All reviews of Karbon

Benefits:

I like that the app looks great, it has really great potential to be the perfect project management software in the future. I use it as a checklist for all my work items. The client task option is also great for reminding our clients of outstanding items we need from them.

Drawbacks:

It's slow to load your work and sometimes work gets lost in the To-do's if they aren't assigned correctly by your colleagues (which is common when we are really busy). Karbon is willing to take our comments and ideas into consideration and always have great customer service.

Benefits:

The most impactful feature is the cohesiveness of Karbon. We needed one place for our staff to send emails, enter their time, and track their work. We used 3 different apps to do this and Karbon combined all of them for us. The Client Task feature Karbon offers is my favorite. You can set up recurring monthly requests for your clients and it sends reminders on your behalf.

Drawbacks:

Karbon is robust, but with time you will get used to it. The onboarding was super helpful and seamless. We loved the support we had along the way.

In sum:

Our team is more productive! They're spending less time sending emails and more time organizing their to-dos. We feel organized as a firm by being able to find client emails, assigning to-dos to each other and easily managing our work.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

In sum:

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.

Benefits:

Our original investigation into programs like Karbon were based on our massive email issue - clients would email the account manager or the Director (myself) and then we would spend amazing amounts of time cc'ing the right people. We were looking for a program whereby the email trail for a client was easily accessible to all relevant staff. Karbon has sufficient security to ensure its not open sharing, but allowed us to much better service client needs across our growing team.

Drawbacks:

The Kanban/Task Management didn't work well for our company and the way we operate - I think it might work well for many accounting firms in vertical stacks, but we operate on a tier based level and it made using the task management system in Karbon a complex nightmare. Staff became confused with assigning and allocating work tags. We use a different program for project/task management - but it synchronises broadly with Karbon - and we intergrated Karbon with T-Sheets to take care of time monitoring.

In sum:

Very good. The customer service is excellent, the updates are really regular - the forward focus is good. Overall, happy.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

Benefits:

I am constantly writing out "to do lists" and then I get to the end of the week and I need to consolidate those lists to make sure nothing drops off - with Karbon I always have my to do list available and up to date. I also enjoy the fact that i have better control of my e-mails and previously where I forwarded a mail to a staff member by way of delegating it to them i had no way of checking that the mail was attended to unless I added it to my to do list - whereas now I can add it to their to do list and monitor whether or not it was completed

Drawbacks:

there is a quite a bit of set up involved in terms of getting the work templates in place but that is to be expected I guess - although once set up those work templates will serve as a sort of process manual so it kills two birds with one stone - its just where I am a small practice the time taken to get all set up will take longer as it is only me setting it up in between still trying to manage practice and keep up to date with client work

In sum:

Practice management, staff management, job management, email management - it delivers all that I wanted in one app. What I would love is if the time tracking integration was not limited to tsheets as I have tested tsheets and it is more of a payroll focussed time management tool as opposed to a billing tool or tracking of job efficiencies tool - I would prefer if this integration was expanded to include a tool like Harvest for this purpose. Also if it could integrate with Xero HQ that would be wonderful as well as WorkflowMax just didnt work for me in terms of my logic or reasoning so I use Harvest with Practice Ignition and Karbon with only Harvest and Practice Ignition integrating with Xero - if I could get all 4 to talk to each other it would make my life a lot simpler and achieve better management

Benefits:

Product is very easy to use and makes keeping client communications together really easy which in turn helps make us as efficient as possible.

Drawbacks:

Would be great if there was integration with a client portal system.

In sum:

Karbon is a great app and has become an integral part of our business.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

In sum:

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.

Benefits:

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

Drawbacks:

There is yet ot be a fully functional iOS app

In sum:

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.

Benefits:

Our staff enjoys the Triage function and visibility of communication most about Karbon. With having a team approach to most of our client work, it's important for everyone to know details from client interactions. This has helped us to be more efficient, batching questions and keeping us from contacting the client repeatedly for the same thing. It has essentially helped us provide better customer service while making our team more efficient.

Drawbacks:

I would like to have more options of labeling clients, helping to narrow down a specific group of clients to target for an email message or reporting purposes. Filter work by work title instead of work type.

In sum:

Exceptional. Karbon continually makes improvements to their products. They look for suggestions from the users and are happy to accommodate finding a solution for a specialized request.

Benefits:

Most of our team already used their email inbox as a todo list, Karbon takes this functionality so much further and incorporates other workflows, CRM and team management. Client Tasks allow automation of regular information requests from clients helping our team focus on the actual work. The fortnightly release sprints are one of our favourite things about Karbon. When we on boarded the Karbon team promised lots of features and everyone has materialised.

