ERP Independent Review

Acumatica ERP Independent Review

Acumatica ERP Independent Review 2024

What is Acumatica ERP? Acumatica is one of three cloud-native ERP solutions similar to NetSuite and Sage Intacct. It has extensive multi-branch capabilities, making it friendlier for retail-centric operations. It can also host multiple business models as part of the same database spanning manufacturing, distribution, construction, and field service. Thus, making it friendlier for diverse manufacturing or distribution-centric operations. Because of its limited global operational capabilities, it primarily targets US and UK-based companies. Positioned as an ideal choice for companies within the $10-100 million revenue range, the majority of Acumatica’s customer base falls under this category.

Desiring a user experience akin to Odoo or Quickbooks, Acumatica ERP offers versatility to accommodate various business models: distribution, manufacturing, or construction-focused. Although Acumatica has limitations in mature features like dimensional inventory or allocation, it is an excellent initial system for companies looking to streamline inventory or costs. With transactional processing and some mature capabilities, such as batch transactional processing, Acumatica is positioned as a valuable choice for businesses venturing into their first or second ERP solution.

Acumatica ERP is a fit for companies seeking cloud-native experience, particularly emphasizing features like enterprise search and mobility over deeper operational capabilities. Despite its focus on small businesses, Acumatica lacks robust globalization and localization features, catering to a limited number of countries by default. This simplicity, however, benefits smaller companies by avoiding unnecessary layers of multi-entity operations. Although targeting small businesses, Acumatica ERP surpasses Odoo or Zoho with the flexibility of its data layers, necessitating consulting help for implementation. The perceived benefit of Acumatica’s pricing is also a challenge, as it’s notoriously difficult to understand and predict.

Acumatica ERP Independent Review


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Key Review Insights of Acumatica ERP

1. Suboptimal for Inexperienced Executives

Companies lacking experienced CFOs, operations executives, or controllers particularly, adept in process and data translations for ERP systems may face challenges with Acumatica. Founder-led companies, particularly, might find implementation demanding due to the need for sophisticated skills in translating manual processes. Thus, they might struggle to adapt to Acumatica’s structured data model with intricate business rules for enhanced financial control.

2. Accommodates Different Business Models

Desiring a user experience akin to Odoo or Quickbooks, Acumatica ERP also offers versatility to accommodate various business models. Therefore, an advantage for those engaged in diverse operations or undergoing M&A activities.

3. Beginner-Friendly ERP Choice

Although Acumatica ERP has limitations in mature features like dimensional inventory or allocation, it is an excellent initial system for companies looking to streamline inventory or costs. With transactional processing and some mature capabilities, such as batch processing, Acumatica is positioned as a valuable choice for businesses venturing into their first or second ERP solution.

4. Flexibility vs Hidden Costs in Pricing Model

Acumatica ERP offers consumption-based pricing and unlimited users. While consumption-based pricing provides flexibility, the unlimited user proposition may entail hidden costs, requiring tier upgrades upon reaching capacity limits. In contrast, Microsoft offers a “true” consumption-based pricing model, enabling businesses to purchase and cancel licenses as required. Although, Acumatica’s unlimited users’ offering would be cost-effective for businesses with seasonal hiring needs or with the need for customer and vendor portals. Businesses should understand their system’s limitations and capacity when considering unlimited users and only grant access to those in need.

5. Limited Multi-Tenant Capabilities

While Acumatica positions itself as targeting mid-market companies, the customer base is rather small, and it lacks true multi-tenant capabilities, limiting the functionality for foreign companies in different currencies and geographies.

6. Strong Multi-Branch Capabilities

Acumatica stands out for its multi-branch capabilities. Thus, making it an ideal choice for companies with a large number of branches within the same country. However, for companies with entities in different countries, Acumatica may struggle, as it is making progress but is not yet as strong as NetSuite or Infor CloudSuite in multi-entity capabilities. 

7. Unclear Licensing Model

Acumatica claims to have a consumption-based licensing model but requires yearly contracts, making it inflexible for ad-hoc needs. The tiers also have capacity constraints baked into them, so the claim of unlimited users might be true on paper. But user growth would require upgrading tiers, making the claims of unlimited users merely a financial translation and posing challenges in forecasting true costs of ownership for companies with limited internal experience with IT and system capacity planning.

8. Slower Customer Support

 Acumatica’s customer support seemed to be slower than other ERP vendors based on user reviews. However, the local business support provided by Acumatica is contingent on the partners, with Acumatica providing secondary support. Additionally, the 100% channel-driven model means that the partners serve as the first point of contact for support. Despite Acumatica’s strong educational program for partners, there can be pros and cons to this approach, as Acumatica does not own or control its partners’ businesses.

