Windward Software Inc Reviews

Very frustrating, system can do most of what we need but I can never get in. The cloud system is suppose to allow you to access from home but I always get an encryption key issue that freezes may computer. Constantly fighting to get in the system. Call support and now they have an computer answering service that sits you on hold for 15 minutes and disconnects you. I've had to layoff employees and I can't even get in the system to run my payroll report. Top it all off we were shut down for over a week and could access the system. We have everything online, we couldn't call customers to pickup because we couldn't invoice them and we couldn't bring in any new customers because our facility was full. They have a system that is not cloud based, maybe better but I warn you that the cloud system is very frustrating for the money you spend.

We loved the software for the most part. You can tell it's serious about accounting. We had issues when our shop grew to the point where we were fixing 40-50 pieces of equipment per day. At that point the data entry was loading us down. I think for most businesses it's a great piece of software!

Windward System 5 brings out our retail A-Game here at Watters Garden Center. Lots of POS companies track inventory, that's easy; Windward allows us to track customers, vendors, schedule appointments, assign tasks internally, and a whole lot more. I can't imagine running a large retail garden center without a partner like Windward System 5

When looking at the reviews for windward it s important to know that 9 of the 19 were made by people that were employed by the company at the time.

Jess, Robert, Joseph, Craig, Kevin, Sabrina, Sara, Jeff and Stephen are all employees.

I encourage people to look elsewhere as an indication of the quality of windward as both a company and software choice.

We have 9 users and we have been using WW for 6 months. It can be a bit complicated but generally easy to use once implementation has been sorted out. The software could be really good if processes were thought through to the end. You find some things work in some areas but the same function does not work in other areas. We had multiple issues with multi-currency. The financial side does NOT compare to Quickbooks. They also refuse to integrate with QB. Our accountants find the financial software cumbersome and outdated. You really need to investigate if their financial 'module' is a good fit for your company. It is not a 'learning' thing. We had an implementer on site for a few days where we discovered the financials was not a good fit for us. However, they did try and find workarounds and did offer extra support during our financial pains. The sales aspect is very good for us. Quite easy to find a part and add to work order. Reporting falls short in some areas but is generally good. Running some reports can be slower than expected (not our server). Support personnel do try to resolve your issues and we are quite happy with their efforts. Best to consult with your implementer on complex issues. A big must is to invest in the onsite implementer when going live. You will need some hand holding as you can waste loads of time setting up systems for live. We find the system 'buggy' and it feels like it's built on an old platform? I feel that they really could accelerate on fixing bugs and issues. Development work I understand needs to be on a demand basis or payment but bugs should be fixed within days irrespective of the level of seriousness.

The response from Windward below mentions a learning issue. Like I said it is not a learning issue.We have done the Learning Academy extensively, had 6 months of implementation and even had a implementer on site. We have even had numerous discussions with accounting Windward experts and the result is the same based on my review above. To also have to export financials to Excel to manipulate reports cannot be a serious accounting package. The bottom line is we would have been better off with our original software concerning serious accounting. We understand no software is perfect and one cannot have everything. The POS side is pretty good and support is still good. I want to love this software but falls short for our accounting needs.

We've used Windward System Five for 8 months now. It's saved us a lot of headaches. Inventory management is far better than our old software, and the financial side of it is even better.

Great work environment, solid core values & they treat employees as assets.

A truly effective solution to handle business needs and wants.

Well yet another 4 hours into an update that was suppose to be completed a week ago, on a day we closed shop to have it done. That five hours turned into 9 hours. The next day two techs came to sort the problem out and at the end of that day we still had the same version that we started with All new hardware and software because we were told we need it all! Been dealing we Steve S , won t go into all the details but rude is a start. His solution to our issues is to assign us a new account manager. Who as of yet has not picked up the phone. As well we asked Steve for his supervisor to call us ! You got it...no call.

My worse experience as a professional happened at this company. The President of this company is not someone you would want to work with.

