QuickBooks has some competitors:
- Xero
- FreshBooks
- Sage 50 (Previously known as Peachtree)
- AccountEdge
- Wave
- Others…
And people always ask me the magic question: “Why QuickBooks and not another program?” or “Other than QuickBooks, what are my choices for an accounting program?”
Now, because i am NOT an user of any other program that is not QuickBooks, I cannot make a feature by features comparison, but I will mention the bullet points as of why i recommend QuickBooks blindly to almost my clients rather than looking into another solution:
- QuickBooks comes in several “flavors”: QuickBooks Online Simple Start, QuickBooks Online Essentials, QuickBooks Online Plus, QuickBooks Mac, QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise. So we have a lot of flexibility in pricing, features and preferred mode of work. With both a CLOUD solution and a DESKTOP solution
- Mobile and iPad compatibility: both Online and Windows versions have an option to smartphone and tablet interfaces (limited of course) for some transactions on the road.
- Online Banking (Bank Fees): virtually every bank in US has a QuickBooks export option which speeds up data entry and bank reconciliation exponentially vs. 100% manual data entry systems. Some accounting programs do not have these features.
- Accountant Support: most CPA’s and Tax preparers in public practice support QuickBooks and can receive a QB file to perform their work. Other accounting systems may not be friendly to work with smaller or non-specialized CPA firms. Also accountants receive a particular set of tools from Accountant’s version of QuickBooks that speed up accounting process
- Number of QuickBooks Consultants: there are 60k plus members of the Intuit ProAdvisor Network and its very easy to find local consultants all over US to help the users configure/setup or support QuickBooks.
- Community Support: if you search “QuickBooks tutorial” in YouTube, you will find thousands of videos to learn QuickBooks on your own. The Intuit Support site: http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/ has tons of technical info. The community Support site: https://community.intuit.com/ has also tons of Q&As typically asked and answered by users.
- Local Training: like us, there are many local consultants and Community Colleges teaching QuickBooks courses, and not any other accounting program
- 3rd Party Apps: QuickBooks has the largest database of 3rd party compatible apps that import and export data between QuickBooks and non accounting other systems like CRM, Workflow Management, Shopping Carts, Inventory, etc.
- Payroll Support: there are many accounting programs that do not have Payroll Support or its a very manual process. QuickBooks has EFTPS payment automation, and IRS form filling built-in.
- Price / Value: I do not know the exact pricing of all the accounting programs out there, but the number of features vs price comparison. You can buy QuickBooks Pro for about $180 from amazon or QuickBooksPrice.com and it typically lasts 3 years without the need for an upgrade.
If I am wrong, please e-mail me if you know or use an accounting program that has all these features, so i can update my article. Thanks
