QuickBooks Online vs Desktop: Which Is Right for Your Business?

And if you manage your business from multiple locations, you’ll want QuickBooks Online over Desktop. Only QuickBooks Online includes free access to a comprehensive version of the QuickBooks mobile accounting app, which is one of the best apps in the accounting sphere. 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. 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 Desktop features

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 Online is cloud based, which means you can access your QuickBooks account anywhere you have the internet and an internet-enabled device.

1. 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.
2. In addition to having more integrations, QuickBooks Online also has better integrations.
3. To help you get started, we prepared a guide on how to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

Although QuickBooks Online earned a perfect score and Enterprise took a slight hit in this criterion, we consider this a tie. Both allow you to create essential reports, including profit and loss (P&L), cash flow statements, and balance sheets. While Enterprise missed a few points because it doesn’t provide income/loss by location reports, it offers many other advanced reporting options and features what is the carrying amount that provide additional value for many businesses. QuickBooks Enterprise is designed for large businesses or small enterprises and starts at $1,481/year or $142/month.

Best POS Systems For Small Business In 2024

Yes, you can switch to another plan from any version of QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time. If you invoke the guarantee, QuickBooks will conduct a full n evaluation of the Live Bookkeeper’s work. Work from anywhere with the power of the cloud and real-time, secure collaboration.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

QuickBooks Online offers more features on the go and is a better overall value than QuickBooks Desktop. If you don’t need the advanced features offered by the Desktop plan, the Online version will save you money. QuickBooks Desktop is a good choice if you need specialized features such as inventory tracking or forecasting, and you don’t mind paying more for them. When working with the Desktop version, it’s downloaded right to your computer.

Each offers a detailed chart of accounts, journal entries, bank reconciliation, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and the basic reports needed to run a company. However, QuickBooks Desktop offers better reporting and supports more complex accounting. While QuickBooks Desktop is great for users who prefer locally-installed software, users will have to pay additional fees for cloud hosting, adding to the already expensive cost.

Industry-specific Features: QuickBooks Desktop Wins

During our testing, it took us no time to get up to speed on how to use the QuickBooks Online platform. The platform has an intuitive layout that we were able to navigate on our own. However, QuickBooks also provided help bubbles and other guidance throughout the platform when we opened certain features for the first time. Though QuickBooks Desktop is more expensive and can be more confusing to learn, it has its place with large businesses that need advanced accounting.