Accelo Reviews

Pros
It has so many features that it's light years ahead of anything else I've tried and I've been through dozens of programs. I'm probably using 10% of the features yet it's still indispensable. I love how I can set different rates for different clients, even the same clients but for different projects. I can fairly easily track my time and send invoices.

Cons
That said, Accelo is so utterly confusing, that if you don't already have a complex management system that you're converting from, and is one which you already mastered, you can get very easily overwhelmed by the differences between Retainers, Tickets, Projects. You can attempt to just use one of them and see how it works for you, but then certain items won't be billable if not set up with the correct item. I wish they had templates set-up already designed for different industries, where they had instructions of how to setup and perform specific processes for your needs. Then a guide to stages to go to the next complexity of tools. I feel like I can't move forward for fear of breaking the 10% I'm able to use properly (or improperly). Support is very poor and only available via email. It can take a day for a response and I find myself having a week long back and forth on something that would take just a few minutes via phone.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
- we loved the idea of a fully integrated professional service system. TImesheeting, project management, and business development (prospecting) follow-up, and project cost tracking were essential for us. - we use everything in Accelo except 'ticketing'. - we were initially attracted as well by the invoicing and the project profitability features. - time sheeting, project cost tracking, business development (opportunity funnel) and basic project management work very well for us. The team - including external contractors - use the system externally, and it greatly streamlines our weekly All Hands review meetings. - We have consultants with extensie experience with Salesforce and Work, and they comment this is much better suited to our 'professional services' application.

Cons
- the proposal/ quoting functionality has been a disappointment. We wish there was better functionality to impot text, 'view' andedit and modigy layout, due to the nature of professional services work. The quoting/ prosposal module is probably fine if you are quoting 'canned' services like web design packaging, or system configuration / maintenance, but not for much else.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
I like that Accelo combines almost all facets of my business in one application. Not only do I get CRM & sales capability, I also get job/task tracking, project management, support ticketing, and billing! There is integration with key third party apps so I rarely have to go anywhere else to run the business. I also like the user community engagement and level of communication to keep informed on product development.

Cons
It is hard to dislike anything given all the recent improvements, but next I'd like to see a payroll feature, so either I can export timesheet data to a third party application or run a payroll process within Accelo.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
With Accelo everything is all in the one place: CRM, Email Communication, Project Management, Support Ticketing, Invoicing, Retainers, etc. and it also integrates with our other tools (Xero, MailChimp) and when there isn't an integration there is the API which covers 90% of the product. It's the only product we found that did everything well. Interface is clean and easy to use (although has a bit of a learning curve - mostly due to the HUGE amount of features and multiple ways to get things done). Support is responsive and when something doesn't work they are quick to rectify.

Cons
The automatic scheduling is a little inflexible and favours distributing work across multiple work days rather than in one solid block. The API doesn't cover retainers. We have almost 800 subscriptions from a previous product that we can't import. The product is pretty expensive when compared to competitors - even for all the functions it provides. Reports are limited to what is provided and filtering of tables. Would be great to be able to build more complicated reports across different record types, sum result columns, etc. Xero integration is great but doesn't track custom columns in invoices.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The platform has a number of serviceable solutions that integrate well with each other, and with Google Apps / Gmail. The onboarding options are helpful and support staff are very friendly. The Retainer tool does a decent job of managing recurring tasks and commitments once you figure out how to use it.

Cons
Unorthodox vocabulary, modules operate differently from class leaders, so the learning curve is significant and that can impair adoption across a team. None of the modules can reasonably be called best-of-breed - but most are still useful. - The Ticket system is a far cry from Zendesk, but still good enough. - The quote feature doesn't stack up to Quote Roller, so we still use QR for sales proposals. Accelo used to support integration with Quote Roller, but no longer does. - We tried to get by with their Project Management tool, but everyone gave up. Now we use JIRA for major projects. - We have multiple businesses operating in different currencies, so we reply on Xero for accounting, and Freshbooks for invoicing.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 7/10

Pros
The idea of a fully integrated professional service system is attractive. Yet there is no delivery on the promises.

