Go to the Settings gear icon and click “Export Data.” Then, select your reason for leaving. Learn More.” This will guide you through exporting your data and creating a backup company file. We recommend crunching the numbers to decide whether the online or desktop versions of QuickBooks are right for https://www.quick-bookkeeping.net/ your specific business. All QuickBooks Desktop Plus and QuickBooks Desktop Payroll products, excluding QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, will no longer be available to new users beginning July 31, 2024. Existing QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, Mac, or Enhanced Payroll users will not be impacted.
It’s easier to upgrade from Simple Start to Essentials, Plus, or Advanced than to switch from Self-Employed to any other QuickBooks Online version. You can switch from QuickBooks Self-Employed to any QuickBooks Online plan—except Advanced. However, the process can be challenging as they are built on different platforms. For detailed instructions, head to our tutorial on how to switch from QuickBooks Self-Employed to Online.
Additionally, QuickBooks Premier supports up to five users, whereas QuickBooks Pro only supports a maximum of three. However, businesses with three or fewer users that plan to use only the standard version of QuickBooks Premier are better off saving their time (and money!) by signing up for QuickBooks Pro. Ease of use gets the highest weight in this case study because we want to give more credit to easy accounting software. For this section, we considered customer service, support network, and a subjective expert opinion score. Users must have easy access to customer service channels in case of problems, questions, or assistance. This takes into account customer management, revenue recognition, invoice management, and collections.
QuickBooks Contractor Payments
These add-ons typically allow for non-financial functionality that QuickBooks doesn’t provide in their base package. This includes expense management, time tracking, CRM, and cash flow forecasting. Due to the flexibility these apps provide, QuickBooks Online can be as simple or as advanced of a program you want it to be. QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus and Enterprise plans have industry-specific reports for manufacturing and wholesale, retail, nonprofit, general contractor and professional service businesses, too. For example, nonprofits can use the desktop products to run donor contribution summary reports while manufacturing, wholesale and retail businesses have the ability to forecast product sales.
These include the ability to track raw materials and finished products and automate order management, among other functions. It also has barcode scanning capabilities — business owners can download the QuickBooks Desktop mobile app and use their mobile device as a scanner. QuickBooks Desktop is more traditional accounting software that you download and install on your computer, while QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software you access through the internet. For the Desktop version, you pay an annual fee starting at $549.99 per year, and the cloud-based option starts at $15 per month. Both versions have mobile apps, but the app for the Desktop version primarily functions as a way to upload receipts, and the Online mobile app is robust in comparison.
On the other hand, if you’re an accountant or someone with a great deal of accounting experience, you may like QuickBooks desktop options that use traditional accounting practices. The number of users you need will also help determine which software is best for your business. Take a look at this chart to see which product suits your business’s size. However, QuickBooks Mac Plus does noticeably lack some of the features available on QuickBooks Online, including recurring invoices and live bank feeds. QuickBooks Mac Plus also has no integrations, whereas QBO has more than 650. QuickBooks Pro only supports up to three users, and you have to pay per user.
The plan offers up to three users all the features of QuickBooks Simple Start, plus the ability to track hours worked and manage bills. A key added feature of the QuickBooks Essentials plan is the ability to manage unpaid bills and allocate billable time and expenses to a specific customer. Additionally, QuickBooks Essentials will send reminders regarding upcoming bills to be paid so that you don’t miss a payment. But what QuickBooks Pro Plus sacrifices in mobility, it more than makes up for in its features, which are more developed than what you’ll find in QuickBooks Online. However, QuickBooks Pro’s features do come at a price, as this software has a steep learning curve.
Learn about all the differences in our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Desktop. 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. The Projects tool helps you manage different jobs and projects for your clients and track costs related to labor and materials. However, the problem with Plus or any of the other versions is that you can’t compare cost estimates to actual costs by project. Retailers and wholesalers should choose Plus so that they can track the quantity on hand and the cost of inventory.
