As an added convenience, if you outgrow your current edition of QuickBooks Online, upgrade to a more powerful plan in minutes. QuickBooks Desktop’s user interface is very different from QuickBooks Online, offering navigation using a flowchart style menu. You can send email invites to your accountant from within the software.
- The software itself may look like an outdated image on some monitor within a cubicle maze, but it’s versatile in what it can do.
- Each user has their own login credentials, which can be customized to limit access to sensitive information.
- QuickBooks migration is (hopefully) something you do once, and there is no benefit for you to spin your wheels for days trying to make this work.
- But that doesn’t explain much about the differences in features being offered.
- QuickBooks Pro is geared toward small to medium businesses and starts at $41/month for a single user.
Others are also unhappy that they couldn’t easily contact QuickBooks Online’s customer support. I’ve also had some not-so-great experiences with QuickBooks’ support, but there are occasions when they manage to resolve things well—and that depends greatly on the assigned agent. Intuit QuickBooks has been pushing its online products, so switching from QuickBooks Online to Desktop isn’t as easy, but it is possible. Go to the Settings gear icon and click “Export Data.” Then, select your reason for leaving. Learn More.” This will guide you through exporting your data and creating a backup company file. With QuickBooks Online, users receive many of the same great features while gaining the mobility of cloud-based software.
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. With four plans, robust features and a user-friendly https://quickbooks-payroll.org/ interface, QuickBooks Online is the ideal choice for most small businesses. QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, is a good option for businesses that prefer desktop software, need its advanced inventory tracking and reporting tools, or are looking for an industry-specific solution. 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.
This includes accounts payable, accounts receivable, inventory management, payroll processor, and more. These include the ability to track raw materials and finished products and automate order management, among other functions. It also has barcode scanning capabilities — business owners can download the QuickBooks Desktop mobile app and use their mobile device as a scanner. Since QuickBooks Online is priced as a monthly subscription, it doesn’t require a contract and you can cancel your account at any time. Additionally, the desktop products are only available as annual subscriptions, making them a bigger commitment than QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online is cloud based, which means you can access your QuickBooks account anywhere you have the internet and an internet-enabled device. QuickBooks Desktop is desktop based, meaning you’ll buy a hard copy of QuickBooks’ software, then download that software once onto a single device. 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.
Contact Management
Yes, you can, but the process is a bit tedious, as you need to manually export your files from QuickBooks Online to Desktop. If you are currently using QuickBooks Online and want to switch to an interface similar to QuickBooks Desktop, we recommend using the QuickBooks Online Desktop app. Read our article on what the QuickBooks Online Desktop app is to learn more. With QuickBooks Desktop, you must make an Accountant’s Copy of your data file and send it to your ProAdvisor. The copy will allow you to continue to work on transactions in the current period while your accountant makes adjustments to past periods.
QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop
If you want to learn more, you can read about each of the products on our dedicated landing pages. Click on Reports at the top of the screen, then click on company and financial and finally over to either the profit and loss or the balance sheet report. A frustrating experience that only applies to QBDT is that the bank rules are not updated when the chart of accounts is updated.
Having lived most of his adult life abroad, he’s amassed a variety of experiences from many different fields. From ForEx trading to compliance to mobile engineering to demolition, he’s definitely not afraid to test out new things. As of now, if you’re already using QuickBooks Desktop, you can keep using it, but support will slowly phase out.
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QuickBooks Online is simply easier to learn, provides a detailed onboarding process, and is very intuitive. QuickBooks Online is optimized to be as user-friendly as possible and very easy to navigate. The side menu categorizes features for easy access, for example, aggregating sections for employees, their taxes, and compliance details under the Payroll category. It takes a bit of time to click around and understand where everything is, but a quick run-through is more than enough to familiarize yourself with what QuickBooks Online can do.
What is QuickBooks?
QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus and Premier Plus will no longer be available for new users after July 31, 2024. While QuickBooks has not announced any plans for discontinuing Pro and Premier for existing users as of that date, we anticipate it will likely end support after two or three years. You can explore QuickBooks Enterprise as an alternative or consider QuickBooks Online, which we believe is the more ideal accounting solution for most businesses. However, most users still view Quickbooks Desktop favorably, and the product receives high marks on most customer review sites. The software receives 4.4/5 (based on 1,800+ reviews) on Software Advice and 4.3/5 (based on 1,700+ reviews) on G2.
While this means you’d be subject to certain service discontinuations on a rolling three-year basis, you’d be saving money on the annual subscription. For both QuickBooks products, Intuit QuickBooks mobile apps are offered for Apple iOS and Google Android devices. If your home or office has a slow or unpredictable internet connection, QuickBooks Desktop can ensure quickbooks vs erp systems you can reach most of your data even if the internet goes down overnight. The downside to locally stored data, though, is that you can only access it from where it’s stored. You can pay extra (or upgrade to a pricier plan) to get data hosting through QuickBooks, which will let you access some financial information—though not all of it—on a different device.
QuickBooks Desktop is preferable when advanced customization, industry-specific versions, or offline access are required. Interestingly, the benefits of QuickBooks Desktop can be further amplified if the software is hosted on the cloud by a credible service provider. This approach essentially marries the robust functionality of QuickBooks Desktop with the accessibility of QuickBooks Online, providing businesses with a powerful, flexible solution.
QuickBooks Desktop is an annual subscription, starting at $549.99 per year, which may be cost-prohibitive for small businesses or cash-strapped startups. While the Desktop version has app integrations, it doesn’t have near as many as the Online version. There are over 200 options instead of the 650-plus to its cloud counterpart. For $1,410 per year, get the Enterprise plan with advanced pricing, reporting and inventory. The higher your plan tier, the more reports and users you can add, although it’s important to understand concurrent users are each sold separately.
It’s an acceptable system but isn’t nearly as convenient as sharing your books through QuickBooks Online. If you’re interested in QuickBooks Online, check out our comparison guide of QuickBooks Online plans to help you decide which is best for you. Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships, and we adhere to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity.
Since QuickBooks Online is a more lightweight product the reports don’t dive as deep into things like job costing, business health, or financial projections. For the purposes of this graph, we’re comparing a 5-user instance of QuickBooks Online Plus 1-5 Users + Payroll, vs. a 5-user instance of QuickBooks Enterprise Gold (which includes payroll) over a 4-year period. We’ve included the current best available promotional price to illustrate how prices will change year-over-year.
