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Does Workplace by Facebook Live Up to the Hype for Accountants?

workplace by facebook accounting

Over the last few months, Facebook has been relentlessly pushing its Workplace by Facebook platform, expanding the app’s feature list while ramping up its marketing. Its most recent PR blitz occurred this past June, as Facebook unveiled the company’s new Workplace for Good program, touting free access to Workplace Premium for nonprofits and educational institutions among other feel-good initiatives.

But is there any muscle behind the hype? What does Workplace by Facebook offer that similar apps don’t, and is it worth recommending to your accounting firm bosses and tech guys? We dug through site reviews, user reviews, news articles, press releases, and Mark Zuckerberg’s diamond-plated back-alley dumpster to find the answer.

How is Workplace by Facebook marketing itself?

Business social network. Virtual communications hub. Remote productivity app.

There are a lot of ways to describe Workplace by Facebook, but none of them sound particularly different than competitors like Slack and Skype for Business. We looked to the official site for some answers, but most of what we found was just corporate-talk twaddle.

“We designed Workplace to help people in businesses connect and discover new ways of working.”

That’s a quote from Simon Cross, product manager of Workplace by Facebook, taken from an introductory video on the Workplace website.

And if that generic, cliche-soaked pitch doesn’t get you excited about the possibilities of this revolutionary, next-generation, synergy-accelerating, paradigm-shifting, [insert business-speak adjective here] technology, perhaps nothing will.

OK, so what the #%^& is Workplace by Facebook then?

It’s best described as “Facebook for businesses,” but exactly what that means depends on who you ask.

Here’s the official list of the app’s features, although new capabilities may have been added by the time you read this. You can decide for yourself if there’s anything here your firm can’t get with Slack:

Free version:

  • Live video streaming
  • Voice and video calls (desktop and mobile)
  • Workplace and Work Chat apps (iOS/Android)
  • Unlimited file, photo, and video storage
  • Unlimited team and project groups
  • Integration with file storage providers
  • Desktop Notifier for Windows
  • Secure collaboration between companies

Paid version ($3/user/month):

  • All the same features as the free version, obvi
  • Directory of pre-built integrations (whatever that is)
  • Administrative controls to manage your community
  • Monitoring tools for IT teams
  • APIs for custom integrations and bots
  • Integrations with e-discovery and compliance providers
  • Single sign-on (SSO), Active Directory support
  • Integration with G Suite, Okta, Windows Azure AD, and more
  • 1:1 email support for administrators

Workplace is especially pushing its “groups” feature, which allows your firm to create private sub-networks for specific departments or teams. Groups can include members from other businesses, such as clients or accountants at a partner firm.

Bottom line: Is Workplace by Facebook any good?

Let’s see what some of the experts are saying.

PC Magazine gave the app 3.5 out of 5 stars, stating:

Workplace by Facebook is exactly what you expect it to be. It’s Facebook if your employer restricted membership to only your coworkers and bosses. … It seems to win people over because it’s so familiar to the original Facebook experience. Workplace has nearly identical tools for sharing information, joining groups, organizing events, and so forth, but its best use is as a team messaging and communication app.

While it has yet to give the app an official score, CNET lauded Workplace by Facebook in May 2018 for adding integrations with Microsoft SharePoint, Atlassian, SurveyMonkey, Dropbox, and Box. Facebook has announced that the latest version of the platform will feature more than 50 new integrations in all.

What do users have to say about Workplace by Facebook?

As for user ratings, aggregated reviews from the site G2 Crowd average 3.9 out of 5 stars across 644 users. Here are a couple of positive quotes from those reviews:

“I love that it is exactly like Facebook if it were only in groups.”

“Communication has never been better in our office. We can post things to different groups, get answers to questions quickly, and … keep each other updated on changes (and) issues.”

And here’s a negative user quote, which does a nice job of summing up the platform’s shortcomings:

“‘Chat’ function is missing basic features like status–available/offline/busy–and the ability to group contacts. It is also not secure, so we are unable to share files through chat. The screen share option is only available one-on-one and after a video call is initiated. There is no integration with email or calendars … It’s mandatory to follow certain executives, and my newsfeed is full of posts from random people that I have never and will never interact with. No one in my department uses this website.”

It should be noted that this review was written back in March 2018, and later in the review, the user concedes that the program “has potential.”

Our independent analysis of Workplace by Facebook (i.e., clicking around the free version until we got bored) didn’t reveal much outside the general consensus: again, it’s Facebook, but for business. If that sounds like something that would benefit your firm, go ahead and show it to your bosses. If not, you probably won’t get much use out of it. It doesn’t do much that Slack can’t, but it does have a friendlier, more familiar interface that some accountants may enjoy and that might spark greater camaraderie and collaboration among you and your coworkers.

Does Workplace by Facebook have any value specific to accountants?

The short answer is: not really.

The Workplace by Facebook website features customer case studies covering a wide array of industries, but so far no accounting firms have been spotlighted. The closest thing we could find was one for Yoma Bank, a commercial bank in Myanmar. But that review has nothing to do with finance–it’s about helping a company communicate when most of its employees have no access to email.

As far as we can tell, there are no accounting-specific benefits to Workplace by Facebook. But that doesn’t mean its communication and collaboration tools can’t help improve your productivity or make it easier to connect with your teammates.

Workplace by Facebook in a nutshell

This is Workplace by Facebook in a nutshell: “Ahh, help me, I’m an application trapped in a nutshell!” (No, we aren’t above stealing jokes from Austin Powers.)

And this is a summary of our findings on Workplace by Facebook: Right now, it’s a mixed bag. If a “business social network” sounds appealing to you, it’s the best one out there. You’ll find its interface is very intuitive, assuming you’re familiar with good ol’ regular Facebook.

As far as communication and productivity go, there isn’t much unique about it. But Facebook is adding new features at a rapid clip, so it’s worth keeping your eye on. Right now it’s nothing special, but in a year or so it could become the business app accountants can’t live without.

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2 thoughts on “Does Workplace by Facebook Live Up to the Hype for Accountants?

  1. My company (private industry) has this. When I first got invited several months back, I thought it was a mistake. Then I logged in and saw it was pretty much the same thing as Facebook, except all the people on there were my co-workers rather than my friends. Since I first logged in, I think I’ve spent roughly a grand total of 45 seconds on the App. I really don’t see the point, and nothing on there is interesting to me. If I need to get in contact with a co-worker, or a group of co-workers, I can so many options: (1) walk over to their desk, (2) call them, (3) instant message, (4) email or (5) text.

    There is literally nothing I can think of that would make Facebook for Work interesting to me.

    1. Sorry it took me a month to reply to this. Deadbeat writers are real and we live amongst you, disguised as normal people.

      One thing I took away from my research is that many people are confident there’s something valuable about having a “business social network,” but no one can point to exactly what that thing is. There are either two possibilities:

      1) Said thing exists, and once it is discovered, whoever figures out the best way to execute it will be Silicon Valley’s newest billionaire, or

      2) Said thing doesn’t exist and this is all smoke and mirrors

      Gun to my head, I’d lean toward option 2 as being the most likely. But I’m just a blogger on an accounting site, so what do I know?

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