Suralink

Pros

Gone are the days of having a DRL or PBC that you manage in an Excel spreadsheet over e-mail or in a Dropbox, Box, or Sharepoint. Suralink does it for you with individual line items for each request, easy drag & drop to upload files, easily download all or just new files, track status, assign owners to requests, make requests private, and more. Can be used for any audit or advisory project where you need evidence from the client. Pay per firm user. Storage is unlimited, client engagements are unlimited.

Cons

Suralink is still developing new functionality. Just released some new APIs that should help. Security only has 2 levels: Staff or Manager.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Suralink

Pros

I recently switched over to Suralink for all my online collaboration needs and I have been very pleased with the service so far. The interface is incredibly intuitive and the features make it easy to work with my team. The real-time comments and editing features are especially helpful and make it a breeze to get everyone on the same page quickly.

Cons

The only downside I have experienced with Suralink is the occasional bugs. I have had a few documents take longer than normal to load or had some formatting issues when sharing a document with multiple users. However, these issues have been few and far between and have been quickly resolved with the help of the customer support team.

Pros

You can upload large size data files to share with teams. I personally use it through our auditors. Therefore, the auditors are able to set up folders of data they are looking for with due dates. I can also get day updates on data that has been submitted by my team and if something is completed.

Cons

The interface is not the most appealing. Also, there is no way to get rid of the projects that have been completed. Therefore, if you have completed 12 of your 20 tasks all 20 tasks are still shown.

Pros

It works. I do not have experience with other software's so not certain how to compare. It would be great if it could integrate with iChannel

Cons

I work for WEST Growth, LLC which is a subsidiary of Wiss and Company, LLP. I do not have any other experience with secure portal except for Suralink so I am not sure how useful my opinion is, however, I have several clients who complain about the UI. Basically, it is not very straightforward/learning curve involved.

Pros

We use suralink for uploading audit files and it is a great tool to follow completion of required docs.

Cons

I don't like that it tracks how many times I download a file.

Pros

I really like the ability to go in, as an audit manager, and get an idea of the status of the audit is. I can see how responsive the client is. I can see how responsive staff is being. This allows me to focus on my attention on the clients that are being responsive. This is very important during busy season. I am constantly in Suralink during busy season, even if staff is doing the interacting with the client.

I am also quickly finding the power of the status reports that are sent out to the client and I am beginning to only send communication to the client through the status report function rather than email from Outlook.

Cons

The process of switching from one engagement to another takes one or two steps more than I would like. Maybe having a tool/navigation bar on the side could help.

Pros

Suralink offers the flexibility needed for any size company to properly customize the product to reflect core processes. The visual representation of the project progress is very appealing to me and my customers.

Cons

Depending on how structured the existing process is, it can be a little time consuming to setup the initial templates. But once the templates are configured, it is very quick to spin up a new project.

Pros

Very simple to use, the client view is just like the audit team view so I can walk them through the site, easy to upload, has almost every feature we were looking for, and they are constantly upgrading based on my feedback

Cons

No setup to send automatic status updates to clients throughout an engagement. Must remember to send them manually

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Suralink

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Suralink

Pros

It helps keep track of documents and files you need to submit. And it also lets you leave comments.

Cons

The formatting is kind of clunky, so it's not very easy to tell which comments correspond to which task.

Pros

Suralink provides a straight-forward interface for securely sharing important documents. It provides visibility into the whole team's document request list.

Cons

Sometimes it takes multiple attempts to upload files.

Pros

Such an easy and secure portal to use. Timestamp management and collaboration is a plus. Notifications to your email of changes.

Cons

So far I have no complaints. I have been using Suralink for quite some time with no issues.

Pros

1. The display is very user friendly and can easily be taught in a quick couple minutes crash course to both clients and coworkers.
2. Everything is instantaneous, just like email, so there is not wait time to obtain files.
3. The tracking mechanisms make it easier to stay on top of multiple engagements simultaneously and give a good picture on the progress of each engagement.
4. Rolling forward engagements from one year to the next is unbelievably simple and quick. Alleviates a lot of stress and time sensitivity in doing so.
5. The "yes delete" feature makes it very hard to accidentally delete requests, files, or engagements without intentionally doing so. Very useful when working with new company staff, as they are not familiar with the software.

Cons

1. To my knowledge, there is no way to delete firm provided files if you accidentally upload the wrong file. Instead, you have to delete the request altogether and then create it anew. It would be much easier to simply be able to remove firm provided files.
2. When rolling forward engagements from one year to the next, to my knowledge, there is no easy way to quickly do a find and replace to update years. For example, if we are rolling forward an engagement from 2018 to 2019 and there are 45 requests in the 2018 engagement that say, "as of December 31, 2018", there is no quick and easy way to replace 2018 with 2019. I believe you have to go through and manually change each one.

Pros

This software is very customizable and can easily be adapted for any use.

Cons

There have been some features that have not functioned as well as they should. Or rather functions that have not functioned in a way that fits the feature model we use at our company, so I can't say that such features were not as intended by Suralink development. What has come of these instances is that I have passed along things like this to customer support and they have addressed the request in a very responsive manner.

