Quickbooks has priced its Simple Start platform very competitively when compared to other similar products. The affordability of the platform makes it one of the best available accounting solutions suited for small businesses. Quickbooks Online Simple Start is priced at $25 per month, and the company also offers a 30-days trial period for organizations to understand the functionalities of the platform before making any commitments. Moreover, Quickbook is offering a 50% discount on its Simple Start application for a period of three months.
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Quickbooks Online is a financial software developed by Intuit that is used by businesses to keep track of their finances. It is a United States-based company founded by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in 1983. Quickbooks comes with various tools and features that cater to all business needs related to accounting and finance.
It is a monthly subscription-based platform that is built for companies of all scales. Apart from accounting, Quickbooks also provides features that can be used to manage Sales Operations, including Inventory Tracking, Customer Information, Generating Sales Reports, and many more related tasks. It is a Cloud-based platform that allows companies to store accounting data and access them from anywhere without having the need to install any specialized infrastructure in their workspace.
Organizations can easily connect their bank accounts with Quickbooks to automatically import and categorize business transactions. With Quickbooks, organizations can also send Digital Invoices to customers and track the performance of their business. The software comes with a very user-friendly interface that lets individuals with no knowledge of finance use the platform effortlessly. Quickbooks also offers many complex features, like Payroll and Field Service Management in its enterprise edition. The platform can be used by businesses operating in various industries such as Manufacturing, Retail, Construction, Non-Profit, Wholesale, and many others.
Enterprises get to send payment reminders to customers at ease that helps them run their businesses effectively. Quickbooks also provides a smartphone application for both Android and iOS that enables companies to operate their businesses at any time from anywhere. Since its launch, Quickbooks has been adding new utility features that have made it one of the most popular financial software globally. Over 4.5 million companies use Quickbooks as their preferred platform to meet their accounting needs. To date, Quickbooks has acquired two companies, namely Bankstream and OneSaaS.
Key Features of Quickbooks
1) Raise Invoices
Quickbooks lets companies create and send Invoices to customers effortlessly. Users can attach their payment gateway links directly on their invoices that also help with payment collection. The software also displays all the expenses in a single Dashboard, making it easier to analyze. Quickbooks supports the use of foreign currencies for sales, and companies can set personalized pricing according to their needs.
2) Manage Expenses
Organizations can effectively track and manage all of their expenses using Quickbooks. The smartphone application of Quickbooks also allows companies to click and save pictures of their receipts, which Quickbooks automatically matches with existing transactions.
3) Payroll Management
This is a feature that lets companies manage their employees. It is crucial for businesses to have smooth and streamlined employee management to ensure seamless business operations. With this feature, organizations can calculate the earnings of employees, deductions, taxes, and lots more.
4) Easy Report Management and Finances
Quickbooks displays all the necessary metrics related to finance on a unified Dashboard that helps organizations get a better understanding of the financial operations of their businesses. Companies can input transactions from multiple bank accounts in a short time using the feature named ‘Income Tracker.’
Quickbooks can also generate specific reports like Profit & Loss, Income Statements, Budgets, and many more. The generated reports are designed according to the users’ needs. The reports can be easily exported in excel format, which helps in sharing them with other employees.
5) Easy Data Imports
Quickbooks allows companies to easily import essential business data directly from Microsoft Excel, Outlook, and Gmail, which makes the transition to Quickbooks an effortless task. This feature also helps to improve the manageability of data.
6) Multi-User Feature
Quickbooks lets its customers assign multiple permissions to companies so that they can access customer accounts from anywhere in the world. The permissions option gives customers the option of choosing the data that different companies can view on their devices.
QuickBooks Options & Pricing
QuickBooks comes in both a cloud-based online program and a traditional desktop program. You can read about the pros and cons of each platform in our QuickBooks Online vs Desktop comparison. Most of the online and desktop versions will perform the tasks discussed above, but they come with a wide variety of advanced features and a wide range of prices.
QuickBooks Desktop: Starting in 2022, Mac, Pro, Premier, and Enterprise will only be available via an annual subscription. The annual subscription includes free upgrades, data backups, and QuickBooks’ newest features.
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based product that doesn’t require software installation. This QuickBooks product is available in multiple subscription levels, including Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. It’s ideal for any business that doesn’t have complicated job-costing requirements. QuickBooks Online allows you to access your data from any computer with an internet connection by using your secure login.
QuickBooks Desktop
QuickBooks Desktop comes in six versions: Pro, Pro Plus, Premier, Premier Plus, Enterprise, and QuickBooks for Mac. Each requires you to install software on your computer. QuickBooks Pro will work well for most small businesses that don’t manufacture products and prefer a desktop solution.
QuickBooks Premier is ideal if your business falls into one of these industries: manufacturing, contractors, retail, or nonprofit. QuickBooks Enterprise is for large enterprises. These industry-specific versions of QuickBooks Desktop include a custom chart of accounts and industry-specific reports.
