How to Know If Your Business Has Outgrown QuickBooks Desktop

QuickBooks Desktop has always been the go-to accounting software for small businesses that are just starting out. Although it also serves the needs of early-stage or single-entity companies, many company owners find that they need something more complex as they scale, enter new markets, and add to their product offerings.

Many small and medium-sized companies use QuickBooks as their first financial software. It’s simple to use, common and provides basic features that can enable almost every organization to get up and running. However, suppose all goes well, and your company expands. In that case, you will quickly run into some of the limitations that will inevitably force so many QuickBooks desktop users to move to a more comprehensive accounting solution.

Questions to Ask If You Think That QuickBooks Desktop Is No Longer an Option

When your company expands, collecting and processing your financial data becomes more complicated, your supply chain is not the fine-tuned machine it used to be. The many workarounds you have in place are beginning to make you fear that you may not be able to keep up. Ask yourself:

Will the manual data entry continue to increase, along with the potential errors that come with it?

Are the endless spreadsheets failing to give you the perspective you need to make the right decisions? Do they spit a lot of raw data out with no real insight?

Do you have more than one system that runs similar processes?

Do you need to transfer data from one system to the next to keep everything informed?

If you’ve replied yes to all of these questions, it’s time to look forward. When you find yourself using so many workarounds that it seems more difficult and time-consuming to manage your companies than it should be, your only option is a QuickBooks upgrade or better yet, move up to a more robust business management solution that is ready for the next stage of your growth.

QuickBooks desktop users usually encounter four main issues that go unnoticed until it’s almost too late.

Using Excel For Financial Analysis

You need more complex financial features that are not available in QuickBooks and rely heavily on Excel to fill in blanks, for example:

• You need a more straightforward way to construct unified financial reports for several entities, or warehouses, while still monitoring each company separately.
• Complex real-time project accounting is required to track billable hours.

Too Many Applications

You use several different applications to complete an accounting task. This means that you will likely be working with reduced performance, less accurate data, and inadequate protection. A variety of solutions can work, but preferably they should be integrated with your financial accounting system to improve automation and reliability.

Companies that have outgrown QuickBooks may find themselves consolidating information across platforms for anything from cost and payroll reporting to CRM and inventory management. Each of these disparate solutions becomes an information silo at some point, making it more difficult to track what’s really going on in your business.

Some organizations get around this by opting to use a select few apps that can be combined with QuickBooks, but these resources might not be well-tailored to day-to-day needs for many businesses.

Too Many Manual Processes

You’re stuck in time-consuming day-to-day manual tasks or need to do a large portion of your accounting in complex spreadsheets. Excel is perfect for some things, but it’s not meant to be the answer to your accounting.

Moreover, excessive dependence on manual processes can lead to severe problems if only one or two people can complete certain accounting tasks in your organization.

A certain number of manual procedures, such as data entry, are relatively common for small businesses. But as you evolve, these processes become more and more time-consuming and more vulnerable to error. Avoid spending precious time and money on manual, tedious data entry, and upgrade to a solution that can be quickly implemented to reduce manual processes and establish a single source of information.

Lack of Inventory Management

You need inventory management features not provided by QuickBooks. For more sophisticated production and inventory features, you would need software for more than simple accounting. For example, backorder and partial shipments can be difficult to track in QuickBooks.

No Real-Time Information

For faster decision-making, you need deeper insight into your company. For starters, calculating your actual cash balance can be difficult or impossible in QuickBooks, and it takes too long to get financials every month. You can see up-to-the-minute details through the company with a comprehensive business solution, from financials to warehouse to customer service and all in between.

Switch to Spire or QuickBooks Upgrade?

Accounting software developed for growing organizations will help you minimize the issues with QuickBooks that you face. Here are only a few of the advantages of using Spire.

Greater Visibility

QuickBooks’ “class” functionality will prevent you from slicing and dicing information to the level you need to determine your company’s financial performance. With personalized reports, Spire provides more ways to break down and analyze results.

You can make crucial time-sensitive business decisions faster with real-time insights into your results.

Streamline Processes

You may find yourself exporting a lot of data to Excel or other programs to generate the reports you need if you’ve reached the limits of QuickBooks’ reporting capabilities. Spire is developed with reporting capabilities, so you don’t have to worry about error-prone data exports.

Easier Reporting

If you have numerous entities, you’ll struggle to generate the consolidated reports you need using QuickBooks. With access to all organizations and locations from a single username, Spire can provide multi-entity, multi-location, and multi-currency capabilities.

Scalability

Spire is built to scale so that as the company evolves, you can add users, organizations, locations, and more on the fly. You still will be able to adapt the program to fulfill your organization’s particular needs and make changes as you expand.

If QuickBooks Desktop is no longer a match for your company, then it’s time to start exploring alternatives. Why not get started with Spire? Let us show you how Spire will help grow your business faster and smarter.