When a business is just starting out, using an accounting software might be the furthest thing from an entrepreneur’s mind. Between drawing customers and turning enough profit to stay afloat (indeed, merely to break even), the new business owner may be satisfied resorting to old-fashioned methods of bookkeeping—even if those methods consume additional time, and are more likely to produce errors.
As a business continues to grow and flourish, the simple truth is that accounting software becomes more and more necessary. A sophisticated company calls for sophisticated processes. But which accounting solution is right for your business? Let’s compare two industry-leading platforms to decide.
The Difference Between QuickBooks and Sage Intacct
Both QuickBooks and Sage Intacct are popular, cloud-based accounting software platforms. While the two share some overlapping features and functionality, such as sales order generation, sending invoices, and tracking collections, one of the key differences between QuickBooks and Sage Intacct lies in their ability (or lack thereof) to support multi-entity organizations or other complexities.
QuickBooks tends to be the accounting software of choice for small businesses that have recently been established, or are still in the process of growing with one entity. The software offers all the basics of what a new entrepreneur needs to successfully manage and organize accounting. However, many successful businesses tend to outgrow QuickBooks, as the software doesn’t offer the ability to customize the software to specific uses to support each company’s unique needs to accommodate growth.
Sage Intacct is a best-in-class solution that is geared toward businesses who are ready to unleash their full growth potential and need more advanced accounting features to keep up with the success. The software is especially useful for companies with multiple entities, approval flows, and advanced reporting as it features customizable dashboard capabilities that allows users to view important metrics throughout the business. We summarize the Sage Intacct solution at a high level on our website.
Benefits of Using QuickBooks
A few of the benefits of using QuickBooks as an accounting software solution include:
- Access to an effective mobile app that makes it easy to perform accounting tasks out of the office;
- Ability to track time and mileage (for business-related travel);
- Ability to send estimates to clients;
- Responsive and free customer service;
- Easy to use, with minimal learning curve.
Some negatives of QuickBooks accounting software are:
- Unable to consolidate multiple business entities;
- Limited number of users (25 at a time);
- Limited in its native customization
- Not flexible to support rapid business growth with unique needs.
Benefits of Sage Intacct
A company can expect the following benefits from implementing Sage Intacct accounting software:
- Ability to consolidate operating results from multiple-entities
- Includes automatic inter-company consolidations, transactions allocations, and eliminations,
- Provides real-time data for more accurate, informed decision-making;
- Robust Financial Reporting & Analysis
- Intacct comes with more than 150 pre-built reports and the ability to produce additional customized reports for any operating entity and for the organization as a whole
- Provides extensive reports and dashboards, which may be customized to display the most pertinent information;
- The first and only financial management software to be endorsed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants;
- Customizable to meet needs of today & tomorrow
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- Automate, control, and streamline processes to optimize processes throughout the organization. Smart Events, Smart Rules, and Custom Fields extend functionality to meet unique
- Scalable architecture grows: As your business grows, we can increase the transaction volume and easily add new entities.
- Multi-ledger system: The cloud delivers scalability and
control for high-volume, high-transaction businesses - Internal controls: Robust financial controls ensure
compliance and auditability
Which Software is Best for You?
To select the best accounting software solution for your business, we recommend starting with evaluating the size and expected growth of your company. For more information about best-in-class accounting solutions, contact us.
