QuickBooks Online Review: Pros, Cons, Features
Many users are upset by Intuit’s forced move to subscription pricing. That said, we liked its intuitive user interface and custom invoicing. QuickBooks is the most widely-used financial software, allowing unlimited invoicing even at basic subscription levels, while offering bank reconciliation and scalability.
We dislike QuickBooks Online’s limit of 25 concurrent users, its absence of advanced inventory features, and the requirement for some accounting knowledge to use it effectively.
- Widely used by most accountants
- Tons of integrations available
- Customizable invoicing
- Extensive pre-built and custom reports
- Automatic exchange rates
- Comparatively expensive
- Few industry-specific features
- Limited users per plan
- Client OS Web
- Deployment Cloud Hosted
What Is QuickBooks Online?
The QuickBooks Online app is the most popular financial software on the market. The cloud-based accounting solution allows you to track sales and expenses, create estimates, manage customers, and collaborate with an outside accountant. It also provides comprehensive functionalities for capturing and organizing receipts, maximizing tax deductions, and invoicing and accepting payments.
| Pros | Cons |
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Our Ratings
| Usability - 7 | Requires basic knowledge of accounting concepts; powerful global search function; intuitive and user-friendly design; not great for companies requiring multi-entity accounting and global consolidation; users report encountering numerous glitches that are not resolved in updates. |
| Support - 6.5 | Offers 24/7 live chat support for all plans; offers phone support 5 am-6 pm PST Mon-Fri and 7 am-4 pm Sat-Sun; provides additional guidance via webinars, tutorials, and resource center; reaching an actual customer support agent can be difficult; users cite that issues are not always resolved after contacting support. |
| Scalability - 7 | Scalable platform with over 750 integrations; offers iOS and Android apps capable of basic bookkeeping; lacks industry-specific services. |
| Security - 10 | Supports multi-factor authentication and two-step verification; allows you to export customers, employees, vendors, and financial data to Excel. |
| Value - 6.5 | Monthly subscription fees support a limited number of users; lower level plans do not have basic inventory management; many users are upset over forced move to subscription pricing; only allows one company per subscription; invoicing and billing for unlimited clients. |
| Performance - 8 | Dashboards update instantly with new invoices and bills; can take QuickBooks online up to 5 minutes to process and parse uploaded bills; slight delay when reviewing transactions. |
| Key Features - 10 | Easy to implement recurring invoices and bills; allows users to add new customers during the billing process; bank reconciliation layout is simple and intuitive; provides robust custom reporting. |
Who Uses QuickBooks Online?
We recommend Intuit’s QuickBooks Online for small to mid-level companies in the accounting, information technology, and professional services industries. With a basic, well-rounded feature set, QuickBooks Online is great at general accounting operations but lacks industry-specific functions. Bottom line, it’s an excellent solution for service-based businesses that don’t track inventory in their books.
What Features Are Missing?
- Industry-specific features: QuickBooks Online takes a generalized approach to accounting. For example, there are no industry-specific editions for manufacturing or healthcare. NetSuite might be a better option if you want a platform with more out-of-the-box capabilities.
- Unlimited user access: Many accounting solutions allow unlimited user access to their platforms. However, QuickBooks Online puts a cap on the number of concurrent users (or users that require access at the same time). Though users can share the same logins, this will ultimately impact your audit trail. Furthermore, QuickBooks Online performs best with five or fewer users accessing the software simultaneously.
QuickBooks Online Pricing
| Plan | Pricing | Features |
| Self-Employed | $15/month |
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| Simple Start | $30/month | Includes Self-Employed features and:
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| Essentials | $55/month (Up to 3 users) | Includes Simple Start features and:
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| Plus | $85/month (Up to 5 users) | Includes Essential features and:
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| Advanced | $200/month (Up to 25 users) | Includes Plus features and:
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Payroll is available as an add-on to any version of QuickBooks Online, starting at $75 monthly. You can access the Premium payroll package at $100 monthly and the Elite version at $160 monthly. All plans add a $5 monthly fee for each employee.
Is QuickBooks A One-Time Purchase?
No. QuickBooks Online requires an ongoing monthly subscription to gain access to the software. Because the platform is cloud-hosted, you’ll need internet access to activate and maintain QuickBooks Online support and services. It starts at $15/month for the Self-Employed plan and $30/month for Simple Start.
How Long Does It Take To Learn QuickBooks Online?
Users without accounting knowledge may need several weeks or months to achieve proficiency in QuickBooks. On the other hand, users familiar with bookkeeping concepts will master the software more quickly. Intuit even offers a 2-day class and certification exam to boost your credibility as an accountant.
Does QuickBooks Do Taxes?
