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Charms office assistant

Posted by anon on 3/3/2023, 3:58 pm

We're considering Charms office assistant for next year. I last used it three years ago, and it worked okay. I heard there were some changes to it-how has it been the last couple of years?

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by Dude on 3/15/2023, 12:41 am, in reply to "Charms office assistant"

After MANY years with Charms, we bailed after the corporate buy-out. We then went to Cut Time. After it failed me about three times (couldn't send our weekly email due to server issues), I gave up on that and went straight to Google.

Google doesn't cost us a dime and is seamlessly integrated into our district's technology plan. It honestly can be done. At first, it may seem insurmountable, but I promise that it's doable.

I have not checked out Presto, but it would take a pretty amazing program for me to not only adopt it but also insist that our feeders also adopt it.

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by Pretzel Guy on 3/9/2023, 12:32 pm, in reply to "Charms office assistant"

I used CHARMS last year, and switched to Presto Assistant this year. I like Presto better because it feels more intuitive and easy to use, both for us and parents/students. Also looking up inventory and students is much easier.

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by Chris P. Bacon on 3/5/2023, 1:37 pm, in reply to "Charms office assistant"

Charms is overpriced and not worth your money or time. We cut Charms last year and tried CutTime; it wasn't bad. Cut that this year and we are a Google Based program. Free and efficient

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by Jeremy on 3/3/2023, 10:28 pm, in reply to "Charms office assistant"

Microsoft Excel is the BOMB

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by HCBD on 3/3/2023, 6:32 pm, in reply to "Charms office assistant"

We switched to Presto this year and have been much more happy with it. I have always been frustrated with Charms.

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by me on 3/5/2023, 11:07 am, in reply to "Re: Charms office assistant"

I tried CutTime this year. It was awful. It was so bad, I switched back to Charms mid-year. At TMEA a friend introduced me to Presto. I did the free trial, and we will be making a permanent change to it this summer. Charms has just lost too much capability since the corporate buyout.

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by IMO on 3/3/2023, 6:07 pm, in reply to "Charms office assistant"

Charms isn’t worth it anymore.

Re: Charms office assistant

Posted by DesertJazz on 3/3/2023, 5:23 pm, in reply to "Charms office assistant"

Personally I say run away! We used it up through 2021? The new company that bought it kept breaking things left and right, and the system was no longer useful. We switched to Presto and I have not regretted that decision in the slightest! Much more responsive customer support (like Charms used to be with Michael Baker) and useable product.

On our way to switching I had some additional data concerns we ran into where Charms was retaining data it shouldn't have. It was a mess to be honest!

Another option you might consider would be CutTime.

But I would stay well away from Charms, sadly it is not what it used to be!

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