There are many differences between Blue Link ERP and QuickBooks. For starters, while QuickBooks is designed as an accounting solution, Blue Link includes not only accounting functionality, but also inventory management, order entry and processing, purchase orders, eCommerce, warehouse management, contact management and more. Therefore, trying to compare Blue Link with QuickBooks doesn’t actually make sense. Instead, many Blue Link customers decide to move from QuickBooks to our robust accounting software when they start to grow and require additional features and want to automate processes. Since Blue Link is designed to replace QuickBooks, our system includes all the same basic accounting features and more - such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger and bank management. However, there is one huge difference between Blue Link’s accounting functionality and QuickBooks – and that is transactional integrity.
Transactional Integrity
Entry-level systems like QuickBooks are very end-user friendly and are forgiving to users who make mistakes. One such example of this is how QuickBooks allows almost any transaction to be retroactively “corrected” as if the error were never made. This makes the system easy-to-use for people without any bookkeeping or accounting experience but is not good for auditing purposes.
With Blue Link, transactions are purposely not editable after the fact. This is a very good thing to support audit requirements, and any good ERP system like ours will not allow retroactive changes to posted transactions. Instead, to “undo” a mistake, you have to make the proper correcting entries. This ensures there is always a complete audit trail of what happened in the system.
Since Blue Link includes functionality to support proper accounting processes, it is important that you hire and train the right people to perform these tasks.
Hiring
As a growing distribution company, you need to consider hiring candidates that are from larger companies running Enterprise ERP packages for certain positions. While there may be roles within your business that are appropriate for people with fewer qualifications, you will want to make sure you have at least a couple of people on staff who have a background or experience in accounting/bookkeeping. These people will be expecting software features like those we have in Blue Link and will have the accounting knowledge to support proper accounting processes.
Training
Even if you have hired the right people, to fully optimize the features available in Blue Link’s software, proper training is a must. Most Blue Link customers receive a full 4-5 days of training as part of our implementation process. The good news though is that if you have hired the right people, you will only need to train them on how to use Blue Link to complete their tasks – instead of having to train them on actual business processes such as accounting processes. Then, as your business grows and you add more people in the future, you can continue to schedule additional training.
As you can see, while QuickBooks is great for small businesses for managing simple processes, it lacks the transactional integrity necessary for growing businesses that need to follow proper accounting rules. As your business continues to grow, the need for proper accounting knowledge and procedures will only increase until you find the right solution and hire the right people to support this.