QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, is a good option for businesses that prefer desktop software, need its advanced inventory tracking and reporting tools, or are looking for an industry-specific solution. While QuickBooks products work for many businesses, they aren’t the best choice for all businesses. If neither of these options seems to be the right fit or you’re just exploring your options, make sure to check out our list of the best accounting software for small businesses for more great options. QuickBooks Desktop is also not a great choice for accounting newbies, as the UI is quite unintuitive and has a steep learning curve. And while Desktop has a respectable number of integrations when compared to other accounting software, it falls far short of what QBO offers its users. Compared to QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop offers more advanced accounting.
QuickBooks Desktop provides better security and control over data than QuickBooks Online
If QuickBooks what is cost of goods sold cogs and how to calculate it Online and Desktop are on your list of potential accounting solutions, you may want to also consider some similar alternatives. For example, Xero and FreshBooks are cloud-based platforms with extensive features for small and medium-sized businesses, while Quicken is a desktop option for self-employed individuals. Going completely cloud-based comes with marginally higher security risks.
The maximum amount of users you can have with a QuickBooks Online subscription is 25 (plus an accountant). If you need more users than that, you can contact QuickBooks Online’s customer support to see if you can create a custom plan with custom user access. Otherwise, you’ll need QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, which supports up to 40 users. The company has updated its help centers to be more user-friendly, but there’s still no email support.
QuickBooks Desktop vs. Online: At a Glance
You can, however, switch your business’s account from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online without losing your data. By providing feedback on how we can improve, you can earn gift cards and get early access to new features. 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.
Feature Set and Customization
Upon opening QuickBooks Desktop, we found that the general layout didn’t differ too much from that of QuickBooks Online. For instance, there were tabs for inventory tracking, job costing and industry-specific reporting. That being said, large businesses may be ok with sacrificing some ease of use for advanced capabilities. We at the MarketWatch Guides team have tested both versions of the QuickBooks platform. In this guide, we break down our findings, helping you decide if Online or Desktop — or another software altogether — is best for your business accounting needs. If your accounting software doesn’t register changes in real time, it could lead to costly delays.
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These types of businesses could easily benefit from either QBDT or QBO. The transition from QBO to QBDT is rarely smooth and will very likely take multiple attempts to get the data to load. Once loaded, there is extensive post-migration work that will vary from company to company.
- Users often attest to its sluggishness and lack of reliability, both issues that have been echoed in my own experience.
- You can use either QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop, but not both.
- It starts at $30 a month and includes basic features only, such as mileage tracking and invoicing.
- What stands out most about QuickBooks Online when compared to Desktop is that QBO is cloud-based accounting software.
Probably not, unless your business absolutely needs advanced inventory management features, barcode scanning, or assembly builds. Not only is it the newer tool, but it also seems to be the focus in terms of update frequency, development, and marketing. You can also integrate QuickBooks Online with Zapier, which lets you connect QuickBooks to thousands of other apps in your business’s tech stack.
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