Anchor Group Podcast: Episode 14
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- Caleb Schmitz, CRO at Anchor Group
- Anchor Group (Company page)
- Tailor Hartman, Founder of Celerity Accounting
- Celerity Accounting (Company page)
QuickBooks vs. NetSuite Podcast Episode Transcript
Caleb (00:00)
Welcome to the Anchor Group Podcast. On episode 14 today, I bring on Tailor, who is able to do both accounting and bookkeeping in both QuickBooks and NetSuite. We talk about the differences between them, some of the pros and cons, why QuickBooks is often good for companies, and also why NetSuite is good for companies. We discuss how to evaluate and decide when you should move from QuickBooks to a full-fledged ERP like NetSuite, why it matters, and what things may be unlocked in that process. So we talk about this in today’s episode, and I hope you enjoy it. I always like to know what types of things you do at your company. Tell me a little bit about the services you offer, because then I'll go into talking about the pain points of QuickBooks and what migrations from QuickBooks to NetSuite look like. Maybe you can give me an overview of what you see through the lens of accounting.
Tailor (00:54)
Yeah, so at Celerity Accounting, we focus on everything from low-level bookkeeping up to CFO services. We're managed services on the accounting side, and we only work in QuickBooks Online and NetSuite. We really take care of the books 100% for companies that are between five to fifty million a year in revenue. That’s our bread and butter. We don’t have an industry-specific niche. We’re also very tech-friendly and tech-savvy, so we focus a lot on automations and taking accounting completely off of business owners’ plates.
Caleb (01:41)
One of the things I wanted to learn a little more about today was QuickBooks, because I’m only in the NetSuite world. We have a lot of clients moving off QuickBooks, and we’re going through that QuickBooks to NetSuite data migration. I generally know when clients decide to shift to NetSuite, but when you have QuickBooks clients who are starting to outgrow it, what are the signs?
Tailor (02:15)
There are a couple of different things I notice that prompt me to bring up NetSuite as an option. One is when a business is in that five to ten million a year range. Once you reach a certain volume—like a few thousand transactions a month—QuickBooks starts to slow down. I love QuickBooks, and I try to keep people in it because it's simple. But when you need that next layer of complexity or data—or when your team grows to a size where you want an ERP system, not just an accounting system, where others in the company can make entries, send invoices, create estimates—that’s when you need NetSuite. So, there are several reasons.
Caleb (03:02)
Can you give me an example? I agree on that revenue range. I was talking to someone last week who was right on the border, and I said, "You're about a year away. So do you want to do it now or in a year?" No more than a year from now, they’d have to move off QuickBooks. It’s a good solution—easy to use—but NetSuite unlocks a whole new level of detail. From your perspective, what’s that detail that gets unlocked in accounting?
Tailor (03:33)
On the NetSuite side, I think it’s the fact that you can bring in data that’s not just pure accounting data. For example, if you want to pull in marketing data—or any kind of custom data. We have a client moving from QuickBooks to NetSuite because they have GIS or mapping data. They do underground work—digging and laying wiring—and they invoice customers by miles completed per day. They want to see that mapping data daily on dashboards, but they can’t do that in QuickBooks. They need NetSuite to pull in all sorts of data sources into one place.
Caleb (04:29)
So to recap, it sounds like they need their field service and order management to feed into accounting so the accounting team can do their job. At scale, if it's not an ERP—meaning a fully integrated system—then they're probably manually inputting everything. They can’t automate the data entry, so someone’s massaging that invoice data manually. And at scale, that probably takes a full-time person to do their invoicing.
Tailor (05:02)
Yeah, a lot of spreadsheets right now. Spreadsheets plus QuickBooks.
Caleb (05:05)
Right. And then there’s the risk of spreadsheets. They’re great when you’re manually testing and refining your processes—figuring out what you want your operations to look like. I like spreadsheets as a kind of playground before you build infrastructure. I often think of QuickBooks plus spreadsheets as a phase of figuring out your business. In that first five million in annual revenue, you’re learning your operations and what scale looks like. From there, you have enough information to integrate those spreadsheets. An ERP is essentially a bunch of tables.
