How to Choose the Best QuickBooks Version for You

Best for small to medium-sized businesses with three users or fewer looking for strong accounting or locally-installed software. QuickBooks Self-Employed is different from the other QuickBooks Products in that it isn’t quite accounting software. QuickBooks Self-Employed is tax software created to help freelancers manage their finances.

You also have the option to import products and services into the application to avoid having to re-enter the data. QuickBooks Online is better for business owners who want easy-to-use cloud-based accounting that includes anywhere online access, mobile apps, and tons of integrations with other business apps. With QuickBooks Desktop, users receive some of the most developed ach vs wire transfers accounting tools on the market. The software offers comprehensive features, unique touches (such as lead management and sales orders), industry-specific versions of the software, and the potential to be more secure. QuickBooks also offers several desktop versions of its cloud-based accounting software, including QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus and  QuickBooks Enterprise.

What are the different QuickBooks products?

It’s tempting to stay at that level and simply share one account among multiple team members, but this is a precedent you will regret setting. QuickBooks data is only as valuable as it is accurate; allowing multiple people to use one account eliminates accountability or transparency and breeds errors. While these features can add plenty of value to businesses of all sizes, they can also be quite overwhelming at first, and involve a significant learning curve for entrepreneurs with no training in accounting. QBO is also more expensive, ranging from $12.50 to $90 per month for the Advanced plan.

• We also considered other factors like pricing plans, ease of use, user interface design and more.
• But still in any case you are not able to understand what to do and what not to in that case you can take the technical support from our expertise.
• This is specially designed for the growing and the small to mid-sized businesses.
• But there isn’t just one version of QuickBooks—if QuickBooks Online doesn’t work for you, another one of the six different versions of QuickBooks could.
• QuickBooks is a well-established accounting software that is widely used by businesses from a variety of industries.

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. With plans starting at $15 a month, FreshBooks is well-suited for freelancers, solopreneurs, and small-business owners alike. The QuickBooks cloud-based products are QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed. But if QuickBooks Online isn’t a good fit for you, QuickBooks Self-Employed is a cheaper, less fully featured version of QuickBooks Online for freelancers.

How many employees do you have?

Yes, you can switch to another plan from any version of QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time. In this review, we compare Patriot Accounting vs. QuickBooks Online to weigh the pros and cons and help you decide which one is the right choice for your business. To review your file data on the preview screen, just click on “next,” which shows your file data.

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. In particular, you can only generate annual financial reports, not month-to-month reports, which complicates making wise financial decisions that benefit your business. QuickBooks’ self-employed solution is also more expensive than some other self-employed accounting software—and it has fewer features, too. (Crucially, its invoices are fairly standard and not very customizable.) If you want to do more than file taxes, even as a sole proprietor, QuickBooks Online is honestly a better fit. Access your account via the cloud for up to 25 users with the Online version, and pay an additional fee per user, up to 40 users, for cloud access with Desktop.

QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: Which Is Better for Your Business?

It might work well for some big businesses interested in industry-specific software and good customer service, but that’s about it. Desktop-based software programs like QuickBooks Enterprise work well for business owners with limited internet access, such as businesses that depend on metered satellite internet. Past desktop users could choose between a one-time-purchase QuickBooks Desktop software (good for three years) or an annually renewing subscription. But as of 2022, QuickBooks Desktop’s single-purchase option has been discontinued. Now, all QuickBooks Desktop plans renew on an annual basis—you do not have the option to pay just once for three years of use.

• Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews.
• You can also give your team permission to add their own hours and generate profitability reports to see how much money you’re making.
• We recommend crunching the numbers to decide whether the online or desktop versions of QuickBooks are right for your specific business.
• If you can’t decide if QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or another QuickBooks version is right for your business, this guide is for you.
• Intuit reserves the right to limit the number of sessions and the length and scope of each session.
• On average, small business owners spend less than 30 minutes getting started in QuickBooks2.

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). The main difference between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop is that QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software, and QuickBooks Desktop is locally installed. Small to midsize businesses that want a desktop solution or need advanced inventory and industry-specific features.

Select the right product for your business size.

While QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop offer contact management, only QuickBooks Desktop allows you to manage and track leads as well as contacts. 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 Pro is geared toward small to medium businesses and starts at $41/month for a single user.

QuickBooks Enterprise also offers much better customer support than QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Online with its Priority Circle customer support. QBO offers up to 25 full-fledged users total and an unlimited number of time-tracking-only users. QuickBooks offers both expense tracking and mileage tracking for all pricing plans, somewhat of a rarity for accounting software. The mobile app means you can quickly snap a photo of a receipt and upload it to create an expense (or add to an existing one). QuickBooks offers many different ways to categorize expenses, with 18 different categories.