Karbon

Better but not Best

Comments: Karbon support has always been great. Higher ups are not accessible. While they always solicit feedback, it never seems to get heard. They seem to be chasing markets and customers right now and not focusing on their existing clients and how they can help them be more productive.

Pros:

Karbon has revolutionized Workflow for accountants. Truly taken it to a new level. It does so many things so well that it is hard to not take those features for granted until you compare it to other similar software. Here are some exceptional features While not perfect, the email integration is great Creating and managing projects is relatively easy and painless Client task management is excellent and extremely useful Automations is work is great team collaboration is very good especially at the task level Mostly great utilization of screen realestate.

Cons:

Todo list is frustrating for me. Being a Franklin Covey person, i want more control over my todo list. I cant export my todo list either which would help mitigate this issue. Not enough control over tasks. Task list can be overwhelming and thus not useful No proactive feedback about assigned tasks or notes. IF I assign someone a task, email or note, I want to know when they have done the work and if they have not done the work. I want automatic feedback on this. I want more shortcut icons. Some steps are really "clicky" I wish there was much better app integration. This is very limited. On a task list, if a task does not apply to a client I want to mark it NA. Not delete it or mark it complete with a comment. I need more flexibility on labeling clients. For example I want a job to be flagged as extended and not just have a temporary status of completed.

The well deserved leader in Practice Management for Accountants and Bookkeepers.

Comments: The Karbon employees are amazing. Helpful and friendly. Also, Karbon offers quite a bit of general support to help run an accounting firm, from weekly webinars to an online magazine and blog they seem like they are invested in your practice in general. This support has been helpful on numerous occasions!

Pros:

The best thing about Karbon is the automation that is built into the existing templates and the ease at implementing it into custom templates.

Cons:

The biggest challenge with Karbon is the time it can take to learn the idiosyncrasies of the software. It sometimes seems counterintuitive but if you take the time to learn the software things will make sense.

Not worth the money - there are lots of other options

Comments: I hope it's improved since I tried using it. I know Karbon has a lot of positive reviews, and it has always confused me because I liked a lot of the other project management applications we looked at better than it. But who knows - maybe my brain just doesn't work right for this particular piece of software.

Pros:

It's a good-looking, flashy app. I liked being able to assign emails to coworkers and clients and my own tasks. Full disclosure: we used this for about three months at my company and then abandoned it. It just was not helpful to us.

Cons:

My list of complaints about Karbon is long. Mostly, I feel like they hint at features that only technically exist. For example, Karbon integrates with QuickBooks Online, but I cannot understand why. It doesn't pull in relevant company information from QBO - not even company addresses. Those have to be manually entered. And yes, you can read your emails in Karbon, but you lose a lot of Gmail functionality when you make the switch: you can't sort emails into folders, save contacts into segmented lists, etc. Emails aren't even marked as read in Gmail! And, Karbon doesn't sync your contacts from Gmail. It brings in everyone you've emailed with. This is not helpful and extremely messy. There is no Google Calendar sync, which is what I use to sync my iCalendar and send my times and dates to all of my devices. So I just found Karbon really frustrating, especially at the price point - I feel like a lot was promised that wasn't delivered.

KarbonApp for the Growing Firm

Comments: Wonderful and I can't wait to continue to gain further best practice and utilize all the components around capacity planning etc.

Pros:

We implemented Karbon only a short time ago and I am already seeing significant impact on my time through the ease of delegation of specific tasks and the ownership of those tasks to be able to check provide oversite. My staff has had a similar response and although it has been a learning curve we all see the potential and benefits.

Cons:

There are a few items around being able to apply templates after work is created (currently you cannot do this only at creation). It also takes the server five minutes or so to show a contact that you add which is a pain when setting up new client work. We had asked to have contact emails imported and although they were provided for some reason they did not get imported (that combined with the delay was a bit of a pain). A few other items are more about learning how to get the best use out of all so I would argue are not dislikes but more learning curves as it changes the way you work significantly with the implementation of triage. Overall the team at Karbon have been great in answering any questions and give a lot of opportunity to show you best practice even when you choose the self implementation option. I do hope they create more integrations with Xero Accounting Software as they do with QBO.

Karbon is for serious practice owners who want to scale their firm

Comments: 100% optimal. Its a solid product used by the best accounting firms globally. It is THE ONLY product on the market at the time of this writing that will action emails into workflows. If you dislike emails, then Karbon will help you delegate PDQ!

