Overview
What is Workbooks?
Workbooks offers cloud-based CRM, marketing automation and business applications to the mid-market. Workbooks includes order management and fulfillment, invoicing, and supplier management. Workbooks aims to provide a single 360° view of customers, where the information is accessible anytime, anywhere.
User of workbooks for four years
Workbooks - Excellent CRM software
Workbooks is the engine that drives our business
Workbooks - bring the whole team together with clarity; consistency; and transparency
Sales, Marketing and Finance!
Workbooks is a solid CRM!
Looking for a CRM? Workbooks Is The Best Overall Value.
- Contact management
- Contact …
Versatile, Effective and Efficient
Workbooks in the Charitable sector
A look at Workbooks by iPS - the sales enablement professionals!ls
Workbooks runs the entire business
Workbooks has done what we were looking for.
#Workbooks for Customer Relationship Management!
Workbooks is the Workflow Workhorse!
A great CRM system, easy to tailor... and very good support
Awards
Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards
Popular Features
- Opportunity management (9)8.888%
- Customer data management / contact management (9)8.585%
- Territory management (9)7.777%
- Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail) (9)6.464%
Pricing
Workbooks CRM Edition
$30
Workbooks Business Edition
$65
Entry-level set up fee?
- Setup fee optional
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Microsoft Office Excel Tutorial 2013 Workbooks 2.3 Employee Group Training
worksheets demo: create workbooks
ms excel 2010 how to save workbooks demo
Merge the styles of the open workbooks.
Merge the styles of the open workbooks.
Neues in disy Cadenza Workbooks – Business Intelligence und Reporting – Live-Demo
Features
Sales Force Automation
This is the technique of using software to automate certain sales-related tasks.
- 8.5Customer data management / contact management(9) Ratings
The software acts as a single source for all customer data and enables users to access that data efficiently.
- 8.2Workflow management(7) Ratings
The software helps automate parts of the sales process, such as sending emails, updating contact records, and following approval processes.
- 7.7Territory management(9) Ratings
Users can defines salesperson territories based on customer or market characteristics.
- 8.8Opportunity management(9) Ratings
Users can track deals and create quotes.
- 6.4Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)(9) Ratings
Users can perform tasks within their inbox, such as logging emails, creating contacts, and creating events.
- 7.2Contract management(9) Ratings
Users can manage contracts, with features such as digital signatures, automated alerts, invoicing, and automated workflow for contract review and approvals.
- 7.6Quote & order management(8) Ratings
Users can create, process and fulfill price quotations and sales transactions.
- 6.4Interaction tracking(8) Ratings
Users can log and track all customer interactions through any channel, including social, email, phone and in-person.
- 8.4Channel / partner relationship management(8) Ratings
The software allows for sales, territory, lead, order and account management for partners or OEM relationships.
Customer Service & Support
This component of CRM software automates help desk, call center and field service management.
- 6.2Case management(8) Ratings
This includes incident/ticket creation, routing, escalation, and resolution.
- 6.8Call center management(2) Ratings
This includes features such as call routing, recording and monitoring; call list management; autodialing; and scripting.
- 5.8Help desk management(8) Ratings
This includes trouble ticketing, knowledge base, self-service, and service level agreement (SLA) management.
Marketing Automation
This component of CRM software helps to automate and scale marketing tasks and the subsequent analysis of those efforts.
- 8Lead management(7) Ratings
This includes lead generation, scoring, qualification, routing, and nurturing.
- 6.6Email marketing(7) Ratings
This involves the ability to send mass email to groups of people based on particular qualifications.
CRM Project Management
This component of CRM software helps users initiate, plan, collaborate on, execute, track, and close projects.
- 7.7Task management(7) Ratings
This includes the ability to plan, track, collaborate and report on tasks.
- 6.8Billing and invoicing management(8) Ratings
This includes automated invoice creation and billing.
- 7.8Reporting(7) Ratings
Software provides a broad range of standard and the ability to build custom reports.
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Reporting and analytics in CRM software includes sales forecasting, pipeline analysis, and automated dashboards.
- 8.2Forecasting(8) Ratings
The software helps users accurately forecast sales based on volume and conversion metrics.
- 8.8Pipeline visualization(8) Ratings
Users can visualize the entire sales pipeline to identify trends, determine the effectiveness of the sales funnel, and optimize.
- 8.8Customizable reports(8) Ratings
Users can create reports and dashboards unique to their needs.
Customization
This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.
- 8.4Custom fields(8) Ratings
Users can create custom fields to store additional information on standard and custom objects.
- 7.6Custom objects(7) Ratings
Users can create custom record types that allow them to store information unique to their organization, and link them to standard and other custom objects.
- 7.5Scripting environment(6) Ratings
Technical users can write, run, and test scripts that automate common tasks or business rules via a standard or vendor custom programming language.
- 7.5API for custom integration(7) Ratings
An API (application programming interface) provides a standard programming interface for connecting third-party systems to the software for data creation, access, updating and/or deletion.
Security
This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.
- 7Single sign-on capability(5) Ratings
The software system supports a centralized authentication mechanism allowing the user to access multiple systems with a single, centrally managed password.
- 8Role-based user permissions(7) Ratings
Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration.
Social CRM
This component of CRM software helps companies leverage social media in engaging with customers.
- 6Social data(3) Ratings
The software can integrate data and conversation histories from customers’ social profiles. This may also involve enhanced listening features such as sentiment tracking.
- 7.3Social engagement(1) Ratings
The software can facilitate and track engagement with customers via social channels.
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
This involves the CRM software’s ability to integrate with other systems, whether external or homegrown.
- 6.7Marketing automation(6) Ratings
The software can integrate with marketing automation software such as Eloqua, Marketo or Pardot.
- 7Compensation management(2) Ratings
The software can integrate with compensation management software or sales commission software such as Xactly Incent or IBM’s Varicent.
Platform
- 4.2Mobile access(7) Ratings
Users can access the CRM system via mobile or tablet device, and potentially leverage the unique capabilities of mobile devices, such as GPS and voice.
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is Workbooks?
Headquartered in Reading, UK, with an office also in Connecticut, US, Workbooks offers growing companies a SaaS platform to run their business and engage with customers. Its core CRM services are aimed specifically at mid-market organisations and extend beyond sales, marketing and customer services to include a full suite of marketing automation tools, as well as event management, order management and fulfilment, invoicing and supplier management functionalities.
The vendor states Workbooks is not a departmental solution, but rather a true end-to-end CRM. Workbooks designs, develops and implements its own software, which is used by customers to grow revenues, streamline business processes, get insights and improve engagement with clients.
Workbooks Features
Sales Force Automation Features
- Supported: Customer data management / contact management
- Supported: Workflow management
- Supported: Territory management
- Supported: Opportunity management
- Supported: Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)
- Supported: Contract management
- Supported: Quote & order management
- Supported: Interaction tracking
- Supported: Channel / partner relationship management
Customer Service & Support Features
- Supported: Case management
- Supported: Help desk management
Marketing Automation Features
- Supported: Lead management
- Supported: Email marketing
CRM Project Management Features
- Supported: Task management
- Supported: Billing and invoicing management
- Supported: Reporting
CRM Reporting & Analytics Features
- Supported: Forecasting
- Supported: Pipeline visualization
- Supported: Customizable reports
Customization Features
- Supported: Custom fields
- Supported: Custom objects
- Supported: Scripting environment
- Supported: API for custom integration
Security Features
- Supported: Role-based user permissions
- Supported: Single sign-on capability
Social CRM Features
- Supported: Social data
Integrations with 3rd-party Software Features
- Supported: Marketing automation
Platform Features
- Supported: Mobile access
Additional Features
- Supported: Lead, Opportunity and Sales Management Functions
- Supported: Campaign Management and Marketing Automation
- Supported: Case/Support Management
- Supported: Order Processing, Quotations, Purchase Orders and Invoices
- Supported: Reporting & Dashboards
Workbooks Screenshots
Workbooks Videos
Watch Workbooks Overview Video
Watch Workbooks for Sales Teams
Workbooks Integrations
- Mailchimp
- HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Box
- Basecamp
- Constant Contact
- Eventbrite
- EventHQ
- GoTo Meeting
- Dropbox Sign
- Lead Forensics
- Microsoft Azure
- Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft SQL Server
- MPZMail
- MySQL
- QuickBooks Online
- Xero
- Zendesk Suite
- Adobe Acrobat Sign
- GoCardless
- PieSync
- from HubSpot
- CCH
- dotdigital
- MS Outlook
- Google Docs
- SharePoint
- Sage
- Postcode Anywhere
- 750+ Zapier Apps
- Adobe Sign (formerly EchoSign)
- Barbour ABI
- Campaign Master
- Creditsafe
- Import/Export
- Logate
- MagneticOne Mobile
- Mondago
Workbooks Competitors
- NetSuite ERP
- HubSpot Marketing Hub
- Sugar Sell (SugarCRM)
- Salesforce
- Microsoft Dynamics
Workbooks Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android |
Supported Languages | English, American English, French, German, Spanish |
Workbooks Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(30)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Workbooks is used by a wide range of departments, including finance, commercial, fundraising, membership, communications, marketing, HR, ICT, policy, and research. It helps manage daily workflow processes and interactions with third parties. The software serves as a primary sales tool for pipeline and sales management, tracking renewals and providing an overview of services and channel partner support.
