SmartRec Reviews

Amilia, a good and user-friendly software for every employee

Comments: With Amilia, we no longer have double bookings and we are offering a better customer service. Client can easily register online and manage their activities. Our staff can easily manage rentals and contract.

Pros:

Amilia is a user-friendly for company who has a lot of employees using the software. It is easy to understand, easy to learn and easy to find your way around. New employees don't need a big training, steps are pretty obvious once you know the basics of the software. The best thing about Amilia is their after-sale service. They are always contacting you to make you confortable to call if you have any question. They are listening to your concern and trying the best they could to add the features you asked for. They are always doing follow-ups with their client.

Cons:

It's hard to speak to someone when you call the technical support, you can wait a lot over the phone and finish on a voicemail. If you need immediate assistance, it's hard to get in touch with someone. It seems employee of Amilia working at the technical support are new. I had to chat with them often for technical problems, and rarely they can solve my problem. They are only opening a technical ticket and getting back to me weeks after. Most of the time, I finished by solving my problem alone and find a way around. It seems sometime I know more Amilia than the customer service.

Smart Rec Review

Comments: SmartRec has brought our department into technology and allowed us to make our operations more efficient. The team at SmartRec is great and incredibly helpful! They have a bit to go before they become a powerhouse in the industry but they are on their way to doing so.

Pros:

We went from an antiquated software with no way for the end user to register online, the online registration platform has been a great feature for our team and members. The customer service chat and support is awesome, I typically have my issue figured out within a few hours. If not, they will follow up to help resolve. They are a newer software with limited capabilities compared to more established software's BUT they are always pushing out new features into Beta mode and willing to listen to our suggestions for improvement.

Cons:

There are features that are limited compared to more established software's. Our biggest CON is that you cannot register or make any purchases from the app, it is simply your membership card and scheduled classes. We have some end users who say there are too many clicks to get through the registration process and would be easier if it was accomplished in 2-3 clicks.

Great for some things but there could be imrovements for others.

Comments: Overall, our business enjoys using this but as mentioned there are some aspects that need to be improved and considered. Businesses with funding - the charges on refunds seems high as well.

Pros:

Its great for programs that are one time programs such as camps, drop in classes etc.

Cons:

I find it difficult and complicated on the administrative side for subcriptions and when clients find loopholes in the system that we did not know exist. Running a child care center with multiple government funding - I am unsure with the subscriptions and our clients running into loopholes like not putting their card details in the system makes it for a longer problem solving process

A great starting software for programs

Pros:

The online store was a good option and generally easy to use

Cons:

It is not integrated into a website so you need two different platforms

Why we love SmartRec

Comments: We have enjoyed our time with SmartRec. We are so thankful for their customer service and the time they out in to work with us, hear our feedback, and continue to develop their program to fit the needs of Park and Recreation Agencies.

Pros:

Ease of use for our customers and backend users. We like how clean the store is and how it is so easy for our customers to checkout in an easy and timely fashion. The admin side is easy to use to input classes and track rentals and contracts.

Cons:

The reporting side could be a little more robust and user friendly. You get a lot of information but being able to tailor the reports a little more before export would help save time. Processing independent contractor (CA) class payouts though SmartRec would be nice - paid by % and not hourly rate through Staff Module.

Decent Alternative? Maybe, I guess...

Comments: Coming to Amilia (Smart Rec) from Max Galaxy, it is a even trade off. What MG did poorly, Smart Rec does better, but what MG did great, Smart Rec can not do. I see how Smart Rec could be great. But it is "new" to the game and still has a ways to go. It is hard for me recommend to other Parks and Recreation Departments. In the first month of Smart Rec, Amilia implemented more upgrades and new features than Max Galaxy did in the entire 3 years we used it. So that being said, I have hope in Amilia as there have been a steady stream of updates.

Pros:

Customer service and trouble shooting chat portal is wonderful! There is an Amilia Staffer ready to chat with you online within a few minutes of having an issue or question. The client facing portals are attractive and for the most part easy to use. Browser based, usable/accessible from almost any device. Has an app for clients (though very limited) Creates membership cards with scan bars and photos (also accessible in client app)

Cons:

Only Merchandise goes through the POS... Nothing else does. (registrations, memberships, rentals, reservations) Shouldn't every transaction should go through the POS? Can not export financial ledger codes and payment breakdown reports by individual locations. Maybe if every transaction went through a POS, then we could report ledger codes with payment forms for that specific POS location? eChecks take 10 days to hit the bank Can not create custom payment types Reports are excel exports only. They are ugly and formatted poorly for print. CardPointe (card connect) is the only card processing service available.

Feedback

Comments: Overall, Amilia is serving the purpose we need it to. We initially thought it would offer cost savings from our previous database (Active and Mindbody), and maybe it does have some cost savings, but there have been serious issues on the backend that don't entirely outweigh the savings. I would consider leaving Amilia and choosing another service, but the learning curve of a new system is high, and we are only just now feeling like we have a handle on Amilia's offerings.

Pros:

The customer service is great. We always have a quick response and can usually find an answer to our questions after speaking with someone.

Cons:

The reporting features are severely lacking. If we are taking customers' money through this platform, there must be clear reports that show how much money has been brought in and when/how it is being disbursed to our bank account. It took us almost two years to navigate the existing financial reports to find the ones that actually showed us the information that we need. And in so doing, we found out that over $100k of payments have not been sent to our bank account. If the reporting was more clear, we would have been able to identify the issue years ago. One of the main problems is that the information in the canned reports is not uniform across the reports themselves. So, trying to compare information across reports is very challenging. It would also be nice to be able to customize reports, so that the user can pull the information that is needed at their own convenience.

Room for Growth

Comments: Overall, the system has been beneficial. We've been able to consolidate and put more information into one location. Contracts are easy for all staff to access (previously they were all in a paper file system). Some of our facility bookings have been moved to online access. After we learned how to make it work the time spent entering programs is relatively small & easy to understand. The integration with our email service has also be very helpful. Long term I see the adjustments they are making as something that will keep us with this system. In the short term it has been very challenging to adapt some areas of our department to function within the limitations of this software. Specifically we struggle with the lack of reporting for facility rentals & lack of unique data with forms. We were on-boarded but had some struggles during that process with a lack of clear direction on what we needed to do prior to opening to the public. Possibly a checklist would have been very helpful.

Pros:

Two things: - Customer support is quick to assist with problems & open with their response. If it's something the system can't do they let you know & attempt to help find solutions. - They are constantly putting out new features. Since we started they have updated/launched at least 5 big updates.

Cons:

Facilities. We do 50% of our revenue in facility rentals & the process they do have is fairly limited. We are missing many reports that would help us better manage facility rentals, emails to previous renters by facility and date, custom forms that uniquely tie to each rental and more. Also online bookings / groups are limited. When we add the campground's 140+ sites this fall finding anything in there is going to take forever. (You have to scroll through everything to find the location you are looking for) While booking there is no go to date option. You have to manually tab by month to the time you want to book for, even if it's years out.

MNJCC - Review

Pros:

Registrations are easy for members and ADMINS

Cons:

Sometimes it's hard for our business to understand how it works/

SmartRecration

Pros:

Smart Rec is an amazing experience. Easy to use and follow.

Cons:

I did not like how members can't find it easier to access.

Frustrating

Pros:

I like the ability to duplicate classes to make a new season. I like the idea of the tags.

Cons:

For all the features, it's not as flexible as I expected. I was looking for something that would increase communication with our families, but this system made it worse. I still have teachers that have not been able to get on, so every time they need something I have to do it for them. This is more work for me. When COVID-19 hit, I needed to email all our families at once, but there was no way to do it. It was necessary to have all our families join another platform so we could better communicate with them when all our classes went online. I will be dropping Amilia as soon as our 1-year agreement is over.

Great product, will be even better with a few upgrades!

Comments: A positive one. To further enhance our experience, it would be incredibly helpful to have the ability to add events via ticking, as well as a map view of our campsites and cabins, and a calendar view that shows facility availability. The addition of these features would greatly improve your product for our needs

Pros:

The greatest advantage of SmartRec is the customer service staff's availability and willingness to assist with any issues or queries. From our first conversation with a SmartRec sales representative to our daily interactions with the support staff, these exchanges have been of top quality. If a staff member doesn't know the answer to a question, they promptly provide one.

Cons:

Unfortunately, the software currently doesn't offer a map view of our campsites, which would allow our guests to choose the perfect site for them based on its location in relation to amenities such as restrooms, showers, dump stations, office, etc.Moreover, it would be highly beneficial for campgrounds like ours to have a simple and user-friendly calendar that shows the available cabins and campsites. While the current facility calendar provides information about what is already booked, it's not the most efficient way for our front desk staff to convey information to walk-in guests about available sites and buildings.