The Plus versions of Pro and Premier are sold as annual memberships instead of a one-time purchase. Your annual membership includes the new edition each year, unlimited customer support, and off-site backup of your company data.
Moreover, you can be more productive with QuickBooks Desktop by getting a hosting provider. QuickBooks hosting lets you access your Desktop software anywhere through a remote server. Check out our list of the best QuickBooks hosting providers.
QuickBooks Self-Employed
QuickBooks Self-Employed is the ideal product for freelancers, real estate agents, and independent contractors like Uber and Lyft drivers. Similar to QuickBooks Online, it’s a cloud-based product that can be accessed with your secure login from any computer with an internet connection. It includes unique features that aren’t available in QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop like the ability to track business and personal expenses from the same bank account and transfer data to TurboTax.
QuickBooks Self-Employed will calculate your estimated quarterly tax payments and remind you when they’re due. There are three QuickBooks Self-Employed pricing plans from which to choose: Self-Employed, Self-Employed Tax Bundle, and Self-Employed Live Tax Bundle. To learn more, read our QuickBooks Self-Employed guide.
If you’re a startup business with plans for expanding your workforce, QuickBooks Self-Employed isn’t the ideal QuickBooks product for you. QuickBooks Self-Employed cannot be upgraded to other QuickBooks versions.
QuickBooks for Mac
QuickBooks for Mac is the only QuickBooks desktop product available for Mac users. This edition is very similar to QuickBooks Pro, and it works well for most small businesses that don’t manufacture products. Check out our article on QuickBooks for Mac to learn more.
Surefire Steps to Conquer QuickBooks Online if You’re an Accountant
Accountants and bookkeepers often ask me what they should do first to familiarize themselves with their clients’ QuickBooks® Online accounts. Rest assured, it’s not as daunting as it may seem. Here are my 10 key steps to getting comfortable with QuickBooks Online.
Unlike traditional desktop software, QuickBooks Online is accessible across multiple devices and operating systems, much like an app you’d use on a smartphone or tablet. If you’re accustomed to desktop software, the cloud-based layout can take a little getting used to. Let’s walk through it piece by piece.
Dashboard: When you open a client’s company, the home page will show you an interactive overview of their Invoices, Sales, Expenses, Profit and Loss, and Bank Accounts.
Left navigation: In this panel you’ll find the various tabs you need for working in your clients’ QuickBooks, broken up by category. When you click on a tab, smaller subcategories will appear along the top. For example, by clicking the Sales tab, you can access these subcategories: All Sales, Invoices, Customers and Products and Services.
Gear icon: By clicking on the gear icon in the upper right corner, you’ll be able to access your clients’ Account and Settings, Lists, Tools, and more.
Note: When a small gear icon appears in the upper corner of a list, table, transaction or report, you’ll find options there to configure the settings.
Create (+) icon: All the types of transactions and activities you and your client can create in QuickBooks Online are in one menu. Just click the Create (+) icon next to the search bar to select what you’d like to add.
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Search bar: The search bar allows you to quickly find a transaction. Accountants can also use it to quickly open a report or bank account register. Just start typing the name of the report or account. Clicking the search box once will also show a list of recent transactions added to the books.
Accountant toolbox: This menu will only appear if you are signed in as an accountant user. Here, you’ll find tools that are exclusive to accountants, as well as shortcuts to the tools and transactions we think you’ll use most.
Client drop-down: As an accountant, you can toggle back and forth between clients or jump into your own practice by clicking on the client drop-down list. If you have a long list of clients, quickly jump to the one you’re looking for by typing the company name in the Find a client field.
Once inside the Account and Settings section, I recommend all accountant users get familiar with the Advanced tab. Here, you’ll find options such as Close the Books (where you can set a closing date and password) and Enable Account Numbers.
Note: The Billing & Subscription tab will only appear if your client is paying for their subscription. If you are using Wholesale Billing, you’ll manage the client’s billing and subscription through QuickBooks Online Accountant.
A great Chart of Accounts is key to solid reporting. You can access yours from the gear-icon menu, the Accounting tab on the left panel or your Accountant toolbox. You can set up the Chart of Accounts manually or by importing an existing list from Excel. If you’ve converted a client’s QuickBooks Desktop file, the Chart of Accounts converts as well.
The drop down menus under the Action column on the far right give the option to edit accounts individually, delete accounts or mark them inactive.
References:
https://hevodata.com/learn/quickbooks-online-simple-start/
https://fitsmallbusiness.com/what-is-quickbooks/
https://www.firmofthefuture.com/content/10-steps-accountants-can-take-to-get-more-comfortable-with-quickbooks-online/
https://floatapp.com/blog/how-to-use-quickbooks-online/