Quicken vs QuickBooks: A Comparison

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 Quicken vs QuickBooks, which financial accounting software is better? this question echoes the sentiment of every user who works on Quicken or QuickBooks whether they are seasoned or novices with the software. Nonetheless, the differences between Quicken and QuickBooks are numerous. The main distinguishing factor between Quicken and QuickBooks arise from one particular discernment. They’re meant for two different types of financial purposes.

Quicken primarily manages personal finances, with a few business finance capabilities thrown in for those with side businesses or rental properties. QuickBooks, on the other hand, is designed specifically for business finances and all of the intricacies they require accounting software.

Beyond this basic difference between Quicken and QuickBooks, there’s a lot to parse when comparing the two accounting software options for your small business, so let’s dive right into our comparison of Quicken vs. QuickBooks.

The Fundamentals – Quicken vs QuickBooks 

Quicken Home & Business Fundamentals

Quicken Home & Business accounting software offers all the ins and outs that come with the Premier version of Quicken’s personal accounting software. Think spending tracking, budget goals, and loan management, pretty much anything you’d need from a personal accounting software. Quicken Home & Business, however, will also categorize your expenses, provide profit/loss projections, run cash flow reports, and help maximize your business tax deductions.

QuickBooks Online Fundamentals

Different from Quicken Home & Business, QuickBooks Online is an accounting software option designed solely for business finances. So, whereas Quicken offers a few business features here and there, QuickBooks Online is all business, all the time. QuickBooks Online is available in three tiers Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus each of which will allow you to perform crucial business accounting functions like track income, track expenses, send invoices, print checks, and integrate with other financial applications. QuickBooks Online Essentials and Plus will offer you even more.

With the Essentials plan, you’ll also be able to add up to three users to your account, set up recurring invoices, manage vendor bills, and track billable hours by customer. With QuickBooks Online Plus, you’ll be able to access all the perks of the Essential plan, but you’ll also be able to add up to five users, prepare and print 1099s, track inventory, and create purchase orders.

The Verdict

Quicken tracks personal and business finances as while QuickBooks has one primary function. If you want to use one application to track your personal and business finances, Quicken does a great job of managing personal finances and handling investment accounts. So, in this criterion, Quicken is a more preferable option

Pricing – Quicken vs QuickBooks

Quicken 

Quicken Offers More Affordable, Annually-Billed Pricing. One of the main reasons that the question of Quickens vs. QuickBooks even comes up in the first place. Quicken is much more affordable than QuickBooks. As a reminder, Quicken Home & Business will only cost you $99.99 a year.

QuickBooks

Meanwhile, even the most affordable QuickBooks Online option Simple Start will cost you $20 a month, or $240 a year. Even with the 50% discount for your first three months, you’ll be paying $210 for QuickBooks Online Simple Start. Even at its cheapest, QuickBooks Online will still cost twice as much as Quicken every year.

However, this extra cost is often worth it as QuickBooks Online will offer your business with several advantages. Even just being able to set up automatic accounts receivable and payable tracking through QuickBooks could give you your extra money’s worth. Saving a few dollars every year by choosing Quicken will mean that you’ll have to manually track your accounts payable and receivable.

The Verdict

In this criterion, the comparison can be considered a tie as both the software are preferable for different reasons.

Accounting Features – Quicken vs QuickBooks 

Quicken

Quicken is predominantly a personal finance tool and isn’t great for small businesses. However, it can be a better fit than QuickBooks if you have a rental property business and need software that is customized to keep track of tenants, rental rates, and lease terms. Otherwise, you’ll want to use QuickBooks for your business needs.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks offers superior business accounting features. Both QuickBooks Online and Quicken allow you to track money in, money out. Both allow you to balance and reconcile your accounts, create invoices, enter bills, create reports, and track sales tax. However, with QuickBooks Online, you’ll have access to bank feed rules that allow you to tailor your bank feed transactions management which even means telling QuickBooks Online to automatically enter transactions if they meet certain criteria.

The Verdict

QuickBooks Online offers much more for the business user. The automation options are fantastic with QuickBooks Payments, you can send invoices and get paid online, as well as create recurring sale receipts that let you automatically charge a customer’s card, with appropriate written authorization. So, QuickBooks would a much more preferable option in this case.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Accessibility

Quicken

With Quicken, a user will have to make sure that the computer on which it is installed is always connected to the internet in order for it to sync and that there’s always the risk of sync errors. It also means that users can only access it from that one computer or from their mobile device.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks interface is simpler because QuickBooks Online is specifically for business, the interface is much simpler to navigate and eventually master. Quicken is, by nature, more difficult to navigate than QuickBooks Online because it’s designed to track personal and business finances. If you’re looking for accounting software that’s just for your business finances. QuickBooks offers straightforward access to all of your business financial information, without any personal finance features to distract you.

The Verdict

 In this instance, QuickBooks proves to be a more preferable option. However, some users do prefer limited accessibility for security reasons.

In Conclusion

There are no definitive criteria by which you can declare QuickBooks vs Quicken as the ultimate financial accounting software. The whole debate of Quicken versus Quickbooks is purely based on perspectives and preferences. Some may prefer Quicken, while some may prefer QuickBooks. It all depends on the user.

We hope that this blog has provided you with a better understanding of what both the software are and what would be a better fit for you. If you have any further queries regarding Quicken vs QuickBooks.

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