Online still has good reporting features, but its reports are not as useful for construction businesses without the advanced job costing and estimating features found on the desktop version.Įarly in QuickBooks Online’s release, there was a significant price difference between the various desktop and online versions. These drawbacks also mean QuickBooks Online’s reports are not as fully featured as those generated by QuickBooks Desktop. In the online version, you will have to use either custom fields or another workaround to achieve the same result. In QuickBooks Desktop, you can easily add markups for estimates. There are some workarounds for these issues in QuickBooks Online.įor example, QuickBooks Online’s products and services module allows you to incorporate more advanced estimating features that initially may not seem accessible. In general, smartphone-based accounting and bookkeeping probably won’t be as feature-rich or as functional as either popular version of QuickBooks for PCs, but at least with QuickBooks Online, you’ll have access to more functionality while on the go. If you plan on doing some accounting while at the beach or in a hotel room, don’t expect to do it efficiently or effectively with the QuickBooks Desktop mobile app. The Desktop-specific mobile app has minimal functionality and is mostly used for receipt uploading and other basic tasks.

The QuickBooks Online mobile and desktop apps are worlds apart – the Quickbooks Online mobile app is generally seen as being leaps and bounds better than the mobile app for QuickBooks Desktop. You can even access QuickBooks Online from a mobile app, but it’s up to you to decide if you’re comfortable doing your bookkeeping on a handheld screen with no keyboard attached. You can access all QuickBooks Online’s features through any computer with an internet connection. This version automatically backs up your data to the cloud, and the service is always updated remotely and automatically whenever changes, patches, or improvements happen. You’ll have access to tech support while maintaining a valid subscription, but securing and storing your data remains your responsibility.Įverything is cloud-based in QuickBooks Online. With the desktop version, you are fully responsible for installation and maintenance, which must be run on a local computer – generally one at your office or a laptop assigned by your employer. The biggest upfront difference between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop lies in how you access them. We’ll focus on differences specific to the construction industry, so you can make an informed decision about which version is best for your accounting needs. In this article, we’ll outline the differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. It’s a cloud-based app with many of the same features as QuickBooks Desktop, as well as some distinct differences. The other version, which is currently Intuit’s priority, is QuickBooks Online. This is a downloadable copy of QuickBooks you’d install on your computer. QuickBooks offers traditional stand-alone desktop software – QuickBooks Desktop.

It’s not always easy to know which version of QuickBooks is the best fit, so we’ve created this guide to help you decide. Construction companies of all sizes use QuickBooks to streamline their accounting and improve efficiency when tracking expenses or running other day-to-day operations.īut if you’re new to QuickBooks, you may not yet be sure which version is best for your construction company.

Differences in quickbooks versions