QuickBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. Their products are geared mainly toward small and medium-sized businesses and offer on-premises accounting applications as well as cloud-based versions that accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and payroll functions.
Last update: 23 March 2023
About this review
This Quickbooks review is written based on the feedback of the accounting software experts that we interviewed.
We interviewed each one of them and ask them about their previous experience with accounting software and which one they recommend using. The ones listed in this article have specifically mentioned Quickbooks as one of their favorite tools.
The goal of all of this is to make it easier for you to find the right accounting software for your business.
About Quickbooks
Quickbooks is an accounting software that helps businesses streamline their finances. It allows you to manage your accounts receivable, inventory, payroll and other financial tasks with ease.
Quickbooks also offers a range of reporting capabilities so you can stay on top of your business’s performance. With its user-friendly interface, Quickbooks makes it easy to keep track of your finances and make sound financial decisions.
The software is designed for small and medium businesses but can be scaled up as needed.
In addition to helping you better understand your business’s financial picture, Quickbooks helps automate bookkeeping tasks such as invoicing and tracking payments while freeing up time for more strategic work.
Whether you’re just starting out or have been running a successful business, Quickbooks packages offer a great fit.
Comparison
How does Quickbooks compare to other similar programs?
When compared to other similar programs, Quickbooks stands out for its ease of use.
It makes the process of managing your finances simple and straightforward, which helps you save time and money.
Additionally, Quickbooks offers advanced features such as automated payment reminders, inventory management tools and an array of customizable reporting options.
The software also provides a variety of integration options so you can easily connect it to other applications and services. This allows businesses to better understand their financial picture and make more informed decisions about operations.
Pros and cons
What are some of the unique features that Quickbooks offers its users? Are there any drawbacks to using Quickbooks?
Conclusion
Should you use Quickbooks?
Overall, Quickbooks makes managing business finances easier than ever before with its user-friendly interface, powerful features and wide range of integrations.
Whether you’re looking for a comprehensive accounting solution or just need help tracking expenses, Quickbooks has you covered.
With its advanced capabilities, Quickbooks helps you streamline your finances and keep more of your profits.
What The Experts Say
Find out what each expert had to say about Quickbooks.
Bradley Stevens
Jay Clouse
✓ QuickBooks
I use and recommend all my clients use Quickbooks Self Employed. It’s incredibly affordable, it’s easy to make rules to automatically categorize expenses, it tracks mileage, and it allows you to invite your accountant to your team. It’s so easy to use and well worth the price so that you can quickly see auto-generated Profit and Loss reports and more.
David Reischer
✓ Quickbooks
Quickbooks really is the best software available for a small business. The software is easy to use and can generate many different types of reports that are helpful to track and understand the financial health of the company. Quickbooks Pro costs $299.95 and can be downloaded on a single computer. Quickbooks Essentials is the online version that can be purchased for a monthly subscription fee of $40.
Curtis Bickler
We’ve used 2 platforms over the past 5 years for our accounting: Wave and Quickbooks.
I can give some pros and cons of each:
✓ Wave Accounting Software:
Pros:
– Free to use & start
– Easy to use for those not familiar with accounting
– Easy automatic reminders for overdue invoices
Cons:
– Some limitations for online management of past records
– No android app when we were using it (unsure of now)
– Missing some smaller features that Quickbooks makes standard like mileage tracking
✓ Quickbooks Online:
Pros:
– Better record keeping options: detailed matching & reconciling of records to payments, online search options, etc.
– Due to it’s popularity, easier to find bookkeepers & accountants familiar with the system
– Plenty of features to dig into.
Cons:
– No free model to start – can be discouraging for new businesses
– Bit of a learning curve & can be time consuming – learning how to reconcile payments, how products & services work, etc. Almost too many options.
– Recurring invoices can be a bit unusual / inconsistent.
Amanda Evans
✓ QuickBooks
QBO is nice because most accountants are familiar with it and can access your account directly through it, no need to send backups or company files for them. It is also nice that a lot of CRM and other productivity apps sync with it. The downside, and I will scream this from the rooftops, the customer service SUCKS. Even as a Advanced Quickbooks advisor and Authorized Quickbooks Service Provider (reseller), the service still is awful. Also, their 1099 feature is a bit clunky as well. Reporting is limited, but will do for your needs.
✓ Xero
Xero is great. Your accountant can access it, has all of the reports that QBO as and so much more. You can quickly categorize your transactions with their cash coding option, so that makes reconciliation a breeze. A shit ton of apps work with it (mostly because their API is so simple, lots of software folks can easily integrate). You get free HubDoc (digital document retention system) with your subscription. Price is comparable to QBO as well (if not a bit cheaper). 1099 feature is very nice. Their customer service is KICK ASS. Downsides, if you input an expense into the wrong bank account, you cannot simply select to move it to a different one. You need to delete and re-do. There isn’t a clear audit trail report available. Your accountant may or may not be familiar with it.
✓ Wave
Wave apps is nice because it is free, has integrated invoicing and payment collection. Which, for a free app is super nice. You can upload receipts into it, bank feeds come into it, has basic P&L and Balance sheet. But the only downsides are their reporting isn’t as robust as Xero or QBO, and the reconciliation feature is a bit clunky. Sometimes, if you delete a transaction, it will delete one side of it, and not remove both the credit and the debit side. So that can leave your balance sheet unbalanced. (to an accountant, this is a nightmare).
Alex Williams
✓ QuickBooks
At Hosting Data, an online web hosting comparison site for UK users, we use Quickbooks Online for all our accounting needs.
Quickbooks is a great, cloud-based service offering both accounts receivable and accounts payable features, with an easy to use mobile app, it can be accessed at the tip of your finger. Being able to create and issue an invoice from your phone is extremely useful as a small tech business working with other small to medium sized businesses.
QuickBooks offers a one-month free trial which was really great when trying out various accounting software options. As your business grows, QuickBooks offers a tier-based service plan to provide the level of support you require over the years, it’s great value and dependable which is paramount to a small business.
✓ FreeAgent
FreeAgent is aimed at freelancers and very small businesses meaning it has slightly fewer features compared to Quickbooks. FreeAgent can support tasks such as invoicing, time tracking, and expense management, all available via the cloud. It is slightly more expensive than Quickbooks with less functionality.
✓ Wave
Wave Accounting provides a totally free option, offering high level invoicing, accounting, and receipt scanning, with additional services including payroll on a pay-as-you-need type basis. Wave Accounting was pretty good considering it’s free of charge, but it offers no reporting function with HMRC meaning there was some manual processing involved.
James Canzanella
✓ QuickBooks
I’d recommend that small businesses try out and use Quickbooks. This was actually the first software that I used for accounting and I liked it so much, that I didn’t need to look for anything else. It’s simple to use, too. You connect your accounts, they get updated in the background, and then you can segment your expenses, earnings, and anything else that you would like to add-in. Highly recommended.
Brandon Pfaff
✓ QuickBooks
QuickBooks is by far the best software platform for businesses of any size. From freelance contractors to full-fledged enterprises, Intuit has provided all the tools necessary for business owners to keep track of all their financial information. At its most basic version, independent contractors can keep track of expenses and mileage. Ready to hire employees or pay vendors? QuickBooks offers built in payroll solutions and bill pay. Maybe your business needs to track inventory or expenses by project. QuickBooks has you covered too with inventory and billable expense tracking. QuickBooks parent company, Intuit, offers a full range of software solutions to cover all your business needs.
Ella McKendrick
✓ Quickbooks
We would recommend Quickbooks for the following reasons:
1 – It’s low cost. We pay around £15 per month which makes it cheaper than the price we were previously paying for Sage Accounts 50.
2 – It integrates with other software such as Hubdoc. Hubdoc is a great time saver as we get most invoices via email and then forward them to Hubdoc. Hubdoc then scans the invoices and extracts all the data such as supplier, goods description, VAT rates and totals and with a single click publishes these to Quickbooks. It also uploads a copy to Quickbooks and also a backup copy to our cloud storage.
3 – It’s easy to fix errors. Everyone makes mistakes so it’s great that Quickbooks makes it so easy to make changes to past postings in order to fix any errors.
The downsides of Quickbooks would be:
1 – The support is not as good as it could be with long wait times for more difficult issues. In the past we’ve chased support after 6 days with no responses. On the plus side though it’s very rare that you have to contact support as it’s all pretty easy to use.
2 – You can’t export your data to back it up yourself which means you can’t restore a previous version of your data should things go wrong. However, they do have a good audit history feature should you need to manually undo errors.
On balance we’ve been very happy with Quickbooks Online and plan to continue to use it for the foreseeable future.
Tim Yoder
✓ QuickBook Desktop
I recommend QuickBooks Desktop for small businesses with a full-time bookkeeper. The software allows user-defined classes that can be used to customize the software for almost any business. Reports can be linked to Excel for further analysis. The data in Excel can then be updated from within QuickBooks Desktop, so you don’t have to redo your analysis every time an updated report is generated.
Finally, QuickBooks Desktop is much less expensive than a comparable version of QuickBooks Online, especially if you only update to a new edition every 3 years, which is my recommendation. QuickBooks Desktop is only for full-time bookkeepers because:
– It’s powerful software that takes time to master.
– Data input and navigation is much faster than cloud-based accounting software. This increased speed is a huge benefit to someone that spends all day in the software.
– Sharing your information with an external accountant is more difficult than with cloud-based software, so QuickBooks Desktop isn’t right for an inexperienced bookkeeper that will need a lot of outside help.
✓ QuickBook Online
I recommend QuickBooks Online to most small businesses where the owner or office manager is doing the bookkeeping. Your outside accountant can be given direct access to your account so they can view and correct things from the comfort of their own office, and without charging you for traveling to your location! It’s powerful software with good reporting capabilities. Because it’s cloud-based, it can be accessed from anywhere on the internet including with the mobile phone app. It’s especially good for people that need to issue invoices in the field. The big drawback to QuickBooks Online is the high price.
I had a client with a landscaping business that was not great when it came to technology. I met him while he was using QuickBook Desktop and when it was time to prepare his tax return he literally gave me his entire desktop computer! To be clear, that is not the preferred method of sharing your QuickBooks Desktop data with your CPA (use the Accountant’s Copy feature)! I set him up with QuickBooks Online and he still struggled, but I was able to login to his online account and see exactly what he was looking at to help solve his problems. He eventually liked QuickBooks Online, especially the mobile app, and got very good at emailing clients their invoices right on the spot!
✓ Wave
I recommend Wave for self-employed people looking for free accounting software. The software does most things a small business needs:
– Connect checking and credit cards accounts to automatically load transactions
– Create invoices and track customer payments
– Input bills and track due dates
– Reports are a bit limited, but include the essentials: balance sheet, income statement, aged receivables, and aged payables
Wave is easy to use and completely adequate. For a fee, you can add payroll and accept credit card payments from your website.
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