Effective Financial planning is imperative for companies operating in any industry to grow their businesses. Currently, the market offers various applications that help organizations manage their accounts and transactions. QuickBooks is one of the popular Accounting Softwares used by businesses across the globe. However, Accounting is not the only business operation that is important for organizations. That is where ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) applications come into the picture.
This article will provide a comprehensive guide to help you answer the QuickBooks vs ERP decision. You will explore the key features of QuickBooks and ERP. You will also get to know about the key factors that differentiate both these platforms. In the end, you will be in the position to choose the best platform based on your business requirements. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Introduction to QuickBooks
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QuickBooks is the world’s most widely used Accounting Software offered by United States-based software firm Intuit. The application comes with various tools and features that cater to every Accounting and Financial need of companies. It comes with a minimalistic and easy-to-use interface that lets individuals with no Accounting knowledge use the platform effortlessly.
As QuickBooks is a cloud-based application, companies do not need to install any specialized infrastructure at their workstations to use the software. All the uploaded data gets stored in secure cloud servers, and QuickBooks automatically updates itself to the latest version that helps users save a lot of time.
Apart from core Accounting tasks, QuickBooks comes with features such as Payroll Management to help users manage various business operations. Using QuickBooks, companies can also monitor their sales status as the application provides features like Inventory Tracking, Sales Reporting, Customer Information Management, and many others. QuickBooks is a robust Accounting application that can be used by businesses of all sizes.
QuickBooks allows companies to connect multiple bank accounts to monitor their transactions. Once bank accounts get connected to QuickBooks, the application automatically downloads past transaction records and organizes them accordingly. It also provides a smartphone application compatible with both iOS and Android to let users track and manage their accounts from anywhere in the world. The smartphone application drastically increases the accessibility of QuickBooks.
QuickBooks offers a straightforward and insightful unified dashboard that displays all the critical data such as total expense, total sales, budget, and many more in a single screen to help companies better analyze their business performance. The company was founded by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in 1983, with its headquarters in Arizona. QuickBooks has a massive customer base of over 4 million companies spread across the globe.
Key Features of QuickBooks
QuickBooks being the most popular Accounting and Bookkeeping Software offers various features that help companies manage their finances. Below mentioned are a few noteworthy features that QuickBooks offers:
1. Invoice Raising
Raising invoices becomes an easy task when companies use QuickBooks. The Accounting application lets enterprises build professional-looking invoices and send them to clients through multiple channels, including emails and SMS. QuickBooks comes with numerous pre-built invoice templates that companies can customize to suit their branding. It also lets companies attach payment gateway and bank transfer links directly in invoices to speed up the process of payment collection.
2. Expense Management
With QuickBooks, companies can effortlessly track and manage all of their business expenses. It displays critical metrics like total sales, total expense, total income, tax segregation to users to aid them in Finance Management. Users can click images of receipts using the QuickBooks smartphone app, and the software automatically matches the receipt with existing transactions. This feature allows companies to save a lot of productive time and efforts of employees.
To know more about QuickBooks, visit this link.
Introduction to ERP
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Enterprise Resource Planning is a type of software that is used by companies of all scales to streamline and integrate various business processes, including Finance, Human Resources, and many more. ERP solutions currently available in the market can be used to automate several operations and manage supply chains.
Apart from Finance and HR (Human Resource) tasks, ERP systems also come with features and tools to let companies manage their sales, marketing, and manufacturing needs. Some of the most widely used Enterprise Resource Planning software currently available in the market include Microsoft Dynamics 654, Oracle NetSuite, JD Edward EnterpriseOne, SAP, Sage Business, Infor Syteline, and SYS Pro. The EPR software available can be easily configured according to varied business needs for making the application suitable for every company.
Most of the successful companies across the globe have started using ERP applications to carry out their day-to-day operations effectively. The features and tools offered by ERP applications also generate impactful insights that help enterprises in strategizing future operations.
Key Features of ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning software provides many features that help organizations to streamline and optimize multiple business processes. Below mentioned are a few notable features offered by ERP applications.
