Migrating from QuickBooks to Zoho Books
According to Zoho Corporation, a lot of companies moving from another accounting system onto Zoho Books move there from QuickBooks. And, whether those companies previously use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, the reasons for switching onto Zoho are easy to see. Well, easy for us to see, anyway. But they aren’t so obvious to everyone else, who may not think about these problems as often as we do.
In this post, we’ll explore some common reasons for switching. We’ll then dive into some considerations to make before switching. And, although we’re talking about Zoho Books today, you can apply this knowledge to any software, Zoho or otherwise.
First, here are some common questions we encounter when letting our customers or prospects know that switching is an option:
Why migrate to Zoho Books if you’re already in the cloud with QuickBooks Online?
Not all cloud systems are created equal! Although QuickBooks Online is a relatively new platform, companies tend to switch from QBO to Zoho Books because:
- Zoho Books provides many of the same features as QuickBooks Online–and then some.
- Books allows for Sales Orders, which QBO does not account for as of this writing.
- Moreover, Zoho Books natively integrates with Zoho Inventory, which adds features that make the combination of Books and Inventory more comparable to QuickBooks Desktop.
- Zoho Books integrates seamlessly with Zoho CRM.
- While there is an integration between QuickBooks Online and Zoho CRM, any consultant worth their salt will tell you a third-party integration is a system’s weakest point. Zoho’s native integration eliminates that weak point, giving you a seamless data transfer; for companies that have already chosen Zoho CRM as their customer hub, moving finances onto Zoho Books seems like an even more intuitive decision.
- Zoho Books is more affordable than QuickBooks Online.
- Zoho Corporation puts out a good comparison sheet to illustrate this point. The more users you add to Zoho Books, the more money your company can save in this way.
How can Zoho Books possibly contend with QuickBooks Desktop?
While QuickBooks Desktop is a bit of a heavyweight in terms of functionality (not to mention ubiquity!), Zoho Books is more than able to rise to the occasion when pushed to the limit.
Companies often move from QBD to Zoho Books for these reasons:
- Cloud-based software gives businesses more flexibility than on-premise software does.
- With data breaches on the rise, many companies would much rather offload security responsibilities onto a third party than take on any additional risk themselves. Zoho takes this responsibility very seriously and uses the most up-to-date encryption possible in their apps–and has been recognized internationally for it.
- Cloud-based software means rather than scheduling and installing updates and patches to your accounting system–and paying out the nose for the privilege–updates happen on-the-fly as part of your monthly recurring SaaS (software-as-a-service) fee. That means no more scheduled downtime for maintenance, and what usually amounts to more money in your pocket.
- Zoho Books provides a much more stable integration with Zoho CRM than QuickBooks Desktop could put together.
- Like with QuickBooks Online, there is an integration between QuickBooks Desktop and Zoho CRM. But, introducing a hybrid-cloud integration like this is bound to put some strain on the system overall; incidentally, third-party integrations like this are the more failure-prone points of any system. Conversely, Zoho Books’s integration with Zoho CRM is native, cloud-to-cloud, and nearly instant.
- Finally, combining Zoho Books plus Zoho Inventory gives a business nearly as many features as are in QuickBooks Desktop.
- It isn’t a perfect analog, of course, but using Zoho Inventory in tandem with Books gives the user an experience much closer to QuickBooks Desktop. This includes inventory and shipment management, multiple warehouses, online store integration, workflow automation, and more.
What to consider when switching from QuickBooks to Zoho Books
Despite the apparent similarities between QuickBooks and Zoho Books, switching over isn’t such a plug-and-play operation. It requires a good deal of knowledge: of QuickBooks, of Zoho Books, and of your team’s own ability to learn new software and procedures as needed.
For those considering making the switch themselves, we recommend evaluating your own QuickBooks configuration, and then activating a trial of Books. Then, you should go through every possible setting and see how easily you can mentally recreate your organization’s QuickBooks configuration. Take note when you come to a setting you don’t understand or that would change how your organization does business; there will likely be some.
After this, will you know if Books is the right choice for you? Probably not just yet. You should still confer with your team and ensure you get buy-in, or at least reaffirm that your team of old dogs can still learn new tricks! Then, it’s time to put your implementation plan together in earnest. You’ll need a tight schedule, perhaps a Gantt chart, and definitely a project manager. Also, a data flow model to visually account for any new systems. This can keep your own plans in line, as well as let any other parties know exactly what you’re doing.
The truth about switching from QuickBooks to Zoho Books
If all this seems like a lot to bite off and chew, make no mistake. It is. We’ve heard no shortage of Zoho deployment horror stories over the years. And, that’s no fault of Zoho’s! The reality is most businesses cannot afford to drop what they’re doing and devote all their time to learning a new software system. That goes for the features, the implications for future business, and the effect on company culture. And, for this reason, projects like these tend to fail; there simply isn’t enough time that many can reasonably devote to a project like this and still maintain their business.
Some even try to cut losses by hiring a Zoho specialist. And, it’s at that point that many customers tend to find us!
Why use a Zoho consultant to ease your switch from QuickBooks to Zoho Books?
The good thing about hiring a Zoho consultant in cases like these is, aside from being able to manage an implementation project of this magnitude, we’ve done projects like this many times before.
And, that doesn’t mean your implementation will be the same as anyone else’s! Rather, it means we know all the ins and outs of planning and managing–and, we know the questions to ask you about your business so your implementation doesn’t turn out just like everyone else’s. That is, so it works just for your business and your unique processes.
In this case, once we know the ins and outs of your processes within QuickBooks, we see how well those align with Zoho Books. From there, we can see if you’ll need just Zoho Books, a combination of Books + Inventory–or perhaps something more customized on Zoho. We may only be helping you deploy an accounting system, but that system can affect how the whole company does business. So, we take a comprehensive approach when looking at something like this, culminating in an Executive Summary document, where we explain our project plan to you.
And then, once you agree with our deployment plan, it’s off to the races! We get to work for you, and we meet with you throughout the project for consulting meetings and for various approvals of our work. And, in the end, you receive a fully functioning Zoho finance system that functions as part of your company’s business software network.
Ready to see how making the switch would change your business?
Making the switch from QuickBooks to Books is an endeavor. But, it doesn’t start that way–that’s just a chat. Contact us today for an introductory consulting session! We’ll explore at a high level how migrating from QuickBooks to Zoho Books can help make your Zoho system everything it can be.
