Alternative to QuickBooks Online for Growing Businesses | Gravity

Why businesses consider an alternative to QuickBooks Online

Why businesses consider an alternative to QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online can be a good fit for businesses that need cloud-based accounting to manage day-to-day financial processes. As an organization grows, however, its accounting requirements may become more complex. Finance teams may need greater flexibility in how they report financial information, more automation across accounting workflows, stronger financial controls, or a more efficient way to manage multiple companies.

The need to evaluate an alternative to QuickBooks Online is not always driven by company size. A single-company organization may require more sophisticated dimensional reporting, approval workflows, financial controls, AI capabilities, or greater financial visibility. Organizations managing multiple legal entities may face additional challenges with intercompany accounting, shared expenses, consolidated financial reporting, and maintaining financial information across separate companies.

Some signs that it may be time to evaluate whether your accounting platform still supports your organization include:

Increasing reliance on spreadsheets or outside applications
More manual work during month-end close
Reporting requirements that are difficult to manage within the existing financial structure
Accounting workflows that require additional manual steps
Greater need for approvals, controls, and role-based access
More complex departmental, location, project, program, or other dimensional reporting
Multiple companies that need consolidated financial reporting
Increasing intercompany transactions and shared expense allocations

These challenges do not necessarily mean QuickBooks Online is the wrong accounting software. They may indicate that your organization's financial requirements have evolved. If you're seeing these changes in your finance team, explore the signs you've outgrown QuickBooks Online to determine whether it may be time to consider a more scalable accounting platform.

Still using QuickBooks Desktop? Explore our guide to outgrowing QuickBooks Desktop to understand when separate company files, intercompany accounting, and consolidated reporting may signal the need for a different accounting environment.

What to look for in a QuickBooks Online alternative

What to look for in a QuickBooks Online alternative

Choosing an alternative to QuickBooks Online is not simply about finding accounting software with more features. The right platform should address the financial and operational complexity that caused your organization to consider a change in the first place while providing room to support future growth.

As you evaluate accounting platforms, consider whether they can support:

Flexible financial and dimensional reporting
Automated accounting workflows and approvals
Strong financial controls and role-based security
Real-time dashboards and financial visibility
Multiple entities within a unified accounting environment
Automated intercompany transactions and allocations
Consolidated financial reporting
Multi-currency accounting, when required
Integration with the business applications your organization already uses
Continued growth without adding more manual processes and workarounds

Technology should also be part of the evaluation. Consider how easily a new accounting platform can connect financial information with reporting, productivity, automation, and AI tools your organization may already be using.

Gravity can support organizations using Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other business applications. Organizations using Microsoft technologies can also take advantage of connections with Power BI, Power Automate, Copilot, and other tools across the Microsoft ecosystem.

Gravity Software vs. QuickBooks Online

Gravity Software vs. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online and Gravity Software are both cloud accounting solutions, but they are designed to support different levels of financial complexity. The right choice depends on how your organization operates today, the reporting and automation your finance team requires, and how those requirements may change as the business grows.

QuickBooks Online can support many of the day-to-day accounting needs of small and growing businesses. Gravity is designed for organizations that need more advanced financial reporting, workflow automation, financial controls, integration flexibility, or multi-entity accounting.

The comparisons below highlight key differences to consider when evaluating Gravity as an alternative to QuickBooks Online.

Gravity Software

QuickBooks Online

Multiple legal entities

Multiple entities managed within a single database

Separate QBO company subscriptions and accounting environments

Working across entities

Work across multiple entities from one accounting environment

Work within separate QBO company environments

Consolidated financial reporting

Built-in consolidated reporting across entities

Additional tools or processes may be required

Intercompany accounting

Automatically creates corresponding intercompany entries

Intercompany activity is managed between separate QBO companies

Cross-company allocations

Allocate expenses across companies, accounts and dimensions

Additional processes across separate QBO companies may be required

Multi-company journal entries

Enter transactions across multiple entities from one environment

Transactions are entered within individual QBO companies

Cross-entity vendor payments

Pay bills across multiple entities in a single payment run

Payments are managed within individual QBO companies

Multi-currency accounting

Entity, transaction and consolidation currency capabilities

Multi-currency capabilities available

Gravity Software

QuickBooks Online

Financial reporting

Advanced financial, multi-entity and dimensional reporting

Customizable financial reporting

Reporting dimensions

User-defined dimensions for analyzing financial information

Classes, locations and other tracking capabilities

Personalized dashboards

User-defined dashboards based on roles and reporting needs

Dashboard and reporting capabilities available

Fiscal periods

Flexible fiscal period structures

Fiscal-year-based reporting

Gravity Software

QuickBooks Online

Workflow automation

Configurable workflows with Microsoft Power Automate

Workflow capabilities available in applicable QBO plans

Approval workflows

Configurable accounting approval workflows

Approval capabilities available for supported transactions and plans

AP automation

Automated invoice processing and accounts payable workflows

AP and bill payment automation capabilities available

Role-based security

Configurable roles, permissions and entity-level security

Roles and permissions, with expanded capabilities in QBO Advanced

Audit trail

Detailed transaction history and audit controls

Audit log available

Bank reconciliation

Bank matching and reconciliation capabilities

Bank matching and reconciliation capabilities

Microsoft technology and AI

The technology behind an accounting platform can affect how easily financial information connects with the applications an organization already uses. Gravity is built natively on Microsoft Power Platform, extending financial information across Microsoft technologies such as Microsoft 365, Power BI, Power Automate, and Copilot.

With Copilot, authorized users can interact with Gravity financial data using natural language and access insights from familiar Microsoft applications. This can make financial information more accessible to decision-makers without requiring them to always work directly within the accounting system.

Gravity Software

QuickBooks Online

Technology platform

Built natively on Microsoft Power Platform

Built on Intuit's proprietary cloud platform

Microsoft 365

Connect Gravity financial data with Microsoft 365 applications

Integration options available

Power BI

Microsoft Power BI for advanced analytics and visualization

Integration options available

Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate for workflow automation

QBO workflows and third-party integrations

AI model flexibility

Copilot with access to supported AI models, including OpenAI, Claude and Mistral

Intuit AI capabilities

Open API

Available

Available

Gravity Software

QuickBooks Online

Accounts payable

AP management across multiple entities

AP and bill management within each QBO company

Accounts receivable

AR management across multiple entities

Invoicing and AR management within each QBO company

Bank Book

Centralized cash management and bank activity across entities

Banking activity managed within each QBO company

Customer and vendor management

Customer and vendor information can be shared across entities

Records maintained within individual QBO companies

Direct ACH payment processing

Direct ACH vendor payment processing available

ACH payment capabilities available through QuickBooks services

Payment portal

Customer payment portal available

Online payment capabilities available through QuickBooks Payments

Budgets

Budgeting with entity and dimensional reporting capabilities

Budgeting available in applicable QBO plans

Multi-location accounting

Entity and dimensional reporting for locations

Location and class tracking available in applicable plans

Investment management

Private investment subledger for equity, bonds, convertible notes and other investments

Not a native QBO accounting capability

Who should consider Gravity as an alternative to QuickBooks Online?

Who should consider Gravity as an alternative to QuickBooks Online?

Gravity is designed for organizations whose financial requirements have become more complex as their operations evolve. This may include businesses managing multiple companies, subsidiaries, locations, or business units that need consolidated reporting, automated intercompany accounting, shared expense allocations, or greater visibility across the organization. For these organizations, accounting software for multiple entities can provide a more centralized approach to managing financial activity across the business.

Gravity can also support organizations that need more sophisticated dimensional reporting, workflow automation, approvals, financial controls, multi-currency accounting, or greater flexibility to connect accounting with the applications their teams use.

A business does not need to manage multiple legal entities to consider Gravity. Single-company organizations may also reach a point where more sophisticated reporting, workflow automation, financial controls, AI capabilities, or other accounting requirements create the need for a more advanced accounting platform.

See Gravity Software in action

See Gravity Software in action

See how Gravity helps growing organizations manage more complex accounting requirements. This seven-minute overview highlights key Gravity capabilities, including multi-entity accounting, financial reporting, workflow automation, and the technology supporting the platform.

What to consider when moving to a new accounting platform

What to consider when moving to a new accounting platform

Moving to a new accounting platform requires more than transferring financial data. It is an opportunity to evaluate how your chart of accounts, reporting dimensions, entities, workflows, security, and historical financial information should be structured to support the organization going forward.

Gravity implementations are completed by Gravity Premier Partners, who work with your team to understand your accounting requirements, configure Gravity, migrate financial data, train users, and prepare the organization for go-live. The scope and timeline will vary based on factors such as the number of entities, modules, integrations, historical data requirements, and overall accounting complexity.

Organizations should also consider how much historical financial information they want to bring into the new system. Some may choose to migrate several years of detailed financial activity, while others may bring over more recent detail and retain older information in a summarized format. The appropriate approach depends on your reporting and historical data requirements.

Currently using QuickBooks Online?

Learn more about how to migrate from QuickBooks Online to Gravity Software, including what to consider when planning your migration, preparing your data, and moving toward go-live.

See how organizations are growing beyond QuickBooks Online

See how organizations are growing beyond QuickBooks Online

G2 Users Love Us badge for Gravity Software

Moving beyond QuickBooks Online is often driven by the need to manage greater financial complexity without adding more spreadsheets, disconnected processes, or manual work. Organizations evaluating Gravity can learn from businesses that have already made the transition to a more scalable accounting platform.

Proteus Power needed an accounting solution that could support its growing renewable energy operations across multiple projects and currencies. With Gravity, the organization gained a centralized accounting environment designed to support its multi-entity financial requirements and reduce manual accounting processes.

Read the Proteus Power case study

“We are going to have several parties, including several large investors and banks, thoroughly analyzing our financials, so it is very important that the books are 100% accurate and easy to follow.”

Sofia Lambros
Head of Accounting, Proteus Power