ACCOUNTING
Quickbooks Review: The Ultimate Cloud-Based Accounting Software For Small Businesses
Table of Contents
QuickBooks is an accounting software package developed and marketed by Intuit. It is a comprehensive business and financial reporting suite mostly aimed at small to medium-sized enterprises that includes tools for accounting, procurement, payroll, tax filing, invoicing, bank account monitoring and reconciliation, cost management, budgeting, payment collection, and accounts receivable and payable management.
The feature set is not an exhaustive compilation of what QuickBooks is capable of. It can also be integrated with a variety of other tech applications to provide extra functionality. Take a look at our Quickbooks review and why it is the best accounting software for small businesses.
Quickbooks Features
Customise Your Invoicing and Expenses
Quickbooks offers a single dashboard profile where you can overview your business progress, check deeper insights for your business decisions, and use app integration to manage issues if you want a well-visualised invoicing template. Give your company a more professional feel and ensure your brand stands out on your invoices, estimates and sales receipts.
Accounting templates and invoice automations allow you to customise your logo, fonts, colour schemes, and more on the invoices you send out.
If you need to estimate a quote or invoice quickly, you can automate your invoices with a single click. Users can include discounts, payment methods, and a reminder when it’s time to chase these clients down for their payments. This method saves time and allows for greater accuracy when closing deals. You might want to use batch invoicing, estimates, and bills, but this is only available with the Advanced plan. Start using Quickbooks’ invoicing and expense features to help your accounting services progress.
Cloud Accounting With Live Bookkeeping
Real-time saving can save your company from having to spend all of its time trying to track down any files that may have been lost along the way with invoices or accounting. With Quickbooks’ cloud-saving technology, you can keep your reports up to date and make faster progress toward your goals. Quickbooks allows you to track your income and expenses while also providing you with the peace of mind that your data is always correct.
Quickbooks also has a live bookkeeping feature that you can use to consult with them about your bookkeeping. If you require professional bookkeeping assistance, you can drop them a line and they will help you update your books, set up your Quickbooks account, categorise your transactions, and even run detailed reports. The live bookkeeping allows you to make critical decisions based on how your business is performing.
Inventory Management
Inventory management enables users to make more informed decisions. If you run a business with multiple sales channels, Quickbooks can help you organise your product list. Quickbooks will notify you when it is time to replenish your inventory. This feature is extremely useful for getting a real-time report on how your products are performing and which items you should stop focusing on. Furthermore, Quickbooks enables users to raise brand awareness and expand their market by endorsing their availability. You can configure your items’ default sales and purchase prices, as well as SKU numbers.
Payments
Quickbooks can be used to automate payment reminders for recurring invoices, billings, and other payment services. Quickbooks charges 2.9 percent + $0.25 for each online invoice paid with a credit card. When a customer swipes their card, they pay 2.4 percent + $0.25 per transaction, and 3.4 percent + $0.25 per keyed-in transaction with a 1& charge on ACH transfers. All of these payment fees are saved in Quickbooks’ cloud, so you won’t have to keep track of them manually. You can also track payments with their app integrations.
Time Tracking
If your workers aren’t making the most use of their resources, it will cut into the budget without increasing earnings. Time management will assist you in identifying inefficiencies and teaching you how to plan your time.
Using time monitoring to obtain accurate data on the workflow can be extremely beneficial. Employee start time, job name, and project nature are all easily open to you, allowing you to keep track of tasks in real time — and without having to bother your team for time forecasts. Seeing the project status at a glance makes it easy to identify inefficiencies and projects that require extra assistance. You should also check to see if the project is on schedule and change the process accordingly.
Automated time accounting tools will actually boost the workflow of your teammates. They don’t have to think about timesheets or remember how much time they spent on a job. Instead, they can automatically log time with a few taps. Furthermore, if you have a cloud-based system, your employees can log time from anywhere, on any computer. QuickBooks includes an all-in-one time tracking solution that provides easy, precise time tracking insight. Some of QuickBooks’ time monitoring solution’s highlights include the ability to:
Employee time can be tracked, sent, and approved when on the go
With reminders, you can keep track of overtime and paid days off (PTO)
Obtain precise employee perspectives
See who is running, where they are working, and on what job
Employee schedules can be created using task divisions and shifts
Simplify payroll features
How Much Does Quickbooks Cost?
Quickbooks offers a variety of plans for sole proprietors, corporations, LLCs, freelancers, and others. They have two pricing plans: one for small businesses and one for freelancers.
