QuickBooks Online Review: Features, pricing, and more

quickbooks online features

Through the QuickBooks app, you can snap receipts and upload expenses, which are then automatically sorted into tax categories for easier end-of-year tax deductions. QuickBooks Online Essentials costs an additional $25 per month, which adds features like bill management and time tracking. Unlike QuickBooks Simple Start, which includes access for one user and their accountant, Essentials allows you to add up to three users (plus your accountant). A popular add-on is the payroll feature where you can run payroll and access benefits in one convenient place.

However, so if you work with a professional accountant, they will likely have an in-depth understanding of the platform and can guide you through its functions. Sign up to receive more well-researched small business articles and topics in your inbox, personalized for how to convert an annual interest rate to a monthly rate you. QuickBooks Online is cloud-based, while QuickBooks Desktop is installed locally. Read our QuickBooks Online vs Desktop comparison to learn more about their differences. QuickBooks Online is very user-friendly, but you need to know the basics.

In evaluating pricing, we considered the billing cycle (monthly or annual) and the number of users. We evaluated QuickBooks Online and other leading accounting software using an internal scoring rubric with 15 major categories. Whether you need standard reports—such as balance sheets, P&L statements, and cash flow statements—or sales reports by customer, location, or class, you can do it all in QuickBooks Online. Multiview Financials’ ERP provides a single point of truth within your organization, enabling visibility across divisional, regional, or product line silos. It goes beyond traditional finance and accounting to add the sophisticated capabilities that today’s complex organizations demand. To review QuickBooks Online, we set up a free online account with a demo business so we could test the software for ourselves.

Take the manual labor out of bookkeeping with synced accounts and user friendly views. Protect sensitive data with user-level access to specific features and share reports with up to 5 log-ins. Automatically sort business expenses into the right tax categories to keep more of what you earn at tax time. Get a clearer view accounting excel template of project profitability for all your projects with user friendly dashboards and detailed reports.

Banking & Cash Management

QuickBooks Online Essentials gives businesses with up to three users the ability to track income and expenses, manage accounts receivable, and stay on top of accounts payable (money owed to suppliers). It also gives you the ability to run accounts payable aging reports so you keep up on bill due dates. If you choose to cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription, you will still have access to your QuickBooks Money account bookkeeper job description skills experience and education and data.

  1. The good thing is that QuickBooks calculates sales taxes in every jurisdiction where you collect sales tax automatically.
  2. Still, the plan is extremely comprehensive and includes employee expense tracking, batch invoicing and 25 users.
  3. 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.
  4. QuickBooks Online is a good option for many small businesses that are looking to make invoicing customers easy and integrate invoicing and payments into the general ledger.
  5. Unlike FreshBooks and Xero, QuickBooks allows you to reconcile your bank and credit card accounts, even if you choose to record all activity manually vs importing bank transactions.

QuickBooks Online Advanced

A huge advantage of choosing QuickBooks is the availability of local bookkeepers in your area who can provide assistance. QuickBooks dominates the market for small business accounting, and most professional bookkeepers use it for their small business clients. It’s almost certain you’ll be able to find a ProAdvisor to help you. QuickBooks Online is relatively easy to use, but there will still be a learning curve for some users, especially since the platform has plenty of features to master. Fortunately, the interface is easy to navigate and has an organized dashboard where you can find the features you need easily. We evaluated QuickBooks Online’s sales and income tax features across the other categories, so there’s no separate video.

What Is the QuickBooks Online Desktop App?

quickbooks online features

It allows you to pay vendor bills directly from within QuickBooks with your bank or credit card. It has features similar to other online bill pay platforms, like Melio and BILL, but it’s exclusively for QuickBooks Online and Desktop users. You can learn more about it in detail in our QuickBooks Bill Pay review. For one thing, it limits the number of invoices its customers can send each month to 20 with the cheapest plan.

Spreadsheets can be a useful tool for historical tracking—but they have limited functionality when it comes to syncing data and automating processes, making them prone to errors. QuickBooks Online automatically syncs with connected bank and credit card accounts and auto-categorizes expenses to help small business owners save time. Small business owners that previously used spreadsheets save an average of 25 hours per month on manual entry with QuickBooks3. With QuickBooks, small business owners have more time to spend running their business and managing all aspects of their business from invoicing, managing inventory, and paying bills right from QuickBooks. In stark contrast to QuickBooks Online, each Xero accounting plan includes basic inventory management and an unlimited number of users. Xero’s software is easily as user friendly as QuickBooks’ with a colorful, organized dashboard and highly reviewed apps for iOS and Android.

QuickBooks Online Pricing And Plans (2024 Guide)

Just like most accounting software, you can connect your bank and credit card account to QuickBooks Online. If you’re uncomfortable connecting your bank account, you can upload your transactions in a QuickBooks Online format. I have several years of experience with writing about accounting software, including QuickBooks Online and Desktop, Xero, and FreshBooks. I am committed to delivering expertise-led answers to your small business questions by using my first-hand experience and testing platforms or services when able.