It can be a difficult process – replacing QuickBooks.
As companies grow, they face escalating management requirements which force them to automate financial management processes to effectively position for competitive growth. Specifically, today’s fast growing businesses reliant upon QuickBooks also need to comply with increasingly complex revenue recognition guidelines – and 24/7 mobile business demands.
The reality is, most traditional mid-market accounting systems – QuickBooks – are not designed to handle this increased complexity and many organizations are forced to use manual spreadsheets to manage their revenue recognition and billing processes. By leveraging a financial management system, such as a robust Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, companies can automate these processes and benefit significantly in higher finance productivity, faster close processes, and simplified compliance.
Still, the proposition of replacing QuickBooks is daunting for some businesses. Why? Many small to mid-sized companies initially relied on QuickBooks to meet their revenue and expense tracking needs and to help them keep financial processes organized and compliant with state and federal regulations during the early years of business development and market expansion.
As companies grow, they begin to see that QuickBooks cannot track revenues, expenses and profitability across multiple business units or present a real-time visibility into the financial operation of the business. One day, a set of ledgers or independent accounting transactions is not enough – more complex end-to-end business processes and reports are required.
With this realization comes the acknowledgement that using an on-premise accounting application is just not enough – even if it is the great and powerful QuickBooks. Today, more and more industry analysts assert that over the next few years it will be inevitable that more small to mid-sized businesses will replace on-premise QuickBooks for an ERP solution, with increasing focus on the opportunities available to smaller businesses by leveraging cloud-based ERP alternatives.
So, are you replacing QuickBooks?
If your fast growing business is on the verge of replacing QuickBooks and beginning to ponder life with QuickBooks alternatives, keep these points in mind:
- How can your business grow with better accounting management? Now more than ever, your ability to manage growth, control costs and respond rapidly to change is directly related to the flexibility and scalability of your enterprise systems and financial services software. Managing high growth is critical because a doubling of revenues in financial services can create exponential increases in business data. Integration to other systems is essential for smooth operations and real-time accounting information.
- Are you ready to face new challenges – with QuickBooks? Industry consolidation, increasing regulation, determined competition, and sophisticated customers raise both challenges and opportunities for your financial institution. A focus on cost reduction, sales efficiency, product and service differentiation, and customer advocacy can lead to an increased wallet share, but only if supported by flexible and adaptable business software. Regulatory bodies and audit firms advocate the need for improved financial governance, yet many businesses still deal with disparate financial data sources. While departmental spreadsheets and legacy systems may provide adequate financial accounting today, as the need for centralized financial information and financial visibility increases, they quickly lose viability.
- Do you need a multi-entity focus? As companies grow, they often need to track revenues, expenses and profitability across multiple business units. Rather than create multiple instances of financial information for each entity which must be consolidated manually into an Excel spreadsheet. If this sounds familiar, realize that you can automate this process with cloud-based ERP. Over time, successful companies grow. Whether through acquisition or organic growth, more and more companies are wrestling with the complexities of managing multiple business entities. ERP solutions understand that managing disparate, often global business units offers unique challenges and opportunities with respect to tighter control, reduced operational cost, multinational settlement, and financial consolidation for enterprise-wide visibility. To support these growing needs, ERP financial software offers robust multi-company, multi-plant or multi-warehouse operations, as well as inter-company transaction processing, and meets the needs of strong financial management on a global basis.
- Guess what? Real-time financial and operational visibility is pretty cool! Many companies are looking to gain better real-time visibility into their business. The need for a multi-dimensional view of financial management process is driving many companies to replace QuickBooks. You know, if you integrate your sales and service functions for streamlined, end-to-end financial management you can improve financial reporting and compliance – and provide better business intelligence for a greater ROI.
- Your payroll can be better organized, too! With ERP software solutions, you can create a more productive and satisfied workforce and reduce administrative time and expenses with human resource management and payroll management tools and functions. You can simplify payroll administration, automate tasks, and ensure your HR data is accurate and complete.
- Cloud-based accounting will make your financial management more productive! Cloud accounting solutions are more accessible and – wait for it – mobile! As opposed to traditional on-premises QuickBooks alternatives, cloud-based ERP allows businesses to track and manage accounting processes 24/7 and are highly customizable and easily configurable to meet the financial management requirements of your business. With cloud-based accounting software – ideal for small to mid-sized enterprises – you can have access to financial data in real-time and collaborate with colleagues 24/7 as long as you have an Internet connection.
Whether you are considering replacing QuickBooks because you are opening new locations this year and will require a multi-entity focus, or you are interested in being more productive with a cloud-based ERP solution, the choice is yours.
Ready to replace QuickBooks? Find out if you are a QuickBooks graduate!