But for most small-business owners in most industries, QuickBooks Online has better automation, better access, and a better price point. Access your account via the cloud for up to 25 users with the Online version, and pay an additional fee per user, up to 40 users, for cloud access with Desktop. What used to be a huge bulk of QuickBooks business is no longer so—it focuses mostly on its cloud version and actively encourages users to make the switch from Desktop to Online. This may signal future abandonment of its Desktop version as more people move to the cloud. If you make the switch from Desktop to Online, you can import your data and access your original company file at any time.
While both software types have plenty of perks, QuickBooks Online is a more flexible, affordable, and scalable option for most small-business owners. 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.
How We Evaluated QuickBooks Online vs Desktop
You can send email invites to your accountant from within the software. Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop Comparison
The bank reconciliation module must also let users reconcile accounts with or without bank feeds for optimal ease of use. 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. While QuickBooks Online offers project management features, it doesn’t have the same level of customization options as QuickBooks Desktop. For instance, QuickBooks Desktop allows you to create customized job costing reports tailored to specialized industries, including manufacturers, contractors, and retailers.
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If you want to perform bookkeeping from anywhere, we strongly recommend QuickBooks Online’s mobile app. 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. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop allows what are employee and employer payroll taxes you to set up classes, but you can’t track your income and expenses by location.
Although Intuit has talked about adding sales orders to QuickBooks Online, this feature is only available with QuickBooks Desktop products at this time. 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. For many small-business owners, most of the time, QuickBooks Online works better than QuickBooks Desktop. It’s more affordable, easier to share with your accountant or other financial stakeholders, and offers better invoicing than its locally installed counterpart. QuickBooks Online is highly user friendly with a low learning curve.
While they share many of the same features, QuickBooks Desktop’s features are often more developed, except when it comes to invoicing. Both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online utilize a subscription pricing model. Find help articles, video tutorials, and connect with other businesses in our online community.
- The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication.
- QuickBooks Desktop doesn’t offer the same multi-user accessibility, but it does have a more comprehensive assortment of features that provide an in-depth view of your accounting operations.
- For instance, there were tabs for inventory tracking, job costing and industry-specific reporting.
- 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.
- If you’re a freelancer, stick with its Self-Employed plan, which is $15 per month 9after the three-month discount at $7.50).
We developed an internal case study to evaluate the accounting software we review subjectively. Using the data we gathered from this case study, we are able to compare definition of appendix in a book or written work QuickBooks Online and Desktop across several key categories, such as pricing, ease of use, general features, A/P, A/R, and banking. We are driven by the Fit Small Business mission to provide you with the best answers to your small business questions—allowing you to choose the right accounting solution for your needs. Our meticulous evaluation process makes us a trustworthy source for accounting software insights. We immerse ourselves in every platform we review by exploring the features down to the finest nuances.
You must purchase additional licenses if you want to access it on multiple computers. While you can add cloud access to QuickBooks Enterprise, it involves an additional fee. Offers four plans to accommodate a range of businesses with different needs; each plan limits the number currency translation adjustments of users, though. We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. No matter which version of QuickBooks Desktop you’re using, you can switch to QuickBooks Online quickly and seamlessly.