(Founder at WLMR5 LLC) | May 9, 2013
Our interim CFO is recommending we look at Financial Force, Netsuite and Intacct. Right now, we're on QuickBooks. Would like to improve my own knowledge and take the deep dive into reviews and whatever else I can discover. We're definitely agreed on cloud vs hosted in-house, but that's about all we're solid on at this point. If it matters, we're in the business services industry.
(VP -Finance / Controller at Fantex ) | May 9, 2013
If you haven't had the demos presented yet, you should get that first. All 3 of those solutions will work in the right situations. You need to define your requirements and then hammer the vendor on your needs/requirements (and you will want to spend a fair amount of time on that task).
You will also want to talk with actual customers using those solutions. Some of the customers are obviously hand picked by the vendor, but you can get a lot of good information from them if you interview them correctly. Also, the biggest issue isn't usually the software but the SUPPORT for the software/SaaS solution. If you have a lousy conversion / support team it won't matter how good the actual software is.
good luck
(Associate Editor at Proformative) | May 9, 2013
Good points, Ted & Patrick.
William, we also have great resources for all three companies you mentioned in our newMarketplace section, including but not limited to:
Many informative reviews of Intacct products
Netsuites presentation"So Long Spreadsheets & QuickBooks"
Look around our Marketplace and you'll find more on these companies and much more. That should be of help.
Best... Sarah
(Corporate Controller at Packaging Dynamics) | May 9, 2013
Have you checked out the reviews on Proformative? Go to the home page and go to the Marketplace and find product.s
(Co-Owner and CFO at Tier One Services, LLC) | May 10, 2013
The right accounting system is essential for a smoothly functioning accounting department and ultimately the quality and speed of results to the decision-makers.
The costs of transition may be significant, including the financial cost, the downtime, and the errors made during the learning process.
I have too often seen companies spend many thousands on new accounting software because they thought QuickBooks could no longer serve their needs, when all they needed was some training about the capabilities of QuickBooks, an upgrade to Premier or the Enterprise Edition, or faster machines.
QuickBooks can do a great deal more than many people know. I encourage the department to consider that before making a transition.
Please feel free to contact me privately to arrange a conversation and I will be happy to offer insights in this regard.
Jaime
(President & Chief Financial Officer at SBA * Consulting, LTD) | May 10, 2013
Jamie is correct. But also it requires the proper research, alignment, planning, testing and execution.
Even if you picked the best system (whatever that means) if your team alignment is off, execution is off, you've done little or no planning and testing you will have a disaster.
Having implemented accounting systems for 15 years I've seen more than my fair share.
On additional point. Whatever level of pain a consultant may tell a client they will incur during conversion, take the log of it. Conversions, even in a utopian world are difficult and fraught with problems.
(Accounting Director at Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP) | May 10, 2013
(Account Exec at AMS) | May 10, 2013
You can review product info at this website http://findaccountingsoftware.com/directory/sap/business-bydesign/
I clicked on SAP ByDesign and if you look to the side you will see competitive products as well.
You may want to look at ByDesign since you are looking at cloud solutions. It competes directly with the other 3 you mentioned.
You can find out more here http://www.accountingmicro.com/products/sap-business-bydesign/is-sap-bydesign-right-for-you.html
(Controller at Silicon Valley start-up) | May 11, 2013
In my experience, I've come to expect NetSuite to cost up to 12X the cost of QB Enterprise and Intacct to be about 20%-30% less in cost than NetSuite. I found support for QB Enterprise and NetSuite both to be very good. I agree with Jamie that QB Enterprise does a lot and can probably be used in some companies using say NetSuite (not using its CRM), unfortunately, it is not in the cloud and does not have CRM like NetSuite.
(Principal - Finance/ Processes at TSI-Transforming Solutions, Inc) | May 12, 2013
William, while your cloud/SaaS strategy is clear, make sure you start with evaluating the functionality of the software. Your company's likely business model in the next few years (will it include multi-organization, foreign subsidiaries, foreign currency, consolidation, etc.) and your corporate strategy should drive your key functional requirements.
You say you are in "business services"-does that imply you need more than just an accounting solution, do you need a PSA (professional services automation) suite that integrates with back office accounting?
it's not clear how big your organization is, so your initial list of vendors could range from QB to Intacct to Financial Force, NetSuite, SAP By Design, Acumatica. Some of these vendors price differently if you are multi-company, so get some target pricing and compare that to your budget early on.