Avis clients sur Windward System Five

Highly customizable software that you can really tailor to your business for an affordable price.

Commentaires : Reduced IT costs, Improved staff experience and greater overall efficiency of our business practices.

Avantages :

I give this review after having tried many different software packages over the last 15 years. Some costing x10 the price of Windard, some costing x10 less. What I'm left with over these years is perspective, and that perspective was hard earned. You will not find a more complete point of sale, inventory control, accounting, crm, etc. for this price range. With the ability to fine tune it to your exact business needs, it's easiest to configure, maintain and operate...especially compared to the "enterprise" software world where your eyes will water from pricing. Its got lightning fastest Point of sale with the absolute best part find search tool I can recall using. The special order management is the best complete solution from any I've tried. If your serious about your Business, you should consider Windard. I honestly think that in the long run it has improved our business, staff and bottom dollar.

Inconvénients :

There is no such thing as perfect software. With that being said, there are issues...but then it's technology. You have to considering that it is a highly customizable product that able to serve an amazing range of business types with thousands of options. What Windward has that sets it apart is a fantastic support team with Canadian staff and an out-of-country team that is admittingly fantastic...probably the best off-shore support that I have ever experienced in IT. Tech support is typically same day, commonly instant or within a few hours of placing a call. If you have an urgent problem, they will find someone for you RIGHT NOW. If you have problems using Windward software...you will most probably have problems using another piece of software. The key with any software, especially if you are new to it, is to have patience and use every opportunity to learn.

We've been with Windward since 1994, recent years Windward has really stepped up to the plate !!

Commentaires : One of the most recent benefits is the available training in many different areas of the Windward software program. This is an incredible asset to streamlining and improving day to day business practices for us. When we find out things the program can do for us that for years has just been sitting there not being used, we're like a kid in a candy shop....Excited...Wow!!

Avantages :

Over the years there have been many areas of the program that we never took advantage of. One of the greatest things is with all the recent available training on and off line it has allowed us to find these nuggets that have helped us tremendously to make processes within our business so much easier. This had to be one of the best implementations that Windward has made, keep the training coming!!

Inconvénients :

The one thing we dislike about the program are updates. We get very nervous! A few years ago we did an update and it totally messed up the whole program. We had to work offline (paper work) for more than 3 weeks, which was a nightmare after the fact. Though Windward programmers worked for over 6 months to find a fix, they never ever did. So here 5 or 6 years later our Point of Sales Transaction Report figures are still unusable. We recently updated Pervasive and were told it should really speed up the program. Unfortunately it didn't, actually saw absolutely no difference even though it had been several years since we'd done an update, so are looking at other areas now.

Would like to set up the system again knowing so much more now than was first told.

Avantages :

Windward is easy to navigate and manipulate. Inventory items are easy to add and change. Like the way the payroll system integrates with Windward so no need to journal . Love the support I have received when requiring assistance from the team in the Philippines . They are prompt in getting back to you and try to assist at all times.

Inconvénients :

When trying to customise the system to suit our requirements alot of manual hours are required to change simple things like updating prices and modifications. When we needed to collect information from the system we required a special programme be written to fulfil government requirements. This additional reporting is cumbersome to produce. There is also alot of double entry when making a payment and then having to do a journal entry to reflect the same. A journal entry should be automatic. Would like the ability to make ledger numbers inactive Although we have a very confusing payroll and tax system, we experienced many issues with setting up the payroll system with this year being the first year we have successfully produced a payroll summary. Even then it required alot of double/triple checking to ensure the information was correct. Adding a new employee is once again difficult and time consuming. It would be great to be able to copy an existing one.

This softwear has made our business extremely essential to operate.

Commentaires : the main function of our business, our retail set up revolves around the software making it easy to operate day to week, to month to yearly. it has been absolutely essential. recording & keeping track of everything form our substantial amount of inventory, along with accounting, reports, staff, ect. our main source of operations for sure. :)

Avantages :

that is is absolutely fluent in keeping all of our information organized & keeps me able to do my job as a 1 woman Owner/Operator. without this softwear we would not have been able to stay open for the past 11 years without the ease of Windward System 5, for my retail business.

Inconvénients :

for us a small retail shop, the maintenance & updating costs are quite high & out of our price range on a year to year basis.

it has been great and have found it very user friendly and easy to use

Commentaires : more up to date information and tracking of items with serial numbers, it was easy to set in place policies and see where we lacked and brought in a lot of controls in the company

Avantages :

the software is easy to use and customizable. we have found a it works well and have not had too many problems. there are a lot of options in the setup and we are able to change if it does not work. the implementation staff was great and the support is great. when ever I have contacted support they responded very quickly and the webinars have helped make the software better

Inconvénients :

it takes a long time to get a feature added and a lot of pestering, there are a few things in the software that does not make sense with the labels

Gets the job done. Do not do the updates.

Avantages :

Very thorough software with lots of room/areas to store Information and very easy to use. The point and click ability of the software makes it easier to train new staff. Can access the software from anywhere in the world using remote desktop connection.

Inconvénients :

The updates do not seem to go very smoothly. And update me fix one problem but two new problems arise that were not problems before. We have actually stopped getting updates and have continued to use our current version for years. We have developed our own internal ways to use the software to its fullest potential without getting updates. Software support is readily available however very expensive and a lot of the problems that we have encountered do not have the solution. In order to get the solution we have to pay for the entire resource development team and have to be very very patient to see results. The yearly license fee does not benefit our company as we do not complete the updates. So we paid the fee however are using an out of date software program Because we are afraid to update. Phoning for tech-support can be quite challenging when the bill is charged per minute and we are on hold for 80 percent of the call. We are usually on hold while the tech support discusses with superior or development team to solve our more complex problems. At the end of the day the software program helps us maintain our current business but is not helping us grow our business. We are not ready to commit thousands of dollars to the software program that still has many issues even if we were to update to most current version

frustrating! Too many issues way too often

Commentaires : I will have to think about that

Avantages :

Knowing that you can pretty much always get a hold of someone in support- My all time favorite support person really knows what she is doing and is a very pleasant wonderful personality! It is nice that there are a variety of reports for each department

Inconvénients :

The bookkeeping part of Windward - everything is journal entry based and not check book based - The payroll system is Canadian based and is not United States friendly on the forms that need to be done at year end for payroll and the government. Some of the reports don't print dates and other pertinent information on them and if they do you have to click on everthing to just read the notes. Also an awful lot of "errors" that occur and some that never get fixed- it tends to be frustrating! Also having to wait for someone to call you back when there is a urgent issue that needs addressing asap can get frustrating, although you do always get a call back

Wondward Software is taking us to the next level of POS sales, service & support.

Commentaires : An All in One Sales, Customer tracking, Promo & follow up, Bookkeeping & Accounting Software With Great Support.

Avantages :

Back office accounting is saving us money by tracking inventory vs sales, as well as less cost with accounting fees by running an all inclusive bookkeeping/accounting program.

Inconvénients :

The occasional glitches, after each windows update, with form display screens freezing up the software.

overall pretty good. As good as others in the market

Avantages :

POS screen is very easy for staff to learn. Transactions easy to process. Lots of reports available

Inconvénients :

Update to windows 10 a costly extra. Payroll function lacking. Designing forms takes a lot of work,

System five review

Commentaires : It's a good system for what I use it for.

Avantages :

fairly easy to use- good customer service -

Inconvénients :

not clover integrated- they can't figure out how to get my statements mailed out of the system to clients properly. I have figured out a another way, it's just more work.

Using Windward in a Small Shop

Avantages :

Windward offers a comprehensive set of features, more than we will ever use. What drove us to purchase Windward is that its POS features are fully and seamlessly integrated into its accounting software. That means that both our POS and accounting data is up to date and current at all times. No integration with other software is required. Windward does it all. Another thing I like about Windward is the quality of Windward's support. Windward not only sets the system up for you and makes sure that all you point of sale devices work (barcode scanners, printers, etc), but if you are a cloud customer or have a maintenance contract, Windward will also remote in to your machines and fix any issues you may have. In addition, they have an on-line learning academy with training videos, documents, etc. that help you continue to learn the functionality of the system. They also offer live sessions on specific issues like maintaining inventory, year-end procedures, etc. We needed a lot of hand holding when we first started--I had no previous experience with POS software--and Windward successfully guided even a slow learner like me!

Inconvénients :

Windward is continually upgrading its software to provide additional functionality or to streamline its processes. We recently moved to the cloud version of Windward, and that has reduced some administrative overhead for us--no need for backups, no need to install updates, and greater data security. So overall, it's a plus. But there is one feature I miss in the cloud version. When our software was installed on site, we were able to print barcode labels directly from Windward to our barcode printer, a Zebra ZT510. That feature no longer works for us in the cloud, and I'm told that the reason why is that the cloud version of Windward does not currently support our particular printer. I'm still looking for a better answer from Windward. But what that loss of functionality means for me is that I must now create a separate barcode database in Excel, link that database to Zebra's barcode software, and print my barcode labels through it. So you should pay close attention to the particular peripheral hardware that Windward supports.

From your friends at Bob's

Commentaires : Windward 5 does so much above and beyond the POS/accounting systems I have used in the past, and I know I haven’t made it through all it has to offer. The integrated CRM is very useful for keeping track of appointments and follow ups. I’m able to see that staff has made these appointments and keep them accountable for follow ups.
There is so much that can be done to organize and track inventory. Set multiple selling prices, build kits out of existing parts. Add pictures for staff and customers to reference, and way more.
Booking orders use to take me days to put together. Now the system tells me what I need based on past years. Some orders now take me less then a hour. Information and automation. Windward tracks so much for you and automates tasks. Saving you 100’s of hours and $1000’s of dollars a year. I am very happy I made this investment

Avantages :

Windward 5 does so much above and beyond the POS/accounting systems I have used in the past, and I know I haven’t made it through all it has to offer. The integrated CRM is very useful for keeping track of appointments and follow ups. I’m able to see that staff has made these appointments and keep them accountable for follow ups. There is so much that can be done to organize and track inventory. Set multiple selling prices, build kits out of existing parts. Add pictures for staff and customers to reference, and way more. Booking orders use to take me days to put together. Now the system tells me what I need based on past years. Some orders now take me less then a hour. Information and automation. Windward tracks so much for you and automates tasks. Saving you 100’s of hours and $1000’s of dollars a year. I am very happy I made this investment

Inconvénients :

It does take some time to set up, but you do get some great help. There is allot to learn. Be prepared to give this some attention, it will be worth it.

Garbage in Garbage out. This program is great, but you have to put in the time or resources to put in all the information and take time to set the switches.

Commentaires : my sales person has been very helpful. Even though I really complained to him when I had to upgrade the pervasive side of Windward. It was not that much, but as a business owner, I felt like everyone has there handed out to collect money. This is not Windwards fault, I had not upgraded pervasive in awhile and really did not know I had to. When my business burned in May of 2016 I had the backups but the three backups where all in the building. I dug through the debris and found the server and windward did not ask for any money to help me get the information back uploaded. I did not have a support package at that time and they could have asked me to upgrade the software and pay for a support package. Windward did not ask me for any money at all. Their technical department spent about 3 hours with my computer guy getting the information linked back up because some of the files where lost. I got locked out of the system and windward again helped me get back in. Thanks again Windward. Mike Kernea owner of Skyline Power Equipment

Avantages :

What I mean by the switches. This program allows you to set up the program the way you want it. It does have a default setting, but I have found that each company is different and require certain information. When sitting up the program go somewhere quiet with no distractions. Also if the program does what you want it to you do not have to upgrade.

Inconvénients :

If you don't upgrade then it is very hard for the company or technical support to help because they are running on another version.

This system is not worth the money, time, effort with no support

Commentaires : Windwards Systems INC gave a great sales pitch and were recommended by our Marketing Partner Spectra. Unfortunately, I should have researched their reviews better prior to spending a lot of money and 4 months of frustration with the implementation of the new system. I had really hoped we could integrate our Lights America system with Windward Systems as promised. However, the issue was reported at the beginning of February to their IT Support. After 2 months of not being resolved, us unable to go further in the implementation and being told only one (1) support person could resolve this issue in their company! Not to mention that one (1) IT support person worked night shift and would call us at 9:00 pm Eastern Time for us to login the system so he could troubleshoot! Are working hours are 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. That was just one issue. The other issue was moving our information from our old software to the new software. We were requested to provide them with spreadsheets of the information to upload. We paid our current IT Support to pull all the spreadsheet and I sent them to Windward only to be told the setting up of the spreadsheets from our old system to Windward was "a lot of work" My question to them was "a lot of work for you?" or "a lot of work for me?" The answer was for me to send the the spreadsheets after setting them up and work 40 + hours attending to my business. I feel that for the amount Windward was costing, their IT Support should have taken the "work" on them

Avantages :

It seemed easy to use. Seemed easy to set up. Seemed to do everything I would need to run POS, Inventory, Payables and Accounting.

