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SmartVault
Document sharing and collaboration management software
Last updated: October 2024
Rating criteria
Reviews by rating
Process Street
M-Files
Confluence
Recommended
Alex O.
Staff Accountant
Accounting, 1-10 employees
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Transcript
Alex O.: My name is Alex. I'm a staff accountant. I give SmartVault a five out of five. For more reviews like this, click below. While shopping around other ones we considered were ShareFile, CCH Axcess, Citrix. We decided to go with SmartVault. The reason we chose SmartVault was just good pricing, the demos were pretty good, and it was industry specific to the tax [inaudible 00:00:25]. The transition wasn't too bad. We essentially just exported the information, the client data, from our tax program into SmartVault. There was a couple of hiccups here and there, but for the most part it was just one transaction. The main advice would just be to shop around. What works for something, doesn't work for someone else. Look at the product integrations, what other tax programs it works with, and then choose carefully, because you don't want to switch a year later and deal with clients switching from a different portal.
Tammy H.
Operations
Accounting, 1-10 employees
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Natalia M.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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We used them for few years and always had below average customer support. We ended up trying to cancel them today after only a month into our new billing period and they refused to refund our payment for the remaining 11 months. They basically said they do not care how much time we have left, they are not prorating. Really?!!! They are charging us for 11 months of services that they are not going to provide. It's a horrible company that rips their clients off! Stay away from them. There are much better providers out there.
Document sharing with clients. Also it was not easy to understand and kept locking clients out of the system
Customer support, price, policies the were not disclosed upfront at contract signing
Steven K.
Accounting, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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I use SmartVault as my PDF printer, as well as a place to store client documents.
SmartVault is integrated with my Lacerte tax software - When printing from Lacerte to SmartVault, all tax returns are deposited directly into the proper client's folder.
I have been using SmartVault for over 5 years, and I have not yet found anything negative in my use of the portal.
Nic V.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Excellent. Customer support is always easy to speak with and the software is a great fit for our company.
Simplicity for our internal users and our clients. Easy to organize files neatly in their respective folders for a clean presentation for clients.
Software still needs some small tweaks, but overall, I believe the developers put their hearts into the projects. Seems like any time there is something in the software that I think needs to be addressed, the staff comes out with an update and fixes it.
Edward B.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Low end portal service that clients found difficult to use, and which we found more difficult to integrate into our business model as a document management system than we felt should be necessary.
I had high hopes for the platform. Clients found it difficult to use. It did provide a marginal level of flexibility for small clients/individuals. Larger clients had higher expectations than what was provided.
The pricing has become ridiculous in comparison to what is received. Price has doubled year to year??? Great punchline to this joke. SmartVault's cancellation policy is morally void. After getting hit with an unexpected doubling in cost year to year (after a significant increase the year before), I was informed on my renewal date that I could cancel my subscription and lose all access to the account, but SmartVault's policy was NOT to refund anything for the year subscription that they charged to my credit card, even though I would not have access to the service for the year. What a crock. SmartVault is an expensive, marginal portal service that is designed for the lower end of the market and set up to screw you on the way out. Beware.
Joy M.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used weekly for 6-12 months
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We did not have a great experience with Smart Vault. It is not easy to manage or user-friendly. we used SmartVault for our first tax season. We switched to TaxDome this year and it was such an amazing decision. TaxDome is cheaper and they have app users can use that is user-friendly. I wish I had found TaxDome originally. At the end of the subscription, SmartVault did not notify us that they were going to move to a 2 user plan and we were on a single-user plan for $60. They charged us $120 with no notice. I called them about it and they said they sent out an email making customers aware of the price increase. I did not receive an email from them when I checked again. When they finally checked their systems they said we did not get the email. After going back and forth for a few months I finally was able to get a response where they at least paid us back the money for their mistake and we canceled our account. They handled the whole situation really poorly and were rude. If you are thinking about making the switch I would go for it. Stop putting your money into a company that won't put money into itself.
