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. I find myself leaning toward the futuristic solution, which makes QuickBooks Online my preferred choice of accounting software (my Ralph Macchio). Plus, it’s the only one that integrates with Zapier, enabling you to seamlessly link your accounting management to the rest of your business’s tools. QuickBooks Online is simply easier to learn, provides a detailed onboarding process, and is very intuitive.
In other words, Mac users can’t scale up their software from one plan to the next as they add software users. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Support network refers to a community of software users that can extend professional help to businesses. Having adp run 2020 an independent software expert perform the bookkeeping is good for overall ease of use. 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.
For example, it may be more suitable for businesses with complex inventory management needs or those wanting offline access to their financial data. However, QuickBooks Online is the better choice for most companies, especially those with remote accountants and multiple employees. The software must also have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops. The software must have features that allow users to set sales tax rates, apply them to invoices, and enable users to pay sales tax liability. QuickBooks Online is easier to set up because it’s a cloud-based platform that doesn’t require installation.
When you might choose QuickBooks Desktop instead
QuickBooks Desktop also has several additional features you won’t find with QBO, including sales orders and lead management. Because it is locally installed software, you also have more control over keeping your financial data secure. 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. Upon opening QuickBooks Desktop, we found that the general layout didn’t differ too much from that of QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online is faster, lighter, and uses less processing power than QuickBooks Desktop
We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions. 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. While both QuickBooks Online and Desktop are supported by a large network of independent ProAdvisors, it’s much easier to share your books with your ProAdvisor using QuickBooks Online. Getting assistance with your Desktop bookkeeping is difficult since you must save an Accountant’s Copy of your company file and send it to your ProAdvisor.
- All feedback, positive or negative, helps us to improve the way we help small businesses.
- It’s designed to foster collaboration between multiple users, facilitating multi-user access to accounting data.
- Move from any version of QuickBooks Desktop, and only migrate the data that matters most to you.
- The bank reconciliation module must also let users reconcile accounts with or without bank feeds for optimal ease of use.
- The software must also have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops.
- QuickBooks Online lets you use Macs or Chromebooks for accounting to avoid the complexities of Windows updates and syncing issues.
How to close books in Quickbooks Online and maintain financial security
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. QuickBooks Online is generally easier to use than QuickBooks Desktop as it has a more streamlined navigation menu. QuickBooks Online files are also easier to share because you only need to invite an accountant to your company file, and they’ll have 24/7 access to your books. In addition to third-party integrations, QuickBooks Online integrates with native products, such as QuickBooks Payments, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets). QuickBooks Desktop can be integrated with QuickBooks Desktop Payroll and QuickBooks Time.
With our online migration tool, you can move all your data or move only what’s key—like balances and specific lists. If you need help, we can migrate your data for you at no additional cost. For those customers that choose to stay on Desktop Plus subscriptions, we’ll continue to focus on product maintenance and security. 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. Offers four plans to accommodate a range of businesses with different needs; each plan limits the number of users, though.
The online version of QuickBooks is much easier to use than the desktop version. 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). The key difference between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop is how the data is stored and hosted — cloud vs. desktop. Meaghan Senn is a writer from North Carolina with experience in B2B, technology and digital marketing topics.