Deltek WorkBook

The right decision

Overall we are very pleased with the decision we made

Good but some flaws

It’s really useful and helps manage the day but a recommendation would be to keep functionality limited to critical for each team so that users don’t become overwhelmed

Workbook: Project & Hours Tracking

Ultimately, the software was mostly used for tracking hours on tasks and assigning them to the right client. But it could get tedious depending on how many clients you have or if a client had subproject codes which necessitated using dozens of rows to track keep track of hours and billing. However, this would be more agency and client-specific issues. As a task and hour tracker, it gets the job done.

overall, very positive.

A lot of features

The tool that best adapts to our needs, very difficult to implement

That the team is familiar with the infinity of options that it offers you is an impossible task, and although the consultants have been very friendly, we are not managing to integrate the tool into our daily life.

Waiting for the promised UX / performance improvements

I still see the huge potential of this tool, but am not sure when in the future we will be able to realise the true potential

Easy workload planification

Easy overall visibility on the workload of a team. Easy modifications to the planning daily.

Good but you need a lot of training

Overall once you get through the hiccups it's fine just takes a while.

Can be complicated without training

Time tracking at work

Workbook

Pros:
We have used 3 different PM-tools previously and about 20 trial versions of different PM-tools previously before Workbook. No other tool keeps their promise like WorkBook when it comes of being the full solution. Most other tools can't even do half of the features that WorkBook handles. They really have an extensive solution for all parts of our business; from CRM, to Cost calculations, Quotation, resource planning, time reporting, flex-hour handling to billing and accounting and analysis all in the same interface. The platform also handles global multi-regional clients and billing in a good way. A need for us since we are handling clients with multiple debtors scattered across different countries. I know no other platform which handles that without being a very expensive custom made platform. WorkBook easily handles different regions with individual currency, payment cycles and VAT rules, making a lot of the process automated. Just set up your client sub debtors and it's all there.

Cons: WorkBook is very extensive, so I would not recommend this product to smaller companies. WorkBook suits companies where there's a resource available for handling Admin / Traffic of such a tool. So if you don't have that setup, then it is not a tool for you. In other words, probably a solution for minimum 10+ employee companies.

Summary: WorkBook is the only one out there we found that handles pretty much everything you need for Admin of an enterprise and at an attractive price. But it is not for micro-companies with 3-10 employees.

UK Agency Review

We were looking for an intergrated CRM / Pipeline / Job Costing and finance system. We had conducted intensive research on the options available on the market. Our challenge was to have realtime information that allowed us to react swiftly and in an accurately informed way to work in process, not only on the external spend but the recording of time and the financial impact it was having on the project and therefore the company.

Workbook was a last minute option and we decided to have a demo in order to confirm our original choice but that demo changed our opinion and workbook proved it had arrived at a place the other systems were looking to achieve.

It is intuitive and easy to use that the key component areas of timesheets and budgets that the majority of staff use have been adopted enthusiastically. The move from our old systems hasn;t been without teething problems but customer service has been great and they have responded to all the requests and challenges we have thrown at them. There are still some challenges around certain elements in the finance section, the replacement of Sage 100 in our case, but these are now under development as thier model is to constantly seek to improve the product.

Importantly we now have the data from projects at our fingertips and this has proved invaluable and will in the long term it will have a positive financial effect on our business.

I would recommend this to any business that is fast moving, needs to record time accurately and respond to clients changes and needs quickly.

Extraordinary tool with good support

We've been running our consulting and accounting business for over 20 years. Most of the time we used various project management, time tracking and billing systems. Last year we decided to introduce WorkBook and replace the previous system we used.

As we knew what we needed, the implementation was fast (approx. 5 working days). The new solution was easily accepted by all people in our organization and we didn't experience any challenges in this area, opposite to previous systems.

Some features that were important for us:
- multi-language interface,
- invoicing in many currencies and languages,
- direct access to the database allowing easy creation of own reports and integration with other systems we use,
- easy administration,
- ticket system for quality management system,
- conversations that are very useful not only for communication, but also making reports of the minutes and tracking various project activities.

