ACS Technologies Reviews

Pros

About the only positive thing I can say is that the support staff are very kind and pleasant to deal with.

Cons

This is a system I inherited and its reporting features are terrible. Pulling data out of it is such a struggle that even the tech support team can't seem to figure out how to do it.

Pros

From membership records to accounts payable and financial reporting ACS Financials gives our parish everything needed to stay organized and manage these areas effectively.

Cons

We've been very satisfied with the applications we use and haven't come across anything to dislike.

Pros

Financials have been really solid for nonprofit bookkeeping and that's the part I personally rely on most.

Cons

At times it can run a bit slowly while moving through certain steps in the process.

Pros

Handled the amount of information it could store and organize really well. It let us collect a broad range of data including primary and secondary addresses, several email addresses and even rank those emails by preferred use. Overall the system gave us the ability to capture a lot of detailed information.

Cons

Using this software was far from easy. It honestly took formal classes just to learn the basics. Any time I needed to run reports to pull specific information I almost always had to contact their support for help. Since reporting was one of the most important things I needed from a database especially being able to pull different kinds of data for different needs, it really fell short in that area.

Pros

As a church database it covers a lot of useful ground. It includes features for member information and attendance tracking and there's also a companion app that church members can use to find phone numbers for other members. That was especially useful while we were using the system.

Cons

It was not very user friendly. The interface feels outdated and getting around the system for the tasks I needed was harder than it should have been. In our department we ended up relying on a different app for attendance tracking because of that.

Pros

A positive thing about it is that the customer support team is friendly and pleasant to deal with. I also appreciated the different permission levels which work well for groups that shouldn't have access to every piece of information.

Cons

The list of problems is pretty long but the biggest ones are the cost, how hard it is to use and how inefficient and clunky the whole system feels. It's not easy, the add-ons are frustrating, reports take far too long to run the user interface is poor and the online giving platform looks terrible.

Pros

Comes with a wide range of functions and the report editing is fairly capable if you already have some database knowledge and understand how relational databases are structured.

Cons

There are plenty of smaller issues that make the system feel less efficient than it should. For example when posting payments or transactions to student accounts the date does not automatically fill in with the current date so you have to manually update it each time. There is also no way to set a default due date for transactions which means every entry requires extra steps for both the posting date and the due date.

Pros

Having everything for the church community in one system is definitely the most useful part. It lets you build individual and family profiles, place people into groups, track attendance and pull reports and statistics from the information that's been entered.

Cons

The software is not very user friendly and feels overly complicated to move around in. When several staff members are entering data, duplicate records can happen pretty easily and if your permissions are limited fixing those mistakes becomes difficult. Creating reports is not very easy either. It feels like the product is still stuck in the 90s both in its look and in how hard it is to use.

Pros

I've always appreciated how this software brings all parishioner profiles together and links them to a donation platform which makes it much easier to track expenses and income in real time.

Cons

It would benefit from some updates to improve speed and make the system more user-friendly.

Pros

Honestly nothing comes to mind right now.

Cons

It takes way too much effort to get done what I need at this point.

Pros

What sets this database apart is its ability to handle large volumes of data while keeping everything organized and accessible. Tracking multiple components feels effortless, even as our needs have grown.

Cons

Using the system feels very complicated and it's not user friendly at all. It takes a lot of effort to get things done.

Pros

Comes packed with a wide range of features. It handles everything from database management and payroll to check in so there's a lot you can do with it in one system.

Cons

Getting fully comfortable with the softwae takes quite a bit of training so there can be a lot to learn at the beginning.

Pros

Compared with their older City product this version feels more efficient and a bit more user friendly. It also includes the backend tools a cloud based user would expect for handling finances and managing groups.

Cons

There are several serious problems. The web version of Realm is split into two areas, the backend admin side and the community side. The admin side remains stable and responsive even if you step away or leave it idle for a while. The community side however stops working if you move away and it can then take several minutes to load again if it loads at all. This happens in Messages and Events on the community side while Groups and Giving on the admin side do not seem to have the same issue. According to the support this is a known problem and they have said it will not be fixed. That makes the software basically unusable during a normal workday. Logging out or clearing the cache may temporarily get it running again but the issue always comes back. Being told that this is simply how it is shows very poor support and they should not be selling a product that does not work properly and that they have no intention of repairing.

Pros

The one bright spot with this software is the customer support team. They are genuinely excellent respond to all of my questions and help me work through issues I run into or even mistakes I've made myself. Beyond that there really isn't anything else I would recommend.

Cons

Quite a few things I don't like about it but the biggest problem is the reporting. The reports are absolutely terrible and extremely hard to understand. Nobody can make sense of the reports it generates and I've had to sit down with every ministry leader just to explain what they mean. It's very confusing and even donations show up as negative amounts.

Pros

Most of my work happens in the People Module and loading information into it or making updates is pretty easy. The phone support team has also been consistently helpful, they are kind courteous and useful whenever I need assistance. This software has come a long way over the last few years and I'm hopeful that progress keeps going.

Cons

The system still feels clunky to work in. Something as simple as pulling an attendance report takes multiple steps and it doesn't feel especially easy. A lot of the time,if I need to do something new I can't just figure it out on my own and end up having to call support. Overall it still comes across as a bit outdated.

Pros

Using it feels very easy and the pricing is reasonable. On top of that it's convenient to work with which makes the whole experience better.

Cons

One downside is the cost of attending a conference just to learn the system. Online video training also doesn't work well for me so I usually end up trying to figure things out on my own and that slows me down.

Pros

Child check in has been very user friendly which has made things a lot easier for us and their customer service has also been excellent. There are a lot of features available and I'm hoping we take full advantage of them over time. The directory is one area I'd like to start using more. I also really appreciated that they offered to send us to a training event.

Cons

Our finance person had worked in QuickBooks for many years so she felt more comfortable using that than switching over completely. It would also be helpful if someone could come onsite and walk us through things in person. Adapting to new technology is difficult and change can be too. We typically have around 300 people at church on Sundays just to give some context for our setup. The price is also on the higher side.

Pros

The family profile details are very comprehensive with a lot of useful information included.

Cons

The software feels outdated and generating reports often takes quite a while.

Pros

There's a wide range of features and options available for serving our members which gives us a lot of flexibility in how we support them.

Cons

At the same time the software feels intimidating and takes a lot of effort to learn especially at the beginning.

Pros

Accessing our information from different platforms has been really convenient and searching for what we need is easy since there are several parameters we can use to narrow things down.

Cons

It can be a little glitchy at times. Since our database holds a large amount of information loading can also be slow when it's working through bigger volumes of data.