Common Surprises Clients Face when Migrating from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP

QuickBooks is actually a great little accounting system for entrepreneurs.  It allows small startups or Mom and Pop organizations to produce checks, invoices, financial statements and even track inventory.  However, one of the major drawbacks of QuickBooks is that it does not have good internal controls and that sets an organization up for accounting errors, fraud and embezzlement.  I have witnessed all of these with QuickBooks clients.

So when a client makes the decision to migrate from a simple accounting package such as QuickBooks, they look forward to owning a “real” business system.  However, they are generally naïve as to what is entailed in implementing this “real” accounting system.

Here are some of the surprises that clients migrating from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP experience:

1.  ”I can just delete the check in QuickBooks.”  You cannot delete printed checks in Microsoft Dynamics GP, and thank goodness for that.  One of the easiest ways for an employee to embezzle money is to delete a check or change the payee and QuickBooks allows you to do that without an audit trail.  In GP a user would need to void the check and there is an audit trail for that transaction.
2. “In QuickBooks I change a date or a distribution of a transaction.”  GP does not allow you to change posting dates or distributions of transactions after they are posted.  What a great feature this is.  No more moving targets for financial statements.  However, Microsoft Dynamics GP software does allow for editing due dates in Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable transactions.  And there are features that allow users to correct GL Journal Entries and void transactions that will reverse incorrect distributions and dates all the while keeping and audit trail.
3. “There are so many setup options that I need to make decisions for in GP.”  This is true.  Microsoft Dynamics GP is a flexible business solution that allows you to setup your system around the way you do business processes.  Not setup your business process so that QuickBooks can handle it.

There are other surprises when migrating from QuickBooks to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Generally, most surprises are because QuickBooks is a simple solution that does not require an audit trail.  While the quick and dirty method may sound inviting just to get the accounting done, if you are ever the victim of fraud or embezzlement I’m sure you will appreciate not being able to just delete a printed check.

by The Resource Group –Washington Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

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