Verified purchaser
Great Concept, though not perfect
As a bit of background, I am currently using 17Hats but have been looking to change because their implementation of new features and refinement of existing features is glacially slow. But changing systems is a huge commitment. Once you choose a system, you are pretty much married to them, and getting a divorce is just as messy as you would think. But I do have high hopes for SuiteDash (SD).
My thoughts on SuiteDash so far, after about a week of testing:
PROS:
* Their client portal system is phenomenal. It is, to date, the nicest looking and most robust I've seen in any all-in-one. Compared to 17Hats's useless portal, the SD portal is a dream.
* Fairly complete documentation. I've been able to answer my own questions for the most part just by using their FAQ system.
* Dev team seems to be knocking out updates pretty rapidly. This is a double-edged sword though. (see cons)
* Support has been pretty quick to respond. It would be nice if they added chat support once things have calmed down a bit for them.
CONS:
* The financial suite is married. By that, I mean that if you use SD to create a quote for someone, it automatically creates an invoice. So you cannot quote in SD but use a different system for invoicing and bookkeeping. It's all or nothing.
* Navigation is extremely clunky. Here are some examples. Let's say you're viewing a project. One would think you would be able to click the client's name and go to their record, but no. You have to back out, go to Clients > Specific Client, and go from there. Similarly, you can't just view your client record and find contracts that client has signed. You have to go to Billing > Contracts > Specific Contract.
* Niggling WTF things. For example, with their FLOWs you can direct clients to read and e-sign a document. But the only thing that gets saved is just the image with the signature (which may be just an image with a script font of their name). That is useless without the accompanying document. And similar to contracts, in order to even find the signature image, you have to drill down three levels. It's not accessible from the client's record.
* Finally, I'm a bit concerned that they may be trying to do too much. I'd rather have two really polished modules than five that are flawed. But as long as they have a team dedicated to fixing / improving current features and don't just abandon something once it's "done," this shouldn't be an issue.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I haven't yet decided if I'm going to migrate from 17Hats to SD. There are some definite issues that cause me concern. It will still probably need to be supplemented with more specialized software for some things (and this will vary from user to user), but that's going to be true of any system. However, I don't plan to refund my three codes—I have high hopes for this software and truly believe that in a few weeks, if they are committed to polishing what they have, it will be the best solution out there.
Mike_SuiteDash
May 9, 2024Hi Arkali,
No, we're not perfect :)
Thanks for the thoughtful review. You make some fair points, which I'll address partially to make sure I understand, and partially to clarify.
Yes, we have avoided real-time support for two reasons.
1. It seems to encourage users to 'not bother' with the documentation, and instantly jump to the live channel to ask questions that could easily be handled in a self-serve way.
2. We are working hard to keep SuiteDash as a budget-friendly option to replace many monthly payments, and part of that equation is keeping our cost structure down. Having highly trained, intelligent staff members at the ready for real-time support is very expensive, and while we could make it happen, it would likely affect our pricing.
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Financial Suite is married... yes, this is by design, but i think you could use the Invoicing or Esimates while still using something else for bookkeeping... it wouldn't be convenient, but it is possible.
Navigation clunky.... your suggestion is a good one, and we'll look at implementing more of these cross-tool links. To be fair, from the CRM Contact Dashboard direction, you are able to jump directly to any one of the areas (projects, invoices, etc... ) for items related to that Contact. Just not always in the reverse direction as you say... we'll work on it :)
FLOWs signature process RE: document.... Yes, this is accurate, and we do have a task in the pipeline currently to improve this exact functionality. Same with the Contracts being listed in the CRM Contact Dashboard.
We are 'doing too much' yes, and some of the toolkits are in first or second iteration stage. BUT, this is a necessary growing pain in order to accomplish our ambitious goal. The platform is still in a 'widening' phase, but that phase will soon be over, and at that point, every iteration will be another level of improvement on every one of the toolkits. Of course, it's not that clean/easy to classify, but in general that's the approach that our strategy necessitates.
Hope that helps, and thanks again for your feedback & comments along the way :)
Mike