Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. When choosing between QuickBooks Online and Desktop, consider your team’s workflow. Do you need access from anywhere, or is a central office setup more your style?

Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online FAQs

It’s widely used because it can handle income and expenses, invoicing and payments, tax deductions and more for businesses of all sizes, including self-employed professionals. It also includes useful tools many competitors lack, such as integrated advanced time tracking. QuickBooks Online, while accessible and user-friendly, offers only basic project tracking features.

Banking & Cash Management

If you have complex inventory needs, Desktop’s advanced tools will likely be a better fit. However, if your inventory needs are relatively simple, QuickBooks Online might suffice. QuickBooks Online uses the security infrastructure of cloud technology. Your data is stored on secure servers, protected by encryption and other safeguards.

Is QuickBooks Accountant Desktop Right for You?

You can connect your bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks Accountant Desktop so that you can automatically download your transactions and categorize them for easy tracking. The program provides the tools you need to reconcile accounts and identify errors or missing transactions. QuickBooks Accountant Desktop offers plenty of time-saving tools that can help accountants better manage their clients’ books.

One of the best parts about inventory in QuickBooks Pro is that you can set reorder points. QuickBooks will alert you to replenish your inventory when the item’s count hits the reorder point you specified. If for any reason you’re unsatisfied with QuickBooks Desktop Pro, you can request a full refund within 60 days of buying the product. Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes. To get the best possible experience please use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge to view this website. Deciding between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop can feel overwhelming.

• In other cases, such as inventory tracking, you will need to invest in a third-party application from the QuickBooks Online app store to unlock the functionality.
• This software product runs in a browser, so you (and your accountant) can access it from anywhere, and it includes a higher-functioning mobile app than QuickBooks Desktop.
• QuickBooks Desktop stores all your data on your computer for a traditional, hands-on approach to financial management.
• Using a structured scoring rubric, we evaluated the three programs across 12 accounting metrics and rated them anywhere from zero (very poor) to five (excellent) for each category.
• If you run a nonprofit, you can use the software to create tax forms and donation records.
• QuickBooks Desktop Premier is more advanced as it handles inventory assembly items to build and track finished goods.
• Meanwhile, you can continue working on 2023 information but will be unable to change any information prior to 2023.

Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager. QuickBooks offers both an online and on-premise version of its software. It has an option under the File menu to convert an Accountant’s Copy (.QBA) to a regular QuickBooks company file (.QBW). I checked out online reviews to see if users have positive experiences with the software. QuickBooks Accountant Desktop includes telephone support, but you have to send a request and wait for a call from a representative—resulting in a significant blow to its score. You can also talk to an agent through live chat during business hours or explore some of its self-help resources and troubleshooting guides online.

Performance, Scalability, and User Experience: Which QuickBooks Version Comes Out on Top?

However, inexperienced bookkeepers might be served better by cloud-based software, such as QuickBooks Online, if they need frequent help from an offsite bookkeeper. Ease of use gets the highest weight in this case study because we want to give more credit to easy accounting software. For this section, we considered customer service, support network, and a subjective expert opinion score. Users must have easy access to customer service channels in case of problems, questions, or assistance. While QuickBooks Desktop has strong A/P features, the A/P module isn’t easy to use. Users without experience in bookkeeping and accounting software programs will have a hard time navigating.

Reporting

Additionally, it doesn’t include industry-specific reports or other industry-specific features like profitability costing by project, client and product. QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus must be locally installed and requires an up-to-date Windows operating system. While this was once the norm for accounting software and can still be helpful for people who have limited internet access, QuickBooks appears to be encouraging users to move into the cloud.

For example, it allows income and expenses to be assigned to projects but lacks advanced tools like job costing and phase-specific reporting, which are critical for detailed project management. QuickBooks offers six accounting products, but one of its online accounting plans will be the best choice for most small businesses. Freelancers and independent contractors may opt for simpler options, while larger small businesses might turn to QuickBooks products with advanced inventory, sales and reporting features. Since QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus isn’t cloud-based, users must have an up-to-date Windows operating system and Internet Explorer, along with enough free disk space. Next, users enter details about their business contacts, sales tax, the products or services they sell and any other users who will have access to the software. QuickBooks recommends creating an initial backup of that company info after the setup process is complete.

• To answer the question, “Should I switch from QuickBooks Desktop to Online?
• On Google Play, the app has just 3.2 stars out of 5 from fewer than 100 users.
• This extensive network of integrations streamlines processes, reduces manual data entry, and provides a more holistic view of your business operations.
• It creates accountant copy of a company’s folder which holds additional details and features than a regular version of QB (QuickBooks) can provide.
• This accessibility promotes real-time collaboration and ensures your financial data is always up-to-date.
• 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.

QuickBooks Desktop Pro is a powerful desktop accounting solution, particularly for companies with in-house bookkeepers. It may not offer the accessibility and convenience of cloud-based software, but it has many strong features that are worth considering. If you only need a few users and have no quickbooks desktop review intensive inventory to manage, then it’s a great accounting solution for your business. For the Desktop version, you pay an annual fee starting at $1,922 per year, and the cloud-based option starts at $15 per month. Both versions have mobile apps, but the app for the Desktop version primarily functions as a way to upload receipts, and the Online mobile app is robust in comparison. When you look at it like that, the Pro Plus plan is a deal as long as you don’t mind using desktop software and don’t require additional users.