Our Guide to QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop - What's Best For Your Business

Thanks to the digital revolution, businesses of all types have seen a huge leap in overall productivity that has made a difference in how they grow, make money, and hire. 

While businesses vary in terms of needs and the nature of their industries, there’s one thing that all of them have in common: the need for accounting.

Gone are the days of endless ledgers and overtime hours spent on working the same values over and over again. Modern accounting has made the move from paper to software. While there are different tactics that businesses can use to streamline their financial processes, nothing has made a bigger impact than accounting software. 

With the advent of accounting software, businesses across all industries have been seeing rapid growth. Although accounting software in and of itself certainly makes a difference, your choice of software still plays a significant part in how much it will improve your processes.

The process of searching for the right provider

Searching for the right accounting software for your business can prove to be a process that’s much more difficult than you would expect. After all, you will have to conduct quite a bit of research to make a fully informed decision. While there may be a ton of options to choose from, there’s one name in the game that you should consider: QuickBooks.

Why should you go for QuickBooks?

With its well-cemented status as an industry leader, QuickBooks has been making a world of difference in countless organizations because of its effectivity and reliability. Even if you’ve already chosen QuickBooks, however, there’s another important decision you have to make: whether you should use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop.

QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: A side-by-side comparison

For most people, choosing between the two options can prove to be rather difficult because of all the advantages and disadvantages that each present. In order to make your decision a little bit easier, we’ve prepared a quick guide on each alternative: 

QuickBooks Online (QBO)

Intuit has delivered an impressive online software and made it clear that there are even greater things to come for QBO in the future. As new features continue to be added, the effectivity and well-roundedness of the online accounting software continues to grow even more. Seen as a cheaper and more flexible alternative to its desktop counterpart, QuickBooks Online is perfect for any business that has a remote working environment and requires basic inventory tracking measures. Here are some of the features that the online version offers that you cannot avail of in the desktop alternative: 

  • Access through a web browser

  • Multi-user, anytime/anywhere access

  • Automated customer billing

  • Automated email reports

  • Activity log (audit trail)

  • Location tracking

  • Multiple AR/AP lines

QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) 

In contrast to the online version, QuickBooks Desktop has been in development and on the market far longer. Therefore, QBD is an excellent choice that can yield maximum potential when used right. Best used for businesses with complex inventory tracking measures (such as raw material tracking to finished materials), QBD is a powerful software that can keep up with intensive use. Here are a few of the features at which QuickBooks Desktop excels: 

  • Custom reporting

  • Sales orders

  • Inventory assemblies

  • Progress invoicing

  • Receiving partial purchase orders

  • Profit & loss by class

  • QuickBooks statement writer

  • Budget vs. actuals for jobs

Conclusion

When it comes to accounting software, QuickBooks is an excellent choice. However, you must also ensure that you choose the version that best suits your business needs. In short, if you value easy access to your data and don’t require too many complex features, QuickBooks Online is best. If you require more specialized software that is meant for intensive use, QuickBooks Desktop may be the right choice for you. Choose wisely!

If you’re looking for a QuickBooks bookkeeper, get in touch with us today to see how we can help.

Kelly Gonsalves