Tailor (05:59)
Yeah.
Caleb (06:02)
And those tables are all in one application that can speak to each other. I agree with that. I also like to set expectations for the differences between QuickBooks and NetSuite, because the transition does have a noticeable accounting impact. When accounting teams move from QuickBooks to NetSuite, there can be pain points.
Tailor (06:09)
Yeah, exactly.
Caleb (06:31)
The pain points show up especially when you're managing operations and trying to get departments to talk to each other. But even just doing your day-to-day work feels different. Sometimes it feels like one step back in order to take five steps forward when you go live on NetSuite. Have you seen that?
Tailor (06:53)
Yeah, and there’s a big training component. NetSuite requires a lot more training compared to QuickBooks. You slow things down during implementation, and you have to rebuild all your processes into one system—instead of QuickBooks, spreadsheets, and a few third-party apps. You're totally right about that.
Caleb (07:17)
If I'm just looking from the accounting perspective, unless they’re already dealing with issues like getting data from order management, it can feel like a step back—mainly because of the number of clicks and the complexity involved.
Tailor (07:22)
Yeah.
Caleb (07:41)
Now you're handling more processes, but it’s just different. You have to reframe and rewire how you think about and do accounting. That’s what makes it feel like a step back, but really, you’re taking several steps forward.
Tailor (07:51)
Yeah. QuickBooks doesn't have anything like advanced revenue recognition. It's very basic. There's no amortization, fixed asset management—there’s nothing like that in QuickBooks that's really usable yet. And then switching between subsidiaries and the reporting—it’s all very different, and there’s a big learning curve. But after about six months, you learn how to use the systems, and it speeds things up quite a bit.
Caleb (08:23)
Okay, that’s a good point—subsidiaries. So you're saying in QuickBooks, you have to have separate QuickBooks instances per subsidiary?
Tailor (08:30)
Yeah. I'm actually helping them build their enterprise solution right now on the Intuit Partner Console. What they're trying to build out is multi-entity functionality, but they’re still separate files. It feels clunky compared to NetSuite, where you can just click something and switch between subsidiaries really quickly. So yeah, that’s another big reason.
Caleb (08:52)
That’s interesting. So, one big reason would be if you have more than one subsidiary and you want your accounting to roll up into a single instance where you can get consolidated reporting. That alone is probably a major step forward.
Tailor (09:14)
Yeah, and you have a lot of control over the reporting too. In QuickBooks, it’s all pretty manual. You have to export into spreadsheets, or you get a basic P&L by entity. In NetSuite, you can do anything you want, and that’s why I love it—you can customize everything to look how you want it to look.
Caleb (09:33)
Is there something that’s easier in QuickBooks but harder in NetSuite?
Tailor (09:37)
Yeah, I’ve got a few of those. The banking screen is definitely better in QuickBooks. It’s easier to connect third-party apps if they have a connection—just a couple of steps. In NetSuite, there are more steps, security keys, and setup. Also, reconciliations. It depends on the bank match versus reconciliation versus the old-fashioned method. I actually prefer the old-fashioned reconciliation—it just feels easier to me. So yeah, those are the big three: banking, app connections, and reconciliations.
Caleb (10:21)
Yeah, we’re not sugar-coating it. There are pros and cons between each solution, and that’s great to know. That aligns with what I’ve heard during NetSuite implementations, where the accounting team says it feels harder. And those are the specific areas they mention. I just hadn’t heard it directly from someone who works in both systems.
Tailor (10:27)
Yeah.
Caleb (10:49)
That really confirms it. And the reason those few things are easier in QuickBooks is because it's limited—it can do a few things really well. That makes sense.
Tailor (11:06)
Yeah, and you're working with basic companies. If I had to do that for five subsidiaries, it would be a nightmare in QuickBooks.
Caleb (11:15)
Yeah, and at scale, NetSuite definitely becomes easier. That makes sense. Is there anything else on the NetSuite side? You mentioned multi-subsidiary support—what about integrations? Some integrations are easier on QuickBooks, though NetSuite supports many. Are there any integrations that really add value on the accounting side?
