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QuickBooks Desktop Premier

QuickBooks Desktop Premier

Overview

What is QuickBooks Desktop Premier?

QuickBooks Desktop Premier is an installed version of QuickBooks for general business, contractors, manufacturing and warehouse accounting, as well as nonprofits, professional services, and retail.

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Awards

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Pricing

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What is QuickBooks Desktop Premier?

QuickBooks Desktop Premier is an installed version of QuickBooks for general business, contractors, manufacturing and warehouse accounting, as well as nonprofits, professional services, and retail.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Features

Payroll Management

Provides for pay calculation and benefit plan administration, in addition to managing direct deposit, salary revisions and payroll tracking.

8.9
Avg 7.2

Customization

This addresses a company’s ability to configure the software to fit its specific use case and workflow.

1.3
Avg 7.1

Security

This component helps a company minimize the security risks by controlling access to the software and its data, and encouraging best practices among users.

7.5
Avg 7.9

Reporting & Analytics

Users can report on and analyze usage, performance, ROI, and/or other metrics of success.

6.9
Avg 7.5

General Ledger and Configurable Accounting

Financial management solution, including capabilities for general ledger and configurable accounting

7.1
Avg 7.3

Inventory Management

The ability to track and manage the flow of goods or materials into and out of an inventory.

2.9
Avg 6.7

Order Management

The ability to process orders, and track them from quote to cash.

7
Avg 7.3
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Product Details

What is QuickBooks Desktop Premier?

Quickbooks Desktop Premier is the on-premise version of Quickbooks designed for various industries. It features core accounting capabilities, including general ledger, double-bookkeeping, and reporting. It also includes invoice status tracking, contractor management, and time and inventory tracking. Premier in particular is designed to enable industry-specific tasks for general contractors and organizations in manufacturing and wholesale, nonprofits, service, and retail sectors, as well as servicing general business needs.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier Video

QuickBooks Desktop Pro/Premier Plus

QuickBooks Desktop Premier Competitors

QuickBooks Desktop Premier Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

QuickBooks Desktop Premier is an installed version of QuickBooks for general business, contractors, manufacturing and warehouse accounting, as well as nonprofits, professional services, and retail.

Priority AccountEdge and MIP Fund Accounting are common alternatives for QuickBooks Desktop Premier.

Reviewers rate Benefit plan administration and Role-based user permissions and Pricing highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of QuickBooks Desktop Premier are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(444)

Reviews

(1-25 of 63)
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Appalling Fee for Basic Support.

Rating: 3 out of 10
December 20, 2022
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
15 years of experience
I use QB Desktop Pro 2019. I have been using QB for 20+ years. I suddenly got a warning that my file was corrupted. This happened once before, and I simply chose to rebuild the file and it fixed the issue without a problem. This time I got support on the line who told me this is a severe issue and I would need to pay for support to rebuild - about 1.5 hours of work. First they wanted to sell me a multi-year plan for $3000, $4,000 or $5,000 but if I want it for only one year it would be $1800. All I needed was a single repair - I was appalled. Then they told I could pay for the repair at $100 per megabyte for a onetime cost of about $1400.00 ....for 1.5 hours of work! This is outrageous - I felt like they are holding my data hostage. Instead, I have decided it would be cheaper to pay a bookkeeper to re-enter all my data for the year. What a horrible way to treat their existing and longtime customers.
  • Easy to Use
  • Comprehensive
  • Easy to send to Accountant
Not well suited to a homebased business because the online subscription service is nothing like the old standalone desktop. It does [not] look or feel like the desktop version, it needs to be learned from scratch, it is unnecessarily expensive, and it loses the functionality I needed of creating separate "classes" of expenses.

QuickBooks Desktop Premier [Is] Worth Every Penny

Rating: 10 out of 10
May 03, 2021
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
6 years of experience
I use QuickBooks Desktop Premier for all the financial and accounting needs for one of our companies.
  • Allow you to make changes on previous months.
  • Allows you to create a copy of an expense.
  • Very easy to reconcile your bank account.
QuickBooks Desktop Premier is well suited [because] it allows you to make corrections easily, make a copy of an expense, and it allows you to reconcile your bank statements easily.

