QuickBooks Enterprise vs QuickBooks Online

It is understandably a daunting task to select the best accounting software for your company among a plethora of options out there. Being the world’s best accounting software (as claimed by its makers), QuickBooks stands out. But there is another choice after selecting QuickBooks. What QB edition, version, and mode is right for you – online or desktop version?

It is within this comparison that things get interesting. More so if you are a relatively large establishment with intricate accounting needs. If you are having issues between a selection of QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, we are here to help you with that decision.

What is QuickBooks Enterprise?

Currently, QuickBooks Enterprise is arguably the most powerful accounting software available in the market. Introduced in 2002, it has evolved into a formidable accounting solution with the addition of new features and improvements after every iteration. It can handle humungous quantities of data and provides flexible reporting features. It is a desktop-based product that is especially preferred for security reasons by businesses that deal with personally identifiable information.

What is QuickBooks Online?

QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based counterpart of the desktop-based accounting software. Unlike QuickBooks Enterprise, which is installed on the physical system, QuickBooks Online is exclusively accessed over the internet. Being a SaaS solution, it receives QuickBooks updates as soon as they are released. In other words, you would never be running an outdated version so long as you have an internet connection.

How QuickBooks Enterprise Compares with QuickBooks Online?

Let us compare QuickBooks Enterprise vs QuickBooks Online based on 5 of the most important parameters.

Analytics and Reporting Features

While QuickBooks Online provides over 65 reports, QuickBooks Online provides over double as many with 150+ out-of-the-box reports. Like a lighter version of the accounting program, QuickBooks Online’s reports are ideal for monitoring daily activities. On the other hand, QuickBooks Enterprise provides industry-specific custom reports for deep insights.

Inventory Management Tools

QuickBooks Enterprise emerges as the hands-down winner in this comparison. As the name suggests, it is designed specifically for enterprises and has enough capacity for such organizations along with the flexibility needed to track and manage it. Organizations can track items bin location tracking, barcode scanner, serial number location tracking, and other such innovative technologies.

On the other hand, QuickBooks Online can only handle basic tasks like creating automatic purchase and sales orders and setting alerts for reordering.

Invoicing Ease

Both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Enterprise have powerful invoicing features albeit a little different from each other. While QuickBooks Online has the feature of sending invoices from phones, QuickBooks Enterprise has the capability of batch invoicing which can be used to send multiple invoices simultaneously with a button click.

Price Difference

A cursory glance at the prices of QuickBooks Enterprise and QuickBooks Online can often be misleading primarily because of the differences in the pricing models. While QuickBooks Online might be inexpensive for a single user, the equation tilts in the favor of QuickBooks Enterprise for organizations with multiple users over prolonged use especially given the features unavailable in QuickBooks Online.

Accessibility

Accessibility is another area QuickBooks Online would seem to have an edge given that it can work with any browser and has dedicated Android and Apple apps. However, that challenge too can be overcome with QuickBooks Enterprise hosting that allows users to access the software with any devices by connecting to a remote desktop hosting the software.

While this comparison is restricted to QuickBooks Online vs QuickBooks Enterprise, it must be noted that QuickBooks Desktop is available as QuickBooks Pro and Premier as well. Though Enterprise is the highest edition, there have been cases where there is a downgrade to Pro or Premier editions. QuickBooks Enterprise file is converted to QuickBooks Premier or Pro using third-party tools.

Summary of QuickBooks Enterprise vs QuickBooks Desktop Comparison

Incontestably, QuickBooks Enterprise is more powerful than QuickBooks Online. It has more features, robustness, and processing capacity. It is designed for enterprises and the premium it commands also brings with good support. The minor drawback of accessibility can be negated by opting for hosted QuickBooks Enterprise.

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