Outgrowing QuickBooks? What Fuel Dealers Should Do Next

QuickBooks is a popular accounting solution for small businesses, and in the fuel industry, it’s a great option to track fuel usage, inventory, cash flow, and other operational expenses. However, fuel dealers on QuickBooks solutions like QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Enterprise may find that the software isn’t as effective as it used to be.  

As small businesses grow, it’s common for them to outgrow solutions like QuickBooks. If you’re a fuel dealer, you should be on the lookout for the five signs you’re outgrowing QuickBooks.  

2: Operational Inefficiencies

Do you find yourself exporting data from QuickBooks into other programs, like Excel, to generate the reports you need? 

QuickBooks isn’t designed to handle complex data automation across multiple companies or locations. This means fuel dealers with large customer bases—especially those that have merged and combined data from multiple locations—may not be able to get real-time data from QuickBooks, which can impact the speed and accuracy of important business decisions.  

As a result, these QuickBooks users send data into Excel to create custom reports, an inconvenience that comes at the cost of real-time data analysis.  

3: Poor Consolidations

Consolidations are complicated in QuickBooks solutions. QuickBooks Online does not natively support consolidations, requiring users to complete them manually, while QuickBooks Desktop only offers a limited selection of built-in tools for report consolidations. 

No matter which version of QuickBooks a fuel delivery company uses, its users can’t fully automate consolidations. As a result, users sink time into manual consolidation of financial statements. But this doesn’t just waste time; it can also result in errors. A 2024 review of spreadsheet quality across multiple industries found that 94% of operational spreadsheets contain errors, a figure attributed to human error in their creation, organization, and revision.

4: Limited Customization

QuickBooks is a general accounting solution for businesses of all kinds, not just fuel dealers. And while specialized industries like energy can still make the most of general software, the most efficient financial solutions for fuel delivery are ones that allow users to customize workflows, modules, and reports. 

QuickBooks permits some customization in limited areas of the software, favoring standardization over the ability to tailor specific elements. These restrictions have tightened as QuickBooks has modernized, resulting in new limitations on invoice design, reporting, and other features.  

Other financial solutions allow for broad customization while maintaining regulatory compliance, making QuickBooks an unnecessarily rigid solution for organizations that want more control over the look and feel of their accounting software. 

5: No Room for Growth

QuickBooks is a small business accounting solution designed to help organizations like mom-and-pop shops move away from pen and paper and towards digital accounting. For these types of fuel dealers, QuickBooks is a great stepping stone.  

But QuickBooks is not a viable long-term solution for fuel dealers whose organizations are growing. As mergers and acquisitions continue to shape the landscape of fuel delivery, small-scale software can’t keep pace with growing data pools, multi-entity organizations, and more complex purchasing needs.  

It’s best to consider a newer, larger solution before your company hits the cap for users, file size, or inventory capabilities. 

QuickBooks Alternatives for Fuel Delivery 

What options do fuel dealers have if they’re outgrowing QuickBooks? There are plenty of financial solutions on the market, but not all of them are good fits for the energy industry.  

When researching new financial software to replace QuickBooks, fuel dealers should look for… 

1. Industry-specific functionality 
2. Integration capabilities 
3. Budget 
4. Compliance 
5. Scalability 

Typically, organizations that are just outgrowing QuickBooks don’t need an enterprise-level accounting solution. Instead, they opt for a scalable, customizable mid-sized application. Our top recommendation for these organizations is Sage Intacct. 

What Is Sage Intacct for Fuel Delivery? 

Sage Intacct is a best-in-class, cloud-based accounting solution designed for a variety of organizations and industries, including fuel delivery companies. It focuses on offering advanced financial features that give accountants, managers, and executives greater insights while reducing manual workload and human error.  

Sage Intacct’s primary features include inventory and billing management, automated workflows, and real-time data analysis, as well as visibility into key metrics such as gallons sold.  

Accounts Payable in QuickBooks Versus Sage Intacct

One of the greatest benefits of upgrading from QuickBooks to Sage Intacct lies in AP automation. Accounts Payable can be one of the most time-consuming responsibilities on the accounting side of businesses, especially for fuel dealers who need to manage the supply of fuel, trucks, tanks, monitors, and other hardware.  

QuickBooks and Sage Intacct both offer AP automation, but the breadth and depth differ significantly between the two. QuickBooks’ AP automation includes basic features like bill capture, payment scheduling, and approval workflows, but it still requires manual oversight, especially for high-volume invoices. 

On the other hand, Sage Intacct’s AP automation reduces manual workload by automatically pulling data from invoices, comparing reports and data to flag inconsistencies or duplicates, and routing invoices to the appropriate individuals or departments for approval.   

How Fuel Dealers Are Automating AP

Curious why fuel dealers are leaving QuickBooks behind in favor of AP automation? Hoping to see AP automation in action? Our webinar “How Fuel Dealers Are Automating AP” explores the benefits of switching to Sage Intacct and includes a brief demo of the software’s AP automation tool. Register today to get up close and personal with our top recommendation for fuel delivery financials.