QuickBooks Desktop vs Online: What You Need to Know

If you use QuickBooks during the year, all you need to do at tax time is print your financial statements. Better yet, with QuickBooks Online, you can invite your tax preparer to access your account directly so that they can review your numbers and print whatever information they need to prepare your return. QuickBooks has its what are the meanings between ‘incur’ and ‘occur’ in accounting own payroll function that can automatically calculate and run payroll as often as you need.

It’s a particularly attractive pick for ecommerce businesses, since it has inventory management tools across all plans. However, if you need access to add-on services to replicate some or all of the features of QuickBooks Desktop software, you may wish to explore QuickBooks Online options instead. That’s because access to online apps for Desktop users is being discontinued after May 31, 2023. Invoicing is one of the most crucial functions for many businesses, especially those that provide services or rely on freelancers. QuickBooks makes it easy to create invoices either from scratch or from an earlier estimate. QuickBooks Online gives you the option to connect your bank accounts directly to the software.

QuickBooks Desktop vs. Online: Service tiers and pricing

You can upload your company logo, select from different templates, change the invoice colors, edit invoice fields, and add personalized messages for customers. Today’s leading accounting platforms offer standard security features such as data encryption, secure credential tokenization and more. While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe. The inventory management and job costing features are more robust in QuickBooks compared to QuickBooks Online.

What is the best QuickBooks product for me?

QuickBooks Online isn’t the only software out there for handling accounting and taxes, but our research does recommend it for most business needs, even above other top picks like FreshBooks or Zoho Books. All QuickBooks Enterprise plans are available only via monthly or annual subscriptions, depending on your plan. 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. However, please note that access to add-on services will be discontinued for all QuickBooks Desktop software after May 31, 2023. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop can integrate with over 650 cloud-based apps.

Other QuickBooks Bookkeeping Options

1. Perhaps you’ve just received your electric bill, but it’s not due until the end of the month.
2. Bookkeepers and accounting professionals using QuickBooks Accountant can simplify tax preparation through ProConnect, a professional tax management solution.
3. While we don’t recommend using Excel as your base bookkeeping program, we do have a guide on how to use Excel for accounting.
4. Connecting your bank or financial institution also ensures that your account balances are current and reports are accurate.

QuickBooks has the best payroll software as well, although we offer a quick quiz that can pair you with all the top payroll options for your industry. If you’d like to try other great accounting software, we have you covered as well, with deals on FreshBooks, Xero, and others. We can also offer deals on the best payroll software solution on the market. Whichever service you use, you’ll want it integrated with your accounting software to automate your tax process. That’s because it’s one of the leading accounting software programs for managing payroll, operations, accounts receivable and numerous other financial functions.

As with time, these billable expenses will be available to add to the customer’s next invoice. You don’t need the payroll add-on to track employee what is absorption costing time for billing purposes—you need at least the QuickBooks Online Essentials plan to track billable hours and the Plus subscription to track billable expenses. QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software that covers all the accounting needs you may have. It’s a subscription-based service that is good for various industries and beneficial to those who regularly work with a bookkeeper or accountant because you can give them access to your files. Read our comprehensive QuickBooks Online review to decide if this popular accounting software is the best choice for your needs and budget. We’d also highly recommend FreshBooks, a solution that has almost as many features and comes at a slightly lower price.

If you do get stuck, QuickBooks Online help is easily accessible from within the application, or you can check out the various QuickBooks Online training options offered by Intuit. In order to make your invoices stand out to your customers and get paid quicker, be sure to set up your invoice preferences prior to sending out your first invoice. After reading numerous accounting software reviews, you’ve made the decision to use QuickBooks Online software. If you need to track a check or cash transaction manually, you can record it directly in QuickBooks in types of dividends a few minutes.

Intuit reports that 94% of accounting professionals feel QuickBooks Online saves them time and thus saves their clients money. Excel is a spreadsheet program that you can use for multiple functions like creating databases, project management and, yes, accounting. However, creating a solid accounting database in Excel requires a thorough knowledge of how to set up spreadsheets and all the formulas that may entail. However, if you opt for the free trial you lose the opportunity to save 50% on your first three months.