If your decision hasn't been made, let me say: DON'T DO IT! I made a serious mistake when I bought UDA. While they have a beautiful user interface, there are some serious flaws under the hood. Some are major things, and some are very minor annoyances that will drive you nuts. "You mean, I can't do THAT with UDA, but I can do it with any other basic software out there?" was a common comment running through my head.
Some examples.
1. Their spell checker creates a squiggly line to tell you that you have a misspelled word, but, doens't allow you to correct it.
2. The spell checker lets you add custom words to a dictionary, but, it can only use one dictionary at a time to check spelling. So the default dictionary gets used, and your custom words still show up as being spelled wrong!
3. You can't select-copy addresses, in order to paste them somewhere else.
4. Using duplexing on my printer doesn't work right. It works for every other software I own, but not in UDA.
5. There is a bug in the WIP date range that doesn't pull accurate data.
6. "Options" in the estimate show only cost, not margin. So if you show your customer that report, you are revealing cost info, not selling price!!
7. You can't import a PDF into bid notes, even though the premise of UDA is to try to make it a single repository for all your information.
8. You can't use the arrow key to browse photos in UDA. You need to close, and click into the next one. No inuitive functionality.
9. The estimating module separates material and labor, in ways that create a very confusing Scope of Work. You need to select the labor item from your database, then separately select the material from your database. You end up with two line items in your Scope of WOrk for the same thing. Instead of writing, "Supply and Install a new window" you have "Supply a new window" and then "Install a new window." It's hard for my estimator, and confusing for my client.
10. UDA will WREAK HAVOC on your contacts in Outlook.
11. It does a terrible job of managing husband/wife or partner/partner situations. You can't mail merge them properly, or, you get forced into combining their contact into into a single contact-- and then how do you know whether the cell phone is his or hers???
12. There is no good way to credit design fees against the construction contract, if you happen to use that paradigm for your contracts.
13. There is no way to filter contracts by their date created. So, how do you find your newest contacts for entering them into something such as Constant Contact?
14. If you try to use integration of Quickbooks and UDA, your ITEMS list in QB will either get expanded to hundreds or even THOUSANDS of items... or, your PO's in QB will get created in a summary form such that they are virtually meaningless.
15. The "lead funnel" graphic may look cool, but there is not a good way to actually report on the lead status, track the activities and calls that you make, note significant emails that you write, or keep track of when you send out thank-you cards or spiffs/gifts!
16. They might tell you that these things work, but, after spending MONTHS with UDA, I found out that these problems are deal breakers.
17. within their customer service department, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. They do not use a structure such as Zendesk that so many other great companies use. Even though I was paying for priority support, there were often days going by where I could not get a call or email back to assist me with a support request or provide a tutorial on how to do something. Had I not paid extra for support, this would be acceptable. But when paying for "TotalCare" priority support, there are times when the software had me stuck, and I was stuck for a day at a time waiting for an answer. Sometimes no answer ever arrived.
I hope this helps someone avoid the pain I went through!
We purchased this software for our business about 10 months ago. We purchased "The Catalyst" version at about $1900+ a few months later we bought a second license for $800-900 Dollars and the total care for $129 per month. After about 6 months we dropped total care.
Then an issue happened that stopped the program from opening. Call in to UDA and the will not support older versions and We were told that we would need to upgrade all the old versions and then to buy Total Care service agreement for 1 year at $129 per month or $1500+ or we could by new licenses of the newly upgraded software we just purchased.
I know this sounds insane but this is what I was offered by UDA. To get the software we purchased less than a year ago for over 3000K to work we were told we would need to spend an addtional 2000K-5000K more on an upgrade and support?
The company will not help without first buying the updated version and paying additionally monthly fee of 129 for the total care lockin for 12 months. I can't even pay to have you answer my questions without upgrading all systems 3K plus expense...
UDA Technologies, Inc. Reviews
If your decision hasn't been made, let me say: DON'T DO IT! I made a serious mistake when I bought UDA. While they have a beautiful user interface, there are some serious flaws under the hood. Some are major things, and some are very minor annoyances that will drive you nuts. "You mean, I can't do THAT with UDA, but I can do it with any other basic software out there?" was a common comment running through my head.
Some examples.
1. Their spell checker creates a squiggly line to tell you that you have a misspelled word, but, doens't allow you to correct it.
2. The spell checker lets you add custom words to a dictionary, but, it can only use one dictionary at a time to check spelling. So the default dictionary gets used, and your custom words still show up as being spelled wrong!
3. You can't select-copy addresses, in order to paste them somewhere else.
4. Using duplexing on my printer doesn't work right. It works for every other software I own, but not in UDA.
5. There is a bug in the WIP date range that doesn't pull accurate data.
6. "Options" in the estimate show only cost, not margin. So if you show your customer that report, you are revealing cost info, not selling price!!
7. You can't import a PDF into bid notes, even though the premise of UDA is to try to make it a single repository for all your information.
8. You can't use the arrow key to browse photos in UDA. You need to close, and click into the next one. No inuitive functionality.
9. The estimating module separates material and labor, in ways that create a very confusing Scope of Work. You need to select the labor item from your database, then separately select the material from your database. You end up with two line items in your Scope of WOrk for the same thing. Instead of writing, "Supply and Install a new window" you have "Supply a new window" and then "Install a new window." It's hard for my estimator, and confusing for my client.
10. UDA will WREAK HAVOC on your contacts in Outlook.
11. It does a terrible job of managing husband/wife or partner/partner situations. You can't mail merge them properly, or, you get forced into combining their contact into into a single contact-- and then how do you know whether the cell phone is his or hers???
12. There is no good way to credit design fees against the construction contract, if you happen to use that paradigm for your contracts.
13. There is no way to filter contracts by their date created. So, how do you find your newest contacts for entering them into something such as Constant Contact?
14. If you try to use integration of Quickbooks and UDA, your ITEMS list in QB will either get expanded to hundreds or even THOUSANDS of items... or, your PO's in QB will get created in a summary form such that they are virtually meaningless.
15. The "lead funnel" graphic may look cool, but there is not a good way to actually report on the lead status, track the activities and calls that you make, note significant emails that you write, or keep track of when you send out thank-you cards or spiffs/gifts!
16. They might tell you that these things work, but, after spending MONTHS with UDA, I found out that these problems are deal breakers.
17. within their customer service department, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. They do not use a structure such as Zendesk that so many other great companies use. Even though I was paying for priority support, there were often days going by where I could not get a call or email back to assist me with a support request or provide a tutorial on how to do something. Had I not paid extra for support, this would be acceptable. But when paying for "TotalCare" priority support, there are times when the software had me stuck, and I was stuck for a day at a time waiting for an answer. Sometimes no answer ever arrived.
I hope this helps someone avoid the pain I went through!
We purchased this software for our business about 10 months ago. We purchased "The Catalyst" version at about $1900+ a few months later we bought a second license for $800-900 Dollars and the total care for $129 per month. After about 6 months we dropped total care.
Then an issue happened that stopped the program from opening. Call in to UDA and the will not support older versions and We were told that we would need to upgrade all the old versions and then to buy Total Care service agreement for 1 year at $129 per month or $1500+ or we could by new licenses of the newly upgraded software we just purchased.
I know this sounds insane but this is what I was offered by UDA. To get the software we purchased less than a year ago for over 3000K to work we were told we would need to spend an addtional 2000K-5000K more on an upgrade and support?
The company will not help without first buying the updated version and paying additionally monthly fee of 129 for the total care lockin for 12 months. I can't even pay to have you answer my questions without upgrading all systems 3K plus expense...
We can't aford UDA!!! You are warned!