At first glance, NetSuite and QuickBooks may serve similar purposes and check a few of the same boxes for small companies. However, a close comparison shows that more differences exist than similarities, especially when it comes to NetSuite’s robust and complete feature sets. Here are some examples of how NetSuite’s easy-to-use key features compare.

  • Revenue Recognition

NetSuite allows accounting teams to comply with revenue recognition requirements and schedule revenue to be recognized automatically. As a result, financial statements and forecasts are accurate and updated in real-time, whether a sales transaction consists of a single action, a series of actions across a period of time, or a bundle of different types of deliverables.

  • Billing

NetSuite enables real-time visibility into billing and financial activity, which adds more transparency through automated rating processes, consolidated invoicing, and support for multiple pricing models to capture setup fees, license counts, and variable consumption. When it comes to subscription billing, NetSuite’s billing capabilities truly outshines those of QuickBooks—automated renewals help retain revenue and reduce the need for manual oversight. Businesses also can set customer-specific pricing and discounting, or schedule subscription changes, removing the need to manually monitor and track them. Additionally, NetSuite’s SuiteBilling supports multiple subscription billing options, including consumption-based, fixed rate (annual, multi-year and monthly), or a combination of the two. Companies can manage promotional pricing, easily modify contracts, or put subscriptions on hold and restart.

 

  • General Ledger

NetSuite’s general ledger (GL) provides accounting data from a consolidated level down to individual transactions, allowing companies to customize their GL to meet their business needs. Users can add custom GL impact lines to transactions, such as vendor bills or invoices, across single or multiple accounting books, reducing the time required for account reconciliation, period close, and audit processes.

  • Accounts Payable

While QuickBooks doesn’t provide any purchasing controls, NetSuite’s approval workflow engine ensures that purchasing and accounting controls and policies are followed, which reduces and makes approvals easier. Users can automate discount calculation and exception processing when invoices do not match purchase orders, limiting manual data entry errors and decreasing the time it takes to process bills from vendors.

  • Accounts Receivable

NetSuite’s accounts receivable features allow companies to manage their customer list, track their receivables, and receive payment—all without needing to enter detailed debits and credits. Configurable dashboards, reports, and KPIs provide a real-time view into accounts receivable data, including customer aging, recurring invoices, invoice analyses, deferred revenue, and exception reports that flag account anomalies.

  • Fixed Asset and Lease Management

NetSuite makes it easier to document and maintain an accurate record of all capital assets, including acquisition costs and asset status. Companies can manage an asset’s complete lifecycle and easily report on all fixed assets, tracking depreciating or nondepreciating company assets from creation to depreciation, revaluation, and disposal. NetSuite also addresses the new accounting and reporting requirements for leased assets, specifically setting up amortization schedules and splitting out interest expense from rental expense for reporting purposes. QuickBooks does not offer these fixed asset or lease management features.

  • Inventory Management

NetSuite inventory management automates real-time tracking of inventory levels, sales, and orders throughout the inventory lifecycle. Companies use these insights to make data driven decisions, maximize sales, and gain greater control of their business, while minimizing manual processes. 

  • Reporting

While QuickBooks and NetSuite have standard accounting reports, NetSuite’s expansive library includes real-time reports, from revenue forecasting to consolidated parent and subsidiary reports. And, thanks to NetSuite’s multicurrency feature, companies can report using the local currency of the countries where subsidiaries are located. NetSuite enables simple detailed drill-down and drill-across reporting for any record in the system. Moreover, NetSuite reports eliminate static reporting, offering flexible views for reports from department, location, product line, or a variety of operational perspectives.

If accounting is becoming more complex as your company grows, you may be noticing that entry-level accounting software such as QuickBooks has clear limits. Handling your mature business challenges using spreadsheets and clusters of disparate applications just doesn’t cut it. It’s time to upgrade from QuickBooks to NetSuite. Ready to make the switch? Contact us today: (703) 288-3200