Abacus Private Cloud Reviews

Pros

The critical thing for us was that our consumers could quickly enter into the Cloud and retrieve their program - and that we can log in and see what they're doing if they get stuck. We don't have to go to each client location. The tech support staff is fantastic and delightful!

Cons

When our clients are unable to log in, we appear to be experiencing the same issue. The Cloud becomes frozen and can't even open for anybody if enough of our customer's log out incorrectly. This problem appears to be solvable in some way. In addition, the Cloud seems to be a little pricey.

Pros

I was worried about transitioning all of our data to the cloud but could not be more pleased with this product. I especially love the ability to work from any computer anywhere. The product is stable and reliable.

Cons

There were some things that did not transfer from our prior legal software but the important things all transferred.

Alternatives Considered

Amicus Attorney and Cleo Integration Cloud

Reasons for Choosing Abacus Private Cloud

Time Matters had many glitches and was not reliable. The system would crash often. Plus, they did not have case management software that we needed.

Reasons for Switching to Abacus Private Cloud

This checked off all the boxes for all the things that we were looking for.

Pros

5 years ago good but too expensive. We have been a client for over 10 years

Pros

After you get a support person, the support is very good. They can always fix our problem

Cons

Password resets
Lacerte updates
To be told to complete a support ticket, when my work depends on getting help with a problem, is very frustrating. I just have to shut down and quit working.
Other practitioners just laugh at the price that we are paying for Abacus.

Pros

I like the ease of access and security of this program.

Cons

It is very locked down. Not able to easily update QuickBooks or other programs because of security settings.

Pros

The sales pitch is a managed, hosted VM environment with integrated technical support.

Cons

The VMS are completely unusable - slow, buggy, bogged down when anyone is running anything. No one can get any work done due to excessive lag. Many, many support tickets have been opened and no resolution has been given. I eventually gave up after 6 months and stopped trying to use it. Unfortunately I am stuck with a 5 year contract and so still have to pay.

They tout 24/7 support. We called several times after hours and were told to leave a message and someone would call back. Not. One. Time. did anyone call me back.

Having to call in for help every time we need to install an update is a huge annoyance.

Pros

Both the software and support failed miserably to meet our firm's basic needs. Trusting Abacus is a decision we deeply regret.

Cons

Our firm was unable to utilize the features of this software, and yet, when we made that known to Abacus, they refused to let us out of our five year contract. Over 15K for nothing!! Don't do it! You will regret it!

Alternatives Considered

Clio

Reasons for Switching to Abacus Private Cloud

Had previously tried Clio and was disappointed with that product. The salesman for Abacus convinced us that their software and support would be better. It wasn't.

Pros

Nothing. The promises made by the sales people were pure baloney

Cons

The product is cumbersome and is far inferior to using quickbooks and outlook. You are looked into a very expensive 3 year contract for a non existent case management contract.
They won’t even respond to requests to cancel contract. Run from these people.

Pros

It's really easy to use simple and fast it has access to so much information

Cons

We cannot have certain software updates on apps we use because they're not compatible

Pros

How it saving alot of time making our business more easy

Cons

Electronic signature
Easy of use
Time saving

Pros

It is cloud based
Uses the remote desktop system
Creates a remote environment to function in.
Security
Support response has been getting better each year.

Cons

The overall cost is twice as much as everyone else. The control over the Office 365 account makes it difficult to efficiently function with our growing company. There have been features with the office 365 account that we would like to explore but can't because of the lack of control we have over the account.

The constant issues that come up where the issue is tied to server resources or the lack there of. After two years I would hope the server needs were more dialed in. I also don't get the feeling that anyone takes the time to understand a 3rd party software. We use Lacerte, along with "1000" other clients, and there doesn't seem to be a Lacerte expert nor is there a partnership with Intuit to install it correctly in a terminal server environment. I have had 4 different people install lacerte it different ways (on the X drive, on the C drive, on a separate SSD drive,)

Pros

Our company migrated to APC from a set of 3 in-house legacy servers running all of our firm's software programs. We were vulnerable not only to hardware and software issues, but to the potential hacking of the very sensitive data we had collected over 15+ years in business. Our move to APC completely eliminated these concerns. It also made it possible to relocate our entire staff off-site during the COVID crisis in a matter of hours--something that would have been nearly impossible to accomplish securely and without impact to the performance of the system had we been on those old servers.

Cons

Our migration to APC wasn't without some frustration and a bit a of learning curve for our staff. Those initial issues were addressed by Abacus and problems were fixed and we're currently very happy with the state of our APC system. My least favorite things about the cloud environment are the difficulties in using local devices (i.e. USB peripherals such as printers, scanners, signature pads, flash drives, etc.) and the inability to load and update our own software on our cloud computers. But we've learned to live with these limitations and have adopted workarounds when possible.

