QuickBooks vs Microsoft  Business Central: A Comprehensive Comparison Guide

Considering a move from QuickBooks to a more powerful ERP solution? Discover why SMEs choose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central over QuickBooks Online and Desktop.

Explore key functional differences, scalability benefits, and practical migration steps in our detailed guide to selecting the best affordable ERP solution for growing businesses.

Introduction

Many growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) start out using QuickBooks – whether the cloud-based QuickBooks Online or the older QuickBooks Desktop – to manage their basic accounting and bookkeeping. QuickBooks is popular for its simplicity and low entry cost, making it an affordable solution for small businesses.

However, as a business expands in size and complexity, it may begin to push the limits of what QuickBooks can comfortably handle in terms of users, transactions, and advanced functionality.

At this stage, companies often look towards a more powerful all-in-one system; essentially an ERP for SMEs that can cover not just accounting but also inventory, sales, operations and more.

This is where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central comes into play as a robust yet affordable ERP solution for growing businesses. As one Microsoft partner succinctly put it, “QuickBooks serves well for micro-businesses with minimal accounting requirements, while Business Central stands ready to transform your growing business into an efficient, scalable powerhouse”.

In this blog, we present a detailed comparison of QuickBooks vs Business Central, focusing on the needs of growing SMEs. We will explore the key functional differences between Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Business Central and Intuit’s QuickBooks (both Online and Desktop versions), and examine the typical target markets and use cases for each product.

Next, we will highlight the top 10 advantages of Business Central over QuickBooks, including real examples of how Business Central’s capabilities can benefit a growing organisation.

Finally, for businesses ready to move forward, we include a practical migration checklist to help you plan the process of migrating from QuickBooks to Business Central smoothly. By the end, you should have a clear understanding of which solution best fits your needs and how to transition to a more scalable platform when the time comes.

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Key Functional Differences between QuickBooks and Business Central

While both QuickBooks and Business Central cover standard accounting needs, they differ greatly in scope and capabilities. Below are some of the key functional differences comparing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop:

Breadth of Functionality

QuickBooks (Online or Desktop) is primarily focused on core accounting tasks, managing invoices, bills, payroll, and basic financial reportin,  whereas Business Central is a complete ERP solution encompassing a much wider range of business processes.

Out of the box, Business Central includes modules for finance management, sales, purchasing, inventory and warehouse control, project management, manufacturing, and even basic CRM capabilities.

In other words, Business Central goes far beyond bookkeeping, allowing a growing company to run nearly all operations on one integrated platform (instead of relying on multiple separate tools or add-ons, as QuickBooks often requires for expanded functionality).

Deployment (Cloud vs On-Premise)

Business Central is primarily a cloud-based SaaS application, meaning users can securely access it anywhere via a web browser.

QuickBooks comes in two flavours: QuickBooks Online is a cloud service similar to Business Central in anywhere-access, whereas QuickBooks Desktop is installed on local PCs or servers.

Notably, QuickBooks Desktop has been discontinued in the UK as of 30 June 2023 – it was not kept compliant with newer HMRC requirements like Making Tax Digital.

This leaves QuickBooks Online as the main QuickBooks product moving forward. With QuickBooks Online you still get cloud access, but you are limited to Intuit’s environment and update schedule.

Business Central’s cloud offering, by contrast, benefits from Microsoft’s robust Azure infrastructure and continuous improvements. (For legacy QuickBooks Desktop users in the UK, the discontinuation means upgrading to either QuickBooks Online or an alternative solution like Business Central is essential for compliance and support.)

Scalability and Performance

Business Central is built to scale with your organisation. It can handle high transaction volumes, large data sets, and dozens (even hundreds) of concurrent users as your business grows.

QuickBooks, in contrast, is known to perform well only up to a point. Many companies find that when they start processing over a certain volume (for example, ~1,000+ transactions per month) or attempt to have many users accessing the system, QuickBooks starts to slow down or hit data limits.

QuickBooks Online also has tier-based user limits (depending on your subscription, you might be capped at 5, 25, or a similar number of users), whereas Business Central simply requires purchasing additional user licences with no hard upper cap.

