Ask the Accountant…
Question: Which QuickBooks Online product is right for me?
Answer: If you have read my blogs, you know that I am not a big fan of QBO (QuickBooks Online) for an ad specialty distributor. However, there are some circumstances where QBO is the better choice, such as when you are using an order management system that only integrates with QBO.
If that is the case, the question arises as to which QBO is the best for our industry. There are multiple QBO products: Essentials, Simple Start, QBO Plus, and Advanced. They get progressively more complex and expensive, with Essentials being the least expensive and Advanced the most expensive.
QBO Plus is the first one that has two features that are necessities for us distributors: supplier purchase orders and items that can be created for both Income and expense accounts. Essentials and Simple Start do not have these features. While QBO Advanced also has these features, it is beyond the scope needed by most distributors.
I would recommend that a distributor use QBO Plus if using the QuickBooks online products.
Harriet Gatter is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, a former accounting professor and a former ad specialty distributor of 23 years. She advises ad specialty distributors about using QuickBooks Premier & Enterprise, and SAGE Online to save time, eliminate errors, and correctly account for your business. Her specialty is converting distributors from ProfitMaker, SmartBooks, OrderMaster, AIA, Proforma, and other accounting systems.
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