User Reviews Overview

About Windward System Five

Windward Software's Windward System Five helps small to midsize businesses manage their operations by providing an integrated point of sale and accounting solution with real-time inventory management. Windward System Five is a...

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Feature ratings

Value for Money
3.6
Features
3.8
Ease of Use
3.7
Customer Support
3.8

Browse Windward System Five Reviews

188 of 188 reviews
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Mark
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 27/10/2017

Highly customizable software that you can really tailor to your business for an affordable...

Reduced IT costs, Improved staff experience and greater overall efficiency of our business practices.

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.

Response from Windward Software

Mark, thank you very much for taking the time to provide your feedback on your experience with Windward System Five. We're thrilled that you are very satisfied with our software!

As you identify in your review, Windward Software is committed to continuously improving our business management solutions such that we may continue to offer the most user-friendly, yet comprehensive functionality available.

Replied 6/11/2017
Kelly
  • Industry: Furniture
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 13/11/2017

We've been with Windward since 1994, recent years Windward has really stepped up to the plate...

One of the most recent benefits is the available training in many different areas of the Windward software program. This is an incredible asset to streamlining and improving day to day business practices for us. When we find out things the program can do for us that for years has just been sitting there not being used, we're like a kid in a candy shop....Excited...Wow!!

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.

Bob
  • Industry: Furniture
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Features
2
Ease of Use
1
Customer Support
4

2
Reviewed on 24/6/2022

continuing forward

We are continuing to use System Five as migration is a challenge for a small business like ours. The support crew at Windward work well to address issues; however, our account manager failed to address items that were still in process just prior to go live. Those items remain outstanding as support is unable to address them.

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.

Top Windward System Five Alternatives

Lightspeed Restaurant

Sage 50cloud Accounting

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Kathy
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

5
Reviewed on 26/10/2017

The ecommerce support is not 7 days a week unfortunately. Otherwise a great software and...

I thoroughly reviewed 4 different POS software systems prior to making a purchase. It was important to choose the software that would grow as my business grew. Out of the POS systems available at that time (6 years ago) this was the best to fit the needs of my business then and into the future. Now, 6 years into it, this has proven to still be the best choice. It has allowed us to continue with the same software system as the business has grown and evolved.

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.

Verified Reviewer
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 11/11/2017

Lots of great features but maybe too many for a small business

We can now track customer purchases more easily. Inventory control is faster and easier than before.

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.

Michelle
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
4

3
Reviewed on 31/10/2017

Would like to set up the system again knowing so much more now than was first told.

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.

Response from Windward Software

Thank you, Michelle, for taking the time to provide a review of your experience with Windward System Five. It's nice to hear that you are pleased with the support you have received from our Client Services team.

In terms of your concerns, we're confident that there are means to make some of the processes you mention more efficient. At your convenience, please contact your Account Manager at +1 (800) 663-5750 and ask to be registered for The Windward Learning Academy. This is a user-friendly yet comprehensive online source of System Five tutorials, which provide step-by-step solutions for all product features and nearly all possible scenarios.

Windward Software is continuously evolving and enhancing Windward System Five, and, in developing each product release, we examine client feedback to ensure that we are delivering a solution that meets and exceeds needed functionality.

Replied 3/11/2017
Teegan
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

3
Reviewed on 11/11/2017

Gets the job done. Do not do the updates.

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

William
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

3
Reviewed on 8/11/2017

I've been a Windward user for close to 20 years. Overall, my experience is frustration.

The system has a good POS system. It is quite easy to use but does have serious flaws. You can integrate VISA processing with the system, however, this opens another set of problems.

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.

Mark
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 11/11/2017

WWS5 is a workhorse!

Ease of Use
Inventory control
Order management
Work flow Simplification and tracking
Emailing
Invoicing
Accounting

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.

Ken
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 27/10/2017

overall pretty good. As good as others in the market

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,

Response from Windward Software

Hi Ken -- thank you for providing your feedback relating to your experience with Windward System Five.

We're happy to hear that you are pleased with System Five's level of functionality. In terms of the Payroll module, we encourage you to contact your Account Manager at +1 (800) 663-5750 to become registered for The Windward Learning Academy. This easy-to-use, yet comprehensive online training resource will provide everything you need to know about efficiently using our Payroll module, designing forms, and other system functions.

Replied 6/11/2017
TODD
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
4

5
Reviewed on 10/2/2021

Windward and You. The tutorial.

