Mid-market App Compare - Round One

Based on the Mid-Market Product Survey Insightful Accountant undertook last fall our readers told us that ‘comparative articles with brief descriptions, feature lists and pros/cons’ were their number one preferred method of learning about these products. Their second choice were articles like my ‘First Look’ and ‘App Aware’ that provided greater detail regarding each product, followed closely by ‘multi-part in-depth product series’.

Insightful Accountant will use all of these editorial methods as we continue expanding our coverage of the mid-market. Our goal is to better serve the needs of our advisor community who are attempting to grow their practices by serving larger clients. We also want to help Advisors who need to expand their product line-up into mid-market accounting solutions to serve their existing clients that have outgrown their current accounting software.

While we have written several articles on products within the mid-market accounting continuum, we have yet to provide readers with a comparison feature. This is the first of our Mid-market App Compare articles.

It's important to realize that each 'round' of our Mid-market App Compare series may not contain the same number of products, and that we have used a variety of survey responses in order to place products within their respective 'rounds'₁.  While we are not providing any ranking or comparative score based upon our review, we are disclosing the relative 'interest rating' of our readers for each product from the survey results. 

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QuickBooks Enterprise Diamond

One can easily say that QuickBooks Enterprise Diamond is 'the best that Intuit has to offer' in Accounting software, although Intuit might argue that citing that QuickBooks Online Advanced is their premier product 'in the cloud.' But clearly 'Diamond' shines above QBO Advanced as well as all other versions of QuickBooks Desktop because of the advanced feature-set it offers.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Diamond is subscription software designed to help you manage your accounting and business needs efficiently and with ease. It not only has the familiar QuickBooks look-and-feel that includes functionality to handle accounting, payroll, payments, inventory, and more, but it comes with valuable tools for manufacturers, wholesalers, contractors, and retailers.

QuickBooks Enterprise Diamond supports up to 40 users and includes time-tracking and advanced payroll features including both TSheets Elite time-tracking and 'Assisted Payroll'. With TSheets Elite your employees can enter time from anywhere and you’ll always know where your projects stand. Assisted Payroll lets you issue a paycheck in 3 minutes or less, and Intuit will take care of payroll tax payments and filing for you and guarantee that they will be filed on time and accurately.

QuickBooks Enterprise Diamond also features Advanced Inventory capabilities, Advanced Pricing functionality, and Advanced Reporting. There are a variety of advanced inventory capabilities including Mobile barcode scanning and barcode label prices, Alternate vendors center and alternate vendor reports, Barcode and barcode scanner support, Inventory cycle count functionality, Bin location tracking, Enhanced Pick, Pack, and Ship capabilities or Express Pick-Pack as well as support for Landed Costs.

QuickBooks Enterprise Diamond comes with Free Unlimited Online QuickBooks courses, Online Priority Circle Care, U.S. Based Technical Support, and Online Backup Data-storage. Automatic Product upgrades are included in this subscription level service of this desktop product. Because this is 'Desktop' software designed to run on Windows computers (workstations and servers) both on-premises, or hosted options are available.  

Features:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Advanced Reporting allows fully customized reports from data access
• Auto-Import Bank Reconciliation w AI-based auto-categorization or batch-edit
• Barcode Support (Mobile)
• Bill of Materials
• Billing & Invoicing
• Budgeting & Planning
• Cash Management
• Company Snapshot business view
• Consolidate reports from multiple companies (data-files)
• Contacts w rule-based group management
• CRM Sync to Salesforce w Connector
• Credit-card Processing
• Customizable Form Templates
• Document Capture at transaction level
• Expense Tracking w Mobile Receipt capture
• Fixed Asset Management
• Fund Accounting (using 'Class' feature)
• General Ledger
• Hourly Billing
• Inventory Bin Control
• Inventory Management
• Landed Cost
• Mobile App(s)
• Multi-Currency
• Multi-Location
• Nonprofits
• Office 365 Integration
• Online Backup
• Payment Processing
• Payroll Options including Assisted or Full-service
• Price controls (Advanced Pricing)
• Project Accounting
• Project-based Billing
• Purchase Orders including Auto-fulfillment
• Recurring/Subscription Billing
• Sales Orders including fulfillment via mobile devices for pick/pack/ship
• Sales Tax Management
• Serial or Lot Tracking
• Time-tracking on any device with TSheets Elite

Pros & Cons

We believe the following aspects of the product should be noted when considering this review.  We have not given any relative weight or ranking to any of the items listed under either pros or cons.

