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We have outgrown Quickbooks Pro and are currently shopping for a replacement. We are debating on moving up in the Quickbooks chain and going with QB Enterprise, or possibly moving over to Microsoft Dynamics GP.

I personally, as the person who will be supporting the infrastructure, am not a fan of QB. I would much rather support Microsoft Dynamics GP.

We grew from 6mil revenue to 17mil rev in one year. With projections of the same amount of increase for the next 2 years. Our headcount has gone from 22 employees to 250 in 2 years. I firmly believe if we stay in the Quickbooks product line, enterprise or not, we will outgrow its capability. So if we're going to go through the migration pains, we may as well do it once, and do it right.

Any recommendations? Quickbooks Enterprise, or Microsoft Dynamics GP?

The owner of the company has a very long financial background and LOVES reporting features and always being able to look at numbers in every way possible. Keep that in mind. I just don't think QB will meet those needs as far as reporting speeds, an d flexibility in the long run.

Thanks!

Dave M
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Physikal
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4 Answers4

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I think you've already stated the obvious, quickbooks is not in the same league as dynamics. I'd wonder why quickbooks even made the list of possible upgrades. In addition to GP you can also begin to think about CRM and ERP in the dynamics line- that's not really a possibility in the quickboooks line.

Jim B
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It depends on your business work flow. For our business we do around 300 invoices a day and it's a pain to get them entered because it takes more steps. Another thing is that after you spend 1/4 million dollars on GP you need to buy "modules" to fix any mistakes you do. GP is bigger and has more potential but better? I disagree. As of now we can't alter templates without a 1K bill from our microsoft representative. It's not a program you can not figure out how things work you need training which becomes costly. On top of that You'll realize that you'll learn about different modules and steps you need to take to keep your file active. Quickbooks isn't the best out there but I think it's much better for the amount spend on GP. The yearly bills for 17K is getting ridiculous for just keeping the software. Going to GP is a marriage not a program.

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There are quite a few articles on why people upgrade to GP over Quickbooks. As a GP Var more often then not our phone rings because of the following:

*Functionality: Too many manual process outside of QB that an ERP software can do especiaily under inventory management. Reduce spreadsheets.

*Reporting: too much reliance on "tribal knowledge" and spreadsheets to learn what is going on. Very reactive approach vs shifting to proactive alerts and enterprise reporting accross departments.

*Scability: often only a hand full of people are actually using quickbooks. The rest of the organzation relies on other solutions, spreadsheets, email, etc to run the business and then it is eventually reported into Quickbooks. As a company grows security and audit trails become more important

Challenge: Investment cost. A Dynamics implementaion requires SQL licenses, a server and the software along with the training costs. Suggest learn more about CustomerSource, the online GP training port and Microsoft Financing to spread cash flow. I find that many companies question the value so it is imporant to do you homework. It is not COST but VALUE that should determine any investment decision.

A bike is cheaper than a car... but most people still drive to work.:)

I am always curious about companies experiences. Why they did or did not make the switch and if it turned out to be a good decision or not.

Jason Mills 714.634.4697 jason.mills@issusa.com http://www.issusa.com/DynamicsGPForQBPeachtree.aspx

Jason Mills
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At this point it is probably to late for you but i will throw my two cents in for what it is worth. Yes, purchasing and implementing Dynamics is costly ad a bit of a pain. The trade off though is some wonderful simplicities such as a decently (would not say well) structured, documented, and accessible database. Customizations are a chore to work through and the add on modules your specific application may need will vary but to put things into perspective I started at a company about ten years ago not knowing much of anything about computers. With the documentation, a test environment and determination I taught myself to not only support but modify and manage this ERP in its version 6 through 9. The online support and documentation make it possible along with forums and an open DB structure. QB simply does not have that. I am now trying to support QB and find it most irritating. I would never knowingly endorse a microsoft product, I hate them. But compared to the alternatives this is actually pretty good. I can take comfort in the fact that MS did not build it they simply bought it (they bought the company in V7 i think) and added hooks for Office plugins and reconfigured the GUI a bit but have not really mucked with the inner workings save to add an much needed active directory hook in GP 10. The one MAJOR headache though you will run into and is unavoidable is the Dexterity runtime engine that manages the entry pass through from the GUI to the DB. IT is a lot of trouble but once you start to understand it it is managable. My two cents. oh yeah, get a gold plan and DO NOT house your DB server on the same box as your OS server.

Tank Szuba
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