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Quicken is the leading personal finance software and Quickbooks is one of the most popular accounting programs. But who should you choose in 2021?
Quicken is a personal finance software that has been around for a long time. QuickBooks is a more up-to-date and advanced software, but it can be difficult to use. This article will give you an overview of the differences between the two programs, as well as what’s best for you in 2021.
Choosing which small business accounting software to employ for your company might be difficult as a business owner. Quicken and QuickBooks are two excellent solutions available on the market. We evaluate the cost and features of Quicken vs QuickBooks in this post so you can determine which is right for you.
Quicken vs. QuickBooks: What’s the Difference?
Despite their similar titles, Quicken and QuickBooks are two unique software that serve different objectives. Quicken differs from QuickBooks in that QuickBooks is a double-entry accounting system, while Quicken is largely used for personal financial management. Quicken, on the other hand, has options for tracking rental revenue and spending as well as small one-person enterprises.
A double-entry accounting system keeps track of assets, obligations, revenue, and spending. By guaranteeing that all changes in assets and liabilities are represented in net income, revenue and costs become more reliable. QuickBooks Online is not just a double-entry bookkeeping system, but it’s also our top small company accounting software.
When Should You Use QuickBooks?
When it comes to monitoring your company’ revenue and spending, QuickBooks is nearly always a better alternative than Quicken. QuickBooks’ only function is to handle accounting for small businesses. Quicken is primarily designed for personal finances, but it may also be used to monitor revenue and spending for rental properties and small enterprises.
When Should You Use Quicken?
We rated Quicken as the best real estate accounting software for individuals with a few rental properties. While it’s predominantly a personal finance tool that tracks personal expenses, investments, and retirement accounts, Quicken Home & Business works well to keep track of tenants, rental rates, and lease terms for rental properties that you own. That’s something the more expensive QuickBooks Online doesn’t do.
When to Switch to a Different Option
Except for rental homes and extremely basic one-person enterprises, Quicken is not a viable option for company accounting, and QuickBooks may be too pricey for very tiny, new firms. For small company accounting, there are several effective alternatives to QuickBooks online, some of which are even free!
At a Glance: Quicken vs. QuickBooks
Quicken vs. QuickBooks: What’s the Difference?
Quicken and QuickBooks Online are both subscription-based programs. QuickBooks Online comes with a monthly subscription that you may cancel at any time. Quicken is paid by the year, and unless you cancel, your subscription will automatically renew each year.
Quicken Pricing
Quicken offers four different price options:
For use with Windows
- $35.99 per year as a starter
- $51.99 per year for Deluxe
- $77.99 per year for Premier
- Home & Business: $103.99 per year
For Mac
- $35.99 per year as a starter
- $46.79 per year for Deluxe
- $70.19 per year for Premier
Quicken is currently offering 10% off as a new member offer. The Home and Business plan is available only For use with Windows. It’s the only plan that can provide the functionality of tracking business income and expenses and the Quicken rental property features.
QuickBooks Pricing
There are five price options for QuickBooks Online:
- $15 per month if self-employed
- Begin with a low-cost plan of $25 per month.
- $50 per month for the essentials
- Added bonus: $80 per month
- $180 per month (advanced)
Quickbooks Online is now providing a 50 percent discount for three months or a 30-day free trial. To select the best-suited plan for your company, read our QuickBooks Online comparison to learn more about the variations between each plan.
Takeaway: QuickBooks is priced much higher than Quicken, with QuickBooks Simple Start costing three times as much as Quicken Home & Business. Quicken is a great value provided all you need is to track income and expenses. However, the extra cost of QuickBooks will be worth it if you need the features of a full bookkeeping system—like tracking assets and liabilities and printing a balance sheet.
Features of Quicken vs. QuickBooks
Quicken and QuickBooks Online offer very different features. Quicken features are geared mostly toward managing personal expenses and investments, but the Home & Business edition adds some business income and expense tracking along with a suite of rental management tools. QuickBooks features are designed to track assets, liabilities, income, and expense of a business accurately, plus include features many businesses require like collecting and remitting sales tax, paying employees, and tracking the cost of inventory.
Quicken vs. QuickBooks: Which Is Easier to Use?
Quicken is a desktop software, but QuickBooks Online features a completely web-based interface. Quicken needs the user to download and install software, but QuickBooks is ready to use immediately as the subscription is paid.
Quicken; Ease of Use
Because Quicken mainly includes accounting capabilities as well as other business tools for non-accounting operations, it is more difficult to use than QuickBooks Online when completing company activities. All corporate and personal transactions are shown on the dashboard below. By choosing “Business Tools” from the “Business” menu, you can keep track of your business activities.
Below is a screenshot of Quicken’s dashboard:
Quicken Home & Business dashboard
On the Quicken dashboard, you’ll see the following key pieces of information:
- Menu bar: Click on the top menu bar to navigate to the various areas of the program like Bills & Income, Rental Property, and Tips & Tutorials.
- Total spending: Review the graph that displays the amount spent per categories, such as Auto or Utilities, to keep track of where your money is going.
- Payments to pay: Use Quicken’s Bill Pay tool to keep track of your monthly bills.
- Create a budget to keep track of your spending so you can identify methods to cut costs and save more money.
Quicken for Web
Quicken for the Web is available via the Quicken website.
Quicken is a computer program that may be downloaded and installed. Quicken, on the other hand, has reacted to the most often requested feature from all users: Quicken for Web. Quicken is now more accessible across devices, regardless of whether or not the desktop program is installed.
You can do the following using Quicken Web:
- Balances, budgets, accounts, and transactions should all be checked.
- Trends in spending by category, payee, and other factors
- Keep an eye on your investments.
- Organize and examine previous spending.
- Desktop and mobile devices may be synced
QuickBooks Online; Ease of use
Quicken is substantially more difficult to use than QuickBooks Online. Tasks are organized by process, making it much simpler to locate the one you’re looking for. The left navigation bar on the QuickBooks Online interface makes it simple to browse the software. For the time period you choose, the dashboard displays a summary of total paid and unpaid client bills, total costs, profit and loss, and sales.
The following is a screenshot of the QuickBooks Online dashboard:
Dashboard for QuickBooks Online Plus
On the QuickBooks Online dashboard, there are five main sections:
- The left navigation bar allows you to access almost any job, including making invoices, bank accounts, and reports.
- Plus Button: To customize your QuickBooks account, you may upload your business logo.
- Profit and Loss: Keep track of your profits and losses without running a report.
- Expenses: In this section, you will see the total expenses for a selected time period along with the top three categories like Maintenance & Repairs, Job Expenses, and Cost of Goods Sold.
- Invoice: You may view what your customers owe you in terms of accounts receivable (A/R) as well as the total amount of money received vs undeposited monies in this area.
- Sales: Throughout the year, keep a watch on your sales to see patterns and make any required modifications.
- Bank Accounts: This area displays all of your linked bank accounts and cards, as well as a balanced comparison by the bank and each book.
- For billable hours, you may use QuickBooks Online’s time tracker to keep track of hours worked.
Takeaway: QuickBooks Online is simpler to set up than Quicken since it is entirely web-based and does not need any downloads or installations. QuickBooks Online is also better for recording company revenue and spending since that’s its main emphasis, while Quicken offers a lot of personal financial tools that aren’t important for tracking business money.
Quicken vs. QuickBooks: Which Is Better?
Quicken and QuickBooks Online both have mobile apps that enable you to access your data on the road. Both iOS and Android smartphones may use the applications for both goods. Continue reading to find out what each mobile app can do for you.
Quicken App for Mobile
With the Quicken App for Mobile, you can perform some useful tasks, including viewing your bank account transactions. Unfortunately, you cannot create invoices for customers. or enter unpaid bills in the mobile app. Any transactions that are entered on the mobile device will automatically be synchronized with the file on your desktop computer.
A few of the tasks that you can perform with the Quicken App for Mobile are:
- Account balances and transactions may be seen.
- Account transactions should be entered and receipts should be attached.
- View the budget you made using the desktop software.
App for QuickBooks Online
The QuickBooks mobile app can accomplish almost everything you can do on a computer when you log in to your account. Adding new customers and suppliers, as well as making invoices and submitting bills, are all part of this process.
Some of the tasks that you can complete with the App for QuickBooks Online include:
- Add new customers and merchants to your list.
- With the help of your smartphone’s GPS, you can track your car’s mileage.
- Create invoices for customers.
- Take a snapshot of the receipts and save them with the transactions.
- Enter invoices from vendors.
Mobile Card Reader with GoPayment App
With QuickBooks, you can now collect faster and easier with its Mobile Card Reader with GoPayment App. You can accept payment from bank cards using the card reader and process the payment through the GoPayment app. The GoPayment app has no monthly fee but transaction processing fees are as follows:
- 2.4 percent + 25 cents for swiping and tapping
- 3.4 percent + 25 cents for keyed transactions
- Fee for processing invoices: 2.9 percent + 25%
- Payments made via an automated clearing house (ACH): 1% (maximum of $10)
The mobile app for QuickBooks Online is the obvious winner. You may run your whole company from the app, and you’ll just need to check in to your account on your computer once in a while. Quicken’s mobile app comes with a number of essential features.
Integrations in Quicken vs. QuickBooks
Receiving online payments, making online payments, and storing documents are all possible using Quicken’s connections. The same integrations are available in QuickBooks, as well as hundreds more.
Quicken; Integrations
Quicken only offers a small number of integrations. It has integrations with PayPal for taking online credit card payments from clients, Dropbox for storing key documents like rental agreements and leases, and Zillow Zestimate for calculating the worth of your house. It offers a built-in bill payment facility, similar to QuickBooks Online, that enables you to pay your payments online.
Integrations with QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online features built-in interfaces such as Intuit Online Payroll for managing and paying workers, Intuit Merchant Services for accepting online credit card payments, and Bill.com for making online bill payments, in addition to connecting with over 600 third-party applications. You may also use applications like Shopify and Square to run your online company.
Takeaway:
When it comes to integrations, Quicken and QuickBooks Online are incomparable. Quicken is only compatible with a few goods, but QuickBooks Online is compatible with over 600.
Conclusion
It’s time to choose between Quicken and QuickBooks now that you know the differences. If you own rental properties, Quicken is the way to go. QuickBooks Online, on the other hand, is the way to go if you’re searching for powerful accounting software for your small company.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Quicken and QuickBooks?
Quicken is a personal finance management tool that helps people manage their finances, whereas QuickBooks is another popular piece of software used for accounting. These two products are very different in what they offer and how those features work, so its not surprising to see the confusion between them.
Is Quicken easier to use than QuickBooks?
That depends on your goals. Quicken is a personal finance management program that includes budgeting, expense tracking, and forecasting while QuickBooks is more of accounting software with features like invoicing, inventory tracking, and payroll functions.
Can I go from QuickBooks to Quicken?
You cannot make the switch from QuickBooks to Quicken. There are some major differences between these two products that would require a lot of time and effort in order to get used to, not just on your end but also with the softwares learning curve as well.
