QuickBooks Online vs Desktop: Pros and Cons

Automatic backups are a major plus, minimizing the risk of data loss from hardware failures or local disasters. This also means you can access your data from any device with an internet connection, as Fit Small Business points out. While QBO offers a lot of benefits, it’s important to be aware of its limitations. While it offers project management tools, it doesn’t have the same level of customization as the desktop version, according to Fit Small Business. This could be a problem for businesses with very specific workflows or reporting needs. While QuickBooks products work for many businesses, they aren’t the best choice for all businesses.

Another consideration is that QuickBooks Desktop requires local installation on each computer. While QuickBooks Desktop offers extensive customization, this can also make it more complex to set up and manage. If your business has relatively simple accounting, the extensive features might be overkill and could add unnecessary complexity.

Industry-specific Features: QuickBooks Desktop Wins

Plus, with access for up to 40 users, Enterprise can scale with your business as it grows. For many small-business owners, most of the time, QuickBooks Online works better than QuickBooks Desktop. It’s more affordable, easier to share with your accountant or other financial stakeholders, and offers better invoicing than its locally installed counterpart.

Software type

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 what could affect a company’s gross profit can use Zapier to connect QuickBooks to almost any app you use. It’s fair to point out that multiple people can use QuickBooks Desktop over the local network at the office. But when multiple users are working on the same file simultaneously, changes made by one user won’t be instantly visible to the rest of the team. The changes need to be saved and refreshed, leaving a lot of potential for errors. The software itself may look like an outdated image on some monitor within a cubicle maze, but it’s versatile in what it can do.

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? This section breaks down the access and collaboration pros and cons of each version. Offers four plans to accommodate a range of businesses with different needs; each plan limits the number of users, though. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Pro offer a good number of helpful integrations and add-on products. However, QuickBooks Online offers over 750 integrations to QuickBooks Pro’s 260+ integrations.

Ease of Use: QuickBooks Online Wins

1. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you implement and optimize your QuickBooks system.
2. However, these versions don’t receive security updates, live support, or access to cloud-based services such as live bank feeds, QuickBooks Desktop Payments, or QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.
3. Contact us to learn more about optimizing your financial processes.
4. If you need personalized customer support, you can upgrade to QuickBooks Online Advanced or QuickBooks Enterprise.

QuickBooks Desktop, installed locally on your computer, generally handles large data volumes more efficiently than QuickBooks Online. This makes it a solid choice for established businesses with extensive transaction histories. As Bundle Cricut points out, Desktop’s robust features and local processing power are advantageous when dealing with complex datasets.

For instance, QuickBooks Desktop allows you to create customized job costing reports tailored to specialized industries, including manufacturers, contractors, and retailers. Probably not, unless your business absolutely needs advanced inventory management features, barcode scanning, or assembly builds. Chances are your team will be happier sticking with QuickBooks Online. Not only is it the newer tool, but it also seems to be the focus in terms of update frequency, development, and marketing. QuickBooks Online is simply easier to learn, provides a detailed onboarding process, and is very intuitive. QuickBooks Self-Employed what is full disclosure principle is a QuickBooks Online product for contractors and freelancers, specifically for those who do not have separate business and personal financial accounts.

Businesses that have purchased one-time licenses of the locally-installed QuickBooks Desktop versions that have been sunset can free bookkeeping courses still use the software’s accounting features. However, these versions don’t receive security updates, live support, or access to cloud-based services such as live bank feeds, QuickBooks Desktop Payments, or QuickBooks Desktop Payroll. Personalized setup is limited to a 1-hour session with a customer success product expert. Intuit reserves the right to limit the number of sessions and the length and scope of each session. Terms and conditions, features, support, pricing, and service options subject to change without notice.

You don’t have to worry about losing everything in a fire or an unforeseen event. Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are designed to handle small business’s bandwidth and needs. Strictly based on ease of use and basic functionality, QuickBooks Online is an easier-to-adopt option that can handle small business accounting needs well. QuickBooks Online is optimized to be as user-friendly as possible and very easy to navigate.