Workbooks Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 4.9 out of 10

Score

4.9 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Workbooks are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Dashboard: Users have found the dashboard of the service to be highly valuable, with multiple reviewers highlighting its effectiveness. It provides a centralized location for important information and allows easy access to pertinent data for sales calls.

Reporting and Dashboards: The in-depth reporting and dashboards offered by the service were praised by users. Several reviewers mentioned that these features help them stay on top of their business, from following up on sales leads to monitoring their pipeline.

Automation: Many users have appreciated the automation capabilities of the service. They have found it time-saving and efficient to create automated follow-ups and reminders based on updating fields or other criteria.

Reviews

18 Reviews

User of workbooks for four years

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

December 12, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Workbooks as our CRM, sales pipeline management, order book, invoicing tool, and marketing management system. Over the years we have slowly added more things to the list of things we use Workbooks for, but since moving our accounting away from Sage and on to Xero, we have begun to stop using Workbooks for things like supplier orders and collections.

Pros

Order tracking
APIs for invoicing scripts
User management

Cons

Can sometimes be slow
Sometimes the amount of customisation available leads to it being very difficult to change things you created a few months/years ago
The mobile offering is poor

Likelihood to Recommend

As we have a relatively small pipeline, Workbooks works great for us as the whole team can see in real time which member is doing the best/worst. I would say if an organisation has a very large pipeline it may be much harder to keep track of this with Workbooks.

Adam Grieve

Operations Manager in Finance and Accounting at Taopix LTD (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

Workbooks - Excellent CRM software

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

December 11, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Workbooks is used for lead management for the sales team, the operations team use it to manage our current customer base and the support team use workbooks for support cases. It allows us to manage clients in one location rather than using a number if different systems for support, leads and customer management

Pros

Great flexibility. The system is very flexible and you are able to setup reports and manage screens in the way you wish, adding custom fields and hiding any information deemed not important enough. user access levels can be used lock down various parts of the system
Great support team and very helpful when doing our own custom integrations
Excellent for lead management and reporting on opportunities that we can then pass onto the sales team
Easy to use, the interface looks clean and modern and its simple to find your way around

Cons

We use it for support but find it difficult to easily link support emails that arrive to organisations, it requires a lot of manual input to open/close a case
The flexibility can be a hindrance as it can be difficult to work out exactly what you wish to see, especially in reports. Sometimes a simple report is all thats required but it provides a lot of information
Can sometimes be a little slow and goes down from time to time but this is fairly rare

Likelihood to Recommend

Very well suited for lead management, the sales team can review and manage leads and opportunities through workbooks. It is also suitable for customer management, including support and linking support cases to customers. it also allows us to manage if customers have paid for support and then suspend or activate their accounts accordingly

David Carter

Quality Assurance Manager in Quality Assurance at Taopix Ltd (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

View profile

Workbooks is the engine that drives our business

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

December 5, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Workbooks is used by the Sales and Marketing departments as well as the Finance team. We have integrated our 'contact us' page on our website with Workbooks so that all new visitors to our website can log a request for contact and we're notified by Workbooks straightaway that we need to reach out. Our sales team then manage the sale from initial contact right through to closing using Workbooks Leads and Opportunities management tools. We know where we are every step of the way.

We're also managing all of our marketing activities through Workbooks using Campaigns so we know every communication we've sent out to both prospects and customer and who has received our emails. We're also able to manage our trade show expenditure using Workbooks so we know where best to spend our money.

Pros

The Workbooks automated reporting works particularly well for us. We can send a weekly email to the sales team so they know exactly where they are against target.
The Dashboard feature is particularly good in Workbooks, it means that we can see, at a glance, the status of our sales pipeline and who is performing, who is not and what business we are likely to close for the upcoming months and quarters.
Being able to see key reports on login is also a really nice feature, it means that crucial information that can determine business decisions is displayed as soon as Workbooks is launched and we're forewarned at the start of the business day.

Cons

I'd like to see the multi currency handled better. If I want to see a view that contains customer finance data from multiple regions, I can't see a total in GBP unless I create a report.
We found it difficult to manage support cases in Workbooks and the support team has had to move to another platform. Maybe looking at what ZenDesk is doing would be a good next step here.
I'd like to see a way of adding multiple contacts to a lead record. At the moment, every person has to have their own record as there's only space for one person and that means multiple records for one company.

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Workbooks is best suited for sales and marketing teams as there is really nothing glaringly obvious that it doesn't do. It probably is not best suited to a support environment where cases have to be tracked and customers communicated with automatically. It's probably too manual a process at the moment.

Dianne Moralee

Sales Director in Sales at Taopix Ltd (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile

Workbooks - bring the whole team together with clarity; consistency; and transparency

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

December 5, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The whole company; and some key sub-contractors, use our bespoke version of Workbooks to track the flow/process of each of our opportunities/projects.

Pros

Transparency regarding the stage that each of our projects are at.
Excellent way of ensuring that each project has a current task against it, ensuring that someone within the team has control of the project.
Great data accessibility as many of the team work in the field or from home.
Excellent management reporting.

Cons

Uploading images (that we insert into our quotes or risk assessments/method statements) could be better.
Some kind of time sheet function would be great.
More data space per user and a better indexing of the upload library.

Likelihood to Recommend

The ability to customize Workbooks makes it perfect for any company that would benefit from a more transparent/consistent process (marketing - quotation - order processing - product/service delivery - invoicing - management reporting/analysis - repeat business prospecting).

Andrew Cutler

General Manager in Corporate at Beta Safety Systems Limited (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Sales, Marketing and Finance!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

December 5, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We currently use Workbooks in a few different departments. Sales uses this to track sales cycles, as a CRM Database, and to track their target revenue. Finance uses this for orders and invoices to track who has paid, and Marketing uses this to send mail shots as well. We used to use this in support for support cases.

Pros

The opportunities database for sales staff, very detailed but still available at a glance.
Functionality with gatormail, being able to receive data from email shots.
Reports are a great way to pull together different records within Workbooks, and being able to send these as automated emails helps with sales cycles.

Cons

Search functionality isn't great, could be more advanced.
Reports are hard to create if not familiar with the process.

Likelihood to Recommend

Workbooks is best suited for a sales CRM, it has all the functionality to track sales cycles and targets, combined with gatormail it's perfect for this. It also works well for marketing purposes. However I would not recommend it for support or finance as such. I use it daily for all of these departments.

Jenny Spires

Sales & Marketing in Sales at Taopix Photo Commerce Software (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Workbooks is a solid CRM!

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

December 5, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The entire company use Workbooks including admin, finance, sales and management. In the sales department we use it to track web leads and manage KPI's and forecasting. It allows the team, who are not all based in the same office, to see what is in the pipeline and manage progress.

Pros

I can create views, which allow me to quickly access opportunities which require my attention.
I can check the history of an account, including emails, support tickets and transactions.
I can reassign leads and opportunities to other members.
I can log in from any device.

Cons

Searching for names can be slow.
Workbooks is a complex system and can take a little while to master.
Managing multiple user types can be tricky to get the right security access.

Likelihood to Recommend

It works well in our business - for small to medium businesses it is a great tool. It is very sophisticated and can really improve the organization of teams within a business. It helps employees stay on track and management to record performance. Overall I am very happy using Workbooks.

Michael Carey

Business Development Manager in Sales at Taopix Ltd (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile

Looking for a CRM? Workbooks Is The Best Overall Value.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

July 18, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My client uses Workbooks across the organization for prospect and customer management. It is also used for:

<ol><li>Contact management</li><li>Contact tracking</li><li>Campaign tracking</li><li>Lead tracking</li><li>Lead management</li><li>Invoicing</li><li>Statements</li><li>Customer service</li></ol>

Pros

Contact management - by this I mean core CRM functionality. Workbooks does it as well as any other software we tested.
Pipeline management and reporting - again, Workbooks does this as well as any other software we tested.
Client management - From a holistic client management perspective, from contact management to sales tracking, invoicing, and service, Workbooks does it all.

Cons

Workbooks is not easy or as intuitive to learn as some CRMs and that is the primary reason I don't rank it as a 10.
Workbooks has quite a few built in reports and dashboards but to do more advanced reports and dashboards you need to utilize the services of a consultant.
Workbooks integrates with a few other software packages such as MailChimp but it is not an intuitive process to integrate.

Likelihood to Recommend

Workbooks is an all-purpose, full featured CRM as powerful as Salesforce but far less expensive and with not as much bloat. I wrote that it isn't always intuitive, and you need a consultant to do advanced reporting as examples, but this is no different than Salesforce in my experience. The only place I can see Workbooks not being appropriate is for solopreneurs.

Mark Cohen

President in Marketing at Colloquy Digital, LLC (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Workbooks is the Workflow Workhorse!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 3, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Workbook is used as a CRM, Customer Service (Ticketing/Cases) and HR Tool. Our whole organization uses it to track incoming sales leads, effectiveness of marketing, customer service (we use the case module to track inbound service requests) reporting on Sales KPI's, etc. Although it's not actually an HR software, we also built an employee module to track applicants, employee vacation time, onboarding, etc. Workbooks allows us to have one central system to keep track of our leads, customers, orders, suppliers, etc. It allows us to save time, automate a tremendous amount of processes, and focus more time on building our business to new levels. We no longer duplicate data entry within our marketing modules (Email & Marketing Automation), accounting, and customer service systems.

