I have heard really good things about Cyrious and that's why we decided to make the change one year ago. However, after one year using it, we feel very discouraged about the software not working properly and very unhappy with their services and training. We now have to pay extra in order to fix some issues, even if they are related from the software not working properly. Anyone in the same situation?
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Discussion Anyone unhappy with Cyrious?
- Thread starter sss8259
- Start date
wildside
New Member
The training is a bit to be desired for sure. The tech support system is terrible, they go in and do it while you watch your cursor flip around different things and into areas you cannot access on your own. All in all that is fine, except some of the little quirks are pricey to fix, we have a glitch that it throws in a billboard contract as a sub item on every cut vinyl job. We can delete it after the fact, but it is a annoyance that has been there for about 3 years now and not willing to pay to fix it. The backside of the software is very detailed and involved and if you screw up one thing it effects everything else.
Outside of that, it is great software that we have been on for about 10 years now. I have toyed with trying others, but all the trials of other software have brought me back to staying with cyrious.
Outside of that, it is great software that we have been on for about 10 years now. I have toyed with trying others, but all the trials of other software have brought me back to staying with cyrious.
"areas you cannot access on your own" yeah that to me is super aggravating. I don't have this software, but this little "control freak" gem exists in other software that I absolutely despise. I bought it, I operate it, I own it. Why am I locked out of my own stuff? Just last week I had a guy that wanted to come to my shop for a $1000 "service call" to fix something. All the vagueness and ambiguity about a machine and its software seem purposeful so they can bilk more maintenance money out of you. I hate business models like that.
Bigdawg
Just Me
We had a service contract with them for years. We needed them to change a field in one of the forms and they informed us it would cost us for them to change it. After paying a monthly fee for 10 years and using the support maybe 4-5 times... that was unacceptable. So we have cancelled the service contract and will just pay them when there is something we need them to fix.
And if they didn't have those places we can't access, we could have made the simple little change ourselves.
And if they didn't have those places we can't access, we could have made the simple little change ourselves.
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
I'm always curious as to what problems these solutions present users. So, can you give an example of what is not working for you in Cyrious? A button not working, a calculation, a business rule or concept?
Thanks in advance.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
The reason that the "control freak" gem exists in closed source software, is because users don't actually buy it in terms of ownership, they buy a license and that proprietary license has limits to it.
It's the way of the closed source business model. No way around it on the up and up without some changes coming about.
So glad I have to deal with this less and less.
To the OP:
If there are bugs in the software and they charge to fix them, something doesn't seem right. Now some bugs being logged may take a while to get fixed, maybe in the next iteration, but actually have a charge like that, this is actually a new one for me. Don't know if I would like that too much.
ChrisN
New Member
In my opinion, you need at least person that understands Control inside & out in order to use it effectively. Their tech support is good for complex problems and server errors; but if you have someone that can modify pricing forms, change selection lists, etc, that is very valuable. We have the customizable version, so probably a lot of the areas you can't access are available to us. E.g. we can edit/create products, pricing forms, etc. I definitely wouldn't want to be without that.
If you're a small shop trying to use Control and relying on their techs to fix everything, I can understand why you would be frustrated with Control. I don't think it is really geared towards that type of use. It's very complicated, and takes a lot of time to set it up and fine-tune it.
If you're a small shop trying to use Control and relying on their techs to fix everything, I can understand why you would be frustrated with Control. I don't think it is really geared towards that type of use. It's very complicated, and takes a lot of time to set it up and fine-tune it.
We have lots of issues with formulas to calculate cost. And we actually gave up to have them work properly. The more they tried to fix it ( most of the time by updating the software) the more we had issues. And believe me it is time consuming to test their formulas and then explain to them what is not working.
Right now, our accounting on Cyrious and Quickbook don't match. They are saying that we did something wrong but we honestly did exactly what they told us to do. And after paying almost $10000 for something that is still not working we are very frustrated... We are going to pay to have them fix our accounting issue but after that we are just going to give up on the other issues. Yes we are a very small business and getting Cyrious was an important investment for us that we regret.
Otherwise we have lots of issues regarding things being displayed not properly. (Wrong quantities, description of products displayed as "unknow")... I can give you a bigger list if you really need lol.
Sincerely, I can modify our prices, change/add selection list, materials, product... I just can't touch their formulas and variables... and I have no idea how to fix our accounting problems. I am actually curious to see where our accounting problem comes from.
