QuickBooks Online Edition

Some descriptions may be a confusing if you have not used QuickBooks previously, or do not use a feature in the desktop edition simply make a list of questions and if you need guidance, we would be happy to provide you with information you need to make an excellent choice among the QuickBooks family of products. Our Certified QuickBooks advisors  800-216-0763 are available to help you determine the best QuickBooks product for your company.

The online edition is a good accounting software, but it stops there. Great for basic users.  Perfect for companies that outsource their accounting functions to a bookkeeper or accounting firm, or for businesses who need a software to write checks and pay bills, make deposits, invoice customers and track payments due.  If you find you do not access reports except as requested by your CPA, then QuickBooks online is a really good choice.  QuickBooks online is not great if you want to manage your business processes with it (ie: if you are constantly running reports looking up transactions, you will find QuickBooks online a bit lacking in feature sets). If you are a multi-tasker, speedy typist, quick thinker, data entry will take much longer in the online edition and you will seriously miss the added features of the desktop edition. QuickBooks Enterprise, QuickBooks Premier or QuickBooks Pro all offer a myriad of shortcuts that provide robust reporting and save a great deal of time with your daily activities.

You should do a test drive of the software using the online sample company file.  testing entering transactions and running reports in the sample company file
Click here to sign in to the QuickBooks online sample company file. 

There are alternative solutions to sharing data remotely, including the remote access feature found in QuickBooks Premier edition. One such product is a third party remote access solution www.logmein.com.  
The downside to logging into a computer from a remote location is that you take control of a computer desktop, which means if you are not using terminal services, you will need to have a computer available for the remote user to use.  But if you are using thinking of using the online edition just so your  CPA can access the records, choose the desktop edition and purchase a remote access solution (webex, logmein, terminal services). Your CPA will not be utilizing the computer on a regular or lengthy basis, so scheduling a good time for your CPA to work on your computer while you do something else will allow you to take advantage of the great desktop features. 

Another alternative is to host your QuickBooks on a cloud based server. These service providers are called ASP hosting  (application service provider).  In reality, they are IT companies that have set up racks of servers which they manage, parsing out the computer real estate (memory, hard drive, security, user rights)
to businesses.  You can have your own server, or you can use a piece of the server, keeping your costs for IT support and computer hardware to a minimum. What is really terrific about this model, is your IT guy is always available!  Search on the key words  "QuickBooks ASP Hosting", there are many qualified companies providing this service.  If you select this remote access model, you can access QuickBooks at anytime from any computer. 

In addition, QuickBooks Desktop version has myriad of training and support options. There are thousands of QuickBooks advisors who are experts and can help you take advantage of all that it can offer in addition to helping you with bookkeeping, accounting and tax questions. The online edition has e-mail support only.


QuickBooks online works for businesses with:

Multiple locations
Have Traveling Timekeepers and/or Decision Makers
Do not track Inventory Perpetually
Have relatively simple reporting needs
Share bookkeeping responsibilities with you
Have security concerns

Click here to read a 10 page PDF discussing in detail the QuickBooks Online Edition:
Including what data will convert from QuickBooks Desktop to the QuickBooks Online edition.
This document is ideal for getting a true understanding of the difference between the online and the desktop editions.

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the different QuickBooks Products