Next, you can customize invoices, set up automatic sales tax tracking (if necessary) and learn how to enter mobile receipts and bills. You can edit all of your business’s account settings using the gear icon in the upper right corner. Here’s a look at all of QuickBooks’ small-business products, including accounting, point-of-sale and payroll software.
We consider them tied in terms of features, as they are both robust accounting software, and they have their own strengths and weaknesses. Competitors can offer plans with lower monthly fees and similar features. For example, Xero ranges from $13 to $70 per month and includes unlimited users and basic inventory management in all plans.
QuickBooks offers a separate product — QuickBooks Self-Employed — designed for freelancers and independent contractors, with plans starting at $15 per month. If you’re considering desktop offerings, try exploring QuickBooks’ other small-business products and checking out our full breakdown of QuickBooks pricing. Its highest-tiered plan is the Advanced option, which costs $100 per month for the first three months, then $200 per month after that. 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.
This is useful for businesses with multiple departments or divisions and those that provide various types of services. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop allows https://www.quick-bookkeeping.net/ you to set up classes, but you can’t track your income and expenses by location. You can upgrade to any version of QuickBooks Desktop as your needs change.
Integrations
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 versions of these programs). Four pricing plans for QuickBooks Online are available, ranging from $30 to $200/month (with an additional $45+/month for payroll). The main difference between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop is that QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software, and QuickBooks Desktop is locally installed.
There are over 200 options instead of the 650-plus to its cloud counterpart. There are six main QuickBooks products for small, medium, and large businesses. The most popular https://www.online-accounting.net/ cloud-based QuickBooks program is QuickBooks Online, a browser-based system for small-business owners who want a straightforward approach to bookkeeping and accounting.
Best for freelancers, contractors, and other self-employed individuals in need of basic bookkeeping and tax support. In this complete QuickBooks Comparison, we’ll explain what each program is capable of, what type of business is best for each version of QuickBooks, and the main differences between each product. You can switch from QuickBooks Online to Desktop, and many users who are https://www.kelleysbookkeeping.com/ used to traditional accounting and working with QuickBooks tend to do so after giving QBO a try. At the time of this writing, QuickBooks has noted that it has no plans on sunsetting the QuickBooks Desktop software. Ultimately, your specific business’s size, type, and needs are the real deciding factors in determining which of the QuickBooks versions is best for your business.
- You also have the option to import products and services into the application to avoid having to re-enter the data.
- Determining which pricing structure your business can afford is one of the biggest deciding factors a business may use in shopping for software.
- Advanced Pricing / Control, customize, and automate pricing is included in the Platinum and Diamond subscriptions only.
- Here’s a look at all of QuickBooks’ small-business products, including accounting, point-of-sale and payroll software.
- QuickBooks Mac Plus is similar to QuickBooks Pro Plus, but it’s the only desktop version of QuickBooks that is compatible with Mac systems.
Keep in mind that if you do decide to have QuickBooks Desktop hosted, there will be an additional fee. As an added convenience, if you outgrow your current edition of QuickBooks Online, upgrade to a more powerful plan in minutes. QuickBooks Desktop’s user interface is very different from QuickBooks Online, offering navigation using a flowchart style menu.
Payroll: Tie
QuickBooks Self-Employed is tax software created to help freelancers manage their finances. If your business needs sales orders, QuickBooks Desktop is your only option. Although Intuit has talked about adding sales orders to QuickBooks Online, this feature is only available with QuickBooks Desktop products at this time. Both include the basic reports you’d expect to find with accounting software, such as a balance sheet, a Profit & Loss report, a cash flow statement, etc. In the battle between QuickBooks Online versus Desktop, it’s best to focus on the differences between the two accounting software options since they are so similar. The software must have enough reports that can be generated with a few clicks.
Plus, you’ll find details on how QuickBooks stacks up against its competitors, as well as alternatives to consider. QuickBooks Online is one of the best accounting products for small businesses. But whether it’s the best accounting software for you depends on what accounting features your business needs and how much you want to spend on accounting software. QuickBooks’ payroll solutions integrate perfectly with both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. In other words, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise doesn’t have enough features for international enterprises, and it doesn’t have a low enough cost to make it suitable for small and midsize businesses either.
Check out a few of our favorite QuickBooks alternatives to see if any of them are a better fit for what you’re looking for. Customer reviews of QuickBooks Self-Employed noted that it’s very easy to use and has an interface that’s simple to navigate. On the negative side, some people noted a delay when tracking purchases, which makes it hard to see up-to-the-minute finance tracking. Offers four plans to accommodate a range of businesses with different needs; each plan limits the number of users, though. Though QuickBooks Online has a handful of convenient features that can speed up your workflow and even automate some of it, the software can be complex. You’ll get the most out of it if you have some knowledge of basic accounting concepts.
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
That said, businesses just starting out or those who prioritize mobility might find QuickBooks Online a better fit. The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team. QuickBooks Desktop wins this head-to-head competition, with better reporting, industry-specific features, a better price structure, and more comprehensive features. However, if things like integration and cloud access are important to you, QuickBooks Online may be the way to go. Once you decide, if you need some assistance with your QuickBooks Migration, be sure to check out our comprehensive QuickBooks Tutorial.
It includes payroll processing, which allows you to calculate and track payroll taxes, and it lets you track assets and liabilities and use automated sales tax on invoices. Additionally, it enables you to record and track payments made to 1099 contractors. As you can see, Plus is notably more expensive than Essentials for only slightly more features. These days, the company is making a push toward its QuickBooks Online service, which offers cloud-based features for real-time collaboration.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: Which Is Better for Your Business?
At this point, you probably have a good idea of how these two software stack up against each other. But if you need more help deciding, check out this QuickBooks Online vs. Self-Employed comparison chart. You can send a copy of your company file to your accountant and import their changes.