You have had a long and productive relationship with your accounting software. It all started as a young business with simple needs. However, you have matured and your once simple requirements have become much more complex. QuickBooks has also evolved and managed to hold your interest for a while. But what now? Is it time to end this apparent match made in small business heaven?
Here are some probing questions to help you make this difficult decision:
1. Do you use many disconnected spreadsheets to help manage operations?2. Are your accounting activities isolated from the rest of the business?3. Do you waste time with redundant data entry?4. Do you have reporting needs that are not met by standard QuickBooks reporting capabilities?5. Do you need better data analytics than QuickBooks can provide?6. Do you need tighter internal controls?7. Is QuickBooks performance reduced due to the amount of data or number of users?
If you answered “yes” to at least a couple of these questions, it may be time for an upgrade. As the accounting software industry is slowly shifting away from premise based systems to cloud based systems, many growing businesses are moving toward more powerful and scalable ERP solutions. These systems are designed for efficiency and to enhance business intelligence reporting. An ERP system could be the “next best thing” for your company.
In closing, let us take this opportunity to state how much we love QuickBooks! We are expert QuickBooks users and (as of the date of this article) we use QuickBooks for our own business accounting system. The point of this article is to acknowledge that growing companies will eventually need more from an accounting system than QuickBooks can provide. It can be hard for a business to leap to a next-level system but if you struggle with the above issues, it may be time.