Smart Rec Review

Pros:

Online registration allow registration for families from the comfort of their home at any time of day There is no waiting in lines to register for activities. Automated Payment Processing means each month there is minimal administrative work to complete as everything is processed and completed. Multi-passes allow purchases of "class packs" which helps facilitate our tumbling program.

Cons:

The "store" where we house our pro-shop is not well equipped and has not had updates in years. Split family accounts is a huge headache for us.

Airborne LOVES Amilia. It is so unbelievably easy to use as both an administrator and customer.

Comments: Again, so much! We moved from another registration system last June and Amilia is beyond amazing. Amilia is extremely user friendly, especially as an administrator. Inputting and creating classes/activities is so quick and easy. Two of us worked at the same time and created our entire Spring Session in under two hours. It has saved us tons of hours worth of work. It's also easy for our customers to use. We have put all of our competitions, uniforms, tickets for events all on Amilia. Customers are notified and they can easily go on and purchase without help from us. It's really neat how much we can personalize our store too. Not just with colours but pictures, fonts, layout, AND I love that you can move activities around to the order can change AFTER finalizing the program. Airborne loves Amilia.

Pros:

So much. It is SO easy to use. I have worked at numerous companies with different online registration processes and Amilia is by far the most user friendly. It does everything we need it to do and so much more (but not so much that's confusing either). I enjoy that I can design attendance sheets to exactly what coaches need to know, customers are easy to look up by either parent or athlete name, their personal and payment information is right there. It's easy to export financials and reports into excel or as a PDF, being non-profit and passing this information onto a volunteer treasurer, ease of accessing that info is important. Creating & adding activities is also easy, I just added August birthday parties in 5 mins. We have also had a lot less complaints or questions from customers regarding our this system registration. They find it simple & easy to access, especially during tax season this year. I think my favourite part is that I can also view the store front as both an administrator or a customer. If I am unsure of font, pictures, anything I can very quickly pop onto the store front to see what the customers see. Oh! Small thing, but I also appreciate the "Home" page after logging in. I love to see what classes have been registered for in the past 24 hrs, which months have been our busiest, to see customer visitation as soon as I log in. Not only does Amilia do that tracking for us, but it's easily visible. Customer service and support has been AMAZING.

Cons:

I do find a little on the pricey side. As a smaller-ish non-profit that's a big factor. It's not just Amilia but also adding in Netbanx fees. However, we just adjusted our fees to accommodate. As a positive, customers aren't constantly asking "why do I have to pay this processing fee." I also find going between Amilia and Netbanx a little confusing. Sometimes dates or deposit amounts don't quite line up so it takes a little bit of digging and math to make sure transactions are being book keeped on our end properly. But, it really is a small issue. It's hard to give a "least" when every time I have a problem, I relay it onto customer support and my issue is addressed within 24 hours. Even questions about Netbanx, Customer rep walked me through everything. Rep rocks ;)

Easy to use, Great user interface, common sense features, great ROI, and amazing customer support

Comments: Great ROI, mainly from a drastic reduction in time spent taking registrations, setting up new sessions, and collecting outstanding balances from clients.

Pros:

The number one feature by far is online registration, before switching to Amilia we had to manually register all our clients. The process was inefficient and took up a lot of time that as a small and new club we needed to be spending on focusing and improving our core business. With our old system we had to chase people down for money, and deal with bounced cheques and all sorts of nonsense that no one in the services community should have to deal with. The online registration worked exactly as promised, and with that came all sorts of additional features like class management and communication tools that worked incredibly well. Having all our clients be forced to pay upfront saved us literally thousands of dollars our first year alone. Admittedly we were terrible at chasing people down with outstanding balances, but we didn't get into the gymnastics club business to become a accountants/collections officers. The online tools were super straight forward, and the customer support was fantastic. Every time we had an issue or problem with the system the customer support would provide prompt responses and walk us through the mistakes we had made or give detailed explanations as to how we could better set up our sessions to avoid future problems. They would even log into our account and make the changes for us that were labor intensive due to the type of mistakes we made when learning the system. Overall switching to Amilia was the smartest business we ever made.

Cons:

It is expensive... but in life I've learned you tend to get what you pay for and this system it is totally worth it.

A promising software but still has some ways to go.

