Intuit QuickBooks Online Review 2021: The Features, Pros, Cons and Customer Support.

QuickBooks Online from Intuit is our choice as the best business accounting software for small businesses because of its affordable pricing and array of features that make managing accounts and sending invoices easy.

Features.

When we asked small business owners what the “perfect” accounting software should do, there was one resounding requirement across the board: save time. QuickBooks Online easily lives up to this expectation by providing the following features with its software.

Automations:

QuickBooks Online automates tasks, making accounting less time-consuming and less stressful for small business owners. Using the software, you can send recurring invoices and payment reminders, sync data from bank and credit card transactions, and reconcile and categorize expenses-all of which eliminate the tedious, time-consuming task of manually doing so for every single transaction.

Built-in Reports:

QuickBooks spares you the laborious task of creating financial reports from scratch, thanks to the software’s built-in reports, which include the trial balance, general ledger and 1099 transaction detail reports you’ll need come tax time. You can mark the reports you use most as favorites so you can quickly find them at the top of the Reports page. You can also set up the software to automatically run and email reports to you, and you can schedule them for a specific time of day and frequency, such as daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly. QuickBooks offers some of the best reporting functions of any company we reviewed.

Automatic Backups:

QuickBooks automatically backs up your data, so you never worry about whether your books are safe and up to date.

Electronic Invoicing:

Another timesaving feature is electronic invoicing. You can email invoices to customers through the system, track them, and accept online payments and electronic signatures. Other benefits for business owners with QuickBooks’ invoicing function include:

• Invoice emails are optimized for mobile devices so customers that open them using their phones can view them with ease.

• If you use Gmail, QuickBooks Online has an app that allows you to create and send invoices directly from your Gmail account. The invoices are then saved both in Gmail and QuickBooks.

• The project tracking feature that comes with the Plus plan has progress invoicing that allows you to bill customers in increments as you complete certain stages of the job or reach project milestones. The software automatically calculates how much you’ve billed for the project against the overall estimate.

Pricing.

QuickBooks Online is competitively priced, with several service tiers designed to accommodate the needs of different business types. The company gives you a 30-day free trial and is currently offering 50% off your subscription for three months.

Here is a breakdown of each plan:

• The Self-Employed plan, which is geared toward freelancers and independent contractors, is $15 per month. The plan sends and tracks invoices, helps keep your business and personal expenses separate, manages taxes, and tracks mileage.

• The Self-Employed Tax Bundle plan is $25 a month and includes the features in the Self-Employed plan, as well as the ability to move financial data into TurboTax and pay estimated quarterly taxes online.

• The Self-Employed Live Tax Bundle costs $35 per month. You get all the features in both of the above-listed plans, plus access to certified public accountants.

• The Simple Start plan for small businesses is $25 per month and supports one user. You can send estimates and invoices, track your expenses, manage sales tax and run basic reports.

• The Essentials plan supports up to three users and costs $50 per month. You get everything from the Simple Start plan in addition to payment tools and time-tracking.

• The Plus plan supports up to five users and costs $80 per month. You get everything from the Essentials plan, as well as product and inventory management, and the ability to track project profitability. This is the most popular QuickBooks Online plan.

• The Advanced plan supports up to 25 users and costs $180 per month. You get everything in the Plus plan and one license for Smart Reporting powered by Fathom. You also get up to 20 classes, on-demand online training, an account team and the ability to automate workflows.

QuickBooks Pros.

One huge plus of QuickBooks Online is how easy and quick it is to set up and use. After answering a few questions about your business, the program is quickly customized based on your responses. Once you are logged in, QuickBooks prompts you to perform certain tasks to get started. We like that the interface is attractive and intuitive and that you can glance at graphs on the dashboard to get a view of your sales performance, income, profit and loss statement, and expenses. We also like that QuickBooks lets you customize the date range when working with the interactive graphs.

It’s also easy to customize invoices and forms. QuickBooks gives you several templates, including accent colors and fonts within each template to choose from. We recommend watching the demo or taking advantage of the 30-day free trial to glean a better understanding of the platform’s usability. It’s always smart to try out your accounting software in some capacity before making a purchasing decision.

Another benefit of using QuickBooks Online is that it’s “accountant approved.” Not only does it have all the features accountants deem as must-haves for small businesses, but it also eliminates the learning curve, since most accountants already use QuickBooks. If you use an outside accountant, you can avoid compatibility issues, since the software allows you to give them access to the system.

QuickBooks Cons.

QuickBooks Online is an impressive accounting system that’s easy to use and includes all the features most small businesses need to efficiently accomplish their accounting tasks. However, there are some points to consider before you choose your software plan, including that:

• The self-employed plan isn’t upgradeable to the small business plans, so if your business is growing or if you have (or plan to hire) employees, you may want to start with one of the small business plans instead.

• The plans limit the number of users who can access the system.

• If you have multiple businesses, you need multiple subscriptions.

While there are a few limitations, there’s no denying the value QuickBooks can add to your business operation. The wide assortment of features and the affordable price makes it a great option for any small business.

Customer Service.

QuickBooks Online provides several support channels to its customers. It offers both phone and chat support, which you can access from the company’s website. If you prefer to troubleshoot problems yourself, the support page has a searchable knowledgebase, as well as articles, guides and videos. The QuickBooks Self-Employed app has a chatbot feature called QB Assistant that can answer a variety of questions about your account and connect you to live support.