Opiniones de Windward System Five

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

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

Puntos a favor:

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.

Puntos en contra:

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.

Great system management

Comentarios: When we first took over this long-time local business, previous owners did most reports or tracking by hand (ie hand-written invoices entered into QB and hand-written price books) WWS5 helps us keep track of items in inventory, current prices and mark-ups for inventory, general price increases from vendors, EOD reports and sales, and AR accounts much more easily. We do not currently use the accounting portion, but hope to move over to the accounting option with the new data set.

Puntos a favor:

We currently use Windward for our POS and AR needs. This helps keep us on track for monthly billing to AR clients and keeps up with the daily till. We do very much like the additional features such as inventory management, price checks/updates, but have trouble at time keeping it current due to staffing issues. With more staff, this system would be absolutely amazing.

Puntos en contra:

When we first installed Windward, there were issues with understanding the larger picture during set-up. Understanding more about the system prior to set up would have helped. We are currently setting up a new database now that we understand more about the full operation of WWS5.

continuing forward

Comentarios: We are continuing to use System Five as migration is a challenge for a small business like ours. The support crew at Windward work well to address issues; however, our account manager failed to address items that were still in process just prior to go live. Those items remain outstanding as support is unable to address them.

Puntos a favor:

Immediate processing of credit card transactions. The fact that System 5 is in the cloud is one of the primary reasons we purchased the product.

Puntos en contra:

Not enough explanation of defaults in System 5 caused redundancy in our chart of accounts. The monthly reconciliation requires that several routines be performed before you can have a reliable balance report of income/expense reports. Modifiers were disappointing as we learned that they must be setup on an item-by-item basis, rather than a category or brand basis. Custom reporting is extremely lacking and doesn't allow for us to produce the reports we need.

Windward Software is an amazing program to help you run your business in every aspect.

Comentarios: Inventory was a huge issue for us before we started using System Five. We absolutely cannot imagine running our business without Windward System Five at this point.

Puntos a favor:

The Support is A1 and the features of everything from Inventory to Sales Invoices, everything is connected and very user friendly. Reports are easy to run, reconciliations, sales and purchase invoicing, ageing, financials are easy to read and all other functions are again, user friendly.

Puntos en contra:

No cons at this time. We didn't like that it didn't have a payroll feature when we started with it but now it does.

Windward Review

Comentarios: Mostly positive when it comes to day to day interaction. Any negatives are more nit-picking issues.

Puntos a favor:

Required Orders system and ability to interact with the invoice easily throughout.

Puntos en contra:

Lack of multiple kits. Purchase orders with SO items become buggy with large quantities. If a user moves too quickly in the system, it can break.

Tami McQuown

Comentarios: Its been a great experience!

Puntos a favor:

Ease of use, technical support answers all questions

Puntos en contra:

Credit card transactions did not go well at first

Yes you can enter the computer age!

Puntos a favor:

My existing business had an old time cash register when I purchased it. At the beginning 12+ years ago it worked ok for me. But over the years as prices rose. I had no way of knowing at a glance what I paid for an item and what I should be selling it for. I was losing money! I was familiar with another accounting system but it required extensive time at home each night entering hand written A/R bills and daily till totals into its system so I could bill customers. I had heard of Windward several years prior but just didn't think I could afford it. A new employee who had experience with other systems encouraged me to purchase. Implementation was so much work because I didn't have any inventory computerized. No lists and I jumped in in the middle of a month and a fiscal year. I was going to finance the purchase over 2 years but decided to put it on my line of credit. I paid it and my new equipment off in 6 months! I have now used the software for 7 years and am very happy with it. It has saved me about $2000.00/year in accountant fees. Love the fact that all monthly Provincial and Federal sales tax reports are easily paid. It has an employee section with payroll etc. So easy to upload inventory that is new from an excel spreadsheet.

Puntos en contra:

Inventory from multiple suppliers with barcodes have to be entered in as coming from one main supplier with all other suppliers entered in as alternates. The barcode can't have any supplier attached to it or my computer makes a loud beep. I purchase by item # not by barcodes. I wish the system would let you enter item #'s from each supplier with the corresponding barcode even if it is also the same barcode for another supplier. I am not always aware that the product coming from one supplier is already in my system under a different supplier.

System Five

Comentarios: Service and online capability was not good. While we paid for 24/7 service, we had to setup tickets and would get a call back within 24hrs.

Puntos a favor:

The built in reports allowed for easily customizing reports. With their "lookup words" it was easy to tag, customers, products and vendors to particular categories for additional reporting

Puntos en contra:

The online capability. There was no good capability for online. Sales would take a long time to integrate back into the software and there was no direct connection between Windward S5 to the online platform such as WooCommerce. Which meant an additional cost for another API connection. Windward API was very limited to what info could be pushed and pulled from the website.

Honest Thoughts

Comentarios: This system is chalk full of great concepts but it always falls short of our needs. The band-aids given for our issues are never a resolution, just a temporary fix and often more work. System Five does work, it crashes every few months but overall we can continue with business. We will continue with System Five.

Puntos a favor:

There are many features that could be incredibly useful. The reports have vast options which we utilize often.

Puntos en contra:

It seems every update an equal amount fixed gets broken. We always seem to be chasing down issues and fixing bugs. There is not one week we do not have issues in our system, user or system error. Every feature seems to tap out in functionality. They all have an amazing idea, but when we try to use them there is always a reason it does not work for our system or with our data.

Basic programming and intigration issues.

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

Puntos a favor:

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

Puntos en contra:

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.

Windward System 5 for us has grown into a great relationship.

Puntos a favor:

I like the auto data up loads for inventory. I like the adjustability of all the categories of forms and labels, such as invoices, purchase orders, packing slips, inventory tags, delivery tickets, etc. we can utilize and customize to suite all kinds needs for many different aspects, and situations. Being able to use the tag-a-long kits for suggestive selling, helps out the sales staff considerably, gives them that extra help in making their quotas and the don't have to remember to ask each customer, the suggested add-on items pops up on the invoice and forces them to ask. The sales staff loves the ability to bring up all their open invoices at one click. They love the ability to prioritize estimates for their follow ups. I love the pop up tasks, I can assign tasks to specific employees for a specific day and time to pop up, to remind them to get it done. Using system batch purchasing really saves a lot of time. Using alternative vendors for the same products helps with our inventory management. We have a repair department, sometimes the sales people will help out on the repair bench and the "technician's time clock" works well for them when they get call back to the sales floor in the middle of their repair and then come back later to finish, that may happen several times in the course of one repair depending if the time it takes for completion. Using this "technician's time clock" makes it easy to track their time for the repair fees. System 5 is such an integral part of our day to day functions, we take a lot of it's features for granted, it is hard to think of all the good things it does for us to make our lives easier.

Puntos en contra:

I think the data up loads can function easier, be less complicated. We don't use the accounting part of the program. We use QB for our payroll and it will integrate with System 5 so that is good. There are more aspects of the program I like to be using and I wish the learn curves would be easier. We have an extra large amount of inventory and data stored in the system, since we have been using it since 2008. When generating reports or gathering information, the delays to the system or the machine's think processes, are way too long for me, before the abort button shows up, if it shows up at all or the option to quit the process and try another way. Again think of what I like least is difficult to do because we always find a work around to fulfill our needs.

I wish I never heard of Windward Software

Comentarios: Our overall experience was extremely poor and detrimental to our business. All our staff were frustrated ( I nearly lost staff), some customers were frustrated, we invested so much money, and have in turn lost so much money. Oh and did I mention the time invested. All that time I spent, all a waste, the time my staff spent which I paid for, such a waste. So much stress that my whole team went through only to end up worse off. Before we went live, in my gut I had doubts due to my experience with Windward staff in the lead up transition period. But unfortunately I have faith in people, and faith that people tell the truth, and they assured me that the Windward System 5 was an investment in my business- to have confidence, to go live and realise the benefit. Oh so wrong. The system just plain and simple had so many glitches and caused more harm than good to my business. Once live, it just got worse and worse. In hindsight, I should have listened to my gut in implementation, written the money invested off as a bad business decision and aborted. By pushing on, I cost my business so much more, and then blindly I stayed for the full 60 days as required by the refund clause, further harming my business, only to be told they were not giving me a refund anyway. Also if you are in a different timezone, that is another thing to be wary of. When I signed up they promised local support as they had two people in Australia. But these staff left and no one replaced them.

Puntos a favor:

We are a retail shop with a mechanic workshop out the back. The special order process was a positive, but unfortunately when you think of all the difficulties, costs and time loss from the rest of the system I can't go so far as to say it is a pro. The idea of the detailed security and reports options is good, but due to extensive glitches never realized any benefits. Unfortunately the reports and exports were missing data, which meant reconciliation was problematic, and the security just caused glitches and locked my staff out of the system. Due to this, the amount of bookwork to fix the mess is just huge, this system is continuing to cost me in staff costs and time even though I have left Windward. Ultimately this POS system was one of the worst business decisions I have ever made and I do not recommend it all.

Puntos en contra:

The implementation is long and tedious. We worked hard with 'technicians' to ensure quality data was loaded. We had 5 different implementation technicians as 2 left the company, one they allocated to us didn't suit the timezone, one provided intermittent help, & one was finally helpful. Windward waived some licencing fees to compensate for lack of support as we were paying for a licence we could not use. Windward then deleted all my data and we had to start again. The daily technical staff in are in a Philippines call centre, they failed to fix most issues. Due system glitches we had no choice but to leave despite due to it harming our business. A huge amount of funds and time invested. Windaward refused to provide refund despite us doing the mandatory 60 days. Glitches include BUT WERE NOT LIMITED TO: mixing up data across customer records showing machines that belonged to other customers on accounts (nothing to with our data); showing bills and outstanding amounts for other customers on accounts; continuously locking our staff out; full system outage; slowing down sales; daily sales reports inaccurate; export reports missing data. Windaward technicians use a licence you have paid for to investigate their system's issues further undermining your business as you've less workstations. We wired the internet throughout our shop as they suggested, this resolved no issues. We found usability to be poor, search functionality poor, & it would take us many steps to do basic things.

I depend on Windward every day for my role in sales and marketing. I couldn't do my job without it!

Comentarios: It's integral to my role in the company. In fact everyone in our company uses Windward on a daily basis. We use it in every aspect of our product based business from order processing, to sales, management, warranty, accounting and inventory management.

Puntos a favor:

I like the ability to generate custom sales reports so I can see who my top dealer accounts are, and which accounts I need to incentivize. I need to quickly check stock of products in all four of our warehouse locations, and when a product is out of stock, I need to be able to quickly see what's been ordered and when we are expecting it to arrive at our warehouses. In a "just in time delivery" business world like ours, giving customers an accurate ETA can mean the difference between closing the sale and not closing it. As a sales manager, I like to look at what the top selling products are by customer and by regions. I like to review our sales trends month by month and year by year, and see where we need to improve. I also need to see the full financial picture of sales, cost of goods sold and company expenses, to make sure we continue to run a streamlined operation and remain competitive in a constantly changing marketplace. Windward's reporting features are excellent in this regard. Windward is an extremely powerful and feature packed program. It does everything we need to run our business, from accounting to sales; order processing to invoicing; warranty claims and product returns; and generating reports that all levels of management can use to efficiently run their department, or the whole company. In summary, Windward is an extremely comprehensive program that is well suited to our product-based business.

Puntos en contra:

Like any feature packed program, intuitive menus are critical to accessing all the nuances of the software. Most of power software programs leave something to be desired in the area of intuitive interfaces. Windward is no exception to this. Thus, task specific training modules and quick customer support is of utmost importance to users being able to shorten the learning curve when expanding their knowledge of Windward.

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.

Comentarios: 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

Puntos a favor:

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.

Puntos en contra:

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

Comentarios: 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

Puntos a favor:

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

Puntos en contra:

Lack of IT Support. Please read my experience.

I have been using Windward System 5 as the Financial Controller for about 18 months

Puntos a favor:

Windward System 5 is well organized and intuitive for knowledgeable users. It is an extensive system doing just about anything you could want in a business management/accounting system. Reports are extensive and well laid out, and allow you to drill through to the details in most cases.

Puntos en contra:

It seems plagued with system errors. Not sure if this is just our platform, or if this happens to most users, but we get system errors on a very frequent basis (more than daily). Most are nothing and the system corrects them on its own, but some require more effort, and frequent assistance from Windward Support. Most of the support personnel are very helpful and knowledgeable, so your problems get fixed fairly quickly but they are still a nuisance.

Do not spend your money or time on this Software!

Comentarios: 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

Puntos a favor:

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

Puntos en contra:

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!

Best system around if you are willing to put the effort in before you go live, super easy POS side.

Comentarios: Best system I have ever used, to date have implemented this system in 2 businesses. This system has increased speed of transactions and lowered overheads. Best all round system.

Puntos a favor:

Have put this system in 2 businesses have had no real issues to date that have not been easy to fix. POS is pretty flawless and easy to use. You can report on just about anything. Support staff are fantastic, and implementation was easy. Windward are with you the whole way making sure everything works.

Puntos en contra:

To date have non, anything that I have ever had an issue with usually stems from user error. There are some processes that I would like to have, and they can absolutely be custom programed, like seeing what items on the invoice are have customer contract pricing, but this does not affect most sales and can be checked other ways. So not really a con just something that my end would be great, more than likely there is a way to do this. I am always learning new things to stream line the process.

This software is the most in depth software program we have found.

Comentarios: The best benefit is being able to control inventory.

Puntos a favor:

It tracks model and serial numbers of appliances for customers and stores the details. Easy to use.

Puntos en contra:

Set up was a little hard just because you had to create every outstanding work order you already had and every inventory item you have and when you are dealing with appliances, furniture, mattresses, and appliance parts it was a lot to do. The system upgrades and up front costs are somewhat pricey.

The benefits more than outway the problems that occur

Comentarios: All in one program for inventory to A/R and A/P etc.

Puntos a favor:

Inventory control and details that can be entered into each item is awesome. Customer sales tracking is great. Can be adapted to many types of businesses.

Puntos en contra:

Reports side is not the best. Cannot get an accurate back dated inventory and designing reports is sometimes hard. Need bigger field for invoice numbers when adding bills to workorders.

WWS5 is a workhorse!

Comentarios: Ease of Use
Inventory control
Order management
Work flow Simplification and tracking
Emailing
Invoicing
Accounting

Puntos a favor:

Windward System 5 has been a workhorse for our business for over 12 years! We can control our inventory, track special orders, email clients and much more with WWS5. We have been able to grow into this software. There are many features that we are still learning that are simplifying our workload! I highly recommend System 5 to anyone who manages inventory. BTW the reporting capabilities are almost endless.

Puntos en contra:

It is a little quirky, but the benefits far outweigh the quirks. I wish that it had more web integration or that they would offer cloud based databases.

SOFTWARD THAT DOES IT ALL

Comentarios: It took a little time to learn the features but we have been very pleased with how this software works for us in our retail Hobby Shop. We have a huge inventory which is constantly changing - no problem for Windward. Windward handles our point of sale including receivables. Tracks our purchases and payables and allows us to create reports and bar codes and so much more. I can't imagine a type of business that could not function with this very extensive software at a reasonable price. Lots of good updates and fast help available when you need it.

Puntos a favor:

Ability to design inventory reports that provide us detail on what has been sold in a date range and allows us to purchase wisely.

Puntos en contra:

Only one thing I would like to see added: A report to show income and expense in a spreadsheet by month.

This is a smooth and feature rich software that transformed our business.

Puntos a favor:

Our ability to drill into items where you should be able to. Having linked PO's direct in the inventory items is essential to tracking when an items was purchased and received. The full functioning GL of this software in nothing less than exceptional and really can give a business owner the feeling of control when operating their business

Puntos en contra:

I think the most difficult thing with Windward is the learning curve. Reports are sometimes hard to understand at first until you understand them. the XML editor for invoice templates need work, this the most difficult part of the program to use if you are a novice or not tech savvy.

Windward System Five - I would recommend this program

Comentarios: Windward System Five is an easy to use program that allows people who have little experience to use it.

Puntos a favor:

Inventory Control is very functional and easy to use.

Puntos en contra:

Reports are difficult and you have to build most of your own reports so you need to be skilled with it. Also if a tax changes on a product you have to make a new product code and start over for that item.

Great solution to our inventory and customer billing processes.

Comentarios: Control, organization, customer history, financial tracking and evaluation though the reports.

Puntos a favor:

Inventory tracking and reporting, customer history tracking and reporting. Has way more tools than we can use. Team loves the history look-up. Invoice are easy to create and print. Works well for us.

Puntos en contra:

Trying to connect the purchase order to a bill to a check. If one person does something out of step I find it to be a nightmare to try and fix. I understand why and I appreciate this, but there needs to be more scenario problem solving for me to go online and watch how to fix my issue.