Great Point of Sale Software for businesses looking to be fully integrated! AMAZING customer service and support staff.

Windward Software is an excellent software program to use. The program allows your sales people to perform quick checkouts while automatically updating inventory logs and the general ledger.

If you sell, service, and/or rent, this is the program for you. The program tracks everything you do, and once an estimate, work order or any type of order is entered into the system, it does not need to be entered again. There is no need for double entry because orders flow through the program smoothly.

We love Windward software, a completely integrated system that handles all of our business functions. And Windward is continually upgrading their software to provide even more functionality. But as much as we value the software, we are even more impressed with the quality of their support services. The few problems we've had--including ones we ourselves have caused--have been promptly and expertly resolved. They stay with you until the job is done.

Front to back software solution to handle all aspects of the business seamlessly.

After 25 years of relatively trouble free service from Windward, they took a dark turn in customer service. Our website sales have been managed by a separate company and our transaction and inventory management uses Windward Software. The problem was/is that once a sale is made through our website provider the transaction must be recorded manually to the Windward system.

We felt that we needed to upgrade this procedure to be done seamlessly through software as many other companies have already done. We asked both our website provider and Windward Software to help us. The website provider immediately offered us their API capability and support at no charge. Windward Software offered what we understood to be providing the finishing product for $2,500.

After we agreed to this we were alarmed to discover that Windward was only offering an API access but no finishing software solution. Their original argument was they were not in that business but later admitted that providing that service was available but only at additional cost. We asked what that cost would be and they refused to give a quotation unless we agreed to purchase that service and pay for their cost to prepare a quotation.

I have never paid anyone to give me a quotation and agree to buy something sight unseen ever in my life. It is disappointing that such a good relationship has turned out to be so one sided.

Windward Software Systems is an awesome place to work. We build fantastic solutions to solve problems for our entrepreneurial customers.

A mixed review: Like the software and haven't had any real "issues" with it, but, there are some drawbacks #1 Implementation staff pushed us to use the software long before we really were ready. Chose a date in the middle of a month to change over- a lot of work for my bookkeeper. Wouldn't recommend doing that! #2 Going from a totally non computerized system to Windward meant we really didn't know what we needed in the form of information before using the system. #3 The invoices/forms for printing have to be set up separately for each type of invoice- ridiculously time consuming!
On the good side: I now know each sale/day profit margins My business was able to pay off the software in less than a year and still make a profit!
The system has never failed or glitched, but after almost 2 years I still am not using the full potential because I would have to pay $1500.00 to take in a weekend seminar! As a small business owner that is just not possible to swing every year.

I just took over a store in February that has been using windward for many many years, I had not ever touched windward in the post. So I was skeptical, but they have been great helping me out whenever I could get something done and answering a lot of my stupid questions without even making fun of me! Overall my experience has been great with them so far, thanks to the whole windward team!!

I had the opportunity to work with several specialists at Windward through software evaluation and implementation. Everyone on the team was professional and highly skilled in their area of expertise. Beyond its staff, I also found Windward System Five to be robust, mature and adaptable software. Anyone who is looking for a business management application, supported by a team who can help adapt the application to your business, should look no further

Great software which does A LOT. Fairly intuitive and easy to learn. Many features which help keep users organized on on track!

Windward has an excellent ERP system that we have used and operated our company with for over 10 years.

As an established and very satisfied user of the Windward System 5 for many years, it never ceases to surprise us how quickly and efficiently the support team addresses those issues that occur occasionally need attention or updates.
Irrespective of the time of day, the support team are quick to respond to the issue and the downtime is kept to the barest minimum.

We have to recommend highly the Windward Software System 5 program to any potential user in need of a POS system that is not only simple in its application, training and of equal importance stability.

System 5 provides such elements backed up by a very experienced and capable support team

As a user of Windward software, visiting their HQ for workshops was quite beneficial. Great friendly staff, who are very knowledgeable in their field.