Still on QuickBooks? Here Are Six Clear Signs that It’s Time to Move to NetSuite

Starting out with very basic software applications can make sense for a company that’s operating on a tight budget and has very rudimentary financial and accounting needs. Over time, however, these solutions can throttle an organization’s growth, prevent it from taking new market opportunities and even put it at risk when it comes to regulatory compliance.

With its fundamental capabilities and low barriers to entry, the QuickBooks accounting software package is fairly easy to acquire and set up. This makes it attractive for very small organizations, most of which go into it knowing that at some point they’ll have to upgrade to a more robust, unified enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform like NetSuite.

Here are six signs that now is the time to make your move:  

1) The software no longer meets your company’s needs.

QuickBooks’ basic offering is designed especially for the user who has limited needs both for finance and accounts. Because of this, QuickBooks does not propose all types of accounting processes that are being used by a qualified accountant. “Also, QuickBooks has area limitations,” Complete Controller states, “including the number of items you can add to inventory drives.” The software doesn’t offer advanced features related to bookkeeping, which is the basic need for any considerable organization. “These advanced features will help organizations run their businesses smoothly,” it adds, “but QuickBooks fails to provide such services.”

2) You can’t consolidate activity across multiple entities.

If this is happening, it’s probably time to move to a more function-rich ERP like NetSuite. “Multi-entity integration is important for completing month-end close as well as generating reports that pull data across multiple entities,” CPA firm BPW points out. “If you have to use a separate instance of QuickBooks for each entity, aggregating data for various reports could take days to manually complete.”

3) You’re about to reach the maximum number of users.

QuickBooks caps users at a 30-person limit. “If you foresee future growth in your business, QuickBooks does not scale with your company. It’s game over,” BPW says. “Plus, as you approach the 30-user limit, the system gets bogged down and starts to experience performance issues.”

4) You need a better audit trail.

Both accountants and business owners like for a company's flow of financial information to be in-depth and well-documented. “While QuickBooks does provide an audit trail for most information, there are some situations where financial information can be changed without leaving any sort of documentation,” Techwalla points out. “Essentially, this means that the software leaves a loophole that could potentially allow a company's financial records to be ‘fixed.’”

5) Compliance is getting more difficult and time consuming.

Any software or services company dealing with multiple deliverables—such as upgrades, services delivered over time or additional licenses—has to recognize and defer revenue at different points in time. “QuickBooks can construct clever workarounds for the limitations,” NetSuite explains, “but workarounds inevitably generate a morass of manual journal entries, complicated recognition schedule spreadsheets and unclear or nonexistent forward visibility.”

6) You need purchasing controls.

QuickBooks doesn’t offer them, but NetSuite’s approval workflow engine ensures that purchasing and accounting controls and policies are adhered to. “This makes approvals easier in a time when people aren’t sitting next to one another—whether it’s because of multiple offices or a work-from-home environment,” NetSuite states. Users can automate discount calculation and exception processing when invoices do not match purchase orders, limiting manual data entry errors and decreasing the time it takes to process bills from vendors.

Starting Getting Things Done

While QuickBooks may be suitable for small enterprises with very basic bookkeeping needs, NetSuite is a complete financial management solution that increases efficiency and scales up as a company’s financial needs increase in complexity. The cloud ERP also provides the preconfigured key performance indicators (KPIs), workflows, reminders and customizable dashboards that align operations and accounting processes and help companies get things done.

About Ceba Solutions

CEBA Solutions is a long-time Oracle NetSuite Solution Partner that can help your company select, implement and optimize its ERP system and other solutions. We’ll provide as much—or, as little—guidance as you require throughout the process, post go-live and throughout the life of your ERP.  

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