QuickBooks Pro vs Premier: A Comparison.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This may influence which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations.

Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here’s how we make money. QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus and Premier Plus are both powerful accounting software solutions that you purchase annually and install locally. Annual subscription prices rise as you add on more users.

Better for. Businesses that would significantly benefit from industry-specific features or forecasting tools. Maximum number of users. Ease of sharing with accountants. After the accountant makes their changes, the user must import the file. Users can upgrade to Premier Plus for industry-specific features or Enterprise to access more than reports, advanced inventory and the ability to add up to 40 users.

Users can upgrade to Enterprise to access more than reports, advanced inventory and the ability to add up to 40 users. Ease of use. Users need basic accounting knowledge to get the most out of the product. Premier Plus gives you access to over reports, compared to more than with Pro Plus. Although both solutions include automatic reporting for profit and loss statements, expenses and balance sheets, Premier Plus offers industry-specific reports, such as the following:.

Premier Plus includes job costing and project profitability features that exceed what Pro Plus offers. Again, many of these capabilities are designed to accommodate the needs of businesses within individual industries. Track profitability either by product or by project and client.

Organize job costs by vendor and identify which vendors need to be paid. Enter job changes within an estimate and track how they affect your bottom line. Bill clients progressively by job phase. Forecasting helps businesses predict their future cash flow so they can make informed financial decisions and develop smarter business strategies. Unlike Pro Plus, Premier Plus gives you the option to create a forecast from scratch or use information from previous years.

You can customize your forecast by customer job, class and other specifications, as well as track and view its progress in dollars and percentages. Premier Plus can accommodate up to five users, while Pro Plus can only accommodate three or less. However, both allow far fewer users than some of their cloud-based competitors.

For example, Xero lets you add an unlimited number of user accounts with all plans. The price of Pro Plus and Premier Plus also increases with each additional user.

For businesses that might not need industry-specific reports and more than three users, Pro Plus is significantly less expensive and worth trying. And, users can always upgrade to Premier Plus from within the software later.

According to QuickBooks, the transition only takes a few minutes. Compared to cloud-based competitors, Pro Plus and Premier Plus are less mobile, more difficult to share with accountants or other business partners and not as user-friendly — especially for those without prior accounting knowledge.

Here are some popular cloud-based options. Pros: If you want to stick with a solution in the QuickBooks suite of products, QuickBooks Online is often considered the industry standard for small-business accounting software. QuickBooks Online offers four different plans — each of which includes access to QuickBooks mobile apps, customer support and third-party app integrations — among a range of core accounting features.

Pros: A close competitor to QuickBooks Online, Xero is another cloud-based alternative that offers robust accounting and bookkeeping features. It has three plan options and lower price points than QuickBooks Online. All plan options include unlimited users, inventory management and reporting. While it may not be difficult to find an accounting or bookkeeping professional who is familiar with Xero, it’s not as commonly used as QuickBooks.

Deciding factors. QuickBooks Pro Plus. QuickBooks Premier Plus. General contracting. Manufacturing and wholesale. Professional services. Donor contributions. Sales summaries. Job costing evaluations. Profitability by product. Job costing and project profitability. With QuickBooks Premier, you can:. User access. QuickBooks Online. On a similar note Dive even deeper in Small Business. Explore Small Business.

 
 

 

QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus vs. Premier Plus – NerdWallet.

 

QuickBooks Desktop pricing has changed for , with Intuit turning to a subscription model for its desktop products. You will still be able to purchase the application without a subscription, albeit with a significant increase in price. Intuit recently made the switch to subscription pricing for its desktop applications, which are now branded as Plus plans. QuickBooks Pro is available with or without payroll. QuickBooks Premier Plus is available with or without payroll. The inventory feature in QuickBooks Pro is more than sufficient if you only sell a few items or need basic inventory tracking capability.

QuickBooks Pro offers terrific invoicing options, but does not include a sales order option. If you sell or manufacture products, QuickBooks Premier is by far the best choice. It offers an excellent sales order option that allows you to consolidate multiple orders into a single invoice, track all back orders, and even create a partial invoice for partial shipments.

