How do you know when your company has grown beyond QuickBooks’ capabilities? Let’s cover the key areas that will help you make an educated decision on when QuickBooks is too small for your growing organization.
QuickBooks is one of the world’s most well-known and widely used accounting software solutions that can help turn a simple idea into a full-grown company. It is one of the best choices for startups and small companies in terms of affordability, but it certainly has its limitations.
Are You Outgrowing QuickBooks?
Here are six common areas that our clients run into with QuickBooks, and solve with the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics Business Central.
1. You operate a multi-entity company that has transactions between each other
If your business operates through multiple entities, you surely face this issue. QuickBooks does not consolidate financials or allow for transactions between multiple entities within an environment, creating a hole in accounting and organization. If you envision your company growing into multiple entities or having international products and services, this will present a future problem. With QuickBooks’ inability to roll up currency to one company, we recommend converting to software that has the capability to operate with multiple entities. Compared to the need of having multiple QuickBooks files for each entity, with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central you can house multiple entities with their own General Ledger all within a single environment. This allows you to easily switch between each entity, as well as send intercompany transactions to your other entities.
2. Your company’s inventory comes from multiple warehouses
QuickBooks’ inability to track inventory by location may be one of its biggest downfalls. If you have considerably large amounts of inventory and shipment orders with more than one warehouse, QuickBooks is too simple for your needs. Increasing inventory is a sign that your business is growing and doing well, but it is also a sign that your business requires more attention to its ERP needs. When considering genuine ERP solutions, you start to see functionality like quantity and cost per item per location, as well as a live look into the availability of that stock. From there you can run functions such as reservations or transfers to ensure your stock is where you need it for order fulfillment. These are common requirements we solve for growing companies with our Microsoft Dynamics BC implementations on a regular basis.
3. You have project accounting requirements
The small-scale tracking features of QuickBooks Online Plus might not be enough for your company’s needs. QuickBooks allows you to look at profitability, invoices and transactions for projects – but if you require an in-depth look at multiple projects at a time, it is not the best choice. If your business requires tracking time, expenses, background checks, invoicing and the ability to bill these to individual projects, you have outgrown the capabilities of QuickBooks. With Microsoft Dynamics BC, you can setup a job/project with a task list (work breakdown structure), budget by these tasks, then consume time and expenses to them. Following this, you can run automatic WIP calculations to recognize your WIP asset, and then you can bill for your jobs. With many billing methods available (i.e. T&M, Milestone) this functionality will save you time, while also giving you clear budget to actual insights into how your jobs are performing.
4. You frequently upload and export data
If you are manually entering data from other programs or outside systems, you should look away from QuickBooks as this will only become more and more time consuming and the likelihood of mistakes increases. Data entry and reliance on Microsoft Excel functions are simply not supported to the extent that your business may require on QuickBooks. With Microsoft Dynamics BC being on the Microsoft platform, you have import and export functionality right to excel. In addition, BC has open API availability to allow for integrations to all your required business solutions.
5. You met QuickBooks’ 30 user limit
Currently, QuickBooks offers multiple licenses to accommodate for how many users need to access the accounting software. The maximum users that can activate QuickBooks on a multi-user license goes up to 30 by increments of five users after you reach 10 total users. This limit is restricting if you require many users to input entries for payables, receivables and project accounting. Hitting this limit is also a clear sign your company has grown beyond its infant state. Now is the time to look for genuine SMB solutions as you continue to scale.
6. You manage customer and vendor relationships closely
If you want to keep close track of customer and vendor relationships, QuickBooks is not the ideal candidate to do so. QuickBooks is built as an accounting software and as your business grows, you may need to cultivate these relationships to sustain growth.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
When you are caught in the weeds of running a business, you are constantly challenged by new variables and problems. Sometimes the success of getting past these obstacles hides the opportunity to make the small improvements that can drastically affect the growth of your company. A robust and agile ERP or CRM software can make the difference in these situations.
Microsoft Dynamics BC is an ERP software customizable to your company that accommodates growing and mid-market organizations. It can be licensed for however many users your company requires and allows a more detailed overview for modules non-existent in QuickBooks, such as project accounting, warehousing, inventory planning and assembly. It also has the capability to complete multi entity transactions in a way that is very streamlined and trackable.
While QuickBooks is great for small organizations and startup companies, it struggles to accommodate growing companies and advanced ERP modules. Microsoft Dynamics BC is a great alternative that you might want to consider if you are experiencing or envision growth amongst the QuickBooks limitations above.
Need Help Migrating?
Whether you run a small or mid-sized business, Microsoft Dynamics BC can be incredibly beneficial for your company. It provides distinct advantages that allow you to transform and progress your business into the cloud with other advanced features and functionalities.
Do you want to determine whether migrating from QuickBooks to BC is perfect for your business? Schedule an assessment session with us now to gain much deeper knowledge about the migration process, including the cost, timeline and service offering.
Authors: Joshua Stove | [email protected] and Akshay Ganta | [email protected]
Contact Us
For more information on this topic, reach out to Withum’s CRM and ERP Consulting Services Team.
