Canopy

I love the project management aspect and the all of the templates. Recurring task and notifications. Email capability.

I would love to see templates for e-signature email notifications, ability to turn on and off different payment methods

Free support - chat in or ph call. Templates for global folder creation. Once this is figured out, you can populate new client files with all the needed folders in less than 30 seconds. Using "Tags" to identify clients to send email blasts inside Canopy - brilliant! Unlimited file storage. Thomson Reuters charges me which is odd in this day and age with super affordable data storage. Annotations to files (i.e. PDFs) without paying for an ADobe license. Client portals. I've used other portal software, including the Thompson Reuters VO portal, but Canopy has this down to simple science. The Desktop Assistant allows you to edit live Word and Excel files.

File migration from File Cab. I wrote a how-to process sheet for my firm so this is doable just time-consuming. Don't let that deter you as it is part of the pain to switch from one software to another. We also are ditching Thomson Reuters Practice CS (i.e. their time and billing software) for the one inside Canopy. The invoicing and reporting are much weaker in Canopy compared to Practice CS so this is a problem but wasn't a deal-breaker. Canopy has assured me that better reports are forthcoming and I trust Canopy.

We liked the ability to access the software/information from anywhere.

The software does not allow you to export a sorted contact list. A very simple option that has been neglected.

The product is simple to use. However, Canopy likes to make changes to items that do not need any changes. In doing so, they break their own system for several days and the new function isn't worth the hassle. Transcripts are now significantly more complicated and time-consuming to get to.

The fact that the backend team decides to make changes as to what they think is best for the client. Most of their changes do not have any positive effect on how we operate the practice and only make things more challenging and frustrating to use.

Clients like the portal. It has helped improve the perception that my firm cares about their info. It also feels very organized. It is easy to set up a portal.

Yegads, what to me seems like obvious items, the organizer doesn’t roll over from prior year to current year. Your current solution is for me to set up customer accounts for each member of a family unit. This seems dumb and a waste of accounts, my and my team’s time, my money and the client perception and experience. If i as a customer was asked by my firm to re enter all prior year into, I would be beyond annoyed. I would wonder what kind of high tech experience Alison isn’t offering me. As a customer, I would also be less inclined to complete it because It is a waste of my time. Your customer service and training library aren’t helpful. Since it is very self serve, I have no idea what to look for in terms of better ways to use canopy because I don’t know what I don’t know. You let us all know at the innovation summit about the 100 new features you have rolled out. My admin and I were dumbfounded to learn this. How did we not know About the cool ways you are trying to make my life better? Do you offer monthly training or “ask me anything” webinars that don’t require me to pay extra or upgrade to a higher level. If you do, why don’t I know about them? If you don’t, why don’t you? It seems like you would help me have a better experience with the software and keep me as a recurring customer. Also, it is hard as nails to get requests followed up on. Customer service isn’t great.