Canopy

Avantages

Improved practice management and time management.

Inconvénients

Until Canopy improves that functionality, I still prefer to use Jetpack Workflow to manage my tasks

Avantages

Not sure why more people dont talk about Canopy! Great tool for project management

Inconvénients

Robust - not made for small teams, You need at least 20 people for it to be worth it

Avantages

Falling in love its user friendly interface and allow me to keep professional with various types of customers. Employee's also love canopy cause they fill safe and secure sharing their views and opinions the platform.

Inconvénients

No existing offline solution for my employers. Rest all are doing great.

Avantages

The ease at which my clients were able to upload and send me documents

Inconvénients

Their payments used to be with Paysafe and it was okay but they recently moved to Ayden and it's been a nightmare. We can't add new payments, can't run old payments and we now don't see decline codes. There's no transparency any longer with CC or ACH ledgers and our business has become a nightmare collecting payments from our clients.

Avantages

The software is easy to use for us internally as well as for our clients. Our firm has drastically benefited from the workflow, file management and client management features. We look forward to moving over our time and billing to have everything under one login.

Inconvénients

We would love to see a more robust Home-Admin page, bulk e-sign requests from templated letters (engagement letters), roles by contact to integrate with tasks to populate assignees (e.g., Partner, Bookkeeper, Preparer, Reviewer, etc.), limit parent task completion to select users (to avoid false completed tasks), share documents with non-portal users, send invoices to non-portal users, parent-sub invoicing, time & billing improvements, allow for folder templates to be applied when tasks are applied, allow for doubling clicking on a file to default to "Edit File" instead of preview mode, allow to search spouses on mobile, allow for additional formatting in Notes section.

Avantages

Canopy is a great tool for all-in-one tracking of client relations, tasking, workflow, and running a CPA firm. I loved being able to go straight to the client home page and having access to all of the client information. Contact information, notes, tasks, important contacts related to the client, recent files, engagements - all of the information right there! Fantastic. Then I can drill down under communications to all of the client emails and correspondence with the client. Tax organizers are accessible from there too. All the information in one location! The fact that I could request an IRS transcript through Canopy for clients was amazing.

Inconvénients

I didn't use the online payment system since I used another system to payments. I wasn't a fan of the pricing plan but it still was comparable with other vendors. Overall there wasn't much about Canopy that I didn't like.

Avantages

The two features that my firm likes the most in Canopy is the Client Portal and Tax Resolution (IRS transcript delivery service). When purchasing the software, we knew we needed a Client Portal through which clients could exchange documents with us via their smartphone, and we've really liked that feature (being able to brand it as "ours" is a nice touch). What we didn't know - until we used it - was just how much time we save with pulling IRS transcripts through Canopy's Tax Resolution tool versus pulling transcripts through IRS e-services. Once your Form 2848 is on file with the IRS, you can pull every transcript for which you're authorized for a given client with the touch of a button. They download directly from the IRS in PDF format, and with one more button you can save every transcript to the client's file. The time savings is incredible, versus downloading individual transcripts one year and one form at a time.

Inconvénients

I personally feel that the e-signature process is a bit clunky, but that's probably just because I don't have much experience with IRS-approved e-signatures (which require knowledge-based authentication). But at least I know that Canopy is compliant with IRS regulations concerning e-signatures!

Avantages

The software is intuitive and easy to use. I'm sure we under utilize it but it works great for our small office. The thing we like best is that it keeps us organized! There are so many great features though including allowing us to be paperless.

Inconvénients

I wish we could customize the text in the "Notes" section. We use Notes a lot. Would love to be able to use colored text - red for deadlines, green for amounts due, etc. Also wish we could search the contact list by phone numbers. We often receive incoming calls in which the name listed on the caller ID is not the name of the actual person. Currently, we have to enter the phone number into our cell phone to see if it is someone we have spoken with before or a current client.

Avantages

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

Inconvénients

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

Avantages

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

Inconvénients

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

Avantages

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

Inconvénients

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

Avantages

We luckily chose Canopy as our client portal system pre-pandemic. When the shut down occurred, we were ready to continue servicing our clients during this very termultuous time. AS we move forward from the pandemic, our clients have found they like having a single source to share documents virtually. We as a firm continue to develop our skills in Canopy and now use it for engagement letters, tax documents and any communications with our clients

Inconvénients

Wish there could be better isolation of reminder emails or emails when a client performs as action.

Avantages

I really enjoy the fact that my CRM, billing, and document management is on one platform.

Inconvénients

I'm still getting used to the features. I do wish that it had some additional options for payment syncing, link sharing outside of the portal, and the option to add further correspondence to a task.

