Mamut Accounting software - My experience

[dingbat]

A quick review on Mamut Accounting software if anyone is looking to buy it. There are not that many reviews from UK users and the few I read here weren't exactly praising it.

Things didn't start so well for me having used Quickbooks previously, which I thought was very easy to use. But having persevered and with the help of Mamut support I've now got on top of it. Once you get used to it, it really is simple to navigate around and very, very comprehensive and customisable.

The major problem with the software are the user manuals which read like they've been translated badly from Norwegian. They need to provide a quick user guide which gets you straight in with simple tasks. Mamut provided me with some video tutorials and that got me off the ground. Any queries you can ask Mamut support by phone or via the software itself which is a nice feature.

I still can't get my head round how accountants see credits as debits and vice versa if you just use the journal entry, but hey, I just accept it.

 

[Williams lester]

Could you tell us why you chose Mamut over any other accounts package? There are so many on the market these days, so it would be interesting to see what features this had that prompted you to sign up!

 

[dingbat]

Could you tell us why you chose Mamut over any other accounts package? There are so many on the market these days, so it would be interesting to see what features this had that prompted you to sign up!

I initially moved to the Microsoft Accounting software because I wanted better control of customer contacts and seamless interaction with other Microsoft softwares. As you probably know Microsoft stopped their accounting side of things and Mamut took over. This was offered and I thought it ticked the boxes having read their bumpf.

 

[stevegriff]

We started using the E5 product for a year and had numerous issues with it. We had to switch to quickbooks in the end as we found the accounting side very time consuming and problematic. Having switched to quickbooks and our accounting went from 8 hours a week to 3 hours. Also we could get a book-keeper to do it. I think mamut is a very poor product if you have a lot of data entry to do. It also requires quite a long learning curve and being subscription based is very expensive in the long term, although you'll probably ditch it anyway as there's better software out there for less.

 

[Lee@B4B]

Over the last 6 months Business for Beacon have provided support and training for the Mamut application we deployed. We have found there service extremely professional and their knowledge of the product is absolute. Each and every question we posed was answered in detail. Beacon very quickly understood our business and the adaptation of the application to meet our needs.

The training and system advice they provided enabled a smooth deployment and we feel that they are more of a partner rather than a supplier.

I would be more than happy to liaise with any parties interested in dealing with Beacon.

Kerry Lowe

Castillo Ceramics TA Hyde Park Tiles

 

[honestbusiness]

We were duped into buying Mamut E5 as it was recommend by Microsoft as a replacement for MS Accounting (Microsoft's rob dogs decided suddenly not to support Accounting in the UK even though we'd just brought their software.)
Anyway, we found Mamut complicated, cumbersome, slow, flaky and more trouble than it was worth. So much so that it was never used (money down the drain, but lesson learned).

To top it off they are now trying to charge £600 pounds for next year, can you believe the gall, and say we have to pay it 'cus we didn't give them a 3 month cancellation notice for the coming year!

Apparently, they keep this in the small print to rob small start-up businesses. In my personal opinion, they are not to be trusted, as for the marketing hype and supposed independent reviews/awards, they are to be treated as just what they are, self praise.

I would strongly advise to steer well clear of these snake oil salesmen and their partners in deceit.

 

[Tom McClelland]

Don't hold back HB! Tell us what you think.

 

[elaine@cheapaccounting]

Why do one post wonders come on here, dig up old threads and have a go!

Surely he / she would be better off spending time replacing their software if not happy with it.

 

[honestbusiness]

Why do people post on forums single sentence trite responses not taking the effort to construct an argument or be polite in disagreement?

I have replaced my accounting software, now for the 3rd time in as many years.

As I have just been presented with the invoice this morning from Mamut, it is neither 'old' nor 'dug up' and reflects Mamuts current attitude to its existing customers.

If by 'having a go’, you mean 'attempting to counteract Mamuts false advertising and hype', then I'm guilty as charged.

Moreover, if you want to know why I have posted on this thread, I operate my business with the utmost integrity and honesty; I expect others, especially my suppliers, to do the same. (You would appear to disagree with this viewpoint, which is something I would not advise you advertise on business forums given the humbleness of your award wining signature.)

You do not know me. Criticising people you presume to be of a certain ‘type’ of on public forums is cowardly and just not nice. It says a great deal more about you than me.