Tailor (11:49)
From my perspective, we do a lot with accounts payable and expense reporting. I really love that NetSuite connects well with Bill.com or Ramp for AP when you're using POs. And apps like Zone Capture let you fully automate AP. There’s nothing like that in QuickBooks Online—you always have to go in and review and approve the invoice. In NetSuite, you can automate AP 100%, which is wild. NetSuite has more ERP-level integrations that can automate a lot more, which I really like. Also, even for third-party apps that don’t integrate directly, NetSuite has a much better CSV import. It's really difficult to import CSVs into QuickBooks correctly. With NetSuite, we can export data from another app and do a weekly import—it saves a ton of time.
Caleb (13:00)
Yeah, I agree—the CSV import tool in NetSuite is really powerful. We actually built a little tool that lets you email a CSV file from a specific address, and it automatically processes the import. It’s great for niche use cases where people want something like an integration but cheaper—just passing data via email. I had a recent client who wasn’t ready to implement Work Orders and Assemblies in phase one. That’s fine—that’s their choice—but they still needed to track inventory adjustments because they’re consuming raw inventory and producing finished goods. They needed fast updates every day and couldn’t wait for someone in accounting to run the CSV import. So now their production team sends a CSV via email, and it updates automatically. It’s a little hacky, but it works. It’s a creative way to stretch the CSV tool beyond what you might expect.
Tailor (14:36)
Yeah, they’re great Band-Aid fixes or temporary solutions. That’s a really good use case.
Caleb (14:46)
Right. And when you're going through digital transformation, it’s important to have Band-Aid solutions like that until you're ready to fully build it out as the business grows.
Tailor (14:58)
Exactly. It's nice to have a backup plan. Yeah.
Caleb (15:00)
Yes, contingency planning. When you're doing bookkeeping though, and doing anything on the QuickBooks side, can you tell me a little bit about how QuickBooks does any inventory management?
Tailor (15:18)
Yeah, they technically have inventory management, but it’s not very built out. There aren’t a lot of options for things like FIFO, LIFO, or weighted average. It’s very glitchy. You can set up items, quantities, prices, but I’ve noticed it doesn’t update pricing properly when you enter bills. You can’t really fix things if they go wrong. It’s really basic and really glitchy. Honestly, that’s one of the biggest reasons I move people to NetSuite. Inventory is on the roadmap for QuickBooks, but it’s a low priority right now. If they need better inventory, we either integrate a third-party app with QuickBooks or move them completely to NetSuite for that functionality.
Caleb (16:16)
I’ve observed similar things. The number of ways inventory impacts your accounting is huge—costing methods, consumption, all of that plays into your GL. Flexibility and control measures like serialized items and lot tracking matter too. Does QuickBooks at least support landed cost?
Tailor (16:51)
Not really. I’ve never been able to make it work properly. If I did, it would be through a workaround for sure. It’s very basic.
Caleb (17:01)
Got it. So that’s another example—NetSuite offers landed cost functionality as part of its inventory tools.
Tailor (17:20)
Right. I have e-commerce clients using QuickBooks where inventory is tied to sales through Stripe or BigCommerce. If something goes wrong—and with thousands of daily transactions, it’s a mess to fix. In NetSuite, you have more control to fix those issues. In QuickBooks Online, not really.
Caleb (17:45)
You need to be able to revert changes and make adjustments. I assume you can still do journal entries in QuickBooks, but you don’t get the same level of detail or traceability as you would with proper inventory adjustments and transfers.
Tailor (17:48)
Exactly. It’s quite difficult. You have to pull everything into Excel, calculate it, then make a manual journal entry.
Caleb (18:11)
I implement both BigCommerce and SuiteCommerce. One thing I’ve noticed for some BigCommerce clients—sub-five million in revenue—is that they often end up using BigCommerce as a light inventory management tool. And I think that’s okay to a point, especially when you’re growing and need to focus on profitability. But eventually, your e-commerce platform can’t be your inventory system. It should just be capturing the order.