Avantages

Ease of use, availability & response of customer service via chatbot, document management, task management, invoicing & billing, client portal, mobile apps, time tracking

Inconvénients

Reporting and analytics, lack or print feature throughout the software, payment processing (takes anywhere from 3 to 7 days for funds to hit our bank when most processors deposit overnight)

Avantages

The software is fairly easy to use and it is constantly being updated with new features.

Inconvénients

There is a lack of good reports around tasks and the software is built to be a little bit generic. We would find it even more useful if there were more features implemented specifically for tracking tax return tasks. I also wish the pricing was less module based. I wish that we could have access to more features for a straight forward monthly per user fee. I also wish that we could only pay for seasonal accounts during the busy months when we have extra help that needs access. Also, it would be nice if Canopy expanded their integrations to more than just contact information. Being able to integrate with other software based on tasks would be amazing.

Alternatives envisagées 

Karbon

Pourquoi passer à Canopy

Canopy was the most polished at the time and offered one of the best price points.

Avantages

Customer support. I have questions and suggestions all the time and I love that by using the chat support I get prompt answers and endless follow-up from support staff.

Inconvénients

Transferring clients over created several duplicates and ultimately some lost information in the transition.

Avantages

From a customer experience perspective, this is one of the best in class products. You can customize the portal login page, and I had great success training clients well into their 70s to use the client portals. Each file can be hidden or shared with the client, and for simple documents, Canopy offers a decent in-app pdf editor that doesn't share your annotations with the client.

Haven't found anything aside from Engagement I liked better for document management, and Canopy is much cheaper on that front, and includes a client portal.

Inconvénients

Honestly, the only dislike is price. That, and I found some of the automations (like engagement letters for example) were clunkier to use than those of competitors (say, TaxDome).

Avantages

It's easy to use and I love that it's continually updated and improved upon. Suggestions are actually considered and implemented which shows that they really care about providing the best product.

Inconvénients

I really don't have much to complain about but one thing that would be helpful is being able to automate due dates to avoid weekends or holidays if they're on a semi-monthly schedule.

Alternatives envisagées 

BigTime et Karbon

Pourquoi choisir Canopy 

Canopy was just a better overall solution and saved us money not needing more than one software for document storage / file sharing and a CRM.

Pourquoi passer à Canopy

The alternative products were just missing something we needed or were more difficult to use.

Avantages

I like have a place where clients feel safe with uploading documents that contain personal information like socials and not having to worry about hackers. I also like that clients have access to their documents even if we part ways. Having a secure and encrypted client portal is crucial to tax preparation.

Inconvénients

If a client has been with another company that used Canopy and now wants to leave and to to another company who also uses Canopy, they can't without changing their email as that email is tied to the former company and they have to call to have it deleted in order to go forward with the new company. This is not always possible if they left on a bad note. The new company should be able to add and the old company would auto be deleted.

Avantages

We loved the Emails, Task management & calendar are all in one software.

Inconvénients

Canopy DOES NOT have our states so we can't do any returns, We don't like that the clients can't both sign their signature forms if they are married. We also didn't like that In the middle of tax season we had to go back to an old software because the desktop Assistant stopped working on us.

Avantages

Canopy put everything in one place for us. The implementation was seamless and clients love it.

Inconvénients

QBO integration could be adjusted to not include inactive contacts that are no longer clients. Including these clients creates too much clutter in the software.

Avantages

The Canopy team is amazing at assisting with troubleshooting issues (very quick turnaround time) and are always working on new innovations. The fact that this is not just a set it and forget it system means that Canopy is always working to be a top competitor. They have a few Beta features (namely automation) in the works currently that as an Ops Manager I am thoroughly excited to see roll out. Their staff is always a pleasure to chat with and they hold quarterly 'First Look' webinars to explain what is new with their product and where they are going next - this team is always on the go.

Inconvénients

They have a few drawbacks such as the inability to send text messages (we use a third party system), lack of complex reporting (though easily created on the users end by CSV export and a little Excel wizardry), and a few other minor gruffs, but Canopy does have these on their radar (go check out the forums!) and is working on building these in over time.

Avantages

Canopy allowed us to grow our client base without having to add additional personnel. using canopy tasks to track where the team members are, and to take notes, and hold communications (emails) we can assist each other when answering client questions. This way clients aren't playing phone tag with one individual. The file storage with client portal allows the clients to access their documentation 24/7/365 eliminating the need to email documents back and forth.

Inconvénients

Unfortunately Canopy does not sync with QuickBooks desktop.

Alternatives envisagées 

Trello et Slack

Pourquoi choisir Canopy 

Trello really only let us track tasks. we switched for the more robust features and the client portal available in Canopy.