QuickBooks does sales tax calculation within the software but doesn’t handle tax filing directly. In QuickBooks, you can organize income and business expenses into tax categories and share your books with your accountant. You can then download your reports for use in another tax filing program. The QuickBooks Self-Employed and TurboTax Self-Employed bundle allows you to export your tax info directly to TurboTax.
Alternatives
Summary
We recommend QuickBooks Online for small to medium-sized companies in the professional services, accounting, and information technology sectors. Service-based organizations that regularly invoice the same clients weekly or monthly and don’t track inventory in their books will benefit most from the platform.
However, QuickBooks’ monthly subscription fees might prove cost-prohibitive to smaller companies. Because the platform is more of a generalized accounting solution, we don’t recommend it for companies needing industry-specific features. Better-suited options include NetSuite or QuickBooks Enterprise.
We think QuickBooks Online is a great pick for its custom financial reporting, user-friendly interface, and over 750 integrations that help the software scale with your growing business.
User Reviews of QuickBooks Online
I tried the software for my construction business and found it to be clunky. It felt built more for a retail or accounting business. It lacked the project centric focus that is required in doing any type of construction accounting. I realize they have add-on’s but it becomes cost prohibitive for a small business like myself. I also found their customer service to be extremely frustrating.
For a holding company with multiple subsidiaries, Quickbooks has not been a great fit. For each entity, we have had to set up a new Quickbooks, creating a very disjointed work flow. Overall our process is very confusing. Though the software may be a good fit for a solo entity, trying to utilize it for multi entity accounting has been less than streamlined.
I was using Quickbooks Pro but was told I needed to switch to the Online version. I was charged $300 and then they added an additional charge for $500. When I pushed back on the additional charge, they informed me I could not access my software and data until I paid the extra fee. I feel like my information is being held hostage. I would never have agreed to switch.
We are consistently running into glitches in the software. When we reach out to support, it never seems like they have an answer. The biggest concern is with our profit and loss statments being off. As a governement entity, it is imperative our numbers are accurate. Without support being able to offer us any long term fix, we had to look into other software.
The software is not built for compnaies that require multi-entity accounting with the ability to also then consolidate for reporting. We are using the program for our client who has 15 separate entities and we currently have shared files, across the same system, not able to report the entites separately. They also require the ability to consolidate the entities and the software is just not abe to support those capabilites.
The interface is dated and the invenotry feature is lacking. As a manufacturer, inventory control is essential to our decision making and in QB Online our inventory count is consistently off. We have resorted to using a multitude of spreadsheets to try to maintain some level of accuracy. The system is just not up to the level of competency our size business needs to be successful.
If you aren’t an accountant, the system is very hard to understand. I have been on a trial for the last 3 months and I am at the point where I just have to find something new. If I make one error, and don’t immediately recognize it, everything I have been working on for the day is ruined. I want to easily set up categories and track expenditures alongside those categories but the system is so complex, I have no idea what I am looking at.
The system is so limited with its permissions. I can’t give access to an employee to create say their own purcahse order or sales ticket withouth them being able to see every aspect of the software, including the finances for the business. In trouble shooting, Quickbooks will ask for money but the problem does not get solved. This is causing a large amount of duplicate work across our departments.
We were on Quickbooks Desktop but as they discontinued the software, we were forced to make the move to the Online version. It has been nothing short of a nightmare. We have poured continual funds into trying to make the software work but at this point, our information is such a mess, we won’t even open the program. Our taxes have been delayed by it, with categories and line items randomly duplicated.
QuickBooks is more user friendly than sage but that comes at a comprimise. If you do not have much book keeping understanding, you can make errors without even realizing it. I have worked with a few small businesses who end up making big mistakes towards the end of the year.
One thing I did not like about QuickBooks is their reporting format to show debit and credits.
However, the ease of entry on QuickBooks is far better than Sage and is super easy to understand.
Very intutive interfaces
can make mistakes without realizing it.
This is the one of unfriendliest computer software or computer applications I ever used. One of the worst experiences with customer support representatives also.
Nothing
This is the one of unfriendliest computer software or computer applications I ever used. One of the worst experiences with customer support representatives also.
When trying to learn more about QuickBooks all they would do is try to sell me. I asked questions and it seemed no one knew anything about accounting. I ended up going with Striven.
No pros for QuickBooks
Terrible support. No one understood accounting. They only tried to sell.
QBO is only convenient for invoicing customers and viewing most of your transactions. (They don’t always come through the way they are supposed to) The software is not perfect and hard to learn even with professional assistance. Customer service is basically non-existent. So if you have a question or concern, you receive no help from Intuit. The software favors the customers over the merchant. I have had a couple instances with customer chargebacks and disputes. Intuit does not even alert the merchant of a declined ACH bank transfer unless the funds entered your account and were pulled back out. If the transaction was declined initially, you wouldn’t know, unless you are savvy enough to check your Merchant Page. Which is a totally separate web page from your company login. Very dissatisfied with QBO and Intuit Customer Service reps that barely understand the program themselves. I would recommend another software for smaller businesses.
Being able to link your bank accounts is handy. However, Intuit does not have every bank or credit card type available to link. You will have to manually download or add transactions if you have a less than mainstream bank or credit card type.
The customer service is a joke. The software is problematic with refunds, manually added transactions, and glitches. If a customer files a chargeback, it is automatically pulled and held at Inuit for months and months with little communication options for the merchant.
Don’t waste your time. Customer service doesn’t understand English concepts. Took 30 minutes just to get rep to understand problem. Rep then wastes another 20 minutes at same point i had been stuck at without knowing what to do. Finally asked for a supervisor and was parked on hold for 15-20 minutes before I hung up and canceled the charge.
A great way to waste time by talking to customer service
Customer service not understanding English concepts. It should never take 30 minutes for any rep to understand why someone is calling them.
It is absolutely brilliant as an accounting software
The support is terrible and it doesnt meet my job costing needs.
We hate Quickbooks Online. I don’t know if we aren’t on the right version but none of the information is where we need it to be
cost prohibitive for the functionality I get with it.
The solution is too expensive. We pay $600 annually for it and can’t figure out why it could possibly cost this much
It was great for core accounting, but limited when we needed it to do more complex tasks
Their customer service is awful, when I spend an hour on the phone on hold with them it’s a waste of my day, the price continues to go up and is too much.
Quickbooks online doesn’t fit our needs on the invoicing because you can’t customize invoices. We bill on milestone, % based invoicing, and QB’s only does product invoicing.
Has ease of access, user friendly system, straightforward reports but missing intercompany communication, consolidated options, and is restricting with certain reports
Date and check numbers all run together. I can’t open the next month without opening the next month, but then I can’t go back to the previous month. I’ve never been able to get the system to print a check
There’s too many factors involved to do e-commerce. There’s too many duplications of invoices within the system which causes a major accounting issue.
I dislike the reporting for Quickbooks Online since it seems to give false data. Even if we run two reports on the same thing, we get completely different figures.
The only reason I went with Quickbooks online is because they don’t offer a desktop version for MAC in Canada. They gave me 60% off of their montly price for the first year so I was paying $12 per month. Now they want me to pay $27 per month plus tax so $31 per month for another year. They said I would need to keep the solution for a full year at that price before they could consider a discount again and I feel like they are holding me hostage.
We just did our first year end with them and the system doesn’t allow you to make any changes or modifactions to the payroll module or T4 and doesn’t allow us to pay the housing allowment, we ended up having to do everything manually
The online edition is frustrating to work with. When our business was on the desktop version, it was easy to use. However, since I could not upgrade my desktop 2015 version to be compatible with MAC, I had to use QB Online which puts erroneous numbers into the program.
They forced me to go online in order to keep up with exchange rates, I prefer to have it behind my fire wall at home and can’t do that. I’m royally pissed with them.
Everything has to be done manually for reporting and it doesn’t provide good enough tracking on how to gather data for reports.
Quickbooks online has little to no controls or reporting and I find myself having to dump data into Excel
The problem is it doesn’t split between residential and commercial and it would cost me an insane amount of money to upgrade
There is no way to successfully track inventory and it is an old system not suited for our needs
the QB online requires a bit of a learning curve
I love Quickbooks Online because it allows me to use it remotely. It’s a simple accounting program that integrates with a lot of other programs.
Great solution.
Quickbooks online has always had limitations that the desktop had answers for specific industries, being able to access it from anywhere has been the driver to use the online version
It was really good. The whole accounting system, I liked it. We just couldn’t afford it as a small organization with virtually no extra spending cash. I’d highly recommend it to other companies.
I liked how it compiled the information and retrieved it when searched for.
N/A
Used QuickBooks since 2000, I am familiar with the program. It was a big selling point. I have a MAC computer so using QB Online is useful. Not much else available on a Mac computer. I wanted to stay with my HP or PC-based Quickbooks, but I needed to share it with my accountant and my COO so I had no choice but to use the QuickBooks Online. One of my big problems that I’ve had is I use Windstream. It will go down a lot and be slow so I can’t access QB.
It’s better than hand balancing a check-book, that is for sure.
Hard to pinpoint as I do not use a lot of the features. I mostly use it for accounting just to keep track of everything.
It’s so much better to have everything available to me and the employees online. Additionally, my with mobile phone I can add the Quickbooks app and review invoices, etc… The integration to payroll systems such as ZenPayroll allow me to run payroll right off my phone… Finally, there’s the project management apps that are available such as BigTime. All of these applications integration with Quickbooks and it makes things easier to manage.
It looks like it will fit our needs considering the relatively small size of our company
that it is web based
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