Hi all
I know this has been done before (sorry!), I'm currently reviewing software with the aim to increase integration from our current stand alone product and I'm chatting to people that use the products to get a feel.
I'm looking at quotes from IRIS, Digita and CCH - if you use any other these what is good or bad about them? Have they saved you time and made your office more efficient?
I'm trying to review - data entry and storage (ability to scan), cloud or not, client approval process, deadline and key date planning and ability to send bulk emails to client sets.
Thanks in advance for any experiences.
Replies (11)
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We use Iris
It's a good product, but by God its expensive and the company is the very definition of arrogant.
We are seriously looking at a move to Digita.
Digita
I also love it. Friend currently on Iris just looked at Digita and is changing, he says its better technology at similar cost.
Currently use Digita and it does seem to cover everything, accounts, personal, corp & company sec. But I grew up on CCH and Alphatax so will always have a soft spot for them
CCH
We went through the same a few years back and looked at IRIS and CCH- Digita was not really around then or the marketing was very good as it wasn't on our radar.
IRIS is great but the cost was huge, for 2 offices the cost was something like £19k for the first year and around £12k per year after that. CCH was around £7k per year and a couple k more in the first year. I think that the IRIS costs have increased significantly since then too.
The CCH Suite is really good, saves us a lot of time. It's finally now becoming what they promised us it would be at the start- integrated. We found that the CCH didn't always live up to the data in once and not duplicated mantra. It has become better since we took it on and overall are very happy with it. We started using CCH when all the new .net versions were being released which meant there were lots if changes being made but the look and feel of it is far superior to the old Viztopia, taxpoint and cortax products.
One downside is that although it is a lot cheaper than IRIS, any add ons are charged for- eg Companies house filing is charged in blocks of 50 starting at £4 per shot- that's a bit naughty as it should be included in the cost. Whereas I think Iris has a lot more as standard but then is more expensive. We figured that we didn;t need all the functions of IRIS and so have added bits as and when we need them. Also training webinars which I think should be included in the cost of software are charged at say £75 a time, not sure how IRIS work.
We use Central, Personal Tax and Corporation tax.
Iris Billing Nightmare!
Well I would echo the comments above.
If you can use a different supplier to Iris I would.
We are pretty happy with their software but it is expensive, and their billing department is TERRIBLE!!!!
They have just gone over to Premium Credit for their monthly payments, we took additional licenses which involved in year changes and they can not get it right.
Random amounts direct debited from our bank account!
I would change but I am too lazy!!
Iris Billing Nightmare Continues
Well just so people are warned.
Our last Iris bill for £1080. I have an email confirming it will be paid in installments on Premium Credit. Of course they have Direct Debited the whole lot today.
The billing side is a shambles and they really do not care. And I mean they do not give a toss. They know how much hassle it is to change to another supplier and they treat us like dirt even though we pay them £15k plus a year.
If anyone is thinking about changing I would seriously think about using someone who might give a s**t.
Rob