More businesses have come to realize how technology can help them automate the tasks involved in bookkeeping and other aspects of financial management.
Robust platforms like Netsuite and QuickBooks will help you stay on top of your finances and give you a leg up on the competition in efficiency.
Both tools are excellent but they each have unique strengths with Netsuite being a comprehensive business management platform that includes bookkeeping, CRM (customer relationship management), ERP (enterprise resource planning), and eCommerce features.
QuickBooks on the other hand a much simpler accounting software program that is more focused on core accounting tasks like booking keeping, invoicing, payroll, receipts, and reports.
This article will compare both programs to help you decide which will best meet the needs of your business.
TL;DR
- Netsuite is a comprehensive business management platform that includes bookkeeping, CRM, ERP, and eCommerce features, making it a suitable option for international businesses with larger operations and complex financial needs.
- QuickBooks is a simpler accounting software program that is more focused on core accounting tasks such as bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll, receipts, and reports. It is ideal for small-scale businesses and startups with less complex financial needs.
- Both platforms offer mobile apps, integrations with third-party platforms, and customer support, but Netsuite is more expensive than QuickBooks, and may require multiple teams manned by expensive experts to manage each of its modules, while QuickBooks has a limited number of users and fewer customization opportunities.
Features
To kick things off, let’s look at the key features and capabilities of Netsuite and Quickbooks, so you can get a better idea of which solution is right for you.
Oracle Netsuite features
Netsuite was built from the ground up as a cloud-based software solution to give businesses more flexibility. It also offers the crucial benefit of automatic software updates and ehancements.
This is more beneficial than other legacy platforms that require you to keep track of new updates and install them yourself. Even when these legacy systems are later redesigned to work in the cloud, the transition is not always seamless.
Netsuite is designed as a software program that lets you manage practically every aspect of your business operations on a single platform. It includes accounting, CRM, ERP, inventory, and eCommerce features.
This eliminates the need for you to spend money on individual software tools for each aspect of your business, including the training of your employees to use each of those platforms.
Netsuite ERP is built to be scalable and you can opt to only pay for the features you currently need at this stage of your business before scaling up when your business operations become more complex and expansive.
This explains why Netsuite is more commonly used by international businesses that naturally have larger operations and more complex accounting, CRM, and ERP needs.
The highly integrated platform is divided into modules and data from each part of the platform is synced together to give you complete visibility into the health of your business. It’s built to ensure that you are able to licence only the set of modules your business needs.
The modules include:
- Financial management: this module includes all the tools you need to track and analyze the financial performance of your business. This covers accounting, billing, revenue management, and planning and budgeting. It also helps with regulatory compliance.
- Warehouse and fulfillment: the inventory management module that helps you track inventory levels and ensure you always have the required quantity of goods in stock.
- Supply chain management: this module is all about demand planning and forecasting. It lets you analyze sales and consumer trends to create a system that helps you deliver your products more efficiently to customers.
- Order management: it helps you to efficiently manage every step of the order fulfillment process. From tracking customer orders to shipping the goods to them.
- Customer relationship management: this module includes everything you need to track and nuture your relationships with customers. It consolidates your customer service communication mediums to help you create a better experience for customers. It also makes working deals and leads a lot easier.
- Human capital management: this part of the platform is all about streamlining core HR tasks and managing payroll. You will be able to hire the right talent and manage your staff more effectively. There is also an employee center feature.
- Professional services automation: this module provides businesses that largely offer professional services with a range of essential features for project management, resource management, invoicing, time tracking, timesheet management, expense management, and collaboration tools.
- Omnichannel eCommerce: it’s built for businesses that have thriving online stores as well as brick-and-mortar outlets. It syncs your financial data across both channels to help you seamlessly manage both sides of your business.
To ensure members of your staff are only able to access parts of the platform that are relevant to their roles, Netsuite lets you create customizable user permissions.
You will be able to assign tasks to each employee and limit the access of that staff member to functions related to that task. That way you can protect your business’s confidential information and ensure your warehouse operative doesn’t have access to information available to the warehouse manager.
QuickBooks features
Intuit’s Quickbooks is nominally a much simpler platform. In its basic form, it lets you manage the financial aspect of your business including tracking your income and expenses, billing, generating invoices and receipts, and reports generation.
You can use it for almost any type of business including restaurants, construction firms, eCommerce businesses, and businesses that offer professional services (for example, law firms).
There are two versions of Quickbooks; the cloud-based QuickBooks Online, and QuickBooks Desktop which will be installed on your computer. You can customize the Desktop platform for remote access (cloud) so you can sync data in real time across all your systems.
QuickBooks Online is fully subscription-based. QuickBooks Desktop on the other hand used to be available as a one-time purchase, but now you must pay a yearly subscription fee to retain access to the platform.
Both versions have all the tools you need to manage the accounting aspect of your business, but the online version has way more add-ons and app integrations.
For the Desktop version, there is Desktop Pro and Desktop Premier Plus, but it’s QuickBooks Enterprise which is the company’s most feature-packed offering. It includes most of the functionality you will find on Netsuite except for some niche features that are unique to Oracle’s platform.
QuickBooks Enterprise only works on Windows and unlike QuickBooks Online whose highest-level subscription plan is limited to 25 users, you can have up to 40 users. You can even negotiate a custom plan that lets you have way more users.
With both the online and desktop versions of QuickBooks you can:
- Accept different modes of payment including credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, and Venmo
- Track income and expenses
- Create custom invoices and track invoice status
- Send payment reminders
- Capture receipts
- Track sales tax
- Manage accounts receivable and accounts payable
- Run advanced reports
- Pay 1099 contractors
QuickBooks Online users can also subscribe to QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping, a service that gives you access to a dedicated, virtual bookkeeper that will help you with day-to-day bookkeeping tasks.
It costs $500 to get started, then the monthly subscription fee ranges from $200 to $400 per month depending on the amount of money you are processing each month.
The certified bookkeeper will help you with tasks like categorizing your expenses, reconciling your accounts, invoicing, inventory management, and the preparation of your monthly financial reports. You can also hold video calls with the individual to sort through issues when necessary.
Netsuite users on the other hand will either have to employ expensive in-house accounting staff or outsource the responsibility to outside accounting firms.
It’s the subscribers to QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus and QuickBooks Enterprise that have access to the full spectrum of capabilities offered by Intuit.
These additional features include:
- Order management
- Inventory management
- Warehouse management
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Project management
- Milestone billing
- Revenue management
- Vendor management
- Advanced reporting
- Key performance indicators (KPI) reporting
Ease of use
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals, let’s explore the ease of use Netsuite and QuickBooks, and compare their dashboards and user interfaces.
Oracle Netsuite ease of use
Oracle offers an extensive range of features and navigating all that can be a bit intimidating for a small owner that’s only interested in automating basic bookkeeping tasks.
The management solution is more suitable for large businesses that need such a robust platform and have specialized staff to manage each module.
The “complexity” of the platform will be irrelevant to such business, and besides, Oracle offers extensive support to help its customers set up and train to use the platform.
The best way to compare both platforms is to evaluate the user-friendliness of their dashboards. As expected, Netsuite’s dashboard gives users access to a vast array of information displayed as metrics, graphs, KPIs, etc.
Some of the features you will find on the dashboard include:
- General accounting information: transactions and reports
- Top customers by balance: A/R agging report of your customer’s unpaid invoices in order of your top to buyers.
- Reminders: any task that requires your attention
- KPIs: metrics tracking the financial health of your business
- SaaS metrics: full visibility into every aspect of your business based on data from the set of modules you subscribed to
QuickBooks ease of use
A more accessible and user-friendly platform that is perfect for small business owners. Such users also don’t need additional, complex CRM, ERM, HRM, and eCommerce features.
The layout of QuickBooks’ dashboard is less cluttered and you can easily locate and understand the information and metrics you are seeing on your screen.
Also, unlike Netsuite’s dashboard, there is a left navigation bar that makes finding your way to any of the different accounting functions on the platform very easy.
Here are some of the sections you will see on your screen when you access the dashboard:
- Sales: a graphical presentation of your sales in the fiscal year
- Bank accounts: bank balance and credit card account information
- Cash flow: income and expenses over a customizable time period
- Profit and loss: customizable P&L statement
- Navigation bar: list of tabs that take you to the different functions on the platform
Mobile App
In this section, let’s compare the mobile apps of Netsuite and QuickBooks to see which one is better for managing finances on-the-go.
Oracle Netsuite mobile app
Netsuite’s mobile app is available on both iOS and Android. Unlike the user interface (UI) of the desktop version, the mobile app has an intuitive user interface.
It’s easy to navigate and it’s optimized for key workflows. You still get most of the available features, KPIs, and report customization options.
QuickBooks mobile app
It’s also available on iOS and Android and its UI is excellent. You get all the features in the online version as well as the ability to turn your mobile device into a receipt scanner.
Android users can link their Whatsapp accounts and use them to send invoices to customers. A notification will be sent to you when the invoice is viewed and paid for by the customer.
Integrations
Both Netsuite and Quickbooks connect with a number of third party solutions. Here’s an overview of the apps they integrate with.
Oracle Netsuite integrations
The sheer breadth of features available on Netsuite’s 11 modules reduces the need to integrate third-party software tools for additional functionality.
Nonetheless, the management software still integrates with a number of third-party platforms like Google Apps, Salesforce, SAP, and Oracle’s other tools. You can also use its SOAP and REST web services for your custom integrations.
QuickBooks integrations
The online version supports over 650 business apps, while the desktop-based Quickbooks Enterprise supports over 200 integrations.
Some of the third-party apps supported by QuickBooks include:
- Stax
- Salesforce
- WooCommerce
- Shopify
- Hubspot
- TradeGecko
- Gusto
- Lightspeed
- Pay TraQer
- Plooto
- Hubdoc
- AutoEntry
Pricing
As far as pricing, there’s a wide range of rates to consider, and the right package depends on your needs.
Oracle Netsuite pricing
The fact that Netsuite offers robust modules and advanced features for managing each aspect of your business means its subscription fee will cost a lot more than that of QuickBooks.
The company doesn’t provide any pricing information on its website and instead instructs visitors to contact the Netsuite sales team for a custom quote.
The cost covers the licence fee you will be paying for the set of modules you are signing up for and a per-user fee.
Information from current customers suggests that the base licensing fee is $999/month and you will also pay $99 for each user monthly.
This means the total amount will depend on the number of modules you picked and the number of users.
QuickBooks pricing
With QuickBooks, the pricing for the online version is different from that of the desktop version.
The online version has five plans depending on the number of users. You also get to choose between signing up first for the 30-day free trial or signing up for paid plan immediately and get 50% off for the first three months.
If you choose to get the 30-day free trial, here is what you will pay:
- Self-employed (1 user): $15/month
- Simple Start (1 user): $30/month
- Essentials (3 users): $55/month
- Plus (5 users): $85/month
- Advanced (25 users): $200/month
If you opt to pay immediately, the discount will kick in for three months, and here is what you will be paying:
- Self-employed (1 user): $7.50/month
- Simple Start (1 user): $15/month
- Essentials (3 users): $27.50/month
- Plus (5 users): $45.50/month
- Advanced (25 users): $100/month
Here is the pricing plan for QuickBooks Desktop users:
- QuickBooks Pro Plus (1 user): $549.99/year
- QuickBooks Premier Plus (5 users): $779/year
- QuickBooks Enterprise (40 users): $1,410/year
QuickBooks Enterprise users can get even greater discounts if they request a custom quote that covers more than 40 users.
Customer Support
Both providers offer phone and online support, though Netsuite has an advantage, thanks to its 24/7 support offerings.
Netsuite customer support
It offers the following customer support channels:
- 24/7 phone support
- Netsuite Knowledge Base (tutorials, webinars, and videos)
- Online training by Netsuite partners
QuickBooks customer support
With Intuit, you get:
- 12 hours phone support (Mon to Friday)
- QuickBooks Knowledgebase (articles, videos, webinars)
- Online training by a QuickBooks ProAdvisor or QuickBooks partners
Pros and Cons
If you made it this far, you likely already have an idea of which solution would best fit your needs. That being said, here’s a quick overview of Netsuite’s and QuickBooks’ pros and cons.
Oracle Netsuite pros and cons
Pros
- All-in-one solution
- Dashboards for each employee that is assigned a role
- Multi-currency support
Cons
- Too expensive for small businesses with simpler needs
- Netsuite pricing plans aren’t transparent
- May require multiple teams manned by expensive experts to manage each of its modules
QuickBooks pros and cons
Pros
- Cheaper than Netsuite
- It’s much easier to operate
- Supports hundreds of third-party integrations
Cons
- Not ideal for large businesses with complex operations
- Fewer customization opportunities
- Limited number of users
Final Words
This article should have made it clear by now that each accounting solution is ideal for a specific type of business.
Businesses with large-scale operations and complex financial needs should go for Netsuite. You should also go for the software if you are a medium-sized business and you want an all-in-one platform to manage your business operations.
Small-scale businesses and startups should opt for QuickBooks since they have less complex needs and Netsuite would be an overkill.
Consider your business processes and needs carefully and be sure to opt for the software that has the features you need to run your business accounting efficiently.
That being said, if you need help accepting and managing payments, get in touch with Stax—our experts can assist you in determining which solution is right for you.
