Quicken vs QuickBooks: 5 Critical Differences

Running a business whether at a small scale or an enterