# Spruce Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Spruce the right Inventory Management solution for you? Explore 33 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/218534/Spruce/reviews --- Spruce 3.3 (33) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/218534/Spruce/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated February 13th, 2026 # Reviews of Spruce Ease of use 3.3 Customer Service 2.9 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews Patricia M OwnerPhotography, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “I love the customer support and I can manage my inventory. “ January 24, 2026 EH Edward H TechnologistInformation Technology and Services, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “Additionally, when a hosting team support call is supposedly completed, the case is closed without opportunity for the client to confirm functionality.“ August 19, 2022 JH Jessica H ManagerBuilding Materials, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “The statements are very difficult to understand, for all our customers and after having spoken to other Spruce Users they have the same issues. Yet when we asked for a better solution, no progress was made.“ February 16, 2023 MD Monica D Co-OwnerRetail, 11 - 50 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “There are aspects of the software that feel a little clunky still, or that require a lot of back and forth to accomplish a task.“ April 18, 2022 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 33 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use MS Martin S. Owner Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My experience with Spruce" April 18, 2022 3.0 My Spruce experience is very good overall. I have demoed other products and am glad that I remained with Spruce. The support is getting better, and the system is very dependable. Pros Integrating accounting with the point of sale and purchasing functions. I also like being on the cloud as opposed to having inhouse servers. I like how the system updates POS transactions to the accounting modules. Cons Limited ability for a user to get software changes done in the system. The lumber world requires software engineers to understand how the programs should work. As a lumber and building material sales company, it is difficult to interface with the software folks. Reason for choosing Spruce Promised ease of integration from Advantage. Review Source LM LINDA M. OFFICE MANAGER Building Materials Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Spuce is easy to setup, price competitive and use compared to other systems. " June 24, 2021 5.0 A very good experience. Pros The ease of generating and maintaining financials and being able to easily look up accounts payable and accounts receivable information needed at a moments notice. Cons It did not provide needed payroll. Statements are not easy to read for customers. Reason for choosing Spruce A less expensive alternative to some of the more pricier companies, but with a lot of the same features. It is an ever evolving system. They update regularly and it is included in the cost of your monthly maintenance. It is a more fluid system and is not stagnate. What you may not be too happy with could be upgraded down the road. Customer service can be reached several ways and they are always friendly and helpful. Review Source BB Bonnie B. Office Manager Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Getting Used to Spruce" April 14, 2022 5.0 I like Spruce in general. I think we would have had a better experience with our turnover from ECI to Spruce had the pandemic not hit and we had had trainers on site.....but we have made it! Pros I think that Spruce is easy to use once it is gotten used too. It is somewhat like our old system, with some defined differences. I love the ease of looking at customer's accounts. I love the posting of accounts payable invoices and paying the invoices. Cons There are little aspects about Spruce that are aggravating, like the re-receiving in purchasing seems to have extra steps that are un-necessary. The backing out of invoices and deposits seems to also be a little extra Review Source KP Kyle P. Purchasing agent / IT department Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Very Satisfied" January 10, 2019 5.0 As with any software of this nature it is only as good as the information you put into it. If you do not input purchase orders correctly or receive the product correctly it will not keep your inventory correct or cost correct. The learning curve is not high but you do have to take the time to learn how to use the software and what the different functions will do. As with any software change or upgrade do your homework first and list out your expectations to see if the software you are looking at will meet those expectations. Pros Very user friendly. POS works well and is quick to get customer invoiced. The document management built into the software is very good and eliminates the need for paper files. Can easily tag external documents and scan into the software and tag to specific invoices, orders, quotes. Customer support has been great to deal with. They provide a good online help system with videos and documents to explain how to work with the software. There are lots of add on features if you need them. The implementation went very smooth when we switched over from the ECS PRO system we were on. The day we went live we were up and running that afternoon on the ECI Spruce system. The implementation team outlined a course of action over several months to