Nice photo by the way, you really should find a shorter photographer though.

 

[Davek0974]

I got stung by mamut recently, I was using their starter product for macs, they did not buy the license for the product when they bought the company off of MYOB, and I was off ered the chance of a very expensive upgrade or lose my data as it needed verifying over the 'net regularly and they were stopping this process!

I found a better package from a more understanding supplier and rebuilt my trading data, I don't like being blackmailed for my own data and would never use an online or cloud solution for anything important because of this.

 

[beacon4business]

We as Mamut authorised Partners and (Mamut Partner of the Year 2010)
Have a multitude of clients or case studies who will happily testify to how easy they have found Mamut to use and get started with.

Even so I also know of clients who have found it that little more difficult and have had to be careful with the cost.

This is going to be the case with any business management system or ERP / CRM system

Some will love some will like some will not so much.

If anyone has any questions regarding Mamut I am happy to answer them if they want to speak to a client I can set that up to.

 

[Davek0974]

All they had to do to pacify me was to carry on authorising my purchase or unlock the product so it would run for ever but without updates or support, neither of these options would have cost them a penny.

Instead they said no and i was forced to go elsewhere. Mamut were not very talkative on the phone regarding this matter and i was left in the mess feeling like it was MY fault, Mamut have a lot to learn.

Never again.

 

[CDX50]

Right, my problems with Mamut software:

It has many glitches in use. Just select, copy and paste is strange. It will make tab spaces by itself. It will fail to show data you've just entered even though it is there. Sometimes you've got to click buttons on it twice for them to work.

If I make a mistake in my accounts I've got to enter a reverse entry instead of being able to delete it like I could in Quickbooks. It's MY software, it's not something being provided to me by HMRC. I'm paying a licence every year for this, why can't I change it? When you stick in reverse entries it just clutters everything and makes it hard to work through data when there is an issue. Okay, they may think staff may be able to alter it. Well, create a supervisor password for that.

I tried to import numerous contacts from excel spreadsheets. I followed mamut's advice to the letter yet I got an error everytime. I've given up now.

My VAT reports are constantly incorrect because Mamut fails to allocate the correct VAT report codes to certain transactions and even when I manually change them they are not reflected. Waiting on Mamut's response to this.

Manut are quick to try and sell you courses on learning Mamut. I've paid for the software, why should I have to pay to learn how to use it? I don't want to train as an accountant. I already employ one. Mamut's manuals are a waste of space and so is their online/offline help. Place in a search category and tons of links will come up or none. You won't get a relevant link back.

Mamut cannot import Paypal data. It's taking me ages having to input every sales entry.

When trying to open Mamut 50% of the time it will claim it can't find the database. I have to reboot to be able to open it.

I have 2 years worth of data invested in Mamut now so I don't even feel I can go back to Quickbooks or any other accounts software. It is all very depressing.

 

[stevegriff]

We experienced all these kind of issues with mamut, the vat was the most
serious. Mamut support couldnt even see there was a problem.
We had to re-do all our accounts on quickbooks. It was then that we realised it saved 50% of our book-keeping time by using quickbooks even though you have to re-enter transactions so we stopped using mamut for accounting shortly after paying our annual fee.
If you using mamut and your not happy cut your losses and move on sooner rather than later you will be even more unhappy next year.
You see the only person saying mamut is good is the consultant selling it,
i'm sure our experience of positive would have been different if we had a consultant set it up however a consultant cant get around the inherent
flaws and is going to charge you thousands. I supply hundreds of retail shops in the uk and talk to many other wholesalers and generally they have a poor experience with erp / epos style systems. Many go down dead ends and end up with systems that never work before they finally find something that suit them.

 

[KERRYLOWE]

Wow I am amazed that there are so many negative comments regarding Mamut. I have worked in the Tile Industry for over 12 Years and unfortunately the company I worked for went in to Administration, I decided along with my brother to buy one of the shops!! As I had always worked with top end software solutions I knew from the outset that it was imperitive to deploy a software system that enabled us to manange the business properly from day one.

