Top Sage Intacct Alternative for Accounting in 2024

Businesses that have outgrown the basic capabilities of entry-level accounting systems like QuickBooks, along with companies seeking to move on from legacy, on-premises systems like Microsoft Dynamics or older versions of Sage, have begun looking to Sage Intacct as a cloud ERP system that might fit their needs.

However, Sage Intacct is just one of many cloud financial management solutions available. Some have been around for decades, while others are newer and more modern. While Sage Intacct delivers greater functionality than QuickBooks and spreadsheets and its cloud-based delivery model offers advantages over on-premises systems, there are many reasons to carefully consider Sage Intacct alternatives, including support, the partner ecosystem, reporting, the breadth of integrated offerings, and the critical customer success factor.

What Is the Best Alternative to Sage Intacct?

When it comes to cloud-based ERP, there are several available alternatives to Sage Intacct, but many of them have similar limitations. Businesses seeking to move on from entry-level accounting systems or older, on-premises ERP need to ensure they leapfrog to a system that will scale with them and contribute to growth.

How do you select the best option? Consider factors like the number of customers using the product, how long it’s been on the market, its profitability and of course, its breadth of features, integrations, and capabilities. When accounting for all these considerations, the best alternative to Sage Intacct is NetSuite. Other alternatives have limits — in functionality, market approach and ability to scale.

Why Is NetSuite the Best Sage Intacct Alternative?

NetSuite has been on the market longer than Sage Intacct and offers some clear advantages. The primary consideration is that NetSuite was built from the start as a platform on which to run a business, while Intacct’s purpose was simply to provide functionality for accounting and financials.

Other key NetSuite advantages:

• Oracle, one of the largest technology and cloud providers in the world, stands behind the product and invests significant R&D into the NetSuite business unit. Intacct is backed by Sage, a seller of several on-premises financial solutions.
• NetSuite boasts a full suite of integrated business applications, including robust offerings for customer relationship management (CRM), manufacturing, ecommerce and human capital management (HCM).
• It offers a far larger partner ecosystem to deliver services, complementary applications and any needed integrations.

NetSuite customers have the ability to start small and add additional functionality as their businesses grow.

Key Takeaways

• NetSuite emerges as the best alternative to Sage Intacct for cloud-based ERP, offering a more comprehensive suite of integrated business applications and better scalability for growing businesses.
• Key strengths of NetSuite include its robust partner ecosystem, extensive resources backed by Oracle, and a full suite of capabilities that extend beyond financial management to include CRM, HCM, and omnichannel commerce.
• While Sage Intacct is beneficial for entry-level accounting needs, it often becomes a bottleneck for businesses as they grow, necessitating another system upgrade, whereas NetSuite supports scalable growth and expansion.
• NetSuite offers 24/7 live support and a global presence strengthened by Oracle's infrastructure, providing greater reliability and security for businesses operating in multiple countries.
• Businesses choosing NetSuite can start small and add functionalities as needed, benefiting from its ability to handle international operations, which is a significant advantage over Sage Intacct.

Sage Intacct vs. NetSuite Explained

In cloud-based ERP systems, Sage Intacct and NetSuite each have their own strengths and target audiences. Sage Intacct is well regarded for its financial management features, which are a step up from basic accounting software like QuickBooks. However, it may face challenges in accommodating the needs of expanding businesses that require a robust system as they grow.

On the other hand, NetSuite stands out for its ERP solution, backed by Oracle's extensive resources. It offers a range of integrated functions beyond financial management, including CRM, HCM and omnichannel commerce. This versatility and scalability make NetSuite better option for businesses at all stages -- from startups to established companies -- eliminating the need for system changes as they evolve. Additionally, with its infrastructure and round-the-clock support services, NetSuite is a choice for international operations, surpassing Sage Intacct in both breadth and depth of offerings.

Key Features Comparison: NetSuite vs. Sage Intacct

When considering options for business software solutions, choosing the right option is critical for businesses aiming to optimize their operations—not just for right now but also for future growth. From core financial functionalities to international business management and beyond, understanding the strengths and limitations of NetSuite versus Sage Intacct will help decision-makers choose the right system that aligns with their business strategies and growth objectives.

Financials

NetSuite and Intacct are comparable in terms of financial functionality. However, Intacct has some drawbacks due to its licensing structure, which can introduce complexity if a business needs to purchase additional features, like support for value-added tax (VAT) and advanced reporting.

International Business Management

With its OneWorld product, NetSuite offers advanced features for international businesses that Intacct cannot match. NetSuite supports 27 languages, more than 190 currencies, transactions in 90-plus bank formats and tax and reporting standards for more than 110 countries. As a result, NetSuite has customers in countries and territories.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Intacct does not offer customer relationship management (CRM) functionality; instead, it relies on partners. While NetSuite also provides direct integrations with other CRM software providers, it includes a full CRM suite for sales, marketing, and customer service. Because the CRM features are built on the NetSuite platform, other departments have real-time access to important data like inventory availability, billing rules and open invoices.

Human Capital Management (HCM)

While there is HR functionality that integrates with Intacct, called Sage People, it is a third-party application, and its features are limited. NetSuite, on the other hand, provides native HCM features that include employee recognition and compensation, performance and leave management, and sophisticated payroll functionality that eases the often cumbersome processes faced by growing businesses.

Omnichannel Commerce

With SuiteCommerce, its ecommerce platform for both B2B and B2C companies, and with its point-of-sale software, NetSuite offers comprehensive capabilities to sell products and services online. Features include tracking customers and orders across channels, embedded promotional tools and robust content management. Intacct relies on third-party providers for ecommerce.

Professional Services Automation (PSA)

Services-based businesses should also look at Intacct alternatives because, while Intacct offers some features for timesheet management and billing and limited scheduling, NetSuite has a strong professional services automation (PSA) module. With NetSuite, services firms can access resource management to get the right people on the right projects at the right time, leverage project accounting features that help manage the intricacies of accounting for a services business and take advantage of detailed reporting.

5 Reasons Why Businesses Choose NetSuite Over Sage Intacct

1. Scalability for growth: While Intacct is a step up from spreadsheets and basic accounting systems, many businesses find that, after a few years of continued growth, Intacct itself becomes a bottleneck. They’re forced to once again select and implement a new financial system, a costly undertaking. NetSuite, on the other hand, supports businesses of all sizes, from startups to midmarket firms to companies that have gone public and beyond. It supports its customers along each stage of growth, allowing teams to add functionality as they need it.

2. Support: While Intacct has begun to expand the availability of its live agents and offer support beyond the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT timeframe, those efforts are still nascent. NetSuite has live support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and each customer is assigned a designated account manager to ensure success. It also offers three tiers of added support.

3. Partner ecosystem: A strong indicator of how well a software provider is able to support its customers is the provider’s partner network. NetSuite’s partner ecosystem is far larger than Intacct’s, with programs for value-added resellers, solution providers, an accountant-specific program, an Alliance Program for global system integrators serving international firms and a business process outsourcing program. Its SuiteApp.com marketplace of complementary applications has 570 solutions that are built on the NetSuite platform or tightly integrated. Intacct has a value-added reseller program, one for accountants and a marketplace with 44 apps.

4. Resources: When it comes to what cloud accounting alternatives bring to the table, NetSuite has significantly more resources versus Intacct. It was acquired for $9.3 billion in 2016 by Oracle, one of the largest technology companies in the world, and Oracle invested significantly in NetSuite, equipping it to serve as the premier cloud ERP solution for customers that are not quite enterprise size. Beyond its global sales and support staff that extend NetSuite’s reach, Oracle is moving NetSuite to its Oracle Cloud Infrastructure platform in 18 different data centers around the world. That move will give NetSuite customers myriad benefits, including access to the Oracle autonomous database, greater uptime and security and support for Oracle artificial intelligence.

Sage, a provider of several different lines of on-premises financial systems, purchased Intacct in 2017 for $850 million to serve as its cloud-based offering. A third-party provider hosts its software on Oracle databases.

5. Reporting: For executive leadership, the reporting generated by the financial system is a major factor in business decisions. They want a complete view, the ability to drill down and create their own reports, timeliness and flexibility. Customers writing in online forums have expressed some frustration with Intacct’s reporting capabilities and dashboards. NetSuite, in contrast, offers 200 different prebuilt reports out of the box compared with Intacct’s 150, and Intacct customers face additional charges if they want to add greater functionality via bolt-on features.

Grow Your Business and Choose the Best Alternative to Sage Intacct

In contrast to Intacct’s financial management focus, NetSuite offers a full ERP suite that allows businesses to start with basic financial management software and adopt as many additional capabilities as they need to drive continued growth. That includes features like customer relationship management (CRM), HCM and planning and budgeting that Intacct can’t match.

What’s more, NetSuite’s base of more than customers, its vibrant partner ecosystem and Oracle's backing ensure that NetSuite will continue to grow, improve and meet the evolving needs of its customers into the future.

Need More Information About Why NetSuite Is the Best Alternative?

Read the full comparison of Sage Intacct and Oracle NetSuite to better understand the differences between NetSuite and Intacct in functionality, architecture, implementation and integration.

A move from spreadsheets and basic accounting systems to more sophisticated software is an important decision for growing businesses. They need to find a system that meets not only their current requirements but can stretch to accommodate potential future needs — and help avoid the cost and disruption of implementing a new financial system should they outgrow the replacement.

Moreover, businesses are increasingly seeking to limit the number of software solutions they need to manage. By implementing a unified suite, you can reduce integrations and simplify support. As businesses evaluate next-generation solutions, cloud-based systems have become the default choice, and NetSuite, the first cloud ERP system, has emerged as the top cloud ERP alternative.