James,
I used both systems when I was at Central College and Synoptix worked well as a reporting tool for our Controller. It is flexible and intuitive but does have some limitations. @Jeff Sanger could provide you his impressions for the many years that he has used it.
Prophix, on the other hand, is extremely flexible but takes a great deal of time to manage. You will need to learn how to build reports and gain a firm understanding of cubes and how they inter-relate. We discontinued using the tool at the end of the three years as licensing was too costly they would not refund or adjust our billing for the majority of the licenses since their system was "too complex to learn" for our VPs. Also, we used a very complex structure within the system due to how Ellucian Colleague reporting was structured...not for natural account reporting, too many customizations, etc. With the conversion from Colleague on-prem to in the cloud, the chart of accounts was revamped and would work much better with Prophix. One word of caution, you will need to continue to budget system buildout, in addition to your normal annual licensing, for at least five years.
Synoptix is a reporting tool, Prophix is a system, with an enhanced reporting tool.
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Karen Tumlinson
Vice President for Finance & Operations and CFO
Hendrix College
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-05-2026 07:10 AM
From: James Cross
Subject: Adavico for Endowment Accounting
Good morning!
We're evaluating Adavico for endowment accounting and would love to hear from institutions currently using it. Rather than general impressions, we're most interested in the specifics:
• How has it handled edge cases - underwater funds, complex spending policy calculations, or multi-asset pool allocations?
• What did implementation actually look like, and how long before your team was truly self-sufficient?
• What does your ongoing support experience look like - response times, issue resolution, escalation paths?
• Are there workflows or reports you've had to build workarounds for?
• Any integrations with your GL or investment custodian that have been smooth - or painful?
We're especially interested in hearing from institutions that have been on the platform for 2+ years, since that's when the honeymoon period tends to be over. Direct messages welcome if you'd prefer to share candid feedback privately. Thank you!
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James Cross
Controller
Wright State University Foundation
james.cross@wright.edu
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