Autotask PSA Reviews

Pros

Autotask is about automation. It makes ticketing and billing processes standardized and automated.
It has become our central repository for information. All service related issues, time spent, contracts, hardware, etc goes in there. I tell my team all the time, "If it doesn't exist in Autotask, it didn't happen."

Cons

Autotask support has historically been difficult, but is getting much better.
Reporting is very powerful, but also VERY difficult to get your arms wrapped around it. It isn't something you do on a whim. If you have time to spend with it, you'll get good data. If you don't have time to spend, make sure you pay for some Autotask consulting time to help you.

Pros

Autotask PSA is a great option for large teams. It is fully customizable, offers a wide array of features, and has an excellent, hands-on onboarding process. It is a great option for large teams.

Cons

This software required quite a bit of manual set up for tasks I needed -- things such as automatically sending emails to clients on ticket updates, changing fields from required to not required, etc. For a very small team, onboarding was a bit onerous.

Alternatives Considered

JIRA Service Management

Reasons for Choosing Autotask PSA

The team was looking for a PSA that integrated with an RMM.

Switched From

Zoho Desk

Reasons for Switching to Autotask PSA

The RMM was the main draw, the fully integrated PSA was a perk.

Pros

The online chat support staff were both knowledgeable and accessible during regular business hours in New Zealand and in my opinion represent one of the more compelling values of the platform.

Cons

Email handling functions are woefully out of date. As an MSP providing contract ICT Support for customers it is absolutely essential that we be able to interact with third party vendors on matters related to numerous types of issues where the customer contact does not need to be involved. These issues can be related to licensing, security, cable contractors, etc. In my previous experience with other products such as Request Tracker, FreshDesk and FreshService, ZENdesk, and even Spiceworks, this has never been an issue -- all supported the basic feature of being able to email and receive a reply back as internal update on the ticket. I made concerted effort to spell this out as clearly as possible to during the initial pre-sales demos and was misled to believe Autotask wouldn't be a problem here. Now we are losing track of significant amounts of key communications being documented in our tickets because of this.

Pros

Autotask makes it easy to keep track of customers, contracts, tickets, and all communication to and from a customer. The portals make ticket queues simple to manage.

Cons

I do feel like Autotask could have a bit more automation and integrations. An SMS tool would be nice.

Alternatives Considered

ConnectWise ScreenConnect

Pros

This software has been great. It took me a while to get the hang of it. I am still learning the ropes, and I am into it for 2 months now. The staff has been very helpful in getting me onboard. I have not used all of my included support call time yet.

Cons

The learning curve is steep. You are only allowed 3 hours of free phone support to get started. Be careful with utilizing it to the fullest.

Pros

Seemed to have a lot of potential because of the integration with datto RMM but after 8 months never worked properly.

Cons

The integration with Datto RMM did not work properly tickets not being created, sometimes slow and issues when logging in to the portal. Had to give up since I wasted too much time with support to try to get it resolved.

Alternatives Considered

SolarWinds Service Desk

Reasons for Switching to Autotask PSA

Seemed to have a lot of features that I can use like ticketing integration with Datto RMM and Datta backup.

Pros

Autotask provides a platform that covers almost everything required by an MSP that takes its business seriously. Its infinitely customisable and can be configured to do almost anything. The ticket management system is excellent and the integrated contract and time management features are indispensable for MSPs that sell many different services.

Cons

The user interface is outdated which can make the platform difficult to use and configure. The project management features in Autotask still feel neglected and lack many features now considered to be basic by modern standards. The procurement section is also cumbersome and lacks the flexibility needed by most businesses.

Pros

I like the ability to feed information from multiple different toolsets in to Autotask. I also love the ability to customize ticket templates and place valuable related data like related ITGlue articles and passwords in the tickets.

Cons

It's wide variety of options does lead to a slightly complex UI for new users.

Alternatives Considered

ConnectWise PSA, JIRA Service Management and ServiceNow

Switched From

ConnectWise PSA

Reasons for Switching to Autotask PSA

Familiarity and ability overall.

Pros

This is a multi use site. We manage multiple companies and it organizes it perfectly.

Cons

Sometimes it goes down during maintenance or a glitch, otherwise good

Pros

Centralized business operations management tool which can increase your productivity and profitability.

Cons

Mobile version needs more features to work around.

Pros

Autotask PSA is an extremely customizable tool. Different departments can have customized ticket categories, including Issue Types, priorities, resources, ticket status, due dates, workflows and notifications (and more) to fire off based on the rules associated with each category.
The updates to the software in the last 18 months have improved the user experience. For example, when viewing a ticket, all pertinent information is available on the screen, from the ticket details to the activity history and even the company and contact information.
It is simple to add "User Defined Fields" which are custom fields specific to your company or industry that you can add to Companies, Tickets, Contracts and more.
There are several different 'modules' that are all included in the PSA license (no add on fees to take advantage of them). These include contract details, tracking sales leads and opportunities, generating invoices and syncing with Quickbooks and other financial software. The reporting module has a myriad of popular reports available with the option to customize each. Advanced reporting users can also create their own reports from any of the available data entry fields, including User Defined Fields. Timesheets and Expenses are tracked in this tool, including available vacation and sick time. Time off requests can be approved by authorized users.
Users have access to widgets to quickly display data and metrics.
Completely integrated with Datto/Autotask RMM tool.

