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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    QuickBooks Desktop Pro

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AQuickbooks Desktop Pro is accounting software from Intuit, Inc. It includes core accounting features, plus analytics and exportable reports. It is offered in on-premise and SaaS forms.N/A

    Tableau Desktop

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/ATableau Desktop is a data visualization product from Tableau. It connects to a variety of data sources for combining disparate data sources without coding. It provides tools for discovering patterns and insights, data calculations, forecasts, and statistical summaries and visual storytelling.

    $1,380

    per year (purchased via a Creator license)

    Pricing
    QuickBooks Desktop ProTableau Desktop
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Tableau Creator License
    $115
    per month (billed annually) per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    QuickBooks Desktop ProTableau Desktop
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—All pricing plans are billed annually. A Creator license includes Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep Builder, and Tableau Pulse. Discounts sometimes available for volume.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    QuickBooks Desktop ProTableau Desktop
    Considered Both Products
    Intuit
    Chose QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    We tried out Zoho Books because we use Zoho for CRM purposes and we were were interested in exploring what type of integration there might be with our CRM to our financial books. However, we just found out that nothing really competes with QuickBooks when it comes to …
    Incentivized
    Tableau
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    88%
    Would buy again
    29 Answers
    93%
    Would buy again
    52 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    93%
    Delivers good value for the price
    28 Answers
    91%
    Delivers good value for the price
    50 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    32 Answers
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    55 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    83%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    20 Answers
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    38 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    25 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    44 Answers
    Features
    QuickBooks Desktop ProTableau Desktop
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    6.6
    69 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Tableau Desktop
    -
    Ratings
    Pay calculation6.364 Ratings00 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration6.338 Ratings00 Ratings
    Direct deposit files6.656 Ratings00 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management6.352 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reimbursement management7.754 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    5.7
    43 Ratings
    28% below category average
    Tableau Desktop
    -
    Ratings
    API for custom integration6.535 Ratings00 Ratings
    Plug-ins5.039 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    8.5
    101 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Tableau Desktop
    -
    Ratings
    Single sign-on capability8.482 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.695 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    8.5
    117 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Tableau Desktop
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards8.4100 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports8.9117 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports8.1114 Ratings00 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    7.5
    124 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Tableau Desktop
    -
    Ratings
    Accounts payable9.3119 Ratings00 Ratings
    Accounts receivable9.2121 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cash management9.2107 Ratings00 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation9.7119 Ratings00 Ratings
    Expense management9.4108 Ratings00 Ratings
    Time tracking7.451 Ratings00 Ratings
    Fixed asset management5.669 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-currency support6.931 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multi-division support8.958 Ratings00 Ratings
    Regulations compliance8.342 Ratings00 Ratings
    Electronic tax filing8.355 Ratings00 Ratings
    Self-service portal5.941 Ratings00 Ratings
    Global Financial Support4.217 Ratings00 Ratings
    Primary and Secondary Ledgers7.240 Ratings00 Ratings
    Intercompany Accounting7.943 Ratings00 Ratings
    Localizations4.219 Ratings00 Ratings
    Journals and Reconciliations8.876 Ratings00 Ratings
    Enterprise Accounting6.838 Ratings00 Ratings
    Configurable Accounting7.647 Ratings00 Ratings
    Centralized Rules Framework5.427 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standardized Processes8.555 Ratings00 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    5.8
    59 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Tableau Desktop
    -
    Ratings
    Inventory tracking6.056 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automatic reordering6.035 Ratings00 Ratings
    Location management6.032 Ratings00 Ratings
    Manufacturing module5.218 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    6.8
    77 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Tableau Desktop
    -
    Ratings
    Pricing7.555 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order entry8.555 Ratings00 Ratings
    Credit card processing7.251 Ratings00 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold8.063 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order Orchestration5.220 Ratings00 Ratings
    End-to-end order visibility6.123 Ratings00 Ratings
    Order exception Resolution5.218 Ratings00 Ratings
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Desktop
    8.5
    175 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings8.0145 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards00 Ratings9.2174 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings8.1151 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Desktop
    8.5
    172 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Drill-down analysis00 Ratings8.6167 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.6170 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings8.1126 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings8.6165 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Desktop
    8.5
    166 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Publish to Web00 Ratings8.1155 Ratings
    Publish to PDF00 Ratings8.2154 Ratings
