Spruce
What Is Spruce?
Spruce provides business management software that helps home and building supply businesses improve productivity and control costs.
With comprehensive document management, you can focus on growing your business instead of digging through piles of paper. Advanced reporting and analytics help you stay informed and make decisions based on your business. Because Spruce is cloud based, you can access the system from anywhere and rest easy knowing your data is always backed up and protected.
Who Uses Spruce?
Spruce is ideal for: LBM Dealers, Hardware Stores, Home Centers, Kitchen & Bath Showrooms, Plumbing/Electrical/HVAC Supply, Window/Door/Millwork, Tile/Flooring Supply, Masonry/Brick/ Concrete Supply.
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Reviews of Spruce
Kyle
Very Satisfied
Comments: As with any software of this nature it is only as good as the information you put into it. If you do not input purchase orders correctly or receive the product correctly it will not keep your inventory correct or cost correct. The learning curve is not high but you do have to take the time to learn how to use the software and what the different functions will do. As with any software change or upgrade do your homework first and list out your expectations to see if the software you are looking at will meet those expectations.
Pros:
Very user friendly. POS works well and is quick to get customer invoiced. The document management built into the software is very good and eliminates the need for paper files. Can easily tag external documents and scan into the software and tag to specific invoices, orders, quotes. Customer support has been great to deal with. They provide a good online help system with videos and documents to explain how to work with the software. There are lots of add on features if you need them. The implementation went very smooth when we switched over from the ECS PRO system we were on. The day we went live we were up and running that afternoon on the ECI Spruce system. The implementation team outlined a course of action over several months to get everything in place and tested before the actual go live date. The key to the success we had was in the planning done by Spruce and on us acting on there advice and getting the training and pre implementation check list done.
Cons:
Crystal reports (optional add on) does take some time to get used to and is a little hard to use on initial setup. But overall it offers good reports.
Thomas
Review of Spruce at Cleveland Lumber
Comments: We have seen much greater control over our inventory, also we are able to monitor exceptions easier through reporting. Also, purchasing has been easier by being able to see our ordering history and usage on different products. Our daily balancing procedure has been simplified thanks to Spruce. While our staff has struggled some to adapt to the system most of this is due to their refusal to go to training.
Pros:
As a manager I like the features that allow for reporting on data collected through the normal course of business such as product use by month. Also, the ability to price certain items based on a fixed margin based on current cost if selected. Lastly, while not a uncommon feature, I like to be able to send documents such as invoices via e-mail which our last system wouldn't do. We also like the Delivery feature that allows sales people to see the status of there delivery. There are many more, but these are just a few.
Cons:
While probably not an issue at every business, our staff is a little older, less sophisticated and not very computer literate. It would be nice to have people that specialize in each segment of our business to come spend more time doing individual training to get them up to speed on their specific roll in the new system. It can be overwhelming for the implementation specialist to train everyone and also for those like myself to train everyone in rolls that I am not so familiar in such as Manufacturing.
Jessica
Do not switch to Spruce
Comments: It has not been a good experience overall. Support is poor, more senior people, our account manager and their Canadian salesperson have no desire to support us anymore either.
Pros:
There are a few features that are handy and these are the only features they show you in the demos. Document linking is helpful but very clunky. Connecting POs and special orders and importing documents.
Cons:
The POS is very slow and follows no sales logical. Clearly the developers do not understand the end users. Too many clicks to process a sale. The POS often disconnects from our credit card terminals putting us out of business for hours at a time. This happens once weekly, and Spruce Support is not very helpful in ensuring that this does not continue to happen. From the accounting end, we are finding errors in the math with no solutions provided. The statements are very difficult to understand, for all our customers and after having spoken to other Spruce Users they have the same issues. Yet when we asked for a better solution, no progress was made. The customer support is slow and we're often left with "it's just this way" or with no viable solution. We're very unhappy with the software
darren
not impressed , very limited , time burner
Comments: im not very impressed with this system. clearly no one in the design team ever worked retail , unless maby it was union and burning time was an advantage.
Pros:
i doo like some features like importing orders to sales inv.
Cons:
only 1 screen can be open at a time. with the last system i could have un limited screens open. having to have to close what you are doing every time there is a second task is a huge waist of valuable time. also haveing to jump between task designations is a time waiter as well.
Monica
Spruce - Mostly Good!
Comments: Spruce has been an upgrade for us overall and we look forward to utilizing more aspects of the software in the near future. Our biggest gripe with Spruce has been the lack of available customer service representatives when we call with an issue. There are times that weeks go by before someone calls us back. It has definitely been the most frustrating part of our experience thus far. The customer service reps are knowledgeable - there just aren't enough of them to handle all of the calls.
Pros:
Integration was a bit of a struggle at first but once we got things figured out, the software has run very well. It has a ton of capability - we haven't even scratched the surface yet! We plan on implementing more features soon - rental and customer loyalty - and look forward to streamlining those in our store.
Cons:
There are aspects of the software that feel a little clunky still, or that require a lot of back and forth to accomplish a task.