Right now, our accounting on Cyrious and Quickbook don't match. They are saying that we did something wrong but we honestly did exactly what they told us to do. And after paying almost $10000 for something that is still not working we are very frustrated... We are going to pay to have them fix our accounting issue but after that we are just going to give up on the other issues. Yes we are a very small business and getting Cyrious was an important investment for us that we regret.
Otherwise we have lots of issues regarding things being displayed not properly. (Wrong quantities, description of products displayed as "unknow")... I can give you a bigger list if you really need lol.
Sincerely, I can modify our prices, change/add selection list, materials, product... I just can't touch their formulas and variables... and I have no idea how to fix our accounting problems. I am actually curious to see where our accounting problem comes from.
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
Do you know if Cyrious lets you export your records to spreadsheets?
What kind of records?
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
Mainly your work order records with grand totals, possibly the line item records for those work orders and possibly your product records.
Create a list of your work orders with totals to compare against a list of QuickBooks invoice records to find discrepancies. You can print reports from the two software apps but exporting both to spread sheets makes it easier visually if you have a lot of data. When you find a discrepancy it may likely be a detail in a line item on the work order or maybe upstream in the product record. If you can view your entire product database in a spread sheet format, errors and duplicates usually become obvious.
Your data in QuickBooks is most important. It's not the end of the world if Cyrious doesn't agree, if ever, but realizing you expect the software to work for you and not against you. It will become important for you to learn if you can export ALL your Cyrious data in the event you ever migrate to another software solution.
Good luck.
Thanks for your help. I'll ask them but the sales on Quickbook imported from Cyrious are grouping in one amount and not detailed.
I can have the breakdown using Cyrious' report but then when it is imported on Quickbook via IIF files everything is grouping (sales, AR..) and total amount don't match. I wish I could to the transfer manually but I have no control on what is being imported. They are supposed to look at it Friday ( 3 weeks that I have an open ticket). Of course they already know that it is going to be charged as a level 3 services, the most expensive...
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
One of the first troubleshooting techniques Cyrious might use is to create a temporary test record for a customer, work order, and product with known data integrity. They will then export that temporary work order (or job, whatever they call it) to QuickBooks. They will then find their temporary record works correctly. They will then need to cull through your data to find where you have made errors. They will be looking at spread sheets (tables) just as I have advised you. It should take you less time to find your errors rather than Cyrious to find your errors. Otherwise, you have someone else running your business and that can get expensive, obviously.
So they finally looked at my system. In order to look at the Database they used the SQL Server Management Studio SSMS. And I am not even going to try to look at this. I asked them 3 times what I did wrong but they were not able to explain what was the problem. Of course they said that it was because of me. We still have lots of issues but they are saying that they are issues related to Quickbook. I have called Quickbook and they were as surprised as me as it is obvious that the problems come from Cyrious. Anyway I would not recommend Cyrious at all. They are not an honest company.
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
In your case, best to remember QuickBooks is your final accounting amounts.
Sorry to hear Cyrious seems to be a bit much for you at this time. Maybe keep an eye out for a new or existing employee who understands some basics of spreadsheets using basic formulas. You might give them a project to get your data resources in order.
Thanks for the followup post. Things will get better.
Yes hopefully things will get better...
Are you using Cyrious? I have more than basics knowledge in spreadsheets and it doesn't help at all with my problems. I just want to clarify this as I don't want someone who is looking to get into Cyrious to think that with basic knowledge in spreadsheets they are going to be ok with Cyrious.
ColorCrest
All around shop helper.
Earlier, I think I recommended you create a spreadsheet of your products to compare against the list(s) in Cyrious and QuickBooks to find discrepancies. Because you have mentioned QuickBooks is throwing an alert of "Unknown..." this is an obvious sign of missing data, errors, mis-mapped fields, or any or all of these.
So really, where do imagine the problem lies? Yes, now it's more work, but only when you learn where the problem is can you begin to fix it and that's when things will get better.
I don't want to alarm you but Cyrious has over 100 tables (spreadsheets). Concern yourself with your own separate PRODUCTS spreadsheet for now. Don't even concern yourself with prices or formulas for now. What does that list look like? Duplicates, missing cells, typos, etc.?
I really appreciate your help but I really would like to know if you are using Cyrious?