QuickBooks Hosting Vs Desktop Vs Online: A Comparative Study

Accounting is transforming and so are its techniques. Unlike seasonal professions, accounting is evergreen. Business and accounting go hand-in-hand and so does the need to adopt the best financial management solutions out of the lot.

Technology is evolving like never before and lately, a large number of businesses have been adopting automation to be on par with their competitors. According to a report, by 2020 around 78% of the businesses in the USA will adopt QuickBooks and other similar accounting solutions to streamline business management. Not only is it imperative to deploy technology into routine tasks, but it is also necessary to leverage the right one. 

Which Version of QuickBooks Is The Best?

QuickBooks is a desktop accounting software that has been in the market for almost two decades. Being an extremely popular accounting solution, QuickBooks has to its credit the largest share in the market for accounting software. And, the cherry on top is the fact that it can be hosted on the cloud as well. QuickBooks hosting, thus, has been a popular, attractive, and pocket-friendly solution for individuals, sole proprietors, CPAs, and professional accountants for the longest period of time. 

QuickBooks Online, however, came years later. Although it posed competition to QuickBooks hosting, the online version has its own shortcomings. So, how do you decide if your business needs QuickBooks Online or you need to relish the benefits of QuickBooks cloud hosting? Before we dive into the pros and cons, let’s understand what cloud hosting means.  

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing has become the essence of life. From uploading photos on your Facebook account to accessing your email inbox, all of it is saved on the cloud. Cloud computing is, thus, the ability to access your data from anywhere, at any place, and at any time. With the help of the cloud, we can perform our routine tasks by simply logging into our account via a valid id and password.  Cloud computing has revolutionized accounting by providing mobility, faster services, better security and a painless system of doing accounting. 

Versions of QuickBooks 

Business needs change depending upon their size and scalability. And, the best part of QuickBooks is that it comes with a variety of versions to fulfill the various business management needs of its users. So, before you choose your preferred version, it is recommended that you conduct quick research. The preeminent versions of QuickBooks hosting are:

• QuickBooks Pro

• QuickBooks Premier 

• QuickBooks Enterprise 

Now, let’s know about them one by one in brief:

QuickBooks Pro

QuickBooks Pro is a professional, office-based version designed to help those who have just stepped into the business world. It is an admired accounting software that can handle a slew of business-related responsibilities with ease, such as generating invoices,  tracking payments, managing accounts payables, and receivables, coordinating with clients, and managing payroll. 

QuickBooks Pro also comes with certain advanced features that include customer invoice status tracker, switching credits between jobs of the same customer, automatic data protection, and it is also easy to upgrade. 

QuickBooks Premier 

QuickBooks Premier is a robust accounting software that enables its users to pay bills, track expenses, track inventory, provide multi-user access, and helps to manage payroll and pay taxes. QuickBooks premier has five editions, namely Nonprofit, Contractor, Retail, Manufacturing & Wholesale and Professional Services. So, you can choose an edition of QuickBooks Premier according to your suitability and business type. 

QuickBooks Enterprise

QuickBooks Enterprise offers end-to-end finance and accounting solutions. It is suitable for small businesses that have outgrown and mid-sized businesses. helps to analyze data with the help of customizable reporting tools. QuickBooks Enterprise has various user-friendly features such as multi-user capability, more storage capacity, advanced inventory tracking, simultaneous user functionality and much more. 

QuickBooks Online VS QuickBooks Hosting 

QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based version of QuickBooks. Though the number of users of QuickBooks Online is swiftly increasing, hosting QuickBooks in the cloud is still preferred by many. Finding the right alternative is imperative from the point of view of performance, cost, and efficiency. So, before choosing the perfect solution for your business, it is advisable to understand in detail the features of QuickBooks Online as well as Hosting.  Let’s discuss them in detail:

The Final Decision

Taking the right decision at the right time for your business not only helps you to improve the effectiveness by improving the overall performance of the business process, but it will also assist you to get a competitive edge over your competitors. With the above list, it is evident that QuickBooks cloud hosting is comparatively more convenient, faster, secure and easy-to-use. Also, the benefits of QuickBooks hosting are not limited to the above list. So, if scalability, flexibility, and greater security are what you need, hosting QuickBooks on the cloud is the solution for you.