Drawbacks:

Karbon is still missing some basic email functions that can prove frustrating and mean you still need to occasionally switch back to Gmail to get something setup.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

Benefits:

Karbon is intuitive and flexible in it's approach to managing our workflow. Their support is on hand if we need it anytime. Using Karbon has revolutionised our Workflow and enabled us to increase efficiency and visibility over the team.

Drawbacks:

In the beginning Karbon set up and customisation can seem a little daunting

In sum:

I am able to onboard clients quicker and provide a more seem less entrance to our workflow. Staff are able to collaborate and share work more effectively while I see the overall plan of work from beginning to end. I start and end my day in Karbon and could not live without it to run my business.

Benefits:

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

Drawbacks:

More people aren't using it!

In sum:

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.

Benefits:

This tool is so flexible and customizable; it could be set up to fit the needs of many different accounting firms, and even businesses outside of accounting looking for project management. It is great that it links to your email so you can add to-dos directly from emails. You can also communicate within the team through notes, and store all communication with clients in one place. From a management perspective, you can slice and dice work items in many different ways (by team member, client, type of work, status of work, etc). This tool will really do most anything you need in terms of project management.

Drawbacks:

I could get nitpicky and say I wish the scheduled work was more flexible in naming conventions and dates (for instance I want this work to be due every 1st Monday of the month). And it would be really great if you could get auto notifications when work or tasks were completed, or if tasks could be dependent on each other. Otherwise, as long as you spend a little time on the front end designing how you want it to work for you, Karbon is great.

Benefits:

We love that all emails are shared with the entire team and that at any one time we can also view the status of any piece of work. The checklists for both our team and our clients are also revolutionary in terms of the way we work.

Drawbacks:

The reporting functionality is lacking. No calendar view of tasks.

In sum:

Karbon allows total transparency across the entire practice allowing us to maximise efficiencies and streamline processes. We couldn't work without it!

Benefits:

Incredibly easy to use, it was designed to make it easy to ensure you are profitable. The information is gathered automatically through an email integrator and ensures that work and client request that are not anticipated don't get ignored.

Drawbacks:

Haven't really found any other than it doesn't support the Spanish language since half my team speaks Spanish it's made it difficult on that level.

Benefits:

Karbon is a flexible kanban style project management app that provides a visual way of seeing the status of various work items in process. I like that you can move work items between kanban columns with a simple click and drag feature. Also, the Karbon team is constantly improving the app and rolling out significant improvements on a regular basis.

Drawbacks:

Currently, Karbon does not integrate with other apps. I use a third-party app to integrate the apps in our processes, and it would be helpful to be able to pull Karbon into this type of process development.

Benefits:

Karbon is the answer to all our problems. We have struggled with other software in the past. We have always found we needed to change the way that we do things to fit the system, rather than the system suit the way we do things. With Karbon we don't need to change anything. It suits the way we work. It has a huge amount of flexibility without being so flexible you don't know where to start. You just get started and go from there. There is no huge learning curve and even if you do need help the Support is fantastic.

Drawbacks:

None. There is nothing to say other than positive things. Even if there were some the Karbon team are very approachable about new features or tweaks.

Benefits:

The common sense language is fantastic and navigation and training are both just so easy!

Drawbacks:

the layout isn't always the most simple but were getting used to it

In sum:

It has been great! we moved from Jetpack which is fairly new and has some time to go before they are as easy and useful and powerful as Karbon.

Benefits:

The ability to manage our work schedule.

Drawbacks:

Copy/paste features do not work well. I would like my Grammarly to integrate. I would like to move work tasks to client tasks. I would like to put an internal comment on client tasks. I would like to be above to select all work tasks, copy, then paste to Excel.

In sum:

Karbon has enabled our team to work efficiently, document work notes, and set up standards.

Benefits:

Karbon helps our firm stay on top of work items and allows us to share items between colleagues while avoiding lengthy email chains. Its a practical approach to creating standardized work, assigning tasks and having accountability. We love the integrations with other software applications that we use, it has truly made our workflow smoother and more transparent for the whole team.

Drawbacks:

Sometimes we don't necessarily want to create a new work item- Like if we were visiting a set of client for a marketing initiative- we would want to record the visits but would like a way to do this without creating a work item.

In sum:

Overall we enjoy the product, we use it to manage our projects, time and communication internally. It has been a great addition to our practice and has allowed us more efficient onboarding, ease of access to information and is a great collaborative team tool.

Benefits:

The software is so simple but yet so amazingly powerful. You don't have to spend hours and hours getting it set up. You can just jump right in and use it and then add more as you get familiar with the software. So many times I have to invest tens of hours to get an application set up only to be frustrated that it is not functional weeks after purchase. With Karbon you can just jump right in and start using it and refine it as you learn and use the software. The onboarding team is amazing and very responsive. Customer support is the best I have ever experienced. Available 24/7 and immediately responsive. This experience will be the one I measure all others by, from now on everyone must meet the Karbon Standard.

Benefits:

Shared workflows fully integrated with our email system. Good privacy control recently introduced, Communications with team members that avoids the use of email, I could go on and on but best you see for yourself

Drawbacks:

No mobile app yet. Integration with Xero contacts would be nice but basically an excellent system though there are always more things we as users would want, we are never satisfied!

Benefits:

On boarding process was fantastic Great training provided The team at Karbon are always willing to answer any question Integrates with our QBO file.

Drawbacks:

A little pricy but so too is losing clients because you forgot to lodge their BAS or something important.

In sum:

Karbon has been instrumental in shifting our practice from working in silo's to working as a cohesive team. From on boarding new clients to projects and regular compliance work we have it all covered now with Karbon. I rarely use my email Outlook folder. Training the brain to open Karbon daily was an initial challenge but once you overcome that hurdle you can't imagine running a business without it. I wish Karbon was around when I was a Sole Practioner as it would have expedited our growth rapidly. There are new features being added each week which is great for us.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

In sum:

Experience with Karbon has been great so far.

Benefits:

Easy to set up and use. Great tool for collaboration with colleagues and clients. One central location for all work, communication, and demographic data.

Drawbacks:

There are always things that could be improved in any software, but I don't feel like there are currently any holes in Karbon, just things that could be better. The "to-do" and "insights" section are two that I feel could be improved to increase their usefulness.

In sum:

We save time and gain efficiency and clarity with Karbon. The integration with Practice Ignition has been great as well.

Benefits:

It's completely streamlined our business, increased profitability and reduced time wasted on looking for things, or duplicating tasks. It's really easy to setup and maintain and you don't need an administrator to manage it for you. We have much more control over our emails now, assigning them to work and colleagues and setting up work such as on-boarding, system setup, or IAS and BAS is a breeze using templates. Client tasks help us receive information from clients in a more timely manner. There are too many features to list! But I'd pretty much tried everything on the market prior to Karbon and this - well it just ticks ALL the boxes and does what it's meant to do!

Drawbacks:

I'd love to be able to pin a note to the top of the work timelime. But that's not really a con, it's just a feature request!!!

Benefits:

The triage is a game changer. Easily follow conversation threads with customers and your team. Workflow is also really strong.

Drawbacks:

Time and budget analysis was not previously available but will be coming online shortly.

In sum:

My experience has been very good so far. The product functions well with no down time or time-outs. The support team is always respectful and response time it very good. The support tools are very easy to use. Easy of use is a strong point.

Benefits:

Everything about Karbon.

Drawbacks:

They have both of these on their Fall 2017 roadmap: 1) time clock for job/client/employee time tracking (which is the only other external program we now use and can't wait to only use Karbon for everything); 2) Canned Responses (template emails plug & play). Coming soon, and I can deal with these cons because of everything else has saved so much time.

In sum:

Have you ever wanted ONE SPOT to check email, delegate task, manage projects and customers? Karbon is IT. NOthing else compares to this robust, all inclusive system. Forget Twist and Slack, and your gmail or outlook, zendesk and all the rest. This program, while made for the accounting industry, is the perfect solution for any industry, and even a single individual could use it, but it shines with many users. No more multiple things to check and manage, it's all in one place. From Triage, you empty your inbox for email and @ tags from within the system and assign emails to other team members, create work from emails, and all correspondence tracks back to both contacts and pieces of work, so nothing is ever lost or hard to search. This is the most intelligent productivity solution available; I've tried many to disappointing results and now will stay with Karbon and not continue to look further. You can see work for the whole business, for yourself, and separately for your team. You can assign work to others, you can even assign tasks to clients and people outside your team, so they have their own checklist, which has comments and attachments - no more 10k emails! You can break down work into sections with different checklists and assign each task it's own team member and due date. You can drag and drop tasks to different dates. You can have templates for work to make creating work easy. You can make client tasks in these templates and also schedule repeating work. I can't go on, there are too many things that are amazing about this program. Do yourself a favor and try it out. I put it off for 8 months and after 2 days was hooked. 5 months later, it just keeps getting better and easier as we get more proficient using the program to its full potential. AMAZING! Nothing less than Amazing. Nothing slips through the cracks with Karbon.

Benefits:

Karbon is a such a great tool for our team communication and overall management of our business. It helps to keep everyone on our team in the know with regards to what is happening with our clients with the easy to use features of assigning tasks, creating to-do lists & checklists, and following up on work. It's also helped take following up with clients off of our plate with their "assign to clients" feature that includes auto-reminders! Our team acclimated to Karbon rather quickly and they continue get excited when learning about new features. I do need to mention that the customer support is excellent! Our questions/needs are responded to almost immediately. Lastly, Karbon is continually adding features and listening to what their customers are asking for...and it shows with their updates that are frequently being communicated. In short...WE LOVE KARBON

Drawbacks:

The only outstanding items right now are Outlook & TSheets features. We'd like to see folders in Karbon for ease of access and organization with emails, along outlook calendar visibility. We'd also like the ability to edit time in Karbon to avoid having to open up the TSheets application to view/edit. But I know they are diligently working on adding additional features and I'm hopeful that we aren't too far away from these.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

In sum:

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

Benefits:

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

Drawbacks:

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

In sum:

Excellent and thrilling

Benefits:

Get rid of the spreadsheets, reminders, to do lists, annoying pieces of paper lying around- Karbon encompasses all elements of practice management in an easy-to-use, robust and inclusive manner. Features such as scheduling and triage enables work to be assigned to different colleagues, and then kept on top of! Client tasks also ensures that clients are kept in the loop with their tasks and this saves the firm time chasing for info. The support provided by the Karbon team is excellent. Would highly recommend for all accountancy firms.

Drawbacks:

Can take a little while to be accustomed to, however as stated the support is excellent and the features are easy to navigate!

Benefits:

My Motto for every day is "How can I help you today" and Karbon is my best asset For helping others. When the accountants in our office need a report or need to know if something has been done and they are too busy to check I can filter All Work in KARBON and bring it down to the file they are looking for in a very short time. I can have their answer back to them quickly and in a manner, they can use. I can check for each client what tasks are overdue and through notes on the file keep all the involved managers and partners aware of timing for their involvement in the file. When you learn to use the filters correctly the information you need is easily accessed and up to the minute. Karbon and I work as a team to send emails, keep notes, report findings, and make sure that "no client ever falls through the cracks - and calls to say "you forgot this - now I have to pay a penalty..."

Drawbacks:

Until you learn that the secret key to Karbon is FILTER - FILTER - FILTER then it is almost too big a program and under-utilized by a number of people. One of our senior partners summed it up like this "Imagine the only way you have to communicate to the office is through the KANBAN view in KARBON" this view teaches you to make notes, share emails, FILTER All Work and generally get as upclose to the file as you can so all the participants can work on any file in the company confidently knowing that they are working with the latest information. The only true Con is the magnitude of the learning curve. But with the seminars and help articles, you can feel supported and know you are not alone. There are many people who can help you out. There are WAY more pros than cons - really.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

Benefits:

Client communication is so simple yet secure. Automation works very well. It integrates with other products that I use.

Drawbacks:

Lack of control over sorting of work items in kanban so it's hard to practice first-in first-out workflow. Lack of flexibility in the templates so it's hard to do A/B testing and continuous improvement.

Benefits:

Reports, dashboards and intelligent workflows give full control of work progress, team capacity/utilization and Time and Budget.

Drawbacks:

Integration with calendar and prioritizing work/tasks but Karbon team is working on it already. It's not many options for making bulk actions.

In sum:

Work, clients, planning and communication in one place. Thanks that we can focus on that what is important for our clients and build strong, long-term business relations.

Benefits:

The email feature is very good. It enables a remote team to pick up things even if the email was sent to someone else

Drawbacks:

Flexibility of changing the templates e.g. attaching a pdf file

In sum:

Great workflow management tool.

Benefits:

Karbon has improved the efficiency of our company and centralized most of our processes all in one place. Checklists, client details, projects, work assignments, it's all in one place. There is now no question on who is performing what task and responsible which project, and all the information we need to perform our tasks is right there. I highly recommend Karbon to any company that want's to grow and make things easier for themselves!

Drawbacks:

It will force you to re-think how you work, which is the entire point! If you think this is a con, take it as such, but for all of us who are looking for a better way to work, Karbon is for you.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

Benefits:

I love the system in general. The personal training for team members was amazing. Additionally, it is wonderful to work with a company that really listens to feedback and suggestions. There are constant improvements and upgrades that the development team rolls out based on customer needs. All of the above combined with the basic features have made the product addictive! I truly cannot imagine my workday without Karbon.

