# OfficeTools by CARET Reviews **Vendor:** CARET **Category:** [Accounting Practice Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/accounting-practice-management) **Average Rating:** 3.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 90 ## About OfficeTools by CARET OfficeTools provides everything you need to run your tax and accounting practice from a single solution. With OfficeTools Workspace, you can track projects from start to completion, organize client data, manage staff and tax workflow, and automate billing from one central dashboard—all while integrating with the applications you use most. OfficeTools Workspace helps your firm streamline day-to-day operations and work as a unified team. ## OfficeTools by CARET Reviews ### 1. BUYER BEWARE!! OfficeTools Workspace does not live up to promises made during the sales pitch **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 23, 2024 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The project tracking workflow part of the application would have been nice if it had not been so slow. Client manager allows you to link all entities related to one client. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** - VERY VERY SLOW!! Painfully SLOW! - Not user friendly; cumbersome - Reports did not provide the information we were promised - Functionality was not what was promised - Emails would not sync as promised. - Support and training was grossly inadequate. One would think they would want to provide as much support as needed to ensure customer success. However, they are all about the sale because they lock you into a contract that they refuse to let you out of. They don't need to give you support because they continue taking your money. - Application is archaic and has changed very little since I used it at another firm in 2010. - Trying to make this application work for us cost our firm much more money and time than it should have. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** They did not help us solve any problems. Support was almost nonexistent. They required that we sign a contract and they continue to charge us for a product that we cannot use despite expensive upgrades to our server and network per their specs. The product does not live up to the promises we were sold. ### 2. Everything is only 1,000 clicks away **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Keegan W. | Audit Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 28, 2023 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Time entry and billing are quick and easy **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Assigning tasks, client contact management **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** It does a good job with billing where it can be done quickly. ### 3. Office Automation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Usman H. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 18, 2023 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Whole Office suite, which must have software package for everyone **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Microsoft did a remarkable job by offering this complete package **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Day to day customer interaction, advisory and followup ### 4. Office Tools is a Game Changer - Updated June 29th 2022 **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alessandro C. | Firm Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The ability to control workflow is very strong. As an operations manager, procedures, policies, and workflow are very important. Today, in this time of COVID-19, many employees are working from home. It would be extremely difficult to accurately run the office without Office Tools. Using Office Tools, we can track all projects regardless of where our employees are working from. Update: Unfortunately Abacus decided to introduce a new payment system, APX, to the software. We BETA tested the software and it did not work well, yet they rolled it out and essentially broke the software. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Support has declined. There are long wait times since Abacus took over, and I find that many of the support staff are less familiar with the software than I am. There is some strong support staff such as Oscar Diaz. He should be the model of what their support staff should follow. Update: Just about Everything 1. APX System a. The Pay Now links and portal Payments do not work correctly. We can no longer trust any of the information on our AR reports. We are dealing with missing payments, payments made that do not post to invoices, payments posting to invoices that were not actually paid, customers being charged multiple times but no record as to where the extra payments have gone, and Payment links just not working. Statements are incorrect as the payments are not posted correctly. 2. QuickBooks Online sync no longer works. We decided to give up on APX and go back to QBO but most of the sync features no longer work. Essentially trapping us to work with a damaging payment system. 3. Lacerte Sync is slow, and also inaccurate, 4. Office Tools is slow and buggy, many times you can click on various tabs but the screen doesn't change. 5. If we try to send statements it crashes and the "Last time sent" column no longer lets us know where it stopped. This causes clients to get duplicates, triplicates, and more of their statements. 6. The services are constantly getting hung up. We even switched servers and they still get hung up. 7. Conversations with the APX team are very difficult. I spent a half-hour with high-level persons and the conversations focused on how I expect the payment system to work when I just need it to work. 8. We have a large number of Tickets (20 or so) that have not been resolved since September 21. Overall very very disappointing, with no solutions in sight. We have begun the search for replacement software. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** If you are considering Office Tools there are a few variables that you should look at. Office Tools is a powerful tool in running your office and managing workflow, invoicing, timesheets, and document management. However, it requires work. We sent almost 3 months mapping out our procedures so they could be translated into Office tools. We also spent time creating backend codes and information. The training lasted 1 week. We had a trainer come to our office, and then we continued the training for the remainder of the week. We did have a misstep, as we did not account for the amount of resistance we faced with our staff. We had to regroup and spend more time training and explaining the benefits this software would bring to the office. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are solving Invoicing and billing all of our time. We have been able to centralize invoicing and billing has increased greatly. The ability to send out retainer invoices and monthly statements has also helped us realize more profit. Updating: Currently it is not benefitting us at all and actually costing us money. ### 5. My office tools experiences **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Robert N. | IT, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 27, 2022 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** the time tracker and project management system worked great. we were more able to track our time in projects as well as track down any to-do or task in projects. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Besides the time track and the projects I always had issues with office tools. I was unable to run accurate reports. the billing section was a mess. Sometimes when I look for clients nothing will populate it was a complete mess filled with bugs. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** My only advice is to truly look into the software and compare it to others, I had a bad experience but that does not mean you will have one. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** The billing is more correct the searching and filtering for clients is much better. Insightly as a CRM is much more advanced and more customizable with better tech support. ### 6. review **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bruce E. | CPA- owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** it takes care of our time and billing... but there is a lot of room for improvement **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** more flexibility in contacts and emails. Major delays when transferring from one client to another. TOO many emails when sending documents to the Portal- NOT client-friendly AT ALL **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** it has made scheduling much easier plus tracking client work. HOWEVER, the portal problem is a major issue. Not sure if they even care to fix ### 7. Clunky, slow, and horrible **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Russell B. | C, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Billed as an all-in-one solution for practice management. Practice in a box concept is attractive in principle. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** It doesn't do any single function particularly well and runs horribly slow. The interface is outdated and clunky. Customer support is poor - slow to respond, quick to pass the buck and blame the hardware (which was also provided by Abacus, don't get me started on that disaster). Doesn't actually address the systemic issues even after multiple, multiple tickets submitted over a 4 month period. Eventually gave up and stopped trying to use it. Stuck in multi-year contract so obligated to continue paying for it even though I am no longer using it. Lacerte integration was broken at the time we were using OT and was not fixed by the time we moved on. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Run far away from any product attached to Abacus. Do not sign a long term contract. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am not currently using OfficeTools because no part of it functions well enough to be usable, much less to meet any of our needs. **Official Response from Natalie Lara:** > Hi Russell, I'm so sorry about your experience. I would really like to see if we can help you in any way. I have notified our support teams and they may reach out to you. You can also reach the support leadership team immediately if you prefer: csleadershipteam@abacusnext.com. I do hope we can help you get set up properly! ### 8. Best Practice Management Tool for Small to Medium CPA Practice **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mike F. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** We adopted OTP almost 7 years ago. The APP has really helped improve workflow management ,. In addition OTP integrates with our QuickBooks Enterprise, Outlook so our contact database is always up to date **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** We have noticed that after OTP was purchased by AbacusNext, that customer support was not as responsive to support requests as they had been in the past.Additionally, there has not been much in the way of new features rolled out since the acquisition. However, if you're a smaller practice (say under 25) ,we believe that Office Tools is still one of the best & affordable practice management tools on the market today. A good practice management tool will improve your practice, increase productivity and increase your bottom line. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We adopted OTP almost 7 years ago. After we implemented OTP had immediate improvement of or project management & workflows. Then in the subsequent years we improved our project turn time, increase our revenue & profits. In addition at any point in time all of our team knows the status of any project as well as an integrated database for our contacts to QuickBooks Enterprise & office 365. ### 9. Officetools Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2021 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Our firm was given the opportunity to evaluate office tools as an alternative to the major vendors that are in the marketplace. We enjoyed the ability to use the applications seamlessly for documents and presentations. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The biggest challenge for our organization is that some of the functionalities built into office tools are not compatible with the major vendors requiring our staff to learn new shortcuts. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were experiencing an increase in costs for each seat license by double digits - using office tools we were able to reduce overhead costs by 15 percent across the board. ### 10. Great Accounting Management **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 04, 2022 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** It's usefulness in providing the ability to track time, billing, invoicing, contacts, projects, and documents in one place, while integrating with other key business tools. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** There is not much to dislike about this software, but it's interface needs a little upgrade. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Take a look at all the advantages that this software can provide because it will maximize productivity. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's maximizing the ability of the current staff to fully integrate many business tools. Benefits are endless as it works with many softwares in the industry. ### 11. Really good project/time management software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Theresa A. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I like it's ability to integrate project time/management and billing. I like all the information that is able to be kept in Office Tools for a client. The support team is great also. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Sometimes it took longer than expected to run certain reports (i.e. YTD Staff Utilization). I wish there was more automatic/improved integration with Quickbooks and other payment processing programs. And then if something that has already been synched needs to be corrected, I feel there are a lot of issues and hurdles to resolve something like that. For example, exporting invoices to Quickbooks is fine and invoice numbers are the same. Somehow it can't be done the other way around because Office Tools will then assign a NEW invoice number that is different from the invoice IF it is created in Quickbooks. I wish notes can be move obvious with regard to a client. I also wish that more than one contact (like a CC for an email can be kept for a client). The write up/down part of the WIP is also very sensitive and also affects the invoice when you don't mean for it to do so. I also wish it could tellus if **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** I think consistency is key. Therefore, set processes up prior to using office tools to be able to utilize all functions availalbe. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Staff efficiency using staff utilization - finding the good and bad. We definitely haven't used it to its full potential but I know it is a good time management software if we do get to that point. ### 12. Office Tools review for a tax office **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I like the ease of use for marking the current appointments as complete which will automatically prompt you for the next appointment which can be next week or year. Their program works well for sending out appointment reminder based on our specs. We also like the ease of the invoicing system **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** There are additional reports that I would like to have for office management needs. I've asked for over 3 years for the reports or the ability to create my own reports and no progress has been made. It would also be nice to have a report that will display the clients current year appointment and their prior year appointment so I can verify that all clients from the prior year have an appointment for the current year. Again this is an easy report to generate since the data is all there but not the ability to assimilate the reports that I would like. I wish the appointment reminder text was two communication so the client could respond with a yes to confirm or a no to cancel or reschedule **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Figure out what aspects of the CRM software is important to you before committing to a contract. OT has worked out well for us **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have saved a couple of hours a day with the automated appointment reminder system. The same can be said for the invoicing abilities. On average we are saving 3 hours a day in employee hours daily or over 200 hours during tax season. Great cost savings ### 13. "Tools" gave us the ability to scale our business and take to the next level **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pete S. | Tax Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Really like that we were able to merge 4 or 5 different software applications into one. This was a huge part in making us more efficient and giving us the ability to make our processes more scalable. Since time tracking and billing are integrated with contact, project, and document management, the software fully immerses the user in the system and gives you very little reason to go outside of the software. E-signature built into the document management is very nice as well. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Some functions that OfficeTools offers are not the best solution for us. The Portal is clunky and hard to figure out how to use from both the company side as well as the client side. We also thought it might be a good replacement for mass emailing clients for marketing and/or tax updates but Tools really isn't great in client communication so it must be coupled with another application to accomplish that. Occasionally there is a glitch or problem with the software but overall it's been very steady in our 4 years of using it. It can be tough to learn all of the functionality and it takes time to get past the learning curve but that's somewhat understandable due to it being so robust and doing so much. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Contact management, billing, client time tracking, documentation of projects, project management, invoicing, document management, e-signature. It's extremely beneficial to log into one place for all of these things rather than having disjointed software suites that don't communicate. ### 14. Excellent very friendly management tool. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Trish D. | Finance manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 11, 2021 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I like the ease of keeping track of clients and its ability to control project workflow, everything is fantastic, I can track any project in a matter of seconds, its interface is well designed to be friendly, it is good and that is the important thing. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** What I don't like is its integration limitations and the other thing is that sometimes it tends to be slow when I manipulate it, but everything else works perfectly. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Take a load off your shoulders and save time with OfficeTools, a great tool that I recommend. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is being used to monitor and manage projects and also for tasks, billing and much more, it has really been very useful. ### 15. OfficeTools has made my life so much easier **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lisa C S. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I’ve been working with OfficeTools for a few weeks now. I cannot believe the efficiency this software has provided my office. It took a little work to get everything set up but... amazing difference in administrative activities after it was up and running. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I don’t really have any dislikes, I am learning the software and want to know it better. There are several steps to creating a project or setting up a work code. I guess if I had anything to suggest, it would be to make this process simpler and more intuitive, maybe with a checklist before starting and then having the software help you take the proper steps to complete a process. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Having all client information in one place: Name, Office Contact information including name, phone number, email address as well as billing and client communications, tax returns, and work papers is truly wonderful. The staff at OfficeTools is AMAZING. Their response time is phenomenal and I have never experienced a company with so many employees in varying aspects of onboarding that are as "on the ball" as this team has been. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am working on reducing non-chargeable administrative time. I have several wonderful spreadsheets that I have made to keep track of time and workflow processes but maintaining them takes between 1 - 4 hours each month. This problem has already been solved!! Immediate change! ### 16. Not as advertised. Below average. **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Darcyle R. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 08, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The ability to customize a project in almost and way. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The overall program I feel is quite temperamental. For that reason you have to have a true IT person to deal with it. I run into a different issue every couple weeks with the software. We were told that we could link our QuickBooks merchant account to the portal and that changed before we signed up and were never told. There video training seems to be on the same few subjects but not an advanced look into the software. The optional 3 hour onboarding should be mandatory and built into their pricing considering you sign a contract. That may help with some of the issues but overall a lot of the feature of the software don't work as intended. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Unless you have a true IT person I wouldn't suggest using workspace. If so, choose the 1 year contract to start it is worth paying the little bit extra each month than being locked into this software for 2+ years which is what they typically suggest. Also, make sure that you pay the extra for training with may clear up some of the problems. The on demand training and help sections are quite limited. Many times when I try to research something an answer for another one of their products comes up and I can't do anything with that answer. Then, I have open a ticket and a few times I end up on the phone with them for over an hour then I'm able to figure out the issue myself. If you want to be able to have clients pay their bill through the portal, which is also very limited in capabilities overall, you can only use their processors which doesn't offer the greatest rates in regards to credit card processing. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** The only problem this software solves is document management and project management to a point. These problems are not solved to a level of you should definitely use the software. The features that would truly elevate your firm and improve processes don't always work. **Official Response from Natalie Lara:** > Hi Darcyle, We are so sorry you have experienced some issues with OfficeTools. If you are currently experiencing an issue, please contact our support leadership team so we can expedite your request for help: csleadershipteam@abacusnext.com. We really appreciate your feedback about our training webinars and will share with our training team. Again, we apologize and hope we can help get you set up properly. Thank you, The AbacusNext Team ### 17. Huge disappointment **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Time keeping has become easier. All employees can enter time at the same time. Uniformity of client names/numbers. Office tools forced us to do this. Smaller tasks can be set up instead of sitting on and getting lost on someones desk. Having contact information in one place will be helpful. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The fact that it doesn't do what it was said to do. We had major issues with the implementation and the original installation person did not have a clue as to what she was doing. Because of that we incurred significant additional costs with our own IT professional that you have still refused to address. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Look at BigTime **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** So far we have not received very many benefits. We also have issues with pushing completed assignments to the next person only to find it returned back to the original person and not pushed to the next at all. Your technical support is completely non existent. We are constantly being told that it is a training issue and not a technical support issue. That is ludicrous. **Official Response from Natalie Lara:** > Hello there, We are so sorry you have had issues with our implementation. Our client services leadership team can escalate and immediately address your concerns if you contact us at csleadershipteam@abacusnext.com. Please allow us to help you get set up properly! Thank you for your patience! The AbacusNext Team ### 18. Rocky Start But Getting Better **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eric E. