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OfficeTools by CARET Reviews & Product Details

OfficeTools by CARET Overview

What is OfficeTools by CARET?

OfficeTools provides everything you need to run your tax and accounting practice from a single solution. With OfficeTools Workspace, you can track projects from start to completion, organize client data, manage staff and tax workflow, and automate billing from one central dashboard—all while integrating with the applications you use most. OfficeTools Workspace helps your firm streamline day-to-day operations and work as a unified team.

OfficeTools by CARET Details
Languages Supported
English
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Product Description

Taking the best of a traditional office work area and digitizing the most familiarly used aspects creates a single WorkSpace. Combining dashboards and data-entry into one screen, users find a uniquely empowering experience where everything is just one-click away. Work in One place, and for teams, Work as One! This experience is what we call, WorkSpace.


Seller Details
Seller
CARET
Year Founded
1983
HQ Location
San Diego, CA
LinkedIn® Page
www.linkedin.com
345 employees on LinkedIn®
Description

CARET leverages the prowess of advanced and secure practice management systems and seamless payment processing to empower legal and accounting firms, professionals, and their clientele to refocus their expertise on what truly matters.


SG
Overview Provided by:

Recent OfficeTools by CARET Reviews

Verified User
U
Verified UserSmall-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
0.0 out of 5
"BUYER BEWARE!! OfficeTools Workspace does not live up to promises made during the sales pitch"
The project tracking workflow part of the application would have been nice if it had not been so slow. Client manager allows you to link all entit...
RN
Robert N.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
1.5 out of 5
"My office tools experiences"
the time tracker and project management system worked great. we were more able to track our time in projects as well as track down any to-do or tas...
Keegan W.
KW
Keegan W.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
0.0 out of 5
"Everything is only 1,000 clicks away"
Time entry and billing are quick and easy
Security Badge
This seller hasn't added their security information yet. Let them know that you'd like them to add it.
0 people requested security information

OfficeTools by CARET Media

OfficeTools by CARET Demo - OfficeTools Workspace Calendar
View all your firm's upcoming appointments, calls, reminders, and to-do's from a single screen.
OfficeTools by CARET Demo - OfficeTools Workspace Contact
Access every client's pertinent information such as documents, billing, notes, and activities.
OfficeTools by CARET Demo - OfficeTools Workspace Invoice
Generate emailable invoices using your connected QuickBooks account and get paid instantly using PayNow from Abacus Payment Exchange.
OfficeTools by CARET Demo - OfficeTools Workspace App
Keep track of your activity from anywhere with the OfficeTools Workspace mobile app!
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Have you used OfficeTools by CARET before?
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Video Reviews

90 OfficeTools by CARET Reviews

3.6 out of 5
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90 OfficeTools by CARET Reviews
3.6 out of 5
90 OfficeTools by CARET Reviews
3.6 out of 5

OfficeTools by CARET Pros and Cons

How are these determined?Information
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Pros
Cons

Overall Review Sentiment for OfficeTools by CARETQuestion

Time to Implement
<1 day
>12 months
Return on Investment
<6 months
48+ months
Ease of Setup
0 (Difficult)
10 (Easy)
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Verified User in Accounting
UA
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

The project tracking workflow part of the application would have been nice if it had not been so slow.

Client manager allows you to link all entities related to one client. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

- VERY VERY SLOW!! Painfully SLOW!

- Not user friendly; cumbersome

- Reports did not provide the information we were promised

- Functionality was not what was promised

- Emails would not sync as promised.

- Support and training was grossly inadequate. One would think they would want to provide as much support as needed to ensure customer success. However, they are all about the sale because they lock you into a contract that they refuse to let you out of. They don't need to give you support because they continue taking your money.

- Application is archaic and has changed very little since I used it at another firm in 2010.

- Trying to make this application work for us cost our firm much more money and time than it should have. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

They did not help us solve any problems. Support was almost nonexistent. They required that we sign a contract and they continue to charge us for a product that we cannot use despite expensive upgrades to our server and network per their specs. The product does not live up to the promises we were sold. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Keegan W.
KW
Audit Manager
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

Time entry and billing are quick and easy Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

Assigning tasks, client contact management Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

It does a good job with billing where it can be done quickly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Usman  H.
UH
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: Organic
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

Whole Office suite, which must have software package for everyone Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

Microsoft did a remarkable job by offering this complete package Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

Day to day customer interaction, advisory and followup Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

AC
Firm Manager
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
(Original )Information
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

The ability to control workflow is very strong. As an operations manager, procedures, policies, and workflow are very important. Today, in this time of COVID-19, many employees are working from home. It would be extremely difficult to accurately run the office without Office Tools. Using Office Tools, we can track all projects regardless of where our employees are working from.

Update: Unfortunately Abacus decided to introduce a new payment system, APX, to the software. We BETA tested the software and it did not work well, yet they rolled it out and essentially broke the software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

Support has declined. There are long wait times since Abacus took over, and I find that many of the support staff are less familiar with the software than I am. There is some strong support staff such as Oscar Diaz. He should be the model of what their support staff should follow.

