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31 Jul QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online?

Posted at 01:03h in Blog by

Man deciding between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop
The choice between QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online
depends upon your specific business model and demands.

Written by Jeffrey Siegel, Edited by Jessie McLaren
July 31, 2019

Many of our clients eager to migrate all business functions and solutions to online cloud environments were quick to swap out their QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) for the online version. However, over the last several years, I’ve noticed countless flip-flops regarding this choice. Sometimes QuickBooks Online (QBO) is EXACTLY what a business needs. However, sometimes users end up switching back. The Desktop version has convenient, timesaving features not available in the online solution. This is especially true for companies with management accounting supply chain needs. Likewise, companies with inventory-related functions, particularly sensitive data, or very large files often prefer QBD over QBO.

10 Reasons Some Businesses Prefer QuickBooks Desktop     QuickBooks checklist

1. If inventory is a major component of your business, consider sticking with QBD. For more complex inventory needs, like those involving multiple locations and serial numbers or lot numbers that are being tracked in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, QBD is a much better software solution. This is because QBO only offers basic inventory features. Additionally, it does not integrate with third-party add-ons, further limiting its functionality.

General Ledger

2. If you have very large data files or need to run a general ledger, QBO will slow you down and require more steps. For example, running reports in QBO for extensive files causes it to kick out a message to “load more pages.” This dramatically slows down the process. Also, many of our larger clients with QBO discovered that in order to run their General Ledgers they had to run them in sections. So, they run their ledgers a few months at a time, rather than for an entire year because a year’s worth of data overwhelms QBO.

3. If your workflow requires having multiple browsers and desktop windows to be open simultaneously, consider sticking with QBD. Since QBO is in a browser, having multiple tabs open at the top of the browser window further congests your flow.

WHAT about Your Sales and Pricing?

4. If your business uses sales orders stick with QBD because this is a function that does not exist in any version of QBO to date.

5. If you prefer attaching your sales reps to invoices, you won’t find this feature in QBO. Therefore, if you work with more than 2 or 3 sales reps QBD is a better option for tracking individual performance, sales, and commissions. Additionally, sales by sales rep reports are very handy in QBD but are not available in QBO.

6. If your business has customer-specific discounts and pricing, you’ll find that you are unable to customize these for each customer in QBO, but QBD has an easy function to accommodate this preference, which in turn allows you to provide better customer service.

What if your internet fails?

QuickBooks Desktop is better if you work offline or your internet fails. 7. If you often need to work offline or on project sites where internet and/or Wi-Fi connection is spotty or unavailable, QBD is your best solution. Obviously, QBO always requires an internet connection. If that connection goes down, suddenly you can’t access your client and vendor files. This means delays or worse deters data-driven decision-making. With QBD you never experience this frustration because it runs on your device directly. You can opt for hosting, and always access your data. So, if you work in a variety of environments that impact internet reception, QBD will be the better choice.

8. If you download bank feeds routinely, please note that we see more issues with downloads for clients using QBO than QBD. This is despite the fact that the bank feeds connect better in QBO. The rules that make it easier to categorize transactions simultaneously can cause problems. These occur more when you automate the rules or don’t review them prior to each download. Duplicate entries, uncategorized transactions, and duplicate sales also occur more easily in QBO. QBD download may seem more cumbersome but isn’t as prone to errors as QBO.

What about Data and Reports?

9. If your business handles sensitive data, using QBO may present greater security risks. Do you need to run reports quickly?If you need to download your data, you need QBD anyway, otherwise, you’ll spend considerable time downloading it into various excel files.

10. If you need to run reports quickly, it might surprise you to know that often QBD runs much faster locally than QBO. Depending on available internet speed, and operating memory, there may be some lag time in QBO when running reports, opening windows and inputting transactions. Especially if you are also pulling from a considerable volume of data for reports, it may be a much better option to use QBD.

Some QuickBooks Online Features Rock!

QBO has some great features that are not in QBD or are superior to those in QBD. One such feature is the ability to see if a customer opened and viewed an invoice. Secondly, automated sales tax calculations and the recently added feature of pulling bank statements are wonderful in QBO. when done correctly, bank feeds and downloads are easy for small files. If you’re on the go, QBO has a mobile application that QBD does not have. Also, QBO also has an ecosystem that consists of thousands of third-party applications. These seamlessly integrate with QBO and this application list gets larger by the day.

Features facilitating collaboration between company stakeholders, management and your accountant are built-in to QBO. However, QBD does not have this functionality unless you use a hosting company or share files conventionally. There are many features that QBO has that QBD does not have. However, the same can be said in reverse. Despite the accelerating trend towards using only web-based software (SaaS), online solutions are not always best for every business. Businesses that use a supply chain are frequently better suited to QBD.

So, Which is better: QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online? Here’s my best recommendation for the undecided.

Can’t decide which is better: QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online? Get a free trial of QBO and upload your QBD data into it. Then you’ll have 30 days to experiment with QBO. One month is plenty of time to make an educated decision about how well it meets your specific demands.

f the pain points described above occur, you get to decide if the value provided in the online format outweighs the hassle. If you are still uncertain after a month about which version you prefer, consider the following. I recently noticed that many preferred features formerly unique to QBO are being added to QBD. So, if you find a feature in QuickBooks Online that is exceptionally useful, it might popo up in the very next QuickBooks Desktop version.

Call us anytime. We want to help.

