Many companies wonder if they should keep QuickBooks running during their first few months on an ERP platform. You might think it’s a good safety net. It feels familiar, and it feels like a backup plan in case something goes wrong with the ERP solution.
But at Stellar One, we take a firm position on this question: If a company plans to keep QuickBooks as a financial system after go-live, we are not the right partner.
We’ve made this decision to protect members from a setup that will fail before it even begins, which is exactly what happens in most, if not all, cases of a business going live on an ERP platform but keeping QuickBooks active. We’ve seen it before, and we want what’s best for our members: Quick adoption, a smooth go-live, and long-term success.
In this article, we’ll explain the following:
- How Keeping QuickBooks Blocks Your ERP From Doing Its Job
- How Running Two Systems Creates Double Work for Accounting
- How Compliance and Auditability Break Down When QuickBooks Stays in Place
- Why User Adoption Fails When QuickBooks Remains an Option
- QuickBooks Is Easy to Cancel and Easy to Restore If Needed
- Why Stellar One Takes a Hard Line on QuickBooks Retirement
By the end, you’ll know why we won’t work with members looking to keep QuickBooks live, and you’ll be able to decide if you’re willing to break away from QuickBooks or would rather seek a different ERP partner.
How Keeping QuickBooks Blocks Your ERP From Doing Its Job
If you’re still evaluating whether you’re ready to switch from QuickBooks to an ERP platform, that’s a different question, and you should check out a comparison piece between QuickBooks and ERP platforms. But if you know you’re ready to switch, then it’s time to divorce QuickBooks, and your financials are one major reason why.
ERP systems manage financials whether someone wants them to or not. A major point of an ERP platform is real-time financial visibility. Every invoice, every shipment, every payment, and every adjustment flows into one financial backbone.
If someone keeps QuickBooks active, they:
- Create a second financial ledger
- Split accuracy across two platforms
- End up with mismatched numbers
- Force their accounting team to maintain both systems
Instead of creating a single source of truth, they build two, and neither can be trusted. When this happens, Stellar One can’t help you responsibly own financial outcomes, because we’re no longer implementing a system of record, but competing with one.
How Running Two Systems Creates Double Work for Accounting
ERP platforms already track:
- Inventory
- Purchasing
- Sales orders
- Cash flow
- Vendor payments
- Customer payments
- Bank reconciliations
- Month-end close activities
If QuickBooks stays active, accounting teams have to do these activities twice. Every bank feed has to be reconciled in two places. Every payment needs to be entered twice. Every adjustment has to be recreated.
No growing company wants to double its accounting workload in a world where time is already tight. We’ve learned firsthand that this double work is more than just a temporary inconvenience. It’s a quick way to burn out accounting teams and stall ERP platform adoption, which is why we won’t support it.
How Compliance and Auditability Break Down When QuickBooks Stays in Place
Audit trails matter for businesses of all sizes. QuickBooks allows users to delete posted transactions, which creates risk during an audit. ERP platforms like Acumatica require reversing entries instead, which preserves the full financial history.
If QuickBooks stays active, companies end up with:
- Two different audit trails
- Two sets of books to explain
- Two systems to justify to auditors
- Increased risk of inconsistent or missing transactions
Stellar One cannot deliver a GAAP-compliant financial structure if QuickBooks remains a competing system.
Why User Adoption Fails When QuickBooks Remains an Option
One of the biggest challenges in ERP migration is habit change. When teams feel unsure or overwhelmed, they return to the system they know. In this case, that’s QuickBooks.
If QuickBooks is still available, you’re likely to see:
- Users default to their comfort zone
- Adoption of the ERP platform slows down
- Teams avoid learning the new workflows
- Leaders lose visibility into real operations
Even the best ERP solution setup fails if people do not adopt it. And if you want a successful deployment with ongoing wins, you need your team on board.
This is why keeping QuickBooks undermines the entire project. While most ERP providers measure success by the occurrence of go-live, at Stellar One, we’re committed to staying by our members for the entirety of their ERP software journey. We measure success by whether the ERP platform becomes the system your team actually uses, and keeping QuickBooks active almost guarantees that won’t happen.
QuickBooks Is Easy to Cancel and Easy to Restore If Needed
Some companies hesitate to cancel QuickBooks because they think it’s permanent. In reality, QuickBooks Online is month-to-month. There is no long-term contract. You can cancel at any time.
And because all your historical data migrates into Acumatica, you are not “locked out” of your records. If you ever decide to return to QuickBooks, which is rare, you can bring your data with you.
In short, you can move forward without the fear that cutting the cord is irreversible.
Why Stellar One Takes a Hard Line on QuickBooks Retirement
Stellar One’s responsibility is to deliver an ERP solution that becomes your financial source of truth. Running QuickBooks in parallel will block that outcome every time. It creates confusion, doubles the work, and prevents the ERP solution from becoming what it’s built for.
If a company insists on keeping QuickBooks, we know:
- The project will fail
- The ROI will never materialize
- The user experience will break down
- The accounting team will burn out
- The numbers will never align
It would be irresponsible for us to move forward under those conditions.
As such, once again, we disqualify prospects who refuse to retire QuickBooks at go-live.
Cut the QuickBooks Cord to Protect Your Investment
Retiring QuickBooks at go-live isn’t about being bold or taking a leap of faith. It’s about clearing the path so your ERP platform can do the job you chose it for. It’s about eliminating the double work that drains your accounting team. And it’s about forming new habits that give you real-time, audit-ready financial insight.
Your ERP solution can only become your financial backbone if it is the only financial backbone.
If you’re still deciding how to approach your move away from QuickBooks, you can start with our guide on a business’s next steps after QuickBooks. Then, click below to take our ERP fit quiz and decide if it’s time for your transition. If you already know you’re ready, start our free deployment instead.
FAQs About Stellar One Requiring QuickBooks Retirement at Go-Live