We evaluated a number of software options. We have been in the tile business for the last 12 years and have been heavily involved in the selection and deployment of a companywide process ordering and point of sales system. The cost was £100,000. This was for a large distributor in the UK and our budget was obviously somewhat smaller. Our remit was to find a system that offered the functionality, flexibility and usability that we required but at the right price. We looked at a number of systems and Mamut offered the best mix of value for money, support, and functionality.
We believe that we have gained 80% of the functionality of the system I mentioned earlier at a fraction of the cost.
We strive to provide not only great tiles and tile products but we also provide customer advice and guidance. When selecting Mamut's software the advice, help and guidance was excellent. The after sales support was also very, very good. Another reason why the Mamut option in our opinion was the best.
We produce a monthly pack from Mamut for our directors to evaluate. This enables us to focus on products that are not selling, our pricing strategy, product placement in the shop. Interestingly we have reduced the price of one tile range by 5% and the sales have risen 50%. This illustrates by extracting the information from the system it has enabled us to increase our turnover whilst maintaining our margin.

Whilst I had all of the knowledge of the industry and experience in the deployment of companywide software solutions (at a much grander scale), I lacked knowledge in accounts. Within 12 months I now post all payments, process Bank Recs, process the VAT and pull out all of the necessary information from Mamut to provide my accountants with a Quarterly Management accounts pack, all with half a day's training!!!! Our accountants have been out and verified to our system our first years accounts checking everything with a fine tooth comb (believe me I was worried) and they are happy with everything

I can honestly say that I have always found Mamut fantastic and if I have experienced any problems the support I have received has been second to none, they will log on to your stystem so you can see and navigate you around showing you where the problems are and what you need to do to rectify them. This is amazing if you are lacking experience in such areas like accounts as I was.

I would have no problems recommending this system to anyone on functionality and value for money, for me it is by far the best!!!!

Regards
Kerry Lowe - Hyde Park Tiles

 

[KERRYLOWE]

Wow I am amazed that there are so many negative comments regarding Mamut. I have worked in the Tile Industry for over 12 Years and unfortunately the company I worked for went in to Administration, I decided along with my brother to buy one of the shops!! As I had always worked with top end software solutions I knew from the outset that it was imperitive to deploy a software system that enabled us to manange the business properly from day one.

We evaluated a number of software options. We have been in the tile business for the last 12 years and have been heavily involved in the selection and deployment of a companywide process ordering and point of sales system. The cost was £100,000. This was for a large distributor in the UK and our budget was obviously somewhat smaller. Our remit was to find a system that offered the functionality, flexibility and usability that we required but at the right price. We looked at a number of systems and Mamut offered the best mix of value for money, support, and functionality.
We believe that we have gained 80% of the functionality of the system I mentioned earlier at a fraction of the cost.
We strive to provide not only great tiles and tile products but we also provide customer advice and guidance. When selecting Mamut's software the advice, help and guidance was excellent. The after sales support was also very, very good. Another reason why the Mamut option in our opinion was the best.
We produce a monthly pack from Mamut for our directors to evaluate. This enables us to focus on products that are not selling, our pricing strategy, product placement in the shop. Interestingly we have reduced the price of one tile range by 5% and the sales have risen 50%. This illustrates by extracting the information from the system it has enabled us to increase our turnover whilst maintaining our margin.

Whilst I had all of the knowledge of the industry and experience in the deployment of companywide software solutions (at a much grander scale), I lacked knowledge in accounts. Within 12 months I now post all payments, process Bank Recs, process the VAT and pull out all of the necessary information from Mamut to provide my accountants with a Quarterly Management accounts pack, all with half a day's training!!!! Our accountants have been out and verified to our system our first years accounts checking everything with a fine tooth comb (believe me I was worried) and they are happy with everything

I can honestly say that I have always found Mamut fantastic and if I have experienced any problems the support I have received has been second to none, they will log on to your stystem so you can see and navigate you around showing you where the problems are and what you need to do to rectify them. This is amazing if you are lacking experience in such areas like accounts as I was.

I would have no problems recommending this system to anyone on functionality and value for money, for me it is by far the best!!!!

Regards

 

[Davek0974]

No need to shout

Well obviously we can all speak from our own experiences of mamut / myob, my ones were good until they decided to cancel my product and offer no suitable replacement which was very nice of them.

As a result of this and the poor customer service i received i would never recommend them i'm afraid.

