However, we’d definitely recommend QuickBooks Essentials for service-based businesses that don’t have products or inventory to track on a regular basis. It’ll help you manage all of your clients, suppliers and employees without hassle. If you do most of your accounting on the go, QuickBooks Online is one of your best solutions. Of all our top accounting software picks, it has one of the highest-rated mobile accounting apps. The app is basically an all-in-one accounting platform that lets you create invoices, scan receipts, manage expenses, track mileage, and reach out to customers from any web-enabled device.
QuickBooks Solopreneur vs QuickBooks Online Simple Start
- Additionally, Advanced lets you generate multi-company reports and schedule emailed reports to be sent to specified email addresses.
- The biggest difference between QuickBooks Essentials and Plus is who they’re intended for.
- QuickBooks Payroll is one of our favorite payroll companies, so if you’re already using QuickBooks and just hired your first employee, we recommend looking into QuickBooks Payroll.
- QuickBooks Plus is the most popular plan for businesses since it includes features such as inventory tracking, project management and tax support.
It’s ideal for high-volume management with advanced analytics and premium support. 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. If you’ve never used a cloud-based financial solution – or any accounting application at all – it would be wise to invest some time and money in a credible QuickBooks course. Ease-of-use has always been one of QuickBooks distinguishing features, and the new user interface launched recently for the online version simplifies it even more.
Additional QuickBooks Online features
Once you’ve recorded your billable time, you can add it to your invoice and then send it to your client. This feature is ideal for service-based businesses that charge work by the hour, such as lawyers and independent contractors. QuickBooks Online offers four standard plans—Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced—with prices ranging from $35 to $235 per month. They vary in the number of users and features included and are built for different purposes. To manage payroll through QuickBooks Payroll, you’ll need to pay a fee for this add-on service, with plans ranging from $45 to $125 per month, plus an additional $5 to $10 per employee per month.
The software must have enough reports that can be generated with a few clicks. Moreover, we’d also like to see customization options to enable users to generate reports based on what they want to see. The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions. A/P features include creating vendors and bills, recording purchase orders and converting them to bills, creating service items, and recording full or partial bill payments. Our QuickBooks Online comparison is based on our internal case study, explained below.
Free mobile apps
Once your bookkeeper receives all the necessary documentation, they’ll typically complete your cleanup within 30 days. In some cases, your cleanup may take longer depending on timeliness of documentation and the complexity of your books. Because Plus has more capabilities for tracking your inventory, it can also offer project profitability tracking. You can get detailed reports on budgeting and classes to see how much money you’re making and where it’s coming from.
It’s important to note that FreshBooks is the most competitively priced software solution we found. While QuickBooks Online is only 50 cents more than Xero, note that that is the introductory cost for the first three months. QuickBooks Online goes to $30 per month after that and is easily our most expensive option. However, note that there’s no direct data migration option available from QuickBooks Solopreneur to any higher version of QuickBooks Online. This means you must first cancel your Solopreneur subscription and then sign up for the QuickBooks Online version you wish to upgrade to. Check out our evaluation of the best QuickBooks alternatives for additional recommendations, which include free and paid options.
In fairness to QuickBooks, the extensive features do help justify the price. But that’s poor consolation for small-business owners who, in our opinion, shouldn’t have to dedicate a big chunk of their monthly finances to managing said finances. Post-setup, QuickBooks helps you stay on top of your finances with extensive reporting. After all, the heftier plans are built for bigger businesses, which have more complex needs like high-level inventory management and payroll. Most notably, with w2 form QuickBooks Plus and Advanced, you can access 60+ reports, all of which can give you at-a-glance information about how your business is performing.
