Exploring the Intuit Enterprise Suite: A New Solution for Mid-Market Companies

The Novi team recently attended Intuit Connect, a conference tailored for bookkeepers and accountants who serve organizations using Intuit’s suite of products. One of the major announcements was Intuit’s new focus on the mid-market, an area traditionally underserved by QuickBooks. Intuit’s answer to this demand? The Intuit Enterprise Suite (IES)—a robust, supercharged version of QuickBooks Online designed to meet the needs of larger and more complex organizations.

What Sets Intuit Enterprise Suite Apart

1. Multi-Entity Accounting: Built for Complex Organizations

Multi-entity accounting is one of the key differentiators in Intuit Enterprise Suite. This feature enables businesses with multiple subsidiaries or entities to manage their accounting processes seamlessly across all of the entities:

• Consolidated Chart of Accounts: Sync accounts, customers, and vendors across multiple companies effortlessly.
• Inter-Entity Transfers: Move funds between entities without needing to navigate across multiple company files.
• Expense Allocation Across Entities: From a single screen, allocate expenses across entities without the need for additional manual entry.
• Consolidated Reporting: Access consolidated reports easily—no need to export to spreadsheets and realign manually, a pain point that QuickBooks Online’s spreadsheet sync function currently requires.

2. Dimensions: A New Level of Data Classification

Intuit Enterprise Suite also introduces dimensions, enhancing the traditional “class” functionality. With dimensions, users can:

• Classify Line Items Across Multiple Dimensions: This allows for more granular categorization, empowering businesses to track financial details beyond the traditional classes.
• Enhanced Reporting Across Dimensions: Nonprofits, for instance, can track restricted and unrestricted assets more seamlessly, improving transparency in reporting.
• I can also see trade associations and professional societies using dimensions to track profitability for specific programs.

This advancement provides an intuitive way to dissect data for organizations with more specific tracking needs—whether by department, class, or another dimension.

3. AI-Enhanced Forecasting and Budgeting

Intuit has also embedded AI capabilities into the Enterprise Suite, helping users leverage predictive analytics for enhanced financial planning:

• AI-Powered Forecasting: Generate forecasts by dimension for better financial planning.
• Budgeting with Multi-User Collaboration: Create forecasts and transform them into collaborative, annotated budgets, improving Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Profit & Loss, and even Cash Flow management.

These AI features will take much of the guesswork out of the budgeting process, allowing association leaders and boards to more accurately plan for the future.

Integration with Novi AMS

For those wondering, will Intuit Enterprise Suite integrate with Novi AMS? The answer is yes. During the conference, I met with the Intuit Developer team, who confirmed that APIs for IES are in active development. Their goal is to allow mid-market customers to access the full QuickBooks Online ecosystem, and they recognize the importance of third-party apps like Novi.

For organizations considering this upgrade, it’s a good idea to meet with one of Novi’s QuickBooks Advanced Certified ProAdvisors. This will help ensure compatibility with your current setup and that all necessary functionality will be available through IES’s API.

Cost Considerations

While pricing details are still vague, it’s clear that Intuit is aiming for a flexible pricing structure based on specific organizational needs. Intuit hinted that bundling other products like Payroll and Mailchimp with IES could reduce the overall cost, which may appeal to companies seeking a comprehensive package.

Rollout Timeline

A minimal viable product (MVP) of Intuit Enterprise Suite is already available, with major updates planned over the next six months. For organizations considering this platform, early access could provide a chance to influence product development based on real-time feedback.

Transitioning from QuickBooks Online Pro or Advanced to IES

Transitioning from QuickBooks Online to Intuit Enterprise Suite will be an upgrade, not a full migration. Intuit’s design allows for a relatively simple transition compared to switching to other enterprise-level accounting software, such as Sage Intacct.

Comparing Intuit Enterprise Suite and QuickBooks Enterprise

It’s worth noting that QuickBooks Enterprise, a customizable version of Intuit’s desktop software, will continue to be supported for companies with specialized needs, particularly in manufacturing. However, Intuit Enterprise Suite represents the future of cloud-based, multi-entity accounting for mid-market companies, offering a more flexible, scalable alternative to QuickBooks Enterprise.

By and large, this is a very exciting development coming from Intuit. For years, other up-market financial management systems would down talk QuickBooks, saying that it was not robust enough for a growing business.

As a company that has seen their team grow from one to over fifty employees, we can see where Intuit Enterprise Suite will allow organizations like ours to continue to scale in size.

Note: It’s important to understand that this is still very new, so the content covered in this article could change. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us as you learn additional information yourself or have specific feedback to share. You can learn more on Intuit’s website as well.