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I like that it integrates with Lacerte and QuickBooks and that you can also integrate e-signatures and payment methods. We utilize the portal and it has been great for the added volume due to the COVID-19 issues in the current situation. I also like that you can create workflows and assign tasks across our team. Looking forward to putting more of the functionality into practice as we can learn and train. Brandon has been helpful and responsive with training items. Seeing where each project and task is in the process is very helpful to streamline the work across the team. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Documentation on processes and every day use is lacking. I would suggest figuring a way to include more training and setup for smaller businesses. I feel I am fairly techie and can figure out software well but there are many times I had to reach out to Brandon because it just wasn't intuitive. The largest hangup so far has been that our e-mail server will not integrate with the SMTP protocol and is a huge challenge/inefficiency when sending notifications to clients. There is some information on the support site but it does not go into the level of detail needed to actually use the functionality of the software, sometimes even conflicting. Some processes are not intuitive for clients. E-signature seems to be an issue for people and the original e-mails going to spam filter or junk. Not being able to copy and paste information into the APX entry screens is hugely inefficient and creates room for human error. Should be able to copy paste. Kayla Libuszowski has been kind and helpful over email but seemingly refuses to call me as a client even though I have directly requested a call. Instead, she would spend valuable time crafting an e-mail opposed to calling and discussing. I have no way of knowing but can only assume that we would have arrived at a common understanding much quicker with a voice conversation than with passing e-mails back and forth. I only mention this as an example that it is SO IMPORTANT to have voice conversation with the client. I have been on the other end in a previous position and know first hand that the client feels so much better when they can have someone to talk to vs. trying to type out a conversation. It just isn't as efficient and increases the clients anxiety. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Get your current databases cleaned up. Communicate with OT about a plan for implementation and agree on what will work best for your organization. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having the client portal, e-signature, and APX payment options has allowed us to have one integrated tool and process to deliver and get paid from our client electronically. By utilizing the projects and checklists it has allowed us to train a new employee and allow them the confidence that they are doing things in the proper order and are completing all items. ### 19. Comprehensive product, but very clunky. **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alfonso S. | Partner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I like how you can do everything in one software and you do not need additional software for other functions. It also syncs with Lacerte. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** It's clunky. It can be slow at times. The timekeeping feature has too many steps and it's very hard to get employees to buy into doing because it is so many steps. I also don't like how the time cards work. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** If you don't mind a product that is a little clunky, it can meet all your needs. There are very few programs in Accounting that will cover all your needs, from timekeeping, workflow management, billing, and document management. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** OfficeTools is an all in one practice management software. It solves the problem of having multiple software programs for all your practice management needs. ### 20. Great experience, user friendly. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Camila A. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The ability to link the email calendar to the office tools calendar. I like being able to pull different type of reports depending at what I need to gather. Being able to keep times on the projects helps with the billing. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I would like to be able to manipulate the reports a little more, i often have to download them into excel to arrange them. Another thing that we've notice that doesnt happen often is projects dont appear on the task of the person who has it assigned. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** its a great tool to stay organize and prioritize assignments. It keeps the teams informed of their task and it serves multiple functions. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** being able to organize task, keeping and eye on the completion rates of projects. ### 21. Centralized software service to manage my tax practice. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 01, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Centralization of many aspects and elements necessary to run a successful tax practice. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Not being able to use the LaserApp feature, however I don't need it yet. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** If you wish to improve the effectiveness and efficiency to manage your practice, you should try Office Tools. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Time keeping, appointments, actions taken and history tracking under one central software. I've been able to reduce my efforts to keep track of all my business activities in regard to communication with clients. ### 22. Excellent practice management software for a small firm **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Katie H. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I love that it easily integrates with our tax software, minimizing the number of programs that have to be updated. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I wish the cloud based version was as robust as the server based version. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** I would recommend looking into software integrations as this was why we moved with this product. It has been a huge time saver for our admin setting up new clients. I also suggest doing a demo so you can see the full capacity of the software. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** No current issues. The server updates don't happen automatically and the notifications when they are available could be better. The benefits are the time savings we have realized in the three plus years we have been using the software. ### 23. I like it from the beginning **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** JIAO Y. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 17, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I had three choices before signing up with officeTools. I am glad I made the right choice. The software has extensive functions that cover basically all my need, and goes beyond. What really surprised me was the training and support sessions. They would go on lengthy sessions patiently just to make sure we as uses can use the software with little hassle as possible. Understand that our daily accounting work is already neck breaking, and we generally don't have much in-depth IT knowledge. Both of my training and support sessions went really well because the training and support staff were very patient and went ahead rooting out as many issues as they were able to, to make sure we can fully utilize the software and be more productive. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** So far I haven't found anything I dislike. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** This software is comprehensive, and it can help you sort out your team workflow if you are a bit lost at the moment. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Setting up server, migration, training. OfficeTools has a great team in dealing with customer technical needs. **Official Response from Natalie Lara:** > Jiao, Thank you so much for the kind words! We really appreciate your feedback. And we are so pleased you are seeing positive results from implementing OfficeTools. Sincerely, The AbacusNext Team ### 24. Comprehensive practice management solution **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dennis Y. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Office Tools offers me a comprehensive overview of my business, and helps me keep clients and projects organized. The ability to link documents to clients, in the same program where time and billing and projects are tracked, is fantastic! And it's super easy to stay on top of workload for each of my employees. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The program is a bit slow at times, and there is a lack of keyboard shortcuts for some windows (such as the ability to tab through notes in the Notes tab, or the ability to Save and New in the Receive Payments window). Automatic posting of payments to the client portal is also missing, but is a feature under consideration by the development staff. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Think about your office workflow before setting up the software, then take the time to set up project definitions and assignments to fit your company. And implement the whole solution (documents, projects, time & billing, etc.) to get the most out of the software. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Time tracking to determine project efficiency, or for hourly billing purposes, is quite easy to track. Office Tools helps me see where my time is being used, how much billable time I am clocking compared to administrative and communication time, and how far behind we are on client projects. ### 25. No support **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I can't really say as we have been finding it not super user friendly. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** There is no support base. We have called several times to ask questions, and the answer we get is "just go online and watch videos". If we want to set up the portal office tools support tells us we must do that with our tech people. It should be something that office tools generates. Office Tools also states that it works with Lacerte and they will update each other when there are changes to a client. However, we have found that not to be true. Office Tools will not update Lacerte. It states the client in not in Lacerte and it will have to create a new one. Which is not true. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Research and ask those who already use it how user friendly it is and how the support for the product is. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Look at the above comment. **Official Response from Natalie Lara:** > Hi There, We are so sorry you have had a less than stellar experience. Since your review is anonymous we cannot reach out to you directly. We'd like to expedite your issue to our client services leadership team. Please contact them by emailing csleadershipteam@abacusnext.com at your earliest convenience. We would really like to make sure you are set up properly! Thank you for your feedback, The AbacusNext Team ### 26. Fantastic Workflow and Document Handling...most other features fall short **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David H. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Project workflow and team notification are fantastic, once you find your flow. The portal and document storage is very convenient and quick to deal with. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Reporting, emails and calendar sync fall way short of expectations. Office tools does do all of these things, it just disappoints once you try to actually use them. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** If you want a solution to improve your workflow, Portal, and DMS this is where OT shines. All the other features are not worth the price. Yes they work technically but they work terribly. The form letters cannot print out our logo properly, its too small and it stretches out beyond the ratio. Emails cannot use HTML, they will look like you use tech from the '90s. Emails only really work for reminders. If you value a stable calendar do not use the Outlook integration it will erase or make multiple copies of the appointment, if you think the mobile app can give you access to your calendar, think again it doesn't work. Using the virtual server, good luck if you have people working in different time zones. OT implemented an Office 365 integration that also does not work. The questionnaires would be a great time saver but again it doesn't work, clients will fill it out and submit but it's a gamble if you will receive the results, OT also boasts a great report tool, but you will quickly find that you will only use one report that exports to excel, everything else uses an old engine that prints to PDF. Overall it is a pricey tool that works well for its core function but as soon as you try the other features you are paying for its a head shaker. Sales folks are friendly and simply ask you to wait for the next upgrade for improvements. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were able to consolidate many different software solutions under one umbrella. It has changed the way we transfer documents and structure workflow. ### 27. OfficeTools is a fantastic tool for client information management and workflow. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amy S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The best aspects of OfficeTools are the ability to manage lists of users and seamlessly pass work through the virtual workflow to other members of the team. The management of lists is intuitive and easy to use. Additionally, the ability to integrate the software with our server for collaborative editing of documents is a gamechanger! This allows us to convert all of our Supporting documents and work papers to an electronic format and pass the work around the office without ever getting out of our chairs! The integration with Outlook to capture all communication from the client is also a major plus. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Periodically one will encounter a random glitch in the system that inhibits the ability of the software to function in a very specific way. Typically however, whatever you are trying to accomplish can be executed in at least three other ways allowing workarounds that are generally satisfactory until the issue is resolved. Generally, customer service is very helpful in addressing whatever concerns you have with the software so this is not an issue. We do dislike how the splash page remains open as a separate window after startup of the program. This seems like a relatively easy issue to fix. Additionally, the user interface of the product seems a little bit outdated considering it is fairly sophisticated technology. It does look like it is straight out of the 1990's. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Office tools is a phenomenal tool! I highly recommend it for all professional service companies. Easy to use, and intuitive to learn/implement. The depth of capabilities is impressive. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** The workflow management in our office has been greatly improved. ### 28. Great All In One Solution for CPA Firms **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Project creation flexibility and time tracking. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Inability to run high level Management Reporting is disappointing, Client Portal is outdated and difficult to work with (Clients also don't like it), Client Contact Tab doesn't have much flexibility in adding new database fields nor flexibility in changing existing field names, very limited in ability to assign more than 2 people a list of clients, there's no Dashboard or high level visual representation of project status, running multiple reports is cumbersome and time consuming but neccessary since there's no other option in managing projects, difficult to show financial or operational results and efficiencies because of lack of reporting functions and features. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** OfficeTools provides an immediate out-of-the-box solution for project management and workflow, but falls short and severely lags in project reporting options, Client CRM, Client Portal and generally outdated User Interface. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Able to assign and track projects to multiple staff, tracking staff time is helpful ### 29. Great organization tool! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura R. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The consolidation of client information, time and billing and invoicing all in one tool. The invoicing feature with detailed tracking has been invaluable asset to our firm. We have made it a firm policy to track time hourly which has resulted in more detailed and useful billing information. We love the reports that can be generated within the software. We have made a variety of custom reports to assist in billing, employee time tracking, vacation / lieu time tracking, professional development tracking, and the list continues. We have our own workflow process however Office Tools continually catches any missing time or work that we need to invoice or complete. This is a great feature that we use as a second check for our workflow. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I would like to see a more user friendly or simple task tracking tool. We don't make use of project tracking at the current time but would like to in the future. Some of our staff will use the to do tool to keep track of what work is outstanding. If we were able to have a feature that could summarize each employee's tasks that would help from a work flow management perspective. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** It is a great piece of software that allows for you to track billing hourly, by client, by employee and generate a multitude of reports to review your WIP, AR, etc. It has been a time saving tool for our firm. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have defined our time more closely. We have a more thorough review of time cards by employees which has lead to an increase in billings. We can also track employee productivity which has been a great tool to assigning employee work loads. We review the outstanding time on a monthly basis and Office Tools also for us to stay on top of what time requires invoicing still. We use the function of multiple billing managers which also also us to divide employee time by client and billing partner to appropriate bill. This has allowed each partner to work at their own pace and schedule while still maintaining a "one-firm" approach to client work. ### 30. Now we only implement one software where we used to implement three. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Financial Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 18, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I can monitor appointments quickly. You can find the documents easily. Notes regarding customers may be added. I can monitor project status and set deadlines. I can securely send signature documents and it's easy to sign and return to customers. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I think it is expensive because of the features we use. I think it is more suitable for larger companies that want to communicate between users who are not together in the same office. I have difficulty obtaining different letters and lists of information. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** The software works very well to maintain our customer database and its personal data. We use the functions Touch, Notice, Phone, Timetable. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We provide it in one location in the business with the aid of tech. I will follow the success of the projects the co-operators are undertaking to make our company more organized and each step transparent to and team leader as someone calls and can know where we are quicker. Projects flow from person to person very well. It particularly helps us to work effectively without losing a beat when operating remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. ### 31. Great practice management program! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 16, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Centralized location for staff time tracking, billing, client data, document storage, and project management. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** No document preview; No automatic regeneration of projects **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** n/a ### 32. It could be more user friendly **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** kristen t. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The time tracking for projects is nice. As well as having a place for all customer information **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The set up of projects and billing is not as user friendly as it could be. Also, trying to reach out for support is frustrating. We only have someone check in on us when they are trying to get us to upgrade to new software when we aren't 100% sold on the current software we are using. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Make sure that you think out how you will be using OT so that your set up isn't too detail oriented. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping track of our time and seeing who can take on more work. **Official Response from Natalie Lara:** > Hi Kristen, We are so sorry you have had a negative experience trying to reach out to support. If you are having an issue and need assistance, please feel free to contact the client services leadership team directly so we can expedite your help request: csleadershipteam@abacusnext.com. We would like to make sure you are set for success with this product. Sincerely, The AbacusNext Team ### 33. Office Tools has been a game changer in helping manage our tax return compliance workflow processes. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 25, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Tracking time and the progress of all our projects. Also, the ability to bill clients and track receivables has been key. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I wish the calendar and scheduling interfaced with my google calendar. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Get it and you will quickly see the improvements to your internal business processes. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are realizing which products have the best ROI and how to utilize groups to sort, categorize and manage data to communicate timely with clients. ### 34. Good tool, great concept, has some flaws. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jessica B. | CPA, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 14, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** It is great to have a tool to organize and track our workload. I appreciate the integration with Lacerte to keep contact info consistent. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** There are some shortfalls in the program, errors. There is no way to add a remittance address onto a Billing Statement. There is no way to configure portal notifications so that they ONLY go to the interested party. So one person has to forward all notifications, of which some are inevitably duplicates. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** This is a great tool for managing workflow. It is great to have one place to look to know what everyone has on their plate and the status of that project. It has relieved a lot of the stress of having to trust that each employee is keeping up on their work and prioritizing as I would expect. ### 35. Great software for tracking billable time **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Caleb G. | Senior Accountant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** This software makes the process of inputting time spent on client projects really simple. It also makes it easy to invoice billable time and track work in progress. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** So far my only complaint is with the User Interface. When I attempt to use split screen on my monitor the OfficeTools screen takes up more then half of the space. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** If you are still using an antiquated method of tracking work in progress then I would definitely recommend making the switch to OfficeTools. It has saved our firm countless hours of time and money. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** OfficeTools has solved our problem of tracking work in progress and reviewing employee billing realizations. This has allowed us to bill more accurately for our services. ### 36. Office Tools is a great product **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lexus H. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Access to clients demographic information and ease of project management. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I wish that reports were in .pdf format, rather than crystal reports. I also wish there were more form letter options and ways to generate automatic emails for special occasions, such as birthdays. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** We have looked at two other project management software programs and returned to Office Tools each time. We have had issues with the Microsoft Exchange and would prefer reports to be viewed in .pdf form. However, the ability to create form letters, track projects, store documents and save notes are all great features to have. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to see the process of projects. We are able to see the full cycle of a task, beginning with initial scan-in and processing, to input, to the finished project (complete with signatures.) ### 37. Office Tools Workspace offers great options for project tracking and collaboration between coworkers **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The ability to track each step in a project. Knowing what status a project is in allows us to provide better customer service to our clients. I also like the way we can have many features such as billing, projects, and appointments all in one program. The options it offers for having an activity list helps to track what needs to be done for what client. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The program has weird glitches that cause it to freeze at random moments, or just close out completely. The limitations to the customization for the reports in Office Tools is also a little frustrating. Office Tools should not be able to add partners or officers to a business profile in Lacerte. There was a partner who had left a company but his profile did not get removed in Office Tools. When the company address was updated at a later date and those changes imported into Lacerte, it also imported him as a partner again. This would have been a terrible error had the tax return been submitted that way. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are better equipped to assist customers because we don't have to try and track down the person working on their project to see the status or what might be missing. It is a benefit to be able to use one program for projects, time and appointments. We are no longer having to utilize manual lists to try and remember all the tasks needed for our clients. Everything we need to track and remember to do, we can use projects and To-Do's and select when they appear on our lists. ### 38. nice features **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 28, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** time and billing calendar appointments are very good **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** there are many parts of the program we dont use so there is nothing negative to say **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** practice mgt ### 39. Office Tools keeps me organized! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John C. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I like that you can create different categories in which to save files. It makes it so easy to sort through all the documents for the ones I'm looking for. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The repost section is super klunky and hard to maneouver. I find it hard to get the report I need. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** I had an issue with APX, their payment system, but we've got it sorted out. It is nice to be able to send invoices and get paid right now. ### 40. Integration never worked **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dan H. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I liked the software but not the way the transition team handled our account. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The program never worked as sold. Office Tools never did integrate with Lacerte or Outlook as promised. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Look around at the other options. Office Tools did not work as sold **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We switched to another software package after we could not get Office Tools to work properly and the new company Abacus tripled the price on us. **Official Response from Natalie Lara:** > Hi Dan, I'm so sorry you have had a bad experience. I don't know if it is too late, but we'd like to try to help you if we can. I've escalated your integration issue so you will hear from our team. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to our support leadership team at csleadershipteam@abacusnext.com. ### 41. All in one project management resource for accounting professionals **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Travis B. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The resources are all there. I do not have to have other software or other services - e-signature, client portal, project management, client communication, client request, staff management, and more. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The workspace for officetools looks old but they have made some improvements over the years that make it look a lot better than it used to. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** Consider ALL the tools you are using and whether they can be replaced by this one tool. Consider the accounting and tax software that integrate with this software as well. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** I needed an all-in-one solution for managing my practice and so far I have found the resource that can handle it all. I forgot to mention, billing and payments too. ### 42. Great paper saving product! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 23, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** To Do's are a terrific aspect of Office Tools! My boss can send me a To-Do and I check it off when it is done. I can send him a To Do when I need him to do something for me! Fun, fun. During Covid 19 the program has been a great way for us to communicate! **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I think that they could do a little streamlining of the Portal System. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** We have never been sorry about switching to this product. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Paper work never gets lost! We scan everything and save it to documents in Office Tools. We have groups set up in Documents like Tax Returns, Workpapers, IRS Notices, Sales Tax, Bookkeeping etc. ### 43. Good program but little bugs that are baffling **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The document feature. Makes it easy to store documents and search easily. The reports are very helpful and laid out well. I like that we can email the documents right from the tab without exiting the program. I like having everything in one place. It's great to be able to put notes with the project. It's all in one place and accessible. Ami is a good tool to have. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** Applying payments is not always clear. Sometimes you apply a payment but then the balance doesn't update correctly. When projects and work status get closed, at a later time, they are suddenly open. You can't set anyone up on the fly. In the documents, you can't do a group move if it went into the wrong account. You have to move each one individually. Would like to have some "word" features in the notes section to make things stand out (i.e. bold, underline, highlight, etc). To add items to any list, there's so many places you have to remember to add it to. It should be one stop shopping. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** it's a good product but you have to get used to some of the idiosyncrasies. it will take a little time to get used to but once it's up ad running it's good. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** The benefits we have is that everything is in one place. Employees don't have to search 10 different programs to find documents. It has helped us to be more organized. The problems we're trying to solve is applying payments and credits and have the balance be correct. We've had payments get unapplied for no reason which has made some of our statements be incorrect. trying to figure out how to complete multiple to do's at one time instead of doing them individually. There are just little quirks that are not easily resolvable. ### 44. Good, but it needs some tweaks **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** James M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** We are overall pleased. Data entry is easy and it keeps up with what we need. It has a lot of features that we don't use, but overall it is good. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The billing is a bit cumbersome when you try to list a couple of services and the fee on an invoice. In order to get a column of numbers to line up, it takes a lot of work. I would also like to be able to create custom reports on my own. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Prime problem is billing and time tracking. It works well for that. ### 45. Great product...add ons are hard to implement **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jimmie P. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 12, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** The software is easy to understand...intuitive. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I cannot get the add on of being able to access it on my cell phone app to work...even when I called customer service. They never solved the issue. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** I would recommend the Quickbooks integration. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** I track projects/due dates and bill clients. The software helps with with my paperless office needs too. ### 46. Useful software on desktop **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 03, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Rolling over appointments to the following year. the ease of use in recording deposits and tracking outstanding receivables. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** I would like to see improvements in the are of scheduling appointments using automated systems like calendly so clients can schedule based on availability on my calendar. I would also like to be able to print a contact sheet that can be used for routing tax return work in our office with customizable check boxes for instructions for mailing or for checking off status of the return. As much as we are paperless and scanning all documents we still use temporary files to move documents in our workflow. Adding professions on the fly would be helpful. The calendar integration has always been a challenge it would be great if this could be improved. I don't like the fact that you cant see a scheduled to do until the day it needs to be done so I don't put dates on them so they can all appear on my screen to keep track of what to do. there should be a separate folder for Notes for clients rather than being on the contact page. If you print the contact page all the notes print with it... not efficient. We have asked for the monthly billing report to subtotal by work code so we can input into QB and unfortunately this would be a useful output but it is not available. We are ending up adding the income by work code manually to input into QB. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** consider cloud version **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** We keep track of billable time with clients that are billed hourly, we bill fixed fee each month for bookkeeping. ### 47. Office Tools changed how we do business **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dakoda V. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** It is a fantastic organizational tool that allows us to track every moving cog at our firm. Since we brought Office Tools to our firm it has helped substantially with office workflow and the tracking of project statuses, to the point that we now have an office saying "If it isn't in OTP it doesn't exist." **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** The only downside I notice is we tend to get left behind up here in Canada with the development and implementation of new features; par for the course when you're a Canadian, I suppose. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** No further advice **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** As mentioned, it has eliminated the guessing game to project statuses and workflow within our office. ### 48. Worst experience **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 09, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Loved the software and applications and integrations. Software seemed to be perfect fit. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** After paying initial set up, system was never set up. Calls never returned, no training. After 3 months after contract signed, still nothing. No response when asked to cancel, had to report as fraud. This was 2 years ago and I am still getting emails regarding my account as if I was still using it. When replying to emails to the sales rep, I get no responses still. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** general consensus among accountants, It lost its attraction when purchased by abacus. Company seems to be more about spamming to the masses and failing to implement or follow up. Had a wonderful product it has stripped down to useless. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Trying to figure out how to get off their mailing list and have their system realize I am no longer a customer. ### 49. Good all around product for creating a central place to manage your business. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 10, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** Integrated functionality and coordination between project flow, emails, billing and document manager that is an open system. It is the go to place for internal assignments, delegation efforts to staff and conduct meaningful analytics for billing. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** It has a few quirks operationally that forestall it from updating the status, go to proper window. You learn to work around them when they occur, but it would be a nice finishing aspect if it was smoother. I'm also looking for it to be better integrated with Lacerte to get benefit from synchronization. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** Workflow processes and coordination between staff. Better accumulation of time. ### 50. Great software for medium sized accounting firm **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Priddle-Luck, S. | Partner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 04, 2020 **What do you like best about OfficeTools by CARET?** I like the project management flow, it makes it easy to follow through. It is easy to assign the next steps to the next person and see what is going on the with project. **What do you dislike about OfficeTools by CARET?** It is slow in responding. There is no integration with Profile software. Sometimes the projects don't follow through correctly. The comparison billing report includes taxes which makes it unusable. **Recommendations to others considering OfficeTools by CARET:** I highly recommend it if you have quickbooks. **What problems is OfficeTools by CARET solving and how is that benefiting you?** we are able to track projects easier and not forget any deadlines. The ability to export to Quickbooks makes billing and receivables easier. ## OfficeTools by CARET Discussions - [When can you integrate google calendar to the office tools calendar and scheduler?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/30985-when-can-you-integrate-google-calendar-to-the-office-tools-calendar-and-scheduler) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Are other firms having problems with Work in Process and Accounts Receivable reports.](https://www.g2.com/discussions/26116-are-other-firms-having-problems-with-work-in-process-and-accounts-receivable-reports) - 3 comments, 1 upvote - [Would you recommend to switching to cloud base system?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/26083-would-you-recommend-to-switching-to-cloud-base-system) - 4 comments, 1 upvote - [View OfficeTools by CARET pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/officetools-by-caret/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-16+17%3A57%3A39+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=97964439-08d7-4192-8244-0525627af4b7&secure%5Btoken%5D=6758339ab42ccca6ce4ef2081799c6abd67b344c979d56d2b2eb9b004e847c0b&format=llm_user) ## OfficeTools by CARET Features **Bill Generation** - Templates - Digital Billing - Recurring Billing **Communication** - Client Portals - Automation - Consolidation **Agentic AI - Accounting & Finance** - Autonomous Task Execution **Bill Processing** - Consolidation - Batch Invoicing - Management **Collaboration** - Collaboration - Tasks - Version Control **Integration** - Accounting - Payments - ERP **Billing** - Time - Reporting - Invoices **Onboarding** - Templates - Checklists - New Client **Agentic AI - Billing** - Autonomous Task Execution **Visibility** - Job Status - Metrics - File Organization - Audit Trail - Notifications - Integrations **Agentic AI - Accounting Practice Management** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration ## Top OfficeTools by CARET Alternatives - [Canopy](https://www.g2.com/products/canopy-2026-05-12/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (653 reviews) - [Karbon](https://www.g2.com/products/karbon-2025-03-03/reviews) - 4.8/5.0 (820 reviews) - [BigTime](https://www.g2.com/products/bigtime/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,644 reviews)