Cons
- Does not do what it says on the box - The offering is convoluted and they offer no training - Staff are rude when you ask for support - Consistent bugs erode what little value that remains

Rating breakdown

Pros
Accelo is an excellent tool for project management, planning, tracking. The dashboard options allow us to plan our day accordingly, it have helped me with greater efficiency. Deadline dashboard, one of the best feature.

Cons
Implementing the software for your project isn't easy, therefore assistance is needed, therefore the accelo team was able to help us with that.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
The tool is very powerful. It has a lot of features that allow you to do time tracking, project management, client communication, invoicing and much more. I think because it is trying to be so many things, it is lacking in most all of those areas and the user experience and overall feature set is quite cumbersome and falls below expectations for the money.

Cons
The tool is overly complicated and lacks what you would consider basic features in so many ways. Our team of 8 people spent over 200 hours learning the tool and we are still learning and still frustrated weekly. They try to say that you can make the tool do about anything you want, but doing even the basics requires a tremendous amount of time. Things that should take 30 seconds often take multiple minutes. The system loads pages so slowly that it's not uncommon to watch the wheel spin for 30+ seconds which seems like an eternity when you are trying to work. I would not purchase the tool again and I would not recommend it to others unless you have a full time staff of IT or super users who will do nothing but manage the tool.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 1/10

Pros
Before we used Accelo, time spent on work was gathered via a rather ugly Outlook task list workaround, which was neither practical nor scaleable. Accelo's project and retainer scheduling functionality allows us to book-in large projects much more easily than before, and also ensures that time is tracked more accurately, allowing senior management to find true profitability of projects and marketing services.

Cons
Of course there are a few elements of Accelo that could be improved, but one of the benefits of working with Accelo is that they listen to their clients. I am constantly in touch with Geoff and the team to offer ideas and help with beta testing, which makes me feel like a valued customer.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Having all of our leads and project management in one place allows us to follow through relationships with prospective and current clients, right from the initial contact to project delivery and follow up.

Cons
The learning curve is quite high and on boarding new employees takes some time. This just needs the procedures set up but it does take resources in a small company.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
It can seamlessly be integrated with all leading platforms. It helps accumulate everything at one place be it CRM, Email, Project Management, Support Ticketing etc. They have one of the best support services.

Cons
The only con that i find in it is that it is abit tough to learn at one shot. So new ones take some time in getting handy with it.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
Covers all operations in a professional service company. Automatically archive emails on contacts, issues, projects. Full text search throughout the full database

Cons
Design is a bit cluttered and inconsistent

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
I use this to keep track of tasks I need to complete monthly for my bookkeeping clients. I also love that it has built timers and will invoice for the time through accelo or it will send the invoice to accounting software.

Cons
The projects need to be created each month but you can set up templates to speed this up. Would like it if the retainer automatically created a new project each time it renews.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Abundant with features, slick user interface, iOS app available which syncs with the online software, integration with all the popular software platforms like Xero, Gmail, Google Calendar etc.

Cons
No cons to report for Accelo.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 10/10

Pros
The best part about Accelo is the across the board integration. We always struggled with a) getting everyone on the same page and b) having info in far too many places. Getting everything in one system has been huge.

Cons
The reporting is probably the weakest point right now, for us at least. There is basic dashboard reporting (and VERY good excel exports) but its not customizable very much at all.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

Pros
The cloud makes everything easier. The seamless integration with other products helps develop the business. The best part is the mobile application, everyone is always traveling so this helps streamline everything.

Cons
It took awhile to set everything up and have everyone learn the system. This caused a bit of a slow down, but was worth it.

Rating breakdown

Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

Pros
Accelo has everything we need to manage sales, customers relationships and billing. The timers are nice. This allows us to see just how much time is being spent on projects, task, and customer interactions.

Cons
There is a small learning curve and while you can use it "right out the box", it has taken us a couple of weeks to really get our processes into their system. The moble app could be better also.

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Pros
Everything under one roof, great value, and great support.

Cons
Very cluttered interface, runs slow, and not enough control over invoice format.

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Pros
Its so wasy to use and to explain to all other team members the instructions and free trial were a breeze

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Likelihood to recommend: 8/10

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Likelihood to recommend: 9/10

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