With Essentials, you can track your unpaid bills easily and pay them directly within QuickBooks. 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 or Save and Print. QuickBooks Online does a lot of things, but calculating quarterly estimate taxes is not one of them.

QuickBooks Desktop, on the other hand, is a good option for businesses that prefer desktop software, need its advanced inventory tracking and reporting tools, or are looking for an industry-specific solution. It has four plans, which means businesses can scale up to plans with more features and users as they grow. And even its basic plan https://quickbooks-payroll.org/ has more accounting tools than many competitors, including built-in receipt scanning, expense management, 1099 contractor management, and extensive financial reporting. QuickBooks is the #1 accounting for small businesses.4 It offers the most comprehensive feature set that enables small business owners to manage more of their business.

QuickBooks offers a separate product — QuickBooks Self-Employed — designed for freelancers and independent contractors, with plans starting at $15 per month. If you’re considering desktop offerings, try exploring QuickBooks’ other small-business products and checking out our full breakdown of QuickBooks pricing. For instance, while QuickBooks offers some of the most fully featured accounting programs, most of its products cost more than comparable accounting solutions for small businesses. Its invoices aren’t very customizable, and you can’t use any versions of QuickBooks to interact with customers the same way you can with FreshBooks’ or Zoho Books’ client portals. Although it has the lowest starting price, at $12 per month, it can be a little more difficult to navigate than QuickBooks or FreshBooks.

If you want to add on payroll, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan, which starts at $15 per month (paid annually) and allows up to three users. QuickBooks Online is one of the preeminent cloud-based accounting software platforms on the market. With five plans available, including a plan specifically for self-employed individuals and independent contractors, there are several options from which to choose, depending on your needs. In this guide, we’ll break down QuickBooks Online pricing, including plans, key features, and alternative platform costs so you can decide which option is best for you.

1. QuickBooks Online’s biggest advantage is its ability to be accessed from anywhere with an internet-enabled device.
2. You must purchase additional licenses if you want to access it on multiple computers.
3. QuickBooks Self-Employed is more tax software than accounting software, lacking many of the features you’d find with full-fledged cloud-based accounting software like QuickBooks Online.

However, the ability to send unlimited estimates and invoices and use advanced reporting can be crucial if freelancing is your full-time gig. Both versions of QuickBooks let you send invoices—but Online is the only one that lets you send estimates. You can customize these estimates to fit your brand and business needs, as well as accept mobile signatures. And when the time comes, it’s easy to convert any estimate into an invoice. QuickBooks Online also comes with e-commerce support and inventory tracking on higher plans, which works well if you sell physical items. Overall, we like QuickBooks Online for small businesses that are beginning to ramp up their sales and would like professional guidance along the way.

Can QuickBooks Online do payroll?

During the setup process, you can choose the features and functions that you will likely be using in QuickBooks Online. No need to worry if you skip one; you can always go back and add it at a later date. While people may assume that QuickBooks Online is simply the cloud version of QuickBooks Desktop, in reality, the two products are very different. While QuickBooks Online can handle a high volume of users (depending on the version you have), it performs the best when you are using 5 or fewer users. If you require more, your needs have likely grown beyond what QuickBooks Online will offer you long-term, and it may be time to consider upgrading to QuickBooks Enterprise or a QuickBooks replacement.

With QuickBooks Online, you can add QuickBooks Online Payroll starting at $45/month. It’s hard to say which software is cheaper because there are so many variables. But there are some general guidelines to know which version might be the one for your business (and your budget). In comparison with QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online is cloud-based, cheaper, easier to use, supports more integrations, and is unlikely to be discontinued by QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Online Vs. QuickBooks Self-Employed (2024 Comparison)

Square Invoices is an affordable alternative to QuickBooks that gives you precisely what you need for payment processing. There’s also Square’s team management app that you can add on for free to track time for invoicing. The cloud-based solution lets you run your business wherever you are, as long as you have an internet connection. Technically, NetSuite competes more with enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools than QuickBooks.

Plus, Zoho Invoice integrates with other Zoho products, including Zoho CRM, our top choice for the best customer relationship management (CRM) for small businesses. Of course, you can find some free accounting software options out there, but fully featured accounting software usually comes at a cost. Accounting apps will usually set you back about $20 per month for the low tier of cloud-based solutions.

How do I get QuickBooks Online for free?

It covers up to 25 users and provides dedicated customer support and advanced reporting features. QuickBooks Online offers an incredible number of features and automations. The software covers all the accounting bases as well as invoicing, expense tracking, accounts payable, contact management, project management, inventory, budgeting, and more.

QuickBooks Self-Employed is the cheapest version of Quickbooks, but it is designed specifically for freelancers. For small businesses, QuickBooks Online is the most affordable monthly payment option. If you don’t know much about accounting, you’ll probably want to shy away from QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise, unless you’re willing to put in the time to learn. Most small businesses prefer cloud-based software as it is more affordable, easier to use, and keeps up with our society’s mobile lifestyle.

QuickBooks Online vs. QuickBooks Desktop: An overview

Other solutions are available that are less expensive, easier to use and offer features that QuickBooks does not. Yes, QuickBooks Enterprise does have a cloud-hosted option that gives you access to the software at any time, anywhere, and with any device. QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise with Hosting is a subscription-plan and incurs an additional cost on top of the standard Enterprise licensing costs.

For a business looking to set up multiple users with predefined roles, they may find themselves eventually wishing they had a system that allowed for unlimited users. You can also use QuickBooks’ ProAdvisor network to find certified accountants and bookkeepers. Given QuickBooks Online’s number of users, accountants outside of the network should be familiar with the software.

As of 2023, you can still purchase QuickBooks Pro Plus, but only if you reach out directly to QuickBooks’ sales team. If you contact the sales team, they’ll most likely try to sell you on QuickBooks Online rather than a desktop Pro subscription. The QuickBooks cloud-based products are QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed. Small business owners get more deductions with AI-powered expense tracking and receipt matching.

And with four plans, it’s scalable for small businesses that want to add features like bill management as they expand. However, freelancers that need good tax support and don’t require the more advanced features found in QBO may find everything they need with QuickBooks Self-Employed. QuickBooks Self-Employed offers basic features at a cost-effective price. However, businesses that require repair shop software quickbooks multiple users or want more accounting features will benefit more from using QuickBooks Online. With QuickBooks Desktop, users receive some of the most developed accounting tools on the market. The software offers comprehensive features, unique touches (such as lead management and sales orders), industry-specific versions of the software, and the potential to be more secure.