Logiciel antérieur 

Trello

Pourquoi passer à Canopy

Canopy is specifically geared for accountants and had the features we needed for our Bookkeeping clients

Avantages

Bringing Canopy into our organization was easy, with individualized invitations on a mass e-mail template sent out to Clients old and new!

Inconvénients

We are still working to make use of every area that Canopy offers, so there is nothing negative to say at the present time.

Avantages

I love the portal and the client/entity set up. I love that everything related to my workflow is in Canopy (except the tax return). It's very nice to have everything in one system.

Inconvénients

The syncing with QBO hasn't been as easy as I'd like, but that may be an Intuit issue as well. There are issues when duplicate clients are created and you merge them. If the client was already linked in Canopy, that link is broken and I don't know how to recreate it. I hear that a function to sync specific clients in Canopy is coming soon and that should resolve my issue.

I haven't been able to pull a transcript yet. I keep getting "Pull Failed". I'm not sure if this in an IRS issue or Canopy. Hopefully this can be resolved soon.

Alternatives envisagées 

Karbon

Pourquoi choisir Canopy 

I wanted a system that did everything. Canopy has the CRM, task management and the document management together. The tax transcripts functionality was a big deciding factor as well.

Logiciel antérieur 

Insightly

Pourquoi passer à Canopy

TaxDome didn't have the tax transcripts. Karbon looked very complicated.

Avantages

We switched from Office Tools to Canopy over 2 years ago. The implementation and data transfer was almost seamless. The mobile app and client portal have been invaluable to our client base. We were implementing Canopy before COVID so when the shut downs hit we were already ahead of the game for being digital for everything with a portal and app that worked and was easy for our client base to use.

Inconvénients

I wish the reporting was more accurate so our utilization rates were a better reflection. It would nice to customize reports for what the firm values with certain items.

Avantages

Document sharing, obtaining electronic signatures is simple for us and our clients. Communication tab is also very helpful. This feature keeps communications from clients from getting siloed in individual team member's inbox. Being able to share files with clients and their other trusted advisors is also very helpful. Clients like that they can access data on their computer, their phone or their tablet.

Inconvénients

Each module has a separate cost. However, to use certain features you have to have a specific module even if we aren't using all the module features. Also, access cannot currently be given to 3rd parties on a file by file and contact basis. Currently, if we allow access to a client and their advisor to the portal, all files that have access turned on in the portal allow all these parties to view. It would be nice if we could pick and choose which client/important contact has access to which folder. For example, a client would have access to all their tax returns, estimates, and source documents. Their financial advisor could have access to only the tax returns.

Avantages

Canopy is great to use to keep client information safe and secure. With such advancements in technology, it is imperative to have a platform like this where the information can be conveniently accessed by both the users and clients, active or archived... it's just great.

Inconvénients

No difficulty at all... I just wish all clients will utilize this platform... I may have to require them to do so!

Avantages

When my client's upload documents to the portal, Canopy lists that activity, I click on it, and I am able to take action on it right away.

Inconvénients

I would like to be able to adjust the timekeeper when I start it or while it is running.

Avantages

The better-than-bank security made the choice a no-brainer.

Inconvénients

The instant access to files that a Client uploaded wasted precious seconds every time I accessed a Client's folder.

Avantages

The whole "pull transcripts" thing used to be a draw, but it's really not that unique once you've been in the tax business. It doesn't take that much work to pull transcripts and figure out what's going on with them the 'old-fashioned way'.

Inconvénients

Terrible support. Refusal to update and improve software even with known bugs and issues. Not compatible with all screen sizes and they make you do workarounds. Broken buttons/links inside the user navigation. Can't refund through the app.

Avantages

As a person that needs everything organized, I am happy to see that Canopy fulfills my OCD.

Inconvénients

Takes a too long for the requested changes to take place.

Alternatives envisagées 

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Pourquoi choisir Canopy 

They are not as organized and Canopy in many of things. besides, CS Suite isn't worth the price.

Pourquoi passer à Canopy

We have employees of all ages and needed a CRM system that is user friendly for all ages.

Avantages

The software is cloud based and therefore easy to access.

Inconvénients

The company consistantly made promises that they were unable to uphold. Pushbacks on product releases that we desperately needed, and no refund for their mistakes. Not the company you want to go with when you need something dependable. They're a tax company which makes it even more absurd that they mess around with deadlines.

Avantages

It covers all the features I need from my client-facing tech stack in one platform. I can share/receive files, send e-sign requests, manage work, send invoices, receive payments, and pull IRS transcripts all in Canopy. Support has also been very responsive to me and has helped me with all my questions.