Pros:

It keeps our team optimized and as a practice owner I know exactly what's happening and more importantly what's not happening!

Cons:

Updating mass workflows for a new template - but honestly, each customer is so unique that it makes sense not to fiddle with the workflows on such a mass level

The best tool for accountants, with great support.

Pros:

It is designed for accountants to both manage their clients and the team collaboration effectively and efficiently. Either as the owner, partner of the business managing the team or as a team member managing the client projects on a day to day basis, this tool does a great job. I can't think of not having Karbon HQ. The Karbon HQ team is always providing new updates and on-going trainings to increase the usage efficiency of its users.

Cons:

Can't say there is anything I don't like. The UX has a classical design and may be updated to have a fresher look and feel but that is a minor enhancement.

Awesome Practice Management Software for Accountants and Bookkeepers

Comments: Excellent and thrilling

Pros:

Karbon is right at the top - best software available - permanently developing and adding features - super support

Cons:

there is nothing I don't like - Karbon is spot on perfect

Karbon User

Comments: Invested lots of time with the Karbon team in setting up our practice on the application, but this investment has paid off over the last 3 years with our practice able to scale and not loose sight of all work and tasks each team member is working on.

Pros:

A cloud-based, highly functional, simple UI application makes running our accounting practice much easier.

Cons:

There is yet ot be a fully functional iOS app

Karbon is excellent

Comments: Experience with Karbon has been great so far.

Pros:

Integrates well with many apps, including Zapier. Like being able to switch between kanban and list view for work overview. Staff are responsive and helpful when needed. Lots of useful and timely webinars are also provided.

Cons:

I would prefer to have a telephone helpdesk available, but have grown used to the online help and it's not that big of a deal now.

Tremendous

Pros:

Great features and helps manage your workflow well. Ability to send links to clients to download files

Cons:

There is too much clutter with the email settings functionality

Karbon review

Comments: Very good and would recommend for any business that shares jobs and needs to keep track of what’s done.

Pros:

The lost of tasks and ticking off as I go is great. It was of exceptional value when o had staff.

Cons:

I find the weekly section confusing. I would also prefer a “cleaner” screen for emails.

Karbon = AMAZING

Comments: It's helped me reduce stress by having everything planned and automated in my workflow! I should have done this years ago!

Pros:

Easy to get started. The community is amazing - lots of people willing to help you. Really good knowledge base articles!

Cons:

ha! I haven't found anything I don't like!

My preference of the Practice Management Tools available

Comments: Overall I find Karbon a pleasure to work with and has definitely made my life as a practice manager a whole lot simpler. It is continually getting better and it seems they listen to their users and make changes on what they hear which to me is the best thing a software company can do. Look forward to optimising Karbon more for our practice and definitely see it as a key software in view of the growth we are aiming to acheive.

Pros:

It's very simple to get your head around in the main and comes with a good set of instructions. Love the task list and kanban boards for work management and as a practice manager, it makes my life much easier to be able to see all the work that is happening from one system. It also works wonders with repeating work items where you are able to assign e-mails or notes to multiple timelines and even if the work doesn't start for another year you have got all the information right there at your fingertips. The client tasks are an awesome feature too which have decreased our turnaround time on work considerably. You can start a job and be 100% sure that you have got all the information required right there as all the initial tasks have been checked off. The other side we have found very useful is the collaboration. With a team based in multiple areas this is so key and we find Karbon becomes that one source of truth which tells us exactly what is happening.

Cons:

We have found it harder to get older members of the team onto the software and potentially could have a very simple addon for programs such as outlook and gmail which would let users use the system they're used of but still push the information into Karbon correctly. There has also been issues a few times with integration to Office 365 which when the whole office relies on the system can be a big hit on productivity. The other thing I probably would change if possible is the client portal and make it much more of a place where clients can actually log in and see the progress of their work and get an idea on exactly what is being sorted for them.

Exceeds expectations

Comments: Karbon has solved the ‘silo’ problem in my Busenius. Complete visibility of communications between team member and customer is now a reality. The Karbon development team and support team are amazing and really care about me and my business.

Pros:

Triage has eased the pain of dealing with the ever growing problem and distractions of managing emails. Digital communication with the customer and team members is smooth and easy. Workflow management and process templates has been a real game changer!

