QuickBooks Online Review: Features & Pricing for 2023

• Banking: Bank feeds in QuickBooks make it easy to import your transactions. QuickBooks Online is better than FreshBooks because you have the option to upload your files manually. With FreshBooks, the only way to import your files is to establish a bank connection. Hence, if you prefer not to connect your bank account, such as for security reasons, then FreshBooks’ banking feature is nearly unusable. Meanwhile, Xero doesn’t allow you to combine multiple checks into a single deposit, which is possible with QuickBooks.
• A/R: QuickBooks’ invoicing feature is a complete package. You can create highly customizable invoices, as opposed to Xero, which doesn’t allow you to customize invoices by color, layout, and font. FreshBooks trails behind QuickBooks because of minor weaknesses, such as the inability to issue a receipt for sale paid immediately and issue a refund check to resolve a negative A/R.
• Reporting: QuickBooks Online lets you run a wide range of reports, including those missing in Xero, like income and loss by customer and unbilled time. Reporting in FreshBooks is very limited as you can’t drill down for more specific levels of detail, like location and classes.

• Pricing: Xero has features that are nearly similar to QuickBooks, but it’s considerably less expensive. All plans include unlimited users, and advanced features cost less than QuickBooks. For example, project accounting in QuickBooks is offered in Plus at $85 per month, as opposed to Xero’s $70 per month.
• Customer service: FreshBooks stands out because you can directly make a phone call to a customer support agent. With QuickBooks, you have to send a ticket first and wait for QuickBooks to call you. Meanwhile, Xero offers only email support, a chatbot, and self-help resources.
• Project accounting: QuickBooks Online can’t compare estimated costs against actual costs, which is possible in both Xero and FreshBooks.

• 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 vs QuickBooks Desktop

QuickBooks Online could’ve 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.

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 conveniently initiated 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

QuickBooks Online Accounts Payable Video

The only problem we saw is 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

QuickBooks Online Accounts Receivable 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.

QuickBooks Online Cash Management & Banking Video

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 Project Accounting Video

QuickBooks Online does a great job at sales and income tax tracking, and 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 non-taxable 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 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 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.

QuickBooks Online Mobile App Video

QuickBooks Online is great for businesses that need inventory and project accounting and companies that want to track activity by class and location.

Some of the top alternatives to QuickBooks Online are Zoho Books, Xero, Lendio Accounting, and FreshBooks. 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 46 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 versions 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.