Pros:

- Available in French as well as English, a necessity in Montreal - ASTOUNDING customer service! and that's coming from someone who trains customer service departments! - Decent programming flexibility for Dance studios and service providers - Space rental programming included

Cons:

- Difficult learning curve for our clients - Lack of real integration with website (only nested window) - Unintuitive purchasing process for services (and products) for clients, even those who are familiar with the software - Primitive phone app (Android & iOS) with very little functionality to go along with the main program, for both clients and administrators. - Steep learning curve for administrators who are not very tech savvy - No integration with ANY accounting software (ex: Quickbooks) - No integration with a POS system (ex: Square) - On the expensive side for what is offered compared to other companies, especially with the percentage taxing of sales they deduct EVEN if clients pay cash. - Sub par visual aesthetics and no real control to administrators to change it. - No Google bookings, which is becoming more and more important in service-oriented businesses.

Amilia is great!

Comments: It’s great!

Pros:

The customer service is great / love how they are available most times!

Cons:

We need people to be able to purchase a session and then be able to sign out if they miss a class. And then sign into another class as a make up.

Amilia is great

Pros:

The launching process, and using it on my end is pretty easy once you get to know your way around the system.

Cons:

The account code reporting for registrations received is complicated and hard to run/find. The customer side is very difficult the very first time. Once a customer creates an account than it seems to be much easier for them.

Honest feedback

Comments: Good not 100% happy with cost

Pros:

Easy to track system and saves me time Enjoy having it at fingertips

Cons:

Finding it a bit Too expensive and hate it first gave automatic addition of nsf fees for non payment

Amazing Registration Platform with an Outstanding Team!

Comments: Everything is all in one place. The system allows our program to keep things organized and works within our business framework. It makes things simple for us on the business end of things and clients on the consumer end of things.

Pros:

Amilia is a great platform with tons of features. There was a learning curve when adopting the platform, however the on-boarding and support team were super pleasant to work with (and still are). Suggestions that I have made have been implemented and team does actually value input from the clients to find ways to make the system better.

Cons:

While not an overall deterrent, it was difficult to manage payments in some cases as payment info was not saved. This however has been amended and now clients can choose to save their credit card info. It would be beneficial to have all payment info automatically saved, however I understand the stipulations and hold-backs on this (privacy etc). A few other items that I’ve had have been resolved and the system has been updated accordingly!

Amilia a timesaving program

Comments: We have been using Amilia for a few years for our 3 day camps and the experience has been very rewarding. The program has helped us to be more efficient on registration days and given us much more flexibility in how we can do registrations. We now offer phone support to our clients to help them register from home. The program is easy to learn and we now have 3 of our office staff who can handle our registrations, process new relevés 24 and take care of payments/refunds. The installments have been a lifesaver for many families who are struggling financially. We have spread payments out over a four month period. The webinars and live support are great! The techs are very quick with the responses/solutions. Amilia is a company that listens to their clients and makes major changes accordingly. Bravo for the good work.

Pros:

The reporting options are fantastic. The fact that were have the option of producing documents in both languages is great.

Cons:

The bank depositing system makes it very difficult to account for individual program payments. The monies are transferred to the bank every few days but the deposits never seem to match up with the sales for that time period. On a monthly basis it is fine or if it was only one program to report. When we try to break down the payments by program when deposited it doesn't add up. We have no choice but to do the accounting on a monthly basis which is challenging during day camp season. (we have 3 camps)

Amilia - Great Program

Comments: They have a great customer service fleet of people. They return emails in the morning, and ask if your issue has been looked after.

Pros:

The easy integration into our club. Once easily set up, we can now see who is purchasing, with all the and track what they are purchasing as well. Before it was too hard to see where they were registered in multiple classes

Cons:

Hmmm. I know there were a couple things, but don't recall...They were a couple "Nice to haves", but nothing crazy. Would be nice to have an interactive ability to send messages to all clients like TeamSnap.

easy to use

Comments: promoting cubs activities
registration
collection of fees

Pros:

Its very helpful to be able to share lists with staff collecting fees is so much easier Amilia doing the RL24 tax credits saves a lot of time fun ways to integrate clubs themes/photos into activities

Cons:

a couple of suggestions Amilia could do review of companies sites so that they could have suggestions/catch mistakes to save time later on down the line english and french pages would be helpful also to add an email template feature so that we could send out e-mails to more than 50 people

Convenient Registration

Comments: It has been helpful to utilize Amilia for both marketing and registration. The customer service has been very comprehensive when I need assistance.

Pros:

I like the convenience of marketing, registration, and the ability to print reports.

Cons:

What I like least is that the registration form cannot be changed to meet some of my needs.

easy to register, difficult to refund or un enroll

Pros:

The calendar feature is easy, allows for easy class registration

Cons:

Trying to un enroll or provide discounts or refunds can be incredibly confusing. Also, AmEx is impossible and we have never received any funds that anyone paid by using AmEx.