QuickBooks for Mac Review: Features & Pricing for 2023

QuickBooks Mac Plus 2023 has solid A/P features, but it’s not that easy to use—which explains the slight blow to its score. The A/P module allows you to enter and pay a bill, track unpaid bills, record recurring expenses, create and print vendor checks, and short-pay an invoice. The Pay Bill screen isn’t as streamlined as in the Windows version, but the fields are almost similar.

Entering a bill in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac

Vendor management is also excellent in the Mac version because it allows you to perform advanced transactions, such as record credit memos, and pay independent contractors through service items. QuickBooks Desktop for Mac would have the same features and benefits as QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop if only it included a mobile application. As such, it doesn’t have a feature that allows you to upload an expense receipt through a mobile app, which could have been time-saving for user.

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac lets you create and send invoices to your clients. While not as flexible as QuickBooks Online’s invoicing, the Mac version allows you to change the format setup, adjust alignment, add a logo, and update the text color of your invoice. You can choose from QuickBooks’ default templates or create your own template.

Sample invoice in QuickBooks for Mac Plus 2023

Additionally, it offers excellent customer tracking in its A/R module, where you can view outstanding invoices, view balance by customer, view transactions by customers, and set up recurring invoices.

You can even create invoices from estimates. When a customer approves your estimate and agrees to pay a fixed rate rather than for time and costs, you can convert that estimate into an invoice.

All the information in your original estimate will carry over to the new invoice and, if needed, you can remove or add additional line items or change the quantities or prices. If applicable, other items, such as sales tax, discounts, and other subtotals, will also appear on your invoice.

Banking in QuickBooks Mac Plus 2023 is as great as in QuickBooks Online. You can connect your bank accounts, import bank transactions to QuickBooks, and perform bank reconciliations—even if you don’t connect your bank account to the software.

You can also enter the ending balance in your bank statement and match bank statement items manually with the books. After reconciling your bank and credit card accounts, the software generates a reconciliation report to show any timing differences between transactions in your books and those that have cleared your bank.

QuickBooks Mac Plus 2023 allows you to create projects connected to customers. With this feature, you can set a job status, start date, projected end date, and description. You can also run job costing reports. Most importantly, the program allows you to compare actual and budgeted project costs—something unavailable in QuickBooks Online. You can track time, create timesheets, attach billable time to invoices, and use progressive invoicing as each step of a project is completed.

Adding a new job to a customer in QuickBooks for Mac

This application offers the same features that other QuickBooks products have. You can add sales tax items, track sales tax liability, and adjust sales tax from sales returns. If you’re working with independent contractors, you can add them to QuickBooks and track their 1099 payments. Unfortunately, unlike QuickBooks Online, the Mac-only version doesn’t allow you to e-file your taxes.

QuickBooks for Mac 2023 uses the average cost method to track the cost of inventory items, as opposed to QuickBooks Online’s first-in, first-out (FIFO) method. Inventory tracking in the Mac version is easy, as it computes the cost of goods sold (COGS) automatically in every invoice and determines the cost of ending inventory.

This means that there’s no need to track the original costs of your removed items since they’re calculated automatically. What’s more, the inventory screen shows the quantity and total value of your item and reorder points, so you can be prompted to order more inventory.

Tracking inventory items in QuickBooks for Mac

There are more than 100 reports available in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac, which include P&L statements, balance sheets, sales reports, charts, and graphs. Reports can be modified through filters and presented per class. The only limitation to its reporting feature is the inability to create reports by location, which is a big deal for businesses that operate in multiple locations or offices.

Sample reports available in QuickBooks Mac

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac lets you charge your clients for business-related trips or deduct mileage from your taxes. However, mileage tracking on the platform is not as comprehensive as with QuickBooks Online, as you have to enter your starting and ending destinations manually. With QuickBooks Online, you can use the mobile app to track your trips automatically via your phone’s GPS.

• iCloud Document Sharing: This allows you to work on your QuickBooks company file from multiple computers. It also enables you to share a link to your file with your client through iCloud Drive so that they can make changes as needed. However, note that this feature isn’t intended to allow work on multiple computers simultaneously.

• iPhone scanner: You can use your iPhone or iPad to take photos or scan documents and attach them to any transaction in QuickBooks. To use this feature, use at least macOS Mojave and iOS 12 on your phone.
• Contact Sync: When you set up Contact Sync, all contacts from your app automatically synchronize with QuickBooks. This means whenever you make changes in Contacts or QuickBooks, all changes are automatically synced between the programs.

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac has a clean interface, but it isn’t as easy to use as cloud-based programs like QuickBooks Online. Luckily, with the new subscription-based plan for all installable QuickBooks products, users will now enjoy unlimited access to live customer support without an additional fee. With the earlier versions, you would have needed to purchase a QuickBooks Care plan to enjoy unlimited support.

You can also ask QuickBooks to call you in case you have questions. Apart from that, chatbots and self-help information are available online. Unfortunately, most articles about QuickBooks Desktop for Mac are outdated and scarce.

Just like the other QuickBooks Desktop products, QuickBooks for Mac has a workflow-based homepage. From the main page, you can find important features that are categorized by vendor, customer, company, and banking. This helps you navigate through the program easily.

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac Homepage

On the downside, QuickBooks for Mac lacks the Accountant’s Copy feature found in QuickBooks for Windows. With QuickBooks for Mac, you can send your accountant a copy of your company file, but you then can’t use the program until they send an updated company file back to you. Otherwise, you’ll end up with two different company files that will need to be reconciled manually. With QuickBooks Online, none of this is necessary as your accountant can access your cloud-based account whenever needed.

We found several QuickBooks for Mac reviews, and users love the program for its clean interface and the ability to enter transactions easily, such as monthly expenses and input checks. Others are also impressed by its seamless bank account reconciliation capability. Meanwhile, some are dissatisfied with its customer service, explaining that they usually spend many hours on the phone just to receive support.

QuickBooks for Mac has generally positive ratings from several review sites:

• Software Advice: 4 out of 5 from about 80 reviews
• TrustRadius: 7.8 out of 10 from more than 110 reviews