QuickBooks vs NetSuite: Compare Solutions Based on Your Goals

If you are using QuickBooks today and experiencing limitations that are causing duplicate work, an overwhelm of spreadsheets, and a patchwork of loosely integrated systems, do not despair!

Many small businesses find that QuickBooks is a more than adequate solution for starting up and it is very affordable. However, as company needs grow, they often run into significant limitations that can be best addressed with a complete business solution, such as an ERP system. Quite often companies will consider NetSuite as a potential QuickBooks replacement option because of its ability to go live quickly, affordably, and to scale with the company's future growth.

QuickBooks vs NetSuite: 10 Things to Consider

Let’s compare QuickBooks and NetSuite based on some the factors that are likely important to your business.

#1: Complex Accounting and Ease of Completing Accounting Tasks

NetSuite supports multi-language, multi-currency, multi-subsidiary consolidation and other complex accounting functions, such fixed assets, multibook accounting, recurring billing, revenue recognition, and more. QuickBooks does not. This is one of the reasons that many finance teams prefer NetSuite over QuickBooks.

#2: Software Functionality

While QuickBooks focuses exclusively on accounting, NetSuite is a complete business suite. Therefore, NetSuite is built with integrated Ecommerce, Service Resource Planning (SRP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Warehouse Management (WMS), Point of Sale (POS), and more. This wide footprint affords companies a complete 360 degree view of your business, customers, vendors, and transactions all form a single application delivered in the cloud.

#3: Anywhere Access

For today’s professionals, mobile access is a must-have. While QuickBooks users primarily rely on their desktop version of the software, NetSuite customers can access their data from a laptop, smartphone, or tablet - whichever is most convenient and get up to the minute information right at their fingertips.

#4: Saas vs. Legacy Software

Unlike the QuickBooks-required software installation, NetSuite is deployed as a web-based software. This means that the costs of managing, maintaining, and upgrading software and hardware disappear.

#5: Real-time Visibility

Since NetSuite is a complete business suite, it contains the necessary data to give executives access to real-time financial performance. QuickBooks, on the other hand, only has one set of data and is therefore unable to provide a quick real-time view of performance.

#6: Automation of Financial Processes

QuickBooks users tend to rely heavily on manual data entry and spreadsheets in order to complete accounting tasks, while NetSuite removes the burden with automation.

#7: Global Expansion

NetSuite’s features are built to support your company’s global expansion, with offerings such as consolidation, inventory transfers, multi-currency, and more. These same functions are difficult, if not impossible with QuickBooks.

#8: Industry-Specific Financial Management

Your industry defines how you do business. While QuickBooks takes a “one-size-fits-all” approach, NetSuite can be customized to meet the needs of various industries, such as services firms, manufacturers, retailers, and more.

#9: Integrations

NetSuite was built with integrations in mind, while QuickBooks does not offer a standards-based open architecture to allow for connecting other business apps.

#10: Customization

Everyone else’s needs are not yours, that’s why many companies find that customization is key. While QuickBooks was not built to support unique customer requirements, NetSuite can be easily tailored to your needs.

Now that you’ve had the opportunity to see the QuickBooks vs NetSuite comparison, what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments below.