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QuickBooks Desktop Pro

Score8.1 out of 10

1,004 Reviews and Ratings

What is QuickBooks Desktop Pro?

Quickbooks Desktop Pro is accounting software from Intuit, Inc. It includes core accounting features, plus analytics and exportable reports. It is offered in on-premise and SaaS forms.

Top Performing Features

  • 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

  • Expense management

    The software can log and track business expenses and reimbursements, including travel-related expenses, with the ability to tie them to particular projects.

    Category average: 8.1

  • Accounts payable

    This includes the automation and tracking of payment to vendors and suppliers, with features such as payment scheduling, check printing, open purchase order alerts, document management, direct ACH bill payment, and vendor records.

    Category average: 8.4

Areas for Improvement

  • Plug-ins

    A number of third-party plug-ins are available to expand the core functionality of the software.

    Category average: 7.5

  • Global Financial Support

    Account using multiple ledgers, multiple currencies, and multiple entities

    Category average: 7.5

  • Localizations

    Meet reporting requirements with country-specific localizations

    Category average: 7.7

QuickBooks Desktop Pro Great for Small Businesses

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use QuickBooks Desktop Pro for all our accounting needs: payables, receivables, banking info, clients, vendors, etc. QuickBooks Desktop Pro is an easy system to use for general accounting for a small business. In addition to the basic functions, we are also able to enter notes into clients and/or vendor sections to remind us of special arrangements. Reconciliations of bank accounts is easy. The reporting feature has a multitude of useful reports that make analyzing the financials of the business easy.

Pros

  • Creates invoices easily from Microsoft Access
  • Writing checks through QuickBooks Desktop Pro is easy and prints directly to my desktop printer
  • Vendor notes are helpful
  • LOVE the Insights! Gives you a snapshot of how the business is doing with a few quick graphs.

Cons

  • When QuickBooks Desktop Pro puts out an update, it always seems to come at an inopportune time (not QuickBooks Desktop Pro's fault) and sometimes does not allow us to get into the system after an update without contacting IT.

Return on Investment

  • The system is relatively inexpensive, and you get your ROI back right away if you use QuickBooks Desktop Pro instead of spreadsheets and handwritten forms and documents.

Usability

QuickBooks Desktop Pro, can't live without it!

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use QuickBooks Desktop Pro across all our financial departments. I think it is easy to use, scalable, and efficient

Pros

  • Invoicing
  • Payments

Cons

  • I have some difficulty when invoicing and looking up the item to charge

Return on Investment

  • Positive ROI because I could not work without it

Usability

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Other Software Used

Constant Contact, Sage Accounting, MemberTies

Great tool to use; highly recommend

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used QuickBooks Desktop Pro with my prior employer. We used it for all the accounting and financial management needs, including vendor and customer/donor records, accounts payables, payable tracking, bank reconciliation, cash management, financial reporting, annual budgeting and YOY key financial metrics comparisons. Before implementing into QuickBooks Desktop Pro, we did all our accounting records manually, mostly in Excel, and faced much challenges. Once switched to the QuickBooks Desktop Pro, things became smooth and the financial reporting and analysis were done on a timely manner with an accuracy level much more satisfactory. Thanks QuickBooks Desktop Pro!

Pros

  • Reports getting ready in no time and with high confidence on accuracy and completeness
  • Link directly to bank accounts and receive transactions records on real time.
  • Save time and improve efficiency

Cons

  • Can allow more users to manage the same books at the same time

Return on Investment

  • No quantitative impact, but it implements our internal control and standard procedures, and ensure all our records are in compliance and meet the requirements for the annual audit process which is essential to our non-profit organization.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

NetSuite ERP

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Advanced

QuickBooks is a great fit for simple small business needs.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a small software development shop with simple double-entry accounting needs. We don't have inventory, we don't use QB for payroll, and we don't use most of its features. I use it more to develop software applications for other clients using the QB SDK and various Microsoft development tools. It has been found to be pretty easy to integrate with other apps.

Pros

  • Easy entry of sales order and purchase orders.
  • Robust SDK for integrating with other applications.
  • Very complete documentation and online support community.

Cons

  • I wish payroll processing wasn't so expensive.
  • Data backups aren't automatic.
  • Seems to be a lot of pressure to move to QB online.

Return on Investment

  • Year-end tax prep is simplified when paired with TurboTax.
  • Easier to find online help that with other accounting packages I had used previously.
  • Being regular users of QB helps us deliver custom software integrations to our clients.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Sage Accounting, Wave Accounting and Zoho Books

Other Software Used

Google Sheets, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), AnyDesk, PureVPN, RingCentral Meetings, Postman, OneDrive, Dropbox, Microsoft Visual Studio, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, Windows Server, Progress Telerik, Authorize.net, WordPress

Don't use QuickBooks Desktop Pro or Web version

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We don't use QuickBooks Desktop Pro anymore. In my opinion, it has gotten too expensive, and they try to force you to use the web version. Why should I keep my most important business information on the cloud where anyone can have access to it. In my opinion, QuickBooks cloud is not secure. I feel they can cancel you if they don't like your company, just like social media platforms can. I don't believe what they tell you that it is secure. As a person who has spent 50 years writing programs and making sure they are hacker-proof. NOTHING IS SECURE!

Pros

  • Billing
  • Checkbook
  • Categorize transaction into groups
  • Backups

Cons

  • Lower the price back to where it was a few years ago where I could buy a version and it was good for 4 years.
  • Now I have to pay a license fee per year twice what I paid for a 4 year license.
  • The desktop version is no longer available for new customers. In my opinion, they want to force you to use the web version.

Return on Investment

  • Cost too much
  • Too expensive
  • Doesn't seem to care about customers

Usability

Other Software Used

Avid Pro Tools