Pros

I like the integration of the court forms with the client base. The calendaring is excellent. If one uses the notes it is easy to keep track of the clients' information and keeps them updated. The ease of logging on from off-site is easy. We were able to have everyone work from home within 2 days of implementation. We don't need physical files and can put the clients' entire file on a dvd for storage. Service has always been very good. They walk you through what they are doing so you know how to do in in the future if necessary.

Cons

It is a bit expensive, and I would like them to give us a break on the price when we add users. Some part time users cost the same as full time. I would like it to integrate with an accounting program like QuickBooks.

Pros

The advantage to the system for me is the ability to log into my desktop when at a client's location. It allows me real time access to the tax and accounting software, documents in our client management system, email and my calendar.

Cons

When the system is down, you are dead in the water. You loose access to everything!! No client phone numbers, email, your calendar, etc, in addition to the various software programs.
The frequency of service interruption - I loose connection at least once a day. During the peak periods in tax season, it happened many times a day. It also happened routinely at the same time every evening. Customer service said they would track to figure out why, but it never happened after repeated requests.

Customer service has been very responsive lately, but previously, if you called after about 11 AM EST, you never heard back and would need to recall the next day. Once you get a hold of someone, they are very helpful.

Pros

The vision is great, the idea behind it is great. It just doesnt work...for us.
Two factor security is great
The actual support engineers were thoughtful, and helpful, not always did they have the answer, but they were very diligent and patient even if ultimate solutions were never found.

Cons

Constant data issues with regard to how dropbox was installed.

PRO SERIES BASICALLY does not work. The EF center takes up to 5 mins to load, or submit efilings, and then another 5 minutes to return to the home base after submitting a return. HOURS lost, CLIENTS, REPUTATION, etc. was miserable, still is.

Was suggested we stop using our web browser of choice, for which all out staff has memorized functions on to improve the performance of the server, they were fully aware of the use of CHROME as essential to our functions.

Pros

Easy to use; easy to learn; had lots of classes; but also user friendly so that I could actually learn it on my own

Cons

Cannot group bills; have to enter all bill separately;

Pros

The private cloud service worked well even though we regularly ran out of space and had a price increase to add more. Customer service on the private cloud was good.

Cons

We left Abacus Law after years because the new releases had a lot of bugs and using customer service was time consuming and some problems were never fixed. When we went to leave at the end of our contract, they took 2 weeks to send us the cancellation form and by then it was too late to give the 30 days notice. The contact went to month-to-month at nearly double the contract rate. We were given no notice at all of the monthly rate - yet alone notice in time to cancel. Abacus refuses to discuss this issue with us and has taken the position of "we have your money so sue us if you are unhappy."

Pros

Customer services have improved significantly compared to 2 years ago when we stated with Abacus. Great job!

Cons

There is still a great lag as we have to wait a long time to get support at times. When it is urgent as if the system is down, there should be a priority to get on it immediately...Support can't explain why issues come about and how it was resolved sometimes...

Pros

NOTHING. Unfortunately I had to give all 1 out 5's. Should have been 0's.

Cons

EVERYTHING.

-Down time - excessive
-horrible, cumbersome integration with Microsoft 365 (which was forced upon us - we didn't know that when we contracted)
-inexperienced tech support (when you can get hold of them. Often you have to wait so long on hold that it goes to voice mail and they don't call back)
-they don't support your clients directly, it has to go thru the providing company (we just got an exception to this, but that's ridiculous. Something else we weren't told when we contracted and didn't think to ask)
-Cost

Pros

The removal of updating software and upgrading hardware has been the best feature of using a cloud-based program. Access from anywhere there is an internet connection has been fantastic.

Cons

Not necessarily a cloud issue, but the Accounting portion of Abacus Law is very complicated and has far too many steps in the process as compared to a "windows" type program (Quickbooks). Our firm has tried to implement the Accounting side of Abacus Law but it is simply too complicated.

Pros

We came into Abacus Private Cloud after attending a show in Las Vegas, CA to review OfficeTools. The companies were merging which seemed like a natural progression for us however, there were many bugs to work out with our cloud environment. It has become rather pricey to function and OfficeTools was delayed by almost a year. Now we lack much support and contact on OfficeTools from our original pitch.

Cons

It is very expensive and there seems to be bottlenecks even on the items I have been given admin rights to address such as password resets.

Pros

I liked that we could customize the fields. When working on a file, we could have all important details on the first page of the matter and retrieve the information fast.

Cons

Saving documents to the cloud was often time consuming. You would have to save it and pull it into the matter. It also wasn't as advanced as some of the other products I've seen. It did it's job though.

Pros

Easy to implement, flexibility for our workforce, and secure

Cons

Really have not come across any cons up to this point.

Pros

Managed / Remote servers are nice and enable the workforce to be anywhere. This also reduced our need to monitor and babysit servers in our office.

Cons

Customer support is hit or miss and pricing.

Pros

Flexibility is key. The APC allows us to work from anywhere, at any time, and make changes on the fly if needed. Our designated APC support TAM is very responsive and helps our firm be more productive.

Cons

The APC can sometimes be a little slow since access is generally impacted by internet speeds and how your system may interact with the product.