Cin7 Core reviews

We've been using the DEAR system for quite a while now and I must say I couldn't be any happier. It was a seamless transition from our old system, and I especially appreciate how well DEAR integrates with our accounting software. This makes everyone's work a whole lot easier. I have contacted support on several occasions with questions that I had, and I always received a quick, thorough, and very helpful response. We manufacture our products as well wholesale and retail them with an online store, and everything works so well together with DEAR that it really helps us focus on building our business rather than focusing our attention on trying to keep up with inventory and ordering. I would highly recommend DEAR systems to anyone looking for a new inventory management system.

-Bob Weiss

One thing that would be useful would be to be able to call for customer service. We have used customer service email on several occasions, and have always had a pretty quick response, however, if we have a pressing issue, it would be nice to have a number to call and someone to talk with.

- Lot of features, options, various settings... all together bring opportunity to reflect almost any process you may think of. But if your vision turns to be different from one of system designers, then workarounds are demanded in many cases that seemed to be "common" and you expected them to work "out-of-box". You really need good understanding of the way system works and it is point where good onboarding consulter may help.- Responsive and quick interface (though quick reporting tools and documents lists could be more convenient).- Lot of detailed reports with settings that almost no other ERP can suggest. Cool tool for advanced users familiar with pivot tables.- Responsive and attentive support resolves most of problems

- Strange limitations in accounting settings and flow (especially when you use QBO and want to use both Dear's and QBO's analytics capabilities at the same time)- Integrations with Amazon and Shopify are cool for capturing "orders" when you are not using automated 3PLs flow. But integrations are not good for capturing invoices and shipments when you are using 3PLs like FBA. Accounting processes for e-commerce are designed in quite a specific way and you really need to understand how it works to get reliable accounting data. Thought this is wide spread problem in world of ERP systems for small businesses.

We have used a lot of ordering / inventory systems over the years and this is our forever change (we hope!). I really appreciate the complex level of adjustments that can be made (eg: invoice customisation, staff permissions, custom fields) as well as the robust accounting integration. Once you use it a few times, the interface is fairly straightforward. Even my less tech savvy staff have commented they find the flow of DEAR easier to use, despite the added complexity of features.

The WooCommerce integration has been a bit temperamental to set-up to manage stock correctly and we wish it would pull orders more frequency.

Comprehensive ERP features that are built with the workflow and accounting in mind. Excellent interface with Xero. Very customizable, but in an easy to understand fashion.

For those switching from other platforms, it could use better historical data import functionality. In particular outstanding orders. We had about 200 open orders when we made the switch, and had to enter them manually as Dear's import features could not handle our workflow.

"Moved over from sage around 12 months ago to Xero and added Dear which answered the major issues I was having with Sage in that the inventory element (sure, that's not what is was designed for) was woefully inadequate for our business.

I have to report that 12 months in that Dear has met and exceeded expectations and added real value to my inventory management and customer order processing. With the recent addition of the B2B portal, and what my customers will be able to do once is it fully operational will really revolutionalise some of the challenges we faced in, for example, letting customers know what is available from stock etc.

Overall, we made the right move and I haven't seen a better combination of integrated applications than Dear and Xero!
Well done and thanks to both!"

Dear is a brilliant and responsive company, although my only gripe, is that there are few updates or communique's relating to bug fixes or developments of the application. Example is the B2B portal, there are many comments about what features are needed and bug fixes, but as yet no commentary from Dear as to which will or won't be incorporated. Like me, many will become less likely to comment f it is not apparent that they are being acknowledged. Come on Dear, at least add a comment!!

Contains the vast majority of required features to operate a successful e-commerce store. Nice layout, not too bulky, and sticks to what its good at. API is well written which allows you to expand usability with third party apps.

Performance! Over the past 6 months this has gone from bad to worse. The odd hang, became frequent hangs, then time outs on the server. The latest sizeable price increase to allow them to fix this was unwelcome as I already pay for a package that is supposed to perform as promised. This left a little bit of a sour taste. Now though, once again, their system is down, completely!
My team cannot access anything, at all. If a call or email comes through, we cannot see stock, prices, lead times, not even the customer records.
Support say they are working on it, the ETA? Don't know. Great.
I say avoid until they sort out their issues with performance. I will be looking for alternatives as I cannot afford this kind of issue, and paying more for the service they are already supposed to be offering is bad form in my opinion.

The software is made for small businesses interested in keeping track of basic inventory, basic purchasing, and basic invoicing.
- Perfect for 1-5 employees, this is the base number of users and gives the most bang for your buck.
- Perfect for no more than 50 SKUs

- Serial Numbers are NOT UNIQUE, duplicates can be entered easily with no warning
- Navigating a Bill of Materials for more than 1 level is impossibly complicated and needs a separate spreadsheet or software to track
- Transactions randomly duplicate without warning. Several times we have had stock transfers or purchases receive twice, creating inventory discrepancies and overall chaos in the warehouse.
- This random duplication allows inventory to be a negative number. Example: A serial numbered part was pulled twice by the system instead of removing it from inventory, it created a negative line item and showed the serial numbered part as -1 instead of 0. This in turn affected the overall inventory for that SKU.
- It is impossible to find a specific inventory level on a given day, this feature simply does not exist.
- Stocktakes cannot be backdated so if a count is taken on day 1 and entered in day 2 if any assemblies took place they will screw up counts.
- Sync between Xero accounting is a multi-step process. Invoices and payments do not sync back and forth on a consistent basis. Sometimes a voided invoice in Dear or in Xero will not transfer over and the entire Sale or Purchase needs to be voided and redone for the voided payment to sync OR alternatively you can enter the information manually which defeats the point of the sync.
- Customer service is atrocious except for the basic help which is already covered in depth by videos or other consultants.

Being able to integrate with a number of eCommerce platforms is huge. Support usually replies fast (especially for simpler questions and help). Also the way in which we're able to manage thousands of products over multiple locations is fantastic. Some aspects of DEAR are very intuitive and easy to use. It allows one portal for looking at sales, product orders, inventory storage and movements, basic product history. The reports on the dashboard help us see inventory and financials at a glance. They've also recently expanded, allowing more than 20,000 SKUs at a time in the system!

Because DEAR is used by so many and works with so many different platforms, integration between it and other platforms (we use Shopify) are not always seamless. A feature that works great with one may make another way more difficult to use. On that note, customizing your DEAR account to make it exactly what you need is rather difficult. We often have to find workarounds to ongoing problems that may seem basic to many. And while customer support is friendly and often fast to respond, it's very easy for misunderstandings to occur. As well, new feature requests often don't get acknowledged if they don't fit into DEAR's current plans.

One thing that would be great could be a separation for those who need DEAR just to locate products, vs those who actually need to access all of the parts of DEAR that can change products, sales, locations... We've had a number of mix-ups where inexperienced people made changes that couldn't be undone due to the nature of the software.

The software logic is well thought out and relates to real life usage scenarios in our case. The organisation of the operations in the system are easy to understand and access. Support of the software has been fantastic so far, starting from deployment and thereafter. Whatever we needed, response has been near instant and competent.

The software is browser based and at times it can feel a little slow. Page load speed must be improved as it can be a little frustrating when you need to conduct many transactions in the day. The navigation could also be improved to reduce a few clicks to get to things easier and faster. For example, it is not possible to see next or previous document (SO, INV, PO). You need to come out to the main list and click into the document you want. Simple 'Previous', 'Next' navigation can be added within the document page, which will be very helpful when for example reviewing a number of Sales Orders or Invoices and need to move quickly between the documents. Mobile apps are limited and not particularly practical. Would be great if they could roll out a serious modern iPad app, which can be useful for sales/cs when out in the field to access product and inventory info, pricing, customer profile etc. and able to create a draft quotation on the fly.

Well thought out sales workflow. Really flexible and powerful in ways others weren't to enter sales orders. Takes a little getting used to, but there is a lot in there. Love the ability to price tier for B2B sales. Integrates really well with Shopify and eBay. Need to check out the B2B portal that is available, but haven't gotten to that part yet.
Even though the support is all email based, we have been delighted with the speed of response and solutions to any issues we've had. I'd say on average the response time to new tickets has been in the 5-15 minute range with maybe one that reached 45 minutes. Often I'd wait longer on hold with a tech line with other companies than it takes to get a response from DEAR support email.
Great integration with our accounting.
Easy to implement API for extending the functionality of DEAR.

There are a few things that still need improvement we've run into.
Credit Notes/Memos are terribly hard to figure out and make work correctly if you wish to give the customer a credit to use at a future date not tied to a transaction in DEAR.
DEAR does tiered pricing for sales, but there is no way to have volume purchasing discount tiers beyond manually changing every time a PO is created.
If a small change has to take place during fulfillment DEAR requires you to revert the order back to the very beginning of the workflow process and complete every stage again. Rather than just let you go back one step.
The fulfillment QC process could be strengthened a lot. It's basically based on trust with no verification. Right now it assumes all counts/data entry keyed in are 100% accurate. I'd like to see some kind of barcode based QC verification.

The main reason we picked this application is for the "Production" part of it. It allows us to setup BOMs as a template, but then adjust them on the fly during the production.

The second reason to love this application is for the APIs. It allowed us to add our "unique" processes (the way we handle commissions) and create non-standard reports.

Xero is one half of our corporate brain (the money side), while DEAR is other half (the counts side).

Additionally, we just integrated our Shopify website with DEAR and we are planning to use their B2B functionality in 2018.

Finally, they react to their clients. I have made requests for features that were handled.

They could add "Current available" as a pop up when in the Purchases section. This would allow better decision making rather than having a second window open. Very very minor. Other than that, having an API really helps.

It manages my inventory and order and is cloud based.

When Dear is upgrading its system, customers can find the software extremely slow or not working at all. This can go for weeks at a time causing massive frustration for my staff around the country as well as disruption to my business.
The lack of communication and support from DEAR mean you feel little loyalty to the product.