Exact Online vs Spotlight Reporting

Exact Online is a cloud-delivered package for accounting and business operations, with accounting and CRM included across its products. Online accounting provides bank feeds and invoicing, while Time & Billing includes time tracking, invoicing, and CRM. Industry solutions are available for manufacturing, wholesale, and professional services. Wholesale offerings list order, relation, and stock management; a listed manufacturing plan includes calculation, planning, and production. The service also includes inventory and order management, and users can work together online. The accountancy solution supports administration management with clients. Exact says around 675,000 companies use Exact Online and that 2,000 specialists are ready to help. Packages are priced monthly and exclude VAT; payments, including extensions, are made by direct debit. The pricing note says From £25/mo, while the listed Accountancy Professional plan costs £91 a month. There is no free plan, and the free trial's duration and feature limits are unstated.

Spotlight Reporting is a web platform for management reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and financial consolidation. Reporting includes visual reports, KPIs, consolidations, and chart galleries. Forecasting covers budgets, cash flow, what-if analysis, and consolidated forecasts, with monthly, quarterly, or annual views and a 60-month horizon. The service supports scenario modeling, variance analysis, and forecast-versus-actual comparisons. Spotlight Reporting can consolidate up to 75 entities; Spotlight Multi supports up to 500 and is designed for franchises and not-for-profit associations, including benchmarking and ranking. Connections include leading accounting systems such as Xero and QuickBooks, plus Google Analytics and other non-financial sources. Spotlight AI can generate or reformat commentary for an Executive Summary or Action Plan. Business costs $35 a month excluding sales tax for one organization. Business 10 and Franchise & Not for Profit cost $329 a month excluding sales tax. A 14-day trial is offered, with no permanent free plan.