Outgrowing QuickBooks and other small business financial solutions is inevitable, but sometimes it can be difficult to know when you need something more.
Can You Know When You’re Outgrowing QuickBooks?
QuickBooks has become the go-to for small businesses, but they do not always suit your business needs. This is especially true as your business grows.
However, you may have difficulty recognizing when it is time to move onto a more robust system. Is it when you have a certain number of employees or reach a certain profit margin?
Each business will have its own timeline, but the following are a few signs you can look out for when deciding when it is time to move forward.
1. Your Reporting Needs Are Becoming More Sophisticated
QuickBooks’ reports look clean, but they lack functionality. Functionalities as simple as sorting columns are either not available or extremely difficult to find. This requires users to export data to outside software like Excel to sort and analyze it.
Forecasting and BI tools are also lacking, which leaves users to use outside sources to fulfill their forecasting needs.
Dashboards, which can be extremely helpful in reports, are also limited. Without ways to configure the dashboards, users have to rely on basic dashboards that don’t suit their individual needs. Additionally, with only a few select dashboards to choose from, users do not have the ability to view the dashboards that would be most helpful for them.
Configuring reports, utilizing forecasting, and viewing various dashboards are essential for growing businesses. If your business has reached a point where you need these capabilities in order to continue to grow, it is a big sign that you need a more robust solution.
2. Customer Support Cannot Answer Your Questions
With QuickBooks, your support questions are rarely operated by someone with accounting or finance experience, which slows down support and implementation, causing excessive back-and-forth without a resolution. Reviews show that implementation takes much longer than promised, and getting customer service is extremely difficult.
If you find that your business requires more experienced, dedicated support than what QuickBooks offers, it could be a sign that you need a solution with a dedicated team of well-trained financial professionals.
3. You Have Multiple Entities
As a software focused on small businesses, QuickBooks has limited functionality with businesses that have multiple entities.
Each entity requires its own implementation, which takes time. You cannot copy over your settings and business aspects like the chart of accounts, account dimensions, suppliers, or customers, which elongates the implementation time. With such an involved implementation process, it can take days or weeks, depending on the size of the company, to set up the new account.
On top of this, QuickBooks has no multi-entity consolidation. This means that executives and finance professionals cannot get a clear view of the consolidated business without manually comparing the individual business’ financial data.
If you have multiple entities, you may find that you have already outgrown QuickBooks.
4. Your Fixed Assets Needs Are Growing
While QuickBooks has recently attempted to improve their fixed assets features, they still fall far behind the needs of mid-sized businesses. Without a specific tab for fixed assets, executives and financial professionals are left with an unfinished picture of their fixed assets.
Their general asset capabilities are also lacking. There is no built-in method for group assets, which leaves users to find a manual work-around.
If your business has a number of fixed assets, or if you want to easily and accurately track and report on your fixed assets, QuickBooks may be too limited for your business.
5. You Are Experiencing Integration Issues
QuickBooks boasts a number of integrations, but they are often clunky and do not integrate well. Some require additional costs, some force a new account creation on the integrated system, and there are some important integrations, like Stripe, that QuickBooks simply does not have at the time of this blog. These limitations can become overwhelming as a business grows.
If you have to put a significant amount of time or money into integrations or outside sources, you may need a more robust system.
6. You Need Automated Workflows
As your business grows, workflows become more important because they ensure efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, QuickBooks does not offer any automated workflows. If users need to get approval for an invoice or to complete timekeeping and billing, it requires manual work, which is prone to error and becomes tedious when a business starts to grow.
If your financial workflows are becoming tedious, it might be a sign that you need a solution that automates your financial workflows, from bank postings and reconciliation to timekeeping and project billing.
7. You Want to Work with a Solution that is Focused on Helping You
With an overload of hidden fees and unannounced changes in its pricing and user interface, QuickBooks can keep your company from growing. If you find yourself without the help you need, whether from the system’s functionality or customer service, it may be a sign that you need to move to a solution that focuses on a win-win outcome.
Look for Alternatives When You Are Outgrowing QuickBooks
Whether you are a small, mid-sized, or large business, there are alternatives out there. For mid-sized and large businesses, a composable cloud ERP solution is the perfect fit. With robust finance capabilities, including reporting and analytics, budgeting and forecasting, accounts receivable and payable, electronic workflows, and more, Xledger raises the bar for what financial solutions can look like.
We are dedicated to helping our customers reach new heights with experienced support and consultancy. Book a demo to see our system in action.