ADVANTAGES – QUICKBOOKS DESKTOP vs QUICKBOOKS ONLINE

ADVANTAGES: QUICKBOOKS DESKTOP vs QUICKBOOKS ONLINE

by: Woody Adams, Valerie Heckman, Stacy Kildal

QuickBooks Desktop Advantages

If I were to generalize where I think QuickBooks Desktop still holds a major advantage, I’d say managing large amounts of inventory and job costing. QuickBooks Desktop still offers the following feature sets that QuickBooks Online does not. If you can’t live without any of the below, QBD is most likely best for you. Keep in mind that some of the features below are only supported in Premier and Enterprise, not in Pro. All the below QBD function can be solved in QBO with 3rd party apps!

Data Entry/Automation

Create invoices in batch
Billing rate levels
Batch Enter Transactions
Batch Enter Timesheets

Job Costing

Job Costing Module and Reports (Estimate vs. Actual reporting)
Mileage Tracking
Payroll job costing/Labor burden costing
Change Orders on Estimates
Markup column on Estimates

Reporting

Multiple Vendor ship to addresses
Industry specific reporting
Business Planner, Forecasting, Balance Sheet by Class
Better report header and footer customization

Inventory

Average cost inventory valuation method
Sales Orders
Availability to promise
Build assembles or manufacturing features
Unit of Measure

Accounting

Backup and restore feature
Condense file
Period Copy
Client Data Review tools (Fix Unapplied Payments and Credits, Clean-up Undeposited Funds, Fix Sales Tax)
QuickBooks Statement Writer
Cannot post to additional AR/AP accounts

QuickBooks Online Advantages

While I think QuickBooks Desktop still has the advantage in regards to features, QuickBooks Online is still my preferred choice. We can get much of the functionality that QuickBooks Desktop has by adding some third party apps, and the access and availability outweighs the feature set in desktop.

Data Entry/Automation

Automatically schedule and send transactions
Delayed Charges (non-posting transactions that you can bill for or apply later)
Journal Entries can have multiple AR/AP lines
Invoices tab—Better payment to invoice and deposited vs. un-deposited visibility
Attach documents, images, signatures & more using mobile device
Price Rules support date range
Re-label your customers if you call them something else

Banking

Bank Transactions download automatically each night. Flexibility to “Undo” in Banking Tool
Custom Banking Rules can be split by $ or % and you can assign class/ location
Rules can be auto-added to register

Job Tracking

Project Center
Never need to worry about “No Item” Issue on job-related reports
Multiple budgets per fiscal year
Unlimited Time Tracking Only Users in Essentials and Plus, Unlimited Reports Only Users in Plus.
1099 Contractor self-setup

Reporting

Audit Log to review all actions on account and track changes over time
Track by Location in addition to Class and choose from multiple location labels
Management Reports (presentation ready package of reports from cover page to end notes)
Set up multiple budgets per fiscal year

Inventory

First in First Out valuation method

Access and Productivity

Multiple Users can work in same account at same time
No file transfer or versioning
Mobile App with expanded functionality to work on the go
No Server, Backup, or Hosting Services required
Compatible across multiple platforms and devices
Access account from anywhere w/ internet connection

QuickBooks Online Accountant

Single client list to access all of your clients’ books
Toggle between clients w/ a single click
Work—manage all firm projects and deadlines
Team and client collaboration
ProConnect Tax Online integration
Free ProAdvisor Program, Free payroll in “Your Books” account

Download this as a PDF: https://stacyk.site/QBDTvQBO_20180315

Need more details on the features? Check out QBOShow.com’s Feature Matrix: