Wondering what solutions are available for you when you can't use QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Premier any longer?
Don't be fooled into thinking there is only one alternative, even if that's the first option you look at.
Don't assume that 'the great migration' path is the only path you can take. There are a wide variety of options available.
Intuit would have you believe your only option is to migrate from QuickBooks Pro or Premier to QuickBooks Online. But even if you decide that path, questions still need to be answered.
You must first decide 'what version' of QuickBooks Online you should migrate to. And all versions are not the same in so very many ways.
Sometimes, the simplest solution is the best, especially if you've just been using QuickBooks Pro like a checkbook.
Just as many QuickBooks Desktop users once started their journey with Intuit by using QuickBooks (Desktop) Simple-start, you may find that QuickBooks Online Simple-start will be sufficient to meet your requirements. After all, Simple-start gives you Invoices and payments, Receipt capture and mileage tracking, Estimates, Sales and sales tax, and even connectivity for a single eCommerce sales channel.
Remember too that you can always 'upgrade' QBO Simple-Start to Essentials or Plus if you need more users or additional features.
You might then wonder why you could need to consider QBO Essentials vs. Simple-Start. Essentials is the most economical offering if you need three (3) users working simultaneously in QuickBooks Online. If you need multi-currency or more than one eCommerce sales channel connection, then Essentials is once again the most economical version of QBO to meet those needs.
By the way, this is a good place for me to point out that just because you have 'multiple companies' doesn't mean that they must all be on the same subscription (level) of QBO. Each QBO subscription stands on its own merits, so you can have one company Simple-start, another Essentials, another Plus, and even another on QBO Advanced.
Now you are wondering why, if QBO Essentials offers so much, you should even think about migrating to QBO Plus. The answer is simple: inventory, project accounting, time tracking, up to five (5) simultaneous users, and as many eCommerce sales channels as you wish to connect. While there are a few more 'bells and whistles' in this version, these are the significant day-to-day differences that mean many users of QuickBooks Desktop Premier, more so than Desktop Pro, will be limited to this version of QBO unless they elect to go to the significantly more expensive QBO Advanced product.
The reality is that most QB Desktop Premier users will require the features of QBO Plus, and perhaps more if they choose to stick with the Intuit ecosystem.
The reality is that most QB Desktop Premier users are tracking inventory, perhaps even producing assemblies or kits, tracking time and expenses to jobs, and doing project costing. As a result, they will require the features of QBO Plus and perhaps more. If they have been using QB Desktop Premier for any sort of manufacturing, they will need an add-on app because even $1080.001 per year in subscription costs won't get you to where you can function like you were.
But before we look at the 'top of the line' alternative Intuit offers, QBO Advanced, let's talk briefly about limiting the 'transition shock' of switching from the Desktop platform you have used for eons to QuickBooks Online. The reality is that when you migrate to the online environment, almost everything is different in 'where it's located,' 'how you access it,' 'how it looks,' and 'how it works.'
To help lessen the 'Oh my, this doesn't look like my QB Desktop at all' response by transitioners, Intuit developed and has been improving the "QuickBooks Online Desktop App." This app runs like its own browser on your Windows computer and makes QBO more convenient to use, especially if you have more than one QBO company.
I stop here and mention that there is a "QBO Desktop App for the Apple macOS" that is supposed to provide much the same 'desktop friendly functionality' that QBD-Mac users loved.
One of the most significant differences between simply logging into QBO from a browser like Chrome and opening your QBO company using the QBO Desktop App is that you can select a navigation view similar to the Homepage found in QuickBooks Desktop. Another feature of using the QBO Desktop App is the ability to stay logged in to your QBO company longer; you won't get 'timed out' like you might with a Windows browser.
Working with multiple companies is also streamlined using the QBO Desktop App. It's similar to how a QuickBooks Enterprise user can switch between companies or open multiple companies simultaneously. You can access different QBO companies using multiple tabs for each company you need to open with the QBO Desktop App, even if those QBO Companies are on different versions of QBO.
Simple but commonly used features in QB Desktop are being incorporated into QBO. For example, QBO users recently were given the ability to navigate between similar transactions with forward-backward clicks adjacent to the transaction number. New reporting and search features while within transactions also 'make QBO more like desktop'.
Various transaction or related-party notes have made their way into QBO from Desktop. You can even make customer notes visible to, or hidden from, the customer. And too, you can now edit the customer's information (Bill to, Send to) on an Invoice or the vendor's information on purchasing forms, just as you could in Desktop.
I wrote about some of these enhancements in my article 'Making QBO more like QuickBooks Desktop.' I will soon be following up on that article with more information about new and planned enhancements that will help Desktop users transition to a QuickBooks Online product.
