Why Health and Beauty Manufacturers Outgrow QuickBooks and What to Do About It

Many health and beauty manufacturers begin with QuickBooks for basic accounting and limited inventory tracking. However, as orders increase and product lines diversify, fulfillment slows, inventory errors multiply, and compliance management becomes chaotic. Delays, inventory mistakes, and disconnected data slow internal processes. They also damage customer trust and hurt your standing with your retail partners. The longer it takes to resolve these issues, the harder it is to scale. 

If you’re relying on QuickBooks and a collection of add-ons or spreadsheets, here are some signs it might be time to rethink your systems. 

Your Sales Channels Are Expanding, but Your Software Isn’t 

Health and beauty brands rarely sell through just one channel. You may run a direct-to-consumer ecommerce site, supply to national retailers, ship subscription boxes, or sell through marketplaces like Amazon. Each of these channels adds operational pressure, especially when your systems don’t talk to each other. 

QuickBooks doesn’t give you centralized visibility into inventory across platforms. As a result, teams end up entering data manually, which delays orders and introduces mistakes. That’s a recipe for missed SLAs, chargebacks, or negative customer reviews. 

NetSuite is a logical upgrade. It brings your multichannel operations into one system. Orders flow into the same inventory pool, no matter where the sale originated. Your team can track product availability across locations, allocate stock more precisely, and fulfill orders faster without workarounds. 

Compliance Requirements Are Growing and Harder to Track 

Whether it’s FDA guidelines, INCI labeling, or ingredient traceability, the compliance landscape for health and beauty brands keeps expanding. Manual tracking via spreadsheets or cloud folders can temporarily get you by, but it’s not sustainable as batch volumes grow or you enter new markets. 

QuickBooks doesn’t offer production traceability, controlled documentation, or audit-ready reports. That creates risk and not just during inspections, but also during certification processes, product recalls, or regulatory audits. 

NetSuite provides manufacturers with robust compliance tools. You can manage traceability, quality inspections, document control, and labeling standards in the same system that runs your operations. During an audit or certification request, your team can retrieve accurate, time-stamped records with minimal effort. 

SKUs Have Outgrown Manual Tracking 

QuickBooks was built for basic inventory, not for curated sets, promotional kits, or seasonal product drops. Managing hundreds of SKUs—especially when products are bundled, kitted, or offered in limited editions—requires more than a spreadsheet and a few workarounds. 

For example, if you introduced a holiday box with six coordinated products, you may struggle in QuickBooks to track component availability, production progress, and finished goods inventory. With a more holistic system such as NetSuite, you can natively manage bundles, forecast demand more accurately, and align production with sales. This reduces inventory waste and avoids missed shipments. 

Inventory and production data all live in the same place within NetSuite. Purchasing, sales, and fulfillment teams no longer must operate in silos or rely on outdated reports. 

Financial Software Alone Is No Longer Enough 

QuickBooks does what it was designed to do: track income and expenses. Yet, you need more structure behind the scenes when your business includes multiple warehouses, complex inventory, channel-specific pricing, and regional compliance. 

Brand success depends on consistent execution across departments, including purchasing, sales, operations, and finance. When each team works from different tools or reports, decision-making slows down and problems get harder to diagnose. 

A unified system gives your teams access to the same data. It simplifies handoffs, reduces manual rework, and supports faster, more confident decisions whether you’re adjusting forecasts, planning a product launch, or expanding into a new channel. 

Plan for the Next Stage of Growth with Sikich 

Operational complexity doesn’t need to slow you down. With the right systems, growing health and beauty brands can keep pace with demand, avoid regulatory missteps, and build stronger relationships with customers and partners. 

At Sikich, we help health and beauty manufacturers transition from QuickBooks to NetSuite. Our team understands the day-to-day realities of running a product-based business, from compliance and lot tracking to multichannel fulfillment and planning. 

If you’re not sure where to begin, start with an operational assessment. We’ll help you identify gaps and outline a path forward. Contact Sikich to explore how your systems can support your next phase of growth without added complexity.