QuickBooks Online vs Desktop: Which Is Right for You in 2024?
What used to be a huge bulk of QuickBooks business is no longer so—it focuses mostly on its cloud version and actively encourages users to make the switch from Desktop to Online. This may signal future abandonment of its Desktop version as more people move to the cloud. If you cost of goods sold journal entry cogs make the switch from Desktop to Online, you can import your data and access your original company file at any time.
Although it has the lowest starting price, at $12 per month, it can be a little more difficult to navigate than QuickBooks or FreshBooks. Because there is an unlimited number of users that can use the program, you can maximize its use if you have a team of professionals who need access to your accounting software. 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. Its highest-tiered plan is the Advanced option, which costs $100 per month for the first three months, then $200 per month after that. In stark contrast to QuickBooks Online, each Xero accounting plan includes basic inventory management and an unlimited number of users. Xero’s software is easily as user friendly as QuickBooks’ with a colorful, organized dashboard and highly reviewed apps for iOS and Android.
QuickBooks Online’s pros
- The higher your plan tier, the more reports and users you can add, although it’s important to understand concurrent users are each sold separately.
- Using the data we gathered from this case study, we are able to compare QuickBooks Online and Desktop across several key categories, such as pricing, ease of use, general features, A/P, A/R, and banking.
- For instance, QuickBooks Online Plus only costs $99 per month ($1,080 per year) for up to five users as opposed to Desktop Enterprise, which costs $1,481 per year for only one user.
However, QuickBooks Online is the better choice for most companies, especially those with remote accountants and multiple employees. 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.
QuickBooks Online is a good option for many small businesses that are looking to make invoicing project accounting methods customers easy and integrate invoicing and payments into the general ledger. Small businesses can customize how they use the platform so that they only use the features they need. QuickBooks cloud accounting software provides automatic software updates and there are no big spikes in costs when your business expands. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you know that you can’t monitor your business growth or prepare financial reports without tracking them. Unfortunately, logging and categorizing those expenses can get away from you fast, especially if you’re just throwing all of your receipts in a shoebox to be entered during crunch time. Cloud accounting software lets you easily create professional-looking invoices and send them to your clients by email soon after the purchase—even the same day if you choose.
See how QuickBooks cloud accounting can work for your small business
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. Although QuickBooks Online earned a perfect score and Enterprise took a slight hit in this criterion, we consider this a tie. Both allow you to create essential reports, including profit and loss (P&L), cash flow statements, and balance sheets.
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QuickBooks from Intuit is a small business accounting software that allows companies to manage business anywhere, anytime. It presents organizations with a clear view of their profits without manual work and provides smart and user-friendly tools for the business. For one thing, it limits the number of invoices its customers can send each month to 20 with the cheapest plan. The lowest-tier net debt in accounting plan users are also limited to managing just five bills a month and creating 20 estimates a month. To manage payroll through QuickBooks Payroll, you’ll need to pay a fee for this add-on service, with plans ranging from $45 to $125 per month, plus an additional $5 to $10 per employee per month.
Account Information
Head to our detailed QuickBooks Payroll review to see if it fits the bill. Another key difference between QuickBooks Online and Desktop is that the former allows you to track your activity, such as income and expenses, by class and location. This is useful for businesses with multiple departments or divisions and those that provide various types of services. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop allows you to set up classes, but you can’t track your income and expenses by location. Or let a tax expert powered by TurboTax do your taxes for you, start to finish. Cloud accounting software offers greater access, efficiency, accuracy, scalability and security compared to traditional accounting software.
If you don’t need the advanced features offered by the Desktop plan, the Online version will save you money. QuickBooks Desktop is a good choice if you need specialized features such as inventory tracking or forecasting, and you don’t mind paying more for them. When signing up for QuickBooks Online, it only gives options for paying monthly. However, once you’ve signed up, navigate to your account settings, and you can switch to annual billing to save 10%. All Online plans include receipt capture, QuickBooks support and more than 650 app integrations with apps such as PayPal, Square and Shopify.