When we change to discussing QuickBooks Online Advanced, we are talking about an entirely different beast. There are numerous 'advanced features' it provides you won't see in any other version of QBO, along with the ability to allow twenty-five (25) users to work simultaneously.
If you need features like Balance Sheet Budgeting, Batch invoices and expenses, Business Analytics with Excel, Chart-view Custom Reporting, Highly customized User Roles, User controlled Data Backup and restore, Employee expenses with receipt capture, Enhanced custom fields, Fixed Asset Management, Google Sheets integration, Mileage tracking, Project Estimating/Actual and Profitability tracking, Revenue Recognition, Time-tracking/reporting, and Workflow Automation, then QBO Advanced is the Intuit solution for you.
Of course, many of those features are available within QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. But the reality is that even at $200 per month2 for QBO Advanced, you will see substantial savings over QuickBooks Enterprise in most circumstances.
You may even realize savings over QuickBooks Enterprise when using multiple company files. Intuit currently offers a 30% discount3 when simultaneously signing up for four (4) or more QBO Advanced subscriptions.
For example, if you use QuickBooks Enterprise Gold for twenty-five (25) users, you are paying the equivalent of $1004 per month4. Of course, you can presently support an unlimited number of company files with Enterprise at no additional cost. But if you apply the discounted QBO Advanced subscription price for multiple companies of $140 per month5, you can realize savings over Enterprise when you have seven (7) or fewer company files. Only when you have eight (8) or more QBO Adv company files will you surpass the break-even point.
Now, you might find that QuickBooks Enterprise Gold doesn't do all you require and that you need Enterprise Diamond so you can have up to forty employees working simultaneously in different company files. Your Enterprise subscription price changed with Diamond to $1429 per month6, yet your QBO Advanced pricing didn't change. With QBO Advanced, there are twenty-five (25) users per subscription, so you can have twenty-five users in each subscription file without any price change. You are still ahead of the price game when using QBO Advanced for as many as eight (8) company files over what QB Enterprise Diamond 40-user is costing you.
What it boils down to for many is the feature set and in a few cases price.
Again, if you are using QuickBooks Enterprise for significant inventory-centric functionality, including manufacturing, QBO Advanced, despite all the highly advanced functionality it offers, isn't designed to perform the tasks you can accomplish with QB Enterprise.
Suppose you require features like multi-layered bills-of-material, production/sales order fulfillment tracking, warehouse management (mobile receiving and order processing), and bin/row/shelf, expiration, serial, and lot tracking. In that case, QuickBooks Enterprise may be your preferred Intuit solution over QuickBooks Online Advanced if you decide to "stick with Intuit," even if it costs you more. Otherwise, you would need to add one or more costly apps.
This article is already 1600+ words, and all I've talked about are 'Intuit' substitutes for your current QuickBooks Desktop products like Pro/Pro-plus, Premier/Premier-plus, and Enterprise. Just imagine what I will say when I also cover the wide range of alternatives outside the Intuit ecosystem.
If you want to hear more then you need to register to attend one or both of my sessions at Insightful Accountant's FREE Future Forward Event, when my presentation on May 21, 2024, will focus on solutions for QuickBooks Desktop Pro/Pro-Plus users. My second presentation on May 22, 2024, will focus on solutions aimed at QuickBooks Desktop Premier/Premier-Plus users.
While there may be some slight 'solution duplications' in these two presentations, the majority of the alternatives will be relatively unique to one QuickBooks platform or the other. I will even include a deeper analysis of Intuit alternatives than I have in this article.
Both presentations will be based on the methodology I've used to determine the solutions, their pros and cons, key features, and my numeric evaluation of key software factors.
I hope to steer you to the best possible solution for your situation using the 'rule of threes' to give you the ultimate option of selecting the one that is 'just right.'
See the Future Forward official website for more information about my two sessions and the other presentations.
Footnotes and Disclosures
1 – based on the current QuickBooks Online Plus (single company file) subscription rate, not including any promotional discounts, rate changes, taxes, or other pricing variations, at the time of publication.
2 – based on the current QBO-Advanced (single company file) subscription rate, not including any promotional discounts, rate changes, taxes, or other pricing variations, at the time of publication.
3 – based on the current QBO-Advanced multi-company standard discount subscription rate, not including any promotional discounts, rate changes, taxes, or other pricing variations, at the time of publication.
4 – based on the current QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Gold subscription rate, not including any promotional discounts, rate changes, taxes, or other pricing variations at the time of publication.
5 – based on the current QBO-Advanced multi-company standard discount subscription rate, not including any promotional discounts, rate changes, taxes, or other pricing variations, at the time of publication.
6 – based on the current QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Diamond subscription rate, not including any promotional discounts, rate changes, taxes, or other pricing variations at the time of publication.
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