QuickBooks is an excellent accounting tool for small scale businesses that helps in accepting business payments, manage bills, etc. QuickBooks can be combined with various web-based features like e-payments, online banking, mapping features, etc. The QuickBooks online service requires the user to pay a monthly subscription fee in exchange for secured login.
As per May 2014 reports, QuickBooks has recorded with 624,000 subscribers.
QuickBooks Pro can be installed locally, whereas QuickBooks online is cloud-based. The QuickBooks Pro is suited for small and medium-sized businesses with extensive features and sound accounting. It is an excellent software accounting tool for fewer than three users.
The QuickBooks Pro requires:-
- 2.4 GHz processor.
- Minimum 4 BG RAM.
- CD-ROM drive
- 1280 x 1024 screen resolution.
On the other hand, for large-scale businesses, QuickBooks Premier or QuickBooks Enterprise is a better choice. Both of these are installed locally and have more users with industry-specific features. However, it is unsuitable for business with simple accounting and for companies that require a cloud-based accounting system.
According to the latest statistics, QuickBooks has more than 80% of the market share, with more than 2.55 million subscribers worldwide.
Coming to the accounting method, QuickBooks has been rated one of the best for its outstanding accrual and cash-basis accounting. However, QuickBooks Pro can sometimes be challenging to use as compared to other competitor tools.
Moving on to the features, QuickBooks offers a range of features to its users. While some are specific to the plans, some are standard for all. Let’s take a quick look at the features QuickBooks provides.
#1 Home – QuickBooks Pro is different from the cloud-based accounting system. Sections for vendors, customers, employees, banking, and company are separated and available on the homepage.
The icons and arrows help users to identify the flow of accounting. On the left side of the homepage, QuickBooks allows you to have quick access to your favorite sections.
#2 Dashboards – the Insight chart on the dashboard helps to have an overall view of the company’s business.
#3 Invoicing – QuickBooks has six templates and a few customizing template options for invoicing. You can easily customize the font, color, themes as per your choice. You can attach files and discount notes to invoices and share them via email.
#4 Estimates – QuickBooks offers four templates that convert estimates into invoices.
#5 Contact management – QuickBooks helps track the records of customers, vendors, and employees and their general information. You can also create a customer-specific to-do list to view their contact history.
#6 Lead management – it also helps users in drawing leads and retains the information for later use.
#7 Expense tracking – QuickBooks also helps its user to collect band feeds, bank statements while also categorizing the transactions into various sections and sets.
#8 Chart of accounts – The chart of account can be customized accordingly to business preferences or can be imported too.
Pros and Cons of QuickBooks
Being one of the most popular small-scale accounting services, QuickBooks provides specific packages from basic to premium inventory management.
As with any other system, there are certain pros and cons of the software, which gives you a clear idea if you should choose QuickBooks over other solutions.
Pros:
- Easy to use and efficient in inventory management
- Well categorized accounting reports
- Flexible compatibility with third-party applications
- Affordable
Cons:
- No direct professional support
- Limitations in the number of users
- Instability of application and crashes
- Lacks of custom reports other than accounting
- No industry or business-specific features like barcode scanning, lot tracking, etc.
One of the primary reasons why users choose to opt for QuickBooks is its ability to integrate. It not only makes exporting data to tax preparation programs but also makes bookkeeping and paperwork a simple matter of time. While hiring an accountant is a good option, the new-age bookkeeping has its own advantages.