Pros

• Easy to use interface and navigation makes migration from QuickBooks Pro/Premier simple
• Diamond allows for up to 40-users, all other Enterprise versions max out at 30-users
• Customized form improvements make form standardized to your company across all form types
• Inventory tracking features are expanding continually
• Project tracking and profitability
• Multiple payroll solutions including time-tracking
• Large network of ProAdvisors supporting the product
• Very cost effective for multiple company entities

Cons

• Advanced Reporting feature is complex and lacks support
• Mobile App needs 'all-in-one' re-design, too many different apps to perform all the tasks
• Reporting options tend to lag behind new feature roll-out
• When severe database issues occur, they tend to be un-resolvable
• Customer Support needs improvements, wait times too long

Reader Survey Interest Score = 19.12

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QuickBooks Online Advanced

QuickBooks Online Advanced is an end-to-end cloud-based accounting software that can help mid-market companies grow. It comes with a centralized dashboard, which enables users to gain insights into business trends and organizational performance using key performance indicators (KPIs).

QuickBooks Online Advanced provides all the tools a business needs to bill and receive payment. Users can easily capture digital copies of receipts and automatically sort transactions based on tax categories, improving financial operations. Create custom estimates, manage recurring payments and export reports with ease.

QuickBooks Online Advanced allows administrators to assign tasks to sales representatives, grant access to specific users and collaborate on projects with team members. Users can organize their books, scale their business, complete tasks that matter faster, and get the support they need. Connects with numerous 3rd-party Apps for additional capabilities.

Despite being the 'top of the line' in terms of the QuickBooks Online product-line, 'Advanced' is not as capable as it's 'top of the line' desktop cousin 'Enterprise Diamond', especially when it comes to Inventory-centric and Manufacturing mid-market clients. In order to achieve the type of 'advanced inventory' functionality available in QuickBooks Enterprise you must use a 3rd-party App with QBO-Advanced.

Features:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Asset Planning
• Automate Processes with Custom Workflows
• Bank Reconciliation with auto-matching
• Batch-invoicing
• Batch-transaction processing including import feature
• Billing & Invoicing
• Cash-flow Forecasting
• Cash Management
• Cloud-based collaboration w 3 Accountant-seats included
• CRM Integration
• Custom Roles & User Permissions
• Employee Management
• Expense Tracking with receipt import
• Financial Management
• Forecasting
• General Ledger
• Inventory Management
• Multi-Department/Class Tracking
• Multi-Location Tracking
• Online Backup including User Managed Restore
• Payments Processing (Credit/Debit Card, ACH)
• Payroll Management
• Performance Metrics
• Project Accounting
• Purchase Orders
• Purchasing
• Reporting including Fathom Reporting
• Revenue Recognition
• Scheduling
• Spend Management
• Supports up to 25 Users at no added cost
• Tax Management
• Time & Expense Tracking
• Vendor Management

Pros & Cons

We believe the following aspects of the product should be noted when considering this review.  We have not given any relative weight or ranking to any of the items listed under either pros or cons.

Pros

• Easy to use interface and navigation
• Custom workflows and related 'automation's'
• Comprehensive contact records
• Simple but functional transaction forms
• Project tracking and profitability
• Customizable business reports including analytics
• Multiple payroll solutions including time-tracking
• Large network of ProAdvisors supporting the product
• Supports hundreds of 3^rd-party Apps

Cons

• Mobile App is limited, needs 'all-in-one' re-design
• Reconcile auto-categorization AI still needs improving
• Limited to only 25 users + 3 accountant seats per subscription.
• Inadequate for inventory-centric & manufacturing-based businesses without integrated 3rd-party App
• Customer Support needs improved 'product education'
• Expensive, especially for entities with multiple companies

Reader Survey Interest Score = 18.62

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Sage 100c

Ask me about Sage 100c just two years ago and I would have given you an entirely different description than I do today, it’s been that transitional. But, with more than 30 years as a market-leader, Sage's 100c is proving it is still a stable and feature-rich business management solution for mid-sized manufacturers, distributors, and service businesses. There really are three levels of Sage 100c, Essentials, Advanced and Complete and each level builds on the underlying level by adding new features and functions.

Essentials includes all the features you need for a growing business, while Advanced is designed for more sophisticated businesses; however, at the mid-market level I really think that Advanced would be the minimum that anyone considering this product would be talking about. Complete adds even more features especially for businesses that are either heavy in terms of being inventory-centric or light-manufacturing by concern.  This same flexibility makes it a popular choice for businesses across a myriad of sectors including business services, non-profit, healthcare, manufacturing, retail trades, distribution, transportation and logistics, and more.

Built for security and compliance, Sage 100c is a trusted solution for managing complexities associated with growth. Thanks to its business objects framework, Web APIs, and Office 365 connectivity, Sage 100c can be easily customized to meet the unique needs of businesses.

In contrast to a few years back, the Sage 100c of today has a much more friendly and less clunky workflow as well as a more modern user interface that warrants consideration even though it will be at the ‘upper end’ of this lower segment of the mid-market products we are looking at. That's why Sage 100c maybe right for businesses with 20-100 employees and $3 million to $20 million in revenue. 

And now Sage gives you the option of ‘which cloud’ you want your Sage 100c to float in (figuratively) … because they understand how essential the right cloud environment is to business strength and survival. That’s why with the help of certified Sage partners you can have Sage 100c deployed on the Microsoft Azure platform as an alternative to traditional Sage infrastructure or self-hosting, the option is yours. 

