QuickBooks Online Review: Features & Pricing for 2023
This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.
QuickBooks Online is cloud-based accounting software for small businesses that need advanced features like inventory management and tracking of profit and loss (P&L) by class, location, and project. It comes in four plans ranging from $30 to $200 per month, depending on the number of users and features desired. QuickBooks is currently offering 50% off for the first three months or a 30-day free trial.
Also, users get a free one-time virtual session with a ProAdvisor to set up the company file. You will learn how to set up your chart of accounts, set up reminders, customize invoices, and connect your bank and credit card accounts. However, this excludes desktop migration and payroll setup and is unavailable with the free trial.
Overall Score:
4.40 / 5
Pros
- Industry-leading accounting software on the market
- Scalable plans priced depending on the number of users features included
- Efficient bank reconciliation
- Robust inventory management features
- Generates a wide selection of accounting and financial reports
- Calculates sales tax rates to apply to an invoice automatically
- Capable mobile app with many bookkeeping features
- Vast network of QuickBooks Online ProAdvisors
Cons
- A bit expensive compared to other similar products
- Cannot track inventory assemblies like QuickBooks Desktop
- Mobile app can’t record time worked
- Cannot compare estimated to actual project costs
- More of a generalized solution; no industry-specific features
Supported Business Types | Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that need inventory management, project accounting, and the ability to track income and expense by class and location |
Pricing |
|
Discount | 50% off for three months, unless you choose the 30-day free trial |
Free Trial | 30 days; no credit card required |
Payroll | QuickBooks Payroll; starts at $45 plus $5 per employee, per month (read our QuickBooks Payroll review) |
Standout Features |
|
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 | 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) |
- 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: As one of our best mobile accounting applications, its mobile app 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 best 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.
- Manufacturing companies: QuickBooks Desktop Pro has a robust inventory management system that tracks inventory parts and assemblies (bill of materials). Check out our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Desktop to see which is right for you.
- Small businesses with a limited budget: QuickBooks Online is one of the most expensive small business software on the market. For budget-minded small businesses willing to sacrifice some features, we recommended Wave. It is free and is one of our leading QuickBooks alternatives.
- Fixed asset management: QuickBooks Online doesn’t track or calculate the book value of your fixed assets. Xero is unique among accounting programs because it can track and calculate depreciation for fixed assets, such as vehicles, machinery, and equipment. Read our review of Xero to learn more.
- Project managers who need to compare estimated and actual costs: If you want the ability to compare budget costs to actual time and expenses, you might appreciate FreshBooks. Find out what the solution has to offer through our review of FreshBooks.
- Law firms: Without an integration, QuickBooks Online cannot perform the triple reconciliation between the client trust account, client ledgers, and bank statements. See our roundup of the top law firm accounting software for options.
Why We Like QuickBooks Online
We chose QuickBooks as the best small business accounting software because of its feature selection. It has a comprehensive feature set, including the ability to send customizable invoices, manage accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R), manage inventory, and track billable time and project profitability. Additionally, it has a strong support network and robust integration. While QuickBooks is predominantly used by businesses, you can also set up QuickBooks Online for your personal finances.
While other similar software is best for specific use cases, QuickBooks Online can be customized to nearly any type of business and industry, including farms, law firms, real estate, and trucking companies.
- 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 accounting software for small retail businesses
- 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 for extensive support network
- 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 for most small businesses
- Best mobile accounting apps: Best for QuickBooks Online users
- 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 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 Xero alternative
- Best FreshBooks alternatives: Best overall for inventory tracking and assisted bookkeeping
QuickBooks Online Alternatives
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
Best for: Businesses that need assembly inventory accounting | Best for: Service businesses that want to track estimated vs actual project costs | Best for: Companies that require fixed asset management |
Starts at: $799 per year for one user | Starts at: $17 per month | Starts at: $13 per month |
QuickBooks Online New Features for 2023
- Free meeting with a ProAdvisor when to set up your company file: 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 doesn’t include desktop migration, payroll setup, or services.
- Improved speed: QuickBooks Online is now 12% faster, helping you get your accounting done quicker.
- New integrations: QuickBooks Online Advanced integrates with new tools, such as PandaDoc, Centage, and Spreadsheet Sync, to boost your productivity further.
- 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.
- Better customer support: Intuit has made some improvements in customer service, such as building expert knowledge on QuickBooks Payroll and QuickBooks Payments and reducing waiting times.
- 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.
QuickBooks Online is available in four subscription options ranging from $30 to $200 per month. The lower-priced plans, Simple Start and Essentials, mostly have basic features, while the higher plans, Plus and Advanced, have enhanced features that most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need for scaling their business.
You can either get a 30-day free trial or purchase right away and receive a 50% discount for three months. You can’t take advantage of both options.
