelming to the novice user, but that's something you can overcome. Sometimes when I make an error or a search doesn't match any criteria, I never know why. Something I would like to see is maybe having more tips when a field does not populate and help within the system.
I am solving the problem of keeping track of emails from clients! Having the stream to refer back to is SO AMAZING! That way, we don't have to remember what each client requested, and we have a reliable system to keep track of all communication. We are also using Accelo to solve our invoicing issue. We have so many invoices that keeping track of which client each invoice is for becomes hectic. With Accelo, each invoice we make gets attached to the project, and we can keep track of payments from QuickBooks!
Simple layout design and easy to find different projects and retainers to track time against.
Often emails are linked to the wrong company or client and have to be manually moved to correct place.
Good for making sure that all clients have time spent on them each month and for highlighting clients that need to have more resources allocated to them.
Accelo can take a project from initial contact to sale to project to invoicing. It functions as a CRM, project management tool and communications platform. You can use the tool as simply (assign tasks and due dates) or as robust (dependencies, triggers, templates, automation) as you like. It is a one stop shop for everything you need to move work, communicate among the team and with clients and assess staff and company performance. While I really like the software, what I like best about Accelo is their support team from our customer service manager to the front-line support to the engineers we've worked with. I have felt heard, that my suggestions, requests or issue reports are not going into the "we'll put that into the suggestion box" black hole. Suggestions I've given or issue reports I've made are taken seriously and addressed, often on screenshares. I have never seen a software company so attentive to its users.
One of Accelo's strongest features - its robustness - is also something that takes some getting used to if you want to use it to its full potential. It can do A LOT for you, but time spent learning and figuring out consequences of changes to settings is required. I would not put this down as a "dislike", but there is a learning curve - and that learning curve is worth it. Our particular implementation involved analyzing and reconfiguring our internal processes as we used very simple tools for time tracking and task assignment. Accelo's robustness actually facilitated those changes, so it's hard to say that is a true dislike, more like something one should know.
Having a full client CRM. Being able to allot time to tasks and have it tracked properly to the task, milestone and project. Internal team communication and visibility of that communication with the Stream feature. More detailed management of work, clearer view of what's done and what's to come on a project. Clearer analysis of how time is spent and what is profitable. Improved sales process. Clarity on task schedules.
Well-structured interface with a variety of useful options that help to assign and handle tasks and projects.
High barrier of entry for some people when it comes to learning the interface in the beggining.
Managing updates on projects, the status of tickets and tasks.