Why your clients don’t need an ERP—and how to keep them on QBO

Contrary to what some people may think, your accounting clients don’t need to replace QuickBooks Online (QBO) with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to grow. Here’s why.

As an accountant, you’ve got a lot on your plate. Calculating tax payments, analyzing financial data, tracking transactions, offering sound financial advice, and helping your clients remain compliant fill your days. But, if you’re anything like us, a few anxiety-ridden questions may fill your nights.

Will I make the tax deadline?

Why is it so hard to get client receipts? 

How can I convince my clients to keep QuickBooks Online (QBO) instead of switching to a large, potentially unwieldy enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution?

All good questions, but it’s the last question we’ll help you tackle today.

The importance of the right accounting software

Accounting software is an operationally critical technology for businesses in our digital economy. The software delivers increased efficiency, happier employees, and higher profits by automating your transactional, management, and reporting tasks. You save time, reduce errors, and make smart decisions while also remaining compliant with constantly changing regulations.

Which accounting software is best for your clients? It depends. QuickBooks gets the nod from millions of customers (6.5 million, according to QuickBooks). But its well-documented success hasn’t stopped some who believe that QBO can’t hack it when your business begins to scale. 

What a growing business needs, they say, is something bigger. Something better equipped to handle complexity. Something like an ERP solution. 

Here at Cin7, we disagree.

Reasons to stick with QuickBooks

QuickBooks has been faithfully serving customers for over 20 years. The integrated, cloud-based accounting platform offers a variety of plans to accommodate unique and evolving businesses. From accounting insights and reporting tools to money features, payroll options, and more, QBO is the one-platform answer for your vital financial management needs.

Moreover, QBO is renowned for being affordable, user-friendly, and easily accessed from any location. Right out of the gate, you and your clients’ businesses are ready to rock and roll.

Still, the naysayers insist that QBO won’t grow with you, noting that an ERP handles large or growing businesses increasingly complex requirements better than QBO. They explain that ERPs provide reporting and basic customer relationship management (CRM) features, with many ERPs offering inventory, order, manufacturing, and project management capabilities either within the single solution or as an easy add on. All of this, they assert, is on top of the ERP’s accounting and financial management modules built into the solution.

What they don’t take into account is the fact that implementing an ERP is expensive, time intensive, and a real pain to learn. And when a business chooses to discard QBO for an ERP, accountants (like you) would be forced to learn a totally different accounting system—a tiresome, time-consuming, and costly endeavor. 

Establishing a long-term friendship with QBO and Cin7

An integration with Cin7 empowers businesses to extend the generous QBO capabilities they already enjoy. Working hand-in-hand with QBO, Cin7 acts as an ERP-like solution for inventory, order, and supply chain management, which, as we explain in a recent post, allows you to “manage less, sell more, integrate anywhere, see everything, streamline all operations, and drive growth from a single, connected solution.”

Cin7 is an all-in-one inventory solution that provides:

• Inventory Management, including Pick, Pack, Ship; warehouse management (WMS); and inventory counts/stocktake for accurate inventory data.
• Manufacturing capabilities, such as Bill of Materials (BOMs) with Routings/BOOs; work centers; quality assurance; Material Requirements Planning (MRP), which is an add-on available to any customer; and Master Production Scheduling (MPS).
• Reporting that provides 100+ customizable pivot table reports on available inventory, cash flow, COGS, forecasting based on historic sales data, and more.
• Demand Forecasting that goes beyond MRP through Foresight AI—an advanced tool that uses algorithmic sales forecasting and automatic inventory replenishment.
• Native integrations that eliminate the frustrating and potentially expensive use of an iPaaS to make integrations like Amazon, eBay, Shipstation, Avalara, 3PL, EDI, and much more work, delivering real-time data synchronization, reduced manual entry, and faster implementation.
• Built-in Point of Sale (POS) delivering integrated inventory management, omnichannel fulfillment options, unlimited outlets and registers, and tiered staff access.

A partnership with Cin7 and QBO sets your clients’ businesses up for growth, providing the tools, resources, and support they need to deal with the complexity growth brings. Your clients will be able to easily and successfully sell in multiple countries and in multiple marketplaces, and as they do so, they’ll experience a very welcome surge in customer acquisition. 

And your clients can have all of this without leaving QBO or shelling out money they don’t have for an ERP that likely isn’t worth it. Lenny Vainberg, CEO of ModaConcrete™ | TerraFlame knows what we’re talking about.

“Cin7 gives you entry level NetSuite or SAP-level functionality, but with a much lower barrier to entry and a much more cost-effective price point—and very powerful capabilities in the long run,” Lenny says. “And, because you are interacting with your accounting system [QuickBooks] as part of a hybrid solution suite, you are able to bring up your ERP without pulling everything down and starting from scratch.” 

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. 

Cin7 has everything, including QBO, in one place, at a price that is affordable, and in a timeframe that is eminently manageable. To learn how your clients can enjoy the many benefits of QBO and of an ERP without the hassle, request a free Cin7 demo today.