QuickBooks Online Comparison: Which Version Is the Best for You?

QuickBooks Online offers integration with more than 500 third party apps in categories such as Payments, CRM, Project Management, Payments, Payroll, Invoicing, Inventory, and Time Tracking. You can easily connect to any third-party app from within the application, saving you a ton of time in the process. Support options are fairly similar for both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, with the more expensive plans offering better support options. QuickBooks Desktop also offers easy integration with QuickBooks Payments so you can accept online payments from customers. But aside from cloud access, there are other differences between the two applications that we’ll talk about next.

Now, “it’s just a one-button push for the month-end process,” says controller Kevin Moore. Take for example Brex, a fintech company that switched to NetSuite in preparation for entering markets in new countries. While running on QuickBooks and Excel, company leaders had to manually pull monthly depreciation and amortization reports from spreadsheets. 66% of surveyed organizations had challenges with an inability to handle complex accounting needs using QuickBooks before their company moved to NetSuite.

Choose the Appropriate Product for Your Company’s Size

For example, the app includes built-in mileage tracking, which is crucial for traveling freelancers who claim mileage or car expenses as a key tax deduction. The app also scans receipts and tracks expenses, which the software then sorts by tax write-off category. Plus, QuickBooks Self-Employed syncs with TurboTax to make tax filing a little simpler. Desktop-based software programs like QuickBooks Enterprise work well for business owners with limited internet access, such as businesses that depend on metered satellite internet. 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.

The accounting leader in the mid-market category with the highest rates in user adoption, ease of use, and speed of implementation. Manage e-commerce New Grow your product-based business with an all-in-one-platform. Manage e-commerce Grow your product-based business with an all-in-one-platform. Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. Vishal Sanjay is a content writer with a passion for finance, business, and investments.

QuickBooks Pro

QuickBooks Online’s security is the responsibility of Intuit because it is cloud-based. However, that does require that you have consistent internet connection. If you install QuickBooks Desktop locally, an additional anti-virus is always recommended whereas internet connection is not needed. As a business owner, you need to be out in the field , selling your product or service. For contractors who are just getting started, QuickBooks Contractor Edition is one of the best accounting systems on the market.

• Sales and expenses are available in one currency only and business plans, sales or expense forecasts aren’t supported.
• To help narrow down the best plan for your business, answer a few short questions below.
• Discount available for the monthly price of QuickBooks Online (“QBO”) is for the first 3 months of service, starting from the date of enrollment, followed by the then-current monthly price.

QuickBooks Self-Employed offers three plans ranging from $15-$35/month. The $35/month plan gives additional tax support with unlimited help and advice year-round from CPAs and a final review of your tax return by a CPA. The downside of QuickBooks Online is that customer support is a bit lacking, and the subscription fee can be a bit expensive for smaller businesses in need of advanced features. POs are essential because they help you specify what products and services you need from your vendor or supplier and by when you need them. When creating POs in Plus, you can input specific items you want to purchase. When your POs are fulfilled, you can convert them to a bill easily.

Personal financial management is the software that powers personal finance and many mobile banking apps. True alternatives will provide the ability to manage a business’s accounting books, send payments, create and send invoices, collect payments, and budget. Some of the most popular alternatives to QuickBooks include Xero, FreshBooks, Sage, Zoho, and Wave. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop can integrate with over 650 cloud-based apps. QuickBooks Online integrates with many other software platforms, such as PayPal and Square, but these platforms do not always have desktop versions.

What are the alternatives to QuickBooks?

If you need accurate direct write off method costing and manufacturing, this is the best option. Premier also allows your business to track inventory and make purchase orders. Today’s leading accounting platforms offer standard security features like data encryption, secure credential tokenization and more. While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe. No, it is relatively easy to use, though corrections can be more challenging. QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus offers thorough reporting for midsize to large businesses running on a Windows operating system.

If you choose an industry-specific plan, you’ll get thorough financial reports customized to your industry. (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.

Displays actual revenue and expense for each service item across all jobs. This assists you in determining which service products are the most and least profitable. You can create an in-progress invoice by choosing a predetermined percentage to bill for each item on the estimate, or you can invoice only specified items on the estimate.

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Although it has the lowest starting price, at $12 per month, it can be a little more difficult to navigate than QuickBooks or FreshBooks. Because there is an unlimited number of users that can use the program, you can maximize its use if you have a team of professionals who need access to your accounting software. The number of invoices that users can send each month is capped at 20, so it is also best for individuals who have a relatively small number of clients or customers. Although QuickBooks Online is a great cloud-based accounting platform, it isn’t the only one. For instance, while QuickBooks offers some of the most fully featured accounting programs, most of its products cost more than comparable accounting solutions for small businesses. 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 right QuickBooks Online plan depends on the size of your business and the features you need. For example, Self-Employed is best for freelancers or solopreneurs, while Simple Start is ideal for small businesses wanting to track assets and liabilities. Essentials is preferable if you need to track unpaid bills, while Plus is great if you require inventory and project management. Ease of use consists of customer support, support network of bookkeepers, and user reviews. Intuit generally offers the same customer support options on all its QuickBooks Online products, but Advanced gives you access to a dedicated support manager for more personalized bookkeeping assistance.

For example, you may choose to invoice only the materials stated on the invoice. When it’s time to invoice the outstanding estimate, return to the estimate, click Create an invoice, and QuickBooks will prompt you to invoice the remaining amount. QuickBooks Contractor Edition has a maximum concurrent user limit of five.

Now, however, we are used to thinking of software as a cloud-based subscription app. While Intuit is definitely pushing customers to choose QuickBooks Online, there is no evidence that QuickBooks Desktop is going away any time soon. However, the QuickBooks Desktop licenses have been discontinued, and users have to buy a yearly subscription now instead. Additionally, QuickBooks Mac Plus and QuickBooks Pro Plus can no longer be purchased from the QuickBooks website and can be purchased by contacting Sales by phone or through an authorized QuickBooks reseller.

The online version will soon be the only available version, and it’s used by hundreds of thousands of American businesses. To find out what we thought about it, please check out ourreview of QuickBooks Online 2023. However, please note that access to add-on services will be discontinued for all QuickBooks Desktop software after May 31, 2023. There are two main versions of QuickBooks — QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online — and there are many differences between them. In particular, the QuickBooks Desktop platform, which is either installed locally or hosted remotely, offers different functions than the QuickBooks Online cloud computing version, which is fully remote.

While writing, he prefers to incorporate a variety of words that best enhance vocabulary and content while also making his work readable to the general public. Given his experience, he is well-suited to write on virtually any topic. Still needs a bit of update to make it a wholesome construction bookkeeping software. Your off-site CPA or bookkeeper can’t access your QuickBooks Contractor books from their work pc.