The thing I liked the most about the software is that they have top security.
The software is not user-friendly at all ad there are much better and cheaper options out there.
Timothy F.
Accounting, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 6-12 months
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Horrible. Every problem that it solves, it creates 2 more. I will say our tech savy clients love it. They are able to get all their data in one spot, no matter how many entities there are. The rest of us cringe.
The online portal makes this product attractive to clients.
Customer Service is horrendous and is more likely to ignore you than be of any actual service. The complex web of features requires either a ridiculous amount of setup time to get the product to function as you want it. For example, there is no way to set notifications to just "my clients" easily. As a firm with over 2,500 individual clients, the shear volume of upload notifications is impossible to navigate - to the point where it's utterly useless. This is just an example, a myriad of other features that are well intentioned end up completely useless or worse due to lack of customization. Many items that one would think of as standard for a document management system, such as locking folders, don't exist. This product is 5 years away from developing into a useful product.
Beth S.
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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I love how easy this software is to use! We first started using it when i had a chromebook, so i was even more impressed when i got a normla laptop and could use the desktop app for saving/downloading files! It gives our clients a sense of security, and it's very easy to set up a folder structure, add engagements, and invite clients to use it!
My number one complaint is that you cannot edit documents in Smartvault. You have to download them, edit them, and then reupload them, which makes things difficult when both us and the client need to update something
Amanda E.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Works very well once your comfortable with the software and are able to teach your clients how to use it.
I have been very satisfied with smart vault. It allows us to organize, archive, & share documents securely for a large amount of client files. You can access docs easily while out at a client or while working from home.
Integration was a little tough until we got the hang of it.
Joe B.
Accounting, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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The cloud software has been great at moving our firm from the back office server environment to the cloud.
The features most liked about SmartVault for us has been the ease of initial installation, the integration with our Intuit ProSeries Software and how it has helped our office move to the cloud for a safe secure location for our data.
The folder setups for multiple clients could stand to be easier. Seems like we've been having most issues in how to set up engagement folders that are not pre-formatted. Also the price is not incredibly cheap for us, but due to integration don't have much choice.
Georgia K.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Overall I am very happy with the service for the price.
It is consistent across the many years we have used it at my small account firm. It is a cheaper options for delivering our tax returns to our clients.
We have some issues with permissions on our end and on the client end that requires some troubleshooting and frustration.
Hita M.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Great Customer Service. Many years ago we switched from Filecabinet CS. Happy with portal. Accessible from any where.
Connected Desktop features. On portal you can open up multiple clients
Cannot open multiple clients on Desktop at the same time
Sherry M.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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I love being able to download multiple documents at one time.
I haven't been able to find a direct link to resend an activation email. For instance when you set a guest user they receive an email to activate and create a password. A lot of times, guests lose the email and need do not activate it right away. We then have to delete the guest user and recreate, instead of just sending a new link.
Anne N.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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Secure encrypted file storage with a branded portal for my clients.
A little difficult to use for new users.
Carol P.
Accounting, self-employed
Used weekly for 1-2 years
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Overall, SmartVault is positive with my business, but I would REALLY like that feature that I mentioned in the box about what I like least about SmartVault
Ease for me and my clients to upload documents and to read uploaded documents. It is fantastic. I also love that there is a limited DocuSign feature to where I don't have to pay the full price for full DocuSign subscription. Plus, I believe that having a secure portal on my website is a positive thing that could help attract new clients
Overall, I do like SmartVault, but I wish there is a setting where I could get notified (perhaps via email) that a client uploaded a document. Otherwise, I just have to check every once in a while. I'm very busy so it is tedious to check to see if something is there, whereas if I got an email notification, I'd know that a document was uploaded
Larry M.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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This is exactly the way we want our portal to work
Using the portal to send secure emails to clients
It's sometimes difficult if you have the same name clients
Carla B.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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It is easy to upload and store documents from SV. It is a bit cumbersome to set up new clients.