Tailor (18:44)
Yeah, I agree 100%. You don’t get a lot of flexibility with that. Usually, when a new client comes in and we’re cleaning up their books, that’s what they’ve been doing—it’s half built out, and it’s not great. I don’t usually recommend it. We’ll often move them to a third-party inventory system like Finale or SOS Inventory and then integrate that with BigCommerce and QuickBooks.
Caleb (18:51)
Have you seen that with some of your QuickBooks clients? Using three or more tools that all need to talk to each other? In that scenario, you've got BigCommerce, Finale, and QuickBooks. Integrations are always potential failure points—even clean ones. That’s where an ERP starts to make a lot of sense. With NetSuite, you could consolidate those three systems under one roof. You get accounting, inventory management, and the option to add SuiteCommerce for e-commerce. Of course, there are pros and cons. Sometimes it still makes sense to use BigCommerce for marketing or SEO reasons. But even just consolidating the back office—inventory, order management, accounting—cleans up a lot.
Tailor (20:30)
100%. If someone is handling shipping and inventory, they’re probably checking the third-party app for data, but then it doesn’t show up in QuickBooks. Someone has to check in three different places to reconcile everything. Also, Intuit recently implemented an API cost that didn’t exist before, which means third-party apps will start getting more expensive. It seems like they’re focusing less on those partnerships now, so things may shift in the QuickBooks landscape.
Caleb (21:01)
So they’re evolving a bit, trying to navigate the new landscape as more cloud-based ERPs like NetSuite enter the space. That makes sense. When you're doing bookkeeping work in NetSuite, what does that process look like? Do you start with an audit? How do you go about cleaning up the books?
Tailor (21:06)
Yeah, exactly. So, before we work with any new client, we typically at least get them on a call where they can show us their books. We go through and look first and foremost at the bank reconciliations and credit card reconciliations, because for whatever reason, NetSuite lets you push reconciliations through with a difference, which is not my favorite thing about NetSuite, to be honest. We just have five to ten areas we always check in NetSuite when we onboard new clients to clean up their books. We don’t use any third-party apps for that; we just get on a call, go through the books, talk about pain points, point out a few things, and then typically have an engagement to clean the books up. We get them cleaned up relatively quickly, fixing reconciliations, moving transactions around, simplifying the chart of accounts. If they don’t have things like BigCommerce connected, we help with that, or have you guys connect it. And the bank and credit cards—many people don’t have the bank match connected. It’s a bit difficult for the average NetSuite user, so we usually handle that. It simplifies a bunch of processes and helps with the ongoing bookkeeping once we get to that point. Once everything’s cleaned up, we take over the ongoing accounting—weekly entry through the bank screen, credit card screen, and we do the month-end close too.
Caleb (23:16)
Do you use any month-end close checklists out of NetSuite?
Tailor (23:22)
Not really. We have our own checklist because the native one doesn’t include everything we do. We also have communication-based tasks and requests we track in our own portal, so we stick to our internal list.
Caleb (23:23)
Yeah, you just go through your own checklist. That’s fair. I’ve seen people do it both ways. Internal checklists can be more useful, especially when there’s turnover. Defined processes help people avoid missing steps. That’s one thing I like about slowly building out and enhancing NetSuite. Even if features are already there but not being used, you can turn them on and incorporate them into your workflow. We help create documentation and flow for consistency, because turnover exists, and you have to protect against it.
Tailor (24:25)
Right?
Caleb (24:34)
I’ve noticed a lot of clients who experience accounting issues over a six-month period typically have had turnover. Either someone wasn’t following processes, or something important got lost. Have you seen similar situations, where things go off the rails either because someone just went live and is still learning, or because of turnover?
Tailor (25:02)
Yeah, and I think that’s one of the biggest issues in accounting in general. Accountants tend to hold the work they do close to the chest—they don’t like to share. SOPs are a big topic in the industry. Usually when we’re doing cleanup, it’s like, “Okay, we had three bookkeepers, none worked out. We tried an outsourcing firm, but they didn’t really know what they were doing.” So we’re left trying to figure out what three different people were doing. We focus heavily on SOPs. We don’t manage those inside NetSuite, but we do use tools like Loom and Scribe to record our processes. Depending on the person, they’ll use one of those tools to make sure there’s strong backup. It’s something we talk about constantly.
