Its prominence also stems from its inclusion of tools its competitors lack, such as integrated advanced time tracking. 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. QuickBooks Online is better for business owners who want easy-to-use cloud-based accounting that includes anywhere online access, mobile apps, and tons of integrations with other business apps. 3.Available from 6am-6pm Mon-Fri (PT) for Pro, Premier and Plus customers.
- Collapse report columns & rows – Hide columns and rows to see simple, easy to read totals in reports with jobs & classes.
- If you run businesses in multiple locations and you want to see which one is most profitable, an upgrade to Plus from Essentials is worth the price.
- To help narrow down the best plan for your business, answer a few short questions below.
- Since QuickBooks Online is priced as a monthly subscription, it doesn’t require a contract and you can cancel your account at any time.
- In both QuickBooks Online and Desktop, you can assign costs to your inventory items and track the quantities sold to calculate the cost of goods sold (COGS).
For an additional monthly fee, QuickBooks Online offers a virtual bookkeeping solution, which can be used to get help with setting up and managing your accounts. Retailers and wholesalers should choose Plus so that they can track the quantity on hand and the cost of inventory. Contractors should also select Plus to track the profitability of individual projects. Other businesses should consider whether tracking P&L by class and location is worth the extra $30 per month.
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To expedite product setup, you can choose to use the default chart of accounts that is included in the application. You also have the option to import products and services into the application to avoid having to re-enter the data. QuickBooks Desktop offers the same support options found in QuickBooks Online including video tutorials, on-demand webinars, and various training options. Both applications also include an easy setup process, so you can be up and running in little time.
While there are significant differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, both applications offer solid accounting capability for small businesses. And while QuickBooks Desktop comes out on top in this comparison, only you can decide which one is best for your business. If neither application catches your eye, why not take a look at some QuickBooks alternatives or check out The Ascent’s accounting software reviews.
QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: Features
You can do it yourself and take advantage of our step-by-step guides and demos. When you migrate your data, you can choose to migrate whatever matters most. Move some or all of your QuickBooks Desktop data, including transactions within a date range, balances, and specific lists. QuickBooks Online is cheaper than QuickBooks Desktop if you have many employees who’ll be economic profit vs accounting profit using the program. For instance, QuickBooks Online Plus only costs $85 per month for up to five users as opposed to Desktop’s Premier, which costs around $2,000 per year for five users. 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.
QuickBooks Desktop vs. Online: Service tiers and pricing
While QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop offer contact management, only QuickBooks Desktop allows you to manage and track leads as well as contacts. It’s hard to say which software is cheaper because there are so many variables. But there are some general guidelines to know which version might be the one for your business (and your budget).
Who is QuickBooks Desktop for?
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. Local installations are billed annually, while hosted solutions are billed monthly.
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. I recommend saving a backup of your QuickBooks Desktop company file in case of any issues. While most information transfers well to QBO, not all of your information will convert from Desktop. We think QuickBooks Online is the best overall option for small businesses, but QuickBooks Desktop Premier is a great option for niche businesses.
However, if you’re not a Mac user, you can choose from all three QuickBooks Desktop plans. The QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus plan is particularly useful for business that want industry-specific features. Most notably, Premier Plus has 150+ customizable reports for nonprofits, general contractors, and retailers. 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.
IMS charges transaction fees and other fees for accepting customer credit card, debit card, online invoice, and ACH payments. The sellers receive customer payments in their designated merchant bank account. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop is desktop-based—meaning it can only be accessed from the computer where it is installed.
This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. 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.