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QuickBooks Online is a comprehensive accounting software best suited for experienced business owners who require advanced reporting, cash flow projections, and over 800 integrations
The platform includes plenty of functionality for streamlining accounting tasks that might otherwise be missed or forgotten. It pre-populates fields, previews emails, automatically flags mismatched balances, and lets users set up alerts for everything from tax deadlines to payment reminders.
However, some processes are more difficult than others, and establishing the right workflow may require some effort. Below, we’ll share our review of everything QuickBooks has to offer, including its core features, costs, and live support.
- QuickBooks offers robust customizable invoicing, multi-currency support, and extensive reporting, but lacks built-in time-tracking functionality.
- Monthly pricing ranges from $20 for Solopreneur up to $340 for the Advanced plan, offering 50% off the first three months.
- The platform suits experienced business owners who need data-crunching tools like cash flow projections, but should expect a steep learning curve.
- Live customer support is available via phone and live chat during dedicated weekday and Saturday hours, but there is no email support.
- Alternative accounting solutions include Zoho Books for small businesses, Xero for online sellers, and FreeAgent for budget-conscious tax forecasting.
QuickBooks: At a Glance
QuickBooks is a popular accounting solution that offers a range of tools to help businesses manage their finances, monitor cash flow, and streamline everyday accounting tasks. Here’s a closer look at the key advantages and potential drawbacks of the platform:
- Broad range of reports and templates for nearly any business needs
- Automatically flags mismatched balances
- Clear, understandable set-up guide for the main dashboard
- Cash flow projection tools to help long-term financial viability
- Designed for high efficiency thanks to tools like pre-populated fields and email previews
- Steep learning curve due to the complexity of tools like tax setup and expense creation
Who is QuickBooks best for?
QuickBooks is best for experienced business owners who need complex data reporting, customizable templates, and cash flow projections.
As a result of this complexity, we recommend the platform for experienced business owners: You’ll get the most out of the software if you already understand how to use accounting software and how to set up workflows. Less experienced business managers may want to consider it as well, provided they don’t mind a difficult learning curve.
My experience with QuickBooks
After a session of practical, hands-on testing, I was split on the pros and cons of the QuickBooks interface.
My positive experience largely focused on the easy-to-use layout, robust features, and advanced business tools. Many of the support resources and interface design elements were high-quality. The setup guide was helpful for beginners; the tooltips popped up automatically when needed, and the well-organized dashboard made the process of locating tasks painless.
The learning curve is quite steep. Compared to FreshBooks, where you could go in and get started straight away, it takes more time to understand where to do things.” -Tech.co tester
Some tasks were more efficient than others. I loved the way estimates could be converted into invoices in a flash, and how payment reminder notifications help ensure your clients don’t forget to settle up. Other tasks were unclear or time-consuming, however, such as the overly complex creation process for tax workflows and expenses. Some help articles from the online knowledge base wouldn’t load, which only created further challenges.
On the whole, QuickBooks is well worth considering, but you’ll need to plan on taking some time to figure it out and truly get the ball rolling. Once you do, the customizable report templates and data-crunching tools like cash flow projection can give you far more business insights than most other accounting software options on the market.
What are QuickBooks’ key features?
QuickBooks offers strong functionality overall. But how does that break down across all the tasks that a modern accounting platform should handle?
Core accounting tools
QuickBooks provides standard core accounting and invoicing features but lacks native time-tracking functionality.
Its invoicing tools support automatic and recurring invoicing, tax calculations, the ability to tell when clients have viewed an invoice, and multi-currency support (a perk that rival FreshBooks doesn’t offer). It has great transaction documentation, import/export capabilities, and auto-logs everything in the general ledger.
Financial planning tools
QuickBooks lets users track upcoming bills and expenses on a monthly basis, and project incoming and outgoing cash flow. On the Plus and Advanced plans, you’ll be able to set budgets for specific customers as well.
Users will be able to create their own custom reports (a feature that competitors like FreshBooks and Clear Books don’t support), although the software includes plenty of templates for common accounting needs such as income statements, cash flow statements, balance sheets, and much more.
Inventory management is more limited, however, with no automatic calculations for asset value depreciation or amortization. Try Zoho Books if complex inventory or stock management is a priority for your operation.
Operational efficiency tools
QuickBooks includes plenty of customization options, from the previously mentioned reports to invoice templates that can include your own business logos, branding, terms, and details. You’ll be able to set permissions to give departments different approvals, and the platform’s mobile app adds extra flexibility to business managers who aren’t always near a desktop.
Integrations
QuickBooks supports over 800 third-party integrations, trailing Xero’s 1,000+ app marketplace but surpassing most competitors. An open API is also available, although you’ll need to create an Intuit Developer account in order to get access.
