Growing a business isn’t easy; from customer acquisition and retention to keeping business processes running smoothly, always looking for inefficiencies to conquer, developing a small business into something bigger is an accomplishment by anyone’s definition.

One of the challenges is knowing when to scale up. When it comes to financial management, the limitations of basic accounting software platforms can keep a business from realizing its full potential, inadvertently holding a company back instead of pushing it to succeed further.

Unfortunately, business owners looking to upgrade can face a confusing product marketplace, oversaturated by flashy accounting applications that leave much to be desired, yet all claiming to be the best.

Here we help growing businesses like yours take stack accounting software side-by-side by comparing two of the industry’s leading applications for small and mid-sized companies: Sage Intacct and NetSuite.

The Basics

Sage Intacct and Oracle NetSuite are both cloud-based computing solutions that offer a combination of accounting applications and cloud-hosted data services. Through their respective multi-tenant cloud architectures, each company provides customers with secure individualized spaces for storing and accessing company data without unnecessary on-premises hardware components.

As Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, both Sage Intacct and NetSuite work to integrate business processes and provide real-time business management solutions through the use of their respective platforms. With the ever-increasing demand for business systems that are readily accessible to authorized users from locations outside the office, cloud-based ERP systems have never been more critical to keeping a business success than they are today.

A World of Difference

While both Sage Intacct and Oracle NetSuite have been developed to serve the same business purposes, they were not created equally.

• Price: Sage Intacct and NetSuite provide cloud-based ERP services to their customers that begin with the initial software deployments and continue through subscription-based packages and licensing fees.

The major difference between the two ERP solutions is that while NetSuite locks customers into contracts that charge additional user licensing fees, Sage Intacct provides rapid scalability through monthly services, allowing businesses to only pay for the modules they really need – without locking them into contract pricing schemes.

And that’s just one of the reasons NetSuite users say it’s too expensive.

• Capability: The essence of an ERP solution is to provide core financial management applications in a unified package that companies can augment with additional modules/programs.

The deciding factor between Sage Intacct and NetSuite is in the depth of application functionality. NetSuite attempts to serve multiple sectors by combining industry-specific modules, resulting in tailor-made solutions that lack the depth of specialized expertise.

In contrast, Sage Intacct focuses on a much narrower range of industries, giving them the ability to specialize and provide a functional depth that NetSuite just can’t compete with.

• Deployment: Successfully deploying an ERP solution into an established business can be a disruptive process, as platforms are installed, team members are trained, and systems go live. Any problems in the deployment of an ERP system will only generate further costs and aggravate disruption.

NetSuite has developed a series of deployment steps and methods in an effort to standardize the integration process into a one-size-fits-all approach to businesses. The problem with this approach is that each business is unique, even businesses in the same industry.

Sage knows this; in addition to developing a methodology to serve as a guide to successful implementation, they work with professional consultants on integration assessments to ensure a business has the best deployment blueprint possible.

• Reputation: In addition to all the advantages listed above, Sage Intacct has been recognized by independent technology research and consulting giant Gartner 5 years in a row, receiving the highest score on core financials in the 2021 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites report on the industry.

Make the Right Call

Growing your business is hard enough – don’t make it harder by choosing an ERP solution that won’t meet your business needs.

While Sage Intacct and Oracle NetSuite might appear similar at first glance, when comparing the actual cost, functionality, and support services provided by each system, Sage Intacct becomes the clearly superior ERP choice for mid-sized enterprises.