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 calendar year apps such as PayPal, Square and Shopify. If you go with QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier, a payroll add-on is available for an additional monthly fee.
Should I switch from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Desktop?
This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Because QuickBooks Online is connected to the cloud, you can work from any device with an internet connection. It’s important to note that QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online are two separate products, and data in the two versions do not automatically sync. A company should work with either QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online to avoid data discrepancies. Despite their differences, QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online also have plenty of overlap.
Probably not, unless your business absolutely needs advanced inventory management features, barcode scanning, or assembly builds. Chances are your team will be happier sticking with QuickBooks Online. Not only is it the newer tool, but it also seems to be the focus in terms of update frequency, development, and marketing. The issue with accounting software like QuickBooks Desktop is that it’s designed to work locally and independently, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for integration with other programs, especially cloud-based ones. If your accounting software doesn’t register changes in real time, it could lead to costly delays.
Accessibility
QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus and Enterprise plans have industry-specific reports for manufacturing and wholesale, retail, nonprofit, general contractor and professional service businesses, too. For example, nonprofits can use the desktop products to run donor contribution summary reports while manufacturing, wholesale and retail businesses have the ability to forecast product sales. Contractors and professional service businesses can use the software to compare revenue by city, customer and job type. QuickBooks Online offers a large selection of reports, but they aren’t industry-specific. Since QuickBooks Online is priced as a monthly subscription, it doesn’t require a contract and you can cancel your account at any time.
Let us know how well the content on this page solved your problem today. All feedback, positive or negative, helps us to improve the way we help small businesses. Discover BusinessLoans.com’s lender network offering up to $3M in funding, no minimum credit score required. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro and Premier have notoriously poor customer support (QuickBooks Enterprise support has better priority support).
QuickBooks Desktop is a better fit for businesses that prefer to store their data locally and are less dependent on real-time updates or extensive collaboration. As I was testing them out, I found QuickBooks Online a lot sleeker, more modern, and easier to navigate than QuickBooks Desktop. Every step was prefaced with a tutorial, guiding me in setting up my company’s profile by prompting me to provide specific information. QuickBooks Online is user-friendly, but it requires some prior accounting knowledge to get the most out of it. You can send a copy of your company file to your accountant and import their changes.
- The application also offers a mobile app that works with both iOS and Android devices.
- Intuit and QuickBooks Online also offer a mileage and expense tracking app called QuickBooks Self-Employed.
- Our complete QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop comparison covers key differences, pricing, features, and usability, so you can easily decide whether QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop is right for your business.
- 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.
QuickBooks Desktop Pricing
Most notably, Premier Plus has 150+ customizable reports for nonprofits, general billable hours contractors, and retailers. Unlike QuickBooks Online, Desktop Pro includes built-in inventory management. And if data analysis is an important part of growing your business, QuickBooks Desktop is a solid pick. It includes 100+ reports, while QuickBooks Online Simple Start includes around 40. The Desktop Premier edition escalates to 150+ reports, including industry-specific reports for general contractors, manufacturers and wholesalers, nonprofits, and retailers.
With QuickBooks Desktop, you can set recurring invoices, send payment reminders, send batch invoices, and track invoices, but you’ll miss out on many of the other modern, cloud-based automations that QBO provides. Unfortunately, pricing is no longer disclosed and you will need to contact QuickBooks Sales for more pricing details. At the time of our last review, pricing lesson 33: what is goodwill on a balance sheet started at $349.99/year for a single user. Join the thousands of people like you already growing their businesses and knowledge with our team of experts. We deliver timely updates, interesting insights, and exclusive promos to your inbox.
While QuickBooks Online boasts many of the features you’ll find with Desktop, some of its features, such as inventory management, aren’t quite as advanced. Additionally, you won’t find the industry-specific features and reports that you’ll get if you sign up for Desktop. In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop tends to have a steeper learning curve, offers fewer integrations, and has had its previous versions discontinued by QuickBooks. QuickBooks Pro and Premiere will also discontinue sales to new users on July 31, 2024.
Now, Premier Plus and Enterprise packages are available on a subscription-basis only. If you’re a QuickBooks Online user who wants these Desktop features, many third-party apps offer them for an extra charge. There are two main versions of QuickBooks — QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online — and there are many differences between them.