Dealing with numbers requires logic & not to remember anything as such. Maybe that’s why we all like them. However, running an accounting firm is not just about crunching numbers, a big part is also about doing a number of repetitive tasks, cross communication between team & clients, meeting deadlines, maintaining records, see what I mean?
To fast-track all such operations, including CRM, accounting & tax businesses make use of practice management software. To get an information & little guide about which software to choose for your firm, you can keep reading. In this blog, we will learn about the comparison between Karbon, Asana, & Cone software.
TL;DR: Karbon vs. Asana vs. Cone
Karbon:
What is Karbon?
Karbon as it says is a collaborative accounting software. It consists of a various number of solutions for firms to run, manage, & optimize their business practice. Right from project management to workflow automation, client management to client portal, it integrates with your other software to streamline the workflow.
What are the features that Karbon offers?
To suit best for accounting firms, Karbon has put together a number of features– document management, email management, project management, billing & payments, client portal to name a few.
It aims to set out as an end-to-end software solution for accounting firms.
Automations, workflow optimization, reports & analytics are other bunch of features that make it a complete package for firms to adopt.
Is Karbon’s Interface User-Friendly?
Karbon showcases a neat & well-designed interface making most types of users to be able to understand quickly and use it.
What is the pricing structure of Karbon?
Karbon offers its starter plan called Team at $59 or $79, when it’s billed annually or monthly respectively.
Its other plan called Business that includes a bunch of features like automatic client reminders, time tracking, budgeting reports, is at $89 or $99, again when this is billed annually or monthly respectively.
Cone:
What is Cone?
Similar to Karbon, Cone offers a specialized, niche account practice management software that fits for all sizes of firms. For accounting & tax firms it’s a tool to bring all their work in one place, in turn eliminating data transfer & related errors, context switching between multiple software, & other problems.
Designed thinking the modern type of work culture, & shifts in the industry, it’s up-to-date with the current market needs & even filling missing gaps.
Cone as well has set foot to be an accounting software that firms can use in the start to end cycles of their projects & communication.
What are the features that Cone offers?
Cone is all-in-one software offering proposals, engagement letters, workflows, billing, payments etc., consisting of all the needs & requirements of accounting & tax firms in it. Comprising task management features, communication tools, document management, client portal, billing & invoicing, reporting & analytics, it’s a versatile practice management tool.
With proposal, time tracking, e-Signature, inside it, you no longer need to use multiple softwares, allowing users to do everything from one place. Saving time, energy, & cost.
Is Cone’s Interface User-Friendly?
Cone has kept the modern style & design in mind while also making sure the interface is intuitive enough for users to quickly grasp it & even become power users of the platform easily.
What is the pricing structure of Cone?
Cone’s pricing structure is simple & impressive, in a market where the average price is $50, Cone comes with a just $10 per user/month price, allowing all size of firms with a software with no compromise to level up their accounting practice.
Asana:
What is Asana?
Asana is a work management tool for companies to get a better grip at handling projects, organize work, & improve workflow.
From templates to automations, dashboards to reporting tools it helps companies to gain clarity to all the employees work & vice-a-versa.
Is Asana Good for Accounting Firms?
Asana is a diverse tool for companies to manage big or small tasks & projects, while keeping everyone on the same page. However, when it comes to accounting firms they can extract its features to perform basic & simple operations through it, but it can get time-consuming & many of the standard practices cannot be done in it.
Since it’s not tailored for accounting firms, generic work can be done inside it, on a solo-accountant or small team level, but trying to run an accounting firm can be tedious on some level & not possible to do on the rest.
Cone or Karbon are designed for accounting firms, & hence, consists of niche features that firms use in their daily work. Sending proposals, dedicated client portal, eSign, billing & invoicing are few of such features.
What are the features that Asana offers?
Primarily used for project management, Asana helps teams communicate, collaborate, & deliver projects on time. Users can assign, label tasks & sub-tasks, overview the project progress, use automations & improve their workflow.
With its reporting tool, the set goals can be evaluated and tracked. It also has a resource management function to control workload of the project, & track time.
Is Asana’s Interface User-Friendly?
Asana has a good fluid interface for users to get used to it almost intuitively. It’s a mature product, & hence displays a great deal of user-friendly interface.
All the features & tools are bifurcated in a systematic way for users to discover & make use of them.
What is the pricing structure of Asana?
Asana works on a freemium model, its personal or small team plan only for managing different tasks is free, the second starter plan is at $10.99 or $13.49 per user per month, depending on billed annually or monthly respectively, that offers more features of the platform for better project management, & workflow.
Finally, its Advanced plan is set at $24.99 or $30.49per user/month, when billing is done annually or monthly respectively. With increase in the capacity of automations, reporting, & more it’s made to serve businesses that handle many portfolios of works.
Karbon vs. Cone vs. Asana
Benefits of Karbon vs. Cone vs. Asana
All of them are a good project management tool to communicate, collaborate, & complete tasks.
Asana is a matured product used by different industries, and has helped increase productivity among teams as they can pick up other’s things, know what everyone is doing, & create reports and analyze the progress of the projects as per set deadline and more.
Cone is a niche product for accounting based firms to perform industry standard work in an efficient manner. It offers eSign features, generating billing & invoices, dedicated client portal for firms to become transparent with their clients, share documents, and much more. For a full-service accounting related firm they can make their workflows better, minimize errors around data transfer, and keep the clients on the same page by providing regular updates and more.
Karbon again is a complete project management tool to help you from start to the end services for the clients. Consisting of similar features like Cone, it serves its purpose in tasks & document management, client portal, & optimizing the workflows.
What are the Key Considerations before choosing Karbon vs. Cone vs. Asana?
Once you have a good clarity of the work you will perform on the management software, you can choose the best tool for yourself.
- Asana is a good choice if you need generic project management work.
- If you’re an accounting, bookkeeping, or tax firm, then Cone or Karbon can fulfill your needs better. They provide an end-to-end solution for your projects, making their tools & features niche for accounting type firms. The workflow gets optimized for transitioning between projects, improving workflow, & more.
- Especially Cone, as it is an all-in-one tool to replace your proposal software, eSign tool, & more at a significantly lower price, 1/10th of the industry standard, making a saving of 90%.
Even if right now you only need a project management tool, but you can see your accounting firm growing out of it quickly & requiring more features soon, you should get a complete solution on which your entire firm can run. As once you start investing in 1 tool, switching to a niche tool could be energy, time, & cost demanding.
Limitations of using Karbon over Cone and Asana
Adapting to Karbon’s user interface can be a hill climbing experience for some users. Many of its features have their own name, rather than the use case that they serve for, making it confusing for users in the initial days to navigate the software. Triage, for instance, can be hard to comprehend and therefore overall training, tutorials, & some hand-holding is required to be given.
This further adds on the client side as well, as firms can find it difficult to onboard them easily, making them aware of the platform’s features & tools. Too much can be happening at the same time on the interface for the user to catch up on. Not just steep learning, but its capacity planning is nascent and mostly requires using an add-on to it.
Conclusion
Thinking long-term while committing to a software can save your money, energy, & time. For solo or freelancers wanting to only keep a good track of their tasks & projects Asana can be a great option.
However, for accounting based firms, a comprehensive complete solution can positively impact all of their firm’s departments to perform everyday operations. From industry level specialized task management, eSign, workload, to dedicated client portal, better automations, and much more.
Cone truly unifies your workload, for instance by managing the Proposals that firms send to clients, eSign documents, billing and invoices, time track, & more all from inside it. Eliminating the use of multiple software, reduces friction, possible errors of data transfer and the like, & saves the context-switching of different softwares.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What types of project management methodologies do Karbon, Cone, and Asana support?
Karbon is made for accounting firms, & hence its project management capabilities are agile, catering to accountants like client portal, while also having staple things like kanban style board, customizable dashboard, & many other tools & features.
Cone’s methodology is again more nuanced, serving accounting, bookkeeping, & tax firms. Designed keeping them in the spotlight the small tweaks end up saving hours of the users. For example, with a great deal of automation in billings, reminders, proposals, eSign, & more users' admin workload decreases.
Asana being a widely used project management tool used across many domains, follows the traditional project management path with views in calendar, kanban, & more modes to display tasks & deadlines. Making sub-tasks under the main task, the hierarchical standard interface is given for the job to be done. Since it serves to such a large audience, it doesn’t double down on any specific pain points, just tries to touch upon as many as possible.
Can Karbon, Cone, and Asana integrate with other tools and services?
Yes, all the 3 products can seamlessly be integrated with other tools & services, for instance QuickBooks. Using Zapier, you can bring your existing set of tools & services to interact & better manage your workflow.
What are the customer support options available for Karbon, Cone, and Asana?
For contacting & receiving help from the customer support department, again all the 3 are equal & efficient by providing a live chat support window or alternatively one can also raise a ticket via their email addresses respectively.