25
Apr
11

Quickbooks Pro PC vs. Quickbooks Online vs. Quickbooks Mac

By Joshua Steimle 6 Comments Categories: Reviews & How-To

Last week I switched to a Mac. This meant I had to figure out what I was going to do about Quickbooks. I’ve used Quickbooks on a PC for my business for the past 10+ years, so this was a bit of a switch. Most recently I’ve been using Quickbooks Pro 2009, plus payroll. In switching to a Mac this meant I had two options; Quickbooks Online, or Quickbooks for Mac. I decided to try them both out and see what I liked. I had high hopes or Quickbooks Online since that would free me from any platform constraints. Here’s how it all shook down.

Quickbooks Online. I like it, although I didn’t do a thorough test run. But I liked what I saw. The process of uploading my file went well, and there were only a few things I had to reconfigure. Payroll is well integrated, and everything else seemed to be a snap. There’s just one huge downside–cost. It’s about $50/month for what I need, and $600/year vs. $200/year just wasn’t worth it for me.

Quickbooks for Mac. It was ok, although if I were already used to the Mac interface I might like it better than I did. The main drawback for me was that payroll is not integrated the way it is on a  PC. Instead, it’s online and you download PDFs, print payroll checks that way, and then have to import transactions into the desktop software. This is a bit of a pain, and in the end I didn’t like this part at all.

Final decision. I decided to stick with Quickbooks Pro 2009 on my PC, or what is now my wife’s laptop. There is no reason I need Quickbooks on my Mac, other than that I wouldn’t have to walk across the room to work in Quickbooks. If you find yourself in the same situation I’m in, I’d recommend saving yourself the time of testing out these other versions and just having your old PC run Quickbooks and don’t worry about accessing it via your Mac.

And if I ever do need to access Quickbooks from my Mac, I can just remote into my PC.

Related posts:

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  2. Best Way to Use Quickbooks on a Mac
  3. Online Invoicing. What Do You Use?
  • William Lynes

    Hi Joshua,
    Thanks for posting this review of your experience trying QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks for Mac, and QuickBooks Pro (for Windows). I’d like to learn more about your expectations for integration between QuickBooks and payroll so we can improve.

    Can you give a bit more detail as to why you don’t consider QuickBooks for Mac and QuickBooks Payroll for Mac to be integrated? You mentioned importing payroll data–this can be done via IIF file, as you mentioned. The more seamless option is to access payroll from within QuickBooks for Mac (Employees>Payroll), as your paycheck details and account balances will update automatically after you pay employees–no need to download files. Would this address your concerns?

    Best,
    Will Lynes
    Product Manager
    QuickBooks for Mac

  • Joshua Steimle

    As it says at http://payroll.intuit.com/payroll_services/mac-payroll.jsp, “Export your payroll data back to QuickBooks with just one click”. But on a PC I don’t have to do anything–it’s just in there. Plus payroll on the Mac starts at $25/month. I pay $100-something for an entire year on my PC. So in essence, if payroll for the Mac worked just like payroll for the desktop version of Quickbooks Pro on the PC, and cost the same, I’d be more likely to use Quickbooks for Mac.

    However, I really think the future is with Quickbooks Online, but it’s just too darn expensive. I only upgrade Quickbooks once every three years, and then only because I’m forced to, so I end up paying about $300 once every three years (for the upgrade + payroll) and then just payroll the other two years ($130 or whatever it is). So over a three year period I spend an average of about $200/year. With Quickbooks Online I’m paying around $600/year, or three times as much. But I’m definitely not getting three times the value, in fact, Quickbooks Online is more inconvenient in every way except for three factors; 1) I never have to install/reinstall anything if I switch computers, 2) I don’t have to worry about backups, 3) I can access it from any machine. But those factors aren’t worth $400/year extra to me, because; 1) installing/reinstalling isn’t that big a deal, 2) I have Carbonite backing up my computer automatically, so backups aren’t that big a deal either, and 3) I can just remote into my machine using any desktop sharing program, so that issue is taken care of as well. In other words, the three factors that make Quickbooks Online attractive to me are only marginally better than what I’ve got. I might be willing to pay an extra $50/year for all that, but not $400/year more.

  • Mark Koch

    Thank you for the great discussion on this common problem.

    Based on what I read here, I’ve decided to stick with QB on the PC. The one thing I do differently is Run QB PC version using Fusion on Mac. I used the Windows license key from my old PC when I moved everything over. VMWare Fusion has been a great tool to run my old PC apps (I’m down to only four or five apps there) and yet do most of what I need on the Mac.

    For me, Fusion is one of those must have tools for the Mac.

  • Doug C

    Hi Joshua,
    You sound a lot like me. Value for your dollar. Unfortunately, the size of my company file is getting too big to backup easily so QB recommended starting a “new” company (basically, “new” company would be from point A in time going forward and “old” company would be going backwards in time (I have customers for over 20 years and 10 of that is on QB). Anyway, looks like QB Online is where I’m headed, but I’m “looking before I leap”. You mentioned “Online is more inconvenient in every way except for three factors…”. Can you clue me in to what inconveniences specifically? It would be MOST helpful. I’m SO tired of having to buy a new PC every 2 years because of viruses, hard drive failure, and other assorted problems. I’m interested in moving to a Mac, but the HORRENDOUS reviews for QB for Mac just scare me (as do the reviews for QB Online for iPhone app. EVERY comment was negative. Why put a product that sucks on the market? It kills their reputation). Your input is most helpful. Thanks

  • Monica M

    When I switched to a Mac I started using Aatrix Top Pay for payroll. You can even talk to a human in the US when you need tech support rather then someone in another country. Anyway, I really like it. I’ve been using it for 2 1/2 years

  • Joshua Steimle

    Mark, I’ve got to give you a big thank-you. When you originally posted your comments, I was still overwhelmed by switching to a Mac, and never looked into VMWare’s Fusion product. But the other day I was thinking I should check out Quickbooks for Mac again to see if they had improved anything in the past year, but then I came to check out this post to make sure I could remember what I didn’t like about it. I read your comment, decided to try Fusion, and man, that’s the way to do it! It was easy to install, a piece of cake really, and now I can run Quickbooks on it no problem. I can even run my check scanning software, which is also not Mac-compatible. So thanks!