QuickBooks Online

What is QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a popular accounting software developed and marketed by Intuit. Its main purpose is to help small and medium-sized businesses manage their finances. The software includes tools for tracking income and expenses, creating invoices, managing bills, running payroll, and generating financial reports. It simplifies bookkeeping tasks, making it easier for business owners to understand their financial health and prepare for tax season. Intuit, the company behind QuickBooks, was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and has become a leading provider of financial software for individuals and businesses worldwide.

QuickBooks Features

QuickBooks offers a wide range of features to cover various aspects of business finance management.

• Invoicing & Payments: Create professional, custom invoices and accept payments directly through credit cards or bank transfers (ACH). You can also set up recurring invoices for regular clients.
• Expense Tracking: Connect your bank and credit card accounts to automatically import and categorize transactions. This helps you monitor spending and identify potential tax deductions.
• Receipt Capture: Use the mobile app to snap photos of receipts. QuickBooks automatically extracts the data and attaches the image to the corresponding expense transaction.
• Cash Flow Management: Get a clear view of your money in and out. The platform provides tools to forecast cash flow, helping you make better financial decisions.
• Reporting: Generate dozens of financial reports, including Profit & Loss statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow statements. These reports can be customized to fit your needs.
• Tax Management: Organize your finances to be tax-ready. Track sales tax on invoices and easily run reports that you or your accountant can use to file taxes.
• Payroll Services: An optional add-on, QuickBooks Payroll helps you pay your team, manage payroll taxes, and file necessary forms. It can handle both employees and contractors.
• Inventory Management: Available in higher-tier plans, this feature allows you to track inventory levels, manage stock, and receive notifications when it's time to reorder.
• Project Profitability: Track income, expenses, and labor costs for individual projects to see which ones are most profitable.
• Mobile App: Manage your business on the go. The app lets you send invoices, track mileage, and check reports from your smartphone or tablet.

QuickBooks Pricing Plans

QuickBooks offers several subscription plans designed to scale with a business's needs.

• Simple Start: This is the entry-level plan, ideal for freelancers, solopreneurs, and new businesses. It covers basic needs like income and expense tracking, invoicing, and receipt capture.
• Essentials: Suited for growing small businesses that need to manage bills and track time. This plan includes all Simple Start features and adds support for multiple users and time tracking.
• Plus: The most popular plan, designed for businesses that manage inventory or projects. It includes all Essentials features, plus project profitability tracking and inventory management.
• Advanced: This is the most comprehensive plan for larger, more complex small to medium-sized businesses. It offers advanced features like custom user permissions, batch invoicing, in-depth reporting, and dedicated customer support.

QuickBooks Free Plan

QuickBooks does not offer a permanent free plan for its core accounting software. However, it provides a 30-day free trial for new users to test the platform. The free trial typically gives you access to all the features of the Plus plan, allowing you to explore its full capabilities before committing to a paid subscription. After the trial period ends, you must choose a paid plan to continue using the service.

How to use QuickBooks

Getting started with QuickBooks is a structured process. Here are the typical steps to set up and use the software:

1. Create an Account: Sign up for a plan or a free trial on the QuickBooks website.
2. Set Up Your Company: Enter basic information about your business, such as its name, address, and industry. This helps QuickBooks customize your account.
3. Connect Bank Accounts: Securely link your business bank and credit card accounts. QuickBooks will automatically import your recent transactions.
4. Customize Your Chart of Accounts: Review the default list of accounts for categorizing income and expenses. Add or edit accounts to match your business operations.
5. Create and Send Invoices: Go to the sales section to create your first invoice. You can customize the template with your logo and send it to your client directly from the platform.
6. Track Expenses: As transactions are imported from your bank, categorize them. You can also manually add expenses and upload receipts.
7. Reconcile Accounts: At the end of each month, use the reconciliation tool to compare your QuickBooks records with your bank statements to ensure everything matches.
8. Run Reports: Explore the reports section to view your financial performance, such as your profit and loss, at any time.

