Ivy

Love Ivy!

Comments: Love ivy software! Very user friendly and can do a lot for your business in terms of invoicing, organizing and keeping updated.

Pros:

The overall invoices look very professional. Easy to send proposals and sourced goods to clients. Love the fact that you can see the furniture pieces and sourced goods in the invoice.

Cons:

In beginning had some kinks, but ivy team works hard to fix and improve as years went on. Always felt like I was heard and they made positive changes.

Great Concept

Comments: We like how intuitive the software is, saving time by adding products, creating tear sheets, and getting client approval within moments.

Pros:

This program makes tracking our products very easy, and customer service has been fantastic! We love being able to add things from all over the web and customize them to our needs.

Cons:

There are a few things with billing that end up being duplicated in quickbooks. In that same respect they are duplicated within the project tracker (so in order to track appropriately you must save to a spreadsheet and delete the duplicated items - difficult when you have 10+ pages of products).

Banking Nightmare

Comments: Very stressful. I am canceling their service

Pros:

I bought Ivy because it was designed for interior designers and it was recommended by ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) Ivy has a easy to use extension that makes it very easy to add materials and pricing to your personal inventory from any website. Ivy also has a project management system to track purchases and tasks responsibilities.

Cons:

I have only had an account with Ivy for less than 2 months and have had several major banking issues. 1st it was hard for me to link my bank account to my profile. My Ivy account manager ended up having to do it manually. 2nd they somehow linked a bank account that was not mine to my profile, so when my clients paid me I was not getting the payments. They had to refund my clients their money, then I had to re-send the invoices for them to pay again. Which was very embarrassing. 3rd they have been attempting to take a large amount of money from my bank the whole month, which they are not authorized to do. Causing me hundreds of dollars in insufficient fund fees. On top of this, there is No customer service/tech support number for Ivy. I only have an email and phone number for my assigned Ivy account manager. Who is available by appointment only, even though I paid for the Unlimited Package that "includes" priority support. How can you run a business with no access to tech support!!??

Perfect for my design business

Comments: I personally have loved it from the beginning. It works for me and my design business. It may not be for the beginning designers who think it’s expensive, but I personally find a huge value in it. If you use it right it will save you money.

Pros:

Great software for smart designers who are already running a successful and busy business. It’s a platform that takes multiple tools I was using separately and combines them in one place. I think it’s the perfect platform for a small but busy and thriving design business. I love the tool that allows me to pin things as I would on Pinterest, but I am able to import them directly into my ivy library to put into a presentation. I love the ability to edit client facing details vs vendor facing info... if you are a busy designer using various tools from quickbooks to sketch up and excel etc... it will help simplify your processes and store it all in one place you can access from a computer. It works with quickbooks so I didn’t have to abandon my previous bookkeeping platform, which makes my accountant happy.

Cons:

I wish I could do more from the app but I know it’s new and constantly changing and improving from the daily designer interaction.

Changed our Business

Pros:

This product is very user friendly and has streamlined our business. It allows you to choose how you want to use it depending on what best suits your business and clients. The interface keeps getting better and better, and seamlessly syncs to Quickbooks so our bookkeeper always knows what we are updating. Their support team is great and always responds to my questions right away. They are also very receptive to software suggestions and are always providing training sessions. Would never go back to our old software! We also can order directly through vendors on Ivy.

Cons:

Wish we could make and keep a running budget that wasn't a proposal.