Acumatica vs Quickbooks: How do they compare?

QuickBooks is by far one of the most well-known small business solutions on the market. It offers a range of products with varying degrees of functionality depending on the requirements of your business—with the basic versions starting from $10 – $99 per month. With limited capital to spend on software it’s no surprise that small to medium sized businesses can find that price tag incredibly tempting, but the problem is that businesses often compare QuickBooks to full scale Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, such as Acumatica , and that’s like comparing apples to oranges. Fruit salad just happens to be our specialty, so we’re going to break down some of the differences in functionality between QuickBooks and Acumatica.

The Differences between Acumatica and QuickBooks

ACCOUNTING SOLUTION VS FULL SCALE ERP

QuickBooks is an accounting solution, not an ERP, and when businesses think of QuickBooks, the versions they’re most familiar with only give you the tools to handle basic accounting, in a modernized version of spreadsheets. In the basic QuickBooks versions you don’t have the functionality to manage needs outside of accounting, such as customer management, inventory, payroll or support for industry specific needs. In order to access those features you would need QuickBooks Enterprise, which is offered at similar entry price point as Acumatica, but is still ultimately an accounting solution and not a full ERP solution.

Acumatica on the other hand is a full scale ERP and Customer Resource Management (CRM) solution, which means it goes beyond accounting and gives you the tools you need to manage all the tasks and processes for all of your departments. Particularly as your business grows, this becomes an essential function, enabling data to flow freely between departments, so you can streamline processes, centralize data and manage everything out of one key solution.

ACCESSIBLE VIA THE INTERNET VS TRUE CLOUD SOLUTION

The term “True cloud” means that all of the functionality of the solution was built to be & can be accessed through internet, without the need for additional software licensing or client apps. Although QuickBooks Enterprise can be accessed over the internet, they acknowledge that the solution has not been optimized to be a true cloud product. Acumatica on the other hand is a true cloud solution, with all functionality & screens built so you can access and operate your solution on any device (desktop or mobile) with a web browser and internet access, without limitations.

SCALIBILITY

QuickBooks limits you to a maximum of 30 users, so while it may work well for you in the beginning, if your business grows past a certain size you’ll be forced to switch to a different business management solution. Even though QuickBooks supports multi-currency, it doesn’t support multiple companies so even if you have less than 30 employees, if you need to operate multiple locations you won’t be able to use QuickBooks anymore.

Acumatica is a solution built with growth in mind, offering the ERP standards of multi-currency and multi-company, but also with unlimited users. The user structure is what sets Acumatica apart from QuickBooks and most other business management solutions. Instead of paying for each user you add, you are charged based on the resources your company requires for the transactions you complete, which means that you could have 30 heavy users or 250 moderate users and pay the exact same amount.

Choose your Solution with Long-Term Goals in Mind

If you’re a small business with a few employees and you only require basic accounting QuickBooks may very well be a good starting point for you, but if you anticipate needing an ERP down the line you might be better off investing in a robust solution that can empower your business to grow without restrictions or limitations as early as possible. Many small business that invest in QuickBooks or other simple solutions often find that a year or so down the line not only is their software not satisfying their needs, it’s requiring costly work-around solutions to complete tasks and ultimately restraining business growth.

When it comes down to it, these systems aren’t really comparable. QuickBooks is a small business accounting system, which can be upgraded to QuickBooks Enterprise for more functionality but even with the extra features available, it doesn’t measure up to what Acumatica has to offer. The scalability of Acumatica, its true cloud capabilities and the fact that it’s a full scale ERP enable you will catapult your business to success, not inhibit it.

Questions?