Your business has reached the point that you need to move off of Excel spreadsheet tracking. Quickbooks is the most popular choice, but which do you choose: Desktop or Online? What are the differences between the two? Does it matter which one you pick? Let’s take a look at some things that might help you to decide.
You can only access Quickbooks Desktop from the computer you downloaded it onto. This forces you to only do your bookkeeping from one spot. There is no Quickbooks Desktop app for the phone.
QuickBooks Online is an online software meaning you can open it up anywhere as well as use their app on your phone. This can make things a lot easier. Especially if you run your business through your phone.
Intuit decided to get rid of one time subscriptions for Quickbooks Desktop. They now only offer annual subscriptions for one user. You can add on extra users up to three at $200 per user per year. This makes Quickbooks Online the cheaper choice. QuickBooks online works on a monthly subscription basis. Keep this in mind when deciding which you would want to go with.
You can expect both softwares to give you the same accounting features. Both have a bank feed to connect with your bank. You can also take care of paying bills. It is also easy to get paid with the softwares. How easy it is to use depends on how technological savvy the business owner is.
Accountants tend to prefer QuickBooks Online when working with clients. This is because QuickBooks Online accounts are easy to access remotely. QuickBooks desktop is difficult to share with your accountant. It also needs extra software for remote access.
Quickbooks Desktop or Online is a question that many business owners have. Especially if they are switching from tracking on spreadsheets. There has actually been talk about Quickbooks Desktop going away. With the world turning more towards online, this is not surprising. It might be more worth it to get started with Quickbooks Online.
