QuickBooks Online can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection, and because it’s web-based, you can work with your accountant activity ratios-debtors turnover ratio debtors velocity ratio in real time. The QuickBooks mobile app is also available for free and lets you manage your account on the go. While QuickBooks products work for many businesses, they aren’t the best choice for all businesses. If neither of these options seems to be the right fit or you’re just exploring your options, make sure to check out our list of the best accounting software for small businesses for more great options.
Payroll
Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships. With QuickBooks Online, users receive many of the same great features while gaining the mobility of cloud-based software.
QuickBooks Online VS Desktop: Features
It’s designed to foster collaboration between multiple users, facilitating multi-user access to accounting data. Each user tax guide for photographers has their own login credentials, which can be customized to limit access to sensitive information. There’s also a feature that facilitates inviting your accountant to the platform, so they can have direct access to your data. 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. We recommend crunching the numbers to decide whether the online or desktop versions of QuickBooks are right for your specific business. It is worth noting that QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Premier versions will soon discontinue sales to new users.
QuickBooks Desktop pros and cons
- Move from any version of QuickBooks Desktop, and only migrate the data that matters most to you.
- For $1,922 per year, get the Enterprise plan with advanced pricing, reporting and inventory.
- Lastly, our expert opinion score is our subjective rating based on our experience in trying the software.
- However, QuickBooks Desktop offers better reporting and supports more complex accounting.
QuickBooks Desktop offers more advanced inventory management features, job costing worksheets, sales orders, and highly customizable reports. I was impressed with how you could do batch invoicing, something QuickBooks Online doesn’t offer. Businesses that have purchased one-time licenses of the locally-installed QuickBooks Desktop versions that have been sunset can still use the software’s accounting features. However, these versions don’t receive security updates, live support, or access to cloud-based services such as live bank feeds, QuickBooks Desktop Payments, or QuickBooks Desktop Payroll. QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are two solid accounting products from Intuit.
Upgrade to Plus for $42.50 per month for the first three months, then $85 per month afterward, and you will receive access for up to five users, inventory tracking and the ability to track project profitability. The two versions are independent of each other, which means the data you enter on Desktop doesn’t sync to the Online version and vice-versa. If QuickBooks Online and Desktop are on your list of potential accounting solutions, you may want to also consider some similar alternatives. For example, Xero and FreshBooks are cloud-based platforms with extensive features for small and medium-sized businesses, while Quicken is a desktop option for self-employed individuals.
QuickBooks Desktop is preferable for companies wanting to manage their books without an internet connection. It’s also the better option for businesses requiring complex inventory accounting features. We went to user review websites to read first-hand reviews from actual software users. This user review score helps us give more credit to software products that deliver a consistent service to their customers. Service or project-based businesses should choose accounting software that can track project costs, revenues, and profits.
When working with the Desktop version, it’s downloaded right to your computer. This means the data operates as fast as your computer, all without needing to worry about a connection issue. You must pay an additional fee for every user who wants to access the account simultaneously, whereas Online lets multiple users access the account at the same time. Going completely cloud-based comes with marginally higher security risks. While QuickBooks Online does offer security features like multi-factor authorization and encrypted data storage, it’s accessible by anyone with employee login credentials and an internet connection.
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 bookkeeping questions and answers be integrated with QuickBooks Desktop Payroll and QuickBooks Time. Another notable difference between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop is their integration capabilities.