Compare QuickBooks Online vs QuickBooks Desktop

While this means you’d be subject to certain service discontinuations on a rolling three-year basis, you’d be saving money on the annual subscription. QuickBooks Online follows a monthly subscription model, making it more affordable for businesses with limited upfront budgets. QuickBooks Desktop requires a one-time purchase, but long-term costs may be higher due to upgrade expenses. Our findings show that QuickBooks Online is generally considered the easiest to use due to its intuitive interface, cloud-based accessibility, and real-time collaboration features. Furthermore, Intuit’s knowledge base offers extensive content resources that help you learn how to use the tool more effectively.

The banking section of this case study focuses on cash management, bank reconciliation, and bank feed connections. The software must have bank integrations to automatically feed bank or card transactions. The bank reconciliation module must also let users reconcile accounts with or without bank feeds break even point bep for optimal ease of use. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. You should also consider budget constraints before choosing, as QuickBooks Online provides more plans and more diverse pricing options, while QuickBooks Desktop can be more expensive.

1. When working with the Desktop version, it’s downloaded right to your computer.
2. It is necessary to have consistent support for mitigating IT issues within your organization.
3. A new and improved migration process gives you even more ways to move online.
4. Each offers a detailed chart of accounts, journal entries, bank reconciliation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the basic reports needed to run a company.

We’ll discuss QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop, including the difference in features, benefits, and pricing structure, so you can decide which version is best for your business. When you use QuickBooks in a desktop environment, the responsibility to maintain this environment falls on you. When you switch to QuickBooks cloud, this responsibility gets transferred to the hired cloud solution provider. Their team will take care of the IT maintenance needed to deliver seamless QB access.

A reputable QuickBooks provider backs up data on several data centers while setting up your QuickBooks Cloud solution. Collaborating using a traditional QB Desktop involves repeatedly exchanging the edited data files back and forth via email. This process is tedious and time-consuming, creating confusion with numerous copies of the same file.

QuickBooks Online features

Intuit reserves the right to limit the number of sessions and the length and scope of each session. Terms and conditions, features, support, pricing, and service options subject to change without notice. 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. For the Desktop version, you pay an annual fee starting at $549.99 per year, and the cloud-based option starts at $15 per month.

In comparison with QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online is cloud-based, cheaper, easier to use, supports more integrations, and is unlikely to be discontinued by QuickBooks. Click on Reports at the top of the screen, then click on company and financial and finally over to either the profit and loss or the balance sheet report. A frustrating experience that only applies to QBDT is that the bank rules are not updated when the chart of accounts is updated. This means that if you rename an account or reorganize the chart of account list you will get an error when QBDT tries to run this bank rule.

It’s hard to say which software is cheaper because there are so many variables. But there are some general guidelines to know which version might be the one for your business (and your budget). Our complete QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop comparison covers key differences, https://quickbooks-payroll.org/ pricing, features, and usability, so you can easily decide whether QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop is right for your business. The decision to use one QuickBooks version over another (QuickBooks Online vs Desktop) isn’t one that’s written in stone.

QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: Support

QuickBooks Desktop wins this, offering more reporting options as well as industry-specific reports and forecasting options not offered in QuickBooks Online. Depending on your business, the ability to integrate with other applications may be convenient, while for others, it can be a necessity. QuickBooks Online offers a variety of pricing plans, which range from $12 to $75 for the first three months. Support options are fairly similar for both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, with the more expensive plans offering better support options. While the features are similar, QuickBooks Desktop offers more functionality, such as the ability to run checks to pay bills and more in-depth customer and vendor management capability.

What Makes QuickBooks Good for Small Businesses?

Whereas one is completely online and cloud-based, the other operates locally on your computer. One is sleek and modern, and the other seems to have been designed for a cubicle. 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. You can easily connect to any third-party app from within the application, saving you a ton of time in the process.

What is the easiest QuickBooks to use?

It’s also worth noting that its different versions cater to different industries and business sizes. That’s why it’s important to ensure that your chosen QuickBooks version can accommodate your business’ future growth. Yes, it is possible to switch between QuickBooks Cloud and QuickBooks Desktop. However, data migration and adjustments may be required when transitioning from one version to another. On the other hand, QuickBooks Desktop is the traditional, locally installed software version that runs directly on a computer or server. You can, however, switch your business’s account from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online without losing your data.

QuickBooks Desktop offers the same support options found in QuickBooks Online including video tutorials, on-demand webinars, and various training options. Both applications also include an easy setup process, so you can be up and running in little time. When signing up for QuickBooks Online, it only gives options for paying monthly. However, once you’ve signed up, navigate to your account settings, and you can switch to annual billing to save 10%. All Online plans include receipt capture, QuickBooks support and more than 650 app integrations with apps such as PayPal, Square and Shopify.

QB Desktop requires significant financial resources for procuring necessary components, hiring IT professionals, renting/buying an office space, and regular IT maintenance. However, with QuickBooks hosting, all the IT maintenance is provided by your cloud provider. They take care of the IT infrastructure while solely focusing on managing the end-point devices for accessing QuickBooks. This way, you can concentrate on your accounting tasks rather than addressing the IT infrastructure. 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.

Otherwise, you’ll need QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, which supports up to 40 users. For instance, if you choose the Simple Start plan, you’re the only person who can use the software—apart from your accountant, with whom you can share your business’s account at no additional cost. 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. With Enterprise, every account is assigned a dedicated customer service manager (CSM). They are armed with in-depth technical knowledge, and if you have several users or your company is growing quickly, Intuit can promote your account to their Priority Circle for an even higher level of support. In addition to having all of the features included in Pro, QuickBooks Desktop Premier can be customized to create industry-specific reports, forecast revenue, and track inventory using mobile scanning devices.

QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop features

DIY clients often find that hiring a professional bookkeeper for on-demand support is a better use of their time and money than the 24/7 support desk. By not purchasing the Plus edition of the software, you lose the automatic backups, but those can be easily handled by yourself. QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE) is a cloud-based accounting software designed specifically for freelancers, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals. An internet connection is required to access QuickBooks Cloud since the software and data are stored on remote servers. However, it requires third-party integrations or add-ons to complete additional tasks. However, a QB Desktop can only support a limited number of add-ons and begins to slow down with different integrations.

QuickBooks Desktop is an annual subscription, starting at $549.99 per year, which may be cost-prohibitive for small businesses or cash-strapped startups. While the Desktop version has app integrations, it doesn’t have near as many as the Online version. There are over 200 options instead of the 650-plus to its cloud counterpart.