Review Summary:
According to Sara Anderson of Sharpe Enterprises, American Contractor is "the worst accounting software I have ever encountered."
The company purchased the software from Maxwell Systems after a "really impressive" demonstration. A free trial of American Contractor was not available, but Anderson said she and her colleagues figured the demos were enough: "We were told so many things that we wanted to hear. Now, after having the software for over two years, it was the worst investment we have ever made."
Anderson described the scheduling module as "quite spendy" but difficult to use. "You can't modify anything," she said. "You can't even print a schedule to fit on one page! You can't add headers or footers or anything. It is the most unprofessional looking thing I've ever printed."
AIA billings are also tough to work with in American Contractor, since "you have a limit of about 12 characters for the Item Description. I know these sound like little things," she added, "but there are a million things in this software that are terrible."
Maxwell System's customer support did not help either, Anderson said. "If you want help with anything, pretty much everything is considered a 'custom solution,'" and that can get expensive, she said.
Overall, Anderson rated American Contractor software a 0 out of 10.
How long have you been using this tool?:
What kinds of construction projects do you mostly work on?:
We are a general contractor, but we do a lot of work ourselves. We do over $2 million in projects per year.
How much did you pay?:
Way too much -- more than $8,000.
How are you using this product?:
We are TRYING to use American Contractor software, but we can't really do much in it. We would have liked to use it for payroll, job tracking, document tracking (RFIs and RFPs -- their document management doesnt even include RFPs), sScheduling and estimating.
Why did you pick this product?:
Maxwell Systems gave very impressive demonstrations.
Did you look at other tools on the market before picking this one?:
We looked at about 20 other programs.
Before you bought this product, were you using a different one to do the same job? :
How many people are using this software? :
Comparing the way you work now with the way you worked before you bought this tool, what has changed? :
We are all a lot more stressed and sick that we spent this much money on such a worthless program.
Can you give us an example of a job where this tool really made a difference?:
Can you estimate how much time or money you saved or other measurable benefits your firm realized using this tool?:
What are the best features (for your business) in this tool?:
The only feature we like is that we can all be logged in at the same time.
Do you think it's a fair value for the price you paid?:
Are there features that you don't use?:
We don't use any of the features of American Contrator software because they are a joke.
Who would you recommend use this tool?:
How much computer experience do you think someone needs to use this tool effectively?:
I am very computer literate, and I can't figure a lot of it out. If you have a programming background, you might do all right.
Have you ever called the company's support lines and asked for help?:
Several times. Support was worthless. They just want to sell you the solution.
When the next version of this software comes out, will you upgrade to it?:
We have to -- we are stuck with American Contractor.
Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this tool?:
