While both QuickBooks Online and Desktop are supported by a large network of independent ProAdvisors, it’s much easier to share your books with your ProAdvisor using QuickBooks Online. Getting assistance with your Desktop bookkeeping is difficult since you must save an Accountant’s Copy of your company file and send it to your ProAdvisor. For example, we commend QuickBooks Enterprise’s multicompany reporting feature. This tool allows you to create consolidated financial reports across multiple company files—making it ideal for businesses that operate multiple entities and subsidiaries. Another key difference between QuickBooks Online and Desktop is that the former allows you to track your activity, such as income and expenses, by class and location. This is useful for businesses with multiple departments or divisions and those that provide various types of services.
Online Plus and Payroll Core Bundle
QuickBooks Online files are also easier to share because you only need to invite an accountant to your company file, and they’ll have 24/7 access to your books. The inventory management and job costing features are more robust in QuickBooks compared to QuickBooks Online. A Live Bookkeeper cannot begin cleaning up your past books until they receive the required supporting documentation, which your bookkeeper will request from you after your first meeting. Once your bookkeeper receives all the necessary documentation, they’ll typically complete your cleanup within 30 days. In some cases, your cleanup may take longer depending on timeliness of documentation and the complexity of your books. If you’re a freelancer, stick with its Self-Employed plan, which is $15 per month 9after the three-month discount at $7.50).
If you need more users than that, you can contact QuickBooks Online’s customer support to see if you can create a custom plan with custom user access. 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. We also don’t recommend QuickBooks Desktop to Mac users, since there’s just one desktop-based plan for Mac users. This plan, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, has the same features as QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, the most basic desktop-based plan.
Improve your productivity automatically. Use Zapier to get your apps working together.
- Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop allows you to set up classes, but you can’t track your income and expenses by location.
- Or, to save money, you can try QuickBooks’ typical offer of 50% off for three months (though choosing the discount waives your free trial).
- This may signal future abandonment of its Desktop version as more people move to the cloud.
- QuickBooks Enterprise is designed for large businesses or small enterprises and starts at $1,481/year or $142/month.
- Another key difference between QuickBooks Online and Desktop is that the former allows you to track your activity, such as income and expenses, by class and location.
A popular add-on is the payroll feature where you can run payroll and access benefits in one convenient place. It does cost more to access this, which is approximately $22.50 more per month plus $6 per employee, per month. When subscribing to this service, you’ll get a 1099 e-file of forms and a next-day direct deposit. QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are two solid accounting products from Intuit. While both software types have plenty of perks, QuickBooks Online is a more flexible, affordable, and scalable option for most small-business owners. If you choose to cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription, you will still have access to your QuickBooks Money account and data.
See why more businesses are choosing QuickBooks Online
The software must have features that allow users to set sales tax rates, apply them to invoices, and enable users to pay sales tax liability. 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.
Its highest-tiered plan is the Advanced option, which costs $100 per month for the first three months, then $200 per month after that. Speaking of extra fees, QuickBooks Desktop also charges for e-commerce app integration, invoice-based payment acceptance, and online data hosting. If you choose QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, you’ll also need to pay extra if you want to access customer service via live chat. Notably, only QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise includes 24/7 customer service. Pro Plus and Premier Plus limit customer service hours to just 12 hours a day, weekdays only. For small business owners new to the accounting scene, this service may bring much-needed peace of what is a schedule c irs form mind when managing your books and filing small business taxes.
Although Intuit has talked about adding sales orders to QuickBooks Online, this feature is only available with QuickBooks Desktop products at this time. Four pricing plans for QuickBooks Online are available, ranging from $35 to $235/month (with an additional $50+/month for payroll). Probably not, unless your business absolutely needs advanced inventory management features, barcode scanning, or assembly builds. Not only is it the newer tool, but it also seems to be the focus in terms of update frequency, development, and marketing.