Nola Pro Cloud Accounting Review
Introduction
The bottom line for any business irrespective of size has to be profit. The recipe for success tends to reflect on factors that facilitate entrepreneurs to have information on all aspects of their business. Information that leads to allowing strategic decisions to be made as and when necessitated.
Deploying a business software solution with total business integration has huge advantages including a smooth transition from process to process and with accounting modules installed business intelligence information is easily available.
One such product we have recently reviewed is Naguska’s NolaPro which is a low-cost alternative to programs like QuickBooks and NetSuite, with a focus on small and medium size business (SMB). It states free but to make it worthwhile there are module add-ins that have a cost associated with them, not overpriced but a fair cost.
NolaPro presents the familiarity of QuickBooks and Windows Accounting, simplistically.
The ease of local installation should not be complicated for the average internet user. It was quick, but the version can be misleading by the outer appearance. Maybe just a few minor adjustments to make cosmetic changes to adapt the local instance look like the web. Since it is web based it can be used on any platform that uses a browser.
As for local user there are things that will seem different once you open the package. It is downloadable in Linux and Windows base operating systems. As of now it can only be downloaded in Mac operating system through a virtual instance.
Ease of import and export
For the migration of data into NolaPro, there are tools provided by the software. This could be an easy experience if you follow their directions, or it could a repugnant experience if you just scan over the directions. There are very specific formats for the importing of data. If done correctly it will make your transition a smooth one.
Ease of Use
The products ease of use in the first instance was good, navigating through all the tabs and folders to get around until we got to the inventory section and attempted to bring up an item on the inventory list. We had an inefficient lag of 1.3 to 2.5 minutes of waiting for an item and found this delay to be somewhat excessive just to examine an item. This would reduce any client’s productivity and drive them senseless. The transitioning through all other facets of the software is considerably painless.
Constructing reports was seamlessly easy with NolaPro running under MySQL and PHP.
Support
Support is provided without charge. I had to call on support for just a few issues. At first, they responded to our tickets immediately (within 10 minutes), but then this took a turn for the worse, as it increased to over 2 days. If you have a problem with your accounting, wouldn’t you prefer a quicker resolve surely? To date we have not had a resolve to our “item delay” issue.
- Inexpensive
- Easy to download
- Ease of use
- Web and local based
- Ineffective Support
- Ineffective Productivity Retail and POS
Conclusion
If you want an ordinary accounting software for a non-retail environment, this is for you.
As for retail associates this is intolerable, we don’t want to wait for our software to find items in the catalogue and then wait and wait for support for a response, it’s a not on. We are talking about days and not hours for the wait.
In an instant gratuity world, we want it and we want it now. So I cannot recommend this software for the retail associates, keep with what you have and continue looking for suitable options.