Users have praised Workbooks for its simplicity and affordability for small businesses without compromising functionality. It is most effective when used across the entire organization, enabling a complete picture of interactions with prospects or clients and resulting in improved efficiency and customer service. Workbooks also allows for the full management of customers, enhanced efficiency and productivity, and the ability to customize CRM solutions for companies integrating cloud-based software.
Dashboard: Users have found the dashboard of the service to be highly valuable, with multiple reviewers highlighting its effectiveness. It provides a centralized location for important information and allows easy access to pertinent data for sales calls.
Reporting and Dashboards: The in-depth reporting and dashboards offered by the service were praised by users. Several reviewers mentioned that these features help them stay on top of their business, from following up on sales leads to monitoring their pipeline.
Automation: Many users have appreciated the automation capabilities of the service. They have found it time-saving and efficient to create automated follow-ups and reminders based on updating fields or other criteria.
Unintuitive Report Building: Many users have expressed frustration with the unintuitive and confusing process of building reports in Workbooks. They find it difficult to navigate and understand, leading to inefficiency in creating the desired reports.
Difficulties with Managing Access Rights: Several users have mentioned that managing individual access rights in Workbooks can be quite challenging. This complexity makes it harder for them to assign appropriate permissions and ensure data security within their organizations.
Occasional Slowness and Downtime: Some users have reported occasional slowness while using the software, which negatively impacts their productivity. Although rare, there are instances when they experience downtime, causing interruptions and delays in their work processes.
According to user reviews, there are three common recommendations for Workbooks. Firstly, users suggest mapping out and re-doing existing processes when implementing Workbooks to ensure a smooth transition and maximize benefits. Secondly, it is recommended to set up Workbooks properly to avoid future problems. Lastly, users recommend connecting with Oliphant for excellent support during implementation and usage. These recommendations highlight the importance of careful planning, thorough setup, and utilizing available support resources for a successful experience with Workbooks.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-18 of 18)User of workbooks for four years
- Order tracking
- APIs for invoicing scripts
- User management
- Can sometimes be slow
- Sometimes the amount of customisation available leads to it being very difficult to change things you created a few months/years ago
- The mobile offering is poor
Workbooks - Excellent CRM software
- Great flexibility. The system is very flexible and you are able to setup reports and manage screens in the way you wish, adding custom fields and hiding any information deemed not important enough. user access levels can be used lock down various parts of the system
- Great support team and very helpful when doing our own custom integrations
- Excellent for lead management and reporting on opportunities that we can then pass onto the sales team
- Easy to use, the interface looks clean and modern and its simple to find your way around
- We use it for support but find it difficult to easily link support emails that arrive to organisations, it requires a lot of manual input to open/close a case
- The flexibility can be a hindrance as it can be difficult to work out exactly what you wish to see, especially in reports. Sometimes a simple report is all thats required but it provides a lot of information
- Can sometimes be a little slow and goes down from time to time but this is fairly rare
Workbooks is the engine that drives our business
We're also managing all of our marketing activities through Workbooks using Campaigns so we know every communication we've sent out to both prospects and customer and who has received our emails. We're also able to manage our trade show expenditure using Workbooks so we know where best to spend our money.
- The Workbooks automated reporting works particularly well for us. We can send a weekly email to the sales team so they know exactly where they are against target.
- The Dashboard feature is particularly good in Workbooks, it means that we can see, at a glance, the status of our sales pipeline and who is performing, who is not and what business we are likely to close for the upcoming months and quarters.
- Being able to see key reports on login is also a really nice feature, it means that crucial information that can determine business decisions is displayed as soon as Workbooks is launched and we're forewarned at the start of the business day.
- I'd like to see the multi currency handled better. If I want to see a view that contains customer finance data from multiple regions, I can't see a total in GBP unless I create a report.
- We found it difficult to manage support cases in Workbooks and the support team has had to move to another platform. Maybe looking at what ZenDesk is doing would be a good next step here.
- I'd like to see a way of adding multiple contacts to a lead record. At the moment, every person has to have their own record as there's only space for one person and that means multiple records for one company.
Workbooks - bring the whole team together with clarity; consistency; and transparency
- Transparency regarding the stage that each of our projects are at.
- Excellent way of ensuring that each project has a current task against it, ensuring that someone within the team has control of the project.
- Great data accessibility as many of the team work in the field or from home.
- Excellent management reporting.
- Uploading images (that we insert into our quotes or risk assessments/method statements) could be better.
- Some kind of time sheet function would be great.
- More data space per user and a better indexing of the upload library.
Sales, Marketing and Finance!
- The opportunities database for sales staff, very detailed but still available at a glance.
- Functionality with GatorMail, being able to receive data from email shots.
- Reports are a great way to pull together different records within Workbooks, and being able to send these as automated emails helps with sales cycles.
- Search functionality isn't great, could be more advanced.
- Reports are hard to create if not familiar with the process.
Workbooks is a solid CRM!
- I can create views, which allow me to quickly access opportunities which require my attention.
- I can check the history of an account, including emails, support tickets and transactions.
- I can reassign leads and opportunities to other members.
- I can log in from any device.
- Searching for names can be slow.
- Workbooks is a complex system and can take a little while to master.
- Managing multiple user types can be tricky to get the right security access.
- Contact management
- Contact tracking
- Campaign tracking
- Lead tracking
- Lead management
- Invoicing
- Statements
- Customer service
- Contact management - by this I mean core CRM functionality. Workbooks does it as well as any other software we tested.
- Pipeline management and reporting - again, Workbooks does this as well as any other software we tested.
- Client management - From a holistic client management perspective, from contact management to sales tracking, invoicing, and service, Workbooks does it all.
- Workbooks is not easy or as intuitive to learn as some CRMs and that is the primary reason I don't rank it as a 10.
- Workbooks has quite a few built in reports and dashboards but to do more advanced reports and dashboards you need to utilize the services of a consultant.
- Workbooks integrates with a few other software packages such as MailChimp but it is not an intuitive process to integrate.
Versatile, Effective and Efficient
- Workbooks is intuitive, and provides the right type of functionality that fit SMB type organisations in handling their sales and business development processes. Workbooks provides the capability to deal with End-to-End processes, from Lead to Order to Cash. So including sending out invoices. Also allows to integrate with accounting packages, either through existing integrations or through available API.
- Workbooks is easy to use and configure and yet powerful and flexible. Most functionality is available 'out of the box' and more is available through configuring the system yourselves or by being supported by Workbooks, who are very knowledgable and provide friendly and high quality support in delivering to your requirement.
- Workbooks is priced right and cost effective. Allows to mix-and-match users with different requirements and corresponding licenses. Thus stays fit for purpose to the various types of users in your organisation, ensuring you are not overcharged.
- Really like the scheduled reporting, so we can have automated reports in email telling us new leads in today not followed up yet when on the move. Also useful for weekly management summaries automatically prompting you to review exceptions.
- The flexibility and wealth of functions does require good thinking and preparation before implementing Workbooks. At times it is rather complex to choose the right approach to the type of functionality to implement, as a multitude of options is available and could end up not choosing the right setup. This could cause some iterations in getting it right. Advanced insights may redirect your approach, but then the service is very flexible to modify to your need. Still it's easy to start off quickly and learn by doing.
- Importing functionality is somewhat limited in feedback of where the import goes wrong. While the function works great when you have it right, and this protects from loading in wrong data, you are not getting much feedback where you go wrong in trying to import legacy data.
- Limited planning and Calendar function, and limited synchronisation / integration with e.g. google calendar.
- Need for language packs. Whilst Google Chrome provides an automated translate function when using Workbooks, and the ability to change the names of (almost) all your fields, as well as handle the data in Workbooks in your own language, it would be great to be able to have language packages in working with Workbooks fully in your native language.
If you are very heavy on project management then Workbooks is somewhat limited, but then again its a CRM and not a project planning tool.
There is no limit to scale, although Workbooks aims and is most geared towards SMB.
Lots of functionality is available and can be added upon or modified using scripts and integrations.
It is recommended to do a good requirements gathering and use a phased implementation approach such that you stay on track. The Workbooks team is very happy to support with this.
Workbooks in the Charitable sector
- Flexibility
- Ease of configuration to suit specific requirements
- Inter-connectivity with other applications
- Friendly user interface
- Extent of capability to support multifaceted businesses
- Integration with Outlook from cloud based business systems
- Ease of dashboard creation
A look at Workbooks by iPS - the sales enablement professionals!ls
- Schedule activity
- Add records
- Sync with Outlook
- Happy with all features
Workbooks runs the entire business
We are 3 years in and are very happy with the product.
- Report writing and automation to send reports
- Data visibility
- Sales Management
- Integration to outlook.com
- Mobile app
Workbooks has done what we were looking for.
- Scalability of the service
- Integration with Mailchimp and other solutions such as Google Agenda etc
- The fact that it has a great dashboard was a big help to our sales team, as well as the ease with which reports can be produced on the fly as well as exporting reset data
- Actually keeping tabs on the sales process per user is a great help for me to set targets or adjust course if needed
- The simplicity and easewith which we can export PDF templates for offers, confirmation orders and invoices.
- There really isn't all that much, what I would like to see is an app to use on iDevices. Our sales team all have iPads for presentations etc.
- While Workbooks works rather well with HTML 5, I would still like to see an app. I know it's in the making, but haven't seen anything of this as of yet.
- I am sure that would increase productivity even further (if it's of the same standard as the main environment).
#Workbooks for Customer Relationship Management!
- Its very user friendly and has an interface that's easy to understand and use.
- Its easy to customize layouts views etc.
- The quality of service delivered to customers has improved.
- Overall it has helped the company to grow and continue to do so.
- No Complaints
Workbooks is the Workflow Workhorse!
- Automation - It allows you to create automated follow ups and reminders based on updating fields or other criteria
- Reporting - In depth reporting and dashboards allow you to keep track of your business from following up on sales leads to what is in your pipeline. You can even automate reports so that they are created and sent in real time so you don't even have to be in the system to get your reports if you so choose.
- Integrating with other platforms. We have integrated Workbooks with things like Quickbooks, MailChimp, HelloSign and others to make our processes more automated and streamlined.
- High amount of Customization - No limitations on custom fields that can be created, multiple form layouts per record type, create your own relationships between people and/or organizations.
- It would be nice to have the google calendar integration now, but it's coming in Q1 of 2015 so we're happy to have that feature.
A great CRM system, easy to tailor... and very good support
- Relatively simple to customise the layout of the various screens
- Support is very good
- Opportunity management, tracking and reporting
- Reporting, with a little help, is good. Particularly the scheduled emails, so no missed deadlines!.
- Dashboards are a good idea, but take quite a bit of work to get right
- Customising screens is not as straight forward as it can be, but after a time you get used to it.
- If you already have a database uploaded to Workbooks, some of the integrations and APIs don't function in a way we would like. If a record is new to your database, then there are no issues.
If we were going through the process again, I would focus more around how data is managed, and how we as Connection2 would like to work. The platform is good, but we are using it slightly differently to how it was designed.
Worksbooks - great investment
- Simple to use and bring new users on to
- Lower cost of ownership with no upgrades or patching to "have to do"
- When you need support its there
- We needed a specific function and were told that it would be available in a future release. We changed a process in the business and then the feature came out sooner.
How many application are you replacing near term or in the future, think about the costs of doing so even though the services work is a reasonable day rate.
This is a subscription cost so make sure you company benefits from the opex budget versus the capex costs usually associated with software and supporting hardware.
Workbooks makes the books work
The area we wanted to improve was cross utilisation of a single database for sales, marketing and business development, hand-over from one exec to another, back up and support in the office for sales people on the road. This has allowed us to report upon the progress of sales and revenue vs targets and forecasts.
- Sales process management from enquiry to delivery of product
- This was previously on as many as 4 systems using excel and legacy applications such as the written word in log books
- Automatic reporting for financial compliance: once built, the reporting process reduced the workload on a monthly basis from 2 days to 20 minutes
- The FD loved it
- The overall capability of the package enabled the sales force to rapidly pull our pertinent data for a sales call, plus managing time and resources better for increased efficiency
- Business development and focussed marketing became so much easier, we noted that the process paid for itself many times over
- I would like the report building to be more intuitive, but the support systems in place are a great help
- Building dashboards with built-in reports is sometimes a bit top heavy
- Managing individual access rights is sometimes a bit of a bear trap
Simple but effective
- Connectivity to Outlook
- Campaigns
- Opportunity tracking
- Enhanced outlook contact synchronisation - which is under way