We have solved issues with double ordering Special Orders, have streamlined Purchase Orders, Receiving, Price Changes, Showroom tag printing.
I am able to compile reports simply, where it use to take days.
Taking inventory is so much faster using data collectors and being able to import the files.

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.

Response from Windward Software

Hi Todd,

Thanks for taking the time to write this! Other lighting showrooms that may be considering Windward will find this helpful.

As for your reporting concerns, we may be able to help through a project plan from the professional services catalog which would be a great place to start to explore existing functionality. https://www.windwardsoftware.com/resources/professional-services.html

There is also the option to do some custom programming if you have requirements that cannot be handled by the current reporting tools.

We are looking forward to many more years of service to Grand Rapids Lighting.

Thanks again Todd!

Replied 3/4/2021
Derek
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
1

3
Reviewed on 21/6/2022

System Five

Service and online capability was not good. While we paid for 24/7 service, we had to setup tickets and would get a call back within 24hrs.

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

Response from Windward Software

Hi Derek,
Thanks for the feedback. In recent months we've launched the new WebSell integration and have enhanced our WooCommerce connector in an effort to get more of our customers online. This no longer relies on an API. Please reach out to your Account Manager to explore options.

Replied 8/8/2022
Mike
  • Industry: Retail
  • Review Source
Value for Money
N/A
Features
4.5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 26/6/2015

Scalable multi-user POS retail from a company that listens and adapts.

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.

Mario
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 25/10/2017

Very flexible, comprehensive software package with a somewhat cumbersome user interface.

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.

Ronald
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
5
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
4

3
Reviewed on 14/11/2017

I have been using Windward System 5 as the Financial Controller for about 18 months

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.

Response from Windward Software

Hi Ronald. Thank you for your positive review of System Five: we're pleased to hear that you find it to be well organized and user friendly.

In terms of the system errors that you mention: this could indeed be related to your hardware setup. Please contact your Account Manager at your earliest convenience and discuss whether you have the minimum hardware requirements in place. In addition, if there is a recurring error that is causing you problems, please do let us know what it is and we will investigate to determine if it something we can permanently resolve.

Replied 26/2/2018
Sylvie
  • Industry: Machinery
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Features
1
Ease of Use
2
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 18/3/2019

Do not spend your money or time on this Software!

Please ask around to similar businesses and see what they are using - Do not waste your money and your time on this program. When you phone for support -you have to fight for major issues to be fixed. Every year you have to pay a lot of money for renewal and support - and you could be having a know issue that is a programming error but you still have to pay for support to have it repaired

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!

Jason
  • Review Source
Value for Money
N/A
Features
N/A
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 21/5/2015

An Amazing Experience with Windward System Five

Since we have moved onto Windward System Five the improvement to our business have been and still remain extraordinary. System Five has given me the ability to work in an environment with real time information. With complete integration my business can process sales, my office team can work on accounting and financial transactions, inventory can be taken, purchase orders can be processed and more, all while maintaining flawless real-time information so that I can make decisions for my business quickly. In addition, we are able to process sales faster with integrated credit card processing, give a more profession look to our business with custom made integrated gift cards, we can print clean shelf labels right from the inventory record giving a profession look and assuring accurate pricing, barcode inventory items that do not have them, add multiple barcodes to items and a whole lot more.Support for this product is nothing short of impeccable! Windward offers 24/7 technical support from friendly, well trained technicians that work endlessly to keep your company up and running smoothly. The overall performance of this product in astonishing. It truly has the ability to accommodate anything I want to do to operation my business more efficiently. System Five is a very user friendly product that is easy to learn and understand. The customer service and support are friendly, understanding, concerned about your business needs and willing to do whatever it takes to help you run your company and accommodate your business needs. Speaking from one entrepreneur to you others out there, this is a product made for us! It is a fast, efficient, well build program that gives us the ability to run our businesses the way we want, collect information quickly with its wide array of reporting options so we can make better decisions, and free up our valuable time so we can get out there and do what we do best ' run our businesses! For those out there who would give this product anything less than a perfect review, I would like to challenge your business and management skill as the software is not the problem. This product gets five stars from me on all fronts! It's truly the integrity of my business and I could not imaging running my company without Windward System Five. For those of you considering I say go for it, it's the best investment you can make.

Greg
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
2

3
Reviewed on 25/10/2017

Good for the price. We've been a user since the DOS days.

