Best Accounting Software for Small Business in 2020

quickbooks online features

QuickBooks Online goes to $30 per month after that and is easily our most expensive option. Get a bird’s eye view of cash flow so you always know where you stand. Yes, especially if you’re looking for a comprehensive cloud accounting solution with extensive feature set and easy access to professional bookkeepers. Ease of use includes the layout of the dashboard and whether new transactions can be initiated from the dashboard rather than having to navigate to a particular module. Other factors considered are user reviews specific to ease of use and a subjective evaluation by our experts of both the UI and general ease of use.

QuickBooks Online Customer Support

We also carefully read through individual user reviews on sites like Gartner Peer Insights and times interest earned ratio explained Trustpilot to ensure we wrote a balanced, fair review that took multiple perspectives into account. Automatically sort transactions from connected accounts into tax categories for easy organization. Go beyond bill pay and track bill status, create recurring payments, and pay multiple vendors at once. Monitor product levels, cost of goods, and receive notifications when inventory is low so you never run out.

quickbooks online features

QuickBooks Payments account subject to credit and application approval. Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. This includes the availability of integrations for payroll, time tracking, and receiving e-payments. We also evaluated whether an electronic bill pay integration was available. The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions.

Can QuickBooks Online do payroll?

Although it has the lowest starting price, at $12 per month, it can be a little more difficult to navigate than QuickBooks or FreshBooks. Because there is an unlimited number of users that can use the program, you can maximize its use if you have a team of professionals who need access to your accounting software. For Xero’s Early plan ($13), the number of invoices that users can send each month is capped at 20, but for all other Xero plans, users can send unlimited invoices.

Is accounting software secure?

QuickBooks Online Essentials does everything that Simple Start will do and adds the ability to manage bills and track time. QuickBooks Online Plus gives you the functionality of Simple Start and Essentials with the added ability to track inventory and track profitability by project. The Plus Plan is $45 per month for the first three months, then becomes $90 per month, and adds up to five users. It also has inventory management and gives you the ability to project profitability with forecasting reports. The Advanced Plan is the final tier for $100 per month for the first three months, then reverts to $200 per month.

You can enter your basic information like company name and contact details, set up additional users and customize user access, and import your chart of accounts from your existing software if needed. QuickBooks Online also allows you to close books retained earnings definition at year-end, which is important to prevent changes in your financial data. QuickBooks Online took a hit in our evaluation of pricing because you have to purchase at least the Plus tier to access essential advanced features like project accounting and inventory management. You can either get a 30-day free trial or purchase right away to receive a 50% discount for three months and a free online session with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to set up your account.

It also has better customer service reviews than Intuit, even though Xero’s customer service is available via email only. The software must have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops. Some of the features we looked into include the ability to create and send invoices, accept online payments, enter and track bills, and view reports on the go.

  1. It also has better customer service reviews than Intuit, even though Xero’s customer service is available via email only.
  2. Users can also use it to create customized tags and reports that help you hone in on specific income and expense trends and up your business’s cash flow.
  3. If you’re uncomfortable connecting your bank account, you can upload your transactions in a QuickBooks Online format.
  4. When comparing it to other bookkeeping providers, such as FreshBooks and Xero, we note that all three have a 30-day free trial to test the system out.
  5. It’s almost certain you’ll be able to find a ProAdvisor to help you.

Wave also stands out in ease of use, but it falls short in nearly all the other categories, which we anticipated since it’s free software. Meanwhile, Xero excels in project accounting features and beats QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books in pricing due to its unlimited user access. Like QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks excels at offering professional, customizable invoices that are easy to draw up year to date ytd both online and via the mobile accounting app. Its well-organized dashboard includes a client portal business owners can use to collaborate with their customers on generating quotes, approving estimates, creating invoices and accepting payments. Requires a separate QuickBooks Payments account which is subject to eligibility criteria, credit and application approval.

Check out our series of free QuickBooks Online tutorials to get started. Some of the top alternatives to QuickBooks Online are Zoho Books, Xero, FreshBooks, Wave, and Sage 50. These alternatives might save you money and provide a better solution for your business. There are several reasons why some users leave QuickBooks Online, but most people leaving are probably doing so because of price.