QuickBooks Enterprise: Faster and Stronger,
for Sure, but not Quite There in Functionality

Product Review

QuickBooks, whose 2.5 million users make it the world's most widely accounting/business management software, underwent a groundbreaking change in April with the release of a new Enterprise Solutions edition.

Now, six months later--during a season when many small businesses are considering whether to replace their software systems--is a good time to see how much of a change Enterprise is.

Developer Intuit Inc. created Enterprise to answer one of the biggest concerns about its flagship QuickBooks product line--its inability to speedily handle the larger transaction volumes and other operational issues that confront businesses when they grow from very small to annual revenues of $10 million and higher.

It was also defending against longtime rival Peachtree Software and a number of new products, such as Microsoft Business Solutions' Small Business Manager, which targets companies outgrowing the functionality found in earlier QuickBooks editions.

When it released QBE, Intuit proclaimed, "Customers no longer have to dread upgrading to a solution that's hard to use, requires extensive training or is too expensive. Small businesses that have waited for a 'turbocharged' business solution that's still easy to use, now have the answer."

Accounting Today, in this special report, pulled together five accounting software experts to ascertain just how accurate Intuit's "answer" is. Each reviewer tested their own copies of Enterprise and then responded to a series of evaluation-related questions about the product. Those included two thoughts that are likely to be on the minds of accountants, who advise small business clients on software matters:

• How comfortable would you feel recommending QBE to businesses that have outgrown the functionality in QuickBooks' less powerful editions?
• Is the Enterprise edition able to effectively handle companies as large as 20-250 employees, as Intuit claims?

The reviewers were asked to compare QBE against the earlier QuickBooks editions, Professional and Premier, and against other vendors' accounting software applications that are designed specifically for the "midrange" or lower-end of the middle market companies in the vicinity of $5 million to $20 million in annual revenue.

The consensus of the reviewers is that QBE is, indeed, an improvement over earlier QuickBooks editions. The reviewers invariably noted that the new, more powerful database lets it handle more transactions more quickly than earlier QuickBooks, and the product's move to 10 simultaneous users works well and is a much-needed enhancement over the earlier editions' five-user limits.

However, the reviewers were mixed over whether QBE is the definitive upgrade that accountants should recommend to companies straining the limits of the other QuickBooks editions. Their concerns focus on QBE's degree of or, rather, lack of functions and features truly needed by growing businesses.

"This is a marvelous upgrade from Professional or Premier," says Randy Johnston, executive vice president and accounting software specialist for K2 Enterprises, technology trainers and consultants. "I think it can live up to the claims of doubling transaction volumes."

Bruce T. Andersen, a Los Angeles technology consultant who resells middle-market and midrange accounting applications, and provides QuickBooks consulting, says he is "very comfortable" in offering QBE. However, he warns fellow consultants to "be aware of the limitations."

He suggested that consultants be circumspect about recommending QBE to companies that are growing extremely quickly, since those companies would ultimately move to a product outside the QuickBooks line anyway.

Wayne Schulz, a Glastonbury, Conn., CPA and business software reseller/consultant, concurred that an end user company's specific growth patterns determine whether QBE is the right move. He said that companies with from 300 to 500 monthly transactions generally begin to notice a slowdown in traditional QuickBooks after a year, but added, "Every company's tolerance to slowdowns is different, so the mere act of hitting 300 to 500 transactions per month doesn't immediately require you to change systems."

According to Schulz, "QBE is right for you if you are QuickBooks users who have outgrown other editions of software because of limitations on the numbers of items they can enter, the limitation of only five simultaneous users; or, the need for slightly more inventory functionality.

"However, you might want to think twice about moving to QBE if you are outgrowing QuickBooks because you need significantly greater inventory capability, broader customer report writer ability or have experienced serious system slowdowns," Schulz further noted.

Ted Needleman, a consultant and writer specializing in technology, says that QBE is "a perfect fit" for many current users of other QuickBooks editions. But, he also advised companies that are outgrowing those editions to look to entirely different midrange products because, "QBE's true benefits are in increased capacity, not functionality."

He called QBE only a "stopgap" measure for companies outgrowing QuickBooks. He sensed that Intuit, in building QBE, has merely "bulked up capacity, while failing to match midrange products, like Microsoft's Great Plains and Best Software's MAS 90, in providing the management features that growing businesses need.

While Needleman said that QBE does not match all that well with Great Plains, a middle-market accounting product formerly called Dynamics, Johnston said that QBE is a much better value than Microsoft's low-end product, Small Business Manager.

This report's final reviewer, J. Carlton Collins, president of accounting software industry information clearinghouse Accounting Software Advisor, called QBE "QuickBooks on steroids."

Collins cited a long list of key functions that are missing from QBE, including foreign currency conversion capability, no automatic reversing entries and a lack of open database connectivity ODBC interface.

However, Collins also advised accountants and end users that they should not conclude that QBE is "seriously lacking" compared to more expensive midrange products. Although many midrange applications, such as BusinessVision from Softline Software--and even low-end product rival Peachtree Complete--offer many more functions, QBE's functionality meets most small business needs "just fine," he said.

Collins agreed with the other reviewers in that he felt most comfortable recommending QBE to other QuickBooks users experiencing slowdowns from higher transaction volumes.

Collins and all the other reviewers cited key shortcomings in several QBE functionally areas, particularly its inventory management system. For that reason, the reviewers gave QBE low scores in its usability by inventory-based companies, but they ranked it high in terms of its usefulness to service-based companies.

The reviewers noted that QBE should, first and foremost, be considered a tool for service-based businesses. They all gave it low scores for its appropriateness for inventory-based businesses.

Schulz believes that QBE is missing too many features, such as costing methods and reorder processes, "to be a strong contender for a growing inventory-based business. But, he added, "for light inventory tracking, where there are few items to track and relatively low volume, QBE is a sound solution due to it's ease-of-use and quick setup time."

On a scale of one to four (with one being lowest and four the highest rating), here are the average scores the reviewers gave QBE in 10 key areas:

Is QBE able to effectively handle companies as large as 20 to 250 employees? Four reviewers do not dispute that QBE could "technically" scale that high, but, among them, Johnston noted, "The clear sweet spot for the product will more likely be companies with from 20 to 100 employees."

Collins said that it's unlikely that QBE, in its current state, could be used by 250-employee companies because its use of file locking, rather than record locking, prohibits concurrent users from conducting certain searches or producing certain reports when required files are in use by others.

Collins also cited a list of vital new features in QBE that make the product more than just "QuickBooks on steroids." They include the ability for users to generate "automatic restocking orders" by treating out-of-stock items as back-ordered items, a built-in customer credit check service and the ability for users to access QBE remotely online via a free Intuit service that features 128-bit encryption for security.

Other key new features in QBE, to name a few of the dozens cited by the reviewers in total, include:

• The ability to consolidate reports from multiple companies;
• The capability to handle up to 20,000 inventory items and customers, up from 10,000 each in the earlier QuickBooks; and,
• The availability of remote access to data over the Internet.

On the usefulness for service-versus inventory-based companies, Andersen noted that QBE has "six big" feature enhancements that are all primarily useful for service companies, but that it has only one inventory-based enhancement--the addition of sales-order capability.

"While the inventory system is improved, and will be handle most of the demands placed on it, it is weaker than comparably-priced competitors," Needleman said.

However, he and all the other reviewers roundly praised QBE for its user similarities to prior QuickBooks editions. "Using QBE will eliminate the need to learn a new interface or give up the ease of use of the familiar Professional or Premier," said Johnston.

The similarities also make conversions easier. Existing QuickBooks users who upgrade will find it impossible to locate a more pain-free or low-cost migration path," according to Schulz. He also notes that existing QuickBooks users who are moving to QBE can seamlessly convert every data file, with all history--a migration that none of Intuit's rival vendors can match.

Although, as a 10-user product, QBE costs considerably more than other QuickBooks editions, the reviewers rated it well for cost effectiveness. Johnston said, "There is no doubt that QBE is a better value than Small Business Manager."

Copyright 2002 Gale Group, Inc. ASAP Copyright 2002 Thomson Financial Inc. Accounting Today October 21, 2002,  BYLINE: Covaleski, John M.