Small businesses can use their Simple Start paid plan, which costs $12.50 per month and includes features such as tracking income and expenses, sending estimates, and running general reports. If you want to add three more users to Quickbooks, their $20/month Essentials plan adds features like bill management and payment, as well as the ability to track employee time.
For only $35 per month, you can get five Quickbooks users, track your inventory, and project profitability with their most popular paid plan Plus. However, if you need more features, their Advanced paid plan is $75/month and allows you to batch invoices and expenses, automate workflows, and more.
On the other hand, freelancers looking for the best features at an affordable price can pay for a standard $7.50/month plan that includes reliable accounting and invoice tracking, the ability to run basic reports, and the ability to stay tax-time ready all year.
Another reason to sign up for Quickbooks is the ability to do receipt capture, app integration, and customer support on any of the pricing plans. Quickbooks also offers a free consultation for Live Bookkeeping, and all plans include a 30-day free trial.
App Integrations With Quickbooks
Businesses of all sizes require quick accounting and invoicing, especially if they have a lot of work to do in other areas. Quickbooks understands how to eliminate time-consuming and repetitive tasks by integrating app integration for your favourite tools and services. Some of these apps can automate your accounting, analyse your taxes, and help you run your business while you’re on the go.
Calculating Quotes
Quotient
MoreReporting
Armatic
GoProposal
Payments
Beanworks
Bento For Business
Bill.com
Checkflo
Analytics
Fathom
LivePlan
Taxomate
Qvinci
Tax Preparation
Link My Books
1099 MISC e-file by Tax 1099.com
Tax Planner Pro
G1VE
Receive Payments
Melio
Practice Ignition
Stripe
Paypal by Sush.io
More app integrations are available at Quickbooks’ App Integration page that aren’t mentioned in this Quickbooks review. You can find relevant apps for your accounting and invoicing needs here.
Quickbooks Alternatives
If you’re not sure with the satisfaction you’ll get with this Quickbooks review, there are other options you can look into before subscribing. Pricing and features are two of the most important criteria to consider when comparing alternatives. With these considerations, let us see if Quickbooks alternatives can outperform its features and provide you with the best fit to meet your specific needs.
Sage
Sage makes it simple to scale your business because it has a wide range of features that are not only US-focused but also have specifics for UK-based businesses. It is a type of online accounting software that allows you to access and manage your cash flow as well as track your invoices. The majority of its users are small and medium-sized businesses that want to consolidate invoices, reporting, and bookkeeping tasks into a single dashboard and cloud storage. The advantage of using Sage for your business is that its powerful features are also available in its mobile version. You can make real-time changes to your accounts without having to worry about the time-consuming process of accounting and tax payments.
However, many previous Sage users find the interface to be out of date. Sage is at risk of losing touch with its competitors. You can still rely on Sage Online Accounting services starting at $10/month for solopreneurs and small teams with a few improvements in the future.
Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting has a reputation of being easy to use among accounting firms and businesses. It is a free cloud-based accounting application that supports double-entry accounting, banking, reporting, sales, and purchasing. It also has features similar to Quickbooks, such as custom invoice creation, customer management, and inventory tracking. While it is free, the restrictions may push you to purchase their subscription. If you are willing to pay an additional fee for sending and receiving payments as well as payroll, it costs $19 per month and may also charge transaction fees.
Wave’s unlimited features include the ability to unlock invoicing, calculate sales tax, and more with its free to use forever plan.
Kashoo
Kashoo is a pioneering online accounting software that, through its mobility, modernises accounting. What distinguishes Kashoo from its competitors is that its user-friendly features are evident on their mobile platform. Kashoo also saves all of your data on your Apple or Android device while you are on the go or if there is an internet outage in your area. It also provides free web support to its subscribers.
The accounting tool is very user-friendly and is geared toward business owners who are unfamiliar with accounting services. Customisation options are limited and it only provides one template. It compensates for this with recurring invoice settings and allows you to easily add sales tax rates. Kashoo costs $16.65 per month and includes a 14-day free trial of essential accounting features such as OCR Receipt Matching, Sales And Sales Tax Tracking, and more.
Final Thoughts
Although many cloud-based softwares are emerging to assist small businesses, Quickbooks meets the needs of the majority of business owners. QuickBooks’ parent company, Intuit, offers a wide range of applications and apps. Before implementing a solution from a tech firm, it is prudent to examine the entire ecosystem of items. It’s also advantageous to use different devices from the same manufacturer because they tend to gel well together, so choose your platform wisely after reading this Quickbooks review.