{"id":9335,"date":"2023-03-02T07:23:46","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T12:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=9335"},"modified":"2026-01-15T11:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:39:39","slug":"how-to-tell-if-your-business-has-outgrown-quickbooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/how-to-tell-if-your-business-has-outgrown-quickbooks\/","title":{"rendered":"How to tell if your business has outgrown QuickBooks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTechnology & Innovation<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHow to tell if your business has outgrown QuickBooks\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tNeal Cranna<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

For small business owners, growth can be a double-edged sword. Your business is growing, but your systems and processes may be holding you back. You want to embrace technology, but you\u2019re not sure where to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you grow you need financial management software<\/a> that leverages automation<\/a>, delivers powerful business insights, and closes the books faster<\/a>. The result: you and your staff have more time to focus on the things that really matter, like productivity, expansion, efficiencies, and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sage recently hosted a webcast<\/a> with an expert in streamlining systems for small-to-medium size businesses.  President and Founder of Actium Consulting Inc.<\/a>, Anna Abbruzzese is both a Sage Certified Trainer and a QuickBooks ProAdvisor who runs a successful accounting and bookkeeping practice. As a business and software consultant, she works with clients on both platforms and so is intimately familiar with the capabilities of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her conversation with small business consultant Roger Pierce is summarized below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View the webcast to find out more about modernizing and streamline your business<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWatch now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"people\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sign 1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Manual Processes are slowing you down <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever had to copy and paste data from one spreadsheet into another, you understand the pain. Moving data from one software application to another<\/a> is a huge time-waster \u2014 and it also opens a greater chance of error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI try to avoid spreadsheets in my own business and for clients,\u201d says Abbruzzese. \u201cIt just takes one wrong click, one formula error, somebody deleting a cell in your spreadsheet, etc., that can throw the whole thing out. We see that the manual processes just create unhappy staff, too, and unhappy managers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A solution Abbruzzese brings to her clients involves automated and paperless workflows<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe love automation,\u201d she says. \u201cOnce you really get into it, it\u2019s amazing. It can really transform your business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierce points out the biggest benefit to eliminating wasted time: \u201cThen you have more time to think ahead\u201d \u2014 and therefore more time to work on strategic work and growing your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View the <\/em>webcast<\/em><\/a> to find out more about the telltale signs your business has outgrown QuickBooks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign 2<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Billing is inflexible and can’t scale<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It used to be that you\u2019d set a price and forget it. That was the old standard pricing model. But modern pricing \u2014 with tactics such as usage-based or project-based pricing<\/a> \u2014 requires a sophisticated billing system<\/a> that is customizable and flexible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe used to have standard pricing even in my own business, and we no longer do,\u201d says Abbruzzese. \u201cIt’s all customer-focused and project-based. And we have clients too that have multiple pricing models. They could have usage billing, or even tiered billing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the webcast, Pierce asks: \u201cYou mentioned that growth can be limited because you can\u2019t seize opportunities. Do you mean that because the billing isn\u2019t flexible, an opportunity might be missed out on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abbruzzese responds: \u201cDefinitely. If we don’t have all those opportunities in front of us, it’s difficult to make the decisions. We see clients digging through emails, walking around the office \u2014 they may be trying to get into a Zoom meeting or a Teams meeting \u2014 having to ask: \u2018What did you quote this customer? And do we have a tier for that, or is it based on this? What did we base it on and how do we set that up? And can we make a note of that in QuickBooks, so that if they do change or if they hit the next tier or usage, then it switches to this price? Do we have a price locked in?\u2019 It happens all the time \u2014 and by the time you get to that point, the opportunity may have moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Visit our Sage Intacct vs Quickbooks Resource Page to access tailored resources for growing businesses<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn more<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"people\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sign 3<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Information in silos impacts financial visibility<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Because integrating systems like QuickBooks<\/a> with other key applications is difficult, most organizations end up creating multiple, disconnected systems. With data in silos<\/a>, other team members in other departments can\u2019t use this data to inform decision making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a daily an issue for us, especially on the bookkeeping side,\u201d says Abbruzzese. \u201cAnd it really came to a head during COVID because of many businesses suddenly went online and suddenly started to do E-commerce, yet their E-commerce sites wouldn’t integrate with their accounting system, especially if it was a small business system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abbruzzese points out that there are some well-known systems, like Square and Shopify, that do not integrate smoothly with QuickBooks. Whereas Sage Intacct\u2019s<\/a> open API makes it easy, giving you wide visibility of your entire financial landscape<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of our Sage Intacct implementations involved some sort of integration \u2014 because no accounting system can do everything,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are always the E-commerce solutions on a CRM or maybe somebody has their own built SQLs proprietary database that they want to keep, that they’re dead set on not changing that. We can integrate that easily into Sage Intacct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch the full webcast <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> and read on for a summary of key points.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign 4<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Management can’t access and process data to make confident decisions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re constantly performing complex calculations and data manipulation outside your system<\/a>, frustration is bound to build up. You can\u2019t extract the data you need, so you must cut and paste into another application. Your data is incomplete, too: You might have revenue and expenses, but no insight into operational performance or outcome metrics. Worse, the data is not current.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a contemporary cloud-based system like Sage Intacct, all data is accessible and can be manipulated as you need. Any type of report can be generated from a customized dashboard.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSage Intacct uses what’s called dimensional accounting,\u201d Abbruzzese says on the webcast. \u201cYou have your traditional chart of accounts, but then you have different dimensions that you can report on. You can quickly and easily pull information based on those dimensions and you can quickly then move on opportunities. All the custom reporting<\/a> is also built in, so out of the box so to speak, online, Sage Intacct comes with beautiful dashboards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It really takes your business to the next level, Abbruzzese notes. Suddenly you\u2019re looking forward not backward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sage Intacct<\/em><\/a> makes it easy to slice and dice data to your specifications. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn why growing businesses choose Sage Intacct<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Download a free e-book <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"people\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sign 5<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Forecasting is challenging<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Forecasting doesn\u2019t happen in a lot of small businesses. \u201cPeople just don\u2019t have time to do it,\u201d Abbruzzese explains on the webcast. And this is dangerous because, she says: \u201cCashflow is the number one killer of small businesses.\u201d Not having this information and being able to look at ever-evolving scenarios can leave small businesses vulnerable in the best of times, never mind in these volatile times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost small businesses owners understand their own trade and their own business. They generally understand their margins. However, there are always little things that come up. There could be employee benefits. People forget about something as simple as CPP rates going up and there’s going to be an enhanced CPP premium in the coming years. That’s going to be a huge cost to employers. And sometimes we don’t think about that because most business owners just think about their direct costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abbruzzese makes this point about the importance of forecasting: \u201cNot knowing your cash position absolutely can lead to overspending.\u201d It can kill a business. Margins can be affected without you even noticing, until it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign 6 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some billing is manual, and you can’t easily integrate your quote-to-cash process<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If your company or sales team does any manual quoting or manual billing, you\u2019re in danger of overlooking something \u2014 or missing out on revenue entirely. Some of Abbruzzese\u2019s clients who use tiered billing and work with QuickBooks end up entering information twice \u2014 and more manual labour that can lead to mistakes or omissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn a system like Sage Intacct,\u201d Abbruzzese says, \u201cyou can convert a quote to an order to an invoice without retyping it all. And it’s all in one system, you can see it all. You can say, okay, what was our conversion rate? How long did it take us to convert that quote to an invoice to close those deals? Things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Sage Intacct, this is an integrated process that flows seamlessly, from quote to contract to billing<\/a>. \u201cA lot of business owners probably don’t think about all the time wasted in those different steps,\u201d notes Pierce on the webcast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, yeah, because it’s not their problem,\u201d says Abbruzzese. \u201cThey have a salesperson doing the quote, they have somebody in order entry doing the orders, and they have somebody in AR dealing with the invoicing. But think of all that wasted time when those people could be doing something else potentially. Or the time in between where you’re missing out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View the webcast to find out more about modernizing and streamline your business<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWatch now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"people\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sign 7<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You’re growing too fast – and QuickBooks can’t keep up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In recapping the points above during the webcast, Pierce and Abbruzzese discuss many of the other solutions a modern cloud-based finance system like Sage Intacct can bring to your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some other features that can enhance your business:<\/p>\n\n\n\n