When we started using the Polish interface we found many translations inaccurate or even funny. We were not very happy about it, however the translation tool allows us not only to adjust the translations to the Polish language, whenever we find a mistake, but also to the nomenclature we use internally.

The only thing we miss is a wiki module that would allow to describe the internal processes and tracking their changes.

The customer service answers very fast, what is not to overestimate these days - 5 stars in each category.

not userfriendly, extremely "heavy to use", confusing trainslation, confusing set-up

The pros for the software is that is includes both CRM, Pipeline, Finance, RM and PM modules.
The contras are unfortunately many. For everyday use and as working Tool, it is absolutely not user-friendly.
Finance people, the way they think and Work, might be useful. However, sales and project managers think and Work completely different. Therefore the current set-up of workbook is far from being the best available software on the market.
The customer service is not wokring smoothly, ( a kind of stiff - compeared to another customer service experines in business life) the ticket system is lacking the possibility of seeing WHO is included in the ticket correspondance, and also the possibility of adding/deleting participants from the list .
Because of the complexity of the software, customer customized solutions are unfortunately very limited.

I love WorkBook!

We have created more efficient business processes, reduced our dependence on emails and paper, and are now able to capture time entries for everyone in our company.

Good planning software!

Good, robust agency software

We are a full service marketing agency who started using WorkBook in the last year. The software has been great at addressing a lot of our project management needs such as resource scheduling and project timelines and management.
We started using the software in the midst of their transition from V8 to V9 which made implementation a little difficult, as we had to switch between two versions and ran into product bugs. However, since the release of V9 a lot of those initial issues have been addressed and we run into much fewer issues now. The software is very robust so implementation can be daunting, but our implementation specialist and the support team have been great throughout the whole process.
We've noticed a big difference in a lot of our internal processes since switching to WorkBook and I would recommend the product to other agencies and companies that are looking for a project management solution. The software has a lot of other capabilities beyond project management including a CRM, which is one of the key reasons we chose WorkBook over other project management platforms.

Top notch features. Perfect project management tool for agencies.

We have been using Workbook for years. Heavily used others in the past. Nothing like it. When we chose them, I looked at their client list and was impressed.. big agency names and there is a reason for it. Researched on the other side of the pond to find our tool. Investigated small and large agencies and the response was pretty much unanimous: Workbook.

Pros: Clean nice looking and elegant. Offer modular pricing and easy to adopt solution. VERY easy to implement as their team will actually spend time with you and do it for/with you to ensure that you are set from the get go. Really works from day one. Great Todo all customizable and easy project management tools for the agency folks.

Simple interface. Mobile apps. HTML5 looks great with kanban task view an mobile access. Simplified CRM (we got rid of SF), project management & accounting. A few weeks realistic to implement. Awesome team too and they developed custom features for us.

Cons: Occasional Danish word in the interface. Limited custom reporting. Dashboards and expense app not ready yet. No custom widgets.

Excellent PM tool with all things integrated

WorkBook is a great all-in-one solution and there is nothing like it on the current market.
We used to have multiple systems for different departments, but WorkBook has everything integrated. We now have time tracking, project management, resource management, budgeting, forecasting (incl. pipelines), CRM and all finances in WorkBook. We are in the process of setting up the also-integrated support system.

The WorkBook implementation team helped us get started and customized everything for us. We were up and running in three weeks! They were also good to implement features that we need for our projects.

Cons are the limited reporting in finance, but you can export everything to Excel, so we just manage the data ourselves. It's also a bit hard to get started and get to know the system (even though training is part of implementation), but once you get the hang of it, it's all pretty straight-forward.

Tons of features - I would definitely recommend WorkBook to everybody! But the best part is that you only pay for what you need!

Workbook is ideal too to manage the profitability of your services business

Workbook is a great product that will suit the needs for most sized marketing and communications companies. It is easy to use and easy to implement. A great tool for managing your business

All in one place and still manageable - and great support department!

