QuickBooks Online vs QuickBooks Desktop 2023

Despite the platform’s ubiquity, however, many business owners remain uncertain about the differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. Here, we’ll detail everything you should know about the two versions, including their core functions, pricing tiers, hosting location, extra features and latest updates. Intuit has partnered with Webgility, an ecommerce accounting solution, to help small and medium-sized businesses save time, ensure accuracy, and make data-driven decisions to boost growth. At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations.

You won’t have to worry about losing work, because all your data will automatically save, to an encrypted cloud-based server. You will never have to worry about any technical issues or backing-up your client’s data again. Every day, your clients face complex financial decisions, increasing demands on their time and growing competition—and they rely on you to help them overcome these challenges.

Pros of QuickBooks Online vs Desktop

At Hevo, she specialized in developing connector integrations and product requirement documentation for multiple SaaS sources. QuickBooks Desktop has a lot of integration possibilities, with 200+ third-party apps, making it one of the more interconnected desktop software solutions. However, it pales in comparison to QuickBooks Online’s more than 500 connectors. QuickBooks Online offers integration such as Payments, CRM, Project Management, Payments, Payroll, Invoicing, Inventory, and many more.

• The two iterations of QuickBooks’ accounting software shine in different areas.
• For many small-business owners, most of the time, QuickBooks Online works better than QuickBooks Desktop.
• Both include the basic reports you’d expect to find with accounting software, such as a balance sheet, a Profit & Loss report, a cash flow statement, etc.
• However, the majority of reviews are positive, with QuickBooks Online receiving 4.3/5 stars (based on 6,200+ reviews) on Software Advice and 4/5 stars (based on 3,100+ reviews) on G2.
• It is pretty clear when you look at the website which is going to be more appropriate.

After that date, you won’t be able to access QuickBooks add-on services like Online Banking, Online Backup, Live Support and QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Services from any version of the desktop software. Despite their differences, QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online also have plenty of overlap. Here’s a look at how these two QuickBooks accounting software options stack up.

QuickBooks Desktop: Best for industry-specific reporting

Katherine Haan, MBA is a former financial advisor-turned-writer and business coach. For over a decade, she’s helped small business owners make money online. When she’s not trying out the latest tech or travel blogging with her family, you can find her curling what is the present value of annuity up with a good novel. Another notable difference is QuickBooks Online offers a Self-Employed version for $15 per month, which is not available with QuickBooks Desktop. For an extra $50, sign up for a one-time live Bookkeeping setup with any of its plans.

Pros and Cons of QuickBooks Online

And while for many years QuickBooks was limited to desktop computing environments, there now exists an alternate version of the software that’s accessible from any internet-connected device. Whether your home-service business is just getting off the ground or if you’ve been operating for years, a proper accounting system is essential to ensuring the fitness of your finances. By using the right tool to monitor your company’s money, you can quickly track your income, see what you’re spending, and find out whether your customers are paying their bills on time. And although the modern software marketplace is overrun with accounting programs, when it comes to small businesses, there is perhaps no bigger name than QuickBooks. QuickBooks Online offers a streamlined cash flow management process, which means your clients will be able to get an accurate snapshot of the financial health of their company.

QuickBooks Add-Ons

QuickBooks Enterprise is designed for large businesses or small enterprises and starts at $1,410/year. You can add payroll, more users, and cloud hosting for additional fees. It has some strong features, and out of most cloud-based accounting software apps, it’s the leader in reporting – but it’s still just a step behind QuickBooks Desktop. These drawbacks also mean QuickBooks Online’s reports are not as fully featured as those generated by QuickBooks Desktop. Online still has good reporting features, but its reports are not as useful for construction businesses without the advanced job costing and estimating features found on the desktop version. However, these versions (for the most part) have moved to a subscription-based pricing model that requires a yearly payment in order to continue using the software with included support.

QuickBooks Desktop requires a one-time upfront payment, making it more cost-effective in the long run for users who don’t require regular upgrades. There’s also an option for an annual subscription which includes updates and upgrades. Five months ago, you could only use QBD if you wanted to do job costing, and we know that In the field service industry, job costing is very common. After the updates though, now we can track labor costs even if we don’t use QBO for our payroll.

Conduct Business on the Go

QuickBooks Online offers multi-user access and automatic updates, whereas QuickBooks Desktop allows for advanced customization and industry-specific versions. Depending on how many people you want to share access with — as well as whether or not your business sells physical products — you’ll likely end up choosing between the Essentials and the Plus plans. Each of these options includes a free, 30-day trial and unlimited live support.

As QuickBooks Online is cloud-based and does not require installation, it easily wins when it comes to simplicity of use. QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, can be downloaded and installed on a single computer in a matter of minutes. Installing QuickBooks Desktop on multiple computers is a little more complicated since each computer will require access to the company data file. Hevo loads the data onto the desired Data Warehouse/destination in real-time and enriches the data and transforms it into an analysis-ready form without having to write a single line of code.