Four pricing plans for what is the difference between an irr and an accounting rate of return QuickBooks Online are available, ranging from $35 to $235/month (with an additional $50+/month for payroll). You can also integrate QuickBooks Online with Zapier, which lets you connect QuickBooks to thousands of other apps in your business’s tech stack. You can do things like automatically add customers to or create receipts in QuickBooks when payments happen in other apps, or track new QuickBooks invoices or payments in another app. Here are a few pre-made workflows to show you what’s possible, but you can use Zapier to connect QuickBooks to almost any app you use. All you need is your account information, and you can access your QuickBooks details on any device with an internet connection. Small to midsize businesses that want a desktop solution or need advanced inventory and industry-specific features.

QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop pricing

1. As you hire more employees or bring on more customers, you can scale up your software to match.
2. QuickBooks Enterprise is designed for large businesses or small enterprises and starts at $1,481/year or $142/month.
3. Different software packages include licenses for 1 to 10 users, up to 20 users, up to 30 users, and up to 40 users.
4. During our testing, it took us no time to get up to speed on how to use the QuickBooks Online platform.
5. The two versions are independent of each other, which means the data you enter on Desktop doesn’t sync to the Online version and vice-versa.
6. Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes.

QuickBooks is a suite of accounting software developed and marketed by Intuit, designed for small and medium-sized businesses to handle their financial management and automate accounting operations. It provides features that cater to invoicing, expense tracking, payroll management, and tax preparation. If you choose to cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription, you will still have access to your QuickBooks Money account and data.

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If your business needs sales orders, QuickBooks Desktop is your only option. Although Intuit has talked about adding sales orders to QuickBooks Online, this feature is only available with QuickBooks Desktop products at this time. QuickBooks Desktop also has several additional features you won’t find with QBO, including sales orders and lead management. Because it is locally installed software, you also have more control over keeping your financial data secure.

QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop FAQ

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. Getting assistance with your Desktop bookkeeping is difficult since you must save an Accountant’s Copy of your company file and send it to your ProAdvisor. However, if you own a big business, prefer locally stored software, or want industry-specific reports, QuickBooks Desktop could be a better fit for your business.

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. Since QuickBooks Online offers four cloud-based plans, it easily grows with your business. As you hire more employees or bring on more customers, you can scale up your software to match.

Pricing

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. In contrast, QuickBooks Desktop tends to have a steeper learning curve, offers fewer integrations, and has had its previous versions discontinued by QuickBooks. QuickBooks Pro and Premiere will also discontinue sales to new users on July 31, 2024.

In other words, Mac users can’t scale up their software from one plan to the next as they add software users. Ultimately, your specific business’s size, type, and needs are the real deciding factors in determining which of the QuickBooks versions is best for your business. Just remember, you will need to make a decision quickly if you want QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier, as sales of these products will be discontinued this year. With QuickBooks Online, users receive many of the same great features while gaining the mobility of cloud-based software.

Find help articles, video tutorials, and connect with other businesses in our online community. 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. Accountants often find QuickBooks Pro and Premier to be more traditional, but you don’t have to be an accountant or professional bookkeeper to learn QuickBooks Online. With QuickBooks Online, you can add QuickBooks Online Payroll starting at $50/month. While QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop offer contact management, only QuickBooks Desktop allows you to manage and track leads as well as contacts.

You can download a 30-day trial version of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise only—both the Premier Plus and Pro Plus plans come with a 60-day money-back guarantee, but no free trial. Alternatively, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial with QuickBooks Online. Just know that doing so waives your option to get 50% off your QuickBooks Online subscription for your first three months.