9. Industry-Specific Capabilities

Acumatica is known for its focus on the construction and distribution industries, particularly having relatively stronger capabilities in WMS and housing solutions. However, its manufacturing capabilities are still considered lean, requiring add-ons for critical capabilities such as quality. 

10. Stronger Financial Capabilities

The deep capabilities of Acumatica ERP, particularly in areas such as deferred revenue accounting and project-based manufacturing, are especially useful for software businesses and service-centric companies with complex financial requirements, which Acumatica excels at addressing due to its deep financial solution.

11. Embedded Field Service Capabilities

Acumatica’s field services capabilities are not as embedded in other solutions. Thus, making it a strong choice for businesses with significant field service needs alongside distribution or franchises.

12. Integrated WMS Functionality

Acumatica’s capabilities in distribution ERP, specifically focusing on its integrated WMS functionality, is a great fit for businesses with complex product mixes and deep distribution requirements, unlike NetSuite or Business Central, which may require additional add-ons for similar features. Acumatica offers unique features such as cross-references between internal customer and vendor items, centralized distribution and replenishment, and support for non-stock items and complex pricing and discount policies. Additionally, its WMS functionality includes capabilities like matrix inventory, defined bins, use of cards for picking and putaway, and default locations for inventory transactions. Acumatica is particularly well-designed for fashion verticals and retail-centric businesses, rather than complex manufacturing businesses, where distribution-centric features like automated replenishment and seasonality accommodations are crucial.

13. Non-Comprehensive Manufacturing Capabilities

In manufacturing, Acumatica has decent functionality but is not as comprehensive as some hybrid manufacturing solutions and lacks ownership of key industry features such as quality. Acumatica’s pre-assigned serial numbers for traceability in manufacturing are notable features, but the lack of ownership of the quality module raises questions about its usefulness for complex operations.

14. Native E-commerce Integration

While Acumatica offers native integration with several eCommerce operations, making it ideal for smaller companies with limited integration and consulting budgets, it might outgrow quickly for eCommerce brands requiring mature eCommerce interaction workflows. 

15. B2B Data Models and Processes

Acumatica’s data model is especially attractive for B2B companies with complex customer hierarchies, such as buying groups, vendor catalogs, B2B pricing, and branch accounting for inventory reconciliation across channels.

Key Features of Acumatica ERP

  1. General ledger function efficiently monitors and records all financial transactions within a business. Also, aiding in the creation of comprehensive financial statements like income statements and balance sheets. Users can tailor the general ledger by structuring accounts and subaccounts.
  2. Accounts receivable management simplifies invoicing processes by generating and dispatching invoices for outstanding payments. Also, with formatting options including print, PDF, or HTML. This feature supports PCI-compliant credit card transactions, managing refunds, voided transactions, and manual charges. It can also link to bank processing centers via built-in plugins.
  3. Accounts payable function includes advanced prepayment tools for efficient management of requests, application of prepayments to incoming invoices, and issuance of prepayments. The program automates the calculation of use and VAT taxes. Thus, seamlessly generating tax filing reports. Also, aligning payments with cash flows helps reduce the risk of late charges.
  4. Cash management integration seamlessly connects with GL, AR, and AP functions for comprehensive cash management. Balances are updated, and transactions linked to vendors and customers are recorded directly through accounts payable or receivable. Also, the program facilitates fund transfers between accounts and supports transactions in multiple currencies.
  5. Currency management automatically calculates realized gains and losses from foreign currency transactions. It also adjusts unrealized gains and losses and generates auto-reversing entries for open documents recorded in a foreign currency. Also, adhering to FASB-52 standards for currency translation to ensure accuracy and compliance.
  6. Tax management support covers a range of taxes, including use, sales, withholding, VAT, and reverse VAT taxes. Taxes are automatically calculated based on assigned tax zones or categories, also with flexibility for manual adjustments within the system. Additionally, taxes are systematically posted to a designated tax liability account in the general ledger.
  7. Deferred revenue accounting is automated using user-established schedules. Acumatica allows users to create schedules from templates or build them from scratch. Also, seamlessly posting deferred revenue to various financial statements, ensuring accurate and efficient management of deferred revenue accounting processes.