Caleb (26:04)
That’s one reason why your business exists—because people experience turnover and need help reestablishing bookkeeping processes. And once you step in, they don’t have to worry about bookkeeping anymore.
Tailor (26:20)
Exactly. We operate as a pod—my bookkeepers back each other up. So it’s really important to have those SOPs. If someone takes a two-week vacation, someone else can step in easily because we’ve documented everything.
Caleb (26:38)
That’s what gets lost. When clients only have one or two bookkeepers, maybe a controller, they’re often not cross-trained and haven’t thought about legacy planning. A lot of companies don’t do any legacy planning in their bookkeeping process, but they should. If someone is on maternity or paternity leave—or in tragic cases, if someone passes away unexpectedly—they’re stuck. Bookkeeping is critical. You can quickly lose track of cash. And often the bookkeeper also handles AR and collections. If that process isn’t clearly documented, and someone leaves, you lose your cash flow. I’ve had many clients dragging and dropping PDFs onto Outlook emails to manually send invoices. You can’t build traceability or automation that way. We need to send directly from NetSuite and build follow-up flows and dashboards so your business can keep operating even if someone steps away.
Tailor (28:41)
Yeah, 100%. That’s why I automate as much as possible—it’s like insurance. Dun & Bradstreet notices, all of that. And sure, making SOPs is tedious and boring, but if you don’t do it now, you’ll pay for it later. If someone leaves suddenly, and you don’t have those systems in place, your data suffers, or you stop collecting cash. If you don’t pay for it now, you’ll definitely pay for it in six months or a year.
Caleb (29:14)
People feel overwhelmed just trying to keep up with day-to-day operations, and they never feel like they can get ahead. There are two ways to solve that. One is investing in automation—work with a consulting company to build those systems and free up time. The other is outsourcing bookkeeping to free up time to focus on SOPs, optimization, and process improvement. It’s really hard to critique your own processes when you’re drowning in tasks.
Tailor (29:58)
Yeah, exactly. You can’t think outside the box or be creative when you’re working ten-hour days buried in the books. NetSuite is so flexible, and there are so many things it can do—but if you don’t know a thing is possible, you’ll never automate it. Asking Anchor Group, or us, what’s possible is a great way to open up ideas and create a backup system.
Caleb (30:34)
Yeah, and that’s what’s fun about NetSuite. It’s so customizable, and we know how to do it well. I don’t think I’ve ever had a request that we couldn’t find a way to fulfill. That’s a powerful thing to be able to say as a consultant. The worst thing to say is, “I can’t solve your problem.”
Tailor (30:58)
Right.
Caleb (31:00)
It’s not a bad thing to be honest about limitations, but with NetSuite, I rarely have to say that. There’s always a path. The problem is that people assume the default setup is the only way it works. They don’t realize it can be changed.
Tailor (31:19)
Exactly. They get the out-of-the-box version with a couple of modules, and then bring someone like you in who can actually make what they need happen. And honestly, almost every other accounting or ERP software I’ve worked with has a lot of limitations. But with NetSuite, I’ve never encountered something we couldn’t fix. That’s pretty cool.
Caleb (31:43)
It all just comes down to budget, approach, and timeline. This was really great. I’ve wanted to better understand the differences between QuickBooks and NetSuite for a long time, since I haven’t worked much in QuickBooks outside of data migrations. So thanks for helping walk through that. It helps everyone else, too, as they try to evaluate when’s the right time to move from
Tailor (31:46)
Yeah, exactly.
Caleb (32:12)
QuickBooks to NetSuite: What signs to look for, and what the accounting benefits are. Thanks for taking the time to talk through it.
Tailor (32:21)
Yeah, I love talking about this stuff. I love both QuickBooks and NetSuite—great topics.
Caleb (32:25)
Yeah, they’re both good for different reasons. Awesome. Thanks, Tailor.
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