QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based accounting software that we find suitable for most small businesses, including those with inventory and projects. You can use it to track income and expenses, pay bills, invoice customers, and run reports like cash flow statements. It offers four plans ranging from $35 to $235 monthly, depending on the number of users and features you need.
If you’re interested in this software after reading this detailed QuickBooks Online review, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial. You may also purchase right away to get a 50% discount for three months and receive a free one-time virtual session with a ProAdvisor to set up your company file.
I have several years of experience with writing about accounting software, including QuickBooks Online and Desktop, Xero, and FreshBooks. I am committed to delivering expertise-led answers to your small business questions by using my first-hand experience and testing platforms or services when able.
I ensure that the best answers I provide are founded on the basis of accuracy, clarity, authority, objectivity, and accessibility, which is aligned with the Fit Small Business Editorial Policy.
Pros
- Leading small business accounting software
- Scalable plans
- Robust features, including banking and inventory management
- Wide selection of accounting and financial reports
- Sales tax rates calculated automatically
- Vast network of ProAdvisors for professional support
Cons
- A bit expensive compared to other similar products
- Can’t enter bills and track time worked using the mobile app
- Only Advanced plan lets you compare estimated vs actual project costs and manage fixed assets
- No industry-specific features
Pricing |
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Discount | 50% for three months unless you sign up for a free trial |
Free Trial | 30 days; can’t be combined with the 50% discount |
Payroll | Starts at $50 plus $6 per employee, per month (read our QuickBooks Payroll review) |
Standout Features |
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Scalability | Excellent—thanks to flexible tiered pricing, which is based on the number of users, user permission levels, advanced features, and more |
Ease of Use | Is generally user-friendly, but may require you to at least know the basics (you may check out our free QuickBooks Online tutorials to get started) |
Customer Support | Phone support (callback except for Advanced users), email, live chat, chatbot, and self-help resources |
Average User Reviews | Generally positive; praised for its ease of use and excellent feature set |
- Invoicing customers: It’s our leading invoicing software because of its ability to calculate sales tax based on the customer’s location and customize invoices to any industry.
- Ecommerce retailers: Its recent focus on ecommerce integrations makes it the clear winner for the best ecommerce accounting software. If you use Shopify, you may find our guide to the top Shopify integrations for QuickBooks Online especially useful.
- Mobile accounting: QuickBooks Online’s app, one of our best mobile accounting apps, allows you to send invoices, receive payments, track mileage, capture receipts, and more.
- Property management companies: Its class and location tracking features allow property management companies to separate net profit by type of property and location, making it our top-recommended real estate accounting software.
- Trucking companies: We selected QuickBooks Online as the leading trucking accounting software because when integrated with TruckingOffice, it becomes a powerful trucking management system and accounting software combined. You can use it to dispatch orders, manage your loads, and track delivery status.
Other Use Cases of QuickBooks Online
- Best small business accounting software: Best overall
- Best farm accounting software: Best overall
- Best real estate accounting software: Best overall
- Best ecommerce accounting software: Best overall
- Best startup accounting software: Best overall
- Best trucking accounting software: Best overall when integrated with TruckingOffice
- Best law firm accounting software: Best for small firms when integrated with LeanLaw
- Best retail accounting software: Best overall
- Best church accounting software: Best easy-to-use and customizable accounting software
- Best nonprofit accounting software: Best customizable software for Form 990 reporting
- Best construction accounting software: Best for tracking costs by project, location, and class
- Best accounting software for Mac: Best overall
- Best restaurant accounting software: Best for small restaurants and cafes
- Best hotel accounting software: Best for small hotels wanting support from local bookkeepers
- Best cloud accounting software: Best overall
- Best mobile accounting apps: Best for local bookkeeping support
- Best receipt scanner apps: Best scanner within an accounting software
- Best mileage tracker apps: Best for mileage tracking within accounting software
- Best invoicing software: Best overall with sophisticated accounting features
- Best bank reconciliation software: Best overall
- Best recurring billing software: Best for mobile users
- Best accounting software for freelancers: Best for freelancers who want access to local bookkeeping assistance
- Best accounts payable (A/P) software: Best A/P software integrated with a complete bookkeeping system
- Best business expense tracker apps: Best for small businesses that need a complete bookkeeping system
- Best Xero alternatives: Best overall
- Best FreshBooks alternatives: Best overall
QuickBooks Online Alternatives & Comparison
Monthly Pricing | Users Included | Banking | Inventory Management | Mobile App | Access to Local Bookkeepers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $35 to $235 | 1 to 25 | 5★ | 4.9★ | 3.5★ | 5★ |
 | $0 or $16 | 1 or Unlimited | 1.8★ | ✕ | 1.3★ | 1★ |
 | $0 to $275 | 1 to 15 | 4.2★ | 5★ | 5★ | 3★ |
 | $15 to $78 | Unlimited | 4.6★ | 4.9★ | 2.6★ | 3★ |
 | $299 or $499 | N/A | 2★ | ✕ | 2★ | 5★ |
Rating explanation: 5★: Excellent; 4★: Very good; 3★: Good; 2★: Fair; 1★: Poor; ✕: Feature unavailable | ||||||
Best For | Learn More | |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses seeking free accounting software: If you only need simple income and expense tracking and invoicing, then Wave, a free solution, is a good alternative to QuickBooks Online, which lacks a free tier. | |
| Companies looking for a powerful mobile app: Both the QuickBooks and Zoho Books apps let you capture expense receipts, invoice clients, and accept payments on the go—but Zoho Books can also enter and track unpaid bills and record time worked. | |
| Companies with over 25 users: QuickBooks Online can only accommodate up to 25 users. If you need more, consider Xero, which lets you add as many seats as needed without any additional fees. | |
| Businesses preferring to outsource their accounting tasks: As our overall best bookkeeping service provider, Bench is a great option. It offers a wide array of services, including tax preparation and catchup bookkeeping—services that QuickBooks Online lacks. |
| Users Like | Users Dislike |
|---|---|
| Easy to adapt to | Expensive for small businesses |
| Many time-saving features | Difficult to contact customer support |
| User-friendly invoicing and payment processing | |
Below are the common sentiments from users and our expert opinions:
- Is easy to adapt to: One user mentioned that they were able to easily adapt to the software after using a desktop solution. I have used QuickBooks Online many times, and I find it extremely easy to use after a short learning period.
- Has many time-saving features: One reviewer likes that it has many automated features, including bank feeds and recurring invoices. With these and other powerful features, I believe that QuickBooks Online is the most robust accounting software on the market.
- Makes it easy to send invoices and get paid: Another user likes that they can easily create and send invoices and accept payments from their clients. I couldn’t agree more, and I appreciate the new invoicing form where you can see the actual final look of your invoice as you create it.
- Is difficult to contact customer support: I understand their sentiments as I also sometimes encounter problems when contacting QuickBooks’ customer support. Most of the time, it’s easy to connect to an agent, but they would often pass me around to different agents before I get an answer. Sometimes, I don’t even get a useful answer at all. That said, I’d like to see QuickBooks improve its support.
- Is not that affordable: Plus—QuickBooks’ plan with project accounting and inventory—costs $99 while other similar software like Zoho Books has a more affordable plan at only $50 monthly.
Here are the average QuickBooks Online review scores from third-party sites:
- Capterra[1]: 4 out of 5 based on about 7,400 reviews
- G2[2]: 4.3 out of 5 based on around 3,300 reviews
Fit Small Business Case Study
To determine how QuickBooks Online stacks up against similar software, we compared QuickBooks Online with Wave, Xero, and Zoho Books—our recommended alternatives above—using our case study. We excluded Bench from our comparison since it’s not a complete accounting system.
The chart below sums up the results.
QuickBooks Online vs Competitors
Touch the graph above to interact Click on the graphs above to interact
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QuickBooks Online From $35 per month; $99 as tested
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Wave $0 or $16 per month; $0 as tested
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Zoho Books From $0; $50 as tested
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Xero From $15 per month; $78 as tested
Our case study reveals that QuickBooks Online stands out in many areas, including banking, A/P and A/R management, and reporting. Zoho Books takes the lead for mobile accounting, while Wave wins in pricing. Wave also stands out in ease of use, but it falls short in nearly all the other categories, which we anticipated since it’s free software. Meanwhile, Xero excels in project accounting features and beats QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books in pricing due to its unlimited user access.
QuickBooks Online took a hit in our evaluation of pricing because you have to purchase at least the Plus tier to access essential advanced features like project accounting and inventory management. It is available in four plans ranging from $35 to $235 a month. You can either get a 30-day free trial or purchase right away to receive a 50% discount for three months and a free online session with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to set up your account.
All plans include basic features, such as income and expense tracking, invoicing, bank feeds, and reporting. However, the higher plans offer advanced features, as summarized in the QuickBooks Online pricing and feature comparison table below.
