Ekos

Pros

One stop system for tracking inputs to outputs and all points in-between.

Cons

Unwarranted cost increases. While Ekos is still lower than many other offerings, to just increase pricing cause it’s needed from their business standpoint is frustrating. Add more functionality and improve quality and make the increase have a reason.

Pros

The ability to do almost everything we need to do in the brewery and track it back as needed. The reporting is another great aspect. It is overwhelming at first, but once you get used to the way it is structured, it give you a lot of possibilities.

Cons

The layout of the software may be a bit overwhelming for beginners and busy production users, but given enough training and on the job usage our users became fairly proficient.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Ekos

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Ekos

Pros

It is easy to use and helps with inventory management and other allocations.

Cons

Sometimes us not accurate; it's misleading. The app for the phone does not function properly.

Pros

'Order Hub' is a fantastic one-of-a-kind feature from Ekos, allowing customers to place orders in an Amazon-type environment.

Cons

I'd really like Ekos to have an auto-save feature. Remembering to click save after I do something important can be tedious

Pros

No matter how well you plan out a production week, the batches don't always end up in the same vessels you planned to put them in. The improvements to the Planning feature has made my life much easier with added ability to drag-and-drop my batches into different vessels as well as adjust the close dates with the slider. I can do all of this without having to load the batches, open the tasks, and then edit the parameters. It has probably saved me hours of work since it was added.

Cons

I wish the customizable reports were a little more user friendly with an easier to parse UI. It's my biggest gripe. There's also the occasional error with batch tasks that prevent us from deleting an incorrect task or batch, requiring us to make a help desk request to remove the erroneous tasks. I wish we had some sort of admin over-ride to brute force these tasks out of existence without asking for help.

Pros

The best features about Ekos are it's people. They are driven to help the customer in anyway possible, whether that's listening to suggestions about additional features, correcting glitches, or helping navigate the platform. All the features within seamlessly integrate into each other and the reporting and dashboards become more thorough by the day.

Cons

As a young and growing company, the feature upgrades and changes come quickly which are often great. However, recent changes felt as thought they weren't thoroughly tested and we lost significant functionality for this year's harvest which has forced us to resort back to paper work orders and clipboards for our team instead of the app. New features are great, but not if they aren't ready to be rolled out.

Pros

With EKOS I'm able to conveniently, and succinctly, keep track of all my COGs and all of my finished good. Pulling reports is a snap allowing us to see where product is going, how much is moving, and prices from start to finish. I don't want to imagine running my company without EKOS. The customer support for EKOS is above and beyond!

Cons

There are some server "glitches" that can slow things down occasionally. I think there could be improvements with reports, reviews, and forecasting.

Pros

We had outgrown our spreadsheets and wanted a more accurate picture of our COGs and inventory. Ekos has been very helpful as we track those things as well as the brewing and packaging process. Customer support isn't immediate but they're pretty quick and will keep working to get you the help you need.

Cons

It can be frustrating when there's a hard stop that keeps you from being able to complete a task, but in the end, I'm grateful it won't let you move forward so mistakes are found and corrected before they've been forgotten or gotten out of control. It could be a little more intuitive in some respects or allow for batch creation in a few more areas.

Pros

The hands on and accessible customer service - especially if you find and continue to work with a stellar rep!The user-friendly interface.Relatively small business so things change quickly and they react quickly.

Cons

Little caveats to managing inventory - particularly with keg shells. This is a special/uncommon problem for us because we track keg shells by supplier since we're a distribution company - most breweries won't have that issue. Glitches or non-working buttons.

Pros

Facility view allows us to see an overview of our full brewery operations, as well as peak at inventory levels in all sites quickly and easily.

Cons

Would love reports to be more easily customizable, and would like overall speed of processes to be improved.

Pros

The integration with quickbooks is seamless.

Cons

The interface can be very sluggish sometimes

Pros

The implementation of Ekos was easy and seamless. I wish there had been further support on the integration with QuickBooks. We mostly use Ekos for inventory management, production planning, invoicing, and reporting. We could not operate easily without Ekos. I appreciate how Ekos continues to improve and evolve.

Cons

I find the connection between items in Ekos and Quickbooks can sometimes be faulty, but that includes human error.

Pros

I like being able to see the floor plan of my workplace

Cons

Mobile application is somewhat buggy and is considerably slower

Pros

Ekos helps us manage most of our business operations into one platform. There is a lot that you can customize to fit what you need for your Brewery.

Cons

Reporting is very customizable, but it does take some time to get a custom report set up if you're looking for a very specific group of data to be together in one report.

Pros

Ekos allows our kombucha brewery to fulfill most if not all of the requirements for food safety as well as making our day to day operations easier to view and assess.

Cons

Some of the asset tracking aspects are a bit difficult to use, if you put in an asset and realize you made a mistake, it is not easy to alter an asset that was mistakenly inputted.

Pros

Ekos makes it easy to see multiple facets of the operation without relying on spreadsheets that are difficult to keep in sync. Line of sight to yields and costs is worth it!