Inconvénients :

Lack of IT Support. Please read my experience.

13 years with System 5

Commentaires : I installed System 5 for my "brick and mortar" business in 2003. This is one of the best investments I have made for my business. I have thousands of parts & customers, and hundreds of suppliers. Most of my inventory is tracked by serial number. "Windward" is pretty quick in spite of my huge database, and the interface makes it very easy to look up info (such as customer past purchase history, showroom display serial numbers, etc). I've had great phone support when updating to newer releases, migrating the application from old servers to newer servers. Their support team has patiently even helped me through accounting questions. Once, my whole system was completely dead because my tech support guy did something on the server, and WW resolved it right away. For me, a key capability is being able to import and export information easily into and out of Excel, so that I can maintain pricing for so many parts from many suppliers. I also use Excel for sales analysis and budget reports (outside of WW), so we can "slice and dice" the data (13 years worth) to analyze leading indicators of sales trends, for example. Since work orders can be populated from an external data file, I've created an external visual interface to create the work order line items for our more complex customer configurations, and have them load automatically into a work order. After 13 years, I have a laundry list of things I would like to see added or changed in the system. However, reliability and dependability are my top priorities and on that front, WW has been excellent. Windward returns calls, answers questions, owns up if the issue is on their end, finds acceptable temporary workarounds, and makes me feel that my business success is important to them. They do NOT create barriers to communication, throw up brick walls ("that's just the way it is"), or tell me I'm running my business the wrong way ("most of our customers don't change their prices just because their costs change") - which I have actually experienced with other software vendors. During implementation, I designed my categories to support the ways I wanted to be able to analyze the data in both WW and in Excel. If you don't have any software background, I would strongly recommend working with a reseller/design consultant for the initial layout and installation (which I think would be true for any accounting system), because that will set you up for success going forward.

Do not spend your money or time on this Software!

Commentaires : Please ask around to similar businesses and see what they are using - Do not waste your money and your time on this program. When you phone for support -you have to fight for major issues to be fixed. Every year you have to pay a lot of money for renewal and support - and you could be having a know issue that is a programming error but you still have to pay for support to have it repaired

Avantages :

There isn't much I like about winward. Inventory is okay but not great.

Inconvénients :

It is slow. Freezes. We are not a large company but it takes a long time to generate the AP/ AR reports ect. Exporting this to caseware or making you books easy access for your accountant is no existent. Which adds a major expense to a business' year end. Talk to your accountant - if they haven't heard of it - RUN! ( if they have they probably wont recommend it.) Subledger reports will not match Balance sheets: So generating an AR Report the balance will be different than the Balance Sheet. We had issues with our inventory and selling - sometimes it pulls the cost of an item twice -so it would inflate our expenses!

An Amazing Experience with Windward System Five

Commentaires : Since we have moved onto Windward System Five the improvement to our business have been and still remain extraordinary. System Five has given me the ability to work in an environment with real time information. With complete integration my business can process sales, my office team can work on accounting and financial transactions, inventory can be taken, purchase orders can be processed and more, all while maintaining flawless real-time information so that I can make decisions for my business quickly. In addition, we are able to process sales faster with integrated credit card processing, give a more profession look to our business with custom made integrated gift cards, we can print clean shelf labels right from the inventory record giving a profession look and assuring accurate pricing, barcode inventory items that do not have them, add multiple barcodes to items and a whole lot more.Support for this product is nothing short of impeccable! Windward offers 24/7 technical support from friendly, well trained technicians that work endlessly to keep your company up and running smoothly. The overall performance of this product in astonishing. It truly has the ability to accommodate anything I want to do to operation my business more efficiently. System Five is a very user friendly product that is easy to learn and understand. The customer service and support are friendly, understanding, concerned about your business needs and willing to do whatever it takes to help you run your company and accommodate your business needs. Speaking from one entrepreneur to you others out there, this is a product made for us! It is a fast, efficient, well build program that gives us the ability to run our businesses the way we want, collect information quickly with its wide array of reporting options so we can make better decisions, and free up our valuable time so we can get out there and do what we do best ' run our businesses! For those out there who would give this product anything less than a perfect review, I would like to challenge your business and management skill as the software is not the problem. This product gets five stars from me on all fronts! It's truly the integrity of my business and I could not imaging running my company without Windward System Five. For those of you considering I say go for it, it's the best investment you can make.

Customizable to a variety of business types. Fairly easy to use and learn the basics.

Commentaires : One software that we can use for the front end of the business and the back.

Avantages :

I like being able to customize buttons at the cash registers and change them seasonally as we are a garden center and our products do change drastically with the seasons. Customer support is always very helpful and has fixed most issues that I have had in the past. We make our nursery signs, labels, and a variety of different types of price tags within System Five. No need for another program as we did need one in the past. I have not used them yet but having webinars and a learning area available to us is an excellent way to get more out of our software.

Inconvénients :

Customer tech support is very good, however I think that it is a bit expensive annually. The label and form designers work but do not seem to be what you see is what you get. It takes a little finessing to create a label that fits your media properly.

Windward Software System

Avantages :

Nationwide Furniture Mattress Outlet looks forward to continuing and growing our partnership with Windward Software. Windward Software's system allows us to stay on track and be able to organize vital information. We rely on Windward Software to perform every day so we can deliver the best customer experience possible

Inconvénients :

The time it takes to load certain functions is excessive sometimes.

windward system 5

Commentaires : Overall system 5 is an end to end solution which we count on to mange our business. We would like to see regular scheduled maintaince as part of our annual subscription plan. We have invested heavily in to the software on the years and would.lien to feel we can get value added serviced included.

Avantages :

The software is an end to end solution for our business - we like this alot. This last year the software has slowed down which has created inefficiencies.

Inconvénients :

The software performance has dropped as we add more users and increase the date base. The length of time it takes to book appointments has been increasing over the last two years

Don’t, just don’t

Commentaires : Staff and customer service who don’t care once you have transferred your funds.
Issues will be addressed in a timeframe that will not only frustrate but will cost your company from making money or being able to grow.
This company has a terrible attitude and software package that has become so unstable windows 95 has become jealous.

Avantages :

Finding new and interesting and better software after being driven to the brink of insanity from a under performing, under maintained and un stable product.

Inconvénients :

Updates, did I mention updates, they don’t work, they simply fail, it’s like gambling when you update, will the software work tomorrow.... probably not.

Stay Away, poor Company and Poor program full of glitches

Commentaires : spent alot of resources and time to get their web module to sell online and they discontinued it the next year just as inventory came online

Avantages :

Windward is just there for your monthly fees, not to support you

Inconvénients :

glitches in the system for inventory control, does not count correctly stock constantly out

Basic programming and intigration issues.

Commentaires : Having trouble intigrating Windward System Five, with shipping programs.

Avantages :

Easy for the sales people to use, once they are very familiar with the system.

Inconvénients :

There are basic programming errors, such as date changes, Currency type, etc. that do not flow through the je, you have to change existing je's line by line. The control numbers should change what is in the je. When I addressed the issue, I was brushed off and just told to adjust the entries. When you try to use a date range for printing vendor accounts it does not work. Trying to get it to work with other programs has been a problem, and everthing has a price tag associated with it.

Not the right system for our type of business. Probably better for a small retail company.

Avantages :

I really don't know what we like most about the software. We have had the system for almost 10 years and it has never worked well for us, even after investing tens of thousands of dollars...

Inconvénients :

Not user friendly. Expensive. Support doesn't know how to fix the problem most of the time. System not capable of performing functions that are necessary for our business. Confusing. Have spent hours and hours trying to get the system to work correctly without success. Hired someone to come help us learn the system better that cost us almost so much money and we weren't any further ahead than before they came.

why I use windward

Commentaires : When we first started with windward it was fantastic. If we needed support, we called in Australia and it was fixed. Now there is no point in using that phone number! It then seemed the support workers did not know windward very well and I was brushed off or it would take a long time to resolve the issue. I must say it is getting better but not as good as it once was.

Avantages :

This system fits our needs with long part numbers. We are not computer people so the support is very important to us.

Inconvénients :

Some times it takes so long to get the support we need. The was such an issue I did think about changing systems. It has got better.