Pros and Cons of Acumatica ERP

ProsCons
1. Great 1st or 2nd ERP. Acumatica’s data layers are richer than entry-level accounting or ERP systems such as Odoo or Zoho.1. Limited Global Capabilities. Limited product architecture when multiple countries with different currencies and sub-ledgers need to be hosted as part of the same solution.
2. Accommodates Different Business Models. As part of the same database.2. Not a Fit for Larger Companies. Might struggle with the workloads for companies with over $100 million in revenue.
3. B2B Manufacturing Products. Its data model is friendly for B2B businesses, also with support for complex customer hierarchies and pricing.3. Limited Mobile Reporting Capabilities.  The mobile capabilities are leaner for complex reporting scenarios such as parallel processing or reporting labor or machines separately from the same work center. 
4. Cloud-native UI. Superior experience for teams using ERP primarily on mobile devices.4. Pricing Might be Harder to Predict with Growth. Consumption-based pricing requires consulting expertise to estimate transactions as the pricing is not predictable.
5.Flexible Pricing Options. Consumption-based pricing options reduce costs substantially for certain business models, such as seasonal businesses with labor spikes.5. Multiple Add-ons may be Required for Regulated Industries and Complex Manufacturing. Such as MES, PLM, and quality, posing integration and communication challenges.
6. Deep Financial Capabilities. Including deferred revenue accounting and project-based manufacturing.6. Limited Mature Last Mile Capabilities. Although a vibrant marketplace may augment its core capabilities, the last-mile capabilities required for manufacturing or industrial distribution might be limited.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Acumatica ERP offers a compelling option for businesses seeking a flexible and scalable cloud-native ERP solution. However, to make an informed decision, businesses must carefully assess their specific needs. And consider factors such as industry focus, cost implications, and potential complexities. The platform’s strengths and weaknesses reveal particularly a nuanced landscape. Hence, customization and industry fit play pivotal roles in determining its suitability for diverse business models. This Acumatica ERP independent review intends to provide you with unbiased insights for further discussion with your independent ERP consultants.

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NetSuite ERP Independent Review 2024

What Is NetSuite ERP? NetSuite ERP is a powerful cloud-based ERP solution that empowers small to mid-sized businesses looking for a diverse cloud-native option particularly relying on add-ons for deep operational capabilities. Offering core ERP capabilities relevant to many industries, NetSuite ERP especially caters to modules spanning financial management, distribution, CRM, and supply chain management.

With the data model being friendly it is uniquely strong for industries especially hospitality, retail, and commerce-centric industries. In comparison with other cloud-native solutions that might be either weaker in their deep operational or broader capabilities, NetSuite ERP provides the best of both worlds for diverse organizations seeking a scalable solution that could scale with their business model and global growth.

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Key Review Insights

1. Global Expansion and Subsidiary Management

NetSuite ERP has a robust capability to handle operations across 200 subsidiaries. Thus, proves to be a testament to its prowess in global expansion. The platform provides centralized control, enabling businesses to efficiently manage operations in various countries or subsidiaries in one database. NetSuite’s multi-entity support ensures that businesses can manage diverse entities with distinct financial structures seamlessly. Companies with multiple subsidiaries find value in the centralized control offered by NetSuite ERP especially fostering efficiency in managing operations across borders.

2. Deep Finance Capabilities

NetSuite ERP solution incorporates vital functionalities, particularly record-to-report (R2R), procure-to-pay (P2P), order-to-cash (OTC), fixed asset management (FAM), and services resource planning (SRP). Thus, providing the basic ERP capabilities for most industries, which need to be augmented by the add-ons provided through third-party add-ons. R2R ensures accuracy in financial reporting, P2P optimizes procurement processes, OTC manages the entire sales cycle, FAM efficiently handles fixed assets, and SRP enhances service-oriented businesses.

3. Best for Audit-ready SMBs

Role access control is a pivotal aspect of NetSuite ERP, offering companies the ability to define and manage user roles for audit-ready SMBs. The audit layers might not be as intuitive as larger ERP systems that might provide visual transactional maps but NetSuite ERP provides enough details for SMBs with the log of changes with each business object for easier traceability.

4. Scalable Solution for SMBs

Due to its diversified support for most business models that could also be augmented through the marketplace, it might take a while before SMBs outgrow NetSuite. The solutions that target specific business models or processes struggle with businesses that might be growing faster or might be active with M&A cycles.

5. eCommerce Friendly

NetSuite ERP demonstrates suitability for retail companies, with the marketplace options prevalent with eCommerce-centric operations and data models aligned for these companies, especially when it comes to integration options with many different channels and omnichannel architecture. However, cautionary notes arise for medical device companies, where user experiences highlight potential limitations in meeting specific industry needs. Industry-specific recommendations emphasize the importance of considering NetSuite ERP based on the unique requirements of each business.

