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. If your accounting software doesn’t register changes in real time, it could 7 types of alternative investments everyone should know lead to costly delays.

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Notably, only QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise includes 24/7 customer service. Pro Plus and Premier Plus limit customer service hours to just 12 hours a day, weekdays only. In the past, customers could choose between annually renewing plans and single-purchase software with a license that stayed valid for three years.

QuickBooks Desktop plans and pricing

This plan, QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, has the same features as QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus, the most basic desktop-based plan. In other words, Mac users can’t scale up their software from one plan to the next as they add software users. Support network refers to a community of software users that can extend professional help to businesses. Having an independent software expert perform the bookkeeping is good for overall ease of use.

1. However, if you’re not a Mac user, you can choose from all three QuickBooks Desktop  plans.
2. This tool allows you to create consolidated financial reports across multiple company files—making it ideal for businesses that operate multiple entities and subsidiaries.
3. Intuit reserves the right to limit the number of sessions and the length and scope of each session.
4. However, QuickBooks Online offers over 750 integrations to QuickBooks Pro’s 260+ integrations.
5. This is useful for businesses with multiple departments or divisions and those that provide various types of services.

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 accounting firms for startups can download the QuickBooks Desktop mobile app and use their mobile device as a scanner. QuickBooks Desktop doesn’t offer the same multi-user accessibility, but it does have a more comprehensive assortment of features that provide an in-depth view of your accounting operations.

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Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. MarketWatch Guides may receive compensation from companies that appear on this page. The compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear, but it does not influence the recommendations the editorial team provides. I find myself leaning toward the futuristic solution, which makes QuickBooks Online my preferred choice of accounting software (my Ralph Macchio). Plus, it’s the only one that integrates tax shield in cash flow analysis with Zapier, enabling you to seamlessly link your accounting management to the rest of your business’s tools. QuickBooks Online is simply easier to learn, provides a detailed onboarding process, and is very intuitive.

Seeing as it’s a program installed on your local system, it relies on the device’s processing power and resources. With larger datasets or complex operations, QuickBooks Desktop might utilize more local processing power compared to the online version. Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. QuickBooks Desktop can feel rigid and resistant to modification or integration—the same way Apple products and iOS felt rigid back when everyone had overheating, self-cooking Android phones. The vendors that appear on this list were chosen by subject matter experts on the basis of product quality, wide usage and availability, and positive reputation.

For the Desktop version, you pay an annual fee starting at $1,922 per year, and the cloud-based option starts at $15 per month. Both versions have mobile apps, but the app for the Desktop version primarily functions as a way to upload receipts, and the Online mobile app is robust in comparison. Since QuickBooks Online offers four cloud-based plans, it easily grows with your business. As you hire more employees or bring on more customers, you can scale up your software to match. 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.