In short, Business Central provides headroom for growth in a way QuickBooks often cannot, without the need to archive or purge data to maintain performance.

Inventory, Warehousing and Operations

Product-centric businesses will find that Business Central offers far more advanced inventory management and operational capabilities than QuickBooks. Business Central supports multiple warehouses, multi-location stock, and even manufacturing processes (in the Premium edition), including Bills of Material, production orders and MRP.

By contrast, QuickBooks Online provides only rudimentary stock tracking, and even QuickBooks Desktop (e.g. Premier or Enterprise editions) has limited inventory features and no true manufacturing module. Many companies running QuickBooks end up needing third-party inventory or order management add-ons to fill these gaps, whereas Business Central can handle these requirements natively.

For example, a distributor could manage warehouse stock levels and reorder points directly in Business Central – functionality not available in QuickBooks without external apps.

Reporting and Analytics

When it comes to financial and operational reporting, Business Central provides a much more robust toolkit out of the box. It includes flexible financial reporting (with the ability to use account schedules and dimensions for custom analyses), built-in dashboards, and seamless integration with Microsoft Power BI for advanced data visualisation and analytics. This means decision-makers get real-time visibility and can drill into detailed insights easily.

QuickBooks’ reports are far more limited – for instance, QuickBooks does not offer deep multi-dimensional analysis or sophisticated forecasting without exporting data to Excel. In practice, many QuickBooks users end up manually manipulating data in spreadsheets to get the reports they want, whereas Business Central can generate those reports in-system.

The difference becomes especially evident as a business grows: Business Central’s comprehensive analytics deliver up-to-the-minute insights for smarter decisions, whereas QuickBooks’ basic reports can leave growing businesses with blind spots in planning.

Multi-Currency and Multi-Company

For SMEs that transact internationally or operate multiple business entities, Business Central provides strong support for multi-currency and multi-company operations. You can maintain accounts in multiple currencies (with automatic exchange rate updates and proper realisation of exchange gains/losses), and even consolidate financial results across multiple companies or subsidiaries within Business Central.

QuickBooks, in comparison, is more limited: QuickBooks Online has a basic multi-currency feature (once enabled, it allows transactions in foreign currencies, but reports still largely in your base currency), and QuickBooks has no built-in multi-company consolidation – each company would be a separate QuickBooks file or QBO subscription, with any consolidated reporting done manually.

Thus, businesses with global ambitions or multiple entities will find Business Central much better equipped for their needs.

Integration and Extensibility

Business Central is part of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 family and integrates seamlessly with the broader Microsoft ecosystem. For example, users can create and send quotes or invoices directly from Outlook without switching apps, and even pull real-time Business Central data into Excel for analysis (and publish edits back to the system).

Business Central connects natively with Microsoft 365 (Office apps like Excel/Word), SharePoint, Teams, and the Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate), enabling streamlined workflows and automation across your business. In addition, Microsoft’s AppSource marketplace offers hundreds of add-on applications and industry-specific extensions that plug into Business Central for extra functionality.

QuickBooks also has an ecosystem of third-party apps (for e-commerce, time tracking, payroll, etc.), but integration is often via data syncing rather than a unified interface, and it lacks the breadth of automation that the Business Central + Power Platform combination provides.

This means Business Central can streamline end-to-end processes more effectively – for instance, you might approve a purchase order through a Microsoft Teams workflow and have it automatically update in Business Central, a level of integration not available with QuickBooks.

Security and Audit Trails

Managing financial data requires strong security and accountability, and here Business Central has a clear advantage with granular user permissions and comprehensive audit trails.

In Business Central, you can define role-based access so that each user only sees and does what their role permits (e.g. sales staff cannot view HR or payroll info, etc.), and the system can log all changes to critical data via its Change Log feature.

QuickBooks, especially the Online version, has relatively basic access controls and a limited audit log. In fact, the QuickBooks data format allows modifications to be made without leaving a detailed audit trail, which can pose risks if errors or unauthorised changes occur.

In Business Central, if someone edits an invoice or a journal entry, you can always trace what changed, who changed it, and when – providing greater transparency and control. For a growing company that needs to enforce internal controls or meet audit requirements, Business Central’s security model is far more robust than QuickBooks’.

Target Markets and Typical Use Cases

QuickBooks and Business Central tend to serve different segments of the SME market, although with some overlap. Below we outline who typically uses each, and for what scenarios, in a UK SME context:

QuickBooks – Best For:

• Very small businesses and sole traders with only a handful of employees and straightforward finances (e.g. a self-employed consultant, a small local retailer or café). QuickBooks serves well for these “micro-businesses with minimal accounting requirements”, providing an easy way to manage invoices, expenses and bank transactions.

• Organisations that have basic accounting needs and limited transaction volumes – for example, a startup or family business that mainly needs to handle cash flow, VAT returns, and year-end accounts, without complex reporting. These users appreciate QuickBooks’ out-of-the-box simplicity and low cost.

• Companies on a tight budget or those looking for the lowest price point to get started with digital bookkeeping. QuickBooks Online’s tiered subscriptions (ranging roughly from £10 to £70 per month) are attractive to small firms keeping costs down.

• Businesses whose owners or accountants are already very familiar with QuickBooks and comfortable with its functionality. If you have extensive QuickBooks expertise in-house (or your external accountant prefers QuickBooks), and your requirements remain basic, there may be less pressure to change.

Business Central – Best For:

• Growing SMEs that have outgrown basic accounting tools and need to handle higher transaction volumes, more customers, and more complex operations. For instance, if your business is processing over 1,000 invoices or transactions per month, or you have outgrown the performance limits of QuickBooks, it’s a strong sign that a move to Business Central would be beneficial. Business Central is designed for developing small and mid-size businesses that need a system to keep up with their growth.

• Companies that require an integrated platform to connect multiple functions beyond accounting – such as inventory management, order processing, project management, or service management – all in one system. If your SME finds itself using separate software (or spreadsheets) for different departments (sales, purchasing, warehouse, etc.) and struggling with data silos, Business Central can unify these processes.

• Organisations planning to expand to multiple locations or countries, or those already operating internationally. Business Central’s multi-currency and multi-company features make it ideal for a business with, say, a UK head office and a European subsidiary, or any company dealing in international trade. In contrast, such scenarios are cumbersome in QuickBooks.

• Firms that have advanced requirements around reporting, compliance, or controls. For example, if you need detailed management reports by department, robust audit trails for compliance, or integration with Office 365 and other systems for productivity, Business Central is a better fit. Industries with specific needs (manufacturing, wholesale distribution, etc.) also often find the tailored functionality they need in Business Central (sometimes via add-ons) which QuickBooks cannot provide.

In summary, QuickBooks tends to work best for small, simple businesses and startups, while Business Central is aimed at larger small businesses and medium businesses that are looking to professionalise and streamline their operations with a more advanced ERP system. Many companies start on QuickBooks and later migrate to Business Central once they reach a point where they need the additional power and flexibility.

Top 10 Advantages of Business Central over QuickBooks

If your business is on the fence about upgrading, consider these top 10 advantages that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers over QuickBooks for a growing SMEs:

1. All-in-One Business Management

Business Central is a full-fledged ERP system, meaning it consolidates many business functions in one platform. Instead of just handling accounting like QuickBooks,

Business Central also manages inventory, supply chain, sales, purchasing, project management, manufacturing, and more. This all-in-one approach eliminates the need to maintain separate, siloed systems for different departments. (For example, a company can use Business Central to track a product from purchase order to inventory to sales invoice all in one system; QuickBooks alone could not achieve that without using additional separate tools.)

2. Scalable for Growth

Business Central is designed to support a growing organisation in ways QuickBooks cannot. As transaction volumes, user counts, and data size increase, Business Central continues to perform well and can be scaled up easily (you can simply add more users or resources).

QuickBooks, by contrast, often struggles beyond a certain point – businesses frequently report hitting performance issues or record-size limits as they grow on QuickBooks. With Business Central, an SME can continue to expand (even into a mid-sized company) without outgrowing its system, avoiding the disruption of having to change software again in a few years’ time.

3. Superior Reporting & Insights

Business Central provides rich reporting and analytics capabilities that give far deeper insight into your business. It has built-in financial reports and allows custom reports (e.g. using account schedules and dimensions for tailored analysis), and it integrates natively with Microsoft Power BI for advanced business intelligence dashboards. This means your team can get real-time, data-driven insights and slice-and-dice information as needed.

QuickBooks’ reporting is much more limited – for instance, QuickBooks doesn’t easily produce consolidated multi-department reports or sophisticated forecasts without manual work.

In Business Central, a CFO could view a live cash flow forecast or drill down into sales by item or region within a dashboard, whereas with QuickBooks they might resort to exporting data to Excel for similar analysis.

4. Tight Integration with Microsoft 365

Being a Microsoft product, Business Central works seamlessly with tools like Outlook, Excel, Word, Teams, and the rest of the Microsoft 365 (Office) suite. Users can accomplish tasks in familiar applications – for example, sending an invoice or quote directly via Outlook, or editing Business Central data in Excel and publishing it back – thanks to out-of-the-box integrations.

It also connects with other Microsoft Dynamics 365 apps (such as Dynamics 365 Sales for CRM) and the Power Platform, enabling workflow automation and custom apps.

This level of integration can significantly boost productivity and collaboration. (For instance, you might approve a sales order through a Microsoft Teams notification which updates Business Central in real time.) QuickBooks lacks this breadth of integration; it often requires third-party plug-ins or manual exports to achieve similar tasks, which are less efficient.

5. Robust Security and Permissions

Business Central offers much more advanced security controls than QuickBooks. Administrators can define detailed user roles and permissions, ensuring each team member only accesses the data and functions relevant to their job. For example, you can allow a sales representative to enter orders but prevent them from viewing general ledger financials.

In QuickBooks, the user permission options are relatively basic and sometimes “all or nothing,” which can lead to either over-sharing of data or cumbersome workarounds.

Furthermore, Business Central keeps a thorough audit trail of user activities (using the Change Log feature) for accountability – if someone edits a record, you can always trace who did it and what changed. QuickBooks’ audit logs are limited, making it harder to detect unauthorised changes or mistakes. For a growing business concerned with data security or compliance, Business Central provides peace of mind with its stronger internal controls.

6. Multi-Currency & Global Capabilities

Unlike QuickBooks which is usually confined to one base currency and one legal entity at a time, Business Central is built for international operations. It supports transactions in multiple currencies with proper exchange rate handling, and can produce reports in both local currency and a reporting currency. It also allows you to manage multiple companies within the system and perform financial consolidations across them.

For a UK business that expands to have a subsidiary in Europe, for example, Business Central can easily handle both GBP and EUR, local VAT and foreign GST, and even consolidate the books for an overall view – all within one solution.

QuickBooks has only rudimentary multi-currency support and no true multi-company features (you would need separate QuickBooks files for each entity). This makes Business Central far better suited for “global ambitions” and multi-entity organisations.

7. Advanced Inventory & Supply Chain Management

Business Central includes sophisticated inventory, distribution, and even production management features that far exceed what QuickBooks offers. You can manage stock levels across multiple warehouses, track lot or serial numbers, set up automated reordering, and even plan manufacturing processes with production orders and capacity planning (in the Premium edition).

QuickBooks (especially QuickBooks Online) provides only very basic inventory tracking and has no manufacturing or warehousing module. In fact, QuickBooks’ basic nature in areas like inventory, production and distribution often forces businesses to rely on third-party solutions for these needs.

With Business Central, a product-based business – whether wholesale, retail or manufacturing – can run those operations in the same system as their financials. (For example, a manufacturer can use Business Central to create a bill of materials and track work-in-progress on the factory floor, which QuickBooks cannot do.)

8. Flexible Customisation and Extensions

Every growing business has unique needs, and Business Central is built to be adapted and extended. It allows for customisations through extensions (apps) without disturbing the base system, meaning you can add new fields, business rules or modules to fit your processes.

Microsoft’s AppSource marketplace provides a vast selection of third-party add-ons – from localised payroll apps to industry-specific modules – which can be installed to enhance Business Central’s functionality. You’re not locked into a one-size-fits-all; you can tailor the system relatively easily with the help of partners or even in-house power users.

QuickBooks, on the other hand, has comparatively limited customisation options. While it does have an app store, many QuickBooks add-ons function as separate integrations (syncing data in the background) rather than native extensions, and the core QuickBooks interface is not highly configurable.

In short, Business Central gives you the flexibility to evolve the software as your business evolves, ensuring your ERP can adapt to new requirements or processes.

9. Process Automation and Efficiency

Business Central can automate many routine tasks and enforce workflows that save time and reduce errors. For example, you can set up an approval workflow so that any purchase invoice over a certain amount automatically routes to a manager for approval, or configure recurring invoices and system alerts for specific conditions.

Thanks to integration with Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow), you can even create custom automation between Business Central and other apps (like automatically emailing a customer when their order ships, etc.).

QuickBooks has very limited workflow automation – mostly just basic features like recurring transactions or invoice reminders. By migrating to Business Central, companies often streamline operations and eliminate manual steps. Operational efficiency improves because the system can handle multi-step processes intelligently (e.g. converting a sales quote to an order to a purchase request workflow without re-keying data). Overall, Business Central’s automation capabilities help standardise processes across your organisation, which is hard to achieve in QuickBooks’ more manual environment.

10. Better Long-Term Value (Future-Proofing)

Although Business Central can have a higher initial subscription cost than QuickBooks, it often delivers better long-term value for growing companies.

QuickBooks might appear cheaper at first, but as your business grows you might incur costs for additional QuickBooks add-ons, external tools, or even hit a ceiling where QuickBooks no longer meets your needs and a costly system change is required.

Business Central, on the other hand, is an investment in a platform that can serve your business for years to come. It offers comprehensive capabilities right from the start, helping future-proof your operations.

In fact, one analysis noted that while QuickBooks’ base price is lower, using QuickBooks can become costly as your business needs grow (due to add-ons), whereas Business Central’s upfront investment pays off by avoiding those piecemeal costs and providing a scalable solution as your organisation grows.

Additionally, with Business Central you have the backing of Microsoft’s support and a network of partners for implementation and assistance. The result is less downtime, fewer workarounds, and a modern system that grows with you – delivering strong ROI over the long term.

Migration Checklist: Moving from QuickBooks to Business Central

If you’ve decided to make the switch from QuickBooks to Business Central, having a clear plan is crucial. Below is a migration checklist to help SMEs plan a smooth move to Business Central:

1. Back Up and Clean Your QuickBooks Data

Before anything else, take a full backup of your existing QuickBooks company file or export your QuickBooks Online data. This ensures you have a safe copy in case you need to reference historical information or if anything goes wrong during migration.

While you’re at it, clean up your data: purge or archive old records you no longer need, resolve any duplicate or inactive entries (customers, suppliers, inventory items), and make sure your accounts and transactions are up-to-date.

Clean, well-organised data will make the migration to Business Central smoother and more accurate.

2. Map Your Accounts and Data Fields

Take time to map out how your QuickBooks data will translate into Business Central. For example, determine how your Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks corresponds to the account structure in Business Central, and map key data like customer records, supplier/vendors, products (inventory items), and open invoices or bills.

Business Central’s migration tools can import master data such as customers, vendors, items, and opening general ledger balances, but you should decide which historical data to bring over (typically open transactions and perhaps the last financial year for reference) versus what to leave behind.

Having a clear mapping document will help ensure nothing critical is left out and that the data migrates into the correct fields in Business Central.

3. Export Data from QuickBooks and Import into Business Central

QuickBooks Desktop users can export lists (customers, vendors, items, etc.) and transaction history to Excel/CSV, while QuickBooks Online users can use built-in export functions or third-party tools.

In Business Central, use the QuickBooks Data Migration Extension (an Assisted Setup wizard) to import the data. This wizard will prompt you to upload your QuickBooks export files and then walk you through mapping the data fields to Business Central’s schema.

Be prepared to validate the imported data – for example, check that your trial balance in Business Central matches the final trial balance from QuickBooks, and that all open invoices, bills, and inventory quantities have transferred correctly. It may take a few iterations to get the import right, but investing time here is crucial.

3. Configure Financial Settings and Modules

After importing the raw data, configure Business Central’s settings to suit your business. This includes setting up your fiscal year, VAT posting groups (for UK VAT reporting), bank accounts, and any specific financial preferences.

Establish posting groups so that sales, purchases, and inventory transactions map to the correct ledger accounts. If you have multiple departments or dimensions (e.g. tracking projects or cost centers), set those up in Business Central as well.

Don’t forget to install or configure any needed add-ons (for example, if you require payroll functionality, you might add a payroll app from AppSource).

Essentially, this step is about tailoring Business Central’s configuration so that it reflects your business’s chart of accounts, processes, and compliance requirements (like Making Tax Digital configuration for VAT) before you go live.

4. Test and Reconcile in a Sandbox

Before switching everyone over to the new system, conduct thorough testing in a sandbox environment or trial company in Business Central. Enter sample transactions – create invoices, record payments, post purchase orders, run reports – to ensure everything works as expected with your migrated data.

Validate opening balances and key reports: for instance, run an aged receivables report or a VAT return in Business Central and compare it to the same report from QuickBooks to make sure they align.

This testing phase will help you catch any issues (such as data that didn’t import correctly or configuration settings that need adjustment) before you rely on the system for actual business operations. It’s much easier to fix problems now than post-go-live.

5. Train Your Team

Adopting a new system is as much about people as it is about data. Plan adequate training for your staff on how to use Business Central.

Ideally, training should be role-based – e.g. train your sales team on entering quotes/orders in Business Central, train your finance team on the new posting routines and reporting, etc.

Make use of available resources: Microsoft provides documentation and learning videos, and if you’re working with a Microsoft partner, they often provide customised training sessions.

Encourage your team to practice in the system (perhaps in the sandbox or test company) using real-world scenarios. Effective training will reduce the learning curve and help avoid mistakes when you go live.

6. Plan the Cutover and Go Live

Choose a go-live date and plan the cutover from QuickBooks to Business Central. Many businesses align this with the end of a month, quarter, or financial year for clean reporting. On the last day in QuickBooks, do a final reconciliation of accounts and note the closing balances.

These closing figures (for bank accounts, customers, suppliers, inventory quantities, etc.) will become the opening balances in Business Central as of the go-live date. Enter those opening balances in Business Central (there are assisted setup guides for this, or your implementation partner can help).

Once everything is set, officially switch to Business Central for all new transactions. It’s wise to keep your old QuickBooks data accessible in read-only form (you might even export it to Excel or PDF reports) in case you need to refer back for historical info or audits, but all day-to-day work should now be in Business Central.

Make sure support is on hand (either a knowledgeable internal user or your partner) during the first few days of going live, so any issues can be resolved quickly. With preparation and the checklist above, your migration can be executed with minimal disruption, setting you up on a modern ERP platform moving forward.

Conclusion

In summary, while QuickBooks provides an excellent starting point for micro and small businesses due to its ease of use and affordability, many SMEs will find that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a more suitable long-term solution as they grow.

Business Central’s greater functional breadth, scalability, and integration make it a natural next step – essentially an affordable ERP solution for growing businesses that need more than basic bookkeeping.

By comparing QuickBooks vs Business Central, we see that Business Central is a modern ERP for SMEs that can unify finance, operations and sales into one coherent system, providing better insight and efficiency.

Migrating from QuickBooks to Business Central is a significant project, but with careful planning and the right support (as outlined in our checklist), it can be achieved smoothly. The end result is a future-proof platform that empowers your business with richer capabilities, helping you streamline processes and make data-driven decisions – a key advantage for sustaining growth in today’s competitive environment.

Next Steps:

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