It links easily to our tax software and other programs.
I wish there was an overall document search from the main clients page.
Jonathan Y.
Accounting, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Easy for clients to access and upload documents.
Load times to find clients and pull up documents. The program does not seem to auto-refresh very well when a new document is uploaded and a lot of the time the refresh button does not fix the issue.
Jim A.
Accounting, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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SmartVault makes it very easy to store a cloud version of the tax return, along with supporting documentation, and share with client as need in a secure setting. I also like the integration with DocuSign.
I wish that they had a Droid version of the app for my phone.
Megan B.
Accounting, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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Our firm loves this software. It has made our business work more efficiently and therefore generated more money since we've purchased the software.
The software makes it possible to asses our firm and client documents, safely and securely, from anywhere . It has saved our firm hours of time each week and has made our systems and processes smooth and more efficient.
Some aspects of the software are outdated and I wish the company integrated with other programs such as Zapier and Outlook.
Rabiha B.
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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I thoroughly enjoy using smartvault on a daily basis for work it's easy to use and I can access it from work or home on my phone or laptop.
There used to be a functionality which would show a user's access to a folder. When we would allow clients to obtain online access we would be able to see which ones were accessing which files. We can no longer see that anymore even if they have existing online access
Gabby C.
Accounting, 1-10 employees
Used daily for 2+ years
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Very convenient and safe for clients
The software is so easy to upload to and from. Clients access their folders with ease and we get email notifications hourly if there are uploads. It puts clients at ease that their documents are in a secure home. We've used SmartVault for a few years, but with the pandemic it was imperative to have since no one was dropping off and mailing in documents with everyone being remote.
It's pretty tedious to go in and set up new folders and restrictions/allowances for clients.
Nicole D.
Accounting, self-employed
Used daily for 1-2 years
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What I like most is the organization of files and the security behind the product. I know for a fact that my customers and company’s files are safe.
I enjoy everything about Smartvault. They are always evolving.
Sibylle P.
Accounting, self-employed
Used daily for 2+ years
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Thanks to SmartVault, it's easy for my clients to provide me with the data I need to keep their books, and I can answer almost any question they have for me quickly and easily. I started off receiving statements by email. I've left that M.O. behind forever.
Bookkeepers depend on bank and credit card statements, payroll reports and other documents to do their work. Smartvault makes it easy for me to get these documents from my clients and to keep them easily findable as needed. Without Smartvault, I think my daily stress levels would be 100 percent higher and I could not have grown my business to the extent that I have.
The fact that I need to switch "views" to get certain jobs done.
MIRANDA K.
Telecommunications, 11-50 employees
Used daily for 1-2 years
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We have been very satisfied with smart fault, which allows us to organize and archive securely an enormous amount of client files to be shared.
Smartvault is ridiculously easy to use, and provides a ridiculous amount of storage for the price. Our organization has set up branded portals and client folders for exchanging large files, and set up and transfer of terabytes of information took only one day. It is easy to manage customer access from the administrative tool, and support is always available when we need it.
The tool is extremely secure, but there is one things that I have found frustrating. It is difficult to create top-down permissions for subfolders. This will only slow you down a minute or two, but it can be mildly frustrating.
Thanks for your review Miranda! We love to hear how we're helping our customers and appreciate your feedback! -Team SmartVault
Jessica F.
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I didn't get much out of it, it has great potential and perhaps when they introduce an option to embed a file upload on my website that doesn't require login I would definitely consider signing up again because it's not worth it if my clients don't want to use it.
Lots of great features, a generous amount of secure storage, unlimited clients, custom branding, good support.
Not user-friendly to learn, I usually figure things out clicking around but had to rely a lot on tutorials and support documents to find my way around. It's expensive for a small practice but I can't see how it's very well worth it to a medium or large practice. My clients did not like having to log in to share files with me so as much as I wanted to like it I switched to a solution that allowed my clients to upload securely without having to keep track of yet another username and password.