Item: QuickBooks Online
Rating: 9
Author: Jennifer Walschap

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Quickbooks Online for our entire organization. We have around 120 clients, and Quickbooks helps us keep their accounts up-to-date and accurate. We really like the payments feature, and that it automatically logs the payment when someone pays online via their invoice. I feel that having this feature helps us get more payments on time, as well as saves us some time and effort.

Pros and Cons

The user interface is clean and things are easy to find. This saves us time from having to look for things we need. If we can't find something, the Help and Search features are easy to use.
There is a bar graph at the top of my Customers page that shows a breakdown of overdue invoices, open invoices, and those that have been paid in the last 30 days. This is nice because I can see all this information quickly when I need it.
We can customize invoices as much as we need to and it is very user-friendly. We can email individual invoices or in bulk to save time. We can send invoice reminders and statements in a flash as well. All of these things help us get paid on time.

I've had a hard time linking Quickbooks with my bank account and then categorizing my income/expenses. I'm not sure why, but I wish there was someone who could help with this.
I wish that I could make the emailed invoices come from my own email address so they have less of a chance of going to clients' spam inboxes.
It's a little annoying that they really try to push the Online version versus the software version. I asked a sales rep on the online chat about it once and he really tried to discourage me, saying that they don't offer ANY support if you have the software. I suppose they make more money with online subscriptions.

Return on Investment

Quickbooks Online has greatly helped us get more payments in on time by being able to invoice easily and collect card payments online. People can't use the "I forgot my checkbook" excuse.
It has helped us stay organized, which is important when dealing with people's money. If there is a dispute, we can easily look up the client's account in our records and settle it.
It has helped us pay employees on time and easily, while also keeping a record of every payment we have made to our employees and vendors.

Alternatives Considered

PayPal Payments, PayPal Here and QuickBooks Pro

Quickbooks Online has more features than PayPal that I need for my business. I decided to stick with the online subscription service for now so that I receive support and updates regularly, and also because I don't want to drop a chunk of money to purchase the software version. I may switch to the desktop software version in the future to ultimately save on costs, but for now, I am happy.

Other Software Used

AppointmentPlus, Google Drive, Google Forms

Likelihood to Recommend

Quickbooks Online is great for small/medium-sized businesses with a large client base. If you only have a few clients, you may not need something this complex. Quickbooks Online has many features to help your business, including accounting for tax purposes, and payroll features if needed. It can definitely suit a wide range of business sizes and models. There is a lot of customization available, so it can get the job done for many types of businesses. If you are the sole employee of your business and have less than 10 clients, you might try something like Paypal for invoicing and accounting to save money. Quickbooks does a better job though when you have many clients, we have around 120. If you have employees and need to print them checks, Quickbooks is great. We have around 25 employees and print checks every month. It is very easy to go back and find a check that was printed if needed.

Quickbooks is definitely quick, easy, and gets the job done! Affordable!

Overall Satisfaction with QuickBooks Online