Cons

It can be difficult to find a report that pulls the information required when looking for something specific but the customer service is outstanding. A quick phone call or chat and the needed report is created.

Pros

Easy to set up and easy to use. The Ekos team did a fantastic job setting us up and provide great support. I really enjoy the customization options in the reports.

Cons

We originally had some issues with Ekos communicating with Quickbooks. Ekos wasn't able to send all our invoices to Quickbooks because we already had use those reference numbers in Quickbooks. Ekos support helped us realize the issue and once we changed the way we label our invoices we had no issues at all. In hindsight, it is a nice safeguard.

Pros

Ease of use and implementation of add ons and new mods.

Cons

Ekos doesn't integrate well with other software platforms.

Pros

Tracking production, inventory, sales and invoices.

Cons

Reporting customization -- can get it, but usually have to call customer service (who are great.)

Pros

Ekaos provides an easy platform to visualize and manage production. The Inventory tools are consistently being improved and and the recipe interaction with inventory makes it easy to pinpoint mistakes. The reporting functions are easy and have increased our record keeping accuracy exponentially.

Cons

Some of the bugs in newly rolled out items but the dev team seems to always be aware of the bugs. Sometimes response to our Brewery Specific setup can lag or take awhile to resolve.

Pros

Easy to use, constantly updating and open to feedback if updates need a little more. Good customer service, easy to contact when something goes wrong and quick to reply

Cons

updates sometimes take out useful features. some issues can be really slow to be resolved and will repetitively come up e.g. emailing invoices

Pros

I like the integratiblility with our Programs.

Cons

The reports are a little difficult to customize and there are so many already in the system that it is hard to find what information you need.

Pros

For me it's the ease of entering new customers and invoices. Being able to also use my mobile device saves time.

Cons

I don't like that after creating a new customer invoice, you have to go all the way back to the top of the 1st page to "save" or "save and new" instead of being able to save from the last page used.

Pros

Ekos is covenient and easy to use, providing information on a variety of essential aspects of my job in just seconds! Inventory, customers, sales trends and so much more are readily available and customizable!

Cons

There may be a few aspects of the current software that I wish functioned differently, but Ekos has been great about receiving feedback and making changes and updates based on what users are telling them they need!

Pros

Ekos is the easiest software for orders and order management that I have used. It has a great UX interface and is intuitive in its operations. I have an extensive background in retail and hospitality, and I would recommend Ekos to anyone looking for software to help manage their business operations.

Cons

I primarily use Ekos to create invoices and enter new customers into the system, so I don't have any complaints as this is easy to do and works well.

Pros

Very versatile, especially in our situation with multiple locations. Live updates, graphics, and cradle-to-grave data tracking are important and easy to use.

Cons

I'd like to be able to integrate with our POS system.

Pros

The team at ekos is top notch. I love working with the product dev team.

Cons

The reporting is terrible. Zero intuitiveness. Seems like you need a degree in coding to build a custom report. Loading time. Glitches.

Pros

It is set up as a straightforward approach for item creation, brew recipe ingredients, packaging materials. Ease of using brewing schedules for production planning.

Cons

Raw material lot tracking could be improved on. Brewing microB quality checks would be nice to integrate with brew data.

Pros

I like how easy it is to use and how everything is straightforward.

Cons

The error codes are frustrating at times when I am trying to log in. I am not sure if that is my internet browser or my actual internet connection that could be the problem.

Pros

Love the integration with QuickBooks so we can invoice our distributors in a timely manner.

Cons

Wish we could use it for distilling like we use it for brewing.

Pros

Easy navigation; from production input, acceleration of inventory accuracy, to ready product/finished goods, distribution communication

Cons

If you’re in mid input and step away for a moment, and the computer goes into sleep/standby, sometimes order would stall/glitch. So save process is absolute necessary

Pros

Easy to navigate, everything at one app.

Cons

The app for the phone is difficult to navigate.

Pros

We just finished implementation and it could not have been any easier. [sensitive content hidden] was a rockstar and helped move us through the implementation so we could go live as soon as possible.

Cons

Havent had any issues yet, set up was easy and my head cider maker is putting it to use immediatley

Pros

Reporting features are great and easy to customize, invoicing and customer management

Cons

We found that the Mobil app crashes more, and I would love more robust product allocation for us to assign inventory to customers etc

Pros

Pass. I would say the price, but you get what you pay for.

Cons

We have had a very similar experience as executive. Their "customer service" is just a forum with a webinar sprinkled in. We asked for a "bootcamp" style run through to which we got no response. We recently upgraded to their "new" ekos and found that we made a grave mistake. Yes we did ask for them to wipe ekos clean to start fresh. Yes they did tell us what that would get rid of. So we exported the files. We got the email that we were upgraded and ready to go Friday morning. When we went to get things ready for taxes that Sunday, 2 days later, we realized that our invoices didn't export properly. So we called first thing Monday morning to see if they could help. Turns out they only keep back ups for 2 days. When I spoke with "customer service" they just kept saying, we told you what would happen, we said everything would be gone, you shouldn't have relied on us for a back up. I knew everything would be gone. I didn't PLAN on relying on them for a back up. That's why its called a back up. We weren't relying on a back up, we weren't planning to use a back up. Back ups are created for when things go wrong. Something went wrong, and the next business day, we asked for help. Their "customer service" said that it was basically our fault and they aren't responsible for helping us recover that data. That data was all of our info to fill out for state and federal taxes. They deleted it after 2 days on a Sunday. Sign up at your own risk.

