BambooHR® vs. QuickBooks Online

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BambooHR®
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
BambooHR is an cloud-based human resources solution that provides onboarding, payroll, and benefits management. It also offers automated time-off management and employee self-service.
$10
per month per user
QuickBooks Online
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
QuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.
$38
per month
Pricing
BambooHR®QuickBooks Online
Editions & Modules
Core
$10
per month per user
Pro
Contact Sales
per month
Elite
Contact Sales
per month
Simple Start
$38
per month
Essentials
$75
per month
Plus
$115
per month
Advanced
$275
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BambooHR®QuickBooks Online
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BambooHR®QuickBooks Online
Considered Both Products
BambooHR®
Chose BambooHR®
We tried using QuickBooks Time to get employee hours to flow through to our payroll system with QuickBooks Online, but it did not protect the integrity of our accounting data and caused a major catastrophe. Once we recovered, we did not decide to keep trying to use QB Time and …
Chose BambooHR®
The platform for both employees and employer were way easier to use and navigate. Additionally, VensureHR generated many errors which we did not see with BambooHR.
Chose BambooHR®
Not as well as any of them. I am not a QBO Payroll fan either but they are better than BambooHR®.
Chose BambooHR®
Less expensive than ADP and much more up to date and efficient than Heartland
Chose BambooHR®
We moved to BambooHR time tracking from ClickTime once BambooHR's functionality improved and we prefer to have all functions on the same platform.
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR is the most comprehensive, most affordable, and most feature rich of the alternative HR tools we have tried in the past. It is the best combination of feature and price for the current size of our business, and it's ease of operation make it very manageable to …
Chose BambooHR®
Onboarding/offboarding is a much better workflow in BambooHR. Timesheet entry, as well as document retention, is also preferred in BambooHR. We use the different platforms for different reasons. It appears that BambooHR has additional capabilities that we have not learned …
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR offers instant access to pay stubs, easy uploads and document signature requests, better PTO tracking and report functionality
Chose BambooHR®
BambooHR pricing leaves it a bit harder of a sell than some of the competitors we have used in the past. If it was fully featured rich with an overflow of integrations that might be different, but as it stands, without a pricing change, I think that bridge is a harder sell for …
QuickBooks Online

No answer on this topic

Features
BambooHR®QuickBooks Online
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
257 Ratings
3% below category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data8.3229 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history8.1234 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.0230 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.7216 Ratings00 Ratings
Organizational charting7.6236 Ratings00 Ratings
Organization and location management8.1227 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)7.3132 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.7
173 Ratings
5% below category average
QuickBooks Online
8.1
121 Ratings
7% above category average
Pay calculation8.3126 Ratings8.4110 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.993 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.594 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.1132 Ratings7.260 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.4129 Ratings8.5101 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.0141 Ratings8.274 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.583 Ratings7.981 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.7
222 Ratings
6% above category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Approval workflow8.5216 Ratings00 Ratings
Balance details8.3207 Ratings00 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment9.2129 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.5
250 Ratings
4% above category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information8.6168 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information8.9245 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation8.3218 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition7.9157 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history8.8235 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
74 Ratings
11% above category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Tracking of all physical assets9.074 Ratings00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.1
210 Ratings
6% below category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Report builder7.3203 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.4201 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data6.7145 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.1
214 Ratings
2% above category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
New hire portal8.4204 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools7.8190 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.9
143 Ratings
2% below category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting7.1104 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.9137 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility9.169 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.5131 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
7.8
161 Ratings
1% below category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Performance plans7.3146 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans7.2123 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking8.697 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders8.1101 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency7.8140 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
9.0
81 Ratings
14% above category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools8.846 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking9.067 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search8.968 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development9.259 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
8.0
182 Ratings
3% above category average
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
Job Requisition Management7.8138 Ratings00 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.7149 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media9.291 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting7.5145 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.588 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking8.1165 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.1173 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Online
7.0
113 Ratings
8% below category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings7.194 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings7.095 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Online
8.4
186 Ratings
2% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.5151 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.3176 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Online
8.2
212 Ratings
5% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings8.3199 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.4206 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings7.9190 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Online
8.0
229 Ratings
5% above category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings8.8195 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.8212 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings8.1194 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.0218 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings8.4202 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings7.095 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings8.094 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings7.548 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings7.379 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings7.978 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings8.1113 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings7.4124 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings6.840 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings8.170 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings7.970 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings7.954 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings8.5141 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings7.160 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings7.986 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings7.757 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings8.8105 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Online
6.9
88 Ratings
6% below category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings6.783 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings7.146 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings7.353 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings6.636 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
BambooHR®
-
Ratings
QuickBooks Online
7.9
141 Ratings
5% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings8.090 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings7.886 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings8.4109 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings8.3107 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings7.446 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings7.949 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.542 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BambooHR®QuickBooks Online
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.3 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 5.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.1 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 10.0 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 7.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
BambooHR®QuickBooks Online
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(245 ratings)
8.3
(230 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(17 ratings)
9.5
(27 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(173 ratings)
8.3
(146 ratings)
Availability
9.3
(5 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Performance
8.7
(5 ratings)
1.0
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(137 ratings)
9.8
(70 ratings)
Online Training
9.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(6 ratings)
9.9
(7 ratings)
Configurability
8.7
(4 ratings)
1.0
(2 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.4
(3 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.6
(2 ratings)
1.3
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.9
(5 ratings)
2.0
(3 ratings)
Professional Services
9.2
(2 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.9
(4 ratings)
5.0
(3 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
5.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
BambooHR®QuickBooks Online
Likelihood to Recommend
BambooHR
Performance management - the prompt questions are really helpful in distilling thoughts! Though it would still be great to have an optional box for additional feedback that might not be directly related to the prompt questions. The clean interface and user friendliness is a definite plus! But some specific features, eg. on TOIL application - it would be helpful to ensure it is intuitive to use, rather than confusing with the input process.
Read full review
Intuit
QBO is a great solution for small and midsize companies. If the goal is to record all transactions and pull reliable financial reports, QBO is a great option. QBO is also a great solution if most operations are run in a system like Ramp. It syncs well with systems like that and turns the data into something management can use to make decisions. QBO is great because so many people use it. It is easy to find training online, and many people have experience with it.
Read full review
Pros
BambooHR
  • Recruiting- communications are easy for both the internal team and candidates
  • Onboarding- the onboarding tasks are great. I love being able to attach documents as well as delay sending out tasks
  • Communication- the employee community is a great tool to keep our communications clean and organized. I love that we now have insight as to who has viewed the comms
Read full review
Intuit
  • Workflows for accounts payable invoice review are terrific.
  • Bill payment allows you to pay vendors online via ACH or check without having to write a physical check, which reduces admin time.
  • The cloud based login lends well to a remote or hybrid work environment for staff.
  • QuickBooks Online allows you to pre-configure vendors' general ledger expense accounts. This helps with general ledger coding accuracy and consistency.
