Unless you’re an accountant, the learning curve will likely be a little higher for you than it would with QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online’s month-to-month subscription service starts at $30 a month (totaling $360 a year). Or, to save money, you can try QuickBooks’ typical offer of 50% off for three months (though choosing the discount waives your free trial).
QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop features
In fact, it recently upgraded its invoicing tool where you can now see the final look of your invoice as you complete the invoicing form. This allows you to easily customize the invoice based on how you want it to look without clicking the preview button. We have an extensive history of reviewing QuickBooks products, and we stay up-to-date with the latest features and enhancements. Our first-hand experience, guided by our internal case study, helps us understand how the different QuickBooks products compare with each other and how they work in real-world scenarios. With QuickBooks Online, you also get the latest security capabilities. Know that your data is protected without downloading and installing product updates.
Moreover, we’d also like to see customization options to enable users to generate reports based on what they want to see. For example, we commend QuickBooks Enterprise’s multicompany reporting feature. This tool allows you to create consolidated financial reports across multiple company files—making it ideal for businesses that operate multiple entities and subsidiaries.
QuickBooks Contractor Payments
Users must have easy access to customer service channels in case of problems, questions, or assistance. Service or project-based businesses should choose accounting software that can track project costs, revenues, and profits. The software must have tools to track time, record billable hours or expenses, send invoices for progress billings, or monitor project progress and performance. This takes into account customer management, revenue recognition, invoice management, and collections.
Fortunately, a mobile app is now available with the introduction of QuickBooks Desktop 2022. However, the QuickBooks Desktop app is a very pared-down version of the desktop and is poorly rated. These versions give business owners more features and reports geared toward their industry. While QuickBooks Online boasts many of the features you’ll find with Desktop, some of its features, such as inventory management, aren’t quite as advanced. Additionally, you won’t find the industry-specific features and reports that you’ll get if you sign up for Desktop.
- As you consider whether QuickBooks Desktop vs. QuickBooks Online is better for your accounting needs, keep in mind that QuickBooks Online is the more recent, up-to-date, and constantly evolving product.
- It offers a range of features that simplify bookkeeping, invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reporting.
- QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based accounting software designed to help small businesses manage their finances efficiently.
- Intuit provides tools and resources to help with the migration process.
- Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro and Premier have notoriously poor customer support (QuickBooks Enterprise support has better priority support).
- With QuickBooks Desktop, you must make an Accountant’s Copy of your data file and send it to your ProAdvisor.
In terms of accounting, QuickBooks Pro is one of the most developed solutions available, boasting a chart of accounts, journal entries, bank reconciliation, 130+ reports, and more. 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. QuickBooks Online has a lower initial cost with subscription-based pricing, making it more cost-effective for small businesses. QuickBooks Desktop has a higher upfront cost but may be more cost-effective in the long run for businesses that require advanced features. The main differences lie in accessibility, feature set, and pricing. QuickBooks Online is cloud-based, offering greater accessibility and flexibility, while QuickBooks Desktop is locally-installed with a more comprehensive feature set and greater customization options.
Can I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?
This easy-to-use and feature-rich software is ideal if you have no bookkeeping experience and want top-notch customer support. Both QuickBooks the origins of lehman’s ‘repo 105’ Online and QuickBooks Desktop are capable programs with strong accounting features. We recommend crunching the numbers to decide whether the online or desktop versions of QuickBooks are right for your specific business. Unfortunately, pricing is no longer disclosed and you will need to contact QuickBooks Sales for more pricing details. At the time of our last review, pricing started at $349.99/year for a single user.
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
The software includes certain features Pro lacks, including business plans, inventory assemblies, and sales forecasting. However, if you don’t need extra features, the industry editions, or the extra users, QuickBooks Premier could be needlessly expensive. QuickBooks Desktop Pro is best for small to medium-sized businesses with three users or fewer looking for strong accounting or locally-installed software. QuickBooks Pro is locally-installed software with highly developed features like contact and lead management, expense tracking, project management, accounts payable, invoicing, and more. QuickBooks Solopreneur’s features are designed specifically for freelancers to address needs such as estimating quarterly taxes, filing Schedule Cs, and tracking deductions. You can easily separate personal and business expenses, which is ideal for freelancers who don’t have separate business bank accounts.
This is useful for businesses with multiple departments or divisions and those that provide various types of services. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop allows you to set up classes, but you can’t track your income and expenses by location. QuickBooks Online wins for pricing because it’s essentially more affordable than QuickBooks Enterprise. For instance, if you have five members, you can purchase the Plus plan for only $90 monthly, whereas with Enterprise, you need to pay $427 monthly for five users. If you don’t know much about accounting, you’ll probably want to shy away from QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise, unless you’re willing to put in the time to learn.