Update: Just about Everything

1. APX System

a. The Pay Now links and portal Payments do not work correctly. We can no longer trust any of the information on our AR reports. We are dealing with missing payments, payments made that do not post to invoices, payments posting to invoices that were not actually paid, customers being charged multiple times but no record as to where the

extra payments have gone, and Payment links just not working. Statements are incorrect as the payments are not posted correctly.

2. QuickBooks Online sync no longer works. We decided to give up on APX and go back to QBO but most of the sync features no longer work. Essentially trapping us to work with a damaging payment system.

3. Lacerte Sync is slow, and also inaccurate,

4. Office Tools is slow and buggy, many times you can click on various tabs but the screen doesn't change.

5. If we try to send statements it crashes and the "Last time sent" column no longer lets us know where it stopped. This causes clients to get duplicates, triplicates, and more of their statements.

6. The services are constantly getting hung up. We even switched servers and they still get hung up.

7. Conversations with the APX team are very difficult. I spent a half-hour with high-level persons and the conversations focused on how I expect the payment system to work when I just need it to work.

8. We have a large number of Tickets (20 or so) that have not been resolved since September 21.

Overall very very disappointing, with no solutions in sight. We have begun the search for replacement software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:

If you are considering Office Tools there are a few variables that you should look at. Office Tools is a powerful tool in running your office and managing workflow, invoicing, timesheets, and document management. However, it requires work. We sent almost 3 months mapping out our procedures so they could be translated into Office tools. We also spent time creating backend codes and information. The training lasted 1 week. We had a trainer come to our office, and then we continued the training for the remainder of the week.

We did have a misstep, as we did not account for the amount of resistance we faced with our staff. We had to regroup and spend more time training and explaining the benefits this software would bring to the office. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are solving Invoicing and billing all of our time. We have been able to centralize invoicing and billing has increased greatly. The ability to send out retainer invoices and monthly statements has also helped us realize more profit.

Updating: Currently it is not benefitting us at all and actually costing us money. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

RN
IT
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
(Original )Information
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

the time tracker and project management system worked great. we were more able to track our time in projects as well as track down any to-do or task in projects. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

Besides the time track and the projects I always had issues with office tools. I was unable to run accurate reports. the billing section was a mess. Sometimes when I look for clients nothing will populate it was a complete mess filled with bugs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:

My only advice is to truly look into the software and compare it to others, I had a bad experience but that does not mean you will have one. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

The billing is more correct the searching and filtering for clients is much better. Insightly as a CRM is much more advanced and more customizable with better tech support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

BE
CPA- owner
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

it takes care of our time and billing... but there is a lot of room for improvement Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

more flexibility in contacts and emails. Major delays when transferring from one client to another. TOO many emails when sending documents to the Portal- NOT client-friendly AT ALL Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

it has made scheduling much easier plus tracking client work. HOWEVER, the portal problem is a major issue. Not sure if they even care to fix Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Russell B.
RB
C
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite on behalf of seller
Incentivized Review
(Original )Information
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

Billed as an all-in-one solution for practice management. Practice in a box concept is attractive in principle. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

It doesn't do any single function particularly well and runs horribly slow. The interface is outdated and clunky. Customer support is poor - slow to respond, quick to pass the buck and blame the hardware (which was also provided by Abacus, don't get me started on that disaster). Doesn't actually address the systemic issues even after multiple, multiple tickets submitted over a 4 month period. Eventually gave up and stopped trying to use it. Stuck in multi-year contract so obligated to continue paying for it even though I am no longer using it.

Lacerte integration was broken at the time we were using OT and was not fixed by the time we moved on. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:

Run far away from any product attached to Abacus. Do not sign a long term contract. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

I am not currently using OfficeTools because no part of it functions well enough to be usable, much less to meet any of our needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Natalie Lara of OfficeTools by CARET

Hi Russell,

I'm so sorry about your experience. I would really like to see if we can help you in any way. I have notified our support teams and they may reach out to you. You can also reach the support leadership team immediately if you prefer: csleadershipteam@abacusnext.com. I do hope we can help you get set up properly!

Mike F.
MF
Owner
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: Organic
Verified User in Financial Services
AF
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

Our firm was given the opportunity to evaluate office tools as an alternative to the major vendors that are in the marketplace. We enjoyed the ability to use the applications seamlessly for documents and presentations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

The biggest challenge for our organization is that some of the functionalities built into office tools are not compatible with the major vendors requiring our staff to learn new shortcuts. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

We were experiencing an increase in costs for each seat license by double digits - using office tools we were able to reduce overhead costs by 15 percent across the board. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Accounting
CA
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?

It's usefulness in providing the ability to track time, billing, invoicing, contacts, projects, and documents in one place, while integrating with other key business tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?

There is not much to dislike about this software, but it's interface needs a little upgrade. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:

Take a look at all the advantages that this software can provide because it will maximize productivity. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?

It's maximizing the ability of the current staff to fully integrate many business tools. Benefits are endless as it works with many softwares in the industry. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.