Unless your business is in transition and still growing toward the enterprise level, most small business products will not suit your purposes. Intuit and other accounting software companies make plenty of products just for enterprise users that suit your needs better. QuickBooks Online offers more features on the go and is a better overall value than QuickBooks Desktop.
- QuickBooks Online is easier to use than the desktop versions, but QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, and Enterprise have stronger features and accounting.
- QuickBooks Plus is the most popular plan for businesses since it includes features such as inventory tracking, project management and tax support.
- Although Intuit has talked about adding sales orders to QuickBooks Online, this feature is only available with QuickBooks Desktop products at this time.
- While both QuickBooks Online and Desktop are supported by a large network of independent ProAdvisors, it’s much easier to share your books with your ProAdvisor using QuickBooks Online.
- It is incredibly user-friendly and easy to navigate, so if you are a sole proprietor looking for basic accounting software, FreshBooks will meet your needs at a relatively low cost.
- Meanwhile, if you or your accountant want to become a ProAdvisor to demonstrate expertise in QuickBooks, read our article on how to become a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
QuickBooks offers a free one-on-one meeting with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor for new users. Your ProAdvisor will help you set up your company file, including adding your business information, setting up accounts, and connecting your bank accounts. QuickBooks Online Self-Employed works very well for people who work for themselves in a service industry and report their business income on Schedule C of their personal income tax return. We even consider it the best for tracking freelance income and filing tax returns in our guide to the best accounting software for freelancers. To see what it can do for freelancers and solopreneurs, check out our review of QuickBooks Online Self-Employed. However, these versions (for the most part) have moved to a subscription-based pricing model that requires a yearly payment in order to continue using the software with included support.
The Complete Guide To Getting A Free Square Card Reader For Your Business
QBO also allows third-party apps and integrations to enhance the capabilities of small businesses. It has four plans, which means businesses can scale up to plans with more features and users as they grow. And even its basic plan has more accounting tools than many competitors, including built-in receipt scanning, expense management, 1099 contractor management, and extensive financial reporting. QuickBooks Simple Start is the most basic of all QuickBooks plans, is best suited for startup businesses, gives access to a single user, and meets basic bookkeeping needs.
- Upgrade to Plus for $42.50 per month for the first three months, then $85 per month afterward, and you will receive access for up to five users, inventory tracking and the ability to track project profitability.
- For $27.50 per month for the first three months, then $55 per month after that, get up to three users, manage and pay bills and track time with its Essentials plan, which is its most popular plan.
- Both versions have mobile apps, but the app for the Desktop version primarily functions as a way to upload receipts, and the Online mobile app is robust in comparison.
- Its invoices aren’t very customizable, and you can’t use any versions of QuickBooks to interact with customers the same way you can with FreshBooks’ or Zoho Books’ client portals.
(The general business version still includes excellent reports—they’re just more broad.) For instance, the general contractor plan includes job costing and reports that organize costs by vendor. The wholesale version breaks down profitability by product, and the nonprofit version lets you generate donor contribution summaries and end-of-year donation statements. QuickBooks for desktop also has a more complicated interface than QuickBooks’ online software. If you’re already familiar with business financials (including if you’re an accountant), QuickBooks Desktop plans give you heftier fiscal reports and more complex accounting features. QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed are the best for businesses wanting cloud-based software with mobile apps.
Which Version of QuickBooks Should You Use?
While there are significant differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, both applications offer solid accounting capability for small businesses. And while QuickBooks Desktop comes out on top in this comparison, only you can decide which one is best for your business. If neither application catches your eye, why not take a look at some QuickBooks alternatives or check out The Ascent’s accounting software reviews. This is a tie since both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop offer users the same support options. Whether you’re thinking about converting to QuickBooks Online or switching from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, your first step should be to take a long look at both applications. When you do, you’ll notice the difference immediately as QuickBooks Online offers a streamlined user interface, while QuickBooks Desktop relies on a flow-chart based interface.
On the other hand, if you’re an accountant or someone with a great deal of accounting experience, you may like QuickBooks desktop options that use traditional accounting practices. If you are a small business owner, it will come back to the decision between cloud-based and locally-installed software to determine which software is right for you. Deciding which type of software works best for your business model can make your QuickBooks choice a whole lot easier. If you want cloud-based software, there’s QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed. If you want locally-installed software, you can take your pick from QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, or QuickBooks Enterprise.
This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. QuickBooks Online is superior for all business types because it is less expensive and has more features than QuickBooks Pro, the program’s desktop version. For an extra $50, sign up for a one-time live Bookkeeping setup with any of its plans. If you’re a freelancer, stick with its Self-Employed plan, which is $15 per month 9after the three-month discount at $7.50).
We cover all kinds of businesses
Intuit, the company that owns QuickBooks, sells lots of software and apps. It’s wise to look at a software company’s whole ecosystem of products before adopting a solution from it. It’s often beneficial to use multiple products from one company, because they all work together, so be strategic about the system you adopt. The entry-level QuickBooks versions, like Simple Start ($12) and QuickBooks Self-Employed ($7), only support one user.
Focus on growing your business
In particular, you can only generate annual financial reports, not month-to-month reports, which complicates making wise financial decisions that benefit your business. QuickBooks’ self-employed solution is also more expensive than some other self-employed accounting software—and it has fewer features, too. (Crucially, its invoices are fairly standard and not very customizable.) If you want to do more than file taxes, even as a sole proprietor, QuickBooks Online is honestly a better fit.
What are the different QuickBooks products?
During the setup process, you can choose the features and functions that you will likely be using in QuickBooks Online. No need to worry if you skip one; you can always go back and add it at a later date. A product demonstration guided by a QuickBooks VAR (value-added reseller) is available. Many versions of QuickBooks Online will include a 50% discount off the first 3 months if you buy now.
QBE may lack the mobility of QBO, but it more than makes up for it with the comprehensive feature set it offers within it’s offering. You may or may not be able to find the missing tools within the QuickBooks app store. QuickBooks was developed by Intuit in 1998 as a double-entry accounting program meant to be used by small businesses. This was a follow-up to the success of Quicken, which was more of a personal finance and home-office accounting solution. Today, QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software on the market. Every business is unique, and there may be instances where QuickBooks Desktop may be a better fit.
If you’re searching for accounting software that’s user-friendly, full of smart features, and scales with your business, Quickbooks is a great option. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication.
QuickBooks Desktop Pro may be cheaper if you do not need additional users or add-ons such as payroll. QuickBooks Online offers over 80 reports depending on your plan, whereas QuickBooks Desktop Pro has over 130 reports. QuickBooks Desktop Premier and Quickbooks Desktop Enterprise have even more reports (especially if you opt for the industry-specific toward a relevant philosophy of accounting versions of these programs). QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop operate on true double-entry accounting principles and have both accrual and cash-basis accounting. Each offers a detailed chart of accounts, journal entries, bank reconciliation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the basic reports needed to run a company.
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