Short time to pick new software... advise, please!!!!

[DeeDee Armstrong]

Our company is splitting, and we have 4 days until the partners go their separate ways. I will be sticking with one of the partners.

We have 3 appraisers that work from their homes. Splits are between the supervisor, the appraiser, and the company.

We have been using WinTotal Athena, but don't like it because we can't do the splits for more than 2 entities, and I have to use Quickbooks. Also, there isn't a good way to track office productivity or ways to track the appraisal from request through receivables. I have heard that Day One can do this for remote appraisers (having the requests come through one office and then disperse via e-mail to the appraisers).

Can anyone tell me how ACI does any of this?
Are people pleased with ACI?
What is HighPerForm?
How about DayOne?
How about converting files from Athena to a new program?
How is it compared to other softwares?

I need to give feedback to the partner that I am going with. I am the controller for the company.

Thanks!!!
Feedback soon is a definite plus, since we have such a short time...

 

[xmrdfghap]

I am not quite sure what it is you are looking for. I would use QB for ALL accounting functions including tracking. The appraisal software, in my opinion, should be appraisal software. All appraisal orders I receive go into quickbooks with a price attached and any payments I recieve as I receive them. As I do narratives almost as much as I do forms, I would not entertain the thought of using appraisal software to track narratives.....and tracking in two venues seems way too complex.

In QB, set up each appraiser as a vendor/employee (however you handle their status). You enter the time and date when you post the order, fax them the request, and the clock starts ticking. When the product is finished, post it as an AR and you can maintain all sort of statistics.

Why is there a need to dupicate this with the appraisal software?

And if you don't need to do it with appraisal software, then you are free to use any software you wish.....every appraiser can use what they want and it can all be something different.

 

[Russ]

Toolbox and Orders Express Pro! Works like a charm, no tweaks! Enter the info once and it is a done deal!

 

[KD247]

DeeDee,

From a productivity viewpoint, your collection of prior appraisals and familiarity with WinTotal may be the most important factors in this decision. I may be wrong, but I don't think that WinTotal files can be imported by other software. The time required to adopt new software plus the loss of ability to clone old appraisals sounds like a very costly combination.

If you can't develop a work-around for your accounting system, you can always move all or part of the process to QuickBooks.

 

[Stone]

I use Wintotal, and we do all our accounting, including invoices, on QB. If you have an accountant do any of your end of the year work, I suggest doing all of your financial work on QB, as it is the industry standard.

 

[BigBlueGA]

DeeDee -

HighPerForm is United Systems' program.. http://www.unitedsystems.com

It reminds me a lot of Athena, although I haven't been able to play with Athena a whole lot yet. The interface seems to be about the same from what I've seen, maybe in a little bit lighter package.

It does offer networking, comps database (not spectacular though), photo management, plenty of forms, macros, the whole nine yards.

I like it personally... the only one I would really consider switching to would be Athena or MAYBE Bradford Toolbox (haven't played with it much yet either but it looks pretty decent and I like the direction they seem to be heading in).

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

>>What is HighPerForm?<<

That is the software package you will replace with WinTotal or Clickforms (Toolbox) within a matter or weeks.

Been der, dun dat

Ter