What is QuickBooks? A Complete Small Business Guide

In this article, we will discuss what QuickBooks is and how it works so that you can understand the different ways in which it can help you save time and be on top of your financial statements. Popular connected apps include Mailchimp, Gusto, RingCentral, DocuSign, Slack, HubSpot, Zapier and many more. QuickBooks simplifies these universal small business financial workflows all in one connected system. Reporting – Run key financial reports like Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Accounts Receivable and Payable with one click. Multi-user access – Add employees or accountants to simplify collaboration. Robust inventory and manufacturing tools for advanced users.

QuickBooks Online

Robust inventory and project management for product-based businesses. By far, the largest headache in preparing a tax return is compiling your income and expenses. If you use QuickBooks during the year, all you need to do at tax time is print your financial statements.

However you work, no matter what your business does, QuickBooks has a plan for you.

QuickBooks Pricing

You can easily payroll expenses definition scan and upload receipts in real-time using the QuickBooks mobile app, so you don’t need to run helter-skelter to collect them at the time of taxes. If you want, you can also invite them to view the reports themselves and download whatever they need. With QuickBooks, it is very simple to track time as well as billable expenses incurred by employees or subcontractors. They can either enter it themselves using the QuickBooks mobile app or submit it manually and a bookkeeper on your end can enter the details in the app. With the right edition, QuickBooks delivers tremendous ROI helping small businesses manage their finances seamlessly. Just be sure to take time evaluating the features against your needs so you choose the optimal fit.

The payroll add-on calculates payroll automatically as often as you want. Three plans give your business the scalability to grow over time and add features as necessary. The Core plan offers everything a small to midsized business would need to get started, while Premium and Elite plans enable options such as same-day direct deposit and expert assistance with setup. Eric is an accounting and bookkeeping expert for Fit Small Business.

QuickBooks Desktop Editions and Features

Get unlimited expert help as you prepare your business taxes. Or let a tax expert powered by TurboTax do your taxes for you, start to finish. QuickBooks is by far the most popular small business bookkeeping program in the US, whereas Excel is a spreadsheet program that advanced users may use to create their own custom bookkeeping program. While we don’t recommend using Excel as your base bookkeeping program, we do have a guide on how to use Excel for accounting. Our comparison of QuickBooks Online vs Excel will help you better understand the differences between the two programs.

1. As such, the software soon claimed up to 85 percent of the US small business accounting software market.
2. Employees or subcontractors can enter their own time as they progress through the day, or a bookkeeper can enter their weekly time if the employee submits a manual timesheet.
3. In addition to its accounting products—QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop—these are the other solutions that can help you manage the other aspects of your business.
4. In some cases, your cleanup may take longer depending on timeliness of documentation and the complexity of your books.
5. The Core plan offers everything a small to midsized business would need to get started, while Premium and Elite plans enable options such as same-day direct deposit and expert assistance with setup.
6. The inventory management and job costing features are more robust in QuickBooks compared to QuickBooks Online.

Add-on programs

Depending on your product and plan, you can use QuickBooks to create and send invoices, manage and track unpaid bills, handle inventory, keep track of project profitability, view financial reports, and more. Not only is QuickBooks the dominant small business accounting software on the market today, but it also offers supplementary products to augment your overall QuickBooks experience. In addition to its accounting products—QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop—these are the other solutions that can help you manage the other aspects of your business. QuickBooks, on the other hand, is a software dedicated only to accounting. It has features required specifically for accounting like income and expense tracking, payroll management, invoicing and inventory management.