Acumatica - Review 2022

Designed as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application, Acumatica delivers an excellent selection for those needing a scalable financial and enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform. Acumatica is a well-balanced app featuring a modular compages that targets ERP, general ledger accounting, and inventory management. Its browser-based user experience (UX) is excellent, with a feature-rich environment accessible via an intuitive user interface (UI). Its pricing model may confuse some users, only that possibility isn't plenty to continue united states of america from giving Acumatica our Editors' Option award across all three of the same product categories.

Acumatica's unusual pricing construction is based on resources rather than per-seat numbers. Because it'due south available as a cloud service from Acumatica, in a public or hybrid cloud configuration [similar installing it on servers hosted by Amazon Spider web Services (AWS), for example], or every bit a straight on-bounds installation, Acumatica's pricing is based on the corporeality of app resources a company actually requires rather than a per-user fee. More details are listed below, but Acumatica states that a typical smaller company can expect to pay $1,000 per calendar month regardless of the number of simultaneous users.

However, as with all of the vendors hither working through a reseller/partner aqueduct, that price doesn't reflect the charges that the reseller will add. And that'southward non optional since, rather than offering the product to customers straight, Acumatica is solely available through its partner aqueduct.

I reviewed the Acumatica Cloud version. For on-premises installation or to run it on virtual servers hosted in someone else'southward cloud, yous will demand infrastructure running Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 on up and a compatible database. Acumatica runs on several popular databases, including Amazon Aurora, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL.

All Roads Atomic number 82 to the Same Identify

Equally with Oracle NetSuite OneWorld, SAP Business One Professional, and others, Acumatica primarily relies on dashboards for navigation. Depending on a user'southward assigned function, he or she will exist shown the appropriate dashboard upon launching the app. It's easy to define roles and permissions since this is washed by checking or unchecking the appropriate entries in configuration boxes. This simplifies navigation because but the areas in which a detail user is allowed are shown.

The experience, function, and await of various dashboards tin can vary widely also. For example, the Controller dashboard on my demo system consisted of key functioning indicator (KPI) widgets, while the Financial dashboard was a process chart with bachelor tasks laid out along accompanying icons. Information technology's also possible to create individualized dashboards for specific employees.

Navigation is merely a matter of clicking the task choices in a dashboard. There is also a double set of ribbon bars at the pinnacle of the screen. The top bar shows wide areas of arrangement configuration such as Distribution, Finance, and System, while the 2nd layer shows tasks available nether that top menu option. For case, nether Finance there is Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), Cash Management, Full general Ledger, and more. Choosing ane of these opens the available tasks in a vertical pane on the left-hand side of the screen.

Finally, y'all tin get to a specific chore by typing information technology into the Search box at the top of the vertical pane. For example, typing in "Trial" volition bring upwardly all of the tasks that outset with "Trial," and you can launch the one you want by clicking information technology.

Plenty of Custom Options

Every bit with many of the small to midsize enterprise (SME) accounting systems I reviewed, Acumatica has extensive customization capabilities. And every bit with almost all of the others, you're better off letting the partner with which you're working do the heavy lifting on this. Yous can practise some filtering on many of the data screens and reports, of which there are hundreds available. I found some of the data entry screens just a picayune busy, and this might be 1 place you enquire your partner to practise a bit of tweaking. As with AccountMate, your license buys you access to all of the app's source code. The app is written under Microsoft .NET, and if you have an Information technology department, they might be comfortable using Visual Studio to do a bit of optimization.

Import and export capabilities are easily accessed, and the system is Open Data Protocol (OData)-compliant so you lot can consign information to other apps, such as Microsoft Power BI. That'southward useful in instance you lot need to do further analysis, render dissimilar data visualizations, or satisfy a third-party auditing program.

Account structure is piece of cake to understand. Accounts consist of a 5-digit account lawmaking that locates where in the chart the account falls under (Assets, Equities, Expenses, Income, and Liabilities), and you can add upward to 10 boosted three-character subsegments to these. Since Acumatica is capable of multi-visitor operations and consolidations, these subsegments or subaccounts can be used to ascertain companies, departments, divisions, and more.

Acumatica on the Run

Considering it'south browser-based, I was able to access Acumatica on all 3 of my mobile devices by using the Chrome browser. While the brandish was considerably crowded on a 10-inch screen, information technology was usable by dragging the screen to the area that I wanted to access. For smartphone use, the browser UI is only as well clumsy. Fortunately, Acumatica offers apps for Android and iOS.

The mobile apps for Android and iOS are identical, and have a unlike UI than when y'all admission the app in a browser. The app has icons for specific tasks such as entering time cards, expense claims, expense reports, sales orders, or purchase orders (POs). I accessed the iOS app on an Apple tree iPad Mini and the Android app on a Lenovo Yoga convertible tablet, but they're actually structured for smartphone access.

Unusual Pricing

Almost all of the apps I reviewed apply some manner of per-seat licensing; Acumatica does not. Rather, license fees are based on resource consumption. When you subscribe to Acumatica, y'all're working on the SaaS model, which means you lot're accessing infrastructure running on Acumatica'south cloud servers. Acumatica is billing you based on how much of those resource your detail instance of the app consumes. The license fee is approximately $one,000 per calendar month (billed annually) for a typical small business with a moderate number of simultaneous transactions.

A Private Deject subscription employs a cloud-style architecture only runs on your infrastructure (whether local or in a cloud setting of your ain, such as a cluster of virtual servers hosted on AWS or Microsoft Azure). A Private Cloud subscription runs about $850 per month, billled annually, over again with no user restrictions. The licensing fee limits CPU processing so, if y'all actually push button the processing capability of the app server, then yous tin upscale past licensing more cores (assuming your server has more cores available).

Finally, there's a Private Cloud Perpetual License for a one-fourth dimension fee of about $thirty,000 plus an 18 percent almanac maintenance fee. Once more, all of these prices are estimates I gleaned from Acumatica, and are offered without the additional charges you'll incur from whichever value-add partner you determine to purchase the software. Partners will add fees based on services they provide, including installation, pre-sales consulting, customization, software configuration, and training, to name a few.

Acumatica's unusual pricing model is a lilliputian difficult to wrap your head around at first, but it really caters to a company whose user base of operations fluctuates, either through attrition, growth, or seasonal expansion. If those needs alter, then information technology's easy to transition from a cloud model to an on-premises installation or vice versa. Couple that with flexible navigation, robust reporting, and easy browser-based access, and yous have a fiscal system that's extremely workable and provides a nifty value.

Expanding Into ERP

While it's certainly worthy of its Editors' Choice laurels equally a SME general ledger bookkeeping product, things slightly change when nosotros examine Acumatica every bit an ERP platform. While information technology's still a solid selection as an ERP provider, it doesn't get our Editors' Choice nod here, which instead goes to NetSuite OneWorld.

Acumatica skews its ERP implementation mainly towards the manufacturing and distribution industries. Much of Acumatica's financial accounting system already offers features bonny to these types of companies, such as an enhanced inventory that provides support for multiple warehouses equally well as inventory costing by using Standard Cost, Moving Boilerplate, Start In First Out (FIFO), and Specific Toll methods. Acumatica does not back up Final In First Out (LIFO), though that's not so bad since this method has fallen out of favor and currently isn't used much exterior the US under By and large Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Since many ERP systems will be used by multinational entities, this is probably not going to be a deal breaker.

Acumatica besides supports lot and serial numbering, which is useful in production tracking equally well as two-step transfer and then that items in transit are tracked by deleting the item from inventory in the initial location, increasing the Goods in Transit (GiT) account, then adjusting the GiT account when the inventory items make it and are checked in at the destination warehouse. This is a mutual do just not every inventory system handles it well.

Inventory is farther enhanced with Acumatica'south Pecker of Materials (BOM) and Routing functions. As expected, these features are nearly commonly used past manufacturing companies. The BOM provides a list of all the parts that go into the production of an detail—down to the last fastener, nut, or screw. As function of the BOM, Acumatica also supports kitting, which is performed when the completion of an particular produced requires the use of subassemblies that have to exist pre-assembled before the actual item tin can be built. These subassemblies are so incorporated into the BOM.

Managing Inventory With Acumatica

Inventory systems can be generic, or designed to operate in a particular blazon of entity. The test implementation of Acumatica that I reviewed was strong in the Distribution and Warehousing surface area. Using multiple warehouses is intuitive, and you can hands create sales orders that ship different items from dissimilar warehouses as part of a single social club. GiT can be tracked to individual trucks if desired, which is useful if you have long transit times, and a GiT report is bachelor, too.

Acumatica makes it simple to track items and components down to a very granular level if necessary. Bit and lot numbers are easy to implement and bar coding is bachelor, using a USB bar lawmaking scanner or even a smartphone. Acumatica supports a BOM simply, if yous require more granularity than a BOM, there'south besides kitting, which lets you build the components that go into a BOM. If desired, inventory items can have images attached to the tape, which is useful if you take similar items that sometimes demand to be identified by eye.

The Inventory module also has robust costing methods. Acumatica supports all the pop methods except for Last-in Start-Out (LIFO), a method which has fallen out of favor in recent years. Available methods include Standard Costing, Moving (or weighted) Average, Beginning-In First-Out (FIFO), and Specific Item costing. Different inventory items can take unlike costing methods. At that place's besides a corking bargain of variety in maintaining inventory levels. You tin set up an item using min/max, which specifies the minimum and maximum levels of the item desired, or use Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) to forecast expected inventory needs. Different warehouses can accept different inventory level approaches.

Only like its reporting in other areas, Acumatica's inventory module reporting as well shines. Inventory reports are plentiful, nicely laid out, and easy to understand. Report filters brand customizing the output fairly elementary though you'll probably want to work with your reseller partner to make upwards report layouts significantly different from the numerous standard ones bachelor.

For those with vaired needs when it comes to inventory direction, you tin too get a MRP (Materials Requirement Planning) module, which is targeted towards product and manufacturing entities. The Acumatica ERP and Inventory modules also integrate with Avalara Sales Tax software to track sales taxes where advisable, peculiarly useful for existent manor and many e-commerce operations. Avalara is just one instance of Acumatica's rather large partner ecosystem, and so if your business operation requires additional or custom functionality, be sure to investigate Acumatica's Partner Program to encounter whether your needs can be fulfilled by a vetted third party.

Climbing the Supply Chain

The Buy and Sales Gild features in Acumatica'due south Fiscal Bookkeeping module likewise tie in well to its Supply Concatenation Direction piece. The Supply Concatenation Management process follows items required to build products from their buy through shipping or backordering, and finally, to getting them entered in the inventory system, if needed.

Acumatica, like many other ERP vendors, spreads its Supply Chain Management functions beyond multiple modules. In addition to Purchase and Sales Order Entry, these Supply Concatenation features are found in a split up Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) module every bit well as in an optional Production module.

MRP balances sales and POs, production orders, and production schedules to generate schedules and reports that forecast when the company needs to place fabric and item orders (to assure that inventory is sufficient to meet demand). In some ERP systems, MRP or Inventory oftentimes incorporate Just-In-Time (JIT) Inventory functionality to minimize the fourth dimension that items are really warehoused (but Acumatica doesn't currently provide this feature).

As well similar to many other ERP vendors, Acumatica works with partner software makers to flesh out its offerings and tailor it to specific verticals. In that location are numerous 3rd-party offerings listed on Acumatica's website but, interestingly, Acumatica private-labels the Production module from JAAS Systems. We didn't have the hazard to review it, only we're mentioning it here because it'll probably be a requirement for companies that produce appurtenances.

Other ERP Features

Manufacturing and Distribution are not the but areas in which Acumatica is strong. In that location's a expert, basic Product Management (PM) module that lets y'all plan and follow projects and tasks inside the business. As part of the Fiscal Accounting cadre, Time and Expense management ties is an piece of cake-to-utilise feature. While I didn't review this module, Acumatica too offers an optional Service Direction Suite that lets you balance service requests with available resource. Service Direction includes scheduling, acceleration, road management (which optimizes the route that service personnel take driving to a customer), direction of equipment maintenance records, and direction of service and warranty contracts. Plus, it provides staff dashboards that can be emailed to employees to evidence events such as scheduled bookings and appointments. Some of these features, including Route Management and Equipment Maintenance, are also bachelor in separate modules.

Customer relationship direction (CRM) is some other cadre ERP function and is available in the base Financial Management system. In that location's a carve up dashboard for the Sales Manager, and y'all can enter leads, create mass emails and complaints, and follow contacts. An boosted Customer Management Suite adds sales and marketing automation as well as sales forecasting and analytics.

To summarize, while we couldn't award the Editors' Choice to Acumatica as an ERP production, nosotros did laurels it Editors' Choice in both the Enterprise Bookkeeping and Inventory Management categories. The product excels in both these areas, and if yous're in the marketplace for an ERP system with excellent Financial Accounting capabilities and you're skewed towards the manufacturing and distribution industries, Acumatica remains a good choice in that location, also, and still earns its Fantabulous rating.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/acumatica/16510/acumatica

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