QuickBooks Online Review 2024: Features, Pros & Cons

For instance, QuickBooks Online Plus only costs $90 per month ($1,080 per year) for up to five users as opposed to Desktop’s Premier, which costs $1,999 per year for five users. QuickBooks Online is generally easier to use than QuickBooks Desktop as it has a more streamlined user interface. QuickBooks Online files are also easier to share because you only need to invite a ProAdvisor to your company file, and they’ll have 24/7 access to your books.

As you accept payment for any item in the inventory, the right expense account is updated and reflected automatically in taxable income. Again, QuickBooks has many reports available to analyze your bills and expenses. If you have a record of bills available, you can track upcoming payments easily to ensure timely payments of bills.

1. However, to receive the deduction, you must keep a record of the date, miles, and purpose of your trip.
2. While there are many options available, you do not need to sign up for all of the QuickBooks services all at once.
3. Additionally, some users like that QuickBooks Desktop allows them to customize, memorize, and schedule reports easily.
4. To customize your invoice, you can upload your company logo, select from different templates, change the invoice colors, edit invoice fields, and add personalized messages for customers.

However, because it’s integrated completely within QuickBooks, the sale, credit card fee, and cash deposit are all recorded automatically as they occur. One of the best ways to improve your cash flow is to offer customers the option to pay their invoices online. You can add QuickBooks Payments (formerly known as Intuit Merchant Services) so that customers can https://quickbooks-payroll.org/ pay online directly from their emailed invoice. The best thing about using QuickBooks Payroll is that it’s integrated with QuickBooks, so your financial statements are always up to date as of the latest payroll run. You have to purchase a QuickBooks Payroll subscription to run payroll, but you have several levels of service to choose from to fit your needs.

Features for all kinds of businesses

However, if you opt for the free trial you lose the opportunity to save 50% on your first three months. As of this writing, QuickBooks Online was offering a 50% discount for three months on all subscription plans. Tracking inventory as you sell them, entering the details in the right expense account and calculating taxable income at the end of the financial year can be very cumbersome manually. If you need personalized customer support, you can upgrade to QuickBooks Online Advanced or QuickBooks Enterprise.

QuickBooks For LLC: Pros, Cons And How To Set Up

Of course, it is safer to first check if QuickBooks accepts payment in the currency you deal with. In this article, we will discuss what QuickBooks is and how it works so that you can understand the different ways in which it can help you save time and be on top of your financial statements. QuickBooks Online is cheaper than QuickBooks Desktop if you need multiple users.

Industry-specific Features: QuickBooks Desktop Wins

QuickBooks also offers both a desktop version for a fixed fee and an online version accessible through your web browser, tablet, or smartphone for a monthly or yearly subscription. Some features, such as payroll management and payment processing, incur an additional fee regardless of which version you choose. Simply put, the best accounting software is one that suits your unique needs. The QuickBooks Online mobile app allows you to execute various accounting tasks from your mobile devices. Available for Android and iOS devices, it lets you create and send invoices, accept payments online, and assign expenses to projects or customers. QuickBooks Online wins because it offers more professional-looking and customizable invoices than QuickBooks Desktop.

For this, we recommend the best QuickBooks Online integrations for small businesses. You should also look into integrations for industry-specific uses, such as our best QuickBooks Online construction integrations and best Shopify integrations for QuickBooks. You may be interested in our review of QuickBooks Time for details of the platform’s pricing and features. The Statement of Cash Flows in QuickBooks will show you all of the activities that affect the operating, investing, and financing cash inflows and cash outflows for your business.

You can use it to invoice customers, pay bills, generate reports, and print reports to be used to prepare taxes. 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. QuickBooks is one of the best accounting software to choose if you’re looking for an easy way to manage payments, invoicing and expense tracking for your business. The accounting software is accessible on any device, but you need to set it up properly to enjoy its benefits.

This way, you can be confident that every hour you pay your employee is also considered for billing to a customer. Spreadsheet Sync lets you generate customized reports in a single spreadsheet using data from different QuickBooks Online company files. The spreadsheet is updated automatically based on the data from each connected file so that your report is always up-to-date. All QuickBooks Online plans come with a one-time Guided Setup with an expert and customer support. They’ll provide guidance, answer your questions, and teach you how to do tasks in QuickBooks, so you can stay on track for tax time and run your business with confidence. Due to its several features, QuickBooks is a game-changer for businesses seeking efficient Financial Management and data-driven decision-making.

Know where your money is going

Its highest-tiered plan is the Advanced option, which costs $100 per month for the first three months, then $200 per month after that. But modern and digital tools make it a whole lot easier, offering both convenient and highly-capable solutions for the average business. You can do things that big businesses do, but with far less resources.

Advanced Pricing / Control, customize, and automate pricing is included in the Platinum and Diamond subscriptions only. Yes, you can switch to another plan from any version of QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time. Watching tutorials, reading support pages or consulting experts for advice are all great options to learn how to use QuickBooks Online for your business. We compared its four options in our QuickBooks Online plans comparison. QuickBooks comes in both a cloud-based online platform and a traditional desktop program.

Katherine Haan, MBA is a former financial advisor-turned-writer and business coach. For over a decade, she’s helped small business owners make money online. When she’s not trying out the latest tech or travel blogging with her family, you can find her curling up with a good novel. Another notable difference is QuickBooks Online offers a Self-Employed version for $15 per month, which is not available with QuickBooks Desktop. Before setting up QuickBooks for your business, you need to compile the basic information and documents you’ll need during the setup process.

QuickBooks allows you to enter new bills and expenses and keep track of them automatically by connecting your bank and credit card accounts to the platform. By doing so, all your expenses are downloaded and categorized automatically. If you need to track a check or cash transaction manually, you can record it directly in QuickBooks in a few minutes. If you need a guide, you can check out our tutorial on how to import transactions into QuickBooks Online.

Working from the cloud means you need an internet connection, so a poor signal or an intermittent connection can be an issue. The two versions are independent of each other, which means the data you enter on Desktop doesn’t sync to the Online version and vice-versa. This content is for information purposes only and should not be considered legal, accounting or tax advice, or a substitute for obtaining such advice specific to your business. No assurance is given that the information is comprehensive in its coverage or that it is suitable in dealing with a customer’s particular situation. Intuit Inc. does not have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented herein. Accordingly, the information provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for independent research.

Integrates with more than 750 apps and offers live, in-house bookkeeping. QuickBooks Self-Employed is ideal for freelancers, real estate agents, and independent contractors, like construction projects Uber and Lyft drivers. Similar to QuickBooks Online, it’s a cloud-based product that can be accessed with your secure login from any computer with an internet connection.

When working with the Desktop version, it’s downloaded right to your computer. This means the data operates as fast as your computer, all without needing to worry about a connection issue. You must pay an additional fee for every user who wants to access the account simultaneously, whereas Online lets multiple users access the account at the same time.