Cons

There is a large learning curve when implementing this software. It is a common mistake to create a lot of customization (UDFs and workflows) because the Administrator is not familiar with the modules or the best practices of the software.
Creating custom reports can be very cumbersome due to the vast number of options and fields available.
When creating a new ticket, time entry or activity entry, a new window opens in the browser (which was an annoyance for some team members).

Pros

I use this product every single day as our ticketing software. It is great. It is easy to create widgets to track metrics as well as keep account of tickets. I also like the ability to create configuration items and easily tie them to the company they go with.

Cons

Its a little slow to respond sometimes. It does not like when you are trying to edit/save two tickets at the same time. Other than that not much complaints.

Pros

I really appreciate the level of customization that we can implement on tickets, assets and workflows. It allows us to reflect our specific needs on the app, and avoid mistakes. The interface is very pleasant as well, altough I am not a fan on the recent changes following Kaseya's purchase. Just not a fan of theyr color and fonts, and it lost a bit from the previous UX.

Cons

It can be complex to implement and overwhelming. In particular, there should be some help in order to ensure the basics can be setup in accordance to best practices without much effort. There is the risk of losing yourself customizating worflows and tickets with a lot of detail, to later realize a lot of changes are required to fix some incorrect first steps.

Pros

Good dashboarding for presenting data. Report self service is okay. Good integration between crm and service desk.

Cons

Cmdb is weak and clunky. Would be better if solution included some of the 3rd party tools needed to be an efficient MSP.

Alternatives Considered

ConnectWise PSA

Reasons for Switching to Autotask PSA

More built in functionality

Pros

I manage my clients and my team through the PSA. Trouble-tickets are great, the queues are all very versatile and easy to manage. We have automated alerts, calls, and client-submitted tickets and screenshots all populating to an active queue.

Cons

The "Site Configuration" and basic details of each site could be a lot better organized. Right now, if you want to store a bunch of passwords or configuration details of any one site, it can be cumbersome and difficult to find what you need. Similarly, attached pictures or other attachments for the clients can be tough to find.

Pros

From an MSP perspective, this product functions as a CRM, time tracking/management, contract management, and ticket system. You can manage all aspects of an MSP business here with billing integrations available to close the loop.

Cons

It can be a bit difficult to get started, but this is more of a business process issue as opposed to a product issue. If you have defined your workflow and processes you can translate them easily into this product.

Pros

Onsite Support: you can get customer signature for the work performed on mobile phone.
Can refer back to the service tickets if they are filled accurately each time.

Cons

Does not provide a good Calendar view for Work distribution and management (It is crucial)
Purchased it thinking we will be able to use it as CRM as well. Very basic CRM unusable.
Gets expensive as you grow your team.

Pros

All in one facility/features bar exception of a RMM, but that is another product also provided and integrates so all good.
Designed for our industry.

Cons

Cost, maybe some archaic features that could be better.
Report feature needs a degree to understand, "everything extra" costs.

Pros

The user interface is information rich yet friendly and easy to navigate. It allows wide customization of the widgets and workflows can be setup to automate much of the process. This is a great tool for anyone providing support or managed services.

Cons

The email-to-ticket functionality is limited, and we ended up making our own development to integrate to AT. It is recommended for someone to champion the implementation from the user side, to assist with administration and understand all that there is to learn about Autotask.

Pros

It's industry specific, so it has a lot going for it. We need something that is already designed for our industry so we could hit the ground running.

Cons

It's cumbersome and pricey. The per user price is not cheap.
We are starting to outgrow it. We regular have needs to go outside of what the built in limitations are of different modules with no options to expand.

Pros

A lot of features that allows you to do just about anything you can think of. Extremely robust system that is highly customizable for your environment.
Ability to monitor computer for all sorts of different functions.
Can push out software to computers.
Remote connections to computers.

Cons

There is nothing to complain about here. Sure there are a few small things but all software has it and its nothing worth mentioning.

Pros

The ability to customize the layouts, information shown, integrations with data sources were all great.

Cons

The interface was a bit outdated in some and the modules didn’t always fit the window (lots of scrolling).

Pros

workflow rules and management of inbound emails. Dashboards for your team, account or individual

Cons

When we add custom fields, we should dont have an option to place it in the section / category we like. Sometimes, the support takes lot of time to get back even thought the issue raised is very critical

Pros

We are a fast-growing IT Services Company, and implemented Autotask (thankfully) at the beginning of our growth. I attribute our ability to remain nimble and flexible primarily to Autotask. Autotask has helped us track our technicians' time, our sales process, and to remain ever mindful of our revenue and profitability.

Autotask is purpose-built for our industry, and it shows. I feel like the product was built with my business in mind, and many of the features just make sense.

The integration with Quickbooks has streamlined our bookkeeping and invoicing.

The integration with Kaseya has made our service delivery much more efficient.

The ticket tracking has enabled our team to collaborate on issues and tickets.

The dashboards has helped us manage the business effectively and efficiently.

Cons

Like any software platform, the implementation of Autotask requires flexibility and a willingness to rethink some business processes. This has all been for the positive with us, though, and in the end we are much better off for changing our processes to match Autotask's workflow when it makes sense.

Pros

The 'Favorites' folder on the software allows me to personalize my profile, making it much quicker to access my files in the field.

Cons

Autotask requires a password every time I turn on the app. It would be more convenient if I could just stay logged in.