Inconvénients

It is an evolving and growing platform that comes with occasional bugs and changes to the user experience.

Avantages

Task management. It allows us to stay on schedule and complete tasks in a timely manner or allows management to review where tasks are "stuck" and why.

Inconvénients

LISTS! I can create customized lists, but I can't download the customized list. That's maddening.

Avantages

It has combined our client contact lists, document manager, communications, and has a place for consolidated requests. They are constantly making Canopy better by adding new features and improving current ones

Inconvénients

I would like to see different ways to view task managements and work flow. Having a swim lane option would make it easier to see what tasks there are and at what stage they are in.

Avantages

The document storage and communication tools.

Inconvénients

A little pricey for all the bells and whistles.

Avantages

We have Canopy for our three office accounting firm. The implementation team has been helpful, getting us set up. With thousands of users, this has been a commitment, but we’ll worth it once we get it up and running

Inconvénients

Some of the sort features are limiting if you are working with multiple offices. They are working on that.

Avantages

Easy to implement and use. Our clients love it!

Inconvénients

The tax organizers are not very robust and cannot be customized.

Avantages

Easy to use and use freindiliness. it has a client facing feature.

Inconvénients

it is very preliminary. it can grow from basic to more sophisticated for mid tier firms.

Avantages

File sharing and ease of uploading from anywhere.

Inconvénients

Time tracker is my least favorite as it's hard to remember to turn it off sometimes.

Avantages

Most important features are user friendly and easy to share within the own files, company team files and clients' files.When we are importing new zip files with multiple folders, I don't need to create new folders, file names etc. on my Canopy software create and save file where I need to store it.

Inconvénients

When the client sharing folder has more documents, I noticed the speed has come down a little slower than normal.

Avantages

I had been looking for a simple accounting solution to help me manage my clients' invoices, and discovered this product. It is simple, easy to use, and has a ton of features. Within a few months, I was able to set up my clients' invoices in a matter of minutes, and start using it. I also turned it into a project management tool.

Inconvénients

Canopy has proven to be a robust and reliable solution that has helped streamline our document management processes, and it works well with our accounting software. The interface is very easy to use, the adaptation time to the software is very short, and it worked smoothly.

Avantages

I absolutely love the ability to pull transcripts. It has changed how we do business. I was using multiple platforms before Canopy. I love having a CRM tool that actually works and saves me time.

Inconvénients

Moving actual data files has been an extremely slow process and has consumed many days of work. I wish there could be a way to directly scan a document into Canopy rather than uploading it.

Avantages

It is cohesive and has a client portal; Tames chaos

Inconvénients

It is seemingly incomplete with a few things that seem to be easily fixable if they were given attention

Avantages

Canopy allowed us to flex during the pandemic by offering our clients an easy client portal to use. The clients were able to share their documents for tax preparation. Our firm was then able to upload tax returns for their review. And the e-sign function for the 8879 was amazing. My favorite part is the transcript function to pull clients data from IRS. The transcript report package a professional document to provide to the client that is branded to our firm.

Inconvénients

Haven't discovered any cons with the package. They seem to always be one step ahead of my needs.

Avantages

Cool features, outstanding customer service, constantly updating to make it better. I love that I can upload files easily to a secure client portal and we don't have to email files anymore. Clients love that they have 24/7 access to their files. We have saved on paper and toner costs. Having all our client information in one place is incredibly valuable. Engagements keep you focused on what you need to do and makes things less likely to fall through the cracks. The integration with gmail makes tracking/finding email conversations easy! Absolutely can't imagine not having this software.

Inconvénients

There are only a few minor issues that I know Canopy will fix as they learn from their customers. I can make suggestions and I know that they will address these requests in future versions of the software:
1. Mobile Access is not perfect. An app would be great. Some screens just don't show up on my iPhone.
2. Tasks take way too long to create. I think it could be easier to create tasks.
3. Inability to print notes
4. Search engine is limited. It would be better to be able to search for partial names. Currently you need to really know the name of the person you are looking for. I have a business client who I can't search for the name of his business or DBA.

Avantages

We love Canopy for its document storage capabilities, time tracking, and task management properties. We use it every hour of our workdays and are able to access the software from home.

Inconvénients

We would to see Canopy integrate a texting feature into their software - it is a critical need for our firm

Avantages

The organization is hard to beat across softwares. The ability to bring document management, task management, and billing under one roof is hard to find elsewhere.

Inconvénients

It seems to still have some growing pains, and the large list of customer requests that are still "in development show that.

Avantages

ease of use when saving a document and going directly to client file in canopy. Organization of files is great.

Inconvénients

In the beginning, two years ago. it was difficult to set up, but works much better now.