quickbooks enterprise

Has your business outgrown QuickBooks? 

 Along with Intuit’s various product offerings, QuickBooks has been the go-to accounting software for small businesses across North America for years. Today, small growing companies can consider Pro, Plus, Enterprise and even Online (QBO) versions of QuickBooks, with many add-ons to meet growing demands. Although Intuit has done an excellent job of providing different software options, the reality is that QuickBooks and all its versions are designed for small businesses but offer little room for growth. The lack of scalability and flexibility leaves owners feeling the limits of their accounting software. 

Business Growth

The growth of a business isn’t always measured by profit revenue or how many employees it has. Loss of time, productivity and employee engagement are contributing factors to why a business can be stagnant. Growth is also seen in changes to processes for meeting customer demands. Acquiring new equipment and product lines or ensuring regulatory compliance may also be considered “growth.” With the various ways business owners face growth, scalable software is needed to keep up and help the business maintain its success. 

Many small and medium-sized companies use one version or another of QuickBooks as their first financial software. It’s simple to use, well known and provides basic features that enable almost every organization to get up and running. However, when all goes well and your company expands, you quickly run into some limitations that will inevitably force many QuickBooks Desktop users to move to a more comprehensive accounting and business management solution.

Are you feeling the limitations of QuickBooks? 

Collecting and processing your financial and operational data becomes more complicated when your company expands. Your supply chain is not the fine-tuned machine you thought it was, and the many workarounds you have in place are beginning to make you fear that you may be unable to keep up. To help evaluate if you’ve outgrown QuickBooks and all its versions, ask yourself a few questions:

  • Do we need to be entering data manually? Are there more integrated or automated ways to get the information we need into the system?
  • Are we managing some or most of our inventory outside of QuickBooks? In spreadsheets or add-ons? 
  • Are we paying for more than one system or application to meet our requirements? 
  • Are we transferring data from one system to the next to keep everything current?
  • Do we have the flexibility to manage inventory between warehouses?
  • Can we easily update prices and projects based on accurate inventory counts? 
  • Can we customize quotes and manage partial shipments, backorders and RMA’s well?

If the answers to these questions are less than optimal, it might be a good sign that it’s time to look forward. However, moving forward isn’t always so easy. QuickBooks users will often consider staying within the QuickBooks family because the jump to a complete ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution is too much. Too much learning, too much time, too much money. Up until now. 

Spire is your upgrade from QuickBooks 

Switching to Spire from QuickBooks has never been so simple. Spire has become a solution to the problems QuickBooks users face. Our business management solution is designed to give your business ERP power without the hefty ERP ticket price. With all our modules fully integrated, Spire gives you the power of an ERP without requiring so many extra apps and add-ons. Spire includes a conversion tool specifically designed to migrate all of your current and historical QuickBooks Desktop (Pro, Premier and Enterprise editions) data without losing any information.

Now is the right time. Switch to Spire and start working with software that is made to grow with your company.

Schedule a free, no-obligation discovery call and let’s see if Spire is right for you. 

 

What Accounting Software to Use for Your Startup

A startup business needs reliable accounting software to streamline business transactions. It can be an overwhelming process of trying to choose the best accounting software package for a business. A small business owner may have difficulty deciding how to find the right small business accounting software, particularly if they have an understanding of accounting practices. There are several options in the market, each with its own set of unique features.

Finding accounting software for a startup needs to be broken down into your basic financial software requirements. There’s plenty to choose from, so you should select the best one that best suits your company’s needs. Good accounting software needs to cover basic features from financial statement creation, accounts payable, accounts receivable to payroll, account reconciliation, and tax reporting.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is an easy-to-learn accounting program and has been around since 1984. It’s proven to be one of the more popular accounting packages for small business startups. It has the standard double-entry, along with audit trail capabilities, but its simple interface doesn’t allow for a lot of customization. You’ll be able to print standard reports and invoices, but as your business grows, you may find it difficult trying to create more detailed reports that your accountant requires.

Sage 50 First Step Accounting

Sage 50 First Step Accounting offers similar features to QuickBooks, and is a simpler form of Sage 50 Premium Accounting. As with QuickBooks or FreshBooks, there are few customization options, those requiring an upgrade to the premium edition. Sage 50 First Step Accounting can be purchased for a one-time fee, and updates must be done regularly.

FreshBooks

Freshbooks is a bit different from Sage 50 Accounting or QuickBooks Desktop in that it is web-based, and you must set up an online account to log into. There is a free limited version, or you can choose the full-featured system for a monthly fee. The added benefit of a web-based accounting program is that you won’t waste time with software updates to be installed. Those are all done on the website. The downfall is that Freshbooks will only do expense reports, whereas QuickBooks will tackle the whole picture by tracking expenses and income together. Freshbooks does offer time tracking and invoicing, which is great for one-person shops. Another neat feature is that offering customers a credit card payment solution is included in the package, not a monthly paid add-on like Quickbooks. If you do most of your business online, this can be a time-saving feature,that may just encourage more sales.

An entry-level accounting system can have limitations. Once your business is expanding, it’ll be worth looking into purchasing a more advanced accounting software that can give you more insight into your business operations. There may also be a lack of sophisticated reporting methods that will impact how you will make your decisions to grow your business.

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