NetSuite vs QuickBooks [A Guide]

If your business is experiencing growing pains or you are simply ready to move away from Excel spreadsheets to a more comprehensive financial management solution, then you are likely looking at accounting solutions such as QuickBooks and Oracle NetSuite. While both solutions help businesses looking for stronger accounting support, it is important to realize that these two enterprise systems are, in fact, very different.

To determine the best solution for your business, it is important to first consider your company’s specific needs, projected growth, and short-and long-term plans, then compare these against each platform’s offerings.

In this guide, we will put Oracle NetSuite vs. QuickBooks. By demonstrating what each platform brings to the table, you can make a stronger decision as to which solution may be right for your company.

Who should use Oracle NetSuite vs. QuickBooks?

QuickBooks is a great small business bookkeeping software choice for companies just getting established. It is fairly easy to use, making it a go-to solution for most startups or smaller companies looking for a quick fix.

The software allows for the creation and management of custom invoices, check printing, and automated online banking. Data can be accessed from mobile devices and automatically syncs to a dashboard for real-time viewing of reports and accounts. QuickBooks allows exporting of data to Excel, QuickBooks Online Payroll, and Intuit GoPayment software.

Oracle NetSuite is a full business management software suite that is suitable for small companies looking for a comprehensive solution to support business processes as well as established companies ready to expand. Many companies make the move to NetSuite once they feel they’ve outgrown QuickBooks’ limitations, but the customizable modularity of this integrated software solution makes it an excellent choice for even smaller companies.

Oracle NetSuite is the #1 business management system on the market for a reason. As an all-in-one suite of cloud-based applications—including financials and accounting, CRM, e-commerce, HCM, and professional services automation management— NetSuite is best suited to provide an provides an integrated solution that boosts efficiency for businesses of all sizes.

Features of NetSuite include:

• Management of cash flow and revenue.
• Complete automation of quote-to-order fulfillment.
• Automatic integration with eCommerce and customer relationship management (CRM) software.
• Integrated budgeting, forecasting, and planning functions.
• Real-time consolidation of multi-subsidiary financial data.

Oracle NetSuite vs. QuickBooks

In addition to key differences in solution offerings, QuickBooks and Oracle NetSuite also differ in pricing, reporting, global business support, and data entry capabilities. Below you’ll find how the two software platforms compare in each of these areas.

Pricing

QuickBooks boasts a fairly low price that makes it attractive to small and startup businesses. However, this metric may be misleading. It’s important to account for all of the additional services you may be paying for that could be included in the cost of NetSuite versus QuickBooks. This might include solutions to manage customer relationships, e-commerce, PSA, and any other systems or controls your business needs.

Because NetSuite features pay-as-you-go pricing, it can be adapted to fit companies with as few as 10 employees as well as companies with more than 1,000 employees. It is web-based, so your business won’t need to purchase all of the infrastructures that other accounting solutions typically require.

Reporting

For bookkeeping software, QuickBooks may handle accounting well but it misses the mark on financing. Basically, it can’t handle more advanced, strategic financing and forecasting. If you need to run a report or trace an audit it simply cannot do these things efficiently. The software lacks the ability to generate real-time reports which are essential for quick decision making, especially in rapid growth phases. Financial forecasting is also another aspect that QuickBooks fails to assist CFO’s and controllers with. The solution that these roles are calling for is cloud-based ERP so that they can access KPIs from anywhere and anytime, run reports and make important decisions.

NetSuite’s real-time reporting provides timely analysis and drives informed decision-making based on current, up-to-the-moment data. Reporting is endless and custom reports can be made by the user right within NetSuite. Access to all of your business information and custom reports can be accessed anytime, from any device.

While QuickBooks has a variety of built-in reports, advanced reporting must be added to customize reports and unlock other critical business insights.

Global Business Support

Businesses with multiple locations require multiple systems to keep track of important data. When the data is separated in different locations it is harder to find the key performance indicators in order to make decisions. Lack of communication between locations can create problems with inventory levels and other important resources. When data is stored in one universal place, it is easily accessible from multiple locations without having to be reconciled.

NetSuite offers what is termed “global fluency” in regulatory, monetary, and linguistic areas. If you decide to do business with other countries, it is all managed in the same system.

QuickBooks bookkeeping software does not support multi-currencies.

Data Entry

NetSuite eliminates time-wasting double data entry. NetSuite has set the standard for accurate, synchronized data streams throughout your entire business—including inventory management, accounting, fulfillment and shipping, project management, and workflows.

QuickBooks provides business finance and accounting tools only. Its core offering is its bookkeeping software. Any other solutions will need to be integrated.

Training and Staff Support

Both QuickBooks and Netsuite provide setup services and training as well as some assistance in identifying business solutions. However, only NetSuite Solution Providers put a team of certified experts at your disposal to guide companies and their employees through NetSuite support, solutions, and strategies for success. Companies looking for staff support or training, or simply to add modules as they expand, have ready solutions at their disposal.

