by wadminw on January 28, 2021
Plus, it’s the only one that integrates with Zapier, enabling you to seamlessly link your accounting management to the rest of your business’s tools. QuickBooks Online is simply easier to learn, provides a detailed onboarding process, and is very intuitive. The software itself may look like an outdated image on some monitor within a cubicle maze, but it’s versatile in what it can do.
If your accounting software doesn’t register changes in real time, it could lead to costly delays. Ultimately, your specific business’s size, type, and needs are the real deciding factors in determining which of the QuickBooks versions is best for your business. Just remember, you will need to make a decision quickly if you want QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier, as sales of these products will be discontinued this year.
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. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships. With QuickBooks Online, users receive many of the same great features while gaining the mobility of cloud-based software.
Both options, however, are working to reduce long hold times on the phone by now offering a callback feature. In addition to having more integrations, QuickBooks Online also has better integrations. QBO’s integrations cover more business needs and include multiple payment gateway options. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro offer a good number of helpful integrations and add-on products.
QuickBooks Online is cloud based, which means you can access your QuickBooks account anywhere you have the internet and an internet-enabled device. QuickBooks Desktop is desktop based, meaning you’ll buy a hard copy of QuickBooks’ software, then download that software once onto a single device. QuickBooks Self-Employed is a QuickBooks Online product for contractors and freelancers, specifically for those who do not have separate business and personal financial accounts. It starts at $30 a month and includes basic features only, such as mileage tracking and invoicing. However, if you’re not a Mac user, you can choose from all three QuickBooks Desktop plans.
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. With QuickBooks Online, you can add QuickBooks Online Payroll starting at $50/month. While QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop offer contact management, only QuickBooks Desktop allows you to manage and track leads as well as contacts.
That being said, large businesses may be ok with sacrificing some ease of use for advanced capabilities. As businesses increasingly embrace digital transformation, many are opting for QuickBooks Online and other cloud-based solutions that offer accessibility, flexibility and collaboration across devices and users. Probably not, unless your business absolutely needs advanced inventory management features, barcode scanning, or assembly builds. Chances are your team will be happier sticking with QuickBooks Online. Not only is it the newer tool, but it also seems to be the focus in terms of update frequency, development, and marketing.
QuickBooks Desktop still has a place in the accounting software industry. It’s an especially good choice for small-business owners without a consistent internet connection and big businesses with complex, industry-specific financial needs. But for most small-business owners in most industries, QuickBooks Online has better automation, better access, and a better price point. Access your account via the cloud for up to 25 users with the Online version, and pay an additional fee per user, up to 40 users, for cloud access with Desktop. 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.
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, what is a normal balance with picture whereas Online lets multiple users access the account at the same time. Going completely cloud-based comes with marginally higher security risks. While QuickBooks Online does offer security features like multi-factor authorization and encrypted data storage, it’s accessible by anyone with employee login credentials and an internet connection.