Each staff reviewer at Merchant Maverick is a subject matter expert with experience researching, testing, and evaluating small business software and services. The rating of this company or service is based on the author’s expert opinion and analysis of the product, and assessed and seconded by another subject matter expert on staff before publication. Merchant Maverick’s ratings are not influenced by affiliate partnerships. Whether you use QuickBooks Payments or another payment gateway, be sure to take potential credit card fees into account when calculating how much you’ll be spending on software each month. Payment gateways allow you to accept payments from your customers.

• Send, track, and file 1099 forms for your independent contractors.
• At your request, QuickBooks will conduct a full evaluation of your bookkeeper’s work.
• After two years of using Intacct for its accounting software, Keep America Beautiful still couldn’t get the turnkey reports it needed.
• Read our comprehensive QuickBooks Online review to decide if this popular accounting software is the best choice for your needs and budget.
• Plus, Quickbooks’ thorough integration library ensures users can find inventory tracking software that both meets their needs and integrates with their accounting software.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus includes a full list of basic bookkeeping tools and features. Plans for up to five users are available and payroll can be added for an extra $500/year, plus $5/employee each month. Daytime live chat and phone support are available during weekdays. QuickBooks Simple Start is best for businesses that are just starting out and need a basic way to manage their accounting but don’t need multiple users or features such as inventory and project management. QuickBooks Essentials is best for small businesses that are starting to grow and need up to three users and time tracking.

Additionally, Advanced lets you generate multi-company reports and schedule emailed reports to be sent to specified email addresses. Payroll is an integral and time-consuming task for small business owners. QBO Payroll’s features and ease of use make it an efficient and competitive product. QuickBooks mobile accounting app is free to download on iPhone and Android. At home, in the office or on the go – take your business anywhere.

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). QuickBooks Online Plus is ideal for businesses that sell both products and services. You can also connect with your accountant, making it easier at tax time. QuickBooks Ledger harnesses the power of automation – streamlining manual workflows so accountants can focus on higher-value services. Features include automated bank feeds, bank reconciliation, financial statements, 1099 tracking, and a seamless transition to tax preparation.

QuickBooks Add-Ons

They’ll provide guidance, answer your questions, and teach you how to do tasks in QuickBooks, so you can stay on track for tax time and run your business with confidence. The ability to send invoices and manage and track unpaid bills is important for small business and freelancers. All QuickBooks Online versions have invoicing features but some have more advanced features, like the ability to create recurring invoices. Meanwhile, not all versions allow you to manage and track unpaid bills. QuickBooks Advanced provides greater flexibility in customizing reports than the other QuickBooks Online plans. Users can tailor their reports by filtering and grouping data and creating custom fields and dashboards.

• Accept credit card payments where you do business – in the back office, in your retail store, on your website, or on your mobile device.
• You can also sign up for a one-time expert setup with a Live Bookkeeper to get started on the right foot.
• In addition to QuickBooks Online, Intuit offers a desktop product called QuickBooks Desktop, which is locally installed rather than cloud-based.
• Yes, you can switch to another plan from any version of QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, and QuickBooks Time.

QuickBooks’ recent revamping of its payroll platform is a testament to that commitment to stay responsive and on-trend. Terms and conditions, features, support, pricing, and service options subject to change without notice. When you add sales tax to an invoice in QuickBooks, the calculations are automatically taken care of. QuickBooks calculates the sales tax rate based on date, location, type of product or service, and customer. Your bookkeeper brings your past financials up-to-date and sets up your bank connections and chart of accounts.

You just need to select the bills you want to pay from the Pay Bills window, place a checkmark next to the bills, and then select Save & Print.

Features

QuickBooks Online payroll costs between $45-$125/month plus $6-$10/month per employee. Read our complete QuickBooks Online Payroll review for all of the details, and be sure to visit the QBO website to see if Intuit is running a QuickBooks payroll discount before buying. QuickBooks Online Plus (not to be confused with QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus) includes five users and advanced features.

