Fact-Driven Comparison of Acumatica and Brightpearl For Retail and Wholesale Merchants

Brightpearl by sage and acumatica serve online sellers

Small and mid-sized organizations have long recognized the need for a centralized system of record to manage operations from the back end and out to customer-facing engagement. After all, each customer’s experience directly reflects their propensity to continue being a customer of the business.

Two such systems are Acumatica Cloud ERP and Brightpearl by Sage.¹ Both applications have specific capabilities to serve omnichannel merchants who connect with retailers and wholesale distributors. There are solid inventory and warehousing features, accounting and financial management, sales order management, and even embedded CRM for managing the whole customer lifecycle.

A modern software platform underpinning an ERP application is critical to compete in today’s global and digital economy. Acumatica and Brightpearl by Sage (“Brightpearl”) are built on a cloud-based infrastructure, with deployment options for customers, consolidated reporting options, and visual dashboards for executives to manage their business by exception.

It can be challenging to navigate all the marketing materials and make sense of which ERP products are worthy of further due diligence. Deep functional comparisons can make it harder to differentiate between ERP offerings. Look beyond granular features and functions to determine which system, vendor, and extended ecosystem are best for your organization.

This solution brief examines several factors to consider when evaluating Acumatica and Brightpearl, including breadth of features, reporting, customer lifetime value, integration strategies, and ecosystem partners. Read on to learn why Acumatica offers many strategic advantages over Brightpearl for growing merchants who want to modernize operations and evolve their digital transformation.

Differentiation #1

Functional Breadth

Vertical integration is becoming more common for merchants selling in a multi-channel environment. Companies that produce goods also distribute them and sell them directly to end-users. Manufacturers selling directly to consumers will require manufacturing management applications and sales-facing modules. Distributors and retailers who offer installation or repair services at client locations will need field service capabilities to manage their field technicians. Field personnel are further enabled with mobile applications to access their ERP system remotely. Likewise, construction companies selling materials and services online typically require vertical features to optimize their operations and stay in compliance of safety, reporting, and payroll regulations.

Brightpearl has capabilities around omnichannel selling, but their vertical integration stops there.

For example, Brightpearl supports retail operations but lacks features in field service management, manufacturing, construction management, document management, inter-company and advanced accounting, and payroll. Customers who require these features must purchase 3rd party applications and spend time and money to integrate them with Brightpearl.

Acumatica, in contrast, offers merchants the ability to make, distribute, sell, and service within a single platform. Embedded field service features enable deliveries, installation, and remote service operations—with seamless integration to inventory, purchasing, and projects. Acumatica’s Construction Edition supports all the needs of home builders, land developers, general contractors, property managers, and specialty trade subcontractors—complete with a fully functional mobile application for companies that also perform installations on-site or collaborate on construction projects. Integrated payroll ensures staff is paid promptly and accurately. Subscription-based businesses and those with complex accounting needs are well-supported by Acumatica’s advanced accounting modules, such as deferred revenue, inter-company accounting, multiple inventory accounting models (FIFO, FEFO, standard, average, and actual), and fixed asset management.

Differentiation #2

Ease of Reporting

The benefit of capturing information and processes within an ERP system is neutralized if you struggle to pull that data in a meaningful way to report and analyze your operations.

Brightpearl supplies dashboards and reporting tools for users. However, according to reviews, their standard financial reports are difficult to tailor. For example, revenue reporting does not isolate individual product sales when they are sold in bundles or kits. Customers are known to export data into an external application such as Excel to understand and analyze the information. Still, others complain they must merge multiple reports to obtain a full view of product information.

Brightpearl dashboards are role-based, so relevant data is displayed based on a user’s job function. But the dashboards are very limited in customization capabilities, so staff typically use out-of-the-box dashboards as is.

Meanwhile, Acumatica excels in reporting, with over 250 standard reports across all business processes. Each report provides a drill-down capability to see the underlying transactions and sub-segments that go into the report.

Dashboards are role-based and highly customizable for each user to personalize based upon their preferences, with full drill-down features. Generic Inquiries uncover critical data elements that can be seamlessly used in reports to pinpoint the scope of information and data analysis desired.

Acumatica garners much better user review scores than Brightpearl on reporting and dashboards.

How easy is Acumatica to use? CLICK HERE to let our customers tell you what it’s like.

Differentiation #3

Economic Value

The underlying premise of ERP systems is to provide great value and efficiency for the business. ERP software is expensive and disruptive to deploying organizations, so the value after go-live must be self-evident.

While both Brightpearl and Acumatica offer consumption-based pricing based on transaction volumes (allowing unlimited user counts to access the software freely), there are differences to know. With Brightpearl, customers complain of high costs for the feature set delivered. Brightpearl Automation, a core component of ERP systems configuring workflow processes and aiding integration, is charged as a separate module. Users also report significant price increases at subscription renewal time. Lastly, the Brightpearl software platform is not multi-lingual and only supports English, which poses challenges for customers looking to expand into new geographies.

Acumatica’s multi-language and agile platform includes out-of-the-box features such as visual workflows, document management with embedded wikis, a mobile application, multi-entity support, automated event notifications, and user role security permissions. Further, all users are guaranteed a cap on annual price increases, so your expected costs are fully transparent!

Read about Acumatica’s formal customer bill-of-rights and superior total economic impact (ROI).

Differentiation #4

3rd Party Integration

No single ERP software suite can meet all needs of all users. It is inevitable that additional add-on applications will be required for a customer to optimize its competitive differentiation. Hence, an ERP system must be open and easy to integrate with other software.

Despite Brightpearl needing many bolt-on applications, it does not offer easy integration. Customers state they must use middleware, including Brightpearl Automation, to fully leverage integrations to external software and marketplaces. Additionally, Brightpearl offers only a limited number of pre-integrated ISV solutions. Often, customers find themselves with limited options for extended solutions, such as EDI and shipping. Conversely, Acumatica’s marketplace contains hundreds of certified applications providing customers with many choices to meet their specific business needs.

Acumatica offers native integrations to the most popular eCommerce platforms and marketplaces. There are also native integrations to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) applications for manufacturers and service optimization functionality for those who perform field service procedures. There is a native integration with Microsoft Teams to keep employees efficient and collaborating in real-time, and a native link with HubSpot for customer management tasks. Acumatica’s web-based services with SOAP and REST APIs connect people, information, processes, equipment, and ideas across disparate software. Acumatica is a core member of the OpenAPI Initiative (a standards governing body). Neither Brightpearl nor Sage are members.

G2.com reviewers have also spoken about the difference in integration capabilities between Acumatica and Brightpearl—with much stronger ratings for Acumatica.

Why are integrations so critical to today’s business? CLICK HERE to let our customers tell you why.

Differentiation #5

Partner Ecosystem

A strong user community and a growing ecosystem of partners can accelerate the value customers receive from their ERP implementation. From consulting partners who help deploy, train, and support the application to independent software vendors who add complementary capabilities to the core ERP suite, partners fulfill many “last-mile” requirements for the user base.

There is a significant difference in the partner ecosystem between Acumatica and Brightpearl.

Brightpearl implements and services customers directly—they don’t have a VAR channel. Hence, the installed base of 1400 customers must rely on a single bank of customer service representatives for all their support needs. Users have complained that they feel abandoned after implementation, leaving them to learn the software independently.

There are only 65 complementary add-on solutions listed on Brightpearl’s app store across 12 categories.

Contrast that with Acumatica’s thriving ecosystem. Partners are flocking to Acumatica; many Acumatica partners have switched away from selling legacy ERP to hasten their growth. September 2022 figures show over 350 VARs and 270 ISVs, with double-digit growth in the last year. There is a vital marketplace of ISV solutions—275 applications across 43 functional categories. Moreover, Acumatica relies on its value-added reseller partners for sales and first-level customer support. Acumatica always stands behind its VARs with the second level of customer support for those who need it.

How does Acumatica’s Partner Ecosystem drive success? CLICK HERE to let our customers tell you why.

Acumatica is THE Choice for Small and Mid-Sized Omnichannel Merchants

SMB manufacturers selecting an ERP platform to support their production systems and overall business operations have many choices, Acumatica and Brightpearl by Sage being two of the most popular. When evaluating integrated business systems, several critical criteria must be considered.

To get the most from an organization’s ERP system of record, look at each vendor’s:

• Functional Breadth and Depth
  Acumatica better supports merchants who manufacture, distribute, and service in an omnichannel model.
• Reporting and Analysis Capabilities
  Acumatica’s portfolio of canned reports, easy-to-use report designer, and role-based, configurable dashboards provide business insights to all levels of employees.
• Economic Value
  Acumatica’s customer bill-of-rights guarantee and positive economic impact yield superior returns for all small and mid-sized businesses.
• Application Integrations
  Acumatica’s marketplace contains hundreds of pre-built, certified applications to meet almost every customer’s needs.
• Partner Ecosystem
  Partners are flocking to Acumatica; many partners have switched away from selling legacy ERP to hasten their company’s growth.

The best choice for your next ERP system is rooted in critical factors beyond feature-function comparisons and true technology partnerships.