Pricing & Features | Simple Start | Essentials | Plus | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Monthly Pricing | $35 | $65 | $99 | $235 |
Number of Users | 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
Manage & Pay Bills | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Employee Time | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Record Multicurrency Transactions | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Inventory & Cost of Goods | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Project Profitability | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Create & Send Invoices by Batch | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Manage & Track Fixed Assets | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Compare Estimated vs Actual Project Costs | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Set Up Custom User Permissions | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Access to Dedicated Success Manager | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Free Training for Staff ($3,000 Value) | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Don’t choose a QuickBooks Online plan based solely on the number of users you need. Let’s say you need to track inventory but only need three users, so you chose Essentials because it is limited to three users and is more affordable than Plus.
However, you’ll be disappointed when you find out that Essentials can’t track inventory and project profitability. If you need more help deciding which plan to choose, read our QuickBooks Online plans comparison.
QuickBooks Notable New Features
The features listed below have been recently added within the last three months of this publication.
- QuickBooks E-commerce: If you sell products through online channels, then you may appreciate the new Commerce tab in the left navigation menu. This new feature allows you to easily connect to and access major ecommerce platforms, including Amazon, Shopify, and eBay. It also makes it easier for you to sync important data, such as sales and inventory, directly into QuickBooks Online.
- Bookmarking pages: You can now bookmark your favorite pages so that you can easily access them in the future. In addition to main menu items, you can bookmark more specific pages such as Profit and Loss report.
QuickBooks Online aced our evaluation of general features because it offers everything you need to set up your company file and get started. You can enter your basic information like company name and contact details, set up additional users and customize user access, and import your chart of accounts from your existing software if needed. QuickBooks Online also allows you to close books at year-end, which is important to prevent changes in your financial data.
Furthermore, you can customize your accounting processes, such as setting up the fiscal year and tax year of your company, choosing the accounting method, and adding categories to track your income and expenses. One thing we like about QuickBooks is the ability to create classes and locations for tracking profit and loss (P&L). You can also modify your chart of accounts (COA), enter an additional user, and control how much access you want to give them.
QuickBooks Online excels at managing unpaid bills and expenses. You can view the list of your unpaid bills to track them effectively. You can create recurring transactions, record partial payments of an invoice, set up and track inventory items, and print checks instead of writing them manually.
Also, QuickBooks has further improved its A/P management feature by incorporating the new QuickBooks Bill Pay. It allows you to pay vendor bills directly from within QuickBooks with your bank or credit card. It has features similar to other online bill pay platforms, like Melio and BILL, but it’s exclusively for QuickBooks Online and Desktop users. You can learn more about it in detail in our QuickBooks Bill Pay review.
Our QuickBooks Online A/P Video
We found QuickBooks Online’s ability to manage invoices equally terrific as its ability to manage payables, making it our overall best invoicing software. The good thing is that QuickBooks calculates sales taxes in every jurisdiction where you collect sales tax automatically.
In terms of invoicing, there are many reasons to love QuickBooks Online. You can choose from different templates, add your logo, change colors, and include personalized messages. You set up recurring invoices and print and email them to your customers.
Sample invoice in QuickBooks Online
What’s more, we love that QuickBooks Online has further enhanced its invoicing feature by allowing you to view a live PDF version of your invoice as you complete the invoicing form. This helps you customize your invoices easily without repeatedly clicking the preview button.
Other great features include the ability to:
- View sales tax liability details
- View and track sales tax collected and remitted
- Pay sales tax liability with a check
- Accept short payments from customers
Our QuickBooks Online A/R Video
Just like most accounting software, you can connect your bank and credit card account to QuickBooks Online. If you’re uncomfortable connecting your bank account, you can upload your transactions in a QuickBooks Online format.
If you dread reconciling your bank account manually, you can use QuickBooks Online’s powerful bank reconciliation feature and generate reconciliation reports to see cleared and uncleared transactions. Unlike FreshBooks and Xero, QuickBooks allows you to reconcile your bank and credit card accounts, even if you choose to record all activity manually vs importing bank transactions.
Our QuickBooks Online Cash Management & Banking Video
We docked a few points for project accounting because you can only compare project estimates and actual costs in the highest plan, QuickBooks Online Advanced. However, the platform is good for project accounting. You can create projects and assign wages, income, and expenses to a project. You can also create project estimates and include inventories, sales taxes, and labor in those estimates.
Our QuickBooks Online Project Accounting Video
QuickBooks Online does a great job at sales and income tax tracking. It could’ve scored higher if the QuickBooks team had a service for filing sales tax returns on behalf of the client.
You can add sales taxes to your receipts, invoices, and estimates, and QuickBooks Online will calculate and track them automatically for easy tax filing. It also keeps track of your tax payment due dates to avoid late filing and late payment penalties.