QuickBooks Online Plans Compared
Pricing & Features | Simple Start | Essentials | Plus | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Pricing (Cost per Month) | $30 | $60 | $90 | $200 |
Number of Users | 1 | 3 | 5 | 25 |
Track Income & Expenses | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Send Invoices & Accept Payments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Connect Your Bank | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Capture & Organize Receipts | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Run & Export Reports | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Create & Send Estimates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Manage & Pay Bills | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Employee Time | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Record Multicurrency Transactions | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Inventory & Cost of Goods | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Track Project Profitability | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Create & Send Invoices by Batch | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | |
Set Up Custom User Permissions | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Access to Dedicated Success Manager | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Free Training for Staff ($3,000 Value) | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
Expert tip: 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’s limited to three users—and 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 comparison of QuickBooks Online’s plans.
QuickBooks Online vs Competitors
To determine how QuickBooks Online stacks up against other similar software, we conducted a comparative case study against FreshBooks and Xero. The chart below sums up the results.
QuickBooks Online vs Competitors FSB Case Study
Touch the graph above to interact Click on the graphs above to interact
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QuickBooks Online From $30 per month; $90 as tested
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FreshBooks From $17 per month; $55 as tested
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Xero From $13 per month; $37 as tested
- QuickBooks vs Wave
- QuickBooks vs Xero
- QuickBooks vs Zoho Books
- QuickBooks vs FreshBooks
- QuickBooks vs Sage 100 Contractor
- QuickBooks vs Sage 50cloud
- QuickBooks vs Sage Intacct
- QuickBooks vs BILL
- QuickBooks vs ZipBooks
- QuickBooks vs NetSuite
- QuickBooks vs Sage Business Cloud Accounting
- QuickBooks vs Quicken
QuickBooks Online Features
QuickBooks Online could have garnered a higher score in general features if it had the ability to import beginning balances, which could have helped make reconciliation and reporting easier. Also, setting up a company in QuickBooks Online takes time—you have to go through a series of steps, including entering your company name, email address, and entity type.
To customize your accounting process, configure your advanced settings from the Advanced menu under the Account and Settings page. From here, you can enter the fiscal year and tax year of your company, choose the accounting method, and set up categories to track your income and expenses.
Customizing Account and Settings in QuickBooks Online
One of QuickBooks Online’s biggest strengths is the ability to create classes and locations for tracking P&L. You can also modify your chart of accounts, enter an additional user, and control how much access you want to give them. QuickBooks Online allows you to close books at year-end, which is important to prevent changes in your financial data.
On the downside, you can’t import or input opening balances, so you have to use a journal entry. Overall, QuickBooks Online offers a lot of advanced features to control how you run your accounting, but in terms of ease of setup and use, you might prefer a different solution like Xero.
Our QuickBooks Online General Features Video
QuickBooks Online could have earned a perfect score if not for its inventory module, which we found a bit difficult to use. Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do in QuickBooks Online in terms of managing unpaid bills and expenses.
You can view the list of your unpaid bills to track them effectively. With a little practice, it’s easy to record a bill, add a new vendor, record an expense without paying, and attach and send a copy of the receipt. All these transactions can be initiated conveniently from the + New button on your dashboard. 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.
To enter a new bill in QuickBooks Online, click on the + New button, select Bill, and then provide the required information in the Enter Bill screen, as shown in the screenshot below.
Enter Bill screen in QuickBooks Online
The only problem we saw was the inability to issue a refund check when giving your customer a refund or credit. Despite the tiny issue, we found QuickBooks Online’s ability to manage sales taxes and invoices equally as 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
QuickBooks Online also lets you combine multiple checks into a single deposit, which makes reconciling between your check register and your bank statement much easier.
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
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.
QuickBooks Online’s score in this criterion took a hit because it can’t set up cost estimates for projects and compare them to actual costs, which is an important feature for contractors. However, the platform is good for project accounting. You can create projects and assign wages and income and expenses to a project. You can also create project estimates and include inventories, sales taxes, and labor in those estimates.
If you want a feature to compare actual costs to estimates, find alternatives in our list of the best construction accounting software.
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 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.
If inventory accounting is a crucial part of your business, QuickBooks Online can be a great choice. Available for QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced users, the inventory accounting feature lets you track stock items and quantities, update inventory quantities automatically, organize items by their taxable and nontaxable status, create purchase orders and send them to vendors, and set up alerts to see when it’s best to replenish your stock. However, QuickBooks Online doesn’t handle inventory assembly like QuickBooks Desktop Premier.
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. In our case study, we generated 16 different types of reports successfully, which isn’t possible in most other accounting software. QuickBooks Online can generate more than 100 reports, depending on your subscription. 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.
Sample cash flow statement in QuickBooks Online
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 a top pick in our list of the best mobile accounting apps. It even allows you to create and send invoices on the go, receive payments from customers, assign expenses to customers or projects, and view financial reports.