We have chosen Workbook because it is tailored to advertising agencies, and because we want to have everything in one place. My impression is that Workbook can handle close to everything, even though we only use a part of the functions. It is manageable divided into tabs, so once you become familiar with the structure, it is easy to navigate. And when you encounter challenges Workbook's efficient support department is always ready to assist and guide you through. However, it would be really great if they offered regular meetings with one of their consultants, to show the new features etc. as part of the support deal. I am sure we could get a better outcome if we got some occasionally guidance. But all in all, I can highly recommend the Workbook as a tool to manage projects and finance.

Flexible yet standardized system

We were looking for a system that could support our growing company, number of employees and costumers. It had to be easy to use, easy to maintain and easy to update.

Workbook gives us a system that gives us all that we need at a fixed price - and there's no hidden costs in expensive updates that takes days to set up.

At times we get great ideas for new functionality (at least we think so ourselves) and very often we get a quick reply that Workbook also finds it's great idea and develops a solution for all users of Workbook. We find that's one of Workbooks strongest advantages - it's not only Workbook who develops and improves the system but also the users.

Great software and the minds behind it are even greater

We have been using the system for a couple of years now and frankly its really great in terms of capabilities and user friendly. We use it for project Management, client profitability, resource/task allocation and timesheet. I did quite a lot of research before I found Workbook and it is the best system. Workbook guys installed the system in our data center and did us an initial training then we carried on the training and implementation across the region.
The system is very stable and easy to understand, and the guys at workbook are very supportive and knowledgeable. As to Cons; I just wish they had media module.
Good Luck Guys

Complete but NOT complicated

I advice to use this system as a complete management platform for any services company (e.g. from 10 to 200 users).

You can reach me if you need any information!

Bilsing Automation GmbH

We are using workbook with nearly 150 users in 10 subsidiaries. The go live was 01.01.17 with our headquarter in Germany. At the moment we are using just the scheduling functionality. The next step will be to start with the booking of the needed time. Parallel we will start the rollout in all our subsidaries.

Simple and straight way of working with projects

In fact so simple that I begin to question my own business also is simple in the way we work/face our clients :-)

"Ease of use" rated as 3 due to a lot of new functions witch I have to be familiar with.
WorkBook 8 is browser-based and do not have the same speed/response time..It´s annoying to double-click in the fields all the time.

Customer Service is 1st class, but miss the old online WB-Support function witch have many topics as fx. "to do at year end", "Setting mileage rate" a.s.o. ...and it was written in Danish !

Great tool to cover the whole business cycle of a project driven organization

We have just gone live following a lengthy implementation process so my experience is limited. What is clear from start is that this is a very complex and comprehensive platform that enables us to manage most of our processes around projects: pipeline, quoting, resource allocation and usage, time sheet recording, measuring effectiveness, recording expenses, purchase orders, invoicing, keep track of profitability in a granulated view - in short: a tool that gives you the valuable sense of being in control.

Using WorkBook is the only way to run a successful agency.

Having used dozens of different pieces of software, I am very grateful that I have finally found WorkBook. It is a fully integrated solution that includes CRM/Pipeline Management, Collaboration, File sharing, Client Portal, Project and Resource Management and built in Finance & Accounting module. All this in a very simple and intuitive user interface.

The key to running a successful agency is having the management information available in real time to make decisions. WorkBook achieves this brilliantly!

well integrated but not intuitive for the user

You are getting close do going down the path of developing a "Reklamedata" set-up. People close to the use of ERP and finance systems in the industry will know what I mean. Not intuitive, and not easy to use, but well functioning for staff that has used it for many years and know the "best practice" by heart. I will be happy to elaborate on exactly what I mean, so feel free to contact me. I have multiple experience with: Maconomy, Reklamedata, SAP, eConomics, Quickbooks. kind regards

Good PM tool, poor Sales and CRM

Pros - easy to use by basic users and project managers
Cons - inflexible reports; not enough focus on the sales tool - the sales people can't properly keep track of their sales (Pipeline); too many interdependencies that sometimes make working with it a hassle; the use of Silverlight on non-windows operating systems; not enough integration with all web browsers (on Firefox - the fan goes balistic, on Safari - I cannot scroll, on Chrome it doesn't work);

Quick to learn and master for admins and users. Ideal for small and medium sized business.

