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. The software must have tools to track time, record billable hours or expenses, send invoices for progress billings, or monitor project progress and performance. In both QuickBooks Online and Desktop, you can assign costs to your inventory items and track the quantities sold to calculate the cost of goods sold (COGS). QuickBooks Online offers more features on the go and is a better overall value than QuickBooks Desktop. If you don’t need the advanced features offered by the Desktop plan, the Online version will save you money.
It’s also the better option for businesses requiring complex inventory accounting features. 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. QuickBooks Online and Desktop share many similarities, including income and expense tracking, bank reconciliation, accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R) management, and reporting.
- You don’t have to invest in setting up the IT infrastructure and only manage the end-user devices.
- The migration process usually involves exporting data from the desktop version and importing it into the cloud version.
- 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.
- Further, one user said that QuickBooks Desktop is more expensive than QuickBooks Online, especially if you need multiple users, which aligns with our evaluation.
- Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services.
While the two iterations are different in some aspects, they’re essentially the same product, and the differences between them aren’t as glaring as they are with other accounting software solutions. In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop’s interface was built with accountants in mind. Instead of showing clear images of your cash balance, outstanding invoices, and upcoming bills like the QuickBooks Online dash, the desktop version’s https://intuit-payroll.org/ dash is a flowing series of connected folders and files. Unless you’re an accountant, the learning curve will likely be a little higher for you than it would with QuickBooks Online. We also don’t recommend QuickBooks Desktop to Mac users, since there’s just one desktop-based plan for Mac users. This plan, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, has the same features as QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, the most basic desktop-based plan.
It also schedules automated backups, so your QuickBooks data isn’t affected even if you run into issues with your remote computer or other devices. With QBO, you can manage inventory basics, including a limited number of inventory items, create purchase orders and sales orders, and set alerts to manage reorders. QuickBooks Desktop is perfect for small companies that conduct business from a centralized location and handle all their financial data in-house. QuickBooks Online and Desktop both have multiple tiers and add-on features that make it easy to tailor them to your needs.
QuickBooks Online VS Desktop Reviews: Which Do Users Like Better?
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, bill and hold agreement example wholesale and retail businesses have the ability to forecast product sales. Contractors and professional service businesses can use the software to compare revenue by city, customer and job type. QuickBooks Online offers a large selection of reports, but they aren’t industry-specific.
Add payroll to QuickBooks Online starting at $45 per month, or to Desktop starting at $50, plus $2 per employee, per month. For $27.50 per month for the first three months, then $55 per month after that, get up to three users, manage and pay bills and track time with its Essentials plan, which is its most popular plan. 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. For $1,410 per year, get the Enterprise plan with advanced pricing, reporting and inventory. 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.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: Which is best?
The side menu categorizes features for easy access, for example, aggregating sections for employees, their taxes, and compliance details under the Payroll category. It takes a bit of time to click around and understand where everything is, but a quick run-through is more than enough to familiarize yourself with what QuickBooks Online can do. QuickBooks might encourage its users to switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online, but it hasn’t issued any statements about discontinuing Desktop entirely. But based on the tech industry’s growing emphasis on cloud storage over local storage, it’s hard to imagine that downloadable programs like QuickBooks Desktop will still be relevant a decade down the road. QuickBooks Online’s month-to-month subscription service starts at $30 a month (totaling $360 a year). Or, to save money, you can try QuickBooks’ typical offer of 50% off for three months (though choosing the discount waives your free trial).
What’s The Difference Between QuickBooks Online VS Desktop?
It has different subscription plans to fit various business sizes but offers very limited customization options. QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) is a cloud-based accounting software designed specifically for accounting professionals. QuickBooks Online (QBO) is a cloud-based accounting software best suited for small and medium-sized businesses. Before deciding on a QuickBooks version, you should first consider your business size and industry specific bookkeeping requirements. Each version caters to different types of companies, such as small businesses, non-profits, or enterprises.
Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team. QuickBooks Desktop wins this head-to-head competition, with better reporting, industry-specific features, a better price structure, and more comprehensive features. However, if things like integration and cloud access are important to you, QuickBooks Online may be the way to go. Once you decide, if you need some assistance with your QuickBooks Migration, be sure to check out our comprehensive QuickBooks Tutorial.
QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, is installed locally, meaning you download and install the software on your computer or multiple computers in your office, for example. Once installed, your accounting data will only be accessible on one of these devices, making it difficult to work on the go. But local installation means more control over your data, who has access, and overall general security of your business information.
QuickBooks Pro 2023 must be purchased through a reseller or a phone call with QuickBooks Sales. It is designed to help small businesses manage their finances by providing tools for tracking income, expenses, invoicing, and more. Understanding your unique business needs will help narrow down your top options and make your decision-making process easier. With both Online and Desktop versions of QuickBooks, you can add to the basic features in your chosen tier to make sure you have exactly what serves you best. QuickBooks Online provides strong security to protect your data with encryption and server-side security audits.
One of the best resources is the QuickBooks Online community, where you can connect with other users to share tips, answer questions, and find answers to problems that may arise. Product support can be accessed directly from within the application, where you can ask a question or connect to support personnel. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. QuickBooks Online is simply easier to learn, provides a detailed onboarding process, and is very intuitive.
But the growth of cloud hosting has paved the way for a new change in the accounting industry. Every business is unique, and there may be instances where QuickBooks Desktop may be a better fit. For example, it may be more suitable for businesses with complex inventory management needs or those wanting offline access to their financial data. However, QuickBooks Online is the better choice for most companies, especially those with remote accountants and multiple employees. QuickBooks Desktop is preferable for companies wanting to manage their books without an internet connection.
So, even if one of them gets destroyed, you can still access data without facing any losses. Alternatively, you can hire a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to help with your bookkeeping needs. To help you get started, we prepared a guide on how to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
