These versions offer industry-specific reports, in addition to 50 more reports than you’ll find on QuickBooks Online. With four plans, robust features and a user-friendly interface, QuickBooks Online is the ideal choice for most small businesses. QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, is a good option for businesses that prefer desktop software, need its advanced inventory tracking and reporting tools, or are looking for an industry-specific solution. In addition, the Premier and Enterprise plans offer more than 150 reports, with industry-specific reporting options available. The software must have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops. Some of the features we looked into include the ability to create and send invoices, accept online payments, enter and track bills, and view reports on the go.
- QuickBooks Desktop also offers different versions of its software for certain types of businesses (construction, nonprofits, manufacturing, etc.).
- You need to properly install and set up the software, which often requires IT support for proper configuration.
- Your team in the local office can work in multiuser mode simultaneously with your remote team.
- Since QuickBooks Online is browser-based, not desktop-based, you can log on to your Quickbooks Online account from any web-enabled device with a sturdy internet connection.
- The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop 2023
If you’re a freelancer, stick with its Self-Employed plan, which is $15 per month 9after the three-month discount at $7.50). Features include mileage tracking, basic reporting, income and expense tracking, capture and organize receipts and estimation of quarterly taxes. Know that your data is protected without downloading and installing product updates. You don’t have to worry about losing everything in a fire or an unforeseen event.
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. However, QuickBooks Online offers over 750 integrations to QuickBooks Pro’s 260+ integrations. In the battle between QuickBooks Online and Desktop, it’s best to focus on the differences between the two accounting software options since they are so similar. 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.
Which Is Best For My Business?
In fact, it recently upgraded its invoicing tool where you can now see the final look of your invoice how to calculate straight line depreciation formula as you complete the invoicing form. This allows you to easily customize the invoice based on how you want it to look without clicking the preview button. We have an extensive history of reviewing QuickBooks products, and we stay up-to-date with the latest features and enhancements. Our first-hand experience, guided by our internal case study, helps us understand how the different QuickBooks products compare with each other and how they work in real-world scenarios. Another notable difference is QuickBooks Online offers a Self-Employed version for $15 per month, which is not available with QuickBooks Desktop.
What QuickBooks Online offers
Meanwhile, QuickBooks Online provides some customization options for businesses, but they’re not as extensive as those in Enterprise. For instance, you can set up QuickBooks Online for nonprofits by adjusting the settings, customizing sales forms, and creating a chart of accounts based on Form 990. 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). We developed an internal case study to evaluate the accounting software we review subjectively. Using the data we gathered from this case study, we are able to compare QuickBooks Online and Desktop across several wave software for water treatment plant design key categories, such as pricing, ease of use, general features, A/P, A/R, and banking.
The dashboard does an excellent job dividing all accounting aspects into a flowchart type of view, the pomodoro tracker while the sidebar provides quick access to a list of features. That said, it can feel overwhelming and confusing if you don’t have prior accounting knowledge. QuickBooks Online is optimized to be as user-friendly as possible and very easy to navigate. The side menu categorizes features for easy access, for example, aggregating sections for employees, their taxes, and compliance details under the Payroll category. It takes a bit of time to click around and understand where everything is, but a quick run-through is more than enough to familiarize yourself with what QuickBooks Online can do. QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, is installed locally, meaning you download and install the software on your computer or multiple computers in your office, for example.
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.
Some accountants dislike QuickBooks Online’s limited functionality, limited report customization, and dependency on the internet. Seeing as it’s a program installed on your local system, it relies on the device’s processing power and resources. With larger datasets or complex operations, QuickBooks Desktop might utilize more local processing power compared to the online version. Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. 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.