Cradle Accounting Software Review: Pros and Cons
The manual data import process may deter some businesses desiring a high level of automation (and those who don’t enjoy CSV-based data entry). That being said, Cradle Accounting shines brightly with a user-friendly interface and dedication to continual improvements based on customer feedback.
With its AI-driven chat support, potential for custom API integrations, and dedicated account managers, Cradle has a lot of strengths to get excited about. Their free 30-day trial requiring no credit card information showcases the company’s faith in their product.
- User-friendly interface
- Comprehensive support
- Dedicated account representatives for Enterprise users
- Archival feature
- AI integration for chat support
- Certain benefits are only offered to enterprise plan users, such as the audit trail
- No predefined reporting periods by fiscal year (but does allow custom periods)
- Developer Cradle Inc
- Client OS Web
- Deployment Cloud Hosted
What is Cradle Accounting?
Cradle Accounting is an efficient lease accounting software designed to cater to businesses of varying sizes and industries. Its key functionalities include automated lease calculations, an intuitive dashboard, extensive reporting capabilities, and customizable API integration.
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Who Is It For?
Cradle Software has a broad appeal that caters to all industries but has a special interest in helping large multinationals with foreign exchange implications (i.e., those with super complex lease accounting). That being said, they can still help small CPA firms with one client with 5 leases.
Companies handling more than 20 leases will particularly benefit, gaining access to a dedicated head of account and unlimited training sessions. Its automated and AI-assisted functionalities make it great for busy finance teams who appreciate efficiency and accuracy.
Cradle Accounting is happy to work with whatever accounting software the organization currently has, whether it’s QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP, and more. Their goal is to ensure any company can export their financial data and easily import it into Cradle.
Our Ratings
| Usability - 10 | Intuitive usability, including a simple lease calculator to streamlined data import capabilities; easy to navigate between modules; software showed no delayed loading times. |
| Support - 9.4 | Solid support options are provided, from email and phone to live human chat with a maximum 30-minute response time; AI-powered chat can assist with quick documentation help. Dedicated account representative that provides refresher training when needed (Enterprise plan only). |
| Scalability - 8.9 | Caters to both smaller and larger entities. The tiered pricing model accommodates a variety of lease volumes. Large enterprises can reap benefits from customized features and a dedicated head of account. |
| Security - 8.2 | Secure treatment of your sensitive lease data. Has user access controls to ensure data stays available for only those who require it. |
| Value - 8.6 | Has a high degree of adaptability to ensure a return on investment. Offers varying price packages depending on the number of leases being managed. Includes the full feature set in every package. Free 30-day trial. |
| Performance - 7.8 | Reliably manages leases between various modules. Can upload CSV files quickly to import data from outside accounting platforms. |
| Key Features - 7.1 | Includes automated lease calculation, an intuitive dashboard, and extensive reporting capabilities. Customizable API integration for various needs, at an extra cost. |
AI Chat Support
Cradle’s newest standout feature is AI chat support, which aims to help improve its customer service experience. This AI support supplements traditional channels like email, phone, and even a human-operated chat window, ensuring customers promptly get the assistance they need. A response time of 30 minutes or less has been achieved by Cradle due to the implementation of the AI chat tool.
Free 30-Day Trial
Unlike many competitors, Cradle allows a full-feature, 30-day trial without strings attached. This transparent approach gives customers a chance to experience the software firsthand, ensuring they’re making an informed decision.
Custom API
Cradle stands out by offering the option for custom API development to serve individual customer needs better. This customizability is particularly noteworthy when dealing with integrations with other platforms like Netsuite, a widely used business management software.
While many software companies may offer limited integration options with popular platforms, Cradle’s team is prepared to design and implement a custom API to cater specifically to their needs. This level of service is a strong point of differentiation for Cradle, indicating a customer-first approach and an understanding of the diverse software ecosystems that businesses operate within.
However, it’s worth noting that some customers decide to stick with Cradle’s standard offering once informed of potential additional costs involved with this custom API service. This suggests that Cradle’s existing functionality is robust enough for most users or that the custom API service is a bit expensive. Despite this, the option for customization is a standout feature that may be a crucial deciding factor for organizations with unique integration requirements.
Pricing Plans
All plans of Cradle Accounting include all core functionality to track and automate your lease portfolio. The biggest difference in the available plans correlates with how many lease agreements you manage.
| Plan | Cost | Who Its For |
| Small Plan | $99/month | Up to 10 or less lease agreements |
| Regular Plan | $199/month | Up to 20 or less lease agreements |
| Enterprise | Custom Pricing | Over 20 lease agreements. Also includes:
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Alternatives
Summary
Cradle Accounting holds its own in the vast sea of lease accounting software. While its manual data import could be more seamless, it offsets this with a strong user experience, a suite of innovative features such as AI-driven chat support, and a focus on continual improvements. For businesses with over 20 leases, Cradle provides a dedicated account representative and unlimited training sessions.
Its appeal extends from multinationals handling foreign exchange to small CPA firms. Security and scalability are solid, and its adaptability assures a return on investment. A free 30-day trial sans credit card requirement signifies the company’s faith in its product. In a nutshell, Cradle Accounting is a strong, reliable choice for lease accounting needs, adaptable across business sizes and industries.
User Reviews of Cradle Accounting
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After reviewing a few systems on Software Connect we ended up going with Cradle. Though implementation was not without hiccups. Cradle forces you to do some things that for most small to mid sized businesses just makes no sense, but because they think it’s what’s best they don’t give you an option.
None
Rigid workflows
It seemed more user friendly to me. It had more documentation, especially in the lease 842 area. Pricing is good. Customer service could be a little bit better if I have questions. I have not had to reach out to them but once or twice. The training they provided was good.
User friendly, 842 documentation, training
customer service could be more responsive
Overall, the people are friendly, customer service has been very responsive. The software has a very easily navigated interface, and most of the information the software spits out is great. Hopefully future years will be a little easier than the transition year.
I hope they seriously consider changing their methodology of calculating the current portion of leases as they way they do it could easily be misleading to financial statement users, and now we have to do an additional calculation. Luckily we can do it quickly just using their generated amortization schedules.
Easy User Interface, Customer Service is responsive
We had/have a couple issues with our implementation of Cradle:
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There is no adjusting their calculation for initial recognition, and they only allow XNPV for the present value calculation. So during implementation, the ending value of our leases per our financials did not agree to their beginning balance, but they don’t offer a easy way to adjust their balance to ours. We had to record “impairments” to do so.
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They calculate the current portion of leases strictly on the next rolling 12 month period, not on the total lease liability. On some of our larger leases this led to a difference between their current portion calculation and what portion of the lease principal would actually be paid of over $500,000. When challenged their response essentially boiled down to “well the big 4 said it was ok.”. So no we have to do our own calculation of current portion so as to not mislead financial statement users.
We went with Cradle Accounting and have been happy with our choice. It was super easy to use and they have a great support and training team. The best part is the live support that is always availalbe to help.
It has alot of help features built in. If we make an error on a lease it will automatically send a message to support - who reached out quickly and assisted.
None at this time.
Could not have asked for a more user-friendly tool to get all my lease acounting up to date. Keeping the industry in good shape. Good job Cradle.
User friendliness and intuitive.
Focusing only on Lease accounting at the moment.
I love the simplicity and having everything calculated for me. Helps eliminate human error with computing manually. Very happy thus far
Cradle has been a joy to work with. They have no red tape and our queries are dealt with promptly and efficiently. They were able to make custom enhancements with ease and have been very helpful and instrumental in our success for transition. Would highly recommend.
