And if data analysis is an important part of growing your business, QuickBooks Desktop is a solid pick. It includes 100+ reports, while QuickBooks Online Simple Start includes around 40. The Desktop Premier edition escalates to 150+ reports, including industry-specific reports for general contractors, manufacturers and wholesalers, nonprofits, and retailers. While QuickBooks Desktop is great for users who prefer locally-installed software, users will have to pay additional fees for cloud hosting, adding to the already expensive cost. Perhaps the biggest area where QuickBooks Desktop falls short is that its Pro and Premier versions will soon be discontinued for new users. While QuickBooks Enterprise will still be an option, this is powerful software with an expensive price tag that will be too much (in terms of features and pricing) for most small businesses.
Why is QuickBooks Online more suitable for most companies than QuickBooks Desktop?
While people may assume that QuickBooks Online is simply the cloud version of QuickBooks Desktop, in reality, the two products are very different. A frustrating experience that only applies to QBDT is that the bank rules are not updated when the chart of accounts is updated. This means that if you rename an account or reorganize the chart of account list you will get an error when QBDT tries to run this bank rule. This is compounded by the fact that the rules list is not really well organized and could have hundreds if not thousands of rules. The sales receipt can be created by clicking the +New button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, followed by choosing the sales receipt under the header called Customers. The sales receipt can be created from the Home Page or from the Customers menu on the top of the screen.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: Ease of use
Small businesses can customize how they use the platform so that they only use the features they need. If your home or office has a slow or unpredictable internet connection, QuickBooks Desktop can ensure you can reach most of your data even if the internet goes down overnight. The downside to locally stored data, though, is that you can only access it from where it’s stored.
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. Depending on your business, the ability to integrate with other applications may be convenient, while for others, it can be a necessity.
- Those interested in trying out QuickBooks Online can access a free 30-day demo with sample data that allows you to easily explore system features and functions without spending a lot of time entering data.
- Although QuickBooks Online earned a perfect score and Enterprise took a slight hit in this criterion, we consider this a tie.
- If you invoke the guarantee, QuickBooks will conduct a full n evaluation of the Live Bookkeeper’s work.
Optional QuickBooks Online add-ons
You must purchase additional licenses if you want to access it on multiple computers. While you can add cloud access to QuickBooks Enterprise, it involves an additional fee. QuickBooks Desktop wins this, offering more reporting options as bench accounting review and ratings well as industry-specific reports and forecasting options not offered in QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Desktop offers good integration options, integrating with more than 200 third party applications, making it one of the better integrated desktop application options. However, it doesn’t compare with the more than 500 options offered by QuickBooks Online.
A/P features include creating vendors and bills, recording purchase orders and converting them to bills, creating service items, and recording full or partial bill payments. Even after initial setup, the software must also let users modify information like company name, address, entity type, fiscal year-end, and other company information. If you need personalized customer support, you can upgrade to QuickBooks Online Advanced or QuickBooks Enterprise. Doing so grants you access to the Priority Circle loyalty program, including a dedicated account team, free on-demand training, and premium care from QuickBooks experts. On the other hand, QuickBooks Enterprise involves a more complex setup due to its extensive feature set designed for larger businesses.
The price and subscription frequency of QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online differ depending on the specific product — and, subsequently, the version — you choose. Both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online support small business bookkeeping, but the manner in which each product does so differs. And although some QuickBooks Desktop versions will not be available for purchase after September 30th, 2024, there are no plans to stop selling QuickBooks Enterprise. If you purchase QuickBooks Desktop (such as Pro or Premier) before September 30th, 2024, Intuit will still support you as a user with ongoing support and product updates. For those customers that choose to stay on Desktop Plus subscriptions, we’ll continue to focus on product maintenance and security. Send invoices, run reports, and get mobile alerts for key events—all on your smartphone.
It is worth noting that QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier versions will soon discontinue sales to new users. Beginning July 31, 2024, only QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise will be available. If QuickBooks Desktop seems to be the better fit after reading this comparison, make sure to act single column cash book format calculation and example quickly to start your subscription to avoid missing out. This includes the availability of integrations for payroll, time tracking, and receiving e-payments. We also evaluated whether an electronic bill pay integration was available.
Payroll: Tie
QuickBooks Enterprise is designed for interest revenues definition and meaning large businesses or small enterprises and starts at $1,481/year or $142/month. Additionally, you can give access to two accounting firms and have unlimited users for the platform’s time tracking and reporting features. Moving up to the Essentials Plan, you’ll pay $30 per month for the first three months, then $60 per month. This plan adds up to three users to the account so that the right people have access to data at their fingertips.
Even though QB Desktop has more comprehensive features in general, there are some key features that only QuickBooks Online has, such as bookkeeping support. QuickBooks Online is cheaper than QuickBooks Desktop if you need multiple users. For instance, QuickBooks Online Plus only costs $99 per month ($1,080 per year) for up to five users as opposed to Desktop Enterprise, which costs $1,481 per year for only one user. Yes, but the only option is QuickBooks Enterprise, as Pro and Premier will no longer be available for new users after July 31, 2024. However, existing Pro and Premier users can still renew their subscriptions. In addition to third-party integrations, QuickBooks Online integrates with native products, such as QuickBooks Payments, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets).