get everything in place and tested before the actual go live date. The key to the success we had was in the planning done by Spruce and on us acting on there advice and getting the training and pre implementation check list done. Cons Crystal reports (optional add on) does take some time to get used to and is a little hard to use on initial setup. But overall it offers good reports. Review Source MD Monica D. Co-Owner Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Spruce - Mostly Good!" April 18, 2022 4.0 Spruce has been an upgrade for us overall and we look forward to utilizing more aspects of the software in the near future. Our biggest gripe with Spruce has been the lack of available customer service representatives when we call with an issue. There are times that weeks go by before someone calls us back. It has definitely been the most frustrating part of our experience thus far. The customer service reps are knowledgeable - there just aren't enough of them to handle all of the calls. Pros Integration was a bit of a struggle at first but once we got things figured out, the software has run very well. It has a ton of capability - we haven't even scratched the surface yet! We plan on implementing more features soon - rental and customer loyalty - and look forward to streamlining those in our store. Cons There are aspects of the software that feel a little clunky still, or that require a lot of back and forth to accomplish a task. Review Source LR Lisa R. Treasurer Building Materials Used the software for: 2+ years ### "If you need supported software, keep looking" June 29, 2023 1.0 85/15, 15% good. Pros The software is easy to use and it provides a lot of reports. Cons We are paying in excess of $2100 a month for support that we don't get. Time sensitive issues are not being addressed. The G/L is a big ball of poop and is giving out inaccurate statements. Getting anyone to help has been an epic fail. At this stage of the game, after 4 years of this, we will be switching software. Review Source MD Mike D. President Building Materials Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Think Twice before purchasing." July 8, 2022 1.0 The experience has been terrible. I wish I could contact someone from Spruce management. They don't give out that information. Pros The is Absolutely Nothing that I like about this software because of their customer and technical support. It takes Days and Weeks to get a response and they usually do not resolve this issue. Cons ECI Spruce is not willing to make changes to improve their support issues. Support issues should be resolved on a daily basis, not weeks to months. Switched from [Advantage](https://www.capterra.com/p/121444/Advantage-Desktop/) This was an inhouse upgrade from ECI Review Source WR William R. owner Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Do not buy. Very complicated. Credit card company that you have to use is a disaster" August 29, 2023 1.0 Not good Pros There is Nothing that i like about spruce. We switched from Quick Books to spruce. Huge mistake Cons Extremely difficult to navigate. Credit card processing is a joke Review Source Response from ECI Software Solutions September 13, 2023 We're sorry to hear you had a bad experience and appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We appreciate any feedback you can provide. Could you please contact your account manager to discuss your issues in more detail? Thank you for your patience. We take customer feedback seriously and regret that you experienced some issues. We hope to have a chance to make this right for you. EH Edward H. Technologist Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Technical Support MSP perspective" August 19, 2022 3.0 As we are employed to eliminate technical "problems" regarding Spruce, multi site infrastructure, security, functionality of digital devices, and all forms of communications we do not have granular knowledge of product performance in the vertical market. Pros We like that the current product is cloud based. We also like the old fashioned interface as it is comfortable for older employees coming from a less graphical employment history. Cons Hosted systems in a seven day retail world need immediate support from the hosting team. Spruce does not allow third party MSP access to hosting support and, the hosting team does not work on weekends which are busy times for retail operations. Communication between ourselves and the hosting team (when available), go through a standard support person who does not have the knowledge or experience to confirm the appropriate changes that need to be made. Additionally, when a hosting team support call is supposedly completed, the case is closed without opportunity for the client to confirm functionality. Additionally, because technical support does not utilize the Spruce interface, there is zero ability for us to learn of updates/patches/changes to the platform. The end users need to let us know when a Spruce update is scheduled for deployment. This situation should never occur in a professional setting. Reason for choosing Spruce Unknown Review Source DW Dennis W. VP Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Not happy with software" December 4, 2018 1.0 We were using ECI Next Gen which the software worked but customer support was terrible. ECI is discontinuing Next Gen so had to switch to Spruce. The fist problem is Spruce has no Payroll. So we figured out a way to handle that. On Next Gen we could have customers sign the paper invoice they scan it so when we sent out statements our customer got a