6. Strong CRM Capabilities

Businesses benefit from a seamless CRM integration, especially if they are not planning to use a third-party best-of-breed solution, for which the integration might be cost-prohibitive. The Netsuite CRM can support several advanced capabilities, such as territory planning sales comp for complex channels, capabilities commonly found in mature CRM systems.

7. Vibrant Marketplace

NetSuite ERP has perhaps the most vibrant marketplace across the ecosystems, especially friendly for their core industries. Most cloud-native ISVs, such as vendor collaboration, WMS, or TMS software that might not be available with other ERP ecosystems, are available with NetSuite. This is a huge plus for businesses with diversified business models or companies that might have expectations to diversify in the near future as part of their growth.

8. Weaker for Industrial Companies

NetSuite’s manufacturing functionality comes under scrutiny, with user feedback expressing concerns about perceived depth. User concerns have shed light on potential limitations, prompting considerations for businesses with manufacturing needs. Businesses with manufacturing requirements need to carefully evaluate NetSuite ERP’s capabilities to ensure they align with the depth and complexity demanded by their operations.

Key Features of NetSuite ERP

  1. Sales Order Management: It efficiently manages sales order types of different business models. It is also integrated with finance and fulfillment for end-to-end traceability.
  2. Sourcing and Procurement: It has a centralized supply portal that ensures compliance in the purchasing process. It also includes forecasting abilities that can recalculate predictions based on actual fluctuations.
  3. Warehouse Management: It streamlines warehouse operations, decreasing overhead and cycle times. This feature also enhances on-time delivery rates, improving customer retention and boosting revenue.
  4. Production Management: This feature has basic production management capabilities, ideal for assembly-centric operations. It can be augmented by more mature solutions through third-party add-ons for richer industrial capabilities.
  5. Accounting: It has comprehensive accounting features, covering invoicing, forecasting, and aiding in tax calculations based on factors like location and revenue.

Pros and Cons of NetSuite ERP

ProsCons
1. Ideal for SMBs operating in many countries.1. Not fit for companies operating only in a few countries. Also, those looking for deeper operational capabilities provided as part of the suite and owned by OEM.
2. Cloud-native technology provides richer cloud capabilities, such as enterprise search and mobile capabilities, that might be weaker than other solutions.2. Not the best fit for companies for which operational capabilities might be a bigger critical success factor than cloud-native features.
3. Ideal for publicly traded and audit-ready companies because of the built-in SOX compliance capabilities.3. Not ideal for startups with simpler operating models. They might find audit-centric and deep financial capabilities over-bloated.
4. Ideal for service-centric SMBs because of the integrated PSA, HCM processes, and subscription billing. 4. Not fit for industrial companies looking for deep operational capabilities built as part of the core solution.
5. Ideal for eCommerce-centric SMBs because the pre-integrated add-ons and data models are friendlier for these industries.5. Not fit for companies deep into B2B workflows because the pricing, discounting, and product models are not scalable.
6. Ideal for holding and private equity companies looking to host diverse business models on one solution.6. Not fit for companies without expected changes in the business model in the near future.
7. Ideal for companies looking for talent available in most countries.7. The experience with support might vary depending on the vendors involved with the engagement.
8. Ideal for companies looking to find best-of-breed tools and can’t replace edge solutions mandated by the OEM.8. Not fit for companies seeking OEM-owned integration with core operational systems such as CAD or PLM.

Conclusion

In summary, NetSuite ERP stands as a robust and versatile cloud-based ERP solution. It provides businesses with the automation and centralization needed for efficient operations. Offering a comprehensive suite of functionalities, from financial management to distribution and CRM, NetSuite ERP proves flexible and adaptable. 

However, careful consideration is crucial, particularly for businesses with complex operational needs. NetSuite’s strengths in global expansion, core functionalities, CRM capabilities, third-party integrations and add-ons make it an excellent choice for SMB businesses. Especially in the retail, hospitality, and service-centric industries. Yet, users must navigate potential pitfalls, such as limited operational capabilities, reliance on third-party add-ons, and challenges for smaller implementations. In evaluating NetSuite ERP, understanding its key features, pros, and cons becomes imperative. This ensures alignment with the unique operational requirements of each business. This NetSuite ERP independent review intends to provide you with unbiased insights for further discussion with your independent ERP consultants.

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