5 Signs You’ve Outgrown QuickBooks

Your business has been using QuickBooks for years to manage customer accounts, keep track of inventory and business finances, create forms for your business use, and store information on your customers, vendors, and other contacts. You’ve purchased all 20 licenses that you can run at the same time off the same company files, and all of those seats are in use. There comes a time when a growing business needs to find a different accounting solution to handle their expanding needs.

5 Signs You’ve Outgrown QuickBooks

• QuickBooks can be configured to retrieve information and export it into a Microsoft compliant file like Excel or Access. However, over time, your business may require more complex and expansive reporting that is not supported by Quickbooks.  You may need to use an accounting software solution that can better sort and eliminate unwanted results to create a more specific report.
• The maximum number of licenses you can purchase for QuickBooks through the Enterprises software package – the largest of the QuickBooks family – is 20. While this should be enough for a small business, there will come a time when a company will need to provide additional access to the files, and since you cannot have more than 20 people accessing the information at one time, you will need to find an additional system. Hassles like this are a sign it’s time to upgrade to a more powerful accounting solution, or even a an ERP solution deisgned for mid-sized businesses.
• There are a number of specialized tools available through the QuickBooks packages. In fact, you can work with one of over 100 software professionals to design a custom solution to meet your needs. However, even custom solutions are limited through the QuickBooks software options, and there may not be a way to form a solution that is right for you.
• The capacity for information within the database on inventory, customers, and vendors is about 100,000 files in the QuickBooks Enterprises package. However, as your business grows, you will definitely reach a point when you’ll have too much information to store and will have to find an enterprise software package with a greater storage capacity.
• You can combine reports from multiple company files through QuickBooks; however, the results you come up with may not come out as clear as you’d like or may actually include more information than you desire. More robust accounting solutions have sophisticated reporting tools that allow companies to create reports that sorts results based on customized queries.

While QuickBooks is a great accounting software package for any small or midsize business growing and adding employees, inventory, and customer accounts in almost any industry, there is always a time when a successful business will have to reassess the plan to continue with this software as opposed to upgrading to a package with even greater flexibility and options.