Advanced is slightly better than Plus and the other QuickBooks Online plans in A/P and A/R because of its batch invoicing and expense management features. Batch invoicing allows you to create multiple invoices at once rather than creating them one at a time. This can be useful if you have many customers who need to be invoiced for the same products or services. You just need to create a single invoice template and then apply it to all the customers who require the same invoice.
Best Alternatives to QuickBooks Desktop Pro & Premier
It’s also the better option for businesses requiring complex inventory accounting features. On the flip side, some complained that QuickBooks Online can’t manage multiple companies https://www.kelleysbookkeeping.com/ in a single account and that it lacks assembly management features. Others are also unhappy that they couldn’t easily contact QuickBooks Online’s customer support.
- Though there are occasional navigation difficulties, QBO is incredibly easy to use overall.
- Contractors and professional service businesses can use the software to compare revenue by city, customer and job type.
- QuickBooks Online is the most versatile and well-rounded of the QuickBooks suite of products.
- QuickBooks Pro only supports up to three users, and you have to pay per user.
- For Xero’s Early plan ($13), the number of invoices that users can send each month is capped at 20, but for all other Xero plans, users can send unlimited invoices.
Mac users that want a locally-installed accounting solution will find that QuickBooks Mac Plus offers a pretty good set of features and is optimized for use on Mac. QuickBooks Mac Plus is set up in a similar way to QuickBooks Pro or Premier but is easy to use, much like QuickBooks Online, offering users the best of both worlds. QuickBooks Online is easier to use than the desktop versions, but QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, and Enterprise have stronger features and accounting.
QuickBooks Desktop plans also cost an annual fee per user, and most plans only allow for up to five users. Online software works best for small-business owners who don’t own a desktop computer, travel frequently for work, and like the flexibility of paying for a service each month instead of as a lump annual sum. QuickBooks Online plans also allow for up to 25 users, which is more than most desktop plans allow. If you are a small business or a startup, consider QuickBooks Simple Start. Businesses that provide services, rather than goods, should consider the QuickBooks Essentials plan.
Customer Reviews and Reputation
Once purchased, the licensing of QuickBooks Enterprise is good for 3 years. If you fail to renew your solution each year, you are still welcome to continue using the solution on your desktop, but you will be limited to 1 user license and not have any ongoing support. As of late 2015, QuickBooks Enterprise requires an ongoing subscription to gain access to the software. This is independent of your deployment method (whether running the software on-premise or in the cloud). A product demonstration guided by a QuickBooks VAR (value-added reseller) is available. QuickBooks Enterprise offers both locally installed and cloud-hosted offers, which is in contrast to having to pick one or the other via QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Pro/Premier.
In addition to having more integrations, QuickBooks Online also has better integrations. QBO’s integrations cover more business needs and include multiple payment gateway options. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro offer a good number of helpful integrations and add-on products. However, QuickBooks Online offers over 750 integrations to QuickBooks Pro’s 260+ integrations. One big drawback of QuickBooks Pro in the past was that it didn’t have mobile apps.
No need to worry if you skip one; you can always go back and add it at a later date. 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. Currently, QuickBooks doesn’t have an easy way to switch from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Self-Employed. Before you do, export your data so you can upload it into your new account.
According to the QuickBooks site, individual businesses interested in Enterprise can work out a customized pricing solution that saves them some money. But without any sort of discount, and if you add all 40 users to your account, you’re looking at more than $52,000 a year. For example, the app includes built-in mileage tracking, which is crucial for traveling freelancers who claim mileage or car expenses as a key tax deduction. The app also scans receipts and tracks expenses, which the software then sorts by tax write-off category.
To delve deeper into our best small business accounting software, we tested and used each platform to evaluate how the features perform against our metrics. This hands-on approach helps us strengthen our accounting software expertise and deliver on the Fit Small Business https://www.online-accounting.net/ mission of providing the best answers to your small business questions. However, these versions (for the most part) have moved to a subscription-based pricing model that requires a yearly payment in order to continue using the software with included support.