The QuickBooks online version is much simpler to use than the QuickBooks desktop version. One of the most frequent complaints about QuickBooks desktop is its expensive learning curve. Accountants provide discovering QuickBooks pro and Premier to be more traditional to access, you don’t require becoming a professional bookkeeper or accountant to learn QuickBooks online. In case there are multiple users you can use phone support and live bank feeds.

• Easily accessible visual tools like this make QuickBooks Online stand out, despite missing more advanced reporting and estimating features.
• There are several core differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online.
• QuickBooks Online and Desktop both allow tracking of partial payments and will update the project and subsequent invoices automatically.
• 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.
• This can be useful if you have many customers who need to be invoiced for the same products or services.
• 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.

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. However, the primary difference between the two lies in QuickBooks Premier’s industry-specific editions. Users in specific industries can access unique features and industry-specific reporting.

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However QuickBooks Desktop is a locally installed system that is more secure. Intuit and QuickBooks Online also offer a mileage and expense tracking app called QuickBooks Self-Employed. CPAs and bookkeepers use QuickBooks Online Accountant software to access or prepare their clients’ accounting. There are six different versions of QuickBooks, including QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Self-Employed, QuickBooks Pro Plus, QuickBooks Premier Plus, QuickBooks Enterprise, and QuickBooks Mac Plus. There are six different QuickBooks products, including QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus, QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Self-Employed, and QuickBooks Mac Plus. While the numerous options seem intimidating at first, each version of QuickBooks is designed to reach a certain business size and type.

• Your books are also immediately shareable with any accountant in the country since QuickBooks is such a standard in the field.
• This app allows employees to keep track of expenses, receipts and mileage from their phones.
• This feature is particularly useful if you sell and ship products out of your state.
• It also keeps all your information automatically synced across all your business tools, saving you precious time and eliminating human errors.
• The $40/month plan gives additional tax support with unlimited help and advice year-round from CPAs and a final review of your tax return by a CPA.
• 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.

The software features invoicing, contact management, expense tracking, inventory, and more. Quickbooks Self-Employed is an easy-to-use, cloud-based software with strong mobile apps. The features are designed specifically for freelancers to address needs such as estimating quarterly taxes, filing Schedule Cs, and tracking deductions. You can easily separate personal and business expenses, which is ideal for freelancers who don’t total estimated 2021 tax burden have separate business bank accounts. Not only does Quickbooks Self-Employed help freelancers navigate the scary waters of estimated quarterly taxes, but it also gives them basic bookkeeping tools to track income and expenses. QuickBooks Desktop is more traditional accounting software that you download and install on your computer, while QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software you access through the internet.

QuickBooks Online vs Desktop: User Reviews

QuickBooks Online supports a variety of browsers including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, as well as Safari 11 or later for Mac. The application also offers a mobile app that works with both iOS and Android devices. But aside from cloud access, there are other differences between the two applications that we’ll talk about next. QuickBooks Desktop also has many more filters and options when running reports that the online version simply doesn’t have. Overall, if detailed reporting is critical to your construction business, QuickBooks will likely make you much happier. For example, QuickBooks Online’s products and services module allows you to incorporate more advanced estimating features that initially may not seem accessible.

It has many of the same features as Enterprise at a fairly low, monthly cost. At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. 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.

Contact Management

Deciding which type of software works best for your business model can make your QuickBooks choice a whole lot easier. If you want cloud-based software, there’s QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed. If you want locally-installed software, you can take your pick from QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, or QuickBooks Enterprise. Cloud-based software operates entirely in the cloud (on the internet), whereas locally-installed software is downloaded and installed on a single, on-premise computer.

Why is QuickBooks Online more suitable for most companies than QuickBooks Desktop?

All QuickBooks Online plans have basic mobile accounting features, such as the ability to create and send invoices. However, higher-tiered plans have additional functionality, like the ability to enter bill payments and view reports. QuickBooks Advanced has many bells and whistles compared to Plus, but there are no additional features that are crucial to good bookkeeping. However, it removes the limitations on the number of classes, locations, and chart of accounts, making it ideal for businesses with a growing staff. So, unless you need more than five user seats, support from a dedicated success manager, and free training to help your team members familiarize themselves with new features, then you can stick with Plus. Dancing Numbers is SaaS-based software that is easy to integrate with any QuickBooks account.

This is one area where QuickBooks Online outperforms the desktop version. There are many more integrations with QuickBooks Online, including business productivity and sales apps such as CRMs. These drawbacks also mean QuickBooks Online’s reports are not as fully featured as those generated by QuickBooks Desktop.

Moreover, both systems provide strong accounting in which QuickBooks Desktop offers amazing customizable options whereas QuickBooks Online has easy-to-learn and automation features. QuickBooks desktop version provides extensive options and accounting tools including job costing, expense tracking, job costing, positive customer reviews, and more than 200 integrations. So if you are a Mac user then you require searching for QuickBooks for Mac for an option labeled locally-installed Mac-based QuickBooks. 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.

QuickBooks Online has four plans with a monthly subscription, and the total number of users depends on your plan. To expedite product setup, you can choose to use the default chart of accounts that is included in the application. You also have the option to import products and services into the application to avoid having to re-enter the data. QuickBooks Online offers many advantages over QuickBooks Desktop, such as cloud accessibility, more convenient file sharing and collaboration, scalable plans with varying features, and a functional mobile app. In the battle between QuickBooks Online vs Desktop for pricing, QuickBooks Online is a more scalable choice since you can find a plan based on the number of users you have without paying an additional fee. QuickBooks Online’s monthly subscription may be easier for some small businesses to fit into their financial situation.