Clearview InFocus

Comments: With hundreds of projects and five offices our managers need to stay current on the status of their work and have the tools to develop new proposals. InFocus is indispensable for personnel management and project performance. Plus it provides financial statement and accounting data that is crucial for senior management and independent accountants. The data available and the variety of the reports are limitless. Also, our clients want their invoices and reports in a wide variety of styles. The open structure and adaptability of the InFocus system is a constant marvel at design and intuition.

Pros: Its flexibility, power and data retrieval ability. We have forty-five people in our company, with five office locations and six profit centers (disciplines). Of these forty-five people, more than two thirds are field personnel that are often asked to work in various disciplines or support the work in our other offices. At any one time we have a couple hundred projects open for scores of clients. Keeping track of this is incredibly difficult. We worked with Clearview for a couple of months in order to transfer our existing clients, projects, time records and accounting records to our new system. With over 16,000 historical projects and a current work in process in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, we matched to the penny. Working with them is a pleasure. Not only is the InFocus package all that it claims to be, the folks at Clearview are great to work with. Sure there is a bit of a learning curve, but the answers are so intuitive you can’t believe you did not think of it yourself. Their support literature, training videos, white papers and support site are extremely helpful. There may be comparable products out there, but I seriously doubt there is anything better. If there was a better product or solution, these folks would match or exceed it. We all have competition; we need competition to push us to do a better job.

Cons: Getting others in our organization to appreciate and better use this management too.

Comments: Choosing InFocus is one of the best decision we've made. Training can be a challenge when adopting any new system. Clearview offers extensive training videos, consultations, and webinars. Considering most software products continue to improve and implement client-suggested upgrades, I appreciate Clearview's workshops, where users can continue their InFocus education on advanced levels. Having the opportunity to attend has helped me to really hone in on configuring our InFocus database in ways that are compatible with my company's workflow. I also picked up tips and tricks other users developed for their needs.
Customer service is also very important to me. I appreciate responsive, knowledgeable technicians and staff members who listen. They do not over promise, over-sell, or mislead when discussing requests, issues or customization. They believe in empowering their users. I LOVE THIS!! They offer a workshop for those wanting to learn advanced report writing. Support staff will work through any issue or request until it has been satisfied.
InFocus demonstrates its value. Invoicing is fast. Communicating project details flow more smoothly. Preparing invoices in various formats are easier. All this and more are offered for a low monthly cost per user. They even offer a training version of our data for a very low monthly fee, and any user can access it. This has been crucial when I'm working through project setup options and need to test my ideas.
Overall, I love it.

Pros: It's easy to navigate, more intuitive than other products we've used, and customizable. It's difficult to pick my favorite aspect; it's such a great product overall.

Cons: I wish user's could change the color of the Sandbox (training environment). Having it the same color as the live version can make it a bit confusing when training others.

Comments: Being a newer accountant in the engineering industry, I had a bit to learn about how jobs are billed, tracked, etc. It is definitely a different process than accounting for goods being sold! I came into my job as the implementer of InFocus and learned A LOT simply by learning the system. InFocus is so easy to use and straight forward. If there is something that I don't catch onto right away, the Clearview support team is always ready to help and quickly help resolve the issue. As the years have gone on they have updated the system based on feedback from their clients, which is amazing! The changes they have made make things run more smoothly and it is great to know that they are listening to the needs and desires of their clients. InFocus also has a built-in reports, but also its own report builder tool if the report you need isn't automatically there you can create it yourself! Overall, I would definitely recommend InFocus to anyone looking for new engineering software. The program is easy to learn, easy to maneuver in and provides everything you would need. Even your specific need isn't met you can simply reach out to their support staff and be taken care of. It is a great software, but even better customer service - thank you Clearview team!

Pros: Ease of use, availability of support staff, resolution of issues, suggestion forum Clearview provides

Cons: Export to excel needs manipulated often, if modified the journals will show both versions

Comments: All accounting software and data is offsite, no servers or data to worry about locally! :)

Pros: * No need to keep software on servers on site. Everything is in the cloud.
* Local client install.
* Easy to use trouble ticket system when there is an issue.
* Since it is cloud based, it is always up to date.

Cons: * Occasional data slow downs which we have no control over because the software is running on Clearview's servers.
* The Microsoft ClickOnce technology used for the local client requires web browser ClickOnce integration which is built into Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers, but doesn't always work well with edge. You can get a ClickOnce plugin for Google Chrome, but it's not a transparent "click the icon on the desktop" scenario there either.
* No hosted SMTP server. If you want to send email, you'll have to utilize your own SMTP server, at an additional cost and there is also a charge if you want Clearview to help you set it up. This is my only real "gripe" about the service. It should come with it's own email capability for the cost and to truly be a service.
* I think it is a great Software As A Service overall, but you should know about the weaknesses going in.

Comments: Huge time savings getting through invoicing. All information input into one system. Ability to have projects and invoicing tied together.

Pros: I like that we can build estimates and track a project from beginning to end. All costs go in and are automatically available for invoicing at markup rates. Flexible and able to have multiple price sheets. Integrated with project scheduled, resource planning, time sheet and expenses.

Cons: Interface is a little outdated. Some standard reports you get in products like Quickbooks are not present. Mobile timesheet is a little outdated but works.