9 Reasons to switch from Quickbooks to NetSuite

Quickbooks is a starter system for small businesses that quickly makes the business run but NetSuite is much more. See why...

Introduction

As you expand, you recruit more staff, process more data, and demand greater automation as the number of clients increases. You need an efficiency-boosting accounting software solution that serves as the framework for your increasingly complex business.

With QuickBooks, businesses for particular reasons have to rely on more applications; revenue management, fixed assets, procurement, order management, billing, inventory management, distribution of services, and more. And if these systems are not integrated, the accounting department would have to manage half a dozen different applications and human errors resulting from transferring and merging data between different services, each with its own configurations and end-to-end processes, and you would have to add staff to handle it all.

With SuiteSuccess Financials First, migrating clients from QuickBooks to NetSuite is easy. Think about existing requirements and scalability while deciding whether it's time to update. And think about your long-term business goals before deciding on financial accounting software. QuickBooks might act as a quick fix, but would it satisfy your needs during growth seasons?

Quickbooks Limitations

Quickbooks is a starter system for small businesses that quickly makes the business run as it manages the financials (Payables, Receivables, etc.)

As the business grows, the starter system functionality is not enough at all and the following points clarify some pain points of Quickbooks:

• Manual Data Collection

When you deal with Quickbooks, forcing workers to enter and exchange their data (sales orders, invoices, budgets, timesheets, etc.) manually in spreadsheets is always the case. That is time-consuming and can lead to mistakes.

• Poor Reporting

The need for full real-time insight into the business process is also growing as the organization expands. When using spreadsheets for data collection, real-time reporting about the organization in Quickbooks is almost impossible.

• One Company, One Country, and One Currency

Multiple subsidiaries and foreign currencies are not covered by Quickbooks. Quickbooks would make it harder to handle market growth internationally.

• Basic Inventory Management

Quickbooks provides only simple stock functionality when it comes to inventory management. There is no serialized inventory monitoring, for example.

• Limited Scalability

Specific industry needs are not supported by Quickbooks. It is designed to be a standard system of accounting.

Why You Should Pick NetSuite

NetSuite provides a complete solution for financial management that increases efficiency and decreases the need to add to the headcount as the financial needs of the company to become more varied and complex. NetSuite comes with pre-configured KPIs, workflows, reminders, and interactive dashboards that display precisely how operations and accounting processes match and what needs to be done, rather than just a list of accounting information. Here are some features that empower NetSuite over Quickbooks:

• Revenue Recognition

NetSuite helps accounting teams to comply with revenue recognition standards and plan revenue to be recognized automatically if a sales transaction consists of a single event, a sequence of actions over a period of time, or multiple forms of deliverables in a package. In real-time, financial statements and forecasts are reliable and revised.

This is particularly useful for software and service companies dealing with various deliverables that involve accounting teams to identify and monitor revenue at various points in time, such as updates, services offered over time, or additional licenses. QuickBooks can create creative workarounds for the limitations, but workarounds eventually produce a morass of manual journal entries, complex spreadsheets for the acknowledgment plan, and unclear or non-existent visibility forward.

Whether a sales transaction consists of a single action, a series of actions across a period of time, or different types of deliverables in a bundle, NetSuite enables accounting teams to comply with revenue recognition requirements and schedule revenue to be recognized automatically. Financial statements and forecasts are accurate and updated in real-time.

This is especially helpful for software and services companies dealing with multiple deliverables—such as upgrades, services delivered over time, or additional licenses—that require accounting teams to recognize and defer revenue at different points in time. QuickBooks can construct clever workarounds for the limitations, but workarounds inevitably generate a morass of manual journal entries, complicated recognition schedule spreadsheets, and unclear or nonexistent forward visibility.

• Capital Investment

It's important to be able to monitor your funding while you're pursuing capital investment. When considering investing in your company, potential investors will need access to your financial statements, and they will also set you debt agreements and revenue targets to benchmark how much debt you should have and how much working capital you need.