Pros

Suralink is a great way for clients to see an organized needs list of items needed for an audit. It tracks if items have been loaded. It allows you to mark items complete so that know what is open and what is closed. Finally it gives a timeline and history of activity. It is a huge improvement over trying to sort through emails to determine if something was received and what items on the needs list were still outstanding.

Cons

There is a learning curve with some client. Some, more traditional clients, still prefer to just use email and then you are using two different organization systems and it reduced the effectiveness of Suralink. That's not the problem of the software but rather people's unwillingness to change. The software Sometime I like to load to use the software to view files rather than move them to a folder and tracks every time you open it. It should track the first time it is opened, and then stop. the other history is not of much value.

Pros

My favorite thing about Suralink is that the client and everyone on the engagement team can see exactly what has been provided so far in real time. This significantly cuts down on the thing that clients hate the most, which is when auditors ask for a schedule that they have already provided.

Cons

This is not really the software's fault, but new clients are hesitant to change what they've always done with audits. They are scared of change and don't want to spend the time to learn the software, so there is usually some "pushing" that needs to be done to convince a new client to use Suralink.

Pros

One of the best things about suralink, is it is easy to create a list of items you need, and everyone on your team and on the client side can have access to it. Everyone can see the files uploaded, and you can easily track what you still need, and what has been provided. It's a great way for clients to see their progress, and be able to provide documents electronically. It keeps documents organized, and our clients love it. It's much easier to use then having documents sent via email, and trying to keep track of everything via email.

Cons

There are bugs in the software here and there, but for the most part, I've rarely run into issues. Every once a while the service will be down, but it usually is up and running again in about 10 minutes. To be honest, there really isn't anything I don't like about suralink. It is a must have for CPA firms.

Pros

Very easy setup and use
User friendly
Reduced administrative coordination time on projects
Real-time look at job progress
Live support
Timely communication

Cons

Notifications can be cumbersome
Would like ability to resend link to published documents to clients - like a remind link so they are invited to view again (as opposed to having to re-publish)

Pros

I like that you can roll forward engagements that have been completed in previous years. I also like that we can keep all our documents in one place, and it tells us when clients have downloaded or uploaded documents to the site. It makes it easier to keep track of our engagements.

Cons

it is difficult to navigate and hard to find resources to know how to solve something. For instance, we need to be invited to an engagement before we can see any or upload any documents that we need for an audit. I would like to be able to search for client and request to be part of the engagement team. It is hard to know if the client has a suralink set up or not because this is not an option.

Pros

I appreciate that this software gives your clients peace of mind and a very private way to provide information to your firm and give them reassurance that their employees information won't be leaked on the web. It also is a great way to customize your requests to your client to get exactly the documents that you need from them.

Cons

A few times the system has a glitch where I was not able to see my side of the Suralink and thus not able to download the documents that the client had uploaded.

Pros

Suralink has completely changed the way we receive audit documentation! Our clients love the ease of use and how they can drag and drop documents and leave comments. Our team loves that we can easily send status updates that are kind and still informative and reply to comments while eliminating long email chains. I will never go back to an excel list!

Cons

I don't really enjoy having to format in a certain way, but I understand the need. And our clients would like to be able to add their own users instead of us having to do that every time.

Pros

What's not to love? It's intuitive and easy to use and provides a central location where files can be shared securely. I love that all parties can see when requests are generated, files are uploaded or downloaded, and messages left. I've been using Suralink for five years and there is nothing I would like it to have that it doesn't have. Request a demo and you'll see the value I'm talking about in 30 seconds.

Cons

Nothing. It's the best product on the market. If your Firm isn't using it you need to get it.

Pros

The product is very user-friendly. We can usually create our client accounts and clients are able to navigate the site and upload documentation without specific instructions on how to use the interface.

Cons

It is difficult to add a new request and then change the order of the requests. Currently, I have to download a csv copy, re-order the requests, and then re-create the engagement using the csv spreadsheet as the template. It would be great if the web interface allowed us to change the order of requests.

Pros

I like the ease of use. It is very user friendly and intuitive. The software makes it very easy to share documents with clients. I love that you can categorize the documents, so they are easy to find and the due date and assigning features are great. So everyone is on the same page knowing when something is needed and by whom it needs to be supplied.

Cons

There isn't any feature that I have come across that I do not like yet.

Pros

Very user friendly and my clients love it. It is also far more secure and organized compared to sending via email or any other method.

Cons

The auditor view of an engagement could use more customization. I would like to be able to remove the Overview Bar (completely, not just the pie chart) and be able to adjust the window size of the request list and listing of documents the client uploaded.

Pros

The organizational aspect is very helpful - we are able to organize our requests and better track what has been received and what requests are still outstanding.

Cons

We have run into instances when a client can't sign up because they are part of another "firm". My understanding is that this is being worked on, but we have had to use a workaround several times over the last few months as a result.