Non-Plus editions of QuickBooks Desktop put the responsibility of backing up files entirely on you. This is by saving them to other locations on your PC, other sorts of media (such as flash drives), or uploading them to the cloud (using apps like Dropbox or Drive). Intuit often offers discounts and incentives for purchasing it for set blocks of time, though for the purposes of this article, I’m only covering its full regular price. Hosting your QBDT file on the cloud is available for all editions of QuickBooks Desktop and is available through a variety of providers. In contrast to Pro and Premier, at the time of writing the software-only version of QBDT Enterprise is an annual purchase of $1,213 for its Silver, or most basic, level of functionality. The four remaining editions of QBO include Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced.
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. With QuickBooks Essentials, you can track billable time by job and assign it to a specific customer—something you can’t achieve with Simple Start. Once you’ve recorded do sole proprietors have double taxation your billable time, you can add it to your invoice and then send it to your client. This feature is ideal for service-based businesses that charge work by the hour, such as lawyers and independent contractors. Whether you decide to manage your bookkeeping on your own or work with a professional, you’ll have no trouble accessing online resources for QuickBooks Online.
Further, one user said that QuickBooks Desktop is more expensive than QuickBooks Online, especially if you need multiple users, which aligns with our evaluation. The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters. QuickBooks Desktop wins this, offering more reporting options as 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.
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. 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.
- To help you get started, we prepared a guide on how to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
- Another notable difference is QuickBooks Online offers a Self-Employed version for $15 per month, which is not available with QuickBooks Desktop.
- QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are both excellent small business accounting software applications, both offering complete double-entry accounting as well as automatic processing of closing entries.
- Once loaded, there is extensive post-migration work that will vary from company to company.
While QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop offer contact management, only QuickBooks Desktop allows you to manage and track leads as well as contacts. It’s hard to say which software is cheaper because there are so many variables. But there are some general guidelines to know which version might be the one for your business (and your budget). Our complete QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop comparison covers key differences, pricing, features, and usability, so you can easily decide whether QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop is right for your business. Yes, you can, but the process is a bit tedious, as you need to manually export your files from QuickBooks Online to Desktop. If you are currently using QuickBooks Online and want to switch to an interface similar to QuickBooks Desktop, we recommend using the QuickBooks Online Desktop app.
Other businesses should consider whether tracking P&L by class and location is worth the extra $30 per month. After you sign up for QuickBooks Online, you’ll be able to log in to your account and access the main dashboard view. If you’re moving to QuickBooks from another accounting software, you can import your existing files to your new account. Accountants are most commonly against it because QuickBooks Online is a new system, and it functions the same but looks different. The job of an accountant is now to advise you on how to grow your business from those financials and business experience in a specific field. With that being the case, an accounting solution designed for the end user is better so that you can get the most out of your accounting.
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In addition to having more integrations, they tend to be easier to install in QuickBooks Online since they can be activated directly from the QuickBooks Online store within your QuickBooks Online dashboard. While QuickBooks Desktop has a slightly higher average user rating than QuickBooks Online, we consider this criterion a draw since both solutions received a fair share of positive and negative comments. 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. To get the best possible experience please use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to view this website.
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. You can easily access all QuickBooks Online features from the dashboard, where you’ll find a vertical menu bar to the left of the screen. While the dashboard is a bit cluttered, you can easily customize it to only display the information you wish. 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. Katherine Haan, MBA is a former financial advisor-turned-writer and business coach.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: Pricing
Other helpful features in Plus are budgets, classes, customer types, locations, and unlimited report-only users. These ratings are meant to provide clarity in the decision-making process, but what’s best for your business will depend on its size, growth trajectory and which features you need most. We encourage you to research and compare multiple accounting software products before choosing one. Has robust reporting tools and report customization options, invoicing for an unlimited amount of clients, inventory tracking in higher tier plans, plus a capable mobile app. Back then, you couldn’t pull industry-specific reports and could only access mildly customized reports within the system.
QuickBooks Desktop
Meanwhile, Essentials gives you access to more than 40 reports, including those you can generate in Simple Start. Its additional reports include accounts payable (A/P) and A/R aging, transaction lists by customer, expenses by vendor, uninvoiced charges, unpaid bills, and expenses by supplier summaries. You can drill down to a list of your outstanding invoices instead of only the total outstanding.
In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop tends to have a steeper learning curve, offers fewer integrations, and has had its previous versions discontinued by QuickBooks. QuickBooks Online is cheaper than QuickBooks Desktop if you need multiple users. For instance, QuickBooks Online Plus only costs $90 per month ($1,080 per https://intuit-payroll.org/ year) for up to five users as opposed to Desktop’s Premier, which costs $1,999 per year for five users. In evaluating pricing, we considered the billing cycle (monthly or annual) and number of users. QuickBooks Online is generally easier to use than QuickBooks Desktop as it has a more streamlined user interface.
Lastly, our expert opinion score is our subjective rating based on our experience in trying the software. Businesses with inventory items should choose accounting software that can track inventory costs, manage cost of goods sold (COGS), and monitor inventory units. The QuickBooks Desktop mobile app is very limited as it only allows you to capture expense receipts and track business mileage. If you want to perform bookkeeping from anywhere, we strongly recommend QuickBooks Online’s mobile app. On the flip side, some complained that QuickBooks Online can’t manage multiple companies in a single account and that it lacks assembly management features.
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You just need to create a single invoice template and then apply it to all the customers who require the same invoice. QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) and QuickBooks Online (QBO) offer two distinct approaches to small business accounting, each with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Yet this division between the traditional QBD software and the cloud-based QBO solution leads many home-service professionals to wonder which version of the software might be a better fit for them.
QBD includes an assortment of inventory management tools whereas QuickBooks Online only supports one method. Cloud software allows you to automatically send invoices directly to customers so your clients can get paid faster. QuickBooks Online also allows you to include a pay now button right in the invoice. The superiority of QuickBooks Online or Desktop depends on your specific needs. QuickBooks Online offers accessibility, automatic updates, and multi-user access, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.