Pros

Automation - It allows you to create automated follow ups and reminders based on updating fields or other criteria
Reporting - In depth reporting and dashboards allow you to keep track of your business from following up on sales leads to what is in your pipeline. You can even automate reports so that they are created and sent in real time so you don't even have to be in the system to get your reports if you so choose.
Integrating with other platforms. We have integrated Workbooks with things like Quickbooks, MailChimp, HelloSign and others to make our processes more automated and streamlined.
High amount of Customization - No limitations on custom fields that can be created, multiple form layouts per record type, create your own relationships between people and/or organizations.

Cons

It would be nice to have the google calendar integration now, but it's coming in Q1 of 2015 so we're happy to have that feature.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's a really great system for small to medium organizations that are willing to spend some time thinking about how their workflow can be improved by designing processes which will allow them to streamline and automate their business. For people who are not serious about making a commitment to bettering their business, Workbooks may not be a correct fit. For instance there are a lot of features which many people think they don't need, but they haven't really spent the time to figure out what the needs of the business are. The nice thing about Workbooks is that you can turn off things you don't need, and then when the business demands, they will be there for you to utilize.

Brian Walsh

BA/PM in Marketing at Lucid Switch (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

3 years of experience

View profile

Workbooks in the Charitable sector

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 22, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Workbooks is used as an organisation wide tool. The finance, commercial, fundraising, membership, communications, marketing, HR, ICT, policy and research departments all use the product daily. It is used to manage daily workflow processes that surround any and all interactions with third parties, either organisations or people.

Pros

Flexibility
Ease of configuration to suit specific requirements
Inter-connectivity with other applications
Friendly user interface
Extent of capability to support multifaceted businesses

Cons

Integration with Outlook from cloud based business systems
Ease of dashboard creation

Likelihood to Recommend

Workbooks is well suited for use by small to medium size organisations who do not want to employ sequel expertise to manage their customer data.

Brendan Harris, MBA

Director of ICT in Information Technology at Coeliac UK (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

A great CRM system, easy to tailor... and very good support

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 20, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Workbooks is being used across the company, both to track activities against existing clients, and for the sales team targeting prospects. Managing follow up calls, data management and tracking opportunities. We had no central place for our data, opportunities, and email stats. Having now integrated DotMailer, we have everything in one place, and so sending targeted email campaigns is far easier.

Pros

Relatively simple to customise the layout of the various screens
Support is very good
Opportunity management, tracking and reporting
Reporting, with a little help, is good. Particularly the scheduled emails, so no missed deadlines!.

Cons

Dashboards are a good idea, but take quite a bit of work to get right
Customising screens is not as straight forward as it can be, but after a time you get used to it.
If you already have a database uploaded to Workbooks, some of the integrations and APIs don't function in a way we would like. If a record is new to your database, then there are no issues.

Likelihood to Recommend

Workbooks is certainly applicable for companies that need a good tool to manage their data, and track opportunities through the sales funnel. It can also be used for invoicing, sending documents etc... fully branded, forecasting etc... but at this time we have not used this functionality. Where it is helpful is giving individuals tailored rights and views, or subscribing them to groups, to ensure the right people, have the right access rights.

If we were going through the process again, I would focus more around how data is managed, and how we as Connection2 would like to work. The platform is good, but we are using it slightly differently to how it was designed.

Phil Brooks

Operations Director in Marketing at Connection2 (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

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Reviews and Ratings

Workbooks is the engine that drives our business

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

December 5, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

The Workbooks automated reporting works particularly well for us. We can send a weekly email to the sales team so they know exactly where they are against target.
The Dashboard feature is particularly good in Workbooks, it means that we can see, at a glance, the status of our sales pipeline and who is performing, who is not and what business we are likely to close for the upcoming months and quarters.
Being able to see key reports on login is also a really nice feature, it means that crucial information that can determine business decisions is displayed as soon as Workbooks is launched and we're forewarned at the start of the business day.

Cons

I'd like to see the multi currency handled better. If I want to see a view that contains customer finance data from multiple regions, I can't see a total in GBP unless I create a report.
We found it difficult to manage support cases in Workbooks and the support team has had to move to another platform. Maybe looking at what ZenDesk is doing would be a good next step here.
I'd like to see a way of adding multiple contacts to a lead record. At the moment, every person has to have their own record as there's only space for one person and that means multiple records for one company.

Likelihood to Recommend

Dianne Moralee

Sales Director in Sales at Taopix Ltd (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile