Exploring the Intuit Enterprise Suite: A First Look from Quadrant Advisory
Today, our team at Quadrant Advisory attended a live QuickBooks Online (QBO) webinar unveiling the new Intuit Enterprise Suite (IES).
With over 1,750 attendees and a buzzing Q&A session, it’s clear that Intuit generated a lot of interest in their latest product. Positioned as Intuit’s answer to Sage Intacct, IES appears to be taking its first steps toward competing with other high-powered accounting software.
Yet, as it stands, there are significant limitations, and the product doesn’t quite reach the fully-fledged, multi-dimensional platform we might expect from an enterprise offering. Here’s our take on the current capabilities of IES, what’s promising, and what’s still missing.
Target Audience and Core Industries: Construction & Professional Services
IES has been specifically designed for construction companies, and Intuit is hoping to extend its usability to professional services through its new Projects feature. This functionality gives construction companies and professional service firms a way to track projects, ideally improving project-specific financial tracking, an important factor in job costing and reporting.
However, for those in industries with complex requirements—such as inventory management—the limitations were immediately apparent. IES currently lacks inventory functionality, leaving manufacturing and product-based companies looking for a more robust solution, like Sage Intacct or Oracle NetSuite.
For a suite that aims to support growing enterprises, missing inventory capabilities feels like a considerable oversight.
Multi-Entity and Consolidation Capabilities: A Partial Step Forward
One feature that should appeal to growing firms is IES’s multi-entity support. For companies managing multiple entities, IES allows expense allocation across all associated companies, a useful capability for industries like non-profits, where bill allocation is frequently necessary.
However, payroll allocation—a crucial need for multi-entity organizations, particularly non-profits—remains an unanswered question. When we asked about payroll allocation in the Q&A session, there was silence, hinting that this feature may not yet be available.
As for consolidated reporting, the functionality feels unfinished. The current setup generates consolidated Profit & Loss (P&L) reports by exporting data to an Excel spreadsheet rather than delivering executive-level reporting directly within the platform.
For organizations needing executive board-level insights, this lack of embedded, visually engaging KPIs and consolidated reports is a drawback. We were hoping to see robust reporting with customizable KPI dashboards, an expectation for any serious enterprise-level software, but this isn’t the case—yet.
Introducing Dimensions: A Step Up in Transaction Categorization
One intriguing feature introduced in IES is “Dimensions,” a sub-layer within Classes. Users can set up to 20 additional dimensions within each class, allowing more granular tracking of transactions.
This added flexibility is beneficial for multi-departmental and project-centric companies, allowing finance teams to dissect expenses with precision, such as by department, region, or project type.
For those needing deeper transaction-level tracking, this enhancement within Classes is a strong addition that could simplify reporting on various operational facets.
Pricing and User Limitations: A Frustrating Lack of Transparency
A hot-button issue during the webinar was pricing—or rather, the lack of transparency around it. Intuit refused to disclose pricing information, instead insisting on individual consultations to discuss costs.
Given that pricing often determines early adoption, it was disappointing that they kept the details opaque. This was met with frustration in the Q&A, as multiple attendees voiced dissatisfaction. Additionally, while IES is marketed toward multi-entity firms, it only includes five user licenses.
Any additional users incur extra fees, which limits its immediate appeal for larger teams. Although this limitation doesn’t directly affect us as accountants, it’s clear that multi-entity organizations may find the five-seat baseline restrictive.
Is IES Ready for Prime Time?
From our perspective, IES is a promising but incomplete offering. Its current features may meet the needs of small to medium-sized construction or professional service firms looking to expand their capabilities.
However, without essential elements like inventory management, fully embedded consolidated reporting, and broader user access, it’s not yet a viable solution for more complex, large-scale enterprises.
The webinar’s poll questions on which features attendees want to see in future updates further indicate that Intuit recognizes its need for improvement.
For those interested in viewing the recorded webinar, let me know, and I’ll provide a link. It could be valuable to see Intuit’s vision firsthand and evaluate whether IES might be a fit for some of our multi-entity clients.
While it’s exciting to see QBO pushing into the enterprise software space, we’ll be watching closely to see how they address the current gaps in IES, especially if they hope to compete seriously with industry leaders like Sage Intacct.