Sage Intacct vs. QuickBooks

Mid-Market or Small Business Software

Sage Intacct and QuickBooks Enterprise are leading business accounting solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. Based on your financial management needs, budget, and accessibility requirements, you may see one option as a better fit than the other for your business.

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Small Business vs. Mid-Market

Ask small business owners what accounting system they use, and you’ll most likely hear “QuickBooks,” a solution often touted as the #1 small business software. On the other hand, Sage Intacct is a viable software solution for mid-market companies and startups looking to scale. Plus, it is the only financial management software endorsed by the AICPA.

You’ll want to identify a solution that allows you to add users, entities, locations, and modules as you scale. QuickBooks Enterprise puts a cap on its user count at 30, a steal for small businesses. Sage Intacct has no user limits, making it a good option for fast-growing mid-market companies.

Software that has some scalability is beneficial, and QuickBooks Enterprise offers just the right amount of flexibility for new businesses and startups. From its low price point to its vast integration options, QuickBooks provides small businesses with a great starting point for organizing financial and accounting information. And with its broad applications, QuickBooks covers several bases for companies just starting out.

As businesses scale, they require more customizable and, often, more specialized accounting features. In such instances, Sage Intacct is a logical choice for such a software upgrade. For businesses hoping to streamline and customize their financial management system, Sage Intacct is an AICPA-endorsed option with vast integrations and personalized dashboards and reporting. Sage Intacct is also GAAP compliant, so it is an excellent option for growing businesses that need to follow regulatory requirements or have more audit-ready financials. While QuickBooks is not GAAP compliant, this gives it more flexibility in organizing, storing, and presenting information. 

Pricing

The broad capabilities and low price point of QuickBooks Enterprise make it an excellent option for smaller businesses with limited budgets. Business owners looking for ways to save money often eliminate their external accounting services in favor of QuickBooks’ affordable entry point. Intuit designed QuickBooks to be user-friendly, and the system speeds up accounting processes by automating bill payments, enabling banking capabilities, and processing customer payments.

When it comes to the cost, QuickBooks Enterprise offers four pricing tiers that follow a pricing gradient, with additional modules available on higher tiers. Companies using QuickBooks Enterprise can also purchase access for up to 30 users on the system, and remote access hosting comes at a small additional cost.

Sage Intacct offers similar automation opportunities to QuickBooks Enterprise, but it comes at a higher price. This is due to Sage Intacct’s specialized accounting features and increased user allowance. While specialization does narrow Sage Intacct’s scope of functionality, Sage Intacct can synchronize with third-party software solutions to expand a company’s financial management capabilities.

As for the price, Sage Intacct does not have pricing tiers; instead, Sage Intacct considers the customer’s needs, the level of tailoring required to meet a business’s needs, and the complexity of the implementation process. Sage Intacct also provides different user licenses for your business user, project manager, or employee, allowing you to pay for your users’ functionality and nothing more. Exact pricing for Sage Intacct varies from user to user. Usually, assessing your company’s needs and expectations will lead to a reasonable estimate.

Cloud-Based versus Desktop-Based

Today’s companies invest in cloud-based software to handle administrative and organizational tasks, including financial management and accounting. Choosing software developed for the cloud eliminates the need for expensive capital investment, IT efforts, downtime for costly maintenance projects, and continued hardware, software, and network monitoring and upgrades.

While QuickBooks Enterprise and Sage Intacct can be accessed from the cloud, keep one key difference in mind. QuickBooks was developed for on-premise usage and later was updated to include cloud functionality. While QuickBooks and Sage Intacct offer similar cloud benefits—internal upgrades and no hardware maintenance, for starters—some businesses find more benefit in choosing a solution built specifically for the cloud.

Sage Intacct is a multi-tenant solution developed for the cloud, ensuring all customers automatically work with the most recent version of the software. Sage Intacct’s APIs prevent upgrades from breaking existing integrations and other guarantees like uptime, disaster recovery, and data ownership, all included in their Buy With Confidence Guarantee. Quarterly updates roll out to all customers seamlessly, eliminating downtime.

Sum It Up

QuickBooks is a simple, affordable solution for small or new businesses hoping to streamline their accounting processes. However, rapidly-growing companies may find that QuickBooks isn’t flexible enough for rapid scalability. In such cases, it may be time to graduate to Sage Intacct.

As a best-in-class solution with an open API, Sage Intacct can integrate with other software your organization uses, allowing for advanced reporting, automation of manual tasks, full cloud capabilities, and improved financial processes that mitigate data entry errors.

At Cargas, our expert consulting team specializes in ERP and financial management solutions, including Sage Intacct. As a Sage Intacct Premier Partner, Cargas has been recognized for its exceptional growth, customer satisfaction, and strategic expertise. If you’re struggling to determine which of these solutions is the best fit for your business, we’d love to help. Let’s connect to talk about your needs and what you’re looking for in a software solution.

Julie Fuller Sales Development Representative

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2024-01-12T09:47:39-05:00April 4th, 2022|Accounting, Comparison, ERP, Sage Intacct|

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