Pros

Like that it is integrated with quickbooks. Is the central nervous system for our company. Easy to use on the browser.

Cons

A couple of issues to comment on.

First, the mobile app has gone down in quality over the years. With each release of a new iOS for the iPhone, the app becomes less and less useful. There are scroll bars everywhere...the pages are not displaying correctly, etc. I find myself having to wait to do things in the browser which defeats the purpose of having a mobile app here. Investment is needed here.

Second would be performance. Saves are very slow for example. Data syncs stall...and if you are after hours for support, you are out of luck until the next business day. This is especially troublesome for folks that do the books on the weekend.

3rd is reporting. The reporting tool is inflexible. Custom reports often time out with cryptic errors. Would love to get access to the data to be able to built pivot tables or just spreadsheets to review our business.

4th feature requests seem to go into a black hole. I, personally, have stopped entering them as no action was taken on them.

Pros

Their customer support is quick, friendly, and helpful (despite what others have said on this page). The features are never ending, therefore it may take a person quite some time to learn. Don't fret. I've been using the software daily for over 2 1/2 years and I'm still learning things. Anytime I have an issue, I just reach out to their support staff who returns my email in an hour or less typically. The best way to get a valuable response is to thoroughly describe your question or issue and include screen shots. They will almost always be able to figure out the issue immediately.

Cons

Because the software is constantly evolving and improving there can be some bugs that are challenging to work around. These issues can easily be solved by contacting Ekos Support, however.

Pros

EKOS is an industry specific software that provides all the features you need while operating a brewing company. It covers everything to monitor and execute backend operations from the production of your product, packaging, sales, distribution.

My role as a Sales Rep with the brewery has been streamlined with this software. I can fulfill sales orders from my mobile device using the EKOS app, or from my laptop, making anywhere in the world my mobile sales office. EKOS provides up to date inventory of products, so sales are not made unless the product is available. The software also provides me with a view of our production facility, so I can inform my customers on what we are currently working on and what till be available soon.

This software is the heart beat of our brewery, helping us run a smooth operation everyday.

Cons

The software sometimes has a quirks, they are usually minor and can be figured out, but none the less it does have it moments. The EKOS app needs some improvement for smoother operation in the field, desktop version runs much more smooth.

Pros

The software interface is extremely user friendly, resulting in faster implementation and more employee productivity.

Cons

I would love to see graphing functions added as we enter alot of data into the software that could readily be converted into visuals for production, sales, and quality control.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Ekos

Reasons for Switching to Ekos

Pros

Software is easy to use, I like the format that tools are presented in.

Cons

Ekos does not integrate fully with the software that we use.

Pros

Ekos is the easiest and most intuitive inventory management software available for brewers. Getting new users trained up is simple and fast, but with a depth of capabilities for advanced users.

Cons

Batch tracing for ingredients is still minimal. We currently run this manually to suit our needs.

Pros

The software is continually being tweaked to match the needs of customers, and the support team is incredibly helpful.

Cons

Regional tax on purchases not available.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Ekos

Pros

Ekos has a very friendly user interface. This allows it to be introduced and taught easily to anyone on your team. They strive in customer support and functionality.

Cons

The Functionality of multiple price lists.

Pros

Great at tracking inventory and synced with other software.

Cons

There are several steps for entering items and is sometimes a bit slow.

Pros

Brings everything to one place! Very helpful for all departments

Cons

Would like to customize it a bit more for our needs. We have a taphouse attached which we give product to. Also customizing reports - wish that was a little easier.
Customizing a customer tracking report would be nice.

Pros

We use this to track everything in the brewery. The reporting features are great as well.

Cons

I wish there was more integration with other software like Beersmith

Pros

It helps to keep track of inventory, plan production, invoicing and TTB reports

Cons

It is hard to delete stuff on Ekos when you make a mistake

Pros

The overall ability to keep track of inventory from receiving raw ingredients, to batch production to final product, and also the ability to sync with our accounting system

Cons

There isn't anything that I don't like about Ekos.

Pros

I appreciate the ease of use being a small business and utilizing it both in the taproom & brewery. We keep up with inventory this way and moving kegs from production to taproom and it's incredibly easy.

Cons

I wish there were easier ways to cancel orders that were created by mistake from the taproom to the brewery and able to reconcile easier rather than having to remember "ok, I took 3 kegs, but it said I took 4, so next time I need to take 2 when I really need 3 to balance it out"

Pros

The accounting integration to track COGS with corresponding sales

Cons

Filters on reporting are not very user friendly