QuickBooks, an all-in-one accounting software platform, is built to help you manage and understand your business’s financial health. At its core, it streamlines bookkeeping by recording income, tracking expenses, organizing financial data, and producing essential reports like profit and loss statements or balance sheets. It also supports common accounting tasks such as invoicing, bank reconciliation, and payroll.
The QuickBooks product line includes several solutions to support your business’s different needs, including QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Workforce (formerly QuickBooks Payroll), QuickBooks Time, QuickBooks Payments, and QuickBooks Checking.
QuickBooks products
Not only is QuickBooks the dominant small business accounting software on the market today, but it also offers supplementary products to augment your overall QuickBooks experience. In addition to its accounting products, QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, there are other solutions that can help you manage the other aspects of your business.
Main products
QuickBooks offers a core lineup of accounting solutions designed to meet the needs of various business sizes and industries.
- QuickBooks Online is the cloud-based version of QuickBooks that lets you manage your business finances from anywhere. You can send invoices, track expenses, run reports, and even manage payroll. It updates in real time and backs up your data automatically.
- QuickBooks Solopreneur replaces QuickBooks Self-Employed, designed for one-person businesses. It includes essential tools like invoicing, expense tracking, and mileage tracking, along with built-in support for Schedule C filing with Form 1040. It’s a practical fit for sole proprietors and single-member LLCs who need simple, tax-focused accounting.
- QuickBooks Enterprise is the most powerful version of QuickBooks Desktop, built for growing and large businesses with complex needs. It supports up to 40 users and offers advanced inventory tracking, custom pricing, and industry-specific features. Its higher-tier plans, like Diamond, feature expanded capabilities. As of August 1, 2024, it’s the only QuickBooks Desktop version available to new users, as Pro and Premier have been retired for new signups.
- QuickBooks Accountant Desktop is a specialized version of QuickBooks Desktop designed for accountants and bookkeepers managing multiple client files. It’s only available through a QuickBooks Desktop ProAdvisor membership, which starts at $999 per year, per ProAdvisor. This version includes tools tailored for professional workflows, like file review, batch transactions, and accountant-specific reports.
- QuickBooks Online Account is a free practice management platform designed for accounting professionals and ProAdvisors. It acts as a central hub for managing multiple client files, streamlining workflows, and accessing exclusive tools unavailable in standard QuickBooks Online accounts.
- QuickBooks Ledger is a stripped-down version of QuickBooks Online, built exclusively for ProAdvisors and accounting professionals. Available only through QuickBooks Online Accountant, it’s ideal for managing “after-the-fact” or tax-only clients. It omits standard features like invoicing and bill pay, focusing on streamlined bookkeeping for year-end reporting.
Other products
In addition to the main accounting products, QuickBooks offers a range of add-ons and supporting solutions that expand functionality and improve efficiency.
- QuickBooks Checking is a business checking account you can open for free. It has no monthly fees or account minimums, and instant deposit is available at no extra cost. It lets you process instant deposit payments (requires QuickBooks Payments), use the free Visa debit card called the QuickBooks Debit Card, generate business balance projections, and more.
- QuickBooks Money is designed for small businesses seeking a free solution for managing payments and banking (combines QuickBooks Payments and QuickBooks Checking). It includes features like a business bank account with no monthly fees.
- QuickBooks Workforce lets you manage payroll easily. You can track employee hours and billable time effortlessly with QuickBooks Workforce and QuickBooks Online.
- QuickBooks Time, formerly TSheets, offers time-tracking features for employees to track client or project billable hours.
- QuickBooks Payments, formerly Intuit Merchant Services, lets you integrate payments seamlessly on QuickBooks Online. Get paid easily and process online payments effortlessly.
- QuickBooks Bill Pay allows you to automate your accounts payable (A/P) workflows in QuickBooks Online.
- QuickBooks Live is an online bookkeeping service wherein you can get a ProAdvisor to work with your bookkeeping needs.
- QuickBooks Capital is a lending service by QuickBooks that allows you to borrow loan amounts from $1,500 to $200,000 with terms from six to 24 months. It’s available exclusively for businesses that have earned over $50,000 within the past 12 months.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the QuickBooks lineup, you’re not alone. The core and auxiliary tools may seem like a lot, but you don’t have to stack them all up just because you fear missing out. In fact, most small businesses and solo bookkeepers can get by with just one or two essentials. Then, as your business grows, add more tools. But that’s a problem for the future.
My recommended QuickBooks products
I’ve outlined product combinations within the QuickBooks ecosystem, tailored to different business sizes, to help you find the perfect fit for your operational needs.
QuickBooks pricing
To learn more about each product in greater detail, check out our in-depth reviews.
