This is going to be a really short review, primarily intended for those who have used QB Mac 2016 or earlier versions of the QB Mac software. I know a lot of people do not like Quickbooks for Mac. This is my third or fourth version of this software.
The Quickbooks family of accounting products from Intuit has maintained a vastly high portion of the small business market share for over a decade. The company offers multiple versions of its product to serve different user populations. Quickbooks for Mac, as the name suggests, is a desktop tool for Mac users, Quickbooks Pro is a desktop accounting tool for small businesses, and Quickbooks Online is a subscription-based cloud accounting tool. However, Quickbooks Online has been Intuit’s clear focus for a number of years, along with mobile, and much of the recent development effort has been on bringing the online version up to feature parity with the desktop products – both Quickbooks for Mac and Quickbooks Pro.
This is still a work in progress, and although the functionality gap between Quickbooks Pro and Quickbooks Online is narrowing, parity is still in the future. There is little doubt though that in addition to catch-up, brand new features will appear in the Online product and not in the desktop products. So what will the future look like? To many in the Quickbooks community, the inevitability that the desktop products will eventually be discontinued in favor of the Online product is obvious. To be fair, Intuit denies this, from the CEO which seemed to imply it. TrustRadius has collected dozens of user reviews of all three versions, so you can easily discover the common use cases and pros & cons of each product.
Here is a brief summary of each product based on user feedback. Image via Intuit What Is Quickbooks Pro? Is actually one of three versions of desktop products currently offered by, the other two being.
Under the Quickbooks Pro umbrella, Intuit maintains a few different options. There is the, which includes the Quickbooks Pro software, plus unlimited 24/7 support, automatic back-ups and upgrades. The software alone is a one-time purchase, but access to Pro Plus features requires a year subscription plan. Again, some users have expressed concerns that Quickbooks may discontinue the desktop versions.
Users Frequently Praise These Benefits:. and the canned reports included with software require few adjustments to be useful. Training and UI in such that even those coming fresh to accounting software. and offers a real-life knowledge basis that many users can draw from.
Compatible with. Users Say These Features Need Work:.
Users often complain that the feature doesn’t work as smoothly as they’d like. Most suggest that businesses with large inventories. —particularly when it comes to inventory—may be hard to satisfactorily create. Quickbooks Pro is most commonly compared to:,. What Is Quickbooks Online?
The desktop versions of Quickbooks date back at least as far back as 2000—before the rise of modern cloud technology. Was developed as a response to that movement. The benefit to this is that you can share access with multiple users or devices. It also means you get real-time updates, so there may be fewer versioning problems and automatic updates. The online product is offered via a subscription model, meaning you won’t have to purchase new software anytime you want to get access to the newest features, and you’ll need to budget for a monthly fee.
Users Frequently Praise These Benefits:. Users overwhelmingly agree that the online software is useful for with outside CPAs, clients, and other stakeholders. Admins can set.
Users can set to import automatically, thus minimizing manual data entry and errors. reports use the most current data. Users Say These Features Need Work:. Some data may not transfer over when.
The system is from a cloud-based product., particularly when it comes to sales tax reports. Quickbooks Online is most commonly compared to:,.
What Is Quickbooks for Mac?, as you might have already guessed, is Intuit’s Mac-compatible version of their Quickbooks desktop software. According to TrustRadius users, this software is best for the Mac user who prefers an on-premise desktop accounting solution to one hosted on the cloud. Following considerable speculation, earlier this year that QuickBooks 2016 is the last version of Quickbooks for Mac, although it will be supported through 2019. This is a clear nudge to users of this product to switch to Quickbooks Online. Users Frequently Praise These Benefits:.
Easy to convert from Mac to PC and vice versa. Offers the majority of the features available in the PC desktop version.
Robust invoicing feature allows you to create professional-looking custom invoices. Simplified process for linking to financial accounts. The UI looks “Mac-like” but is easy to navigate for PC-literate users. Users Say These Features Need Work:. Data backups feature may create data losses if a user forgets to restore to the most recent version. May be tricky or time-consuming to migrate data from previous accounting software. Users accustomed to the PC version may see some minor loss of functionality.
Often charged for phone support Quickbooks for Mac is most commonly compared to:,. Of course, you may want to look for your next accounting tool. Visit the to find alternatives and compare products.