Having used the software over an 7 year period I believe it to be very intuitive and ever changing. It is easy for new users to get acquainted with the interface and master the basics.
Workbook fulfills all our basic need for an ERP system, and any other needs the customer support are usually able to accommodate in various custom-made reports.
There might be a lack of business intelligence, but the vast and flexible data dumps easily make up for this.

Workbook is designed for my kind of job

As an account manager in the advertising-very-hectic-business it is perfect to work with Workbook - it gives me a complete overview and structure in my daily worklife. I have all information gatheret, because my server talks to Workbook and automatically creates maps etc.
And whenever I have a problem or a question the support always gives me speed of service.
My best recommendations for Workbook :-)

Powerful yet simple project management office suite

I have used WorkBook v8 and I will share my opinion:

Pros:
+ Very intuitive and fast-to-use interface
+ Integrates nicely all the process: from registering a sales lead to controlling the delivery of a project
+ Powerful resource management (people availability & assignments)

Cons:
- Until now, the interface was Silverlight, now it is going to HTML5

Indispensable software to use for an effective working day in the consulting industry

For many years WorkBook has been Peoplegroup's anchor to structure our work, and it have contributed to a thorough and valuable input about our company's current status and expectations for the future.
Specially the many types of profitability reports gives us an exact picture of all aspects of our business that allows us to keep our high standard.

Have worked with Workbook for the past 5 years and in 3 different companies

With focus on project management and related issues Workbook is perfect. With regards to finance Workbook is more than sufficient keeping the structure of advertising agencies in mind.

I am pleased to work with Workbook and I hear the same from projectmanagement. Even the production- and creative staff can use it without complaining

The software for the future available today.

Although the software at first side looks 'complex', after getting to know it better I do not find any other competitor in the segment of project management ERP which has the unique combination of all the project features and finance combined into an affordable cloud based offer.

Overall i believe Workbook has great potential, but we have not been able to harness it yet.

Workbook does a great job of collecting user data, but is weak on reporting. I feel there is a wealth of info, but unable to unlock it. We have struggled with the 'exceptions' - correcting user errors, subscriptions. Finance module is unusable in its current state.

We have used WorkBook since 2007 and have been very satisfied with the system

The upgrade to Workbook 8 has been a big improvement and implementation went well without major problems. Support has been good to follow up the errors found and our suggestions for corrections and adjustments in the system.

BEST AGENCY SOFTWARE EVER!

I've been working with Workbook for a decade and implemented it at several agencies. It's by far the best end-to-end software in agency management today both in managing projects, resources and finances.

Very good product! all in one place

After a long search in a sea of options we have found all we were looking for in one place.
Super convenient and allows full visibility and traceability.

Very good product, recommended!!!

People can rely on this software.

It's user friendly. People can quickly rely on this software. It's dynamic but not complex that much. Its customer service is quick responding and reliable.

Workbook has been an integral tool in running our business. It is simply an excellent system.

Quick and easy implementation
Cost effective
PC and Mac Friendly
Excellent support
Well received by every level of user

I have no "cons" with Workbook

The best ERP and projekt tool ever

Mediegruppen has been working with similar systems for 18 years. Workbook is even better, and is a mayer part of our daily work, life and succes.

Good workflow. Everything in one place.

Visual Garden is very satisfied with using Workbook. Having all important data in one system gives us a good workflow and overview.

Workbook - just works.

Right information, at your hand, enabling you to react to the good of the projects, your people and your bottom line.

The best there is

But there is room to improve.