The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to Quickbooks
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Table of Contents Introduction 1 Moving Beyond QuickBooks 2 The 10 Most Popular Upgrades 4 Dynamics GP 5 Intacct 7 Sage 300 ERP 9 SAP Business One 11 Sage 100 ERP 13 NetSuite 15 Dynamics NAV 17 Sage 100 Contractor 19 Denali Business + Accounting 21 Acumatica 23 Upgrade Options by Industry 25 Professional Services 26 Construction and Contracting 28 Distribution 30 Manufacturing 32 Non-Profit Organizations 34 Government Organizations 36 Property Management 38 Methodology 40 About Find Accounting Software 41 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Introduction With data from over 4,000 QuickBooks replacement reviews at our fingertips, we wanted to provide access to something software buyers have never had before: A breakdown of the most popular QuickBooks replacement alternatives based on actual reviews. Interested? Alright, then. Let’s start with a spoiler. The three most popular programs buyers considered when they were ready to move beyond QuickBooks were Dynamics GP, Intacct, and Sage 300 ERP. Given their overall popularity, each program makes a strong case as the place to start your consideration of QuickBooks alternatives. Then again, your company isn’t just any company. That’s why we’ve provided additional data on the most popular QuickBooks replacement products by industry, brief product profiles, and insight into the typical total project costs for buyers who have reviewed these software options. 1 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Moving Beyond QuickBooks So why do companies decide to replace QuickBooks? QuickBooks after all is used by millions of companies, offers a wide range of functionality, and many versions cost less than a year of cable television to run. When it comes to switching software, everyone has their reasons. But these are the common reasons buyers tell us they’re looking to upgrade from QuickBooks. We need more (or more customizable) reporting We want stronger security for access control, authorization, and approvals We’ve exceeded the file size limitations We run into performance issues when multiple users are accessing the software We want something scalable that can grow with our company We need something that is designed for our particular industry We’re looking for more comprehensive functionality (ie, CRM, project management, estimating, etc.) We need more knowledgeable, consultative support than what is provided We need more flexibility to handle our specific workflows To sum it up, when companies want to replace QuickBooks, it’s usually because they’ve simply outgrown it in some critical way. None of this means QuickBooks is a bad product. In fact, other than the operating systems and office productivity tools offered by Microsoft and Apple, perhaps no other business software has offered as much 2 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks value to so many small businesses at so low a price as QuickBooks has. Intuit, the developer responsible for QuickBooks, has simply decided to focus on developing a product for the smaller side of the small business market. With nearly 23 million non-employer firms and another 3 million businesses with fewer than 5 employees in the U.S., it’s not a bad strategy. Moreover, the nearly uninterrupted rise in Intuit’s stock price since its initial public offering in 1993, suggests they’re doing a pretty successful job of meeting the needs of this market base. There are a handful of other fantastic low-cost programs on the market that can be licensed at costs in the QuickBooks range (under $1000 a year). But for growing companies looking to upgrade beyond QuickBooks, programs like Xero, Sage 50, Wave, Freshbooks, and other entry-level accounting usually aren’t the most relevant choices. Overall, they provide a similar level of functionality as QuickBooks. But there are hundreds of programs that do provide a functional upgrade from QuickBooks for companies looking to support business expansion, seeking improved efficiency, or simply looking for broader feature support. Let’s take a closer look at the most popular among them. 3 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks The Ten Most Popular Upgrades Analyzing the products considered by 4,000+ buyers over the last five years revealed the following top 10 most commonly reviewed QuickBooks replacement products: While the products vary in terms of pricepoint, deployment (cloud/on- premise), and feature support, each owns a well-established history as a popular accounting software choice for the SMB market. 4 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Dynamics GP Dynamics GP is an accounting/ERP product developed by Microsoft. The product was originally released in 1993. The current version of Dynamics GP includes functionality supporting: Financial management and accounting Inventory management and operations Sales and services Business intelligence and reporting Human resources and payroll stry ve 5 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Dynamics GP is traditionally offered as an on-premise solution with upfront licensing fees and annual support/update fees. It can also be provisioned as a hosted solution on the Microsoft Azure platform. Subscription pricing is available. Pricing depends on a variety of factors, including which modules are licensed, user count, implementation requirements, training needs, and the extent of contracted supported services. Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Dynamics GP said they’d be willing to consider, rather than final purchase cost. 6 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Intacct Intacct was founded in 1999 and was one of the first web-based, cloud accounting products available for the SMB market. Intacct includes support for core accounting, financial reporting, billing, purchasing, sales and use tax, inventory management, and project accounting. The Intacct solution is particularly popular with professional services companies based on extensive support of time-based billing, ease of use for remote professionals, and strong project accounting features. 7 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks As a developer-hosted cloud option, licensing for Intacct is offered on a subscription basis. Pricing depends on a variety of factors, including which modules are licensed, user count, implementation requirements, training needs, and the extent of contracted supported services. Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Intacct said they’d be willing to consider over the course of 3 years of usage, rather than final purchase cost. 8 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Sage 300 ERP Sage 300 ERP is an accounting and business management solution. It was initially developed in 1976 and has had a number of name changes over the years. Many people still refer to it by the name Accpac, which Sage officially dropped from the product title in 2012. Along with core accounting, billing, human resources/payroll, inventory control, and purchasing, Sage 300 ERP also offers support for document management, customer relationship management (CRM), and project management. Because of the breadth of its functionality, Sage 300 ERP is popular across a wide variety of business types. 9 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Sage 300 ERP is available for both client/server and web-based, cloud deployments. Pricing depends on a variety of factors, including which modules are licensed, user count, implementation requirements, training needs, and the extent of contracted supported services. Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing Sage 300 ERP said they’d be willing to consider, rather than final purchase cost. 10 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks SAP Business One SAP is a name that many business management software buyers associate with the enterprise market. However, since 1996 SAP has offered SAP Business One as an ERP solution targeted specifically for the SMB market. SAP Business One offers functionality for accounting and financial management, customer relationship management (CRM), operations and distribution, and human resources management. Because of a focus on operations processes such as supply chain management, warehouse management, and production planning, SAP Business One is popular with distributors and manufacturers. 11 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks SAP is traditionally licensed for client/server deployments. However, via the SAP Business One Cloud option it is available as an authorized vendor-hosted option on a subscription (SaaS) basis. Pricing depends on a variety of factors, including which modules are licensed, user count, implementation requirements, training needs, and the extent of contracted supported services. Figures quoted are for the expected maximum price buyers reviewing SAP Business One said they’d be willing to consider, rather than final purchase cost. 12 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Sage 100 ERP Like the similarly named Sage 300 ERP program, Sage 100 ERP is another accounting and business management solution with a long history spanning a series of name changes. Sage 100 ERP provides accounting, inventory, order entry & billing, job cost, and manufacturing (work orders, bill of materials, and material requirements planning) functionality. 13 The Most Popular Upgrade Alternatives to QuickBooks Sage