QuickBooks Premier vs Enterprise Comparison

QuickBooks Enterprise allows you to add up to 40 users, which is significantly higher compared to Premier, which allows up to five only. This makes QuickBooks Enterprise an excellent choice for companies that anticipate scaling over time. As your company adds more employees or departments, Enterprise can accommodate the increasing number of users.

Additionally, QuickBooks Enterprise is more scalable than Premier in terms of inventory item capacity. Enterprise allows you to add up to 100,000 inventory items while, with Premier, you can only add up to 14,500. This scalability is beneficial for businesses dealing with extensive product catalogs, complex inventory workflows, or a high volume of stock to manage and track.

In our QuickBooks Pro vs Premier comparison article, we explained that Premier has enhanced inventory management because of its ability to track inventory assemblies—which is useful for light manufacturing companies. However, QuickBooks Enterprise goes the extra mile with its advanced inventory management features.

You can use barcode scanning to track inventory items quickly and accurately, set up alerts to avoid stockouts, and track inventory by serial and lot number. You can also track inventory items across multiple warehouse locations if needed. Additionally, Enterprise allows you to switch from the AVCO method to FIFO method.

While Premier allows you to set up customized price levels for a specific item or customer, it’s not as robust as QuickBooks Enterprise. With Enterprise, you can create pricing rules based on various criteria, such as customer types, quantity purchased, and customer groups—giving you more flexibility in managing your pricing structure.

The enhanced pricing module in Enterprise also allows you to adjust prices at the transaction level based on internal agreements with customers and apply discounts based on the number of items purchased.

To help you understand how Enterprise beats Premier in pricing management, let’s look at a sample scenario. With Premier, you can set a “Preferred Customer” price level, offering a 10% discount to selected clients. However, the pricing options are limited only to customer-specific discounts.

Meanwhile, if you use QuickBooks Enterprise, you can create more advanced pricing rules based on other criteria, such as the number of items purchased. For instance, if a client purchases 10 to 20 items, each priced at $120, the price per unit will be reduced to $100, which can encourage them to buy in bulk.

QuickBooks Enterprise’s built-in FAM allows you to record and track fixed assets. These include important details such as acquisition date, purchase cost, depreciation method, and useful life.

You can specify the depreciation method for each asset, such as double declining balance method, straight line method, or MACRS (income tax method). The software will then calculate the depreciation expense based on the chosen method and other asset details like acquisition cost, useful life, and salvage value.

When it’s time to dispose of a fixed asset, the FAM lets you record all the necessary details of the disposal. These include the disposal date, sale proceeds (if applicable), or the write-off value if the asset is being removed from your books without a sale.

If your company has employees and you’re using Premier, you need to add QuickBooks Desktop Payroll a la carte. Meanwhile, when you upgrade to Enterprise, you can get Enhanced Payroll or Assisted Payroll for free, depending on your subscription. What’s more, when you subscribe to Gold or Platinum, you’ll be able to access and use Enhanced Payroll as part of your subscription. If you need assisted tax filing, you can upgrade to Diamond.

For companies with an unlimited budget, Enhanced and Assisted Payroll fees may not be an issue. However, for most businesses, bundling payroll with QuickBooks Enterprise can save them a lot on their overhead expenses.

Another advantage of Enterprise is that it allows you to run customized reports, such as job costing, purchases by vendor, and sales by customer reports. You can create reports from predefined templates or design your own based on the exact requirements of your business.

It offers enhanced reporting features, such as the ability to apply custom filters to refine reports, compare data across different time periods, and create interactive dashboards. This makes the edition ideal for businesses that heavily rely on data analysis for decision-making.

When you purchase QuickBooks Enterprise, you automatically become a Priority Circle member. As a member, you’ll have access to premium support from the QuickBooks team. This means that your support inquiries are given higher priority and are addressed more promptly compared to non-Priority Circle users.

Enterprise users are assigned a dedicated customer success manager who serves as their primary point of contact for any support needs. You will also receive $3,000 worth of QuickBooks Online training courses and webinars that you and your team can take at your own pace.

Many users find QuickBooks Premier easy to use and set up. Some praise its robust feature set, which helps them adjust their books quickly, such as the ability to recategorize multiple transactions and enter transactions in batches. Meanwhile, those who are dissatisfied complained that workflows and reports have very limited customization options, unlike in Enterprise.

The edition earned the following scores on third-party review websites:

• Software Advice¹: 4.46 out of 5
• TrustRadius²: 8.1 out of 10

QuickBooks Enterprise is commended for its enhanced inventory management features and the level of customization it provides. For instance, one user said that they like that Enterprise could track inventory levels, set reorder points, and manage inventory across multiple locations. Another appreciates that they can create customizable reports based on their unique needs.

Conversely, some who are quite unhappy with Enterprise commented that the biggest drawback of the software is its high cost. Others complained that it’s a bit complex to use and comes with a steep learning curve.

On third-party review sites, the edition earned these scores:

• Software Advice³: 4.50 out of 5
• TrustRadius⁴: 7.9 out of 10

QuickBooks Premier might be preferable if you have basic inventory management needs and only need to add up to five accounting users to access and work on your accounting tasks.

QuickBooks Enterprise is better for larger businesses with complex inventory and those dealing with complex pricing structures, such as custom manufacturing companies and consulting firms.

Yes, you can upgrade from Premier to Enterprise anytime. Once QuickBooks Enterprise is installed on your computer, open the software and follow the prompts to convert your company data from Premier to Enterprise.

Intuit provides customer support through various channels, including phone, chat, and online resources. QuickBooks Enterprise users have access to Priority Circle, a program offering priority support and additional services.

Yes, you can take Premier and Enterprise to the cloud through a service called QuickBooks hosting. It allows you to access and use your software from any internet-enabled device. We compared the best QuickBooks hosting providers in case you are interested.

Yes, and the Mac versions offer the same core features and functionality as their Windows counterparts.