Windward System Five Reviews

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

Over the years there have been many areas of the program that we never took advantage of. One of the greatest things is with all the recent available training on and off line it has allowed us to find these nuggets that have helped us tremendously to make processes within our business so much easier. This had to be one of the best implementations that Windward has made, keep the training coming!!

Cons

The one thing we dislike about the program are updates. We get very nervous! A few years ago we did an update and it totally messed up the whole program. We had to work offline (paper work) for more than 3 weeks, which was a nightmare after the fact. Though Windward programmers worked for over 6 months to find a fix, they never ever did. So here 5 or 6 years later our Point of Sales Transaction Report figures are still unusable. We recently updated Pervasive and were told it should really speed up the program. Unfortunately it didn't, actually saw absolutely no difference even though it had been several years since we'd done an update, so are looking at other areas now.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

It fill all of our needs as a retail store as well as a webstore. It integrates both of those nicely. The accounting and the POS in one system is a great way to run a business.

Cons

In my business it would be useful to give employees access to a variety of information screens. Windward does allow this to some extent, but not to the extent that makes it practical in our situation. Which sometimes forces me to give people access to confidential information which they don't need in the coarse of their job.

Pros

This program has a lot of features, many of which speed up the tasks we perform daily. Tracking our customers is now fairly easy. Most of the system is Excel compatible which makes invoices and other documents easy to export. Windward's tech support is very friendly and accommodating.

Cons

As useful as this software is I still find simple tasks that it cannot perform. I have made at least four requests of tech support concerning software functionality that resulted in an answer of "the software can't do that" (and my requests were far from complicated). It's as if the software is so good at doing a million different tasks that it wasn't built to do the simplest ones.

Pros

Windward is easy to navigate and manipulate. Inventory items are easy to add and change. Like the way the payroll system integrates with Windward so no need to journal . Love the support I have received when requiring assistance from the team in the Philippines . They are prompt in getting back to you and try to assist at all times.

Cons

When trying to customise the system to suit our requirements alot of manual hours are required to change simple things like updating prices and modifications. When we needed to collect information from the system we required a special programme be written to fulfil government requirements. This additional reporting is cumbersome to produce.
There is also alot of double entry when making a payment and then having to do a journal entry to reflect the same. A journal entry should be automatic.
Would like the ability to make ledger numbers inactive
Although we have a very confusing payroll and tax system, we experienced many issues with setting up the payroll system with this year being the first year we have successfully produced a payroll summary. Even then it required alot of double/triple checking to ensure the information was correct. Adding a new employee is once again difficult and time consuming. It would be great to be able to copy an existing one.

Pros

Very thorough software with lots of room/areas to store Information and very easy to use. The point and click ability of the software makes it easier to train new staff. Can access the software from anywhere in the world using remote desktop connection.

Cons

The updates do not seem to go very smoothly. And update me fix one problem but two new problems arise that were not problems before. We have actually stopped getting updates and have continued to use our current version for years. We have developed our own internal ways to use the software to its fullest potential without getting updates. Software support is readily available however very expensive and a lot of the problems that we have encountered do not have the solution. In order to get the solution we have to pay for the entire resource development team and have to be very very patient to see results. The yearly license fee does not benefit our company as we do not complete the updates. So we paid the fee however are using an out of date software program Because we are afraid to update. Phoning for tech-support can be quite challenging when the bill is charged per minute and we are on hold for 80 percent of the call. We are usually on hold while the tech support discusses with superior or development team to solve our more complex problems. At the end of the day the software program helps us maintain our current business but is not helping us grow our business. We are not ready to commit thousands of dollars to the software program that still has many issues even if we were to update to most current version

Pros

The ability to expand on transactions no matter which module you are in is a nice feature. The GST function is also very good.

Cons

With every update, there is a new set of problems. In addition, you can not add additional data bases, terminals nor change your company information such as address, phone etc. Windward's main goal seems to be collecting licence renewal fees and support fees at higher than market rates. They control the number of users - unlike Simply Accounting who allows up to 10 users for a basic license. Windward also charges a licence fee PER DATA BASE. This is bogus! Overall, I am disenchanted with Windward and moving away from the product after over a decade of use.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

POS screen is very easy for staff to learn. Transactions easy to process.
Lots of reports available

Cons

Update to windows 10 a costly extra. Payroll function lacking. Designing forms takes a lot of work,

Pros

Our old system was very outdated and Windward has made it so much simpler and quicker to get our monthly/quarterly reports. Integration between order taking and purchasing has helped speed up the ordering process & stop mistakes being made. Love the virtual warehouse option.