Pricing starts at | Our reviews | |
|---|---|---|
QuickBooks Online | $38 per month | |
QuickBooks Solopreneur | $20 per month | |
QuickBooks Enterprise | $142 per month | |
QuickBooks Accountant Desktop | $999 per year | |
QuickBooks Online Accountant | Free for ProAdvisors and CPAs | |
QuickBooks Ledger | $10 per company file | |
QuickBooks Checking | Free with no minimum balance | |
QuickBooks Workforce | $50 plus $6 per employee, per month | |
QuickBooks Time | $20 plus $8 per employee, per month | |
QuickBooks Payments | $0; charges a fee per transaction | |
QuickBooks Bill Pay | $0 for five payments per month | |
QuickBooks Live | $300 per month | |
QuickBooks Capital | Contact QuickBooks | N/A |
QuickBooks AI features in 2025
QuickBooks has significantly expanded its AI tools in 2025, aiming to boost automation, productivity, and decision-making for small and midsize businesses. Here’s a look at its most impactful AI-powered features.
- Intuit assist: This helps automate routine accounting tasks like creating invoices, entering transactions, and managing reminders. You can describe a task in plain language (e.g., “Cleaned up landscaping on 3/1. Apply 10% discount. Due 3/15.”), and it will auto-generate a complete invoice with the discount included. It also reviews transactions, flags potential issues, and reduces manual entry and errors.
- Smarter reports and business insights: QuickBooks now uses AI to analyze your financial data and deliver real-time insights. You’ll get cash flow forecasts based on your transaction history, better expense categorization, and customizable reports that surface key trends and alert you to potential problems early.
- Faster bank reconciliation: AI-powered bank feeds make it easier to match transactions automatically and reconcile accounts quickly. This means fewer errors and much less time spent double-checking your books, especially helpful around tax season.
- Automated documents and workflows: QuickBooks now supports drag-and-drop uploads for receipts, invoices, and more. AI helps organize these documents and tie them to the right transactions. Workflow automation tools can also trigger approvals, reminders, and recurring processes, which are especially useful if your team is using QuickBooks Advanced.
- Next-gen AI agents: QuickBooks is rolling out “Intuit AI Agents,” autonomous digital assistants that handle tasks like client communication, data updates, and financial reviews. These agents aim to further reduce manual work and support accountants and business owners with round-the-clock assistance.
What does QuickBooks do in terms of bookkeeping?
QuickBooks simplifies bookkeeping by automating the tracking of income, expenses, and other financial activity. It helps you stay organized, generate reports, and keep accurate records for taxes and decision-making.
- Read our QuickBooks Online review for details on the platform.
- If you need help deciding which subscription is right for you, check out our QuickBooks Online plans comparison.
- To stay updated on the latest features, check out our article on what’s new in QuickBooks Online.
Bookkeeping feature | What it lets you do |
|---|---|
Invoicing | Create professional invoices with online payment options and automatic reminders |
Bill & expense management | Record and organize business spending with clear audit trails |
Online payments | Accept credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers directly from invoices |
Time tracking & billing | Track employee hours by job or task and link them to payroll and invoices |
Reporting | Access real-time reports on profits, expenses, cash flow, and more |
Project management | Monitor project income, costs, and profitability in one place |
Payroll management | Calculate and pay wages, including overtime and time off, directly from QuickBooks |
Inventory management | |
Tax preparation | Organize records and generate tax-ready reports for easier, accurate filing |
QuickBooks Online allows you to create invoices and either print them or email them to customers. You can create a new invoice from scratch or by converting an existing estimate into an invoice. The program is known for its customizable invoices, which landed it a spot in our roundup of the best invoicing software. You can upload your company logo, select from different templates, change the invoice colors, edit invoice fields, and add personalized messages for customers.
Sample invoice in QuickBooks Online
Connecting your bank and credit card accounts to the platform allows you to enter new bills and expenses and keep track of them automatically. All your expenses are downloaded and categorized automatically.
If you need to track a check or cash transaction manually, you can record it directly in QuickBooks in a few minutes. You can also add bills in QuickBooks when you receive them so that QuickBooks can help you track upcoming payments.
What’s more, you can set up scheduled bill payments in QuickBooks using QuickBooks Bill Pay, a new built-in feature that replaced the Bill Pay powered by Melio integration. Available in QuickBooks Online Essentials and higher plans, QuickBooks Bill Pay allows you to pay bills via bank transfer or check directly from QuickBooks in a few seconds and pay several bills at once.
You can add QuickBooks Payments so that your customers can pay online directly from their emailed invoice. It is similar to other merchant services. However, because it’s integrated within QuickBooks, the sale, credit card fee, and cash deposit are all recorded automatically as they occur.
Employees or subcontractors can enter their own time as they progress through the day, or a bookkeeper can enter their weekly time if the employee submits a manual timesheet. Time entered and assigned to a customer will be available to add to the customer’s next invoice.
Also, any expense entered can be marked as billable and assigned to a customer. As with time, these billable expenses will be available to add to the customer’s next invoice. You don’t need the payroll add-on to track employee time for billing purposes—you need at least the QuickBooks Online Essentials plan to track billable hours and the Plus subscription to track billable expenses.
By managing all of your cash inflow and outflow activities in QuickBooks, you can print financial statements that provide useful information about how your business is performing. Lenders often require financial statements when you apply for a small business loan or line of credit.
You can run basic reports, like profit and loss, balance sheets, and statements of cash flows, and more advanced reports, such as A/P and A/R aging reports and profit and loss by class.
You can use QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced to create and manage projects, assign income and wages to a project, and track expenses associated with labor and materials. QuickBooks Online’s project accounting module also lets you generate project estimates and include inventories, labor, and sales taxes. You can monitor the profitability of each project you’re working on by generating a project profitability summary report.
Sample Project Profitability Summary report in QuickBooks Online
Payroll is an area that you don’t want to skimp on and try to do manually. Mistakes made in calculating paychecks can result in steep penalties and unhappy employees.
QuickBooks has its own payroll function that can automatically calculate and run payroll as often as you need. The best thing about using it is that it’s integrated with QuickBooks, so your financial statements are always up to date as of the latest payroll run. You have to purchase a QuickBooks Workforce subscription to run payroll, and there are several levels of service to choose from.
Running your payroll through QuickBooks will allow you to
- Pay employees with a check or direct deposit
- Calculate federal and state payroll taxes automatically
- Have QuickBooks fill in the payroll tax forms for you
- E-pay your payroll taxes directly from QuickBooks
See Intuit’s video on how small businesses use QuickBooks Workforce.
Available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced plans, the inventory management feature helps you track the quantity and cost of your inventory. As you sell inventory, QuickBooks will allocate a portion of your inventory to the cost of goods sold (COGS) automatically, which is an expense account that reduces your income.
This allocation is a requirement for calculating taxable income and is very cumbersome to do by hand. QuickBooks can also remind you to order inventory automatically when quantities are low.
By far, the largest headache in preparing a tax return is compiling your income and expenses. If you use QuickBooks during the year, all you need to do at tax time is print your financial statements. Better yet, with QuickBooks Online, you can invite your tax preparer to access your account directly so that they can review your numbers and print whatever information they need to prepare your return.
If you’re using QuickBooks Online, you or your accountant can easily transfer all the needed tax information through a tax preparation program like TurboTax. Bookkeepers and accounting professionals using QuickBooks Accountant can simplify tax preparation through ProConnect, a professional tax management solution.
Other things you can do with QuickBooks
Depending on your product and plan, you may access additional features, including the following:
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
QuickBooks is used to manage a business’s financial transactions. Depending on your product and plan, you can use it to create and send invoices, manage and track unpaid bills, handle inventory, keep track of project profitability, view financial reports, and more.
QuickBooks Online is cloud-based software that can be accessed anytime and anywhere from any internet-enabled device and has monthly subscription options. Meanwhile, QuickBooks Desktop is an on-premise software that needs to be installed on the computer where you’ll use it and is available as an annual subscription. For more about their differences, read our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Desktop.
No, there’s no free version of QuickBooks for businesses, but there’s a 30-day free trial for new users. However, QuickBooks Online Accountant is free for professional bookkeepers. For accounting tools with free tiers, check out our top-recommended free accounting software.
Excel and QuickBooks are drastically different programs. QuickBooks is by far the most popular small business bookkeeping program in the US, whereas Excel is a spreadsheet program that advanced users may use to create their own custom bookkeeping program. While I don’t recommend using Excel as your base bookkeeping program, we do have a guide on how to use Excel for accounting. Our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Excel will help you better understand the differences between the tools.
The best QuickBooks product depends on your needs and the size of your business. If you have an SMB needing remote access to account files, choose QuickBooks Online. If you want the speed and usability of desktop software, then QuickBooks Desktop is preferable. If you’re a one-person business owner, consider QuickBooks Solopreneur.
It’s quite easy to learn QuickBooks given its user-friendly interface. All QuickBooks Online products have the same interface, and so do all the QuickBooks Desktop products. There are also free online training resources that you can use to get up to speed quickly. To get started, check out our free QuickBooks Online tutorials.