    Report Versioning00 Ratings8.6120 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings8.6128 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers00 Ratings8.978 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Desktop
    8.4
    164 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings8.7162 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings8.6156 Ratings
    Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.7131 Ratings
    Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings7.87 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Desktop
    9.1
    149 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.1145 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings9.1125 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings8.9136 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.110 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings9.383 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Desktop
    7.9
    141 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings8.6130 Ratings
    Mobile Application00 Ratings7.5101 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings7.5122 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of QuickBooks Desktop Pro and Tableau Desktop
    Feature
    QuickBooks Desktop Pro
    -
    Ratings
    Tableau Desktop
    7.7
    67 Ratings
    1% below category average
    REST API00 Ratings8.459 Ratings
    Javascript API00 Ratings7.653 Ratings
    iFrames00 Ratings6.751 Ratings
    Java API00 Ratings8.048 Ratings
    Themeable User Interface (UI)00 Ratings7.154 Ratings
    Customizable Platform (Open Source)00 Ratings8.448 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    QuickBooks Desktop ProTableau Desktop
    Small Businesses
    QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
    Score4.2 out of 10
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    MYOB
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Microsoft Dynamics GP
    Score5.4 out of 10
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    QuickBooks Desktop ProTableau Desktop
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (135 ratings)
    9.1
    (204 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (19 ratings)
    7.5
    (41 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (42 ratings)
    8.4
    (73 ratings)
    Availability
    8.3
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.2
    (29 ratings)
    1.0
    (57 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (34 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (3 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    8.5
    (22 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (115 ratings)
    Data Sources
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.9
    (115 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    QuickBooks Desktop ProTableau Desktop
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Intuit
    For a small business, QuickBooks Desktop Pro is great! For a larger, more complex business, another system may be more beneficial. We actually run multiple businesses on QuickBooks Desktop Pro, but all are very small. The help feature is sometimes so beneficial, and sometimes it seems like you just can't get the right answer and need to find a workaround - but this is usually for more complex issues.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    The best scenario is definitely to collect data from several sources and create dedicated dashboards for specific recipients. However, I miss the possibility of explaining these reports in more detail. Sometimes, we order a report, and after half a year, we don't remember the meaning of some data (I know it's our fault as an organization, but the tool could force better practices).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Intuit
    • It is easy to manage and adjust inventory on hand.
    • It is easy to make reports and customize them to your needs.
    • We also use it to pay our employees directly.
    • It is easy to make year-to-year comparisons to see where we can make improvements and the current financial situation.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • An excellent tool for data visualization, it presents information in an appealing visual format—an exceptional platform for storing and analyzing data in any size organization.
    • Through interactive parameters, it enables real-time interaction with the user and is easy to learn and get support from the community.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Intuit
    • QuickBooks Desktop Pro has been around for a few years and after an update[,] they force you to look at the changes/updates before you can use [them] after updating.
    • QuickBooks Desktop Pro does not have 2FA.
    • QuickBooks Desktop Pro should offer a way to store backups to a personal cloud without having to map a local network drive.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    • Pricing should be more user-friendly and usage-driven
    • Making edits to the production reports is fairly tough and has a vast scope of additional capabilities
    • Tableau Desktop should be able to differentiate itself from the Tableau server else there is no major meaning of two different products being offered
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Intuit
    I'd love to keep using it, and do intend to - though we've not been pleased with price increases over the past several years. In fact, we used to subscribe to the payroll service, but QuickBooks priced themselves out of reach for us, so we discontinued that. Currently, pricing would be the primary reason for NOT renewing, if we didn't.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Our use of Tableau Desktop is still fairly low, and will continue over time. The only real concern is around cost of the licenses, and I have mentioned this to Tableau and fully expect the development of more sensible models for our industry. This will remove any impediment to expansion of our use.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Intuit
    The set up was quite easy. I took some online training causes, and figured our the rest pretty quickly. The only issue I had during the implementation process was it was very hard to change some of the GL Account name to reflect the needs of a non-profit organization, such as Net Assets. At the end I had to scratch what I did, and used the existing formats that the third-party bookkeeping firm shared. Everything else is simple and easy to manage and implement.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    Tableau Desktop has proven to be a lifesaver in many situations. Once we've completed the initial setup, it's simple to use. It has all of the features we need to quickly and efficiently synthesize our data. Tableau Desktop has advanced capabilities to improve our company's data structure and enable self-service for our employees.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Intuit
    I haven't experienced a time when QuickBooks Pro was unavailable when I needed it in the entire 20 years of using the software
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Tableau
    When used as a stand-alone tool, Tableau Desktop has unlimited uptime, which is always nice. When used in conjunction with Tableau Server, this tool has as much uptime as your server admins are willing to give it. All in all, I've never had an issue with Tableau's availability.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Intuit
    No answers on this topic
    Tableau
    Tableau Desktop's performance is solid. You can really dig into a large dataset in the form of a spreadsheet, and it exhibits similarly good performance when accessing a moderately sized Oracle database. I noticed that with Tableau Desktop 9.3, the performance using a spreadsheet started to slow around 75K rows by about 60 columns. This was easily remedied by creating an extract and pushing it to Tableau Server, where performance went to lightning fast
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Intuit
    They are awful. Intuit doesn't spend real money on support. They appear to have typically said, first-level script readers who are sending messages to the senior people for anything even a little bit difficult. Many of them don't speak particularly good English. Considering that they recently doubled (or, if you are paying annually, tripled) their pricing, and touted as one of the benefits that it includes [..] support, it's a real ripoff. However, we have to use the product because it is ubiquitous. I look forward to the day a competitor comes up with something good enough, which has excellent support, that matches all the features QuickBooks Desktop Pro currently has [...] or at least gives us a way to have all the functionality we currently have without excessive sacrifice [...] so that we can switch. I was very satisfied with QuickBooks for many years. This latest [rise] in price, and their sheer gall at touting the benefit of the 100 to 200% increase as being [the] inclusion of support, is what turned me so far against them.
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    Tableau support has been extremely responsive and willing to help with all of our requests. They have assisted with creating advanced analysis and many different types of custom icons, data formatting, formulas, and actions embedded into graphs. Tableau offers a weekly presentation of features and assists with internal company projects.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Intuit
    Best thing I ever did was to attend a two day training seminar on QuickBooks, I learned an immense amount in a short time with hands on training by experts. I strongly recommend such training for anyone using any part of the software. It will pay for itself in the first month.
    Read full review
    Tableau
    It is admittedly hard to train a group of people with disparate levels of ability coming in, but the software is so easy to use that this is not a huge problem; anyone who can follow simple instructions can catch up pretty quickly.
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Intuit
    No answers on this topic
    Tableau
    I think the training was good overall, but it was maybe stating the obvious things that a tech savvy young engineer would be able to pick up themselves too. However, the example work books were good and Tableau web community has helped me with many problems
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Intuit
    We implemented the software ourselves. The training we received on the software was done by taking a community course teaching us how to use QuickBooks. It allowed me to get started with some basics of how to use the program and have not needed much assistance since completing the course work.
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    Again, training is the key and the company provides a lot of example videos that will help users discover use cases that will greatly assist their creation of original visualizations. As with any new software tool, productivity will decline for a period. In the case of Tableau, the decline period is short and the later gains are well worth it.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Intuit
    We tried switching from QuickBooks Desktop Pro to QuickBooks Online, but there were a lot of issues and bugs so we ultimately decided to stay with Desktop Pro. Unfortunately, we are losing a lot of Online Banking capabilities on 5/31 as we have an older version of QB, but we plan to stick with Desktop Pro. In terms of invoicing, SaaSOptics beats QuickBooks in almost all aspects as it's all automated and takes seconds to create and send invoices. However, SaaSOptics is not really a full ERP program so it wouldn't serve us as a main bookkeeping software like QB.
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    I have used Power BI as well, the pricing is better, and also training costs or certifications are not that high. Since there is python integration in Power BI where I can use data cleaning and visualizing libraries and also some machine learning models. I can import my python scripts and create a visualization on processed data.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Intuit
    No answers on this topic
    Tableau
    Tableau Desktop's scaleability is really limited to the scale of your back-end data systems. If you want to pull down an extract and work quickly in-memory, in my application it scaled to a few tens of millions of rows using the in-memory engine. But it's really only limited by your back-end data store if you have or are willing to invest in an optimized SQL store or purpose-built query engine like Veritca or Netezza or something similar.
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    Return on Investment
    Intuit
    • Training time is low compared to other accounting packages
    • It was difficult to adapt to DCAA requirements, [which] required [the] hiring of [a] special consultant for that
    • QuickBooks Desktop Pro is a standard for small companies and makes it easy to hire bookkeepers
    Incentivized
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    Tableau
    • Tableau was acquired years ago, and has provided good value with the content created.
    • Ongoing maintenance costs for the platform, both to maintain desktop and server licensing has made the continuing value questionable when compared to other offerings in the marketplace.
    • Users have largely been satisfied with the content, but not with the overall performance. This is due to a combination of factors including the performance of the Tableau engines as well as development deficiencies.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots