QuickBooks Online Plans Comparison: 2023 Pricing & Subscription Levels

As an added convenience, if you outgrow your current edition of QuickBooks Online, upgrade to a more powerful plan in minutes. QuickBooks Desktop’s user interface is very different from QuickBooks Online, offering navigation using a flowchart style menu. To get the best possible experience please use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to view this website. QuickBooks Checking Account opening is subject to identity verification and approval by Green Dot Bank.

Since QuickBooks Online is priced as a monthly subscription, it doesn’t require a contract and you can cancel your account at any time. Additionally, the desktop products are only available as annual subscriptions, making them a bigger commitment than QuickBooks Online. Additional users cost extra, and you can only have one to three users, making this an accounting solution for small businesses.

Is QuickBooks Online cheaper than QuickBooks Desktop?

QuickBooks Desktop can be integrated with QuickBooks Desktop Payroll and QuickBooks Time. We bring you news on industry-leading companies, products, and people, as well as highlighted articles, downloads, and top resources. You’ll receive primers on hot tech topics that will help you stay ahead of the game.

It’s ideal for businesses that can’t afford expensive annual subscriptions. Accessible from any device with an Internet connection, QBO allows business owners to manage their finances on the go. With a range of features and flexible pricing plans, QBO offers businesses a user-friendly cloud accounting solution. QuickBooks offers a separate product — QuickBooks Self-Employed — designed for freelancers and independent contractors, with plans starting at $15 per month.

QuickBooks Payroll pros and cons

The most popular one is the basic plan and the Accountant basic, the Accountant pro, and Accountant Premium. In the Delete process, select the file, lists, or transactions you want to delete, then apply the filters on the file and then click on the Delete option. QuickBooks Desktop offers a multitude of ways to navigate, but the easiest way for beginners is through the home page. Vendor, customer, or employee details can be viewed by clicking on the appropriate tab, while transactions can be initiated by clicking on the corresponding icon.

Each version caters to different types of companies, such as small businesses, non-profits, or enterprises. Other than the addition of inventory management and project profitability add-ons in QuickBooks Plus, one of the main differences from QuickBooks Essentials is the number of reports you can run for your business. In contrast to QuickBooks Essentials, QuickBooks Plus is best for product-based businesses. You can monitor your product levels and their costs from the same dashboard. The app even sends you notifications when your inventory is low so you can reorder promptly. Since both are a part of QuickBooks Online, you’ll get the use of free mobile apps that can help you manage your business on the go.

QuickBooks Online vs Desktop: Customer Support

For example, Self-Employed is best for freelancers or solopreneurs, while Simple Start is ideal for small businesses wanting to track assets and liabilities. Essentials is preferable if you need to track unpaid bills, while Plus is great if you require inventory and project management. If you are unable to see the option to terminate an employee on your list of active employees on the company payroll, this mostly implies that they have some history. Thus, if you change the employee status instead of deleting it on QuickBooks, the profile and pay records remain in your accounting database without any data loss in your tax payments.

• Jim Greer, a CPA in Austin, says the main difference that stands out between the two products is the ability to use Quickbooks Online anywhere, with multiple users accessing it at the same time.
• QuickBooks Checking Account opening is subject to identity verification and approval by Green Dot Bank.
• With QuickBooks Online Simple Start you can invite up to two accounting firms to review your books at no additional cost.
• 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.

You can easily connect to any third-party app from within the application, saving you a ton of time in the process. QuickBooks Online offers a variety of pricing plans, which range from $12 to $75 for the first three months. While Intuit is definitely pushing customers to choose QuickBooks Online, there is no evidence that QuickBooks Desktop is going away any time soon. However, the QuickBooks Desktop licenses have been discontinued, and users have to buy a yearly subscription now instead.

While there are many different bookkeeping software providers, such as PeachTree or AccountEdge, statistics show QuickBooks accounts for 94 percent of all small business accounting software sales. Sometimes it might not matter if you purchased the most well-known software on the market, but, because of QuickBooks’ popularity, most accountants and bookkeepers specialize exclusively in the software. Should you ever need help with your books, you will want a bookkeeper who is familiar with your software, and QuickBooks is the best way to ensure that. In addition, QuickBooks offers a ton of support through their expansive knowledgebase and QuickBooks-affiliated websites. All plans include access to QuickBooks Online mobile apps, customer support and third-party app integrations.

Choose QuickBooks Online

Ease of use consists of customer support, support network of bookkeepers, and user reviews. Intuit generally offers the same customer support options on all its QuickBooks Online products, but Advanced gives you access to a dedicated support manager for more personalized bookkeeping assistance. Desktop features include the ability to create invoices, track sales and expenses, manage accounts payable, and create one-click sales and tax reports – also features that come with the online version. The ability to calculate and rebill job costs and calculate discounts by customer are only available with QuickBooks desktop.

Also, you can simplify and automate the process using Dancing Numbers which will help in saving time and increasing efficiency and productivity. Just fill in the data in the relevant fields and apply the appropriate features small business expense tracking and it’s done. The QuickBooks Desktop mobile app is very limited as it only allows you to capture expense receipts. If you want to perform bookkeeping from anywhere, we strongly recommend QuickBooks Online’s mobile app.

QuickBooks Online is better than QuickBooks Desktop if you prefer a cloud-based accounting software to a locally installed one. QuickBooks Online’s biggest advantage is its ability to be accessed from anywhere with an internet-enabled device. Learn about all the differences in our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Desktop. Plus includes inventory accounting that allows you to monitor stock items and quantity—a necessity if you’re selling products. It uses first-in, first-out (FIFO) inventory tracking, an essential feature that helps manufacturers or retailers determine how their inventory affects their profitability. It also lets you update inventory costs and quantities, separate taxable from nontaxable items, and set up alerts if you’re running out of stock.

With QuickBooks Desktop, you must make an Accountant’s Copy of your data file and send it to your ProAdvisor. The copy will allow you to continue to work on transactions in the current period while your accountant makes adjustments to past periods. It’s an acceptable system but isn’t nearly as convenient as sharing your books through QuickBooks Online.

This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. You can switch from QuickBooks Online to Desktop, and many users who are used to traditional accounting and working with QuickBooks tend to do so after giving QBO a try. At the time of this writing, QuickBooks has noted that it has no plans on sunsetting the QuickBooks Desktop software. Both offer strong accounting, though QuickBooks Desktop has more features and is more customizable, whereas QuickBooks Online has more automations and is easier to learn and use. While QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop offer contact management, only QuickBooks Desktop allows you to manage and track leads as well as contacts.

If you want to save yourself from the hassle of filing and paying taxes, you may upgrade to QuickBooks Desktop Assisted Payroll for $109 per month, plus $2 per employee. If you’re interested in QuickBooks Online, you should check out our QuickBooks Online versions comparison to help you decide which is best for you. If you prefer QuickBooks Desktop, read our comparison of QuickBooks Desktop products to help you pick the right solution.