When you’re seeking capital investment, it’s essential to be able to track your funding. External investors will need access to your financial statements when considering investing in your company and they will also set you debt covenants and revenue goals to benchmark how much debt you can have, as well as how much working capital you require.

• Multiple Subsidiaries and Acquisitions

The ability to incorporate new systems will become essential for entering new markets as you hit new levels of business opportunities.

As you reach new levels of business opportunities, the ability to integrate new systems will become imperative to entering new markets.

• Data Connectivity

Data is a tool that is extremely strong. It gives staff within your organization exactly what they need to make easy, educated choices. Fortunately, NetSuite gives you the power to extract and exchange data automatically from the cloud with your departments. All of this can be personalized, too. NetSuite's advanced features allow users to configure permissions, ensuring there is no sharing of unnecessary data.

Data is an extremely powerful tool. It gives employees inside your business exactly what they need to make quick, informed decisions. Fortunately, NetSuite gives you the ability to automatically extract and share data with your departments from the cloud. This can all be customized too. The advanced capabilities of NetSuite allow users to customize permissions, meaning no unnecessary data is shared.

• Better Financial Tools and Financial Consolidations

NetSuite is built alongside your business to size up. NetSuite is completely qualified to manage multiple subsidiaries and foreign currencies and provides specialized financial consolidation tools. Your main accounting processes can be automated with NetSuite, thereby reducing the chance of manual mistakes and delays.

You need a framework that can quickly scale up for you as your business starts meeting more complex financial requirements.

NetSuite Financials enables you to:

1. Inventory management across various sales channels
2. Provide insight into the inventory of your business and the services available
3. Streamline the purchasing processes for purchases, order, and delivery
4. Manage all the information you obtain on a regular basis from your growing business.
5. Easily add and maintain new platforms for sales

NetSuite is created to size up alongside your company. NetSuite offers sophisticated financial consolidation tools and is fully equipped to handle multiple subsidiaries and international currencies. With NetSuite, your key accounting processes can be automated, thus reducing the risk of manual errors and delays.

When your company begins facing more complex financial requirements, you need a system that can easily scale up with you. 

• Real-time Reporting

Both QuickBooks and NetSuite provide regular reports on accounting, such as P&L and cash flow. But the expansive library of NetSuite provides real-time data, from sales forecasting to combined reports of parents and subsidiaries. And you can report using the local currency of the countries where the subsidiaries are based, thanks to NetSuite's multi-currency functionality.

For any record in the system, NetSuite enables detailed drill-down and drill-across reporting with ease. NetSuite reports remove static reporting, providing flexible views from department, location, product line, or any number of operational viewpoints for reports.

QuickBooks and NetSuite both have standard accounting reports, such as P&L and cash flow. But NetSuite’s expansive library includes real-time reports, from revenue forecasting to consolidated parent and subsidiary reports. And thanks to NetSuite’s multi-currency feature, you can report using the local currency of the countries where subsidiaries are located.

NetSuite allows detailed drill-down and drill-across reporting for any record in the system with simplicity. NetSuite reports do away with static reporting, giving flexible views for reports from department, location, product line, or any number of operational perspectives.

• Advanced Inventory Management

A comprehensive warehouse management system with a 360° view of all operations is supported by NetSuite. With real-time analytics along with serialized inventory tracking and real-time reporting, NetSuite provides full visibility. NetSuite also offers a module for demand planning that enables users to predict inventory changes based on past patterns and projected revenue forecasts.

NetSuite provides a robust warehouse management system with a 360° view of all activities. NetSuite offers complete visibility with real-time analytics along with serialized inventory tracking and real-time reporting. NetSuite also provides a demand planning module that allows users to predict changes in inventory based on past trends and future sales forecasts.

• Industry-Specific Configuration

With more than 20 years of ERP deployment experience customized to unique industry requirements, NetSuite has an oriented approach, SuiteSuccess. NetSuite is pre-configured to meet the growing requirements of your scaling company from day one with appropriate KPI reporting, pre-configured dashboard systems, and roles and add-ons!

NetSuite has a focused methodology, SuiteSuccess, with over 20 years of ERP implementation experience tailored to specific industry requirements. With relevant KPI’s reporting, pre-configured systems with dashboards, and roles and add-ons, NetSuite is pre-configured to meet the growing needs of your scaling business from day one!

• CRM and E-Commerce

You need an integrated business structure that centralizes accounting, order management, customer relationship management (CRM), and e-commerce, all in the cloud, to execute growth strategies and make your company become the main competitor in your industry. Essentially, you are equipping the organization with a number of different resources that would not have been available with a starter system when making the transition from Quickbooks to NetSuite.

Your team can quickly and effectively access customer information and respond to customers within record time if the entire organization has access to the same customer information and transactions. It also makes it possible for the sales team to spot opportunities

In order to implement the growth strategies and have your company become a key competitor in your industry, you need an integrated business system that centralizes accounting, order management, customer relationship management (CRM), and eCommerce, all in the Cloud. Essentially, when making the switch from Quickbooks to NetSuite, you’re equipping your business with a variety of different tools that would not have been available with a starter system.

When your whole company has access to the same customer information and transactions, your team can easily and efficiently access customer information and respond to clients within record time. It also allows your sales team to spot opportunities to cross-sell and upsell, and teams can confidently track pending orders, service issues, or overdue invoices.

Why You Should Pick NetSuite

As you expand, you recruit more staff, process more data, and demand greater automation as the number of clients increases. You need an efficiency-boosting accounting software solution that serves as the framework for your increasingly complex business.

As you grow, the number of customers increases, you hire more employees, process more data, and require greater automation. You need an accounting software solution that increases efficiency and serves as the foundation for your increasingly complex business.

Take for example Brex, a fintech company that switched to NetSuite in preparation for entering markets in new countries. While running on QuickBooks and Excel, company leaders had to manually pull monthly depreciation and amortization reports from spreadsheets.

Now, “it’s just a one-button push for the month-end process,” says controller Kevin Moore.

Brex also uses NetSuite to ensure it’s meeting global accounting and compliance standards while delivering corporate credit cards to startups.

On the other hand, the drawbacks of QuickBooks mean that businesses for particular reasons have to layer on more structures or applications: revenue control, fixed assets, procurement, order management, billing, inventory management, distribution of services, and more. These carry in expenses. And if these systems are not integrated, the financial workers must manage half a dozen different applications and risk mistakes attempting to transfer and merge data between different services, each with its own configurations and end-to-end processes, and you would have to add staff to handle it all.

On the other hand, QuickBooks’ limitations mean companies have to layer on more systems or applications for specific purposes: revenue management, fixed assets, procurement, order management, billing, inventory management, services delivery, and more. These add costs. And if these systems aren’t integrated, your finance staff must maintain half a dozen different applications and risk errors trying to transfer and consolidate data amongst disparate programs, each with its own configurations and end-to-end processes—and you’ll have to add personnel to manage it all.

“There’s an inflection point where the systems you’re using just won’t work,” says Sy Gray, co-founder of the widely popular Honey Pot Company, a consumer packaged goods retailer.

Gray and his co-founder tried, through consultants, to integrate their company’s order details with QuickBooks so they could meet the EDI requirements of big-name retailers like Target. After many failed efforts—and racking up costs, with the prognosis of more—the company switched to NetSuite.

With SuiteSuccess Financials First, migrating clients from QuickBooks to NetSuite is easy. Think about existing requirements and scalability while deciding whether it's time to update. And think about your long-term business goals before deciding on financial accounting software. QuickBooks might act as a quick fix, but would it satisfy your needs during growth seasons?

Once implementation is finished, Honey Pot will be able to house all order data centrally in NetSuite and convert its purchase orders into invoices automatically vs. manually—and more efficiently service 20,000 retail locations worldwide. Migrating customers from QuickBooks to NetSuite is simple with SuiteSuccess Financials First. When considering if it’s time to upgrade, think about current needs and scalability. And before deciding on financial accounting software, think about your long-term business goals—QuickBooks might work as a quick fix, but will it meet your needs during seasons of growth?

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Mostafa Adam

CEO - Haya Solutions Inc.