QuickBooks Online offers accessibility, automatic updates, and multi-user access, making it ideal for small to medium-sized businesses. QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, is highly customizable and suitable for small to large-sized businesses with advanced requirements. Consider factors like mobility, collaboration, and customization to determine which version aligns better with your business. QuickBooks Online operates on a subscription-based model with various pricing tiers, each offering a different level of features.
QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based software optimized for small businesses. As a user, you will access QBO through your browser by going to a website where you log on to do business. QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is, in our opinion, the most powerful financial software on the market at its price point. It has been on the market since 2002 and has added features and functionality every year since. It can handle a large volume of data, and has advanced reporting options that give users more flexibility. QuickBooks Online Mobile AppsIntuit and QuickBooks Online provide a mobile app called QuickBooks Accounting.
With the Accountant’s Copy, you need to create a copy of the company file specifically for the accountant to work on. In contrast, QuickBooks Online focuses on providing a streamlined and user-friendly experience. While it may not offer the same breadth of features as QuickBooks Desktop, it compensates with regular updates and improvements. Updates in QuickBooks Online are automatic and seamless, ensuring users always have access to the latest enhancements without the need for manual installations or upgrades. Yes, you can convert your QuickBooks Online data to QuickBooks Desktop using Intuit’s conversion tools. It’s important to note that the process may not transfer all data and features, so thorough preparation and backup are advised before switching.
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- You can try out Katana with a free 14-day trial to see for yourself why thousands of manufacturers use it daily to manage their operations.
- QuickBooks Desktop also has additional features for customizing and exporting reports.
- Here are a few pre-made workflows to show you what’s possible, but you can use Zapier to connect QuickBooks to almost any app you use.
- Your accountant can log in to the QuickBooks Online platform using their own credentials, eliminating the need for file transfers or physical handoffs.
Moreover, QuickBooks Online is generally easier to use and navigate than QuickBooks Desktop because it has a more streamlined and intuitive user interface. Both the online dashboard and mobile app, with their clear and straightforward graphics, are remarkably easy to understand and use.Conversely, QuickBooks Desktop was designed with accounting professionals in mind. It has a flowchart-style menu, a customizable user interface, and shortcuts for frequently used features.
QuickBooks Online can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection, and because it’s web-based, you can work with your accountant in real time. The QuickBooks mobile app is also available for free and lets you manage your account on the go. Its highest-tiered plan is the Advanced option, which costs $100 per month for the first three months, then $200 per month after that. Users of desktop versions of QuickBooks say that you’ll experience faster run times, fewer bugs, and better customer support in comparison to the online counterpart. Desktop versions of QuickBooks consistently receive higher ratings across review websites, although this could be due to the history of QuickBooks Desktop vs Online. QuickBooks Desktop is usually preferred if you are looking for industry-specific features or have more complex accounting needs.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: An overview
Most notably, Premier Plus has 150+ customizable reports for nonprofits, general contractors, and retailers. If you’re searching for accounting software that’s user-friendly, full of smart features, and scales with your business, Quickbooks is a great option. Subscription clients in QuickBooks Desktop 2023 (R1) or older versions will need to update to the latest 2023 (R3) version before their subscription expires. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are editorial in nature, and are not aggregated from user reviews. Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication.
- However, those advanced features come at both a financial cost and increased complexity.
- Every business is unique, and there may be instances where QuickBooks Desktop may be a better fit.
- Here’s a quick way to tell which version of QuickBooks is right for your business.
- There’s also an option for an annual subscription which includes updates and upgrades.
Businesses that have purchased one-time licenses of the locally-installed QuickBooks Desktop versions that have been sunset can still use the software’s accounting features. However, these versions don’t receive security updates, live support, or access to cloud-based services such as live bank feeds, QuickBooks Desktop Payments, or QuickBooks Desktop Payroll. The most notable difference, aside from price, between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop is the Online version is cloud-based. The mobile app for Online is robust, and Desktop’s mobile app is so limited, that it essentially functions as a receipt uploader.
QuickBooks Online Pricing
Additionally, all versions of QuickBooks Desktop allow you to set up cost estimates for projects and then compare them to actual expenses. In contrast, you need to upgrade to Advanced to be able to use QuickBooks Online’s budget vs. actual reporting feature. This QuickBooks Online vs Desktop comparison will help you decide which QuickBooks product is right for you based on pricing, features, ease of use, and more. However, if you own a big business, prefer locally stored software, or want industry-specific reports, QuickBooks Desktop could be a better fit for your business. When you move to QuickBooks Online, you’ll create a new account and login.
Choose the QuickBooks Desktop or Online product for your needs
Some user reviews aren’t favorable for the mobile app, which offers limited features. Try using your mobile device web browser to access more QuickBooks Online features if you’re in the field with Internet access. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop users can apply for optional QuickBooks Payments processing by Intuit Merchant Services. IMS charges transaction fees and other fees for accepting customer credit card, debit card, online invoice, and ACH payments. The sellers receive customer payments in their designated merchant bank account. Until Intuit’s announced that they were no longer going to support QuickBooks Desktop products after May 2023, this was a hard question to answer.
What is QuickBooks Payments for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop?
The cloud-hosted version of QuickBooks Enterprise operates as you would expect most remote desktop services. QuickBooks Enterprise includes all features of QuickBooks Pro/Premier as well as more advanced features than what is offered in QuickBooks Online. This includes the features QuickBooks is most known for, such as financial management, sales orders, inventory cost tracking, and pricing. It also offers 13 predefined user roles, which lets you control access into the program for each employee. This includes accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory management, payroll processor, and more.
QuickBooks is a suite of accounting software developed and marketed by Intuit, designed for small and medium-sized businesses to handle their financial management and automate accounting operations. It provides features that cater to invoicing, expense tracking, payroll management, and tax preparation. Webgility’s QuickBooks integration provides everything you need for cloud-based ecommerce automation. It syncs QuickBooks Online with sales channels and marketplaces to simplify bookkeeping. It also supports easy collaboration, letting you share your account with your preferred accounting expert or an outsourced accounting agency.
QuickBooks Desktop can feel rigid and resistant to modification or integration—the same way Apple products and iOS felt rigid back when everyone had overheating, self-cooking Android phones. QuickBooks Desktop is a better fit for businesses that prefer to store their data locally and are less dependent on real-time updates or extensive collaboration. It’s fair to point out that multiple people can use QuickBooks Desktop over the local network at the office. But when multiple users are working on the same file simultaneously, changes made by one user won’t be instantly visible to the rest of the team. The changes need to be saved and refreshed, leaving a lot of potential for errors.
If you run a business that delivers physical products, you already use one or the other (or a combination of the two) — regardless of how well-versed you are in their meaning. It’s worth pointing out that since QuickBooks focuses de minimus tax rule on the online versions, it receives regular updates and seems to be slowly catching up regarding features. So, in the future, we should see QuickBooks Online becoming the better overall solution and overtaking Desktop.
