Millions of businesses utilize QuickBooks to keep their finances in order, but perhaps they shouldn’t. The business world is a different place than it was when this accounting software came out. Over the last several decades, updated technology has provided myriad new financial analysis, reporting, and bookkeeping features. In many cases, these optimized operations have outpaced QuickBooks. These other choices may become increasingly enticing, especially as your enterprise expands. In this new digital atmosphere of accounting, many companies are considering other options. As difficult as it may be to say “goodbye” to QuickBooks, making this transition could be the best possible solution for your business.
In any case, SCS Cloud is here to help you determine which software is right for your needs and preferences. We created our quiz to help you decide for yourself if it’s time to switch from QuickBooks. Once you’ve taken part one, continue on with part two, below.
QuickBooks may have done your company well for many years, but is it sufficient anymore? In its report, “Why Fast-Growing Companies Leave QuickBooks and Adopt Cloud Financials to Accelerate Growth,” NetSuite points out: “over the years, QuickBooks has become the de facto standard financial software for small businesses,” but “in many instances, QuickBooks is inadequate.” This software provides the fundamental functions necessary to manage company accounts, but it lacks the speed, power, and connectivity required to truly boom your business. Chances are, your enterprise can’t really handle all of its accounting needs in this single piece of software.
Just because you have QuickBooks set up on your work computer doesn’t mean you’re actually doing your accounting in this program anymore. As technology advances and better features come to the fore, you might start moving some operations to other software. You can pretend that QuickBooks lays the groundwork for your financial operations, but if you’re adding on one, two, three assorted applications just to cover your basic needs, QuickBooks really isn’t working for you.
In “The Top Five Signs Your Business Has Reached the Limits of QuickBooks" NetSuite notes that you might need to make a change if “your needs have become much more complex than when you first bought QuickBooks, and you’ve filled the gaps with other software packages, Excel spreadsheets, or home-grown applications.” Cobbling together solutions to make up for QuickBooks’ deficiencies and “cheating” on your once-beloved software is troublesome in more ways than one. In addition to being a red flag for the program itself, having “your finance staff spread their attention across as many as half a dozen different applications” creates a “constant risk of errors, especially when relying on the foibles of custom-built spreadsheets or software.”
InStruggling with all sorts of side software systems to correct for QuickBooks’ flaws could be the worst possible scenario for your business. In its “Why Fast-Growing Companies Leave QuickBooks and Adopt Cloud Financials to Accelerate Growth,” NetSuite highlights this problem: “Because of QuickBooks’ limitations, companies are often forced to grow by adding more systems or applications…which often aren’t integrated with each other” and can cause “a complex ‘applications hairball’” that “increases the risks of errors, can hurt the customer experience and can limit growth.” Hanging on to the software that seemed so revolutionary when you first founded your company but has now become dated could seriously damage your business today. If this is your answer to QuickBooks quandaries, it may be time to cut ties and move on.
One reason you may be tempted to “cheat” on QuickBooks is that it is very difficult to adapt this entrenched accounting software according to new needs. Yes, QuickBooks is an established software system, which provides a sense of familiarity, but this strength is also the system’s greatest downfall. QuickBook’s code is just not as flexible, making each minor change a headache. If you consider the time, work, and effort that would be required to put together an entirely new process—say, for a new product, region, or invoicing practice—the task might seem close to impossible. This is often when businesses would start shopping around for those dreaded add-ons, software systems that can handle the specific feature you want to add but could jumble your books in the process.
Weighing the risks of attempting to run multiple account software applications at once against the intrinsic restrictions of QuickBooks, you might start to ogle other options. If you’ve begun to hear about the heightened functionality of competing software from colleagues, at conferences, or even when you do yet another online search about how to repair a QuickBooks problem, this could be a sign that you’re ready to go beyond your existing software.
In his 2014 Forbes article “Why Your Company May Dump QuickBooks This Year,” Gene Marks saw this conundrum coming. In this prescient piece, he spoke directly to QuickBooks-using businesses: “Believe it or not, your company is about to be part of an enormous wave of change in the next few years.” He illustrated the scene: “In the next few years it’s inevitable that you’re going to replace your on-premise QuickBooks system for something cloud-based,” due to the inherent speed, security, and other benefits of cloud-based software. He argued that when companies “take that opportunity to look around” they’ll likely “discover there are some interesting alternatives.” Marks suggested that unprecedented numbers of businesses would make the switch to cloud-based “applications that have been built from the ground up and support a better, more flexible web-based architecture.” What Marks saw so clearly even three years ago is that cloud-based programs are the future of accounting software. Through their innovation and intuitive interfaces, these systems may make more limited programs like QuickBooks obsolete.
Our experienced software specialists have made it our mission to help you enjoy the business software you truly desire, rather than trying to cheat your way around sub-par options. We can assist you with every step of your transition from QuickBooks, from consulting to custom development to implementation to support. To find out more and schedule your free consultation, contact SCS Cloud today.
Continue on with the rest of this QuickBooks-centric series.