QuickBooks is the best-selling accounting software product in the world. It is designed to enable non-accountants to manage the bookkeeping for a small business. Paying suppliers, invoicing customers, managing a small inventory and producing basic financial statements are its forté. However, Quickbooks isn’t necessarily a good fit for everyone.
Companies that need to customize their financial statements in order to display very specific information will find QuickBooks too limited. You cannot modify reports in QuickBooks.
Also, QuickBooks does not provide true departmental reporting. It allows you to assign a transaction to a Class on an ad-hoc basis, for the purpose of reporting, which is very different from using department codes associated with GL accounts. Companies that run multiple departments, divisions, and even multiple business entities will find QuickBooks impractical.
This is where Adagio Accounting shows its competitive advantage. Adagio allows you to customize reports. It supports departmental reporting, and even combined financials for a parent company with multiple subsidiaries.
Adagio Accounting VS QuickBooks
Function
|
Adagio
|
QuickBooks Enterprise
|
DATABASE
|
Proprietary
|
Sybase iAnywhere
(encrypted)
|
USER LICENSES
|
Concurrent Users
|
Named Users
|
TRANSACTION POSTING
|
Batch
|
Real Time
|
DEPARTMENTS / DIVISIONS
|
2 segments; 6 char each
|
No Departments
Uses “Classes”, limited in functionality
|
COPY DEPARTMENTS, AUTOMATICALLY ADDING ALL REQUIRED ACCOUNTS
|
Y
|
N
|
INSIST TRANSACTIONS ARE CODED TO VALID DEPARTMENT.
|
Y
|
N
|
FISCAL PERIODS.
|
12, 13, y/e adjustment period
|
12
|
MULTICURRENCY
|
Y
|
Y
|
ONE-CLICK EXPORT TO EXCEL (POSTING JOURNALS, ALL FINANCIAL REPORTS)
|
Y
|
N
|
COLOR CODE TRANSACTION TYPES OR ACCOUNT ATTRIBUTES
|
Y
|
N
|
BUDGETS
|
2 Current yr.;
2 Future yr.
All historical budgets
|
1 - Current yr.
|
DATA ENTRY USING ONLY NUMERIC KEYPAD
|
Y
|
N
(requires mouse)
|
PERIOD TO WHICH TRANSACTION CAN BE POSTED
|
Any current period, previous yr period, or Future yr period if opened
|
Strictly posts to date of transaction.
|
UNPOST BATCHES / TRANSACTIONS
|
Y
|
N
(posted transaction may be deleted)
|
MULTIPLE CONTROL ACCOUNTS
|
Y
|
N
|
EASE OF CUSTOMIZING FINANCIAL REPORTS
|
WYSIWYG interface, based on spreadsheet & formulas, make it easy to create reports.
|
No customization of reports
|
DRILL DOWN IN FINANCIAL REPORT TO VIEW ORIGINAL SOURCE TRANSACTION & DOCUMENT
|
Y
|
N
(can drill down to transaction but not to the source doc.)
|
Inventory Mgmt
|
Adagio
|
QuickBooks Enterprise
|
COSTING METHODS
|
5 – LIFO, FIFO, Moving Average, Standard, User-Defined
|
1 – Moving Average
|
ITEM CODES
|
4 segments; 16 characters
|
No item code
(item name only)
|
DISCOUNTS LEVELS (BY CUSTOMER OR SALES QUANTITY)
|
5
|
N
|
DATE-SENSITIVE DISCOUNTS
|
Y
|
N
|
PREVENT NEGATIVE INVENTORY
|
Y
|
N
|
REPORTING BY ITEM SEGMENT
|
Y
|
N
|
MULTIPLE INVENTORY CONTROL ACCOUNTS
|
20
|
1
|
NUMBER OF SALES ACCOUNTS
|
Unlimited
|
1
|
MULTIPLE LOCATIONS
|
Y
|
N
|
PRICING BY LOCATION
|
Y
|
N
|
DEPARTMENTALIZATION BY LOCATION
|
Y
|
N
|
HANDLES LANDED COSTS
|
Y
|
N
|
For small business that have large transaction volumes to manage, or large inventories to manage, Adagio is a far better choice. Like QuickBooks, Adagio is available in the cloud as well as on-premise.