Planning Pod

Best value for the most features

Pros:

Clean layout, easy to navigate. My staff likes it, but my clients will not use the features available to them because it is too confusing/complicated. Compared to other similar programs, I feel it has the most to offer for my staff's needs.

Cons:

Flexibility of PDF reports, on-screen reports, and customization. Also the calendar sync does not work properly, which makes it useless for scheduling appointments.

THE solution for your FOOD TRUCK catering!

Pros:

The software is incredibly moldable to any caterers needs. As we are a wood fired pizza caterer, we bring our food truck on site to cook, but serve buffet style. Along with this, we have bartenders, servers, and other vendors to connect with on most any event. Being able to customize BEO's to each vendors needs is incredible. Being able to have everyone in one place is incredible. Being able to have all communications between multiple parties/family members/vendors all be linked to the one event they regard is timesaving! Being able to automate our reservation & final check in process is how we were able to DOUBLE OUR VOLUME this year. HANDS DOWN THE BEST!

Cons:

I have zero complaints. This product is fantastic. Even their customer support rocks!

The struggle is real!

Comments: Negative. The customer service reps seem to not know the platform very well, or will answer questions and tell you that you can or can not do something but forget to tell you what steps to take to do it, lastly the chat customer service reps will not provide any help to get you through the modules and tell you that you need to watch the videos and take the test or that you should email with any questions that you have.

Pros:

I like the ability to be able to have a platform to work from for each individual event and connect templates and forms to individual events.

Cons:

There are sooo many glitches that I couldn't actually get much work done because of the huge learning curve. There are pre-made templates that I was told would be able to be erased after I signed up and then after signing up for a paid membership was told that I would not be able to delete these pre-made templates. Under the invoices section, there is no clear way to delete an amount or invoice. Every time I send an email from the system it populates in my main planning pod "inbox" as a new email. I would love to be able to watch a module on this and the other issues that I'm dealing with but in order to learn anything through the academy videos you must watch the videos in the order they have set up and answer test with a score of 100% before you can move to the next module. This means if you don't need one of the features of the system and don't need to learn about it, you will still have to watch the video and take a test in order to get to the information that you do need to learn about.

The Lifeline of Our Business

Comments: We are so glad we stumbled upon this software when we did. I have used Dubsado, Honeybook, TripleSeat and done demos with a few others and none compare to Planning Pod. It had everything our organization was looking for- integrated invoices, proposals, calendar (syncs with Google), lead forms (integrates to our website), questionnaires and floor plans. We eliminated 3 other softwares we were using and streamlined it all into one. Our team uses it everyday and it is the lifeline of our business. The aesthetically pleasing BEO's, floor plans and timelines are printed and hung up on our bulletin board for every event! We are so glad this product exists!

Pros:

It is very user friendly and the onboarding was quick and easy. The support team at Planning Pod is quick to respond and friendly. We loved the communications feature that wasn't available on other platforms as well as the ability to use with multiple team members. The invoice feature is great as well as proposals. The floor plan feature is a game changer!

Cons:

I wish I would've found it sooner and didn't have to switch from my other software.

Planning Pod Review

Pros:

I like the proposal and invoice features the best.

Cons:

Planning pod doesn’t have a great floor building element.

Good, easy-to-use and practical planning tool

Comments: I use it to mostly manage my client's budget and timelines. There are many other features that I don't regularly use because I use other tools or processes, but it works well for those items and I'm on it frequently.

Pros:

I like that the owners are always trying to make upgrades to the software and they seem to genuinely listen to customer feedback on what we want to see. It's well priced and easy to use.

Cons:

The wedding websites available to the clients aren't up to par with what is available in the industry. Same with the floor plan tool. It would be wonderful to only have to use one platform, but at the same time, it's priced appropriately that the tools you receive are good / on point with what you are paying for.

Planning Pod is some great features, some not-so-great features

Comments: I learned to focus on budgeting and invoicing because of Planning Pod.

Pros:

Planning Pod makes it pretty easy to create an event budget and create invoices for each event. I also like the way you can store and manipulate contact information.