 

[KERRYLOWE]

Oh dear, sorry to here that

 

[Matilda72]

I have gone with Tempo Accounting because unlike QuickBooks and most of them on the market, Tempo is not just an online software, it is your personal accountant as well. The service provides specialist help when needed and can be contacted through email or telephone.

You can sign up for a free trial so it is worth checking out.

 

[CDX50]

Kerry, can I ask what version of Mamut Accounting software you are using?

 

[KERRYLOWE]

Hi

I am on version 14.1.8541, Mamut Enterprise E5. I choose to be hosted as I tend to work from home and my brother is in the shop.

Hope this helps.

Regards

 

[globes]

Every coin has two sides.There are positive and negative effects of software. I have used Mamut and it helped me a lot solving my Accounting problems.

 

[CDX50]

Updates on Mamut and alternatives? Anybody got anything to say - new versions improved? Any new posters here using it?

Thanks

 

[beacon4business]

Hi all,

we are currently installing 15.1.9619 version 16 is due out soon

I am currently working with a hydraulics company to install Mamut E3 on their site and so far so good but they understand with out support and guidance from a company like ourselves there can be all kind of pitfalls.

We are happy to help whereever we can and we travel all over the country.

If anyone has any issues please feel free to contact me

@beacon4business

 

[Circuitracer]

We run a established growing manufacturing business, I looked at MAMUT as an interesting tool to improve the overall efficiency of my business.

After a couple of positive presentations by a MAMUT reseller we took the plunge and had MAMUT E5, CRM, LOGISTICS installed onto our NETWORK with 7 user licenses.

Traditionally the company has used SAGE line 50 for accounts and stock control. It was sold on the basis MAMUT would talk directly to SAGE to allow the company to continue using SAGE for accounts

The transition has been nothing but a nightmare. Firstly MAMUT works on one computer, but when running on our network is unbelievably SLOW, often comes up with NOT RESPONDING or cannot find the DATABASE. IS THIS JUST US?

Also the data transfer from SAGE to MAMUT for customers, suppliers and products was a joke. Totally inconsistent and therefore inaccurate and useless. IS THIS JUST US?

Also Re-sellers. If you were recommending a package would you carry out an evaluation of the companies network and current systems? My reseller thought the network would be suitable because we run Windows 7!!! IS THIS US or COMMON PRACTISE.

My gut feeling is MAMUT may work well for a single user small or new start-up. From my experience it was not good and has cost an unbelievable amount time and effort from my employees.

MY WORSE BUSINESS DECISION WAS HAVING MAMUT IN THE COMPANY
MY BEST BUSINESS DECISION KICKING MAMUT OUT OF THE COMPANY

I read somewhere they have 400,000 users, now 399993

I would appreciate other established businesses experiences. Do i feel duped!

 

[beacon4business]

Circuit Tracer I am sorry you had these experiences had we been in a position to help you out we would have done we have resolved many of the issues you have faced in the past

Can i ask where you running the Mamut database on a Server with a Server OS installed. and yes most resellers would do a full infrastructure audit to ascertain if the client had the required hardware to begin with

The transition has been nothing but a nightmare. Firstly MAMUT works on one computer, but when running on our network is unbelievably SLOW, often comes up with NOT RESPONDING or cannot find the DATABASE. IS THIS JUST US?

this is easy to solve as the root is often permission based and most good resellers can resolve this

Also the data transfer from SAGE to MAMUT for customers, suppliers and products was a joke. Totally inconsistent and therefore inaccurate and useless. IS THIS JUST US?

My gut feeling is MAMUT may work well for a single user small or new start-up. From my experience it was not good and has cost an unbelievable amount time and effort from my employees. mamut is an exceptional package for user of the 5 to 25 user mark it is not really suitable for smaller companies but can be adapted

I am very sorry you had the experience you had with Mamut I hope sage can fulfil your needs.

I would appreciate other established businesses experiences.

I would love to put you in touch with some of my manufacturing clients to discuss their positive experiences and use with mamut

Mamut handles Invoicing, sales, purchasing, stock control, project management and timesheet control all exceptionally well for alot of businesses

All in all with a detailed needs analysis and systems audit there would have been none of the issues you have faced and it is unfortunate that this happened I wish you all the best with your business in the new year and in the future