Here are seven signs you may want to consider a more robust system to manage your business on:
1. Experiencing Data and Record Size Limitations
QuickBooks does have data and record size limitations that may become a problem for fast growing companies. As a company begins to reach the limitations there is also potential for the data to become corrupted. This may make it more difficult and costly to move the data to another system.
2. Reporting is Not Meeting Your Company’s Needs
As companies grow, so does the need for sophistication and better reporting. The ability to build new reports is limited in QuickBooks. Many companies find that reporting tool options for QuickBooks are not meeting their needs when compared to robust accounting systems such as Microsoft Dynamics GP.
3. Incomplete Audit Trails
Accountants and business owners like their financial information to be comprehensive and well-documented. QuickBooks does provide some levels of audit trails, depending on the version, but there are some circumstances where financial information can be changed without the proper historical audit trails. The lack of true accounting compliance could leave a company vulnerable to inaccurate records and possible loss of revenue.
4. User Count Limits and Accessibility
As companies grow some may hit the user count limits and may be forced to upgrade to a higher level. The user limitations make it difficult for the system to be universally accessible to the company and accommodate users who may need limited access to the system.
5. Too Many Outside Spreadsheets
If your company is forced to use spreadsheets for tracking and reporting much of your accounting related data, you have outgrown QuickBooks. Many fast growing companies find the limited functionality inhibits data tracking, and therefore turn to spreadsheets. The islands of information on spreadsheets create extra work and increase the potential for errors, slowing everyone down.
6. Lack of Integration with Critical Business Systems
Your company may have islands of data locked into different systems. For example, you may have a website used for business, but it is not integrated with your financial system. Or perhaps your customer relationship management system (CRM) does not integrate with your order system. As a result there is a lot of duplication of data, making the company inefficient and increasing the chances for errors with repeating data.
7. Data Security Concerns
When only a few people are using QuickBooks, the limitations to restricting access to functions and data is usually not a problem. But as users are added with more specialized roles, some companies are finding their records are too open to users that don’t have the need for full access to the data. This may make it more difficult to protect the data.
If your business is experiencing any of these signs, SMB Suite can help with the industry’s first fully-integrated Microsoft Cloud ERP, CRM & eCommerce solution for the small & mid-market business. Please visit us at www.smbsuite.com to learn more.