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Running a business

NetSuite vs. QuickBooks: Make the Right Choice

Your business has grown substantially and quickly. To maintain your pace of growth and create a strong foundation for future growth, you need to adapt to a solution that provides greater efficiencies right now, along with the flexibility to scale in the future.

Many business owners use a wide range of solutions, from spreadsheets to accounting software and are looking for a future-ready solution to accommodate their growing and increasingly complex needs.

This article compares Intuit QuickBooks solutions (including QuickBooks Online Advanced and QuickBooks Enterprise), which serve growing midsize businesses, with a popular full-scale enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Oracle NetSuite, to evaluate their functions and features for different kinds of businesses.

These comparisons are based on both verifiable vendor claims, third-party reviewers like Capterra and GetApp - tech marketplace where businesses can provide their unbiased opinions and review software solutions.


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2 in 3 businesses say they are underserved by digital tools designed for small businesses, but would be overserved by tools designed for large enterprises.


QuickBooks Mid-Size Business Solutions: Overview


QuickBooks has two powerful financial management solutions tailored to mid-sized businesses: QuickBooks Online Advanced and QuickBooks Enterprise. Both solutions are designed to streamline and centralize key financial processes in an easy-to-use interface. QuickBooks offers a suite of integrated tools to manage finances and teams seamlessly.


QuickBooks Online Advanced


QuickBooks Online Advanced is a cloud-based solution designed for growing mid-size businesses. It's ideal for companies with complex workflows, a need for customizable reports, and multiple team members requiring custom access to the books. Offered at an affordable price point, it integrates with QuickBooks Payroll and over 750 third party applications to build a flexible, connected solution that meets the unique needs of growing business.

QuickBooks Enterprise


QuickBooks Enterprise is a desktop solution with strong inventory capabilities and financial management. It’s a good option for product based businesses with complex inventory management needs. It bundles key functionality and lets business owners add and customize capabilities as they grow. QuickBooks Enterprise integrates with other best-in-class solutions to create a connected back-office experience. Users can also add cloud hosting for increased flexibility.

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Oracle NetSuite: Overview


Oracle NetSuite is a full-scale ERP solution, engineered to streamline and scale processes for large, enterprise business. Netsuite is software as a service (SaaS) that combines accounting and ERP programs, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and ecommerce capabilities in a single packaged offering. With NetSuite, users from different departments, such as sales, accounting, and support, access customer information through a single record, eliminating data redundancies and inconsistencies.

NetSuite is fully customizable and provides modules to help business owners manage and automate their business needs, from financials to supply chain management to billing and beyond. This, however, comes with a steep learning curve.


QuickBooks vs. NetSuite: Background Information


QuickBooks offers a suite of flexible tools to manage finances and teams. With two core financial management offerings, QuickBooks Online Advanced and QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks provides mid-size businesses powerful solutions to run their growing business. 

Users can customize QuickBooks to meet their unique business needs by integrating payroll, payments, and third-party apps directly into the software. This integration allows users to build a flexible, connected solution tailored to the specific requirements of their business.



NetSuite, in comparison, comprises a range of modules that are bundled and configured based on the needs of the business owner. It is designed for companies looking to run their entire business on a single platform. Its implementation requires additional resources and could be costly for growing businesses.


note icon 45% of businesses say underutilization of capabilities is on of the top three challenges businesses face when it comes to their current ERP systems


QuickBooks vs. Oracle NetSuite: Features Comparison

Time Tracking

QuickBooks Online Advanced offers time tracking through the addition of QuickBooks Payroll Premium or Elite. QuickBooks Enterprise includes time tracking as part of the Payroll feature. Both products also allow for integrations with other third party time tracking softwares. Oracle NetSuite does not require an additional module to deliver robust time tracking.

Business Process Automation

Both QuickBooks Online Advanced and QuickBooks Enterprise have automation capabilities associated with their core workflows. Oracle NetSuite features several out-of-the-box automations for common business transactions, and automations can be further customized as required.

Project Costing and Management

QuickBooks solutions have specific project costing and management features to help manage project progress time and costs. NetSuite is also able to provide project costing and management functionality, provided those modules are implemented and configured correctly.

Reporting and Analytics

QuickBooks Online Advanced and QuickBooks Enterprise provide reporting and analytics dashboards that increase the visibility into a company’s metrics and data to help improve decision making. NetSuite also offers a high degree of reporting flexibility and customizability.

Integration

QuickBooks Online Advanced, NetSuite and QuickBooks Enterprise provide native solutions for integrating leading third-party business applications and enterprise platforms.


QuickBooks solutions offer pre-configured integrations with popular third-party systems and programs and can be used with third-party integrators to further extend the ecosystem.

Support

NetSuite and QuickBooks solutions provide several support options to optimize customer experience, with some basic support included with the subscription, and an option to pay for more hands-on assistance.

Cost






The main difference in QuickBooks vs Netsuite cost is the pricing model. You can choose QuickBooks subscription level based on your need and budget. QuickBooks can be paid for month to month with the most basic subscription plan, or annually.

Netsuite offers custom pricing. According to customer reviews, the average instance of NetSuite costs ~$386,000 for a subscription over three years. Implementation cost is separate with users citing additional costs of $113,000.

Conclusion


While ERPs like those offered by NetSuite can help streamline processes and provide visibility into performance, not every business needs one at every growth stage.

Oracle NetSuite provides a contingent of capabilities for growing businesses, connecting multiple business processes and systems and automating custom workflows. However, this immense functionality comes with a steeper price tag and a prolonged learning curve that requires hands-on management to ensure successful adoption.

QuickBooks Enterprise and QuickBooks Online Advanced provide features and functionality growing companies need without over-serving them. The ability to integrate to a variety of third-party partners help expand the ecosystem, providing a fast time to value and a strong foundation for future growth. 

QuickBooks solutions provide a robust and flexible financial management hub with automated workflows that can help mid-sized businesses break out of their “SMB” shell to take the next step.

Get in touch with QuickBooks for more information.

Connect with our consultants to discuss your goals, explore solutions, and get started with a QuickBooks tech stack that fits your business and your budget.



QuickBooks Canada Team
QuickBooks Canada Team
The team at QuickBooks Canada is here to give you the best tips for starting, running, or growing your small business. From self-employed to small business owners, look to QuickBooks for insights into the latest trends, helpful advice, and more.

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