QuickBooks Online vs. TaxJar

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
QuickBooks Online
Score 8.2 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.
$20
per month
TaxJar
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
TaxJar offers automated sales tax reporting and filing. According to the vendor, capabilities include: Accurate, Detailed Sales Tax Reports: TaxJar’s local jurisdiction reports show sales and sales tax collected not only for each state, but for local jurisdiction (counties, cities, special jurisdictions, etc). Users can also sort data by any date range. Estimated Sales Tax Reports: Users can see a comparison of what they actually collected versus what…
$19
for up to 200 orders/month
Pricing
QuickBooks OnlineTaxJar
Editions & Modules
Solopreneur
$20
per month
Simple Start
$35
per month
Plus
$99
per month
Advanced
$235
per month
Starter
$19
for up to 200 orders/month
Professional
$99
for up to 200 orders/month
Premium
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
QuickBooks OnlineTaxJar
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details30 day free trial. No obligation, no activation fees. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel anytime. Pricing based on order volume. Transactions are equal to -Orders imported into TaxJar with one or more line items -SmartCalcs API pushed sales tax calculation If you go over your transaction limit during a single month, we will charge you the difference between the plan you’re on and the next highest plan. The next month you’ll start back on the original plan that you subscribed to, and the process will repeat itself again. This is all done automatically. Your plan will never be interrupted and you will not have to speak with a salesperson.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
QuickBooks OnlineTaxJar
Features
QuickBooks OnlineTaxJar
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.3
95 Ratings
11% above category average
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.286 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.942 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.980 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management8.855 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management7.959 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
7.5
90 Ratings
2% below category average
TaxJar
-
Ratings
API for custom integration7.474 Ratings00 Ratings
Plug-ins7.674 Ratings00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.8
146 Ratings
8% above category average
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Single sign-on capability8.9113 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.8136 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.5
173 Ratings
9% above category average
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.5161 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.8168 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports8.1152 Ratings00 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
8.1
187 Ratings
7% above category average
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Accounts payable9.0158 Ratings00 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.9173 Ratings00 Ratings
Cash management8.5158 Ratings00 Ratings
Bank reconciliation9.0178 Ratings00 Ratings
Expense management8.7163 Ratings00 Ratings
Time tracking6.570 Ratings00 Ratings
Fixed asset management8.171 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-currency support6.733 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-division support7.958 Ratings00 Ratings
Regulations compliance7.855 Ratings00 Ratings
Electronic tax filing8.388 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service portal7.993 Ratings00 Ratings
Global Financial Support7.025 Ratings00 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers7.951 Ratings00 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting8.647 Ratings00 Ratings
Localizations8.135 Ratings00 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.7104 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting7.840 Ratings00 Ratings
Configurable Accounting8.360 Ratings00 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework7.741 Ratings00 Ratings
Standardized Processes8.573 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
6.9
67 Ratings
8% below category average
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Inventory tracking6.763 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic reordering7.233 Ratings00 Ratings
Location management7.136 Ratings00 Ratings
Manufacturing module6.624 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
7.8
114 Ratings
3% above category average
TaxJar
-
Ratings
Pricing7.872 Ratings00 Ratings
Order entry7.669 Ratings00 Ratings
Credit card processing8.484 Ratings00 Ratings
Cost of goods sold8.086 Ratings00 Ratings
Order Orchestration7.332 Ratings00 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility8.133 Ratings00 Ratings
Order exception Resolution7.229 Ratings00 Ratings
Type of tax
Comparison of Type of tax features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
TaxJar
9.3
6 Ratings
16% above category average
Sales and Use Taxes00 Ratings9.76 Ratings
Cross-border Taxes00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Online
-
Ratings
TaxJar
9.6
6 Ratings
21% above category average
Geolocation for Tax Assessment00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
3rd-Party Software Integrations00 Ratings8.76 Ratings
Tax Data Reporting00 Ratings9.85 Ratings
Compliance Administration Management00 Ratings9.54 Ratings
Tax Exemption Processing00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Tax Document Management00 Ratings9.54 Ratings
Complex Tax Scenario Management00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
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QuickBooks OnlineTaxJar
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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Zoho Books
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 8.8 out of 10
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User Ratings
QuickBooks OnlineTaxJar
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(205 ratings)
9.3
(13 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
6.2
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(120 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
2.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
1.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.2
(68 ratings)
7.5
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
3.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
1.3
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
1.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
QuickBooks OnlineTaxJar
Likelihood to Recommend
Intuit
Since we run outside payroll for a couple of the companies, it is quite difficult to be as accurate as I would like when it comes to categorizing those payroll transactions, since they have to be imported via journal entries. Between that and the lack of a complex inventory management, are really my only complaints of the software. I do like the accessibility for myself, my employees, and my clients of the online version, something you don't get with desktop versions.
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Stripe
If you aren't a tax professional, this is a must. Trying to manually calculate which county/city/state sales tax is owed will break your brain. Actually, even if you were a tax professional, why would you want to manually do it when you could just have a tool like this to calculate it for you. I wish it was also affordable to have it file for you and there are some crunchy bits, but its pros definitely outweigh the cons.
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Pros
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.
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Stripe
  • The CSV upload for clients that do not have or want to connect directly is very good. It allows us to get a lot of the information done quickly.
  • The cost is very competitive.
  • According to our clients, the integration is relatively easy.
  • For the most part, the reports are accurate.
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Cons
Intuit
  • Purchase Orders cannot be linked to multiple bill payments which makes tracking purchase orders in QuickBooks Online obsolete. Without the function we have to track this within a different more manual spreadsheet.
  • Would be helpful if you could "split" bank transactions directly from the "review" downloads from the bank. Currently, to split transactions to multiple accounts we need to first categorize, then review after assigning to 1 account.
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Stripe
  • Continually increase its native integration features with BigCommerce, which recently just opened up more Checkout APIs and Sales Tax APIs.
  • The Amazon integration is confusing only because Amazon (sometimes?) calculates and collects sales tax on your behalf. It's not clear what's best-- to let Amazon do it for you or for TaxJar to handle it.
  • Onboarding could be a bit easier and guided.
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Likelihood to Renew
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.
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Stripe
No answers on this topic
Usability
Intuit
I had very little trouble setting up the program and migrating from our old accounting system. The daily usage is also very intuitive and easy. Anytime we run into minor trouble with the program, there are always tons of help available on YouTube, so we don't even look up the online manual anymore.
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Stripe
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
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.
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Stripe
No answers on this topic
Performance
Intuit
There are tab issues. When I tab the field doesn't highlight and I have to backspace or delete what is in the field. Happens on the memo field and sometimes other fields. Very time consuming.
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Stripe
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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Stripe
We had a few questions about integrations & onboarding, and support answered quickly and in-depth. They understood our questions - which were a bit technical in nature - and were able to provide an explanation in a timely and specific manner that allowed us to get the system up and running quickly.
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Implementation Rating
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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Stripe
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Intuit
My employer was already using Quickbooks when I got here. As the Executive Director, I do all the day-to-day accounting. This program is easy to learn and use. I was able to add budgets by class so I can run P&Ls for each of the different programs as well as an organizational budget.
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Stripe
TaxJar is less expensive, simpler to integrate and their billing is straightforward so that you don't have to worry about huge surprises at the end of a month or quarter. They spend a lot less time on sales/marketing but their support is excellent and overall we have had a much better experience with TaxJar.
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Scalability
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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Stripe
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
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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Stripe
  • With regards to ROI, it definitely saves time. And time, as they say, is money. It may be hard to put a particular dollar sign on this, but it definitely has provided a positive return.
  • It keeps me aware of where I have sales tax nexus that I might not know about otherwise. This is important. Even if I have to check it manually, at least I am made aware of where I need to file.
  • It allows me to track how much in sales tax we've paid year over year, which is a good indication of how our sales are doing.
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ScreenShots

TaxJar Screenshots

Screenshot of TaxJar Reports dashboard showing you the states in which you have nexus, how much sales tax was collected, and your gross sales summary.Screenshot of TaxJar state report showing breakdown of sales tax by city, county, and local jurisdiction for easy sales tax filing.