QuickBooks review

Rating: 9 out of 10
May 03, 2021
PL
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
20 years of experience
We use QuickBooks as our primary financial software. It handles, inventory, payables, payroll, receivables and all financial reporting.
  • QB Premier is more powerful than the regular one. It has more detailed features.
  • The inventory system has some good features that I am yet to implement.
We are a construction company and I know that our accounting department uses all of the payroll features and are really happy with the efficiency. The financial reports are extremely useful for me every month.

Excellent Accounting Software

Rating: 8 out of 10
May 01, 2021
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
2 years of experience
It is the main accounting software for the company. It helps us track expenses and income and keep our finances well balanced making it so much easier when tax time comes.
  • Keeps expenses tracked.
  • Helps keep track of income and due invoices.
  • Exports well into TurboTax.
Well-suited for a small business owner like myself. Without having an accountant on staff this software keeps us balanced and ready for tax time.

Great for small nonprofits!

Rating: 9 out of 10
May 04, 2020
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
9 years of experience
Quickbooks Desktop Premier is being used across our whole organization. We are able to record donations, payments, vendors, as well as run payroll, payroll taxes. It also incorporates the ability to run reports, budgets, forms, etc. Running applicable reports for our income and expenses is especially beneficial for a small nonprofit like ourselves.
  • Running reports is easy and beneficial
  • It makes reconciling our bank statements easier
Quickbooks Desktop Premier is well suited to our small nonprofit. We are able to use it internally which keeps us from having to hire an outside accountant to assist us with our accounts.

QuickBooks is a solid, workable solution

Rating: 8 out of 10
November 08, 2019
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
20 years of experience
Long-time user. It gets the job done and has all the key components to run a Business. The product hasn’t changed much over the years which is both good and bad. Nice that they have avoided going down the painful path of cloud-only. I hope they start updating the system to work with other technologies, but based on experience that’s not likely as they are milking the cash cow.
  • Cashflow
  • Invoicing
  • Quoting
It’s good for running your business. I don’t understand why the consultants and accountants have such a problem running the program. I know I’m technical, but the interface is relatively simple and the processes are laid out very nicely.

QuickBooks makes quick work of a lot of repetitive tasks

Rating: 8 out of 10
October 29, 2019
JL
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
10 years of experience
We utilize QB Desktop Premier for several of our companies. We manage our inventory, all accounting functions and payroll for most of our companies. We like the ability to generate reports by specific dates and not be forced to report based on a calendar month. We just began using QB for a new acquisition that has accounting software including its operational software but wants standardize our financial reporting across all our portfolio companies.
  • Specific date reporting - This is especially important when comparing sales for specific holiday seasons.
  • The copy feature is very important since we send the exact same orders to various branches of our customers. A very big time saver.
  • Credit card processing is so easy and seamless. Pick the customer, amount and you're done!
We like QB Premier because it is easy to learn for our smaller portfolio companies but powerful enough to support our multi-divisional portfolio companies. Many of our companies are only using a small portion of the features.

QuickBooks - Fast and Easy

Rating: 10 out of 10
October 17, 2019
KN
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
24 years of experience
QuickBooks Desktop Premier is being used by the accounting department. It makes it easy to see where the company is - easy access to the accounts receivable, accounts payable totals - easy to set up and edit any of the templates - support is good.
  • Tracking accounts payable and receivables
  • Has more features than Quickbooks Pro
  • Easy to set up new clients and track their payments at a glance
  • Financial Statements are easy to read
Easy software to use but some of the banking features need to be improved.

I'm no accountant...and this keeps my accountant happy!

Rating: 9 out of 10
January 28, 2019
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
20 years of experience
As a small business, QuickBooks Premier is an easy transition from Quicken in my personal finances. It tracks my invoicing, client information, billing, etc. My receivables and payables are organized. The best part is that the information I take to my accountant is accurate and clear! No more scrambling to get everything together. The backup feature has completely saved us during hardware failure.
  • Keeps accounts simple and straightforward.
  • Has manageable alerts for bill reminders.
  • Allows for easy transferring of funds between accounts.
  • Saves client information for repeat billing.
Larger organizations with more complex billing needs will find that it is lacking. However, for a small comp,any it is perfect. It may be challenging to carry too much inventory selection in this program - but simple lists are good. As with anything - when your needs are basic, this works very well. If you have complex accounts or reporting needs, you may grow out of it.

QuickBooks Premier is really good for small businesses

Rating: 5 out of 10
December 11, 2018
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
4 years of experience
I am using QuickBooks Premier 2019 for three companies that I manage, for the same owner, out of the same building. I use it for all accounting needs; A/P, A/R, deposits, and payroll.

Once the company files are set up, it's pretty smooth, and the information is accurate. Like all software, there is a learning curve on where you access everything.
  • Reporting - As long as you enter the information accurately, and do not get sloppy, all reporting is spot-on.
  • Reconciling - It's very easy to figure out where your money is, and if it's off a little bit, it's easy to drill down into the problem to fix it.
  • Deposits - It's very easy to make deposits, once your bank is set up, and you learn the steps.
QuickBooks Premier is nice when you only have one company. For me, I have three companies that I switch between, and you can only have one company file open at a time. You have to upgrade to have the ability to have more companies open at a time.

QuickBooks NOT for attorney client escrow account management

Rating: 3 out of 10
December 11, 2018
I am a solo self-employed attorney running my own law practice. My accountant recommended I switch from Quicken to QuickBooks. I had been using Quicken since 1993. I also need my accounting software to organize the accounts for 4 nonprofits that I run, and all my various personal & business accounts.
  • Invoicing
  • Accounts receivable
  • Tax prep
In my opinion, QuickBooks is poorly suited to handled attorney client escrow accounts, where client monies are physically co-mingled but must by law be minutely accounted for down to each penny. You must be able to look at your bank account balance and see all client monies in escrow at any moment in time with a client breakdown. QuickBooks is just not suited for this important task. My accountant tried setting it up several different ways, but none of them functioned with the ease and simplicity of Quicken, which is an account-based program.

Great reports in QB

Rating: 9 out of 10
February 16, 2018
LA
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
2 years of experience
We use QB across our whole organization. Not only do I use it for accounting, bookkeeping and billing, but the account managers are able to process the estimates for job proposals. This keeps everyone organized and also allows us to see where our money flows into and out of with all of the many reports. I love the customizable reports. They allow us to really become efficient in our reporting.
  • Reporting
  • Accountability
  • Streamlining of the billing and automatic payments with memorized transactions
  • Recurring payments!
I have QB desktop. It's suited to the security of the details of our company.

QuickBooks Premier 2018 is the wave of the future in accounting!

Rating: 10 out of 10
February 06, 2018
TJ
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
5 years of experience
We use Quickbooks Premier (2018 version) primarily for A/P, A/R, and payroll functions within our small marketing company. This program solves invoicing and vendor payment issues as well as making payroll simple and nearly seamless. We do also file state and federal tax forms within B for ease of reporting and data collection. The many reports available make financial statement analysis simple.
  • Data entry and compilation are seamless and easy with QB Premier 2018.
  • Invoicing is smooth and statements can now be sent including a "PAST DUE" stamp.
  • Financial statements are easy to combine and draw information directly out to provide for company owners, banks, and investors.
  • The ability to move screens over and out to more monitors is amazing!
I use QuickBooks premier in my business which is internet marketing/affiliate market-related. I have also helped other companies set up and begin using QB Premier in industries such as manufacturing and construction. With the right setup and add-ons, QB can be used in nearly all scenarios with ease. I find the program user-friendly and although I would not call it foolproof, easily taught to even those without an accounting background.

QuickBooks Premier Works Well For Smaller Companies

Rating: 6 out of 10
January 26, 2018
DD
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
15 years of experience
We use QuickBooks Premier for AP, AR, asset management, account reconciliations, payroll, and financial reports.
  • The bank related transactions are good. It's easy to record payments, make deposits, and reconcile the bank accounts. I like the feature that allows you to find the invoice being paid by the number when it's not clear who the correct customer is.
  • Entering bills and credit card payments are a snap, especially for monthly recurring charges. You can use the repeat transaction function, but I like to use the copy function. Just change the date, invoice number, and amount if needed and it's entered easy peasy.
  • Paying bills is another good function. Just click those you want to pay. When you are making a partial payment on an invoice, it's simple to adjust the amount to be paid. Voiding or deleting a check is easy when needed, but you need to be very careful when doing those transactions. Once in a while, I will pay a group of bills and issue the checks, and the next time I go to make a check run the last check from the prior group will show on my ledger as the check needs to be printed. So I have to watch that. It's also easy to print checks with the wrong date on them because QB will use the last date you used. So if you are entering AP invoices and they are dated a few days prior, the checks will come out with that date on them.
  • I have to download a lot of my data from QB to do analysis in Excel. The download process is nice. There are a lot of options for canned reports to select, and you can save your favorites so you don't have to set them up each time.
  • We create our invoices in QB Premier and it is my least fun function of the month. Last year we started to import the data from a cloud-based system that holds our timesheet data using a 3rd party product to perform the upload. This then translates into our customer invoices. The process is quick and easy, and it has shortened my billing process by 2 days because I no longer have to manually input the timesheet data to create the invoices. It's was a bit intimidating at first, but well worth the effort in the long run.
Based on the size and operations of our firm, QuickBooks Premier is a good product. It feels like we're on the verge of outgrowing it though as we've had some significant growth in the last 2 years. For small companies with 50 people or less and an annual income of under $10MM, I think it's a great product. Also, it depends on the line of business and the scope of work. We would love to be able to run a profit and loss statement by service line, but when the program was set up many years ago that was not a consideration. If you are just starting out, try to envision how you might want the system to function for you in 5 years and not just today. If you are a company that gets audited by anyone, QuickBooks Premier is not going to be the best because you can change transactions and auditors like to see a trail.

QuickBooks Premier is Great!

Rating: 9 out of 10
January 25, 2018
DM
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
4 years of experience
I used Quickbooks Premier as part of my role at an architectural firm as I was in charge of all of the finances of the company. As a small to mid-sized company, it was very helpful with handling the bookkeeping, including invoicing, A/R, A/P, etc., which allowed me to multi-task alongside my other responsibilities as the office manager.
  • The reporting features are quick and easy. True time saver!
  • Great support including online groups and boards to help with those rare occasions when you need something special.
  • Great plugins to help with some of the daily tasks required for a professional services firm.
I think QuickBooks Premier is great for small to mid-sized companies as it does have greatly needed features without the gigantic price tag associated with some of the larger types of accounting and project management software. I think if you also had a self-owned business, this is a perfect way to stay on top of the company finances while working with an outside accountant or CPA firm.

My accounting platform of choice!

Rating: 10 out of 10
January 25, 2018
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
10 years of experience
I use QuickBooks Premier in my line of business daily. This is the platform that I also recommend to my clients. Being an accounting professional, I need a platform that would offer customizations for different industries, tracking of billable expenses, creation of various financial statements to analyze profitability, quick lookup of items. I find that this QuickBooks product most fully addresses these needs.
  • QuickBooks Premier has all the basic functions of the QuickBooks Basic plus industry-specific tools for inventory management, cost-tracking and much more.
  • QuickBooks Premier has an extensive set of reports that can be customized for profitability analysis. Plus AR/AP reports are an excellent tool to help manage cash flow.
  • QuickBooks Premier is inexpensive in a long run as opposed to QuickBooks Online where you pay monthly recurring fees, those add up quickly!
Companies with in-house accounting will benefit most from this platform. It is a fast desktop version with an easy job costing process from estimate to PO, order tracking, and unbilled time. That is a great feature for contractors, who create estimates with many lines - platform makes it easy to convert to PO/invoice.

QuickBooks and Forget It!

Rating: 9 out of 10
January 24, 2018
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
12 years of experience
QuickBooks Premier is the accounting software I used at my previous employer and my current employer. Both companies varied in their product, one was in travel and the other in healthcare but Quickbooks Premier is able to track everything both organizations need. The software is easy to use and train others to use. It tracks everything you need within an accounting department as long as you use its functions.
  • Quickbooks Premier allows you to link your bank accounts and credit cards to download transactions allowing you to have fewer errors when inputting your data.
  • Quickbooks Premier has a variety of easy to generate and easy to use reports. Tracking A/R and A/P are a breeze and the data is available within a few clicks.
  • Quickbooks Premier printable checks takes the hassle out of tracking your expenses in separate locations.
QuickBooks Premier is well suited for small to middle sized businesses. It is good for business owners who want to track their finances on their own and companies that only want to employ a bookkeeper either part-time or as needed. It also works for middle-sized companies as a way to track their finances to give to their tax accountants. I am not sure what scenarios QuickBooks Premier is not good in as they are able to mold their product for different industries upon setup.

QuickBooks Premier Review

Rating: 10 out of 10
January 15, 2018
DC
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
18 years of experience
We use it to handle our accounting as well as using the software to manage our clients' accounting.
  • Tracks AR to know who owes money & how much
  • Provides financial reports based off information that is put into the software
  • User-friendly software helps with training someone who hasn't used the software before.
Does very well with service based businesses.

Quickbooks Premier Review

Rating: 8 out of 10
December 20, 2017
EL
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
10 years of experience
Quickbooks Premier Contractor's Version is being used in our organization to track sale estimates and/or proposals for both commercial and residential clientele. It is also utilized as the primary accounting software to track income, expense, and financials. It allows us to easily pull historical estimates and/or proposals that might be re-activated and produce actual business revenue. It also allows us to quickly provide accounting information to the corporate accountant for year-end functions.
  • Estimates
  • Invoicing
  • Reports
I believe the online version is somewhat adequate for small business only without many transactions. Any business with over 25 customers should be referred to the desktop version. First, because the online version does not have the same capabilities as the desktop version, and secondly there are usually far more transactions and multiple invoices.

Accounting on a Fast Track

Rating: 9 out of 10
July 07, 2017
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
18 years of experience
[It's being used for] Tracking our expenses (which we do on a daily basis and it provides an optimum base for running future reports), sending invoices (easy for us to produce immediate invoices for customers and they are all formatted the same), online payments (makes it easy for customers to pay) as well as running P & L reports.
  • Record expenses for audits in our case.
  • There is an option to even photograph and save your receipts with your phone.
  • You can also automatically download and categorize bank and credit card transactions
Well suited for small companies but when you have a larger scale, it may not be very efficient in managing the load. I have used it for 500 employees and also for 50 employees and the volume does make a difference. It does not easily address reporting on a large scale.

QB for Leading Edge Firms

Rating: 9 out of 10
June 08, 2016
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
13 years of experience
I use it to maintain my set of books for my company. I use it for billing and collections from all my clients. I also use it for budgeting and financial reporting for my company.
  • Integrated credit card processing - posts automatically to customer accounts, allows online payment. It uses the most current technology.
  • It maintains a good strong history of billing and collections and provides collection letters and assistance when you have past due amounts to collect.
  • It allows you to download credit card transactions and post into the software automatically. It is easy to track spending details with this process.
Job costing and more advanced accounting requirements are typically not well-suited to QB applications. Sometimes they can be handled with third-party add-ons but it just depends.

QuickBooks Premier does a great job for my clients!

Rating: 10 out of 10
March 16, 2016
SE
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
9 years of experience
We use QuickBooks Premier to manage finances and payroll activities; it is used in conjunction with third party apps. Everyone in the organization uses the product either to support the company or to support our clients. Not every client is on this version. Some clients are on earlier or later years of Premier. Some clients are on QuickBooks Online. It solves the bookkeeping matters, such as payables and receivables, keeps records to support tax preparation and records payroll. It is used for budgeting and planning. It is simpler for the clients to understand as compared to the module based accounting systems.
  • It is intuitive for the client. For example, when the client goes to write a check, a screen opens that looks like a check.
  • It does all the debits and credits behind the scenes, so the client does not need to have an understanding of debits and credits.
  • There is a lot of support and a big community of users, so it is easy to get help, and to find staff that know how to work with the software.
  • The desktop version is much more robust than the online version, and the processing speed is much better.
If more than one person needs to access the file and not everyone is in the same location, it is easier and cheaper to use the online version, as compared to a hosted solution provider. However, it is faster and cheaper than the online version if everyone is working in the same location and you don't have more than about five users.

Non-profits will benefit, subject to a few workarounds

Rating: 8 out of 10
March 16, 2016
Verified User
Vetted Review
Verified User
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
5 years of experience
I use this product to do the accounting for five different non-profit entities and one for profit entity.
  • Intuitive interface.
  • The many add-on products available (from Intuit and third parties) allows for customization and flexibility.
  • Price provides functionality at a good value.
Let me speak to non-profit users. I would ask what level workarounds could you live with in the following areas: annual donor statements, housing allowance pay, quid pro quo donations, non-cash donations and donated services. Another area to consider is the need to file share with your clients. I have not looked at QuickBooks Online in quite a while, but my recollection is that the non-profit functionality was even less robust in that platform.
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