What is the Best Alternative to Quickbooks?

In a recent conversation on Quora called, “What are the best alternatives to Quickbooks Online?” various accounting software users chimed in with their opinions. Obviously, the best alternatives depend on how large your business is and what your requirements are. While the responses contained a great deal of information and advice, they failed to address the best alternatives for QuickBooks in regards to companies that are growing rapidly.

Countless companies use QuickBooks when they are just starting out. They continue to grow, but their software can’t grow with them. Ultimately, their ability to operate and compete becomes difficult. This is when they need to start searching for the best alternative to QuickBooks.

Symptoms of a Company Looking for the Best Alternatives to Quickbooks

Recently, we spoke with a wholesale distribution company who told us that every time they would create an invoice it would take QuickBooks seven minutes to load it. To deal with this, they would go outside and take a break. Imagine dealing with hundreds of orders a week and having to wait seven minutes each time. That 11 hours of wasted time, every week, just waiting for QuickBooks to process. Their large inventory was overloading the application and it would come to a grinding halt.

This sounds extreme, but these are the kinds of anecdotes we hear regularly. Here are some other signs it might be time for a change:

• You need up-to-the-minute reporting, but you can’t get it until it’s too late.
• You’re wasting time playing “hunt the spreadsheet” because you’re doing more accounting outside QuickBooks than in it.
• You’re losing sales because the sales team can’t get access to the customer’s financials

While QuickBooks is often the go-to financial software for small businesses, many business owners find it to be inadequate as they experience growth. The disadvantages of QuickBooks are plenty˘—lack of reporting capabilities, e-commerce tools, and other functionalities you might expect from your financial system. So how is QuickBooks failing today’s businesses? Let’s take a look.

Lack of Real-time Reporting

With QuickBooks, data can become buried within multiple systems that don’t communicate competently with one another. Rather than spending time on analysis and decision-making, employees have to hunt for data. Oftentimes, the data they are hunting for is out of date or incomplete because it comes from various locations.

With cloud-based financials, data is presented in real-time from anywhere. This real-time access to data allows for better time management and quicker reaction time for decision-makers.

Manual Processes

When data is manually transferred between systems and departments, it is prone to becoming lost in daily business operations. Data entry is prone to a more significant number of errors because it is manually added. Incorrect information, such as addresses, can be shared and distributed due to a lack of communication between departments. When data exists in one aligned program, updates to account records are visible by interested parties who need the most accurate information.

Manual entry requires employees to spend time entering information, leading to an increase in errors. Incorrect customer data could be present, leading to important documents (like bills and invoices) being sent to the wrong places. Approval time for decisions is slower because documents can become lost, and valuable time is spent to match them to other records.

Data entry on cloud-based financial software is seamless. Once entered, the data is visible to various departments and employees and can be easily updated to ensure the most accurate information is available.

It Becomes Harder to Track Activity 

Where ERP really begins to show its strengths is in giving you a complete picture of what is really going on. It is important to pay attention to finished inventory, the supply chain, raw materials inventory, as well as making accurate financial forecasts. QuickBooks is really good at one thing—accounting/bookkeeping—but in today’s market, it takes a bit more than that to stay ahead of the curve.

Solutions like NetSuite provide up-to-date information with complete visibility which tracks activity in one cohesive platform.

Insufficient E-Commerce Support

Customers have come to expect a certain standard while shopping online. When there’s a lack of visibility into stock levels, for instance, customers grow frustrated and turn to other companies that run faster, more efficiently, and where they know they can get what they want when they want it. On the business side, when data is siloed in various systems, sales and marketing teams can’t properly analyze information to target specific campaigns. Without proper targeting, you could end up with a host of inventory issues.

Using cloud-based software allows companies to have better online customer service and conversion rates due to readily available, accurate data.

Accounting Time

Unlike many cloud-based financial software programs, QuickBooks has a limited set of accounting functions. This lack of functionality means several applications must be used to complete the job. Wait, what?! Businesses are growing and changing rapidly, and legacy software systems can’t handle complex business processes like recurring billing. This inability to advance with businesses makes it difficult to expand into new locations and product lines. These systems lack fundamentals that adapt to industry-specific requirements like prepayments.

Cloud-based software solutions offer integrated solutions for recurring billing and global expansion including multiple currencies and tax rates.

Find the right solution for your long-term goals

Functionality needs, expectations, and budgets will vary from business to business, especially between newly established businesses and maturing businesses ready to expand. However, businesses looking to achieve synergy between departments are more likely to find that benefit through a comprehensive system like NetSuite. To truly determine which solution is right for your business, it is important for you to dive deep into the specific needs of your company, your projected growth, and short-and long-term goals. If your long-term focus is on scalability, NetSuite may be the best solution for you. QuickBooks is a quick fix, but will it hold up during seasons of growth?

For more insight to help you evaluate your financial management software options, download our free guide, Evaluating Financial Management Software: The 10 Essentials of an Effective Solution, or contact 360 Cloud Solutions today.