How much does QuickBooks cost?
QuickBooks prices start at $20 per month for the Solopreneur plan, which is specifically for solo independent workers like freelancers or contractors. The others are Simple Start ($38/month), Essentials ($85/month), and Plus ($140/month), followed by the costly Advanced plan ($340/month), aimed at large operations.
You can check out the table below for a quick look at the plans, or see our full QuickBooks Pricing guide for even more detail.
For comparison, the cheapest starting cost for our favorite accounting solutions is Clear Books, at £16 per month (roughly $21.63), although you’ll get the most features with Zoho Books, starting at $15 per month. Either option will be less costly than QuickBooks.
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Users
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Bookkeeping
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Accounts payable
Does it include a range of accounts payable functions?
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Accounts receivable
Does it include a range of accounts receivable functions?
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Project accounting
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Financial reporting
Does it offer financial reporting tools?
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Budget and forecasting
Does it offer budgeting and forecasting tools?
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$20/month |
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25 |
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What Support Options Does QuickBooks offer?
QuickBooks offers several online resources, which are designed to be the first port of call when users need help. These include a knowledge center and a user forum.
During testing, I found these were decently helpful resources, although not the absolute best. Tasks such as setting up recurring invoices and creating transaction fees were unclear.
“The help and support for taxes doesn’t answer queries but just tells you how to use the feature.” – Tech.co tester
These challenges are one reason why I think small business owners should be wary of the learning curve that QuickBooks requires, even if the impressive features ultimately make the platform worth getting.
For most plans, phone support is available from 6 am to 6 pm PT on weekdays, or from 6 am to 3 pm on Saturday. For QuickBooks Advanced, support hours are 6am to 7pm PT on weekdays and 6am to 3pm PT on weekends. Live chat and a chatbot are also available as forms of support that can guide users towards answers that can’t be addressed through online resources. Email support is not offered at all, however.
What are the best alternatives to QuickBooks?
QuickBooks is a great accounting solution, but it doesn’t offer everything.
Zoho Books is best for retailers that need comprehensive support for order deliveries, while Xero offers the best ecommerce tools, and FreeAgent will send you automated tax deadline reminders to ensure a forgetful small business owner still wraps up their taxes without paying a single fine.
Whatever you’re interested in, we recommend you check out the competition with a glance at our quick comparison table here.
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Free trial
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Try now
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BEST ALTERNATIVE
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QuickBooks |
Zoho Books |
Xero |
FreeAgent |
FreshBooks |
Clear Books |
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Free |
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Free |
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30 days |
14 days |
30 days |
30 days |
30 days |
30 days |
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Budget-conscious businesses |
New businesses |
Professionals requiring comprehensive tax preparation tools |
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| Try QuickBooks | Try Zoho Books | Try Xero now | Get Quotes | Try FreshBooks | Get Quotes |
Zoho Books: Best for small businesses
Zoho Books is our favorite accounting software, as of our most recent round of research. It delivers the best balance of core accounting tools, ease of use, and decent support, all wrapped in a fair price tag. Retailers are particularly well-supported, with delivery functions for order fulfillment, as well as great inventory and stock management. Find out more in our full Zoho Books pricing guide.
Xero: Best for online businesses
Xero offers integrations that many ecommerce businesses need, from third-party apps for sellers, including Amazon, Shopify, and Etsy, to website builder integrations for top brands like Squarespace and Square Online. Another standout benefit is that Xero has no user limits on any of its plans, so you’ll be able to scale up your employees without paying a cent extra.
FreeAgent: Best forecasting and prediction tools
FreeAgent stands out for its tax prep tools, which include a tax timeline, deadline alerts, and forecasting and scenario prediction functions. It also offers automatic time tracking for accurate invoicing — one of the few core accounting tools that QuickBooks lacks entirely. During the latest round of testing, I determined that FreeAgent pricing was the best on the market.
Still looking for more alternatives? Check out our guide to the best free accounting software.
What’s New for QuickBooks?
QuickBooks has introduced major core updates throughout 2026, with a focus on AI-assisted bookkeeping via Intuit Intelligence, payroll improvements, and deeper automation. These include:
- External AI integration (Claude & ChatGPT): You can draft, approve, and send invoices or payment links directly through conversations in Claude or ChatGPT, sync payments in real time, and eliminate manual data entry.
- Intuit Intelligence automation: AI handles repetitive tasks like drafting invoices from saved documents, auto-generating payment reminders, and providing natural-language financial queries.
- Buy Now, Pay Later (Affirm): Added direct Affirm options to customer invoices so clients can pay in installments while you receive partial funds up front.
- Enhanced sales tax liability reporting: Provides real-time transaction drilldowns, clear totals and subtotals, combined rate tax analysis within reports, and flexible pivot-table functionality for comparing tax data across jurisdictions.