Both offer solid small business accounting capability, with QuickBooks Pro more than suitable for smaller businesses. Pro debate is irrelevant, with QuickBooks Premier clearly the top choice. Mary Girsch-Bock is the expert on accounting software and payroll software for The Ascent. She previously worked as an accountant.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market.

Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team. The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters. This device is too small If you’re on a Galaxy Fold, consider unfolding your phone or viewing it in full screen to best optimize your experience.

Editorial Disclosure We have not reviewed all available products or offers. Compensation may impact the order of which offers appear on page, but our editorial opinions and ratings are not influenced by compensation.

Credit Cards Best Of Lists. By Issuer. By Credit Score. Banks Best Of Lists. Getting Started. Online Banks. Brokers Best Of Lists. Top Reviews. Crypto Best Of Lists. Mortgages Best Of Lists. Compare Rates. Insurances Auto Insurance. Homeowners Insurance. Life Insurance. Pet Insurance. Loans Best Of Lists. Lender Reviews. Small Business Software Overview.

Knowledge Knowledge. Recent Articles. This differs wildly from other options in the market, including its own Online counterpart. Overall, QuickBooks Premier is better suited for businesses that need industry-specific features, while QuickBooks Pro is a better option for small businesses with more general accounting needs.

Inventory Yes. It offers unlimited support and access to QuickBooks experts. Plus, create a copy of your file for your accountant and give user-level permissions to colleagues. When you connect your bank, QuickBooks automatically downloads and categorizes each transaction.

If you have financial data to import from other programs, such as Excel, you can do this. Plus, organize your data by customer, vendor and employee center. When you create and send invoices, you can also send automatic reminders for anything past due. Create professional estimates and payment receipts, too. Run reports such as profit and loss, expenses and balance sheets. With Premier, you get access to more than reports, including industry-specific ones.

Advanced reporting lets you create custom reports, such as consolidated data from multiple companies. Using data from previous years, create a forecast and track its progress in dollars and percentages.

You can also make one from scratch and categorize it by customer job and class. One of the most unique features is the ability to bill clients on a progressive basis by job phase. This works great for businesses that are paid incrementally, such as construction companies. Any business knows profitability matters most, and QuickBooks Premier Plus makes it easy to track this by product, project and client.

Plus, run reports on donor contributions or sales summaries specific to your industry. Neither offers a free trial—the only trial is available on the Online or Enterprise versions of QuickBooks. Another big difference between the two is that Premier has industry-specific tools, such as the ability to bill by job phase on a progressive basis, track profitability by product, client or project, and run industry-specific reports.

There are no forecasting features in Pro, but there are with Premier. Design a brand-new forecast or use data from previous years to see how your business progresses in both dollars and percentages. Segment these forecasts by job, type and other characteristics.

Pro allows up to three users to access your account, but each user must pay for their own account. The same goes for Premier, but you can have up to five users. Both plans let you track employee time and billable hours, and you can integrate with QuickBooks Time Elite, but that comes at an additional cost. Both plans allow for sharing with an accountant. To do so, create a copy of your company data and share it with your accountant.

However, there are a number of alternative programs available that can provide similar functionality.

We detail these in our best accounting software guide. These programs offer a variety of features that can be beneficial for businesses of all sizes. For example, Xero provides invoicing and expense-tracking capabilities, FreshBooks offers online bill payments and client management tools and QuickBooks Online provides an easy way to manage your business on the go. In addition, many of these alternative accounting software programs offer free trials or monthly subscription plans that can be more affordable than purchasing QuickBooks Pro Plus or QuickBooks Premier Plus outright.

QuickBooks Pro and Premier both offer a wide range of features to help small businesses with their accounting needs. However, QuickBooks Premier is better suited for businesses that need industry-specific features, while QuickBooks Pro is a better option for small businesses with more general accounting needs. Kathy Haan, MBA is a former financial advisor-turned-writer and business coach. Kelly is an SMB Editor specializing in starting and marketing new ventures. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content.

Additionally, she manages a column at Inc. Select Region. United States. United Kingdom. Kathy Haan, Kelly Main. Contributor, Editor. Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors’ opinions or evaluations. Table of Contents QuickBooks Pro vs. QuickBooks Pro vs.