QuickBooks Online Advanced

Score8.3 out of 10

416 Reviews and Ratings

What is QuickBooks Online Advanced?

QuickBooks Online Advanced is a SaaS-based accounting software designed to scale with growing businesses. It includes the functionalities of QuickBooks Online, as well as more robust business analytics, customization, and resource management.

Categories & Use Cases

Bank reconciliation
The software connects to a company’s financial institutions in order to reconcile accounting records with checking, savings and credit card accounts. Often month and year closing capabilities are included.
Category average: 8.4
Electronic tax filing
The software provides a full electronic interface for the filing of repeatable taxes, such as payroll or sales tax.
Category average: 7.9
Primary and Secondary Ledgers
Record and report across multiple currencies and accounting standards with primary and secondary ledgers
Category average: 8

Pricing
Users can set up complex and unique pricing requirements.
Category average: 7.9
Order entry
Users can enter an order once, and the data flows to all the necessary units such as fulfillment and billing.
Category average: 8
Inventory tracking
The software syncs orders and stock to maintain a real-time picture of inventory and supports multiple methods such as LIFO and FIFO.
Category average: 7.4

Most Frequent Users

Top 3 industries using QuickBooks Online Advanced.

Based on HG Insights installation data

View all Reviews

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

28.3%

54 installations of 191

“Setting up was relatively easy.”
— Co-owner & Manager, CSR-Atlanta, LLC (Small Businesses)

#2 most frequent

Other Services (except Public Administration)

14.7%

28 installations of 191

#3 most frequent

Health Care and Social Assistance

8.4%

16 installations of 191

Pros

Robust financial reporting and insights for informed decision-making
Cloud-based remote accessibility and multi-location collaboration
Efficient management of core financial operations like invoicing and expense tracking

Cons

Limitations and difficulties with custom report management, filtering, and accessibility
Challenges and time investment associated with data migration from desktop versions
Mixed feedback and cost concerns regarding payroll processing and associated fees

Grace Clifton

Director of Human Resources in Human Resources at Radiant Live Events LLC (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use QBO Advanced for our bookkeeping, invoicing, sales tax, and report generation. We recently switched to QBO Advanced because we needed unlimited projects and class tracking for different events we put on, so we can calculate each show's profitability. I have not yet delved into what other benefits are offered. But the classes and locations tracking pair wonderfully with Bill.com and our Sage expense reporting. Has reduced the time spent generating P&L for each event.

Pros

Locations Tracking.
Class Tracking.
Bookkeeping
Sale Tax report generation.
Generating Reports.

Cons

Include the Assistance Feature in the QBO Advanced.

Return on Investment

Team more efficient.
Real time expense tracking.
Freed up about 20% of bookkeepers time.

Alternatives Considered

NetSuite ERP, Sage CRM and Sage Accounting

Other Software Used

Asana, BILL, Sage Expense Management, Rentman AV Rental Software, Zapier, Anthropic Claude

James Mozingo

Controller in Finance and Accounting at Covenant Life Church (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am the controller for Covenant Life Church and Covenant Life School. QuickBooks Online Advanced is currently being used for both entities and takes up to five simultaneous seat licenses. I am able to work from home while my staff generally works from the office. We use the general ledger, budgeting, payables, and receivables modules. Between the two entities, we generate 85 custom reports monthly.

Pros

Budgeting is easy to input. Our entities have multiple departments, so using classes to separate and report the results of each department is important.
Reports are easy to customize to provide meaningful data to the board and department managers.
QuickBooks Online Advanced has a large market share of accounting software in use, so it is relatively easy to find new employees with prior experience with QuickBooks Online Advanced.
Able to open both entities at the same time, which is helpful due to the number of transactions between the two entities.

Cons

New employees also do not have access to the existing custom reports.
When an employee is assigned to change the dates on a custom report, it creates a new report instead of simply updating/replacing the existing custom report.
Balance sheet reports also cannot be filtered by account, only by Customer, Vendor name, Product/Service and Class.
After using the Recurring Transactions function, the transaction does not automatically update to the next month’s date. The user has to manually edit the Recurring Transaction template.
On large custom reports, the print/export buttons are all the way at the far right of the spreadsheet, so you have to scroll to the right just to reach them.
Customized budget to Actual reports automatically scroll down, hiding the editable fields used to create the report and making the user have to scroll back to the top of the report to make a change.
Custom reports are automatically alphabetized, and there is no way to customize their order.
Bank reconciliations cannot be corrected after they are finalized for the month. Only the external accountant can re-open a finalized bank reconciliation.

Return on Investment

Moving from QuickBooks Desktop where there was only an upfront one-time software acquisition cost to an annual subscription of $2,500 per entity is costly for two non-profit organizations.
In over a year using QuickBooks Online Advanced, we have not had to pay anything for support.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Desktop Premier

Other Software Used

Ramp

James Hargis

Director of Business and Continuity in Finance and Accounting at A is for Advertising (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use QuickBooks Online to track our payables and receivables; the scope of my responsibilities is to input invoices from vendors, approve them for and schedule payments, as well as reconcile all accounts for the business. QuickBooks Online makes it easy to manage these tasks by simplifying the process of creating multiple invoices, recurring invoices, recurring bills, and expense entry.

Pros

Classifying transactions
Linking banks, credit cards, and other financials
Sending and receiving payments with their payment platforms

Cons

Better explanations of categories for tax purposes.
Tracking of long-term liabilities.
Provide more ways to view reports, as in, sometimes we like to see only what we have paid in payroll taxes without having to run a full accounting history.

Return on Investment

Simplified the amount of time I spend on AP/AR activities.
Drastically reduced the time it takes to reconcile accounts.
Improved expense capturing allowing for full tax reporting/deductions.

Alternatives Considered

FreshBooks

Other Software Used

Google Ads, Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Advertising Cloud

Usability

Lisa A Lewis View profile

Owner in Finance and Accounting at Money Matters Bookkeeping, LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

QuickBooks Online Advanced enables me to add unlimited GL accounts, Classes and Location tracking. This is a huge benefit for the larger clients that I manage. Up until recently, QuickBooks Online Advanced was a flawless workhorse machine. Sadly, recent changes have created havoc for me across the board in all QuickBooks Online Advanced platforms. My thoughts about the software have greatly diminished.

Pros

Unlimited GL Accounts
Unlimited Classes
Unlimited Location tracking

Cons

Should not make comprehensive changes across the board
In my experience, errors seem to be the norm now and support cannot correct
In my experience, when tickets are elevated for service, nothing is ever done.

Return on Investment

Previous version of QuickBooks Online Advanced has made accounting easy and seamless (again, until the recent changes)

Alternatives Considered

Xero

Mary Alford View profile

Owner in Corporate at MFB Consultancy, Inc (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use QuickBooks Online Advanced as my primary method of bookkeeping for my business. I use the online banking feature to seamlessly import transactions from my bank into QuickBooks Online Advanced. I also use the payroll feature, both automated and manual.

Pros

Payroll allows me to use both automated feature and manual paychecks
I can easily create and view custom reports each month to track my business' spending

Cons

I find it difficult to inactivate employees and then view them after I have marked them inactive.

Return on Investment

I can easily send recurring invoices to my clients, which has saved me time in creating and sending them.

Other Software Used

1Password, Trello, Adobe Acrobat Sign

Usability

FreshBooks

Xero

QuickBooks Online Advanced

What is QuickBooks Online Advanced?

Categories & Use Cases