  • QuickBooks Online integrates with Rippling HRIS, Coast, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, etc., which lends well to an efficient month-end closing and reduced administrative time.
Read full review
Cons
BambooHR
  • The biggest issue is on performance assessments. We are not able to customize the reminder dates so the automated reminder dates shown to people and on the email reminders is often misaligned with our actual internal deadlines. This causes a lot of confusion each review cycle.
  • Also on performance management, there is no way to push feedback to a supervisor for their direct report. The only way is if the manager requests the feedback from you. This limits the opportunity for people to give real time feedback throughout the half.
  • I wish we had a way to track notes from employee 1:1s in BambooHR® so when we do our performance reviews we can track. That may be a module we didn't purchase but it would facilitate more continuous and comprehensive evaluation of people at review time.
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Intuit
  • I dislike that the online bill pay option through QuickBooks is required for their invoicing.
  • The auto-fill portion of the customer setup, specifically the company name, is listed, but it also auto-fills in the name portion, which is inconvenient and time-consuming to remove.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
BambooHR
There's nothing wrong with this platform. I would recommend it to any business starting with more than 10 employees. I will continue to use the program for as long as I need to, hoping they continue being tremendous and finding other ways to incorporate more technology.
Read full review
Intuit
It like the product 'right out of the box' and I trust Intuit will continually improve it over the years based on my experience with their desktop products. The large providers of Apps makes customizing the entire package relatively easy and seamless for a wide variety of business types.
Read full review
Usability
BambooHR
Just because there's a little complex with everything that's rolling out and so I have had to walk some people through functionality because there's just so much to click at this point. Another thing is the review process doesn't allow for ratings with a number scale, and I know we're kind of getting away from that as an industry, but with our previous system we have been rating people for their merit percent increase on their wages at the end of the year and it doesn't have the functionality to do that.
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Intuit
Beyond being overkill for a small org's needs, QBO is constantly stealing screen real estate and attention by hammering users for account upgrades, connecting to one of their approved consultants or buying add-ons. The idea of using a simple configurable bookeeping and light accounting interface is completely missing. At the very least, we should be able to hide functions like inventory that we will never use.
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Reliability and Availability
BambooHR
Yes, there is a huge team in the back of the online platform or it looks like it because I have never been left without an answer when I have a question or waiting from a response on my chat .... There must be a huge team, this is so great and I always seem to have someone that is very knowledgeable too. So many times in the past I had to leave with customer service that would connect you with someone else because of the expertise, here everyone seems to be some kind of an expert in the HR function.
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Intuit
We have rarely had outages in the last 10 years. I can only recall 2 times in the last 10 years where we were not able to access our client files.
Read full review
Performance
BambooHR
I love BambooHR. Reports are easy to run and download and it usually covers any types of requests I get from the management team. You get excel or .csv downloads/reports and it is fast and simple, not too crowded so it is easy to read through. We don't integrate the tool yet but again, soon we will. we just did not had the time to utilize it yet but that's the plan.
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Intuit
Everything process has its bugs lately with the new interface. Nothing has worked smoothly since this all began last month.
Read full review
Support Rating
BambooHR
I use the chat feature most often and the wait times can be long, but often I do get right in. When they promise to follow up, they always do. It seems the "support hero's" are very well training and knowledgeable. There are lots of resources in the form of print or video, too.
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Intuit
In my experience, most representatives keep me on the phone for hours, literally, for a single issue and then usually cannot resolve it satisfactorily. I have 10 open cases that need resolution and, in my experience, there has been NO follow-up communication on any of them.
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In-Person Training
BambooHR
I didn't have in-person training besides teaching my managers how to use the program. However, I couldn't omit this question (maybe a system glitch).
Read full review
Intuit
No answers on this topic
Online Training
BambooHR
Overall this training was great and our implementation specialist was wonderful and very helpful. We felt really prepared once our training was completed, But we could get additional help immediately even when we were live. The continuation Support heros after implementation are wonderful and you can always get a LIVE person each time you call into their office.
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BambooHR
We implemented bambooHR in Fall, 2023 then implemented Payroll 1/1/24. A vital piece of information was not known or missed in that we are exempt from State Unemployment Tax and have a Reimbursement Set-up, so bambooHR did not send Payroll Reports to the State. Those reports need to be sent regardless if we are exempt or not.
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Intuit
The person in charge of QB needs to be very accurate with record keeping and is recommended to stay on top of tasks. The biggest issue we have is reconciliation, and those issues occur only when too much time has occurred between reconciliations
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Alternatives Considered
BambooHR
Lattice is much more oriented towards performance management. It includes many more advanced performance management features from building actual assessments to also performance development planning. BambooHR® for us was a place to centralize our data and build from within as well as connect to external integrations. PerformYard is what we used prior to BambooHR® for onboarding workflows and performance reviews, but BambooHR® is far superior.
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Intuit
As a freelance bookkeeper, the Desktop version of QuickBooks Online doesn't allow for ease of access from any device. Having to be on a computer with the software downloaded creates additional work to gain access to all required filings etc. Also, I personally find the linking functionality on the Online version to be much more streamlined and user friendly.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BambooHR
Since my organization has dropped with employees, I always find ways to reduce costs. I thought there would be a cheaper option, but I was glad that my package included a lot for the price, and downgrading would cost more. The rep could have let me downgraded and taken me to a higher package. I am thankful that didn't happen.
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Scalability
BambooHR
There is so much you can do with this platform, it is incredible and so welcoming. We don't utilize it 100% yet just because we are growing and the HR team has not been able to concentrate on other areas offered to us but but we will soon. Which is also why we got the product, specifically because what BambooHR can do to help us meet our growing business needs.
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Intuit
As we have grown along our professional path, we have also expanded our use of QB. The scalability is easy and features seem to be waiting for you until you need them. We have increased profits by over 10x from our first year in business to the current and have yet to find a reason to look elsewhere
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Professional Services
BambooHR
VERY professional!
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Intuit
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BambooHR
  • Time Savings: Automating onboarding, payroll, and employee record management has cut HR admin time by up to 30%, allowing teams to focus on strategic initiatives instead of paperwork.
  • Improved Onboarding: Streamlined workflows have cut onboarding time by nearly 50%, ensuring new hires are productive faster, reducing turnover risk in the critical first months.
  • - Enhanced Informational Clarity: Centralized employee data means fewer errors and faster access to essential information, reducing compliance risks and increasing accuracy in reporting.
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Intuit
  • QuickBooks has given us a useful portal by which to get an overview of our financials.
  • QuickBooks has given us a relatively easy way to send out invoices quickly and efficiently.
  • Due to the customization limitations on QuickBooks, we've had to get creative in third-party implementations to better represent our brand and to track financials.
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ScreenShots

BambooHR® Screenshots

Screenshot of the Job Info tabScreenshot of Onboarding TasksScreenshot of a New Hire PacketScreenshot of an Employee Performance ReportScreenshot of Employee Satisfaction (eNPS®)Screenshot of Open Enrollment

QuickBooks Online Screenshots

Screenshot of the accounting and bank transactions interfaceScreenshot of an overview of the accounting inventoryScreenshot of book marksScreenshot of the business tax overviewScreenshot of the customer hubScreenshot of the dashboard