Pros and Cons of QuickBooks

Pros

• Comprehensive Features: It offers a complete set of tools for accounting, from invoicing to payroll and inventory.
• Scalable: With multiple plans, the software can grow with your business.
• User-Friendly Interface: The dashboard is well-organized, making it relatively easy for non-accountants to navigate.
• Strong Reporting: Provides detailed and customizable reports that offer valuable insights into business performance.
• Large Integration Ecosystem: Connects with hundreds of third-party business applications.
• Mobile Accessibility: The mobile app is robust and allows you to manage key financial tasks from anywhere.

Cons

• Subscription Cost: The monthly fees can be high, especially for the more advanced plans with payroll.
• Learning Curve: While user-friendly, new users may need time to learn all the features and functions.
• Limited Users on Lower Plans: The number of users is restricted on the Simple Start and Essentials plans.
• Customer Support: Some users report that getting timely and effective support can be challenging.

QuickBooks integrations

QuickBooks integrates with a vast number of third-party applications to extend its functionality. Here are some popular integrations:

• PayPal: Sync your PayPal transactions, fees, and sales data directly into QuickBooks for easier reconciliation.
• Square: Automatically import sales data from your Square point-of-sale system into your QuickBooks account.
• Shopify: Connect your Shopify store to automatically track sales, fees, and inventory in QuickBooks.
• Stripe: Sync payment and transaction data from Stripe to keep your sales records accurate.
• Mailchimp: Integrate customer data between QuickBooks and Mailchimp for targeted marketing campaigns.
• TSheets (now QuickBooks Time): Seamlessly track employee time for payroll and invoicing.
• Expensify: Automate expense reporting by syncing expense reports from Expensify to QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Alternatives

• Xero: A strong competitor with a similar feature set. Xero is known for its clean interface and unlimited users on all plans, making it a great choice for collaborative teams.
• FreshBooks: Designed specifically for freelancers and service-based businesses. Its strength lies in invoicing, time tracking, and project management, with a very intuitive user experience.
• Wave: A great option for new businesses or freelancers on a tight budget. Wave offers free accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning. It makes money from its paid payment processing and payroll services.
• Zoho Books: Part of the larger Zoho ecosystem of business apps. It's a comprehensive accounting solution that offers great value, especially if you already use other Zoho products.

QuickBooks API

Yes, QuickBooks provides a robust API for developers. The QuickBooks Online Accounting API allows developers to create applications that can read, write, and update QuickBooks Online company data. This enables custom integrations and workflows.

To get started, you need to create a developer account on the Intuit Developer portal. From there, you can create an app, get your API keys (Client ID and Client Secret), and access the sandbox environment for testing. The API uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication.

Here is a basic example of connecting to the API using Python:

from intuitlib.client import AuthClient
from intuitlib.enums import Scopes

# Your credentials
client_id = 'YOUR_CLIENT_ID'
client_secret = 'YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET'
redirect_uri = 'YOUR_REDIRECT_URI'
environment = 'sandbox' # or 'production'

auth_client = AuthClient(
    client_id=client_id,
    client_secret=client_secret,
    redirect_uri=redirect_uri,
    environment=environment,
)

# Get the authorization URL
auth_url = auth_client.get_authorization_url([Scopes.ACCOUNTING])

# After user authorization, you exchange the auth code for tokens
# auth_client.get_bearer_token(auth_code, realm_id='YOUR_REALM_ID')

# Now you can make API calls
# print(f"Access Token: {auth_client.access_token}")

For full documentation, visit the Intuit Developer website.

QuickBooks Affiliate program

QuickBooks has an affiliate program that allows partners to earn commissions by referring new customers. The program is managed through the Commission Junction (CJ) affiliate network.

• Commission Rates: Affiliates can earn a commission for each new customer who signs up for a paid QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Self-Employed subscription through their unique referral link. Commission rates can vary but are typically a percentage of the sale or a flat fee.
• How to Join: To join, you must apply to the Intuit QuickBooks Affiliate Program through the CJ Affiliate network website. You will need to provide information about your website or marketing channels. Once your application is approved, you will get access to marketing materials, tracking links, and a dashboard to monitor your performance.
• Getting Paid: Commissions are paid out through the CJ network according to their payment schedule, usually on a monthly basis, once you meet the minimum payment threshold.