Synario Reviews

The tool is powerful and flexible and has a similar feel to the excel reporting that I am used to. The support and service have been excellent and I find the training tools robust and accessible. I have been working with the tool for about ten months and haven't had any issues when it comes to reliability. Once the data is uploaded and validated everything just works smoothly.

If I had to say something negative, the learning curve for the terminology and structure of the model is large. It takes a while to understand the logic well enough in order to be able to build what you need into complex models.

We are using the system to model the impact of decisions on our financial statements, including what-if scenarios for capital planning and strategic initiatives. The flexibility to lay multiple scenarios over one another without disrupting base scenarios has improved the speed at which we can make decisions.

The long-range planning model is a living document that is a key to keeping our institution on the path we've established in our new strategic plan. It is robust and powerful that ties together years of audited financial statements, lending credibility to the planning process. Great sensitivity and stress testing capabilities, with infinite flexibility to model different dimensions of our financial picture. We worked with a highly qualified team who guided a very successful implementation. Responsive, knowledgeable and strong trainers.

The tool, while tricky to learn, is supported by a responsive team who offers myriad training resources and has been flexible with our needs and timeline. We have benefited from hands-on training sessions, webinars, and the user group community platform.

In the LRP model, we have established rolling 5-year financial targets aligned with our strategic plan, our capital campaign goals and capital improvement plans. Each year, we are able to stress test multiyear enrollment scenarios, adjust to changes, make sound planning decisions and demonstrate our ability to deliver on our commitments. Being able to model changes in our assumptions and illustrate the relationships between the endowment, operational cashflow, debt and cash reserves has been invaluable to building trust with our board, donors and the broader community.

We have used Synario for several years for all of our budgeting and financial reporting. What we like best is the software's reliability and ease of use. We use the software to run reports every month and to generate all of our budget forecasts each year. After you build a model one time, it is easy to import new data and run new reports without making any changes. You can also build off an existing model to make changes and improvements instead of starting from scratch. The software rarely gives us any problems and when we have to contact tech support they respond quickly.

Occasionally updates to the software have changed the way certain features work and we have had to find a work around for our processes. But their tech support staff has always been helpful to make sure we can still do what we need to with the software.

The time that it takes to build a model and to build various reports is well worth the amount of time you will save using spreadsheets and manual processes to generate reports/budgets.

Synario has helped us move away from using spreadsheets and manual processes for budgeting and financial reporting. We use the model to generate monthly reports to the board and management. We can also easily create custom reports for one-off queries. Synario has also made our budgeting process much smoother with the different dimensions and scenarios that can be created.