We find QuickBooks Online to be relatively easy to use especially given how many features it offers. 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.
You can set up your company easily and customize QuickBooks based on your needs. From the Accounts and Settings page, you can configure various settings, such as your company information, billing and subscription, sales transactions, expenses, and advanced settings.
QuickBooks Online also gives two options to display your account: Business view and Accountant view. You can switch between them anytime, and changing your view won’t affect your accounts or data:
- If you’re brand new to accounting, we recommend using Business view because it simplifies your workspace so day-to-day tasks are easier. This lets you perform your accounting tasks without learning complicated accounting terms or processes.
- If you have accounting experience or want complete control over features, use Accountant view because it uses standard accounting language.
There are a few key differences between Business view and Accountant view:
- Cash flow chart: In Business view, the cash flow chart is visible on the account dashboard, but not in Accountant view.
- Language and appearance: In Business view, accounting language is simplified with the names of some of the features, buttons, and menus being different from Accountant view.
- Chart of accounts: If you created a QuickBooks Online account after October 2021 as an owner, partner, or employee (not accountant or bookkeeper) and selected your business type as either sole proprietor, partnership, nonprofit organization, S corporation (S-corp), or C corporation (C-corp), then you’ll have customized account types in your chart of accounts when you’re in Business view.
QuickBooks Online dashboard in Business view
If you want to change your view, simply click on Settings in the bottom left corner of the toolbar. Then select Switch to Accountant view or Switch to Business view.
Changing from Business view to Accountant view in QuickBooks Online
Once you switch to Accountant view, you’ll see that the dashboard has changed.
QuickBooks Online dashboard in Accountant view
Also, QuickBooks has pretty decent customer service. However, if you want to talk with a real person, you need to submit a form and wait for them to call you, meaning you can’t initiate a call. You can also seek help through a chatbot, chat with representatives online, and check out its 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 Integrations
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. If integration is important to your business process, we highly recommend QuickBooks Online.
It also integrates with other QuickBooks solutions, such as QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks Time, QuickBooks Checking, and QuickBooks Payments.
For more information, see our other articles:
Most of the positive QuickBooks Online reviews are attributed to the program’s robust feature set and ease of use. Many users commented that it’s extremely easy to add customers and vendors and share files with their accountants. Meanwhile, some dislike that the platform can’t manage multiple companies using a single account and that it lacks advanced inventory accounting features, such as assembly management.
We have compiled the top QuickBooks Online ratings from several review websites.
- App Store1 (mobile app): 4.7 out of 5 based on over 163,000 reviews
- Google Play2 (mobile app): 3.9 out of 5 based on over 50,400 reviews
- G23: 4.0 out of 5 based on over 3,000 reviews
- Software Advice4: 4.33 out of 5 based on more than 6,200 reviews
QuickBooks Online Drawbacks
While QuickBooks is by far the leading small business accounting software, it’s also among the most expensive. If you’re looking for simple income and loss tracking, you can probably find something less expensive, or even a free alternative like Wave Accounting—which you can learn more about through our review of Wave.
Although QuickBooks Online’s general accounting features can be configured to almost any industry, the platform’s not built as a niche-specific solution. This means it lacks some of the features that specialized industries need. For instance, law firms that need trust accounting features might want to check our PCLaw review, while churches requiring church-specific features might want to see our Aplos review.
How We Evaluated QuickBooks Online
We evaluated QuickBooks Online and other leading accounting software using an internal scoring rubric with 12 major categories.
5%
Pricing
7%
General Features
7%
Banking
7%
A/P
7%
A/R
10%
Inventory
10%
Project Accounting
4%
Tax
4%
Reporting
30%
Ease of Use
5%
Mobile App
4%
User Reviews
5% of Overall Score
In evaluating pricing, we considered the billing cycle (monthly or annual) and number of users.
7% of Overall Score
This section focuses more on first-time setup and software settings. The software 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.
7% 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.
7% 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.
7% 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.
30% of Overall Score
Ease of use gets the highest weight in this case study because we want to give more credit to easy accounting software. For this section, we considered customer service, support network, and a subjective expert opinion score. Users must have easy access to customer service channels in case of problems, questions, or assistance.
Support network refers to a community of software users that can extend professional help to businesses. Having an independent software expert perform the bookkeeping is good for overall ease of use. Lastly, our expert opinion score is our subjective rating based on our experience in trying the software.
5% of Overall Score
The software must also have a mobile app to enable users to perform accounting tasks even when away from their laptops or desktops.
4% 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.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
QuickBooks Online is great for businesses that need inventory and project accounting and companies wanting to track activity by class and location.
Some of the top alternatives to QuickBooks Online are Zoho Books, Xero, FreshBooks, Wave, and Sage 50cloud. These QuickBooks 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 comparison of QuickBooks Online plans 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:
1App Store
2Google Play
3G2
4Software Advice