- Primary admin undo reconcile: Primary admins can now undo reconciliations directly without needing to assign an Accountant role.
- Bill Pay Elite bundling: Included Bill Pay Elite directly within QuickBooks Online Advanced without requiring an add-on fee.
- Streamlined bill payments: Updated the payment process to prioritize modern digital and electronic funds transfer (EFT) methods over paper checks, while simplifying the checkout experience to reduce steps and make bill payments faster and more convenient.
- Batch payroll and search: The Run Payroll screen supports batch processing for larger organizations, filtering by pay type (hourly, salary, commission), location, or payment method, and exporting table views as CSVs.
- Multi-Tab Client Navigation: Accountants can open multiple client files across browser tabs simultaneously within the Accountant Suite.
- Custom Security & MFA Controls: Set device-level access, enforce mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA), and configure risk-based policies per user.
Methodology: How We Tested Accounting Software
At Tech.co, we take our impartial research and analysis seriously, so you can have complete confidence that we’re giving you the clearest, most useful recommendations.
After conducting an initial investigation to identify the most relevant, popular, and established accounting tools in the market, we conducted further research, including testing six major accounting software platforms.
Based on years of market and user needs research, we’ve established an accounting software testing methodology that scores these platforms against six main categories, and 25 subcategories — with a total of 1,512 areas of investigation being considered overall.
We also put the platforms through their paces with hands-on testing to gain a deeper grasp of their average user experience. We dedicated 57 hours to carrying out 37 user tests, with a total of 555 tasks being completed in total.
Our main testing categories for accounting software are:
- Core accounting features: We check how adept a platform will be at managing accounting tasks, focusing on key bookkeeping features like invoicing, tax preparation, journal entry, time tracking, financial transactions, and payment support.
- Operational efficiency: We determine how capable a system is at ensuring day-to-day processes run seamlessly, paying close attention to third-party integrations, collaboration tools, AI automation, and customization options.
- Financial planning: We assess how capable a system will be at measuring income, profits, and losses. Specifically, we check for the presence and quality of forecasting and budgeting, inventory management, reporting, and compliance tools.
- Help and support: We assess how useful and reliable a platform’s support system is, focusing on support options, whether it’s 24/7 support or knowledge center accuracy, as well as cloud backup, and security safeguards.
- Pricing: We compare the overall cost of each platform, taking factors like monthly costs, set-up fees, hidden fees, and free plans into account. We also measure how strict contracts are, and how much it would cost for a business to terminate them early.
- User experience: An overall judgment of how easily users can interact with the platform. We tested each accounting platform and got our team to report how easy they were to use, how they felt when they were using them, and how likely they were to recommend the platform to another business.
When it comes to calculating a product’s final score, not all testing areas are weighted evenly, with factors like “core accounting features” and “operational efficiency” being prioritized for small businesses, while sector-specific features are valued more highly for businesses across different industries.
We understand that accounting software is always evolving. That’s why at Tech.co, we have full-time product researchers to re-run this testing process regularly. It’s the only way to ensure our results remain reflective of the present day.
Learn more about our research.
I recommend QuickBooks for any business that will make good use of advanced and customizable reports and invoice templates, a logical interface layout, and the cash flow projection functions needed to look ahead.
Granted, the software can be tough to configure, so you should expect a bit of a learning curve, and it won’t include a few helpful tools, like time tracking. It’s a great pick for businesses that need a lot of accounting tools and can put in the work to set up the perfect workflow for their operational needs.
If you’re ready to commit — or if you need to check out competing software first — visit our accounting software comparison page to take your next step.
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FAQs
No. QuickBooks Online is solely a cloud-based application that requires an active internet connection to access data, create invoices, or update records. If offline capability is essential, consider desktop accounting software or specific third-party offline integrations.
Yes. QuickBooks Online allows account administrators to scale up or down between plans (such as from Simple Start to Plus, or vice versa) directly within the account settings as business needs change.
However, downgrading may result in the loss of features exclusive to higher tiers, such as custom permissions or advanced inventory tracking.
QuickBooks supports importing core business data via CSV or Excel files, including customer lists, vendor lists, chart of accounts, and inventory items.
To switch directly from platforms like Xero or FreshBooks, Intuit and third-party services offer automated migration tools that import historical transaction data.
No. Unlike some competitors that cap the number of sendable invoices on lower tiers, QuickBooks Online provides unlimited invoicing and transaction recording across all its standard plans (subject to fair usage policies).
QuickBooks Online uses bank-level 128-bit SSL encryption to protect user data in transit and at rest.
Automated cloud backups are run continuously by Intuit, and advanced administrative controls (such as risk-based policies and mandatory multi-factor authentication) are available to secure account access.
