Canopy

"The future is now!"

Comments: Saves us time with client and task tracking. No more chasing spreadsheets and lists.

Pros:

Extremely responsive customer service with lots of great customization to help keep your workflow on task. One stop shop to keep track of your workflow while maintaining client data and files. Endless opportunities due to constant upgrades and add-ons. We are currently migrating our entire firm onto the platform and utilizing the client portal feature to exchange information and save on printing, customer requests and storage options. Most impressive is their constant interaction asking how they can improve and getting feedback on new features.

Cons:

I really don't have any dislikes, and if something is a little clunky with a layout or usability they are usually upgrading or fixing it. I'm excited to see tax software so I guess I dislike not having it? The tax software would plug another hole and add well to the transcript and tax form resolution features.

Alternatives Considered: Accounting Power, Payroll Relief, UltraTax CS and Ignition

Reasons for Switching to Canopy: Best bang for the buck and most aggresive in creating new content.

Good software with strong features and lots of promise at a pricey point.

Comments: My overall experience with Canopy has been a good one thus far. Even though I bitch about the cost l, I continue to stay because of the ease of use, simplicity for my clients, and automation I’ve created within my tech stack.

Pros:

The best feature is the client portal and mobile app. It has been a business transformation blessing from way before COVID was ever a thing. I remember way back in 2017 when the mobile app was nearly launching how it revolutionized the way my clients do business with me. This is what has kept me on Canopy in spite of the price hikes.

Cons:

Canopy recently has changed their pricing model and I don’t like it because it increases the barriers to tax professional adoption. There are other titles out there who bring good feature sets and a much lower price point and has given me reason to start shopping elsewhere. What keeps me at Canopy is not wanting to invest the time in moving my clients files over to a new system, notifying my clients that I virtually moved virtual offices, and avoiding the headaches of all the client questions that would ensue.

Alternatives Considered: TaxDome and Taxaroo

Reasons for Choosing Canopy: I wanted a good tax management experience and the one provided by Canopy was superior to other competitors at that time around 2016-2017.

Switched From: TaxAct Business and Taxaroo

Reasons for Switching to Canopy: I wanted a more integrated experience and an online only software. Taxaroo left me desiring a better client portal experience and way back in 2016-2017 their offering was not as strong as CanopyTax.

Customer Service is Terribly - This Company is too new to meet deadlines

Comments: Purchased a license in order to use their Tax Prep software (NOT the tax management software - ability to track clients and manage the funnel of taxes). Was told everything would be ready in time, and I ensured they knew I was only buying now because the Tax Prep software was going to finally be ready. (They told me 4 different dates for when this would be ready as I've been working with their sales for 2 years, waiting for them to get things together). Jumped in and decided to make them our company for our tax prep business, and everything went wrong. Salesperson we worked with had quit, implementation team was slow, and then I got off the phone with a support person who casually mentioned that the tax software was tossed out for this year. We had no clue, completely SOL as we have 4 weeks until tax season started and had to rush to find another company. All done without an apology, just "oh that's funny, I thought everyone knew that we couldn't get the software ready", even though we were assured that it would be - for a quick sale I imagine. Lots of back and forth with different support team members. We had been paying for two months and getting everything switched to their platform - which took an enormous amount of time and effort from our people, just to be told they won't have it ready for us and we will not receive a refund. I told the support manager before about this review being posted and was told I "might get a call back" for help.

Pros:

The software is cloud based and therefore easy to access.

Cons:

The company consistantly made promises that they were unable to uphold. Pushbacks on product releases that we desperately needed, and no refund for their mistakes. Not the company you want to go with when you need something dependable. They're a tax company which makes it even more absurd that they mess around with deadlines.

Alternatives Considered: ProConnect Tax

Reasons for Choosing Canopy: We counted on Canopy and they totally blew it.

Switched From: Drake Tax

Reasons for Switching to Canopy: We thought they would be able to deliver everything to us at a decent price.

Grang Bang for the Buck

Pros:

I love that Canopy had the ability to help me route my tasks properly and productively. I also LOVE that there is a firm facing iOS app. It helped me be portable!

Cons:

My biggest issue with Canopy was the KBA and not being able to customize certain aspects of the recurring projects.

Best Software We've Found!

Comments: I've had nothing but good experiences with Canopy. The transition and set up was pretty easy, the support has always been helpful, it's easy to use and even our clients have mentioned liking the client portal much more compared to previous software we've used.

Pros:

It's easy to use and I love that it's continually updated and improved upon. Suggestions are actually considered and implemented which shows that they really care about providing the best product.

Cons:

I really don't have much to complain about but one thing that would be helpful is being able to automate due dates to avoid weekends or holidays if they're on a semi-monthly schedule.

Alternatives Considered: BigTime and Karbon

Reasons for Choosing Canopy: Canopy was just a better overall solution and saved us money not needing more than one software for document storage / file sharing and a CRM.

Switched From: SmartVault and OfficeTools

Reasons for Switching to Canopy: The alternative products were just missing something we needed or were more difficult to use.