What’s next after Quick Books?

 As companies grow they may start to hit a financial management wall.  Sometimes they hit that wall early, and other times they can see it coming and start to plan.  They may set up new entities or expand internationally and need consolidation or currencies.  They may be a manufacturing or distribution company with a rapidly expanding inventory and need production management capabilities.  They may have very demanding reporting requirements and tight deadlines and need detailed budget and forecast analysis.

 In a previous article we discussed the key factors involved in deciding whether an upgrade from QuickBooks was needed.  Now we need to review some alternatives and discuss the pitfalls of upgrading.   There is clearly life after QuickBooks that could include any of the following solutions: Intacct Enterprise, NetSuite, QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions and Sage MAS 90.  

 If we are considering next level solutions, we have now moved beyond typical features such as general ledgers, accounts receivable and payable and inventory. We are now looking for features that support the needs of larger organizations, which include increased limits to the numbers of users, transactions and managed data as well as more sophisticated manufacturing, inventory and asset management.

 For many companies, Quickbooks Enterprise has obvious attractions.  It has the same look and feel as other standard QuickBooks versions.  While standard QuickBooks Premier supports up to five people, Enterprise can support up to 30 users in distributed locations and accommodates up to 100,000 or more customers, vendors, products and employees. Enterprise also offers detailed control over permissions, which provides employees with access to only the information and activities that they need to perform their duties.

 For many users, perhaps most attractive is Enterprise’s intuitive interface, which is the same as the standard QuickBooks. However, as you might expect, installing server or multi-user host options for Enterprise is more involved than installing stand-alone QuickBooks. Even though we are now looking at pricing that starts at $3,000 for 5 users and goes up to $9,000 – this is still at the low end of next generation accounting systems.   A key benefit is that for most staff, they will continue to access the system and manage their activities in the same way they have always done them.  For Professional Service Firms, and manufacturers and distributors without complex production planning and inventory management problems, QuickBooks Enterprise has been a popular solution.

 I have also found that reporting can still be a challenge at this level, and even with high-end ERP systems.  ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning systems are very popular with mid to large companies and aim to support every activity in the company.  In general ERP means big bucks – especially for the implementation consultants.  It also often means failed or ineffective solutions.  In future articles I will discuss some other mid-range solutions as well as some approaches to the challenge of more complex financial reporting.