Clearbooks vs. PowerPlan

Larger companies, multi-currency. Clearbooks is in a competitive environment with Xero, SageOne, FreeAgent, Intuit etc., etc.

Incentivized

[PowerPlan is well suited for] Any Utility who handles their own Fixed Asset Accounting and Reporting. There are very few specialized solutions in this space that can handle this out of the box. Core functionality and support with PowerPlan are excellent. If you have a firm or service that handles a portion or the majority of your Fixed Asset Accounting and Reporting than this solution is overkill and costly for what you need. There may be other options also if you have a robust internal technology team that is comfortable developing another major fixed asset solution into what you need. Cloud Hosting is also not available at this time and will likely be several releases out and be a major redesign (unstable) at first.

Incentivized

• SaaS, so accessible by anyone, anywhere in the world via a browser
• Clear and straight forward navigation
• Good choice of management reports

Incentivized

• Allow the use of retirement units for unitization out of the box.
• Align with Ferc Account and Reporting Standards
• Provide Dashboards that can be configured for different users or groups
• Functions well in a Project Centric Accounting Environment.

Incentivized

• Like any SaaS product, Clearbooks is continuously evolving and being improved
• Some of the reports still need some work

Incentivized

• The backend technology is dated and requires specialized skills or PowerPlan assistance to develop on.
• UI is also outdated and not as visually appealing as users are now accustomed to.
• Reporting is basic in functionality and appearance.

Incentivized

Clearbooks was chosen 5 years ago as our accountant recommended it. There is an element of inertia in moving accounts packages.

Incentivized

Oracle Financials (E-Business Suite) is a very Robust ERP solution that has better integration, reporting and functionality than PowerPlan. It also operates on a more Robust Technology Stack. The Fixed Assets Module is a great solution but lacks support for Utility Specific features and functionality, so much so that we chose PowerPlan to take over this specific functionality while still utilizing Oracle for the Majority of our Project and other Accounting Functions.

Incentivized

• I am not sure that ROI is an appropriate measure for an accounts package. The cost is around £250/year, which is a tiny fraction of the cost of a bookkeeper/finance controller/finance director/CFO.

Incentivized

• Better Fixed Asset Reporting to Provide to Rate Commissions.
• Allowed us to embark on a major Unitization initiative and re-design of our retirement catalog.
• Focus the Support team on other technologies due to the stable nature and good vendor support.

Incentivized