Cons

What i feel is missing is:
1. Freeform 1 & 2 can be data loaded in. Freeform 1 can be on a report, but Freeform 2 can not.
2. Sales/Upsell warnings can be on a report, but not data loaded.
3. Purchase warnings can be data loaded, but not put on a report.
(Invoice Warnings can be data loaded & put on a report)
4. There is no where to search "Non-Stock Special Orders" by number or supplier in history.
5. A report that can show me all items sold per book month with the following parameters.
sales clerk name, Invoice #, Date of sale, Customer name, Qty, Item #, Price ea., & Price total.
A report that will pull ALL items. (stock, Non-stock).
Currently i have to use 2 different reports, export to excel, and then combine them to create the report i need to send to suppliers for their sales incentives (spiffs). Granted this is alot better than the old computer system, but still takes longer than it should.

side note: i have seen and experienced so far that if someone requests an addition, that the programs will do ONLY what was asked for. Example: you were asked to increase item #'s and part #'s to 50 characters. That was done, but they didnt change non-stock special orders where you have to manually type in the characters. When i caught this problem and brought it up to tech and the programers, the response was " they didnt ask for that to be done" and "it is what it is". Same with items i listed. can data load, but not put on reports.

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

EBMS

Reasons for Choosing Windward System Five

We outgrew the software

Pros

Excellent customer support 24/7. A product that is scalable to your business. One of the few softwares that have a stand-a-lone ability that allow sales and lookup when the main server is offline or unavailable. Inventory orders in cases or singles by multiple suppliers with multiple part numbers and UPC codes for a single item. Capable of printing price tags on the fly when receiving. Easy lookup of products at the POS terminal by description, barcodes, serial numbers, etc. (Think about a phone caller asking for an item that is not in your hand, no numbers available and you need to quote the price.) Easy Purchase ordering. Easy resorting of POs in a fashion that matches the packing list. Complete control of forms, receipts, printers, slip printers, faxes etc. Multiple price groups and quantity price levels allowing maximum flexibility to different retail environments. Matrix pricing, kit pricing (both dynamic and static) with prices broken out or just single line on receipts. This software is our forth in 30 years and in our use since 2003. Regular updates and revisions are available to keep it fresh and up to date with changes in the ever changing retail industry. This is a very robust software and does far more than given here.

Cons

Back office reporting is probably the weekest area. However, custom reports are available and creatable. If you are looking into any software you should have a list of what you need to know daily, weekly and monthly and have it demonstrated to you. Another area is handling price protection from manufacturers. It is not easy to drop cost on items that receive price protection. It can be done but is time consuming.

Pros

the flexibility thanks to various data load and import options, the ability to chain import/exports and call external scripts; detailed permission settings; the numerous features; lots of customisable reports easily ported to spreadsheet or similar.

Cons

- documentation is very fragmented, incomplete and sometimes just wrong.
- the user interface is not intuitive and a long way from modern apps. I couldnt convince our sales team to use the tasks/appointment/history-comments section as they found it too complex (but feature wise I think it's good).
- the one time we needed support, we received bad advise which would have crippled this company if it had been followed.
- a selection of sample scripts would really help with implementation of more complex customisations.
- the unique email feature is applied across both suppliers and customers. this is problematic where a customer is also a supplier.
- no support for linux pervasive engines any more.
- no support for Sys5Script.exe any more.
- the template editor is very unpleasant to use. Very tricky to create a visually pleasing document.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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

Cons

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!

Pros

Many features - most of them even work.
Price is pretty good compared to most solutions.
It generally works and if you don't do any updates you get used to the bugs and how to work around them.

Cons

Bugs. Every update fixes some bugs and introduces some new ones. I don't bother with updates anymore, just too many headaches.
Slightly archaic - you can feel that it is not a fully modern product. Years (decades) of upgrades and patches have made it feel like no one person can manage the whole project anymore. Fixes in one area screws things up in another.
Service is spotty.
Pervasive SQL is utter garbage and you don't have a choice to run another SQL server. Pervasive is easily the worst part of this whole system.
We've added ecommerce to our business but haven't integrated System 5 - the cost is eye-watering. Maybe if the cost comes down at some point.

Pros

Nationwide Furniture Mattress Outlet looks forward to continuing and growing our partnership with Windward Software. Windward Software's system allows us to stay on track and be able to organize vital information. We rely on Windward Software to perform every day so we can deliver the best customer experience possible

Cons

The time it takes to load certain functions is excessive sometimes.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

Finding new and interesting and better software after being driven to the brink of insanity from a under performing, under maintained and un stable product.

Cons

Updates, did I mention updates, they don’t work, they simply fail, it’s like gambling when you update, will the software work tomorrow.... probably not.

Pros

Many reports are available depending on what you want to keep track. It covers everything from your daily needs to monthly to yearly.

Cons

When updates are done some of the items we have used disappear or are not available with update. Have found some reports aren't accurate.

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Pros

I like the reporting ability and the integration across all departments, jobs and overall robust accounting ability

Cons

STA and Spiff functions dont really work well