Why do businesses use QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is usually the first choice for small start-ups because it’s the most affordable accounting option that can be used to manage the financial basics when starting a company or transitioning from a spreadsheet based systems. For those unfamiliar with this software, QuickBooks is a set of solutions offered by Intuit that provide the tools to manage payroll, inventory, and sales. QuickBooks systems are designed for small business, more specifically start-up businesses that would require no more than 30 employees.
How can it be hurting your business?
There’s no question about it, QuickBooks is a great accounting solution for startup businesses with smaller customer bases and less sophisticated operational processes. However, once your company starts to grow past a certain point, on either a global or product basis (or both), you’ll quickly find that you need a much more robust business management system to manage your business. We’ve found that the following issues are good signs that it’s time to upgrade your business management/accounting software.
Manual Entry: Many companies using QuickBooks find themselves eventually having to perform a significant amount of manual entry at one point or another, as the system does not allow for much integration when it comes to the more complex operational aspects within the business. This can lead to a significant amount of time being lost and the increased risk of human error during entry. While QuickBooks does provide additional options for inventory management, customers can only attain these features through a separate module offered in the Platinum subscriptions.
Loss of Money from System Downtime: The software is also frequented with complaints, typically from larger businesses, about system failures and bugs. While this may not be a huge issue for a relatively smaller business, it can cause serious issues for a growing company not able to handle the resulting system downtime caused by these failures.
Difficulty Managing Multiple Entities: Lastly, when a company has more than one entity and they need to consolidate financial reports, QuickBooks becomes a very frustrating system to use; in that users end up having to setup a separate file for each entity and post transactions separately. This can become a huge headache for companies looking to efficiently complete these tasks and maintain accurate results.
So what can I do if QuickBooks isn’t enough for my business?
When your business begins to expand to a certain point, it will inevitably outgrow the functionality available with basic accounting software and require a more comprehensive business management system like Sage 100. If QuickBooks just isn’t cutting it for your business needs, it may be time to look into upgrading. Sage 100 offers an array of modules for businesses to manage everything from Financials & Accounting, to Customer Relationship Management, to Project and Time Management, and more. Not only that, but the standard modules provided, like inventory management, have much more elaborate capabilities that allow businesses to complete activities such as customizable labeling and real-time cycle counting to ensure accurate to-date inventory levels round the clock.
Still Have Questions?
For more information about Sage software and how it can help your specific business needs, contact us at Crescent SCS by calling (562) 981-0125 or by sending an email to dhensen@crescentsw.net. You can also visit us online at http://crescentsw.net