One of its advantages over similar software is that you can e-file your taxes either through email or your agency’s website. If you’re working with independent contractors, QuickBooks Online lets you generate 1099 tax forms and either file them online or print them and then mail them to the IRS.
We evaluated QuickBooks Online’s sales and income tax features across the other categories, so there’s no separate video.
QuickBooks Online could have earned a perfect mark for inventory if users could also compare actual and estimated inventory in the Plus Plan and not only in Advanced. Nevertheless, QuickBooks’ inventory accounting feature is excellent as it lets you track stock items and quantities, update inventory quantities automatically, create purchase orders and send them to vendors, and set up alerts to see when it’s best to replenish your stock.
There’s no separate video since QuickBooks Online’s inventory management is evaluated across the other categories.
QuickBooks Online is arguably one of the best accounting software programs for reporting. It can generate more than 100 reports, depending on your subscription; in our case study, we generated 16 different types of reports successfully, which isn’t possible in most other accounting software.
Whether you need standard reports—such as balance sheets, P&L statements, and cash flow statements—or sales reports by customer, location, or class, you can do it all in QuickBooks Online.
Our QuickBooks Online Reporting Video
QuickBooks’ mobile app is functional, but we hope to see more features in the future, such as the ability to enter bills and record time worked. Available for Android and iOS devices, it contains many features available in the browser-based desktop interface, making it one of our best mobile accounting apps. It also allows you to create and send invoices on the go, receive payments from customers, assign expenses to customers or projects, and view financial reports.
Our QuickBooks Online Mobile App Video
QuickBooks Online Other Notable Features
- Enhanced migration process: The export process includes a user ID automatically, allowing you to create an account easily. Also, the transaction limit has been raised from 350,000 to 750,000.
- Mobile check deposit: This lets you deposit checks from the mobile app. When you take a photo of your check and upload it to QuickBooks, the program generates a digital transaction automatically. QuickBooks says mobile deposits may take up to five business days. Note that this feature is only available to users with a QuickBooks Checking account. If you don’t have one, read our detailed QuickBooks Business Checking review to see how it can benefit your business.
- Spreadsheet sync: You can now sync your QuickBooks Online Advanced account with Microsoft Excel. This allows you to pull data in a spreadsheet format, edit it using Excel, and then sync it back to QuickBooks Online.
- Fixed asset management: This tool in QuickBooks Online Advanced allows you to record new fixed assets, set up and track depreciation, and generate depreciation schedules.
Setting up a company in QuickBooks Online is pretty straightforward, as it’s guided by an onboarding wizard. However, it can take some time, as there are a series of steps involved, such as inputting basic information, connecting your bank accounts, etc. The setup becomes much quicker if you have all the information ready during the onboarding stage.
Also, as mentioned earlier, QuickBooks Online offers a one-time virtual session with a QuickBooks expert who will walk you through connecting your bank and credit card accounts, setting up your chart of accounts, customizing invoices, and setting up reminders. This offer is unavailable with the free trial and excludes desktop migration, payroll setup, or services.
QuickBooks Online is relatively easy to use, but there will still be a learning curve for some users, especially since the platform has plenty of features to master. Fortunately, the interface is easy to navigate and has an organized dashboard where you can find the features you need easily.
You can learn QuickBooks even without an accounting background, but it becomes much easier to use if you have some knowledge of basic accounting concepts. To help you better understand how to use the program’s features, you may check out our free QuickBooks Online tutorials.
QuickBooks offers plenty of customer support options, including phone, email, live chat, and chatbot. However, if you want to talk with a real person, you need to submit a form and wait for them to call you—unless you upgrade to QuickBooks Online Advanced, which gives you access to premium customer support.
If you have minor issues, you can check out QuickBooks’ vast self-help resources, such as blogs, setup guides, troubleshooting tips, and community forums. If you prefer getting support through email, then QuickBooks isn’t for you.
A huge advantage of choosing QuickBooks is the availability of local bookkeepers in your area who can provide assistance. QuickBooks dominates the market for small business accounting, and most professional bookkeepers use it for their small business clients. It’s almost certain you’ll be able to find a ProAdvisor to help you.
For guidance, see our step-by-step article on how to find a local QuickBooks ProAdvisor. It also covers the platforms or websites you can find a ProAdvisor on.
QuickBooks Online integrates with a wide range of third-party software, including popular tools like PayPal, Square, Stripe, Gmail, Google Sheets, Salesforce, HubSpot, WooCommerce, and Shopify. It also connects with thousands of apps through Zapier. While it has vast integration options, we believe a few business apps stand out for specialized purposes, as highlighted in our list of the best QuickBooks Online integrations.
