Ruby Pro vs QuickBooks

QuickBooks keeps the books.
It was never built to run a distributor.

Most Ruby Pro customers come from QuickBooks plus spreadsheets. QuickBooks Desktop is a fine accounting system. The problem is everything around it: the price sheets, the depletion reports, the landed-cost workbook, the order pad, and the person who re-keys between them.

The honest version
  • • If you are a $100 million distributor, Microsoft and Oracle have options for you.
  • • If you are $20 million or below, there has been nothing between QuickBooks and those.
  • • Ruby Pro is built for that gap.

What QuickBooks cannot do for a wine & spirits distributor

Landed cost per case

Freight and duty invoices arrive weeks after the goods. QuickBooks has no way to apply them back to the case, so you never see what a case actually cost you. Ruby Pro applies them after the fact, and the cost per case updates.

Gross margin you can trust

The question we hear most: are we making money or not? Outside the system it looks like yes, inside it looks like no. Ruby Pro makes the gross-profit conversation simple because cost, price, allowances, and billbacks live in one place.

Pricing by deal level and distributor

One-case, three-case, and nine-case pricing per customer, per market, with depletion allowances and billbacks tracked as earned, claimed, and paid. In QuickBooks that is a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet is where the money leaks.

Vintage, lot, and multi-warehouse inventory

The year on the label matters. The wrong vintage arrives against the PO every week somewhere. Ruby Pro tracks by vintage and lot across warehouses and 3PLs, and controls who is allowed to fix a receipt that posts dollars.

Orders, picking, and delivery in one flow

A sales order is a contract. The pick, the delivery note, the invoice, and the payment validate it. In Ruby Pro that is one document chain. In QuickBooks it is an invoice and whatever you bolted on in front of it.

State rules baked in

Excise tax in laid-in cost, price posting where the state requires it, FinTech payment integration in the states that mandate it, and bank reconciliation. Included, not add-ons.

Side by side

What you needQuickBooks + spreadsheetsRuby Pro ERP
General ledger, AR, APYesYes, integrated with sales, purchasing, and inventory
Landed cost applied to the caseManual workbookApplied when the freight or duty invoice lands
Price book by distributor, market, deal levelSpreadsheetIn the system, enforced on the order
Depletion allowances and billbacksSpreadsheet and memoryEarned, claimed, and paid, tracked per deal
Vintage and lot trackingNoYes
Multi-warehouse and 3PL inventoryLimitedYes
Order to cash and procure to payInvoice only; the rest is bolted onOne document chain
Depletion reports for suppliersBuilt by handBuilt from the same data
PriceQuickBooks subscription plus the hours in spreadsheets$750 per month + $90 per user. No implementation fee, 30-day cancellation
Who it is built forAny small businessWine and spirits distributors and importers under about $20M

What the move costs

  • No implementation fee. You pay the first month up front. That is the whole risk.
  • We load your data. Customers, items, pricing, open balances, and as much history as you want to bring.
  • About three weeks for a straightforward setup. Billing starts at go-live.
  • 30-day out. Two-page contract, month to month, no lock-in.
  • Your data is your data. We make no claims over it.

Where QuickBooks is still the right answer

If you only need pricing, keep QuickBooks and add Ruby Price Management beside it for $25 per state per month. Nothing about your accounting changes.

If you are a $100 million company with an IT department, look at the enterprise systems. Ruby Pro is not built for you, and we will say so on the first call.

Bring one real problem.

A vintage substitution on receiving. A freight invoice that showed up six weeks late. A rep who wants to reorder from history on a phone. We will show you how Ruby Pro handles it, in about 30 minutes.

Request a Demo