Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) create jobs, drive innovation, and prop up the economy. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there areover 33 million SMBs operating in the U.S. alone. And of those 33 million, an estimated 29 million have, at one point in their evolution, tapped QuickBooks as their starter technology and accounting software.

It makes sense. QuickBooks offers adequate tools for managing a business’s basic accounting and core financial needs.

But for SMBs relentlessly pursuing growth, QuickBooks just isn’t enough.

In a recent blog, we outlined how many QuickBooks users suffer from common QuickBooks pain points stemming from the software’s limited capabilities (e.g., inability to easily and inexpensively accommodate a growing labor force), concerning long-term—and unpredictable—costs, lack of complexity, siloed data, and operational inefficiency. These and other troubling challenges are why QuickBooks users have chosen to undergo a QuickBooks transition, letting go of the once reliable but entry-level accounting solution and seeking a modern, comprehensive solution, like Acumatica.

And so many of the companies that have graduated from QuickBooks to Acumatica have brought their organizations to new heights.

We recently hosted a webinar to look at what QuickBooks users are experiencing when they start to grow and how those who have graduated from QuickBooks are thriving with a more comprehensive business management solution.

The webinar shared some great information on Acumatica’s intuitive, adaptable, and cloud-based business management solution that delivers advanced accounting and industry-specific features. It highlighted our comprehensive solution’s robust accounting features, seamless integrations with the best applications, superior usability, and how it empowers growth with unparalleled scalability, low-code/no-code customization capabilities, and on-the-go mobility.

But the most compelling aspect of the webinar are the customer experiences. Here, we heard first-hand about the real-world examples of QuickBooks graduates who have found success with Acumatica.

Real-World QuickBooks Graduate: Phoenix Renovation and Restoration

Since 1999, Phoenix Renovation and Restoration has been delivering contracting expertise – as well as hope — to their Kansas and West Central Missouri customers. Phoenix Renovation completes more than 1,000 projects a year and employs a full-time team of 50 and hundreds of subcontractors.

CEO Brad Heise says he and his team are “90% therapist, 10% contractor.” They compassionately help people recover from devastating property damage by offering structural repairs, water mitigation, mold remediation, smoke abatement, and cleaning.

Chief Operating Officer Eric Hugunin shared with us a little about the company. “We were very paper based and had user limitations in QuickBooks because we only had 7 or 8 seat licenses. Project managers and people in the field were very reactionary versus proactive because of this. This made it a challenge for the team to always be on the same page. There were a lot of independent and siloed business processes and project management happening that we weren’t aware of from an administrative standpoint, causing confusion.”

As a complex, volume-heavy operation, the company was struggling to manage their financial operations with QuickBooks and spreadsheets.

“With QuickBooks, we had five different sets of books that we had to keep,” Hugunin says in the webinar. “With QuickBooks you can only have two companies open at one time. Lot of intercompany transactions or transactions between the profit centers and spreadsheets kind of kept us together [so that we would] know what we were doing.”

Additional QuickBooks-fueled frustrations for Phoenix Renovation and Restoration included:

• A 45+ days to close a month due to delayed information.
• A disconnected CRM system.
• Heavy reliance on Excel.

“It was literally at the point of imploding,” Hugunin says.

Primed to replace QuickBooks, the Phoenix Restoration team knew exactly what they wanted: a digital, cloud-based, and paperless platform. With the help of a technology consultant, they reviewed a number of enterprise resource planning (ERP) options, including Open Systems Traverse, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics, and Epicor—but it was Acumatica that got their attention.

“Most charged per user, were older platforms, and didn’t have an open API. Acumatica kept coming up to the top of the list, and eventually, it’s the direction we determined we wanted to go,” Hugunin says.

Phoenix Renovation’s Acumatica Construction Edition Benefits

For Phoenix Renovation, the benefits of implementing Acumatica’s flexible and customizable Construction Management Software are impressive. In the webinar, Aasha Cunningham, Director of Accounting & Administration, reveals that there are many things about Acumatica that she prefers over QuickBooks.

Acumatica’s unlimited user pricing that enables companies to pay only for the functionality that’s needed was a major winner in Cunningham’s books. Electronic approvals with log-in from anywhere, at anytime are also a big hit, allowing employees—in the office and in the field—to approve bills, receipts, and payments easily and on the go while also enabling them to capture expense receipts with their phones.

“All the things I just mentioned are native inside Acumatica,” Cunningham says. “You’re not having to use a different product, so that’s another big thing that I like.”

Acumatica’s connected solution has empowered Phoenix Renovation team to streamline its workflows. They now enjoy real-time task views and AIA reporting/billing and utilize compliance management, daily field reports, and expense management features.

“Everybody uses Acumatica to some degree,” Hugunin says. “Everybody in the company has access to it with different rules and functionality—so that right there, it’s visible, it’s transparent, and we don’t have to extract information from employees. The information is there.”

Additional powerful benefits include:

• Full (and real-time) data visibility and better accountability.
• Automated approval process.
• Time-savings reporting and robust dashboards.
• Integrated CRM for anytime, anywhere access to customer information.
• Improved vendor compliance and customer experience.

And because Acumatica is a scalable platform that enables them to easily add branches and employees, Hugunin says they’re considering extending their service area to nearby Southern states.

“With Acumatica Construction, we have access to current data that helps us understand where our business is coming from, how profitable it is, and just where it stands at any point,” says Hugunin.

He adds: “We never had the ease of visibility in QuickBooks.”

Acumatica’s Other QuickBooks Graduates

Phoenix Renovation isn’t the only QuickBooks graduate within the Acumatica community.

DiamondBack Truck Covers, ToughBuilt Industries, Inc., Fidelux Lighting, and Q-PAC Systems, Inc. are all companies that have simplified their operations, improved efficiencies, enhanced inventory management, and so much more after undergoing a QuickBooks transition to Acumatica.

Is It Time to be a QuickBooks Graduate?

These exciting stories highlight the many benefits of becoming a QuickBooks graduate. If you’re unsure if now is the time for a QuickBooks transition, see if you’re experiencing these 5 clear signs. And if you are, here are 5 great reasons why Acumatica may be the right fit for your business. If you need more convincing, watch the webinar!

Contact our team to set up a demonstration today.