Far cheaper than our old system. Also much better feature set.

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.

Bilal
  • Industry: Furniture
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 1/3/2021

Windward Software System

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.

Response from Windward Software

Hi Bill,
Thank you for taking the time to write a review! It truly helps other business owners like yourself make a decision that will help their operation grow much like yours has.
As for your speed comment, there have been some improvements within some of the reporting tools. If you haven't already done so, try upgrading to the newest version and if that doesn't resolve your issue, please place a ticket in your support portal at support.windwardsoftware.com.
Thanks again Bill!

Replied 2/4/2021
April
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 15/11/2017

The benefits more than outway the problems that occur

All in one program for inventory to A/R and A/P etc.

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.

Response from Windward Software

Hi April, and thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. We're delighted to hear that you are happy with System Five's tracking capabilities.

In terms of some of the issues you are experiencing with reporting, may we suggest that you contact your Account Manager at +1 (800) 663-5750 and request registration for The Windward Learning Academy. This easy-to-use yet comprehensive online tutorial resource will guide you as to how to best utilize reporting and generate the exact reports you're seeking.

Replied 19/12/2017
Fj
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
1

1
Reviewed on 17/2/2018

Don’t, just don’t

Staff and customer service who don’t care once you have transferred your funds.
Issues will be addressed in a timeframe that will not only frustrate but will cost your company from making money or being able to grow.
This company has a terrible attitude and software package that has become so unstable windows 95 has become jealous.

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.

Response from Windward Software

We are sorry to hear that you have encountered issues with our Windward System Five product. Upon close review of your file, I can confirm with you that the three software bugs that you identified were efficiently addressed and have been corrected in a short time frame. Our customer service department and your Account Manager have reached out to you on multiple occasions to notify you of this solution and to complete a software update such that you may operate the corrected version; however, we have not been able to reach you nor have we heard back from you. Please contact your Account Manager, Joleen, at +1 (800) 663-5750 at your earliest convenience and we will certainly work with you to ensure that your updated version is installed correctly.

Replied 12/3/2018
Judy
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
4

3
Reviewed on 17/11/2017

The system is fairly easy to learn and I have been trained on multiple sections of the...

Sales reports and so on give a great view on how your business is growing

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.

Response from Windward Software

Hi Judy -- thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. We're happy to hear that you found System Five relatively easy to learn and are pleased with reporting functionality.

In terms of updates: if you experience any issues at any time, please do not hesitate to contact our customer support line at +1 (800) 663-5750 and a representative will be present to walk you through any issues you are experiencing.

Replied 30/11/2017
Robert
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 25/10/2017

This is a smooth and feature rich software that transformed our business.

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.

Darrell
  • Review Source
Value for Money
N/A
Features
N/A
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
4

5
Reviewed on 6/1/2014

Best Value

Although the implementation of this solution is a lot of work, I have been through others in the past and this one was not much different. You do have to pay extra if you want them to come on site and help, otherwise you are left to watch videos and meet on the phone/over the PC with them. They did help build out a custom learning curriculum for us and help facilitate the learning for my staff which was appreciated.

I do believe that you would be hard pressed to find a better value out there though. This program offers pretty much everything (and then some), from the front of the store POS to the back end accounting. It sounded based on another review that they had some growing pains with their payroll but we've found it works fine/as expected. My staff appreciate the direct deposit.

Support after implementation seems OK. "Regular" support is mostly out of the Philippines but I had a register go down and they did not hang up the phone until we were resolved, eventually getting transferred to their "advanced" support which appeared to be from North America.

Why I purchased this solution over others though, was that in the design of the software and philosophy of the company they really seem to come from the entrepreneur's perspective. From integrated real time accounting and fantastic reporting capabilities and lots of customizability in the software to what their sales guy told me about a core value there: with respect, the customer isn't always right....Lord know's that's true! (in fact I was going to delay the project and when they pushed back I was a little shocked but I'm glad they did). I should also add that my IT guy put some serious analysis into this project and by the facts/spread sheet, they came out on top feature for feature.

Pro's:
Best Value
Does virtually everything
Good emergency support (and 24/7)

Con's:
mediocre "regular" support
watching training video's is not fun

Frank
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 9/2/2021

Great Workhorse

Overall, this has been a great money saving tool. But the shortcomings in the software probably has more to do with my understanding and use of the various pieces. I need more education on this software.

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

188 reviews