QuickBooks Review

Product:
Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:

QuickBooks
Intuit
1983
Mountain View, CA

Ownership:
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:

Public
50 million+
Cloud, On-Premise
Yes

Product Overview

QuickBooks is a business accounting software that streamlines all the tasks associated with keeping financial accounts in order, especially for business owners with little or no accounting knowledge.

The main goal of the solution is to help you save time and money by keeping all of your profits and expenses organized on a centralized platform. QuickBooks can be connected to your bank account, allowing you to easily import and categorize all bank transactions. You can also store photos of receipts to help alleviate any headaches around tax time.

QuickBooks has both an online and an on-premise version.

QuickBooks Online offers three plans for independent contractors and small businesses: Simple Start, Plus and Advanced. Each has a monthly subscription and offer tools to track miles, track income and expenses, send invoices and accept payments, and run reports. Users can choose to access QuickBooks Online through a web browser, or by downloading the Mac or Windows app (downloading the app is only available for the Simple Start, Essentials and Plus plans). Add-on features include enhanced self-service and full-service payroll, which both have separate fee requirements.

QuickBooks Desktop is the on-premise version of the accounting solution. It offers three plans: Pro, Premier and Enterprise. The Pro and Premier plans are available for a one-time fee, and will be supported for three years. The enterprise version requires a yearly subscription and can only be accessed from the computers at your work location. These on-premise versions offer similar features to QuickBooks Online, however, they limit how many reports you can run and how many users you can have. Add-on features include an upgrade to Plus (offering 24/7 support, data backups and upgrades), employee pay and remote hosting (each add-on has separate fee requirements).

With all plans, you can run reports customized to your business that are simple to share.

Features

Here are several key features of the QuickBooks Payroll solution:

• Dashboard – As soon as you log in, QuickBooks offers a simple dashboard that shows metrics like income, expenses, outstanding invoices and more.
• Inventory Tracking – QuickBooks can track your inventory availability and costs to demonstrate profitability.
• Custom Invoices – Send custom invoices, sales receipts and estimates. These can include a “Pay Now” button, giving customers the option to pay via credit card, debit card or bank transfer.
• Payment Tracking – See exactly who owes you, how much and when payment is due. Easily send notifications to any overdue customers.
• Reports – Make custom reports for your business including metrics, like profit and loss or balance sheet.
• Multiple User Permissions – Easily create custom access and permissions for different levels of employees, external investors, business partners and more. You can also invite your accountant to access QuickBooks to make collaboration over finances easier.
• Prepare 1099s – Easily keep track of subcontractor payments to make preparing 1099s quick and simple.
• Paperless Receipt Tracking – Take pictures of receipts and link them to any transaction on your account.

Target Market

QuickBooks is geared more towards independent contractors and small business owners. However, they also feature an enterprise plan for larger businesses that are able to track up to 1 million customers and manage a large accounting team with up to 30 users.

QuickBooks serves all types of industries, from nonprofits to retail. Here’s a list of 10 customers:

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Implementation/Integration

QuickBooks offers both on-premise and cloud-based solutions. You’re able to access QuickBooks Online on Mac, PC, tablets and smartphones. The Desktop option is available both on Mac and PC.

Customer Service & Support

QuickBooks offers a wide range of product articles and tutorials so users can get the most out of the software. Users also have the option to attend a free webinar or take training classes with a QuickBooks expert that have a money-back guarantee.

Any user that upgrades to the Plus versions of QuickBooks gets 24/7 support. Otherwise, you can contact QuickBooks via online chat or phone for support. There is also have an active community forum where experts and other users answer questions.

Pricing

We’ve written a longer article on Quickbooks pricing, but here are the highlights. There are three online pricing plans: Core, Premium and Elite:

• Core – The Core plan costs $45 per month ($13.50 for the first three months), plus $5 per employee, per month. This plan includes full-service payroll, unlimited payroll runs, calculating paychecks and taxes, next-day direct deposit, employee self-service, health benefits, 401(k) plans, expert product support and availability in all 50 states.
• Premium – The Premium version is $75 per month ($22.50 for the first three months), plus $8 per employee, per month. It adds same-day direct deposit, mobile time tracking, on-boarding expert review, workers compensation administration and a HR support center.
• Elite – The Elite Plan costs $125 per month ($37.50 for the first three months), plus $10 per employee per month. This plan includes white-glove customized setup, mobile time and project tracking, 24/7 expert product support, tax penalty protection and support from a certified HR expert.

Intuit also an Enhanced Payroll plan for Quickbooks Desktop that costs $50 per month (or $500 per year), plus $5 per employee, per month.

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Shortcomings

QuickBooks users have complained that both the desktop and online versions are confusing and difficult to navigate, especially when users lack accounting knowledge. Additionally, reports are said to be customizable, but they don’t always offer the choices that customers want.

Users have also said that email invoices come from QuickBooks rather than a personal email address, sometimes causing the invoices to be marked as spam.

Also, QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop are two independent solutions. So the two versions cannot be synced.

Screenshots

About

QuickBooks is the creation of Intuit, a company founded by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in 1983. Intuit’s first software, Quicken, didn’t have the capability to serve as a double-entry accounting package. The initial version of QuickBooks was introduced in DOS form and was based on the codebase of Quicken. Today, the company’s portfolio of products includes TurboTax, Mint and more.

Intuit serves 50 million customers in the U.S., Europe, North America, Brazil, India and Australia, with a revenue of $7.7 billion in 2020. It has over 10,000 employees in offices all across the world. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

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