Meanwhile, not all versions allow you to manage and track unpaid bills. Advanced users receive better customer support through its Priority Circle membership. As a Priority Circle member, you get access to a dedicated customer success manager who can assist you with any questions or issues you have with your software.

  • The other platform that we also got started with maybe four years ago is Cosmolex.
  • QuickBooks Plus is a substantial upgrade compared to Essentials.
  • Support options are fairly similar for both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, with the more expensive plans offering better support options.
  • Even at promo intro pricing an online Plus will cost that much in just 5-6 months and the $200 investment in desktop is good for 3 years.

QuickBooks Online simplifies both the receipt collection and organization process by allowing you to easily capture and upload a photo or document into your QuickBooks file. From there, you can add it to the correct transaction (or create a new transaction) and, voila, no more shoebox. On the flip side, you can access QBO from any location in the world, with the sole requirement of connecting to the internet. You’re not limited to a single machine or even device and can easily log in to QBO from any PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone. Hosting your QBDT file on the cloud is available for all editions of QuickBooks Desktop and is available through a variety of providers.

It’s an acceptable system but isn’t nearly as convenient as sharing your books through QuickBooks Online. While QuickBooks Online offers many integrated apps, we believe there are only a few that stand out. Explore our list of the best QuickBooks Online integrations for different business purposes.

Which Is Better for Home-Service Businesses?

We recommend crunching the numbers to decide whether the online or desktop versions of QuickBooks are right for your specific business. If you’re looking for more from your subscription—like productivity on the go, collaboration with your team, how to read financial reports for expenses and access on multiple devices (PC, Mac, and mobile)—QuickBooks Online may work better for you. QuickBooks Desktop software is as an annual subscription that will auto-renew with your credit card on file, so there’s no service interruption.

  • Ironic, then, that choosing a QuickBooks product can be difficult, if not downright confusing.
  • The good news is, whichever you purchase, accounting software counts as a tax-deductible expense.
  • SIGN UP and experience the feature-rich Hevo suite first hand.
  • Small business plans include Simple Start, Plus, and Advanced.
  • It has 500+ connectors and a much simpler integration procedure, allowing you to use third-party apps straight from QuickBooks Online without having to sync or import data.

However, it removes the limitations on the number of classes, locations, and chart of accounts, making it ideal for businesses with a growing staff. So, unless you need more than five user seats, support from a dedicated success manager, and free training to help your team members familiarize themselves with new features, then you can stick with Plus. Cloud software allows you to automatically send invoices directly to customers so your clients can get paid faster.

Which accounting software packages are best

For example, there is a vendor, inventory, and customer center; within each are the different ways to manage that operation. First, QBO is secured by 256-bit encryption, which is bank level, military-grade data encryption, also the most advanced on the consumer market. Second, your data isn’t just stored on one server at one time, it’s stored all over the world on multiple servers and is only parsed together when you confirm the login through email or text message. To make it even easier for you to determine whether QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online is a more suitable solution for your home-service business, here’s a breakdown of which features they each offer.

© 2024 Intuit Inc. All rights

You will find similar situations with other industry-specific tools. Another significant distinction between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online is customer service. You may either pay $299.99 for a yearly customer care package or upgrade to Pro Plus or Premier Plus if you want technical support. In contrast, QuickBooks Online users can contact customer service by phone or online easily.

Industry-Specific Features

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. Plus includes inventory accounting that allows you to monitor stock items and quantity—a necessity if you’re selling products. It uses first-in, first-out (FIFO) inventory tracking, an essential feature that helps manufacturers or retailers determine how their inventory affects their profitability. It also lets you update inventory costs and quantities, separate taxable from nontaxable items, and set up alerts if you’re running out of stock.

QuickBooks Online offers upgrade options and integrates with many add-on third-party apps to increase functionality. The assisted migration offer is eligible to Desktop customers that are migrating their data and setting up QuickBooks Online. Personalized setup is limited to a 1-hour session with a customer success product expert. Intuit reserves the right to limit the number of sessions and the length and scope of each session.

Work on desktop

Many users also complain that QuickBooks Online doesn’t compare to QuickBooks Pro in terms of features and quality. However, the majority of reviews are positive, with QuickBooks Online receiving 4.3/5 stars (based on 6,200+ reviews) on Software Advice and 4/5 stars (based on 3,100+ reviews) on G2. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro and Premier have notoriously poor customer support (QuickBooks Enterprise support has better priority support). In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop offers hardly any payment gateways, making it difficult for the modern merchant to accept online invoice payments easily. Accountants often find QuickBooks Pro and Premier to be more traditional, but you don’t have to be an accountant or professional bookkeeper to learn QuickBooks Online.

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. The four remaining editions of QBO include Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. Each edition varies in terms of its available features and functionality, with Advanced providing the fullest feature set. Thanks to the cloud, you can also access QBO from the convenience of your smartphone or tablet. This means you can check in and manage your books from anywhere in the world, whether you’re relaxing on a beach in The Bahamas or enjoying a hot chocolate at a ski lodge.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Rating 3.00 out of 5
[?]