QuickBooks Online vs. Hosted QuickBooks

QuickBooks Tips

The stability of your organization will be determined by the bookkeeping measures implemented by your employees or our licensed professionals. Financial recordkeeping is a significant part of modern business success, as it represents the only way by which you can ensure the accuracy and transparency of your transactional data. Our specialists will manage everything, from the correct cataloging of past books to the organization of your expenses and the reconciliation of your banking data. Proper bookkeeping is necessary to avoid issues with the IRS, keep financial data accurate, and gain insights into the general cash flow of your venture.

Can you do this all yourself? Perhaps at first, when your business is just starting, and it doesn’t yet have a significant market impact. However, as the years go by and with the development of your venture, the financial management required from your employees or CPA will grow in complexity. So, you will need to utilize a professional accounting solution. QuickBooks is the most popular financial recordkeeping application used on the North American market and for good reasons. It is a program suitable for both SMEs in search of market growth and large corporations that have to expand their services at regular intervals.

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What Are the Benefits of QBOE?

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QuickBooks Enterprise is a scalable and cost-effective program that is designed to enable collaboration between departments while supporting up to forty users simultaneously. It is intended to correspond to the primary needs of large enterprises or companies working with extensive transactional data. Moreover, it integrates with over 200 apps, with payroll included, no matter which plan you choose. The enterprise edition of QuickBooks features more customizable and comprehensive reporting capabilities than the online version of the software.

Furthermore, it allows for more complex inventory tracking, including calculating FIFO costing, incorporating barcode scanning, and featuring location tracking, which can be particularly useful if your activity takes place in a large warehouse. QBOE allows for the implementation of more robust pricing rules, features more than 115 user permission settings, has advanced payroll invoices and time tracking, and boasts a more sophisticated multi-currency management system than the online version of the product.

Are you considering hosted QuickBooks for your business? That’s fine, as QuickBooks Enterprise can be run either from your own NAS or from third-party hosting platforms like IONOS. Platforms like Citrix can enhance QuickBooks Enterprise’s functionality. Additionally, the enterprise version of the program features priority customer support, allows for a more detailed audit trail than the online version of the application, and comes bundled with online backup data storage. As for the price, the Gold version of QuickBooks Enterprise costs $1922 per year, while the Diamond subscription costs $4668.

Are There Disadvantages?

Any program designed for large-scale companies presents some drawbacks. QuickBooks Enterprise requires higher up-front costs than the online version of the application. On top of that, many of its add-ons come at a steep price, which comes on top of the annual subscription that you must pay. Are you a fan of hosted QuickBooks? If so, that could be a problem, as the desktop version of the application is less intuitive when it comes to online hosting than if you decide to use the online version of the program. Sure, you will gain full access to the capabilities of the app’s desktop version, which our team can utilize to improve your venture’s long-term growth. However, its functionality and scalability on mobile devices will be questionable.

In addition, QuickBooks Enterprise is a complex program with a steep learning curve. Do you want to use it at maximum efficiency? Then, you should utilize our bookkeeping services. The extensive features and complexity of the enterprise version of QuickBooks might be overkill for SMEs active at a regional level, and the overall price of the software shows it. Plus, while it offers hosting options, QBOE is not cloud-based and does not offer the same seamless experience on light-powered devices as QuickBooks Online.

Get In Touch With Proledge

You can contact us anytime if you have questions or encounter a problem with your bookkeeping program.

What About Local or Third-Party Hosting?

Hosting QuickBooks Enterprise on your server or third-party cloud hosting services can be a viable alternative to QuickBooks Online, as long as you use workstations that can handle the resource-intensive tasks specific to the desktop version of the application. What are the main benefits of QuickBooks online hosting on platforms like Citrix? For one thing, you will get access to the program’s desktop functionality from anywhere, as long as you have a stable internet connection.

On top of that, Citrix remote servers are encrypted, support multi-factor authentications, and can be easily scaled up depending on the requirements of your venture. QuickBooks Citrix hosting is a viable alternative to QuickBooks Online. However, it can be an expensive option, and the initial configuration of the server may be complex. Do you already own a NAS or offline server that you use to host your transactional data locally? In such a case, rather than investing in QuickBooks online hosting, you could consider accessing QuickBooks Enterprise from your local storage solution and using our local bookkeeping experts to set up the program for you.

Locally hosted QuickBooks Pro is a viable solution if you require access to your accounting software during network outages. Additionally, because it’s hosted on your local server, you can adjust performance and enhance the transfer speed of complex data sets. Not least, you will retain full ownership of your data, and you’ll be the one in charge of securing it. However, like with any hosting option for QuickBooks desktop, the remote access of the application will be more limited, and scaling up your server infrastructure to accommodate the growing needs of your venture could be a costly endeavor.

A Comprehensive Tool for Ambitious Businesses

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QuickBooks can be used to create and edit custom invoices and keep track of your ongoing expenses. Moreover, as a professional accounting application, it can automatically synchronize with your bank, be used for payroll management purposes, offer a streamlined way to prepare your tax documentation, and boasts bonus features like inventory management and multi-user access that could become essential for your venture’s long-term success. However, you will have a choice to make. Either you go for QuickBooks Online, or you invest in your infrastructure and select hosted QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Online is cloud-based and can be accessed from any location with a stable internet connection. Moreover, it’s not a very resource-intensive application. So, it can be utilized both from desktop workstations and mobile devices, such as iPads. QuickBooks Enterprise, on the other hand, is designed for desktop usage or local hosting and requires extensive tweaking for remote access. QuickBooks Online features are more limited compared to the Enterprise version of the application. But, for most SMEs, they are enough. Plus, you will also need to consider the price. The basic plan of QuickBooks Online starts at $420 per year. However, QuickBooks Enterprise Gold, the lowest tier of the desktop variant of the program, costs $1922 for the same period.

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