QuickBooks Desktop Premier Review: Features and Pricing for 2023

While QuickBooks Desktop has strong A/P features, the A/P module isn’t easy to use. Users with no experience in bookkeeping and accounting software programs will have a hard time navigating. In terms of features, it allows you to create recurring expenses, convert purchase orders (POs) into bills, create service items, and record e-payments.

The bill tracker will show you the progress of upcoming payments, which is helpful in projecting your cash flow. The bill tracker follows expenses from purchases, open bills, and paid bills.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier bill tracker

As with its A/P module, the A/R module could have been easier to use, which explains the slight reduction to its score. However, invoice creation in QuickBooks Desktop Premier is excellent because it allows users to select invoice templates and change invoice colors for branding purposes. You can also print or email invoices to customers after recording them. Another great feature worth considering is adding service items for services provided to minimize data entry when billing frequently for the same service.

Invoice creation screen in QuickBooks Desktop Premier

The collections center provides a list of invoices that are overdue or almost due. It also provides the customer’s phone number and a place to keep notes on your contact with the customer. You can view the income tracker to see the status of your future cash flow, which is helpful for projections. In addition to unpaid invoices, the income tracker shows you unbilled estimates, sales orders, time, and expenses.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier income tracker

The A/R module is full of useful features that are adaptable to different industries. However, we still find it difficult and confusing to use. QuickBooks Desktop Premier’s interface isn’t as minimal as QuickBooks Online. If you plan to self-manage your books, you’ll have a hard time using QuickBooks Desktop Premier—unless you’re willing to take tutorial and training courses.

You can set up a feed from your bank for checking, savings, and credit card accounts. Transactions will be loaded into QuickBooks automatically for you to classify. You can create rules, so QuickBooks will classify transactions from certain vendors automatically.

With or without bank feeds, you can account for cash transactions and reconcile bank accounts just by entering the bank statement balance. Other accounting software programs require a bank feed connection to reconcile accounts. With QuickBooks Desktop Premier, you can still perform reconciliation even if you choose not to connect your bank accounts.

QuickBooks Premier has a great “undeposited funds” feature that allows you to combine checks and cash into a single deposit. By grouping checks and cash properly with QuickBooks, your bank deposits will match your bookkeeping deposits, making bank reconciliation much easier.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier does well in project accounting. That’s why this version of QuickBooks is great for project-based businesses like contractors and designers. Advertising and marketing firms will also make good use of these features for keeping track of client projects. It has all the vital features, such as assigning estimates and costs to projects and comparing budget-to-actual costs, which QuickBooks Online doesn’t do.

Create Estimate form in QuickBooks Desktop Premier

If QuickBooks Desktop offered a tax filing service for its users, then that would have earned it a perfect score. However, despite this weakness, it still provides a convenient way for tracking taxes. QuickBooks will monitor the accrual and payment of sales tax separately for each taxing authority. You can define which types of sales should have sales tax collected.

QuickBooks will track both the quantity on-hand and the average cost of all your inventory items. You can access information regarding each inventory item through the Inventory Center. We like the level of detail that QuickBooks Desktop Premier gives users because it can help in making decisions. Moreover, inventory features are integrated into A/R and A/P, and QuickBooks handles purchases, cost of goods sold (COGS), and ending inventory automatically.

Despite the inability to track income and expenses by location, you can define class lists to departmentalize your financials in whatever way you find useful. For example, a property manager might create a class for each of its managed buildings. By assigning every transaction to a class, the property manager can generate profit and loss reports and balance sheet reports by building. Classes can be used creatively to develop highly customized software.

While QuickBooks Desktop Premier has a streamlined desktop interface, you must at least have a basic knowledge of accounting to understand the workflow process. The company homepage within QuickBooks lays out the workflow process so that you can click on whichever form needs to be created. Alternatively, all the necessary actions are available through the top menu.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier homepage

We highly recommend looking for accounting advisors who can coach you in bookkeeping using QuickBooks. Also, we don’t recommend learning QuickBooks Desktop Premier on the job because mistakes can create very messy books quickly. .

In terms of customer service, QuickBooks Premier offers phone support, but you have to submit a ticket first and wait for a call from an agent. Other ways to seek help include live chat, a chatbot, and some self-help resources. Some software providers, like FreshBooks, have better customer support, as you can make a phone call for immediate assistance.

The good thing about QuickBooks Premier is that it has a vast network of QuickBooks Desktop ProAdvisors. This means you can easily find a local ProAdvisor in your area who can provide bookkeeping support for your business.

QuickBooks didn’t do great in mobile accounting as it has a very limited mobile app, which is only designed to capture expense receipts, with an added feature for tracking business mileage (for iOS users). If you need to send invoices, accept payments, and view reports on the go, then we recommend choosing QuickBooks Online especially if you plan to stay within the QuickBooks product line. If you want a full-featured mobile app that offers more features, like the ability to record time worked, then check out Zoho Books.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier integrates with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Big Commerce, and Magento. You can also integrate seamlessly with online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, and Walmart.