Features:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Bank Reconciliation
• Barcode Support (Mobile)
• Bill of Materials
• Billing & Invoicing
• Billing Portal
• Budgeting & Planning
• Business Insights
• Cash Management
• Collections
• Contact Database
• Contingency Billing
• CRM & Contact features
• Credit-card Processing
• Customizable Invoices
• DSD Route Capabilities
• Dunning Management
• Expense Tracking
• Fixed Asset Management
• Fund Accounting
• General Ledger
• Hourly Billing
• Inventory Bin Control
• Inventory Management
• Mobile Payments
• Multi-Currency
• Nonprofits
• Office 365 Integration
• Online Invoicing
• Online Payments
• Paperless Office
• Payment Processing
• Payroll Management
• Project Accounting
• Project Billing
• Purchase Orders
• Recurring/Subscription Billing
• Revenue Recognition
• Return Materials Authorizations
• Sales Orders
• Spend Management
• Tax Calculator
• Tax Management
• Visual Integrator & Custom Office

Pros & Cons

We believe the following aspects of the product should be noted when considering this review.  We have not given any relative weight or ranking to any of the items listed under either pros or cons.

Pros

• Easy to use interface available in multi-country configurations
• Custom 'workflow automation's'
• Microsoft Office-365 integration
• Inventory management improves with version and product feature-set
• In-depth contact and item records
• Can scale-up to other versions when needed
• Good support options (mandatory)
• Deployment options

Cons

• Interface could be modernized
• No in-product time-tracking feature
• No 'comprehensive' Mobile App
• Dashboard limited
• Reporting at 'transaction detail level' can be difficult

Reader Survey Interest Score = 15.08

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Zoho Books

Zoho Books (which I will simply shorten to 'Zoho' hereafter) is simple-to-use, highly-functional cloud-based (online) accounting software that offers a big feature set for a relatively low subscription price.  You can easily manage the cash-flow of your business keeping track of your customers and invoices as well as your costs and expenses.

You start a business for the purpose of producing income, whether you sell or manufacture merchandise, or you provide services, you need a way to manage how you do business with your customers or clients. Zoho gives you a variety of options that will fit almost any business situation when it comes to keeping track of the revenues you generate whether you sell or manufacture merchandise, or you provide services to your customers or clients.

When the time comes to spend some of that revenue you have been generating, Zoho has you covered for all of your money-out transactions.  And best of all, Zoho offers 'portals' so that your customers or vendors can access their own records and transactions to not only keep information current, but check the status of outstanding activity.

Zoho lets you monitor and reconcile your bank accounts in real-time, or work with your accountant if they are providing CFO services for you. And the quality and capability of Zoho reporting will help ensure that you stay on top of your business because you will remain informed at all times with on-the-go access via their Mobile App so that you can make decisions wherever you may be.

Features:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Automated Workflows
• Bank Reconciliation with automated-clearing
• Billing & Invoicing
• Budgeting & Planning
• Cash Management
• Client Portals
• Contact Management
• CRM Integration
• Credit-card Processing - Multiple Payment Gateways
• Customizable Forms & Templates
• Document Management
• Expense Tracking
• Fixed Asset Management
• General Ledger
• Hourly Billing
• Inventory Management
• Landed Costs
• Mobile App
• Multi-Currency
• Office 365 Integration
• Online Invoicing
• Online Payments
• Payment Processing
• Payroll (limited availability)
• Project Accounting
• Project Billing
• Purchase Orders
• Recurring/Subscription Billing
• Return Materials Authorizations
• Sales Orders
• Sales Tax Management
• Scheduled & Shared Reports
• Tax Management (VAT where appropriate)
• Time-tracking
• Transaction Approval Workflows
• Vendor Portal

Pros & Cons

We believe the following aspects of the product should be noted when considering this review.  We have not given any relative weight or ranking to any of the items listed under either pros or cons.

Pros

Very affordable

Easy-to-use interface, workflows make sense

Customer and Vendor Portals

Multiple Payment Options (gateways)

Mobile App works like it should

Forms can be designed with dozens of custom fields

Transactions offer significant detail

Document management included

High-quality, easy-to-access support

Works like a charm with other Zoho Products.

Cons

Integrated-payroll feature very limited (at time of review)

Limited U.S. User base may tend to deter some potential users even though product has larger user base internationally.

Reader Survey Interest Score = 14.82

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This wraps up 'Round 1' of our Mid-market App Compare. In a few weeks we will have 'Round 2' and present you with another review of a select group of the mid-market products that were contained in our earlier survey. We hope that this feature has been of benefit to you, please let us know your thoughts using the comments below. 

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App Compare and Mid-market App Compare articles are editorial features, they are NOT sponsored content. Even if they contain references that refer to sponsored content, or other sponsor acknowledgements, the actual feature is intended as an informational resource for our readers.