You can also allow us at Siegel Solutions to help you choose the best options. We’ll assist you even if you aren’t trying to decide between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop. We can recommend, install and train you on add-ons that tailor solutions perfectly to your business. Call us at (781) 487-7000. We want to help.

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Aimee joined Siegel in 2022 as the Accounting Manager overseeing the accounting and bookkeeping team. Aimee brings 18 years of experience with increased responsibility with privately and publicly held companies. Her experience lies with SaaS-based companies as well as in healthcare, consulting, education and nonprofits. Prior to joining Siegel, she held accounting leadership positions with Waban Projects, Elastic Path, Moltin, and Ned Davis Research. Aimee loves partnering with business owners to establish financial reporting and results that promote growth and expansion. When Aimee is not working, she loves spending time with her family and friends and exploring all New England has to offer. She is also an avid Red Sox fan and enjoys going to Fenway Park when she can.

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Jeff has spent the last twenty years working providing solutions to emerging growth businesses. After graduating from Northeastern University, he spent five years working with two multinational CPA firms in an auditor capacity building a foundation for understanding how business work. He later went on to work in various controller and CFO roles before starting Siegel & Associates (previously Siegel Financial Group) in 2000. In those roles, he sold a company to ADP, raised funds for a major expansion of a large regional IVF clinic, and helped set up accounting and financial structures for dozens of companies. Since starting Siegel & Associates, Jeff has worked with hundreds of clients providing accounting system solutions. Those solutions include setting up QuickBooks in a single-user environment putting in QuickBooks Enterprise in a 30-user environment and integrating various add-ons including inventory, CRM, and e-commerce. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a QuickBooks Pro Advisor, a QuickBooks Advanced Pro Advisor, and an Intuit Solution Provider certified in Enterprise Solutions, Point of Sale & QuickBase. Jeff is also a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer

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Janet Jodoin
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Tricia Gullage
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Andrea Alencar
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IT

I started my career in 1983 when I designed and built a device to share a computer program, written by the president of a local bank and his son, running on an Apple Lisa computer. The device allowed the large and expensive Lisa's computer to be shared with bank employees. With this program, and with my device, we started a company to market this unique solution to banks. At this point, computer networks were just starting to be used in businesses. I transitioned my efforts to providing support for migrating banking terminal/mainframe functions to the emerging Personal Computer networking platform. For the next decade, I worked with, and beta tested, numerous technologies to integrate the banking functions from dumb terminals into the now smart desktop computers. After working with a few small consulting firms, I started my own company focusing on providing I.T. support to SMBs. More recently I am now doing the exact opposite by helping customers migrate their PC applications and data from their local computers to The Cloud. A few years ago, I joined Siegel Solutions to add my years of I.T. experience to their firm.

In my spare time, I like to travel, fly my drone and, most importantly, spend time with my family. I also still enjoy tinkering with technology.

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Pat Jaworski
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After spending most of her corporate career in the insurance industry, Pat joined a QuickBooks consulting firm providing bookkeeping services to several small companies. Late in 2022, that firm merged with Siegel Solutions, Inc., bringing Pat and her clients to the group. She provides services to clients in a variety of industries: fitness, construction, beauty, equine care, and medical billing, to name a few. She enjoys supporting her clients by keeping their financial records in good shape and allowing them to focus on growing their respective businesses.

Pat resides in the 495/MetroWest area with her husband Ed, daughter Abby and Duffy, their lovable, energetic golden retriever.

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Noah Tan

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Noah has over 12 years of experience in accounting and graduated from the University of Bedfordshire in the UK. Prior to joining Siegel Solutions in August 2023, he has worked with clients in Asia and Europe across a variety of industries, including manufacturing, software, e-commerce, and education. Noah specializes in real estate, property management, and construction enterprises.

Noah is a passionate and results-oriented individual with a proven track record of success. He is skilled in financial planning and analysis, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting with expertise in business process improvement and risk management. Noah is committed to helping his clients achieve their financial goals.

Noah loves to travel and has been to over 50 countries and 4 continents with his wife. He is passionate about financial market analysis and enjoys using stock charts to identify trends and patterns.

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Tari Crowley

Administrative Assistant

Tari Crowley joined Siegel Solutions in September 2023 as a part-time Administrative Assistant. She actually wears many hats not just in her position, but in her every day life! She is also a real estate agent, softball coach, wife and full-time mother. When she isn’t busy with everyday life activities, she enjoys spending time with her chocolate lab, Bailey, as well as having fun and laughing with her family.

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Sales and Marketing Associate

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Janice Kats

Associate

Janice Kats graduated from Carl Sandburg College with an Associate Degree in Accounting in 1992 and has been working in the accounting field ever since in various jobs doing AR, AP, payroll, office management, and bookkeeping before joining Siegel Solutions in late 2023.

In 2022, she made the decision to branch out on her own and started her own bookkeeping business, working from home.

She is a mom to 3 grown children and a grandmother to 5 grandchildren and enjoys spending time with her husband and two dogs and following her grandchildren in all of their sports.

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Roger Hand

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Kristina Morin
Senior Associate

Kristina Morin is a Certified Public Accountant from Boston, Massachusetts. She holds an MBA in Management Information Systems from Bentley University and an MS in Accounting and Financial Management from DeVry University. She has been a bookkeeper for 20 years and has spent the last several years teaching QuickBooks and Bookkeeping.

At home, she celebrates her independence, living with her son, father, and two cats, Romeo and Rico. Kristina enjoys old-school hip hop, soaking up the sunshine, and spending quality time watching movies with her family.

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