QuickBooks Online Review and Pricing in 2025

Respondents rank advancements in cloud accounting and digital technologies as having the single greatest positive impact on the industry over the last 5 years. Looking back and to the future, accountants are doubling down on their readiness and willingness to invest in technology to stay ahead of the curve. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop excel in customer support, catering to different user needs.

• QuickBooks Online also shines when it comes to report generation, outperforming many competitors.
• QuickBooks Online Accountant could have earned a better rating in my review if it provided direct phone support.
• This enables the system to automatically download and categorize your transactions, making it easier to keep your books, reconcile your accounts, and ensure accurate cash flow tracking.
• Once logged in, you can view your financial data, create and send invoices, track expenses, and perform various accounting tasks from any device with an internet connection.
• And QuickBooks almost always has a discount for new users—if you waive your 30-day free trial, you'll usually get three months for 50% off (or more).
• I can also set a closing date so that nobody accidentally changes the prior year’s information—which can create big problems if you’ve already filed a tax return using that prior year’s information.

The inventory management and job costing features are more robust in QuickBooks compared to QuickBooks Online. Respondents unanimously agree — working with tech advanced clients is a boost for business. Increased efficiency and accuracy (61%) takes the lead in the biggest advantages that come with these partnerships. Not far behind is better communication (59%) and increased capacity to collect data for strategic advisory (59%). More than 1 in 2 (55%) respondents say working with these clients keeps job satisfaction high. Accountants aren’t just leveraging technology for added benefits in their work — they’re also choosing to partner with more tech-advanced clients.

QuickBooks Online vs. Desktop FAQ

• The core features I wanted to see, directly related to managing your accounting practice, carry the highest weight.
• On the invoice, as you can see below, you can add customer details, terms, billable hours, tag them and schedule to send later.
• He has a CPA license in the Philippines and a BS in Accountancy graduate at Silliman University.
• We also don’t recommend QuickBooks Desktop to Mac users, since there’s just one desktop-based plan for Mac users.
• You can create invoices/estimates, check your cash flow situation, see your recent transactions, and track mileage using your phone’s GPS.
• QuickBooks Payroll starts at $45 a month plus $6 per employee paid per month, and new users can choose between a 30-day free trial or 50% off discount just as they can with QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online takes the hassle out of bank reconciliation with its seamless banking integration feature. By allowing you to directly connect your bank account to the software, it ensures an efficient and effortless bank reconciliation process. As of October 2024, QuickBooks Desktop Mac, Pro, and Premier are no longer available to new customers—the only remaining desktop program is the expensive Enterprise edition.

QuickBooks Online vs QuickBooks Desktop

QuickBooks has an accounting tool specifically for freelancers called QuickBooks Online Self-Employed, which starts at $15 a month. QuickBooks Self-Employed tackles basic freelance bookkeeping features like expense tracking, receipt uploading, tax categorizing, quarterly tax estimating and mileage tracking. It enables businesses to create and send professional invoices, accept payments, and track sales by product or customer. This comprehensive approach to sales management ensures a streamlined and efficient process, improving your overall sales operations. The software enables businesses to keep track of income and expenses systematically and organized. It further offers the ability to manage customer and supplier data, keeping your accounts receivable and payable in check.

Generate profit and loss statements, balance sheets, cash flow reports, and more with just a few clicks. These reports can help you make informed decisions, identify trends, and track your progress toward financial goals. Our QuickBooks Online comparison is based on our internal case study, explained below. As mentioned earlier, QuickBooks Solopreneur is excluded from our evaluation since it’s not a double-entry accounting software. With batch expensing, you can record and categorize multiple expenses simultaneously, such as travel, office supplies, or equipment purchases.

The software includes an audit log that tracks every login, logout and file change. When it comes to small business accounting solutions, QuickBooks stands apart as the clear market leader in the industry. It is a widely used brand that caters to small business owners who aren’t accountants or bookkeepers; QuickBooks provides straightforward accounting tools that meet their needs. However, if you’re not a Mac user, you can choose from all three QuickBooks Desktop  plans.

Plus, the QuickBooks artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can assist small business owners in analyzing their financial data and answering accounting questions. In short, our hands-on testing of QuickBooks and its peers uncovered that this solution has the technology and ease of use to suit small businesses of all kinds. QuickBooks Self-Employed is a QuickBooks Online product for contractors and freelancers, specifically for those who do not have separate business and personal financial accounts. It starts at $30 a month and includes basic features only, such as mileage tracking and invoicing.

QuickBooks Online Accountant Accounting Practice Features

If you are having problems though, your first port of call should be the support centre. This has, according to QuickBooks, “thousands” of articles that should help you resolve your issue. There are loads of “getting started” videos that show you the basics, as well as webinars (which you can either watch on demand or register to watch live and ask questions). This feels more complicated than it needs to be but it works very well, and the receipt scanning tech is a great time saver for anyone running a small business. Once you’ve done this, you can then set up rules, so transactions that meet certain criteria are automatically put into particular categories. This is a lot like the invoice creation screen — it does what it needs to but isn’t particularly attractive or intuitive.

Other QuickBooks accounting products

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. Pro Plus and Premier Plus limit customer service hours to just 12 hours a day, weekdays only.

QuickBooks Online Accountant Pricing

In comparison, Xero Practice Manager struggles with poor customer support and a weaker feature set, which doesn’t justify its cost. Meanwhile, TaxWorkFlow offers decent support and bookkeeping features but lacks the same level of usability, making it less ideal for firms seeking simplicity. Overall, my assessment found that QuickBooks dominates in both functionality and user satisfaction. By using QuickBooks Online Accountant, accountants can add customers to their client list and work on their books through the portal. QuickBooks Online Accountant is a cloud-based portal that allows an accountant to access their clients’ data in QuickBooks Online from any computer.

Accountants concerned that higher interest rates are squeezing clients

As last year’s survey insights revealed, technology is helping to free up time to focus on taking on more of an advisory role to clients. Technology is cutting time with compliance, and creating a new standard of excellence when it comes to strategic business advisory. Eight in 10 (83%) respondents agree that while the rate of inflation has slowed, high quickbooks online accountant review 2023 prices and higher interest rates still pose a threat to their clients’ growth over the next 12 months. Respondents say maintaining profitability despite inflation and higher interest rates has been the biggest challenge clients have faced over the last 12 months.

QuickBooks has several solid competitors, many of which offer similar accounting services at a lower cost. If you like QuickBooks but want to pay a bit less, we recommend looking at FreshBooks, Xero, and Wave Accounting. You'll also get QuickBooks' mobile accounting app, which beats every other accounting app on the market hands down.