Drawbacks:

It's a big investment for a small firm. I wish that the cost would come down a bit. However, if used properly this product can increase efficiency assisting to create capacity within a firm. It was also difficult to get full team "buy-in". There is a lot of initial set-up required to create full usability; however, once the time is invested it pays HUGE dividends by way of efficiency and standardized processes.

Benefits:

I like the fact that this software gives me visibility on Work that is not complete, by person, by budget, by client, by type of work. The flexibility of seeing reporting is great.

Drawbacks:

The ability to search emails needs improvement. You can do it, however it is more effective to use Outlook.

In sum:

This software has given us the visibility to see all of the work that we have. Before this we were all siloed in our inboxes, now we have shared communication and collaboration on work.

Benefits:

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.

Drawbacks:

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.

In sum:

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.

Benefits:

- One stop shop to see everything that is going on within the firm - Multiple ways to view information to manage work or see the tasks I need to do - Easy to oversee lots of pieces of work - Manageable inbox - Work templates make workflow standardized and easy to accomplish - Team actually uses (and loves) it!

Drawbacks:

- A bit hard to navigate to information within a client record - simple design mean sometimes there is a lot of clicking - No mail merge/email template database yet - have to keep an external email template database and add to commonly sent emails. - Beautiful design can come at a cost of having to click around a bit.

Benefits:

The workflow management using Kanban just makes it so easy to see what needs to be today, tomorrow and in the future. Workflow templates are an awesome way to get organized and allow for an efficient way to get client work done. The checklist format in work templates is great, one of our staff setup a complicated payroll for a client via a template that now anyone can go in and do that client's payroll without wonder if they missed something. Definitely a must have app for accounting workflow.

Drawbacks:

No custom fields ability, we send out birthday cards to our clients and we can't keep track of that in Karbon at the moment. Email scheduler so we can do up an email and schedule to send it out later. Email templates would be a great feature too.

Benefits:

I've been looking for a solution like Karbon for a few years. I'm a sole trader right in the middle of 52 different financial year end client jobs (I am juggling 52 clients in a 10 day window right now). I am normally out of control at this time of year, but I have found time write this. Each job is scheduled, I know who is waiting for who, how many hours I need and importantly the dollars to flow in. All emails around these jobs are connected to the job. If the jobs have issues (as they are doing as I type), I can move the timing easily and make notes. Generally extra work flows from these jobs and I can now slot that into a future, less crazy time, and it won't be missed. In the past, year end has been a highly stressful, unpleasant time, but I am in control. I've used CRMs before but they were sales focused and I needed work focused. I'm in for the long haul with Karbon.

Drawbacks:

I am looking forward to ongoing product development. I've seen great new features in the first 3 months already.

Benefits:

The templates for work items which serve as company systems and procedures as well as project management allows us to monitor staff performance while resting assured that work is completed accurately and timely. We have more visibility than ever before and the software promotes the creation of new work in a way which defines 'how' it should be completed and so we now have operating systems and checklists for all our work. We know exactly what is and isn't being done.

Drawbacks:

Integration with 3rd party applications is still quite limited - we find ourselves duplicating data entry in some areas. It would be great if the software allowed the use of custom fields to record data not currently catered for by the preset data fields.

In sum:

Increased visibility of all projects and undertakings in the practice. Ability to monitor deadlines and schedule reminders. The automated aspect of the software is an indispensable quality for our industry and the option to create client tasks which are housed in their own space (outside of email threads where they often end up getting lost or missed) and the automatic reminders that underpin these, have transform our service delivery times and accountability measures.

Benefits:

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

Drawbacks:

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.

In sum:

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

Benefits:

Super easy to set up Very responsive support Makes scheduling work very easy Makes keeping on top of ad-hoc jobs and regular jobs very, very easy Constant innovation and improvement of the app Keeps all correspondence and emails relating to each job in one place Searchable emails, work, contacts etc

Drawbacks:

I can't think of any cons!

In sum:

I don't know how I managed my clients and jobs before Karbon ... I know it was a struggle! With Karbon, it is so easy to keep track of what you are doing for each client with all correspondence and documents relating to those jobs attached to each piece of work. You can search for jobs, emails, work etc, create To-Do lists, assign work to colleagues and so much more. I can recommend this app to all professional service businesses, particularly bookkeeping and accounting practices.