Growing businesses often don’t realize how crucial business software is to company expansion.
This is especially true for a company’s accounting department, an area of business in which even
the most subtle increase in productivity can mean an exponential growth in workload. Today, many small to medium sized companies are using QuickBooks, a valuable accounting system for the right company. QuickBooks is a solid starting point but many times organizations struggle to
recognize when their business needs have outgrown this simple solution. To help decipher whether or not your company is ready to transition away from QuickBooks, I have identified the 5 major signs that indicate that it might be time to consider a scalable ERP solution.
1. Transactions
The number of financial transactions your company handles on a daily basis should be a good
indication of whether QuickBooks is still the right solution for you. For example, if your bookkeeper handles a few simple daily transactions QuickBooks may be your best option. If your company requires detailed revenue and expense tracking, a more robust ERP system may be a better fit to handle your growing needs.
2. Users
If your accounting department consists of 5 or more employees QuickBooks may not be the best fit for your company. Most versions of QuickBooks tend to become problematic at 5 users. Typically this much activity causes the database manager to get bogged down resulting in the disconnectionof users from their sessions. If you experience these problems, consider moving to an ERP solution like Microsoft Dynamics GP. According to a performance benchmark test Dynamics GP successfully performs at 500 users and millions of transactions, perfect for a growing organization.
3. Accountability
Growing companies need a double-entry accounting system that allows them to comply with
government regulations, industry standards, and corporate quality initiatives. Unfortunately,
QuickBooks is a single-entry accounting system meaning it doesn’t feature “audit controls.” Audit
controls keeps record of every transaction entered into an accounting system so the account
balance can be traced back to the transactions that make up that balance. Dynamics GP, a
double-entry accounting system, ensures transactional integrity by providing an audit trail for
every change or transaction. This compliant ERP solution helps management monitor and protect company assets from inappropriate use or loss.
4. Data
Eventually QuickBooks users may begin to notice a decline in performance, including a delay in
the solution’s menus and reporting functions. Most companies using QuickBooks tend to notice
such problems when the file size reaches 250 MB or when the total number of transactions
exceeds 32,000. Significant performance problems usually occur when any list (customers,
vendors, employees) exceeds 10,000. An advantage of moving to an ERP system like Microsoft
Dynamics GP is its scalability. This solution is built around Microsoft’s SQL Server database
platform enabling it to house several Terabytes of data without a decrease in performance.
5. Reporting
The simple reports available in QuickBooks may not provide you with an accurate view of your
organization. Oftentimes, QuickBooks users have customer and revenue data in supplemental
systems such as, Excel, and a CRM system. Creating a detailed report that provides you with all
the information you needed requires a lot of time spent manually entering data from one source to another. So if you discover that valuable employee productivity is being wasted on mindless data re-entry, it may be time for an ERP solution. Dynamics GP features several ways for management to gain insight on real-time financial status and operational performance. Reporting tools include Dashboards, FRx, and Management Reporter plus GP’s ability to integrate with SharePoint allowing reports and analyses to be shared across an organization.
For more information on how an ERP solution can help your business grow contact SMBSuite.com