As your business grows, you’ve likely come across frustrating limitations using QuickBooks, ranging from unreliable reporting to time-consuming manual processes. While QuickBooks is a good entry-level accounting system for small businesses, there comes a time when its limitations actually hinder your company’s growth efforts.
Here are five signs your business is ready to move beyond QuickBooks to a system that offers more robust financial-management and accounting functions.
1. Too much time is being spent manually entering data that could be automated
Entering data manually is a costly, cumbersome process. If your team spends an inordinate amount of time entering data into journal entries or Excel spreadsheets, then QuickBooks is not doing you any favors. Not only is this method inefficient, it also creates the potential for errors in data transfers and Excel formulas. More advanced systems offer ways to automate these processes helping save time, improve reporting accuracy and ease the burden on your finance team by automating month-end close and reporting, billings and many other accounting processes.
2. You’re in need of more robust reports
QuickBooks has limited reporting abilities, meaning your team can spend hours collecting and interpreting data without sometimes even getting the decision-making data you need. This is an issue that will only worsen as your business progresses. Consider a solution that offers real-time financial and operational reporting at all levels – top-level, entity and individual transactions. This will make it easier than ever to access customized data, the way you want it, when you want it.
3. QuickBooks doesn’t integrate with your other systems
If you’re unable to integrate your key business systems, such as payroll or CRM, with QuickBooks, you’re likely entering the same data into each system to produce individual reports that must be manually compiled. Avoid this time-consuming re-entry process and get a comprehensive picture of your finances and potential growth by investing in a more integrative management system.
4. Access to your information is limited
If your team is unable to access essential information from locations other than their desks, productivity is not reaching its potential. Leveraging a cloud-based system allows your team to access information from anywhere with an internet connection. Some even have mobile capabilities to allow you to access data, and even approve transactions, on the go. Having this information at your fingertips can increase workplace productivity and drive efficiencies.
5. You’re running a complex, growing business
If your company has significantly grown in complexity since starting with QuickBooks, you may find that it is becoming increasingly harder to get what you’re looking for out of the system. By adding business entities and locations, especially international locations, your reporting and functionality needs change. Look to a more scalable solution that can adapt and grow with your organization and provide the right financial controls, compliance and auditability.
If you believe that your company has outgrown QuickBooks and is ready to move to a more viability system, you may want to consider Sage Intacct. It offers a sophisticated, user-friendly solution to your QuickBook woes with features like automated reporting processes, multi-entity support, shared charts of accounts, smart revenue recognition and on-the-go data access.
Want to learn more about Sage Intacct, or determine if it’s the right solution for your business?