1. Customer Relationship Management
ERP platforms come with powerful CRM features to help enterprises effectively interact with their customers. ERP applications have tools that display critical information like Order History, Prospect Status, Customer Contacts, and many more. It can also automate various CRM tasks such as generating accounts receivable, personalized reminders, sending notifications, and various other related tasks.
2. Human Resource Management
Most of the ERP software offers some features for better Human Resource Management. Companies can automate various HR-related tasks like employee scheduling and recruitment using ERP applications. All the features help companies to optimize their internal communication and task allotment that increases the productivity of workers drastically.
Aside from HR tools, ERP software also comes with a Payroll Management system that can be used to automate the task of calculating salaries, salary deductions, marking employee attendance, and various other critical tasks. The Payroll Management feature lets enterprises save a lot of productive time and effort of the Human Resource department.
3. Sales & Marketing Management
Using ERP software, companies can carry out all the major sales and marketing operations, including sales forecasting and marketing campaigns management. ERP applications use the available customer history and past sales records to display sales prediction figures. This feature helps companies analyze their business performance and make better-informed decisions related to sales and marketing. It also provides a POS (Point of Sales) feature that lets companies sell their products in the real world to customers.
To know more about ERP, visit this link.
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Factors that drive the QuickBooks vs ERP Decision
QuickBooks and ERP applications both provide similar kinds of features and tools to let businesses effectively carry out their daily operations. However, there is no one-size-fits-all answer here, instead, you must choose based on your company’s needs, budget, and other factors to make QuickBooks vs ERP decision. The primary factors that influence the QuickBooks vs ERP comparison are as follows:
1. QuickBooks vs ERP: Purpose
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QuickBooks is a powerful Accounting and Bookkeeping software that serves every Finance monitoring need of businesses. Though the platform can be used by companies of all scales, small and medium enterprises are the primary customers of QuickBooks.
In contrast, ERP software is a business optimization application that is used by companies with multiple business operations. It offers features that can be used to carry out various operations such as Accounts, Audits, Customer Relationship Management, Sales, Marketing, Recruitment, Payroll, and many more. It is better suited for large-scale enterprises that require extensive management of various business operations.
2. QuickBooks vs ERP: Team Size
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If a company has a vast team size or is planning to hire new employees at a large scale, ERP applications is a better pick for them. ERP applications can better handle more users and provide better accessibility that helps employees increase their productivity. On the contrary, QuickBooks is the best choice for companies with a limited number of employees.
3. QuickBooks vs ERP: Ease of Setting Up
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When compared with each other, QuickBooks is fairly easier to set up than many high-end ERP applications. Setting up complex ERP software is a tedious task as it requires the IT (Information Technology) team to integrate various departments within the company and provide access to a considerable number of users.
4. QuickBooks vs ERP: Ease of Use
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Most of the available ERP applications offer complex features and tools for multiple business operations. Hence, it becomes critical for companies to provide adequate training to their employees in order to churn out the best from the software. In contrast, QuickBooks comes with a very user-friendly interface that can be easily understood by new users. Companies can save a lot of time in training new employees when using QuickBooks.
5. QuickBooks vs ERP: Pricing
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Most of the ERP software is priced at a higher segment of the market. As a result, not all companies can afford them. Organizations with a massive employee pool with varied business needs can opt for ERP applications to effectively manage their businesses.
On the other hand, QuickBooks provides monthly subscription plans that are comparatively budget-friendly, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. QuickBooks offers three subscription plans to its customers, namely EasyStart, Essential, and Plus. The pricing starts from $20 per month and goes up to $60 per month. Apart from base subscriptions, QuickBooks runs an app store featuring hundreds of third-party integrations (free and paid) that can be used to further increase the capabilities of the Accounting platform.
Conclusion
This article gave a comprehensive guide to QuickBooks vs ERP. You got a deeper understanding of QuickBooks vs ERP and its key features. Now, you are in the position to choose the best among the two based on your business goals and requirements.
In a nutshell, both QuickBooks and ERP applications are beneficial and powerful software that can be easily deployed at workstations. However, every business has different requirements, which makes it crucial for organizations to meticulously choose the correct application. Companies that require a robust Accounting application with a limited workforce can undoubtedly choose QuickBooks to manage their Finances. At the same time, large enterprises with multiple business operations will have a huge advantage when they work on ERP applications.
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