Cons:

It is frustrating that you can't link the invoices to the budget. I'd like to show to see invoices that get paid correspond and show up in the budget area. It's also frustrating that I can't store receipts, etc. in the budget, e.g. there's no upload feature. It would be great to upload a document related to an expense, or a paid-in-full invoice. It's also frustrating that I can't add pages to the invoices. Sometimes I want to show certain information about the invoice that can't be recorded in the system as-is. But if I was able to add pages, it would make it even easier to send the invoices directly out from my Planning Pod account.

I used PlanningPod for client management, contracts, and invoices.

Pros:

Very easy to use platform with video tutorials. Great for organizing my client event details. They are always looking at ways to improve.

Cons:

Would love to be able to have tools for event design. The floor plan tool isn't the easiest to work with.

I run my business with Planning Pod

Comments: Professional invoicing and contracts w/ online signatures, floor plans, generate to-do templates for each event I plan/design that sends reminders to my clients, database for vendors/contacts

Pros:

This app is iPad, Android and laptop friendly, so I can easily access information anywhere with whichever device I happen to be using.

Manage everything in one place.

Pros:

I could easily manage my multiple events, send emails and notes to clients, create timelines and share them with my team all with just a few clicks.

Cons:

They should create an app for smartphones or at least a more user friendly mobile website. Just a tad pricey compared to other options.

Planning Pod has changed the way our venue manages events!

Comments: This program has been a much needed addition to our organization. I did the research and trial runs with other software programs and there was never a question that I chose the right one! Customer support is second to none and the program is consistently rolling out updates that improve the end user experience.

Pros:

Planning Pod helped bring all the aspects of event management together in one easy to use program! I am able to work on multiple events simultaneously and keep track of all communication from start to finish. This one program replaced the 4-5 programs we had been using to manage our venue and I will never look back!

Cons:

The only con I have found with the program is with the credit card processing and that change occurred when the processing company we used initially was no longer available. We used to have the ability to check a box and have the credit card fee added to an invoice as a line item and that made it easier to pass that cost on to the client as we are a non-profit organization.

Transformed Our Back Office Operation

Comments: Planning Pod has given us a more professional way to take our clients through the booking process and saved us time and effort in doing it.

Pros:

For us the biggest impact has been on our contracting and billing process. Before Planning Pod everything was a manual process with handwritten signatures, scanning and emailing contracts back and forth, and no easy way to generate payment reminders and issue invoices. With Planning Pod the process is much more streamlined for us and for our clients.

Cons:

I would like to see some enhancements to the floorplan tool.

Game Changer

Comments: It has been a game changer for us. The first few training sessions were not quite enough for us but they are more than willing to take some time for us to learn more. They are very receptive to us and fix/change things that we told them would be useful to us on the platform. They have no problems getting things onto the platform and even changing code for something as simple as font sizes on event orders. Really great company to work with, they are a partner in our success.

Pros:

Automatic payment and communication features. Integration with calendars. Lead management.

Cons:

Searching for things within the system could use some more work.

I use PP to keep all my weddings in one place. It's an efficient tool to use in tracking my clients

Comments: My client info was everywhere, some in Google docs, some in excel...just everywhere. Now everything is in one place which has helped me organize and be a little more efficient.

Pros:

The timeline feature and the ability to customize a few things. I enjoy the fact that my clients can collaborate with me on their events and manage their task lists on their own. The planning pod team is very responsive to ideas from its users and that is a huge plys.

Cons:

It's easy for event planning use, but for weddings it has many features I don't use, such as ticket sales etc. It had also been nice to manage basic tasks specific to daily follow up on clients through the client contact area. I don't necessarily like that I have to utilize a task lust within the event to set a task if that makes sense. I want to go to one area that has all my clients in it, set my follow up tasks at one time for each client and then get an email reminder to do it.

Easy-to-use, cost-effective event management tool

Comments: It helps with signing people up for our events, tracking submitted information, processing payments from attendees and communicating information to attendees.

Pros:

Planning Pod is a very valuable tool for processing event registrations, RSVPs and payments. It also helps communicate information to event attendees. Planning Pod offers a lot of powerful features without the high prices that come with a lot of other event management software options. The customer support at Planning Pod is always very responsive to any questions or issues that pop up.

Cons:

While the event website component is very easy to use, I wish it had more flexibility to change fonts and font sizes and arrange text on the website in a custom way. There should also be a way to change attendee ticket status without having to call customer support. A little more flexibility in naming items would also be ideal. (e.g. - We "register" people for our big annual seminar - but had to "sell tickets" due to Planning Pod's set-up)

Almost perfect!

