It even has a batch invoicing and expense management feature, which is ideal for those who manage a large volume of invoices and expenses daily. Meanwhile, Essentials gives you access to more than 40 reports, including those you can generate in Simple Start. Its additional reports include A/P and A/R aging details, transaction lists by customer, expenses by vendor, uninvoiced charges, unpaid bills, and expenses by supplier summaries.

You can also integrate QuickBooks Online with Zapier, which lets you connect QuickBooks to thousands of other apps in your business’s tech stack. You can do things like automatically add customers to or create receipts in QuickBooks when payments happen in other apps, or track new QuickBooks invoices or payments in another app. 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. 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.

Class & Location Tracking: QuickBooks Online Wins

1. If your home or office has a slow or unpredictable internet connection, QuickBooks Desktop can ensure you can reach most of your data even if the internet goes down overnight.
2. It also gives you bill management and collects employee time for invoices to add them for proper billing.
3. Once you’ve recorded your billable time, you can add it to your invoice and then send it to your client.

It provides features that cater to invoicing, expense tracking, payroll management, and tax preparation. These include the ability to track raw materials and finished products and automate order management, among other functions. It also has barcode scanning capabilities — business owners can download the QuickBooks Desktop mobile app and use their mobile device as a scanner. A popular add-on is the payroll feature where you can run payroll and access benefits in one convenient place.

This is important to note since you’ll want to make sure that it is capable of doing what you need in a manner that you understand and can digest. While QuickBooks Online is very popular among business owners, some have problems with the system. Problems stem from the complexity of making simple fixes, such as miscategorizations or duplicate entries. Support is limited, so users are left reading help articles rather than getting a live person to help. QuickBooks Online made it apb meaning to our Best Accounting Software for Small Business list because it is a comprehensive platform that checks all the boxes for accounting, invoicing and expense tracking.

Compare QuickBooks products

While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe. QuickBooks Online is a leader in the accounting industry with it being the bookkeeping software of choice for many accountants, certified public accountants (CPAs) and bookkeepers. When comparing it to other bookkeeping providers, such as FreshBooks and Xero, we note that all three have a 30-day free trial to test the system out.

QuickBooks Money

For instance, QuickBooks Desktop allows you to create customized job costing reports tailored to specialized industries, including manufacturers, contractors, and retailers. QuickBooks Online wins for pricing because it’s essentially more affordable than QuickBooks Enterprise. For instance, if you have five members, you can purchase the Plus plan for only $90 monthly, whereas with Enterprise, you need to pay $427 monthly for five users. Advanced users receive better customer support through its Priority Circle membership. As a Priority Circle member, you get access to a dedicated customer success manager who can assist you with any questions or issues you have with your software. You will get priority support through chat and phone, with shorter wait times than non-Priority Circle members.

If your work is project-based or you often work remotely, it’s also a good solution. Intuit reports that 94% of accounting professionals feel QuickBooks Online saves them time and thus saves their clients’ money. Advanced Inventory is included in the Platinum and Diamond subscriptions only. Advanced Reporting is included in all QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise subscriptions. 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.