Cons:

Can’t think of any Cons… I feel this is a good thing. 😉

Karbon is my brain outside my body

Pros:

It's impossible to grow a firm without making intrinsic knowledge available to all. Karbon has allowed us to codify that knowledge in templates and checklists, while making both internal and client communications visible across the team.

Cons:

I'm looking forward to improved integration with our file storage system, as clients tend to want to upload documents through Karbon but that's not where I want them.

Transparent team collaboration

Pros:

The transparency of tasks, work, emails, etc across the team is amazing

Cons:

It is quite expensive without many options to reduce fees

The possibilities are almost endless

Comments: Support has been fantastic and it has taken a while but they guys have been there throughout to help us.

Pros:

Well where do we start - how we are now more productive with e-mails, the work flow tasks, the dashboards and now Insights!

Cons:

Budgets, time and fees are the main things that are lacking as is the issue with the inflexibility of deadlines but hopefully we might have found a workaround.

Task Management - We're now at our best!

Pros:

Thanks to Karbon, we are totally organised and know where we're at all times. With each email, you can either clear from the triage or assign to a colleague with a due date of expected completion which is attached to a piece of work. You will never forget a task again. Their search function make's it easy to locate information from many different platforms within Karbon. Karbon is so user friendly and their support team is the best I've ever experience. Can't rate this product high enough.

Cons:

No time tracking - but I know it's coming as they listen to their users. Karbon are always looking at ways to improve their product.

Karbon is great

Pros:

Easy to use Great team transparency Reduce emails

Cons:

A bit of a mindset shift, but if implemented correctly with a positive team it’s fine

Quick to learn and heaps of support!

Comments: Our firm was looking for something that could help us easily manage our day-to-day activities easily. Karbon definitely has given us that capability! With its features growing more and more we find ourselves consistently integrating new and value adding practices. The support team at Karbon thoroughly listens and takes notes on what its users want and prioritizes and implements those things timely with lots of training and how-tos accessible.

Pros:

There's less slipping-through-the-crack items Setting up projects is a breeze and recurring work ACTUALLY works Lots of customization within projects Creating to-dos from emails and on the fly Karbon support is the best

Cons:

More people aren't using it!

Karbon has streamlined our job management and reduced my stress level!

Pros:

TRIAGE - LOVE IT! you only read an email once, action it (assign to yourself, someone else, respond or create work), none of this reviewing the same emails as you constantly try to clear your inbox. You then work out of your TO-DO list and you even get the satisfaction of ticking items off the list The TRIAGE and TO-DO list help your own personal workflow/daily schedule but the "work" in Karbon is so easy to see at a glance what everyone is up to. We had someone really sick for a week and in the click of a button we reallocated the work, and all the correspondence with the client was attached.

Cons:

Not really a "con" just an area to continue to improve - Emailing out of the triage is good, and they keep adding features, but it doesn't have all features of gmail etc it works well for most, but the attachment limit can catch you off guard sometimes but i know they are increasing the attachment size.

A must have to delegate work

Pros:

WIth Karbon I am finally able to effectively delegate work and control execution. Standardize work processes and customize when necessary.

Cons:

More expensive as other solutions. However, I tried multiple and Karbon is by far the best and worth the price.

Karbon is an awesome tool for any accounting practice!

Pros:

The best thing about Karbon is that it integrates with your email!

Cons:

It is very overwhelming when you first start only because it has so many features and options, but their implementation team is awesome and very helpful!

Excellent Management Tool

Pros:

Allows for a highly organized system for all facets of your business. Having the ability to delegate and assign work, check on the progress of each task by creating checklists, and have your email filtered in so that nothing is overlooked has been immensely helpful to our business.

Cons:

I suppose depending on the size of your team, it can get expensive, however I do believe the benefit and time savings would outweigh the cost. I would also like to see a better notification system when checklists have items left unchecked for more than the duration of the job post. This would help prevent steps being overlooked or ignored.

All-in-one accounting software which increase productivity and output

Pros:

The availability of necessary data for an accounting work is the greatest advantage of this software; e-mails, clients, project managements, etc., it all available in Karbon. It can filter inputs and data of my entire team which makes allocation of files easier and time-saving. Visibility of necessary facts is top-notch. With this software, monitoring of deadlines and schedule reminders is easy and automated.

Cons:

Limited integration is a disadvantage. Since our team uses more than one software for our daily accounting needs, it would really be a great addition for integration with excel or QuickBooks. But this might be included in future updates which we will gladly be looking forward to.