Comments: Planning pod keeps my business organized from almost every aspect.

Pros:

White glove customer support, Extremely user-friendly interface, professional industry templates, accept online payments, budget management, vendor management, CRM, workflows, to do's, checklists, proposals, contracts, worksheets, calendars, vision boards, client portals, floor plans, guest management and so much more.

Cons:

Pricing is a bit high for infrequent business owners and startups . . . For what I'm currently spending I want software features that are more competitive such as: more and better integrations, white labeling, custom domain, send messages through software from my email address, inventory management, e-commerce code for my website, quote generating form.

good

Pros:

I like that you can acess it anywhere. We run 200 event through Planning pod. it is a good software.

Cons:

When Planning Pod roll new thing out and there is no training. Would love to have a software rep to come out and do training. we could pay for it.

I've used Planning Pod since before it was called Planning Pod and I love it.

Pros:

I like the ease of use, it is dummy proof. I like that my other professionals and cliens can also use it for certain events and I love the built in floor plan.

Cons:

I don't like the contracts section, that part needs an update. I would like for my clients to "inital" different sections and right now that is not possible.

The system is fairly easy to use. Could use a bit of refinement in aesthetic but works great overal

Comments: ease of use. helps me keep client's organized.

Pros:

great price, allows me to keep most everything in one place. I love the itinerary portion of the site my clients and vendors do too.

Cons:

is not integrated with some other systems. I have to use Honeybook to manage contracts because it's easier. AislePlanner is more robust and has a new feel that makes wedding client's gravitate toward it

Some of the features are a little clunky (budget update was not a good change, contract templates)

Pros:

Allows me to organize myself. I really like the itinerary feature and the invoicing feature. I liked the old budget tool a lot.

Cons:

The budget update is terrible. Not user friendly at all and is very confusing for me and my clients to see categories and line items. Frequently get red "caution" symbol- not always reliably saving when changes are made. Mobile is clunky.

Thanks to Planning Pod, my planning service is extremely organized and savvy.

Pros:

Where I can plan, organize, schedule, collect payments in one tab. I am able to plan our client's entire event in planning pod, I schedule their monthly to dos, I interact with our team via planning pod. Our clients are able to enter and update their guests lists, work on the seating chart and create meal assignments. I am able to create, send and sign contracts along with our clients. I can collet current and schedule payments with a simple clicks. I love that I can create an event itinerary and include the list of creatives on the itinerary.

Great Tools for Wedding Planners

Comments: Planning Pod helped streamline a lot of my work into a single software. I really love how everything was in a single place. If your looking for a good, reliable wedding planning software, this is the one to choose!

Pros:

We used planning pod and it worked great! I really like how they were always willing to take suggestions from their users. The ability to take payments through the software also helped streamline everything. Their how to videos and articles really helped to explain how their features work. I really liked how I could store all contracts within the software itself. This helped me eliminate nearly all paper. Customer support was also always very helpful whenever I needed help. They always responded that same day!

Cons:

Nothing really, it was a fantastic system!

Great tool that everyone can use!

Pros:

Easy to use Accessible to the entire team East for the client One place to keep everything Invoicing in the system

Cons:

I don't like the merchant services company used to collect credit card payments I don't like the floor plan system I'm not crazy about the website option within the event function

I Like This Program

Comments: I use this program for most of my events. I like it, but it can use some more functionality and ease of use. Nevertheless, I will continue to use it and hope it improves with time. Price is great too.

Pros:

The large font, the different uses that it has which are specific to the events industry.

Cons:

It's very slow to load contacts; searching for contacts is a pain; trying to attach vendors and other people involved in the event is clumsy. Searching for venue information is not easy or intuitive. They have no way to run a report for taxes owed at the end of the quarter. Some improvements could be made to their room layout tool to make it quicker, smoother and fewer steps to each change or edit.

Planning pod is the only software I have found that gives me the features I need at a great price.

Pros:

The organization tools are great. Floor plan tools are easy to use. Collaboration tools are great. Invoice and proposal tools are very useful.

Cons:

I wish it had an inventory management feature. Clients don't always know how to use the tools. I wish I could do a little more with integration with other programs.