QuickBooks Setup Fee

All Plus features for up to 25 users, plus a dedicated account team, advanced business analytics, employee expense management, batch invoicing, workflow automation and more. All Simple Start features for up to three users, plus bill management and the ability to add employee time to invoices. QuickBooks Self-Employed is suitable for freelancers and independent contractors who want to be able to track all their business expenses (such as rent or marketing) in one place. If you report income on Schedule C of your personal income tax return, this cost-effective option might be best for you. QuickBooks Online is our overall best small business accounting software.

QuickBooks Essentials vs Plus

Still, QuickBooks Online offers an unbeatable range of features, packaged in a solid interface with good support. 61% of freelancers in 2023 say their biggest problem is landing clients, so streamlining their process can clear room in their schedule to pursue their next gig. For businesses that prefer locally installed software, Sage offers a few different plan options with pricing that’s relatively comparable to QuickBooks Desktop pricing. While Sage does not offer a free trial, the company does allow you to cancel your subscription at any time and offers a full refund within 60 days. Compared with QuickBooks, Xero’s plans and pricing structure are simpler and less expensive. Like QuickBooks, Xero offers a free 30-day trial or discounted pricing for the first few months of use.

QuickBooks has begun decreasing its desktop product offerings and encouraging businesses, where appropriate, to move to using one of its online products. For example, the QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus plan is no longer available to new QuickBooks users. To manage payroll through QuickBooks Payroll, you’ll need to pay a fee for this add-on service, with plans ranging from $45 to $125 per month, plus an additional $5 to $10 per employee per month. FreshBooks is great for self-employed individuals, sole proprietors and independent contractors.

If you choose to cancel your QuickBooks Online subscription, you will still have access to your QuickBooks Money account and data. There are many factors that go into the cost of QuickBooks, including the plan you choose and adding in extras, such as payroll, payment processing, and bookkeeping services. At a minimum, you will pay $30/month for a QuickBooks Online Simple Start subscription. QuickBooks Online offers four pricing plans that start at $30/month and can cost up to $200/month, depending on the number of features and users your business needs. Yes, QuickBooks Online offers good value for its price across all plans. Granted, the right plan for you will vary depending on your needs, and there are alternative accounting software options on the market that may also be a good fit.

The Best Cheap Payroll Services for 2023

Simple Start is for single users, Essentials for up to three users, and Plus for up to five users. The Essentials plan provides all the functionality of Simple Start along with managing bills and tracking time. The Plus plan offers everything that Simple Start and Essentials do with the added ability outsourced accounting to track inventory and profitability by the project. FreshBooks’ pricing starts at $17 per month, so it costs a little more than QuickBooks’ $15-per-month plan. FreshBooks stands out for a great set of features, but it does not offer the payroll processing or advanced tools that QuickBooks has.

Simple Starts includes all the features from the Self-employed Plan but adds a range of helpful additions covering everything from basic bookkeeping to budgeting. This plan is best for small businesses, whether an LLC run by just one individual or a simple partnership. It’ll help someone keep their accounting data in one place, although it doesn’t offer many bells and whistles that could be useful for a larger operation. All Platinum features, plus Assisted Payroll to handle federal and state payroll taxes filings for $1/employee each pay period. Users can also add a Salesforce CRM connector for $150/month and QuickBooks Time Elite for $5/employee each month. Quarterly tax estimates, mileage tracking and tools for separating personal and business expenses.

Inventory management

QuickBooks Ledger is fully integrated and accessible only through QuickBooks Online Accountant, so accountants can manage end-to-end workflows for all their clients from one place. QuickBooks Ledger will first be available to accountants in the US followed soon by those in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. QuickBooks Desktop is more traditional accounting software that you download and install on your computer, while QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software you access through the internet. For the Desktop version, you pay an annual fee starting at $549.99 per year, and the cloud-based option starts at $15 per month. Both versions have mobile apps, but the app for the Desktop version primarily functions as a way to upload receipts, and the Online mobile app is robust in comparison. In stark contrast to QuickBooks Online, each Xero accounting plan includes basic inventory management and an unlimited number of users.