signed copy so they would who picked up material. So I understood Spruce would do that. Ten I found out the only way to capture a sign in Spruce is through a signature pad like you use when you use a credit card. So I had to buy one for every sales terminal at over 600.00 ea. Then the problem is you can't get signature when you deliver to the job site without buying a android phone for every truck and paying a monthly fee for mobile aps. Also we belong to Orgill to buy hardware now we find out you can't download invoices from Orgill. We have to either hand enter each PO or buy another android phone enter our store items on it then send it I think to excel or something and some how get a PO. Is anyone else having these same issues? We are a lumber yard/ hardware store.. If you are on Spruce and can tell me hoe you handle these problems please call support team Also our support fees almost tripled.. Pros The support people have been good to work with. The inventory part of Spruce is much easier than Next Gen. Cons The EDI invoice download does not work, you can't capture customer signatures without a lot of expense. The special order system requires too many steps. Review Source SJ Shannon J. Controller Construction Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Horrible Software and Support" December 12, 2019 1.0 Spruce was not support responsive. Once we brought our conversion issues to light, with supporting written documentation, we were not serviced, responded to, nor did the Spruce representatives attempt to right the massive errors and lacking experiences. Pros Nothing to speak of sadly! We did not receive what was "sold" to us as a solution. Cons The user interface is not directly connected to the GL. EVERYTHING is a Journal Entry into the GL. Sadly, not a software for a middle market customer. Reason for choosing Spruce Truss related features for BDFT management and job tracking management. Spruce did not delivery anything promised. Buyer beware of smoke and mirrors. Review Source Response from ECI Software Solutions December 19, 2019 Shannon, We are so sorry to hear that you are struggling with your software and disappointed with our level of support. We are researching your account and the specific issues you mention and someone on our management team will reach out to see how we can help. Again, we appreciate your feedback and hope we can resolve your concerns soon. Your Spruce Team VR Verified Reviewer Owner Photography Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Best Business Software" January 24, 2026 5.0 Overall I think Spruce is an amazing software, and I recommend it to all business owners whether micro or large Pros I love that I can process payments and I love that it is easy to use. I love the customer support and I can manage my inventory. Team collaboration keeps my team on the same page and it is great value for money Cons I did not quite understand the website creation feature and it took me a while to understand how to create sites Review Source NS Nick S. President Building Materials Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Poor Customer Service For A Long Time Client" March 24, 2025 1.0 Quite poor. We were a customer of ECI for over 20 years and while they would take our calls and increase our number of licenses whenever we needed to, they would not allow us to decrease the number of licenses when the time came that we no longer needed as many. Pros The product overall has a sleek look that is user friendly. Cons Customer support was quite poor. It took over 6 months to get access to data that we were told we should have immediately. We were able to increase the number of licenses as we grew with employees (for a higher monthly cost!), but when we informed them that we were migrating to a new platform, we were told we could not decrease the number of licenses other than once a year at the auto contract renewal date...which is not expressly written within the contract. Review Source SD Sara D. Owner Health, Wellness and Fitness Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Efficient and Good Value for the Money" November 14, 2025 5.0 I used it for several months in my clinic and felt that the team was good at reaching out to support me in integrating the software. Pros Software was easy to set up and was relatively easy to learn. It enabled more efficient communication and organization. Cons There were some intricacies that required focused learning and took up a little but of valuable time. Review Source JS Jen S. Kitchen and Bath Designer Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Spruce one step at a time" September 3, 2024 5.0 I would say using Spruce has been a good experience. Pros What I like the most is how I can search for invoices or product. Cons It is a little bit of a learning curve to learn Spruce. There are so many different ways to do the same thing. I recommend taking notes and referring back to the notes till it is 2nd nature. Review Source JH Jessica H. Manager Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Do not switch to Spruce" February 16, 2023 1.0 It has not been a good experience overall. Support is poor, more senior people, our account manager and their Canadian salesperson have no desire to support us anymore either. Pros There are a few features that are handy and these are the only features they show you in the demos. Document linking is helpful but very clunky. Connecting POs and special orders and importing documents. Cons The POS is very slow and follows no sales logical. Clearly the developers do not understand the end users. Too many clicks to process a sale. The POS often disconnects from our credit card terminals putting us out of business for hours at a time. This happens once weekly, and Spruce Support is not very helpful in ensuring that this does not continue to happen. From the accounting end, we are finding errors in the math with no solutions provided. The statements are very difficult to understand, for all our customers and after having spoken to other Spruce Users they have the same issues. Yet when we asked for a better solution, no progress was made. The customer support is slow and we're often left with "it's just this way" or with no viable solution. We're very unhappy with the software Review Source JP Jordan P. COO Building Materials Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "6 months in and so far, so good!" August 16, 2023 5.0 We have upgraded from QuickBooks POS and we are seeing greatly improved inventory control, prompt invoicing, delivery management and faster "in person" point of sale transactions. Pros Easy point of sale transactions, lots of options for training/classes, Cayan credit card processing integrates well, driver/delivery app was easy to learn and institute, document management is easy and physical inventory/ data entry was a snap. Cons Data conversion could have been a smoother process. Alternatives considered [Epicor BisTrack](https://www.capterra.com/p/247914/Epicor-for-Building-Supply/) Reason for choosing Spruce Better overall product and a better initial impression. Spruce's sales pitch was more about their features and Epicor's sales pitch was more about bashing other software systems. Switched from [QuickBooks Desktop](https://www.capterra.com/p/212058/QuickBooks-Desktop-Pro/) We were looking for an upgrade and QB was no longer going to support POS Review Source KB Katie B. CFO Retail Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Poor Customer Service" January 8, 2020 3.0 Pros It has a good inventory system. But if you are coming off anything but another program that your inventory is already in (i.e. a manual system) be prepared to spend a lot of time updating and correcting many things. It could work well for many industries, but you need to be sure yours is one of those (i.e. lumber) and you ask many questions before agreeing to this program. We have made it work for us since we've invested so much money, but it hasn't been easy. Cons Customer Service is horrible. You call in and basically get a call center of people who can look up the same things you can look up through their on-line help. Otherwise they have to send you to a support specialist who typically has to call you back. It takes quite a while (days not hours) for them to actually call you back and typically I have to call and raise a fuss to get a hold of anyone. The GL is primitive. There is no easy way to get reports and any information back out of the system. The only way I've found to do this is you have a learn Crystal reports, purchase the product or pay more money to have them write you a report. This is a very rigid program. If you have anything special or any "different" way of completing tasks, you will have to conform to the program. It's very difficult to get the program to conform to you. Also if you have invoice terms rather than statement terms, you will not get a proper statement to send to customers monthly. They consider each invoice the "statement". And if you have discounts on those invoices you cannot change that amount if your customer does not take that discount. Review Source Response from ECI Software Solutions January 13, 2020 Katie, I'm sorry to read that you feel our support team isn't getting back to you in a timely manner. Our front-line customer service reps do handle the initial calls to hopefully resolve the easy requests and keep our support specialists free to help with the more critical/urgent questions. We are going to reach out to you and review your support inquiries, so that we can understand how/where we can better meet your expectations on response times. We can also discuss your reporting/statement concerns to understand what you need and how to accomplish that in the software. Again, we appreciate your feedback and hope we can help you with these issues soon. Your Spruce Team KA Karen A. Accounting Operations Director Business Supplies and Equipment Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Best bet for your money" August 21, 2023 5.0 Spruce and I have a great relationship. Since 2015 Spruce has been a wonderful partner. Pros The integration and conversion was amazing! Cons I believe the accounts receivable process could me improved. I would love the ability to "undo" Review Source TF Thomas F. General Manager Building Materials Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Review of Spruce at Cleveland Lumber" July 1, 2021 4.0 We have seen much greater control over our inventory, also we are able to monitor exceptions easier through reporting. Also, purchasing has been easier by being able to see our ordering history and usage on different products. Our daily balancing procedure has been simplified thanks to Spruce. While our staff has struggled some to adapt to the system most of this is due to their refusal to go to training. Pros As a manager I like the features that allow for reporting on data collected through the normal course of business such as product use by month. Also, the ability to price certain items based on a fixed margin based on current cost if selected. Lastly, while not a uncommon feature, I like to be able to send documents such as invoices via e-mail which our last system wouldn't do. We also like the Delivery feature that allows sales people to see the status of there delivery. There are many more, but these are just a few. Cons While probably not an issue at every business, our staff is a little older, less sophisticated and not very computer literate. It would be nice to have people that specialize in each segment of our business to come spend more time doing individual training to get them up to speed on their specific roll in the new system. It can be overwhelming for the implementation specialist to train everyone and also for those like myself to train everyone in rolls that I am not so familiar in such as Manufacturing. Reason for choosing Spruce Price and industry focus of Spruce. Review Source CP Craig P. Owner Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "I Can't Wait to Switch to Something Else" February 16, 2022 2.0 I will be very glad to shut it down, once I've found an alternative that will work. Trying to make data-driven decisions is proving to be very difficult, and I feel like I'm a bother when I want to know something simple like "How much business do we do on Saturdays," when trying to decide whether staying open on Saturdays in the winter is worthwhile or not. Access to the database would solve this, but ECi is unwilling to allow such a thing. Pros There really isn't anything I can put my finger that I like about the software. Cons Not cross-platform (must use Windows), no access to the database itself (and since the canned prebuilt reports are severely lacking, this is a problem), 48-hour support callback times can sometimes stretch to a month or better, multi-tasking is nearly impossible (long story, but run one report, then try to run another one and there's no way to look at them both side-by-side -- you must export), etc. The list goes on... Reason for choosing Spruce I didn't. It happened before I got here. Review Source dM dennis M. president Retail Used the software for: 2+ years ### "spruce" April 14, 2022 3.0 Pros Where it is an excel based it is easy to learn, harder to get employees to buy in Cons the fact that you cannot toggle between pages/ Review Source JH Jeff H. Managing Partner, Commercial Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "invested - Digital Paper Weight - Horrible follow through " April 12, 2017 1.0 Purchased this software in 2014. Tried for 18 months to implement for over 16 months. We are a specialty supplier, not a hardware or lumber yard, but the Spruce sales person promised they have a robust special order system that would work great for us. Went through demos, each time we asked for a specific task, the response was "we dont have that module loaded, but we do have that feature". Purchased server upgrades they required, never had a working P.O.S The task of setting up Spruce requires full time I.T. & Accounting persons to focus on mapping, and setup, then we find out it does not do all the accounting features that even Quick Books will do. Will not track payroll expenses by department or individual, only as a single line item, and this has to be done as a GL entry. We tried for nearly 2 years to get ECI to honor what Spruce promised, to no avail. I would not buy this product, its a lot of smoke and mirrors and broken promises. Might work if you a lumber yard, but be prepared to speed the software price to implement the package, and they leave it all on you to do it. Over priced, over rated digital Junque. Pros Never had full use of the program to run our business. Cons Nothing is as they present it to be. Expect to spend hours and hours of time, and a lot of capital to get it running. Review Source DW Danny W. General Manager Building Materials Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Spruce review" April 19, 2019 4.0 Spruce has helped our business become much more efficient, especially at the end of the month. What used to take us hours to perform now only takes 45mins to an hour. Pros The part I like most about Spruce software is the overall function of the "Point of Sales" portal. For the majority of our team this is the only area they use on a day to day basis. Spruce allows our team members the access and ability to check stock, pricing, purchase orders, customer profile information and much more all from the same screen they use each day when entering orders for our customers. Cons The area I like least about Spruce software is the crystal reporting that is used. I know there are hundreds of pre-written reports that are available, but having the ability to create reports and change reports within Spruce would be nice. Review Source KP Kevin P. Store Manager Building Materials Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Growing our Business with Spruce" October 5, 2017 5.0 Pros We went live with Spruce in 2009. Like any software change, we had some bumps in the road. Spruce helped us smooth out the bumps and made the whole process simpler then expected. Their committed staff were there to help and assist. Now, several years later, we continue to learn and utilize existing and new Spruce software features that help our performance, reporting, and bottom line. Their Tech Support have been responsive and timely. Spruce is progressive and cutting edge. Cons One of the biggest challenges for us is training the staff for change and the benefits for that change. Educating them to see that one upfront work around may appear to save time but in fact creates several hours on the back side. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.