QuickBooks Online vs Desktop: Which Is Right for Your Business?

Different software packages include licenses for 1 to 10 users, up to 20 users, up to 30 users, and up to 40 users. QuickBooks Online’s month-to-month subscription service starts at $30 a month (totaling $360 a how to create a pro forma balance sheet 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). Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are designed to handle small business’s bandwidth and needs. Strictly based on ease of use and basic functionality, QuickBooks Online is an easier-to-adopt option that can handle small business accounting needs well.

1. No matter which version of QuickBooks Desktop you’re using, you can switch to QuickBooks Online quickly and seamlessly.
2. Product support can be accessed directly from within the application, where you can ask a question or connect to support personnel.
3. 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.
4. Each user has their own login credentials, which can be customized to limit access to sensitive information.
5. 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).

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In the past, customers could choose between annually renewing plans and single-purchase software with a license that stayed valid for three years. If you purchased a Desktop Pro plan in 2021, your software will still work until 2024—but new customers who bought the 2022 software version can only choose annual subscriptions. Unlike QuickBooks Online, Desktop Pro includes built-in inventory management.

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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. Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro and Premier have notoriously poor customer support (QuickBooks Enterprise support has better priority support). We recommend crunching the numbers to decide whether the online or desktop versions of QuickBooks are right for your specific business. QuickBooks Online is user-friendly, but it requires some prior accounting knowledge to get the most out of it.

QuickBooks Desktop has a more dated user interface than some cloud-based products and requires prior accounting knowledge to get the most out of the product. FreshBooks is great for self-employed individuals, sole proprietors and independent contractors. It is incredibly user-friendly and easy to navigate, so if you are a sole proprietor looking for basic accounting software, FreshBooks will meet your needs at a relatively low cost. Its basic plan is in line with QuickBooks Simple Start, at $15 per month. While there are significant differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, both applications offer solid accounting capability for small businesses.

Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Because QuickBooks Online is connected to the cloud, you can work from any device with an internet connection. QuickBooks Desktop wins this, offering more reporting options as well as industry-specific reports and forecasting options not offered in QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Desktop offers good integration options, integrating with more than 200 third party applications, making it one of the better integrated desktop application options. However, it doesn’t compare with the more than 500 options offered by QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks Online offers integration with more than 500 third party apps in categories such as Payments, CRM, Project Management, Payments, Payroll, Invoicing, Inventory, and Time Tracking.

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It’s more affordable, easier to share with your accountant or other financial stakeholders, and offers better invoicing than its locally installed counterpart. For instance, if you choose the Simple Start plan, you’re the only person who can use the what is a purchase allowance software—apart from your accountant, with whom you can share your business’s account at no additional cost. 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. In other words, Mac users can’t scale up their software from one plan to the next as they add software users. Probably not, unless your business absolutely needs advanced inventory management features, barcode scanning, or assembly builds.

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. The QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus plan is particularly useful for business that want industry-specific features. 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.

Those interested in trying out QuickBooks Online can access a free 30-day demo with sample data that allows you to easily explore system features and functions without spending a lot of time entering data. During the setup process, you can choose the features and functions that you will likely be using in QuickBooks Online. No need to worry if you skip one; how to start a 501c3, how to start a nonprofit you can always go back and add it at a later date. Know that your data is protected without downloading and installing product updates.

If you invoke the guarantee, QuickBooks will conduct a full n evaluation of the Live Bookkeeper’s work. The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters. QuickBooks Desktop features are better developed than comparable features found on QuickBooks Online. Though not web-based, QuickBooks Desktop can be hosted online for more convenient access if desired.One of QuickBooks Desktop’s best features is its use of centers, which provide a central point for all activity.

While QuickBooks Desktop is great for users who prefer locally-installed software, users will have to pay additional fees for cloud hosting, adding to the already expensive cost. Perhaps the biggest area where QuickBooks Desktop falls short is that its Pro and Premier versions will soon be discontinued for new users. While QuickBooks Enterprise will still be an option, this is powerful software with an expensive price tag that will be too much (in terms of features and pricing) for most small businesses.