It also integrates with other QuickBooks solutions, such as QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks Time, QuickBooks Checking, and QuickBooks Payments.
For information on the QuickBooks products, see our articles:
How We Evaluated QuickBooks Online
We evaluated QuickBooks Online and other leading accounting software using an internal scoring rubric with 15 major categories.
5% of Overall Score
In evaluating pricing, we considered the billing cycle (monthly or annual) and the number of users.
5% of Overall Score
This section focuses more on first-time setup and software settings. The platform must be quick and easy to set up for new users. Even after initial setup, the software must also let users modify information like company name, address, entity type, fiscal year-end, and other company information.
5% of Overall Score
The banking section of this case study focuses on cash management, bank reconciliation, and bank feed connections. The software must have bank integrations to automatically feed bank or card transactions. The bank reconciliation module must also let users reconcile accounts with or without bank feeds for optimal ease of use. Lastly, the software must generate useful reports related to cash.
5% of Overall Score
The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions. A/P features include creating vendors and bills, recording purchase orders and converting them to bills, creating service items, and recording full or partial bill payments.
5% of Overall Score
This takes into account customer management, revenue recognition, invoice management, and collections. The software must have A/R features that make it easy for users to collect payments from customers, remind customers of upcoming or overdue invoices, and manage customer obligations through analytic dashboards or reports.
10% of Overall Score
Businesses with inventory items should choose accounting software that can track inventory costs, manage COGS, and monitor inventory units.
10% of Overall Score
Service or project-based businesses should choose accounting software that can track project costs, revenues, and profits. The software must have tools to track time, record billable hours or expenses, send invoices for progress billings, or monitor project progress and performance.
4% of Overall Score
In this section, we’re looking at sales tax features. The software must have features that allow users to set sales tax rates, apply them to invoices, and enable users to pay sales tax liability.
4% of Overall Score
Reports are important for managers, owners, and decision-makers. The software must have enough reports that can be generated with a few clicks. Moreover, we’d also like to see customization options to enable users to generate reports based on what they want to see.
10% of Overall Score
Customer service is evaluated based on the number of communication channels available, such as phone, live chat, and email. Software providers also receive points based on other resources available, such as self-help articles and user communities. Finally, they are awarded points based on the ease with which users will find assistance from independent bookkeepers with expertise in the platform.
10% of Overall Score
This requires the software to allow users transitioning from other bookkeeping software to import their chart of accounts (COA), vendors, customers, service items, and inventory items. Ideally, there will be a wizard to walk the user through the import process.
10% of Overall Score
Ease of use includes the layout of the dashboard and whether new transactions can be initiated from the dashboard rather than having to navigate to a particular module. Other factors considered are user reviews specific to ease of use and a subjective evaluation by our experts of both the UI and general ease of use.
5% of Overall Score
This includes the availability of integrations for payroll, time tracking, and receiving e-payments. We also evaluated whether an electronic bill pay integration was available.
5% of Overall Score
The software must have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops. Some of the features we looked into include the ability to create and send invoices, accept online payments, enter and track bills, and view reports on the go.
7% of Overall Score
We went to user review websites to read first-hand reviews from actual software users. This user review score helps us give more credit to software products that deliver a consistent service to their customers.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
QuickBooks Online is great for most businesses, especially those needing inventory and project accounting and wanting to track activity by class and location.
Yes, especially if you’re looking for a comprehensive cloud accounting solution with extensive feature set and easy access to professional bookkeepers.
There are several reasons why some users leave QuickBooks Online, but most people leaving are probably doing so because of price. Intuit has made substantial price increases each of the last two years.
Some of the top alternatives to QuickBooks Online are Zoho Books, Xero, FreshBooks, Wave, and Sage 50. These alternatives might save you money and provide a better solution for your business.
QuickBooks Online is very user-friendly, but you need to know the basics. Check out our series of free QuickBooks Online tutorials to get started.
The best plan depends on the size of your company and the features you need. We have an in-depth QuickBooks Online plans comparison to help you choose the best one for your business.
No, they are two completely different products. QuickBooks Online is cloud-based, while QuickBooks Desktop is installed locally. Read our QuickBooks Online vs Desktop comparison to learn more about their differences.
Yes, it does. You may purchase the QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping add-on, which gives you access to a team of certified bookkeeping professionals who will provide you with live support through video chat.
Bottom Line
QuickBooks Online dominates the market for small business accounting software due to its extensive features and flexibility in meeting the needs of nearly any small business. It can track inventory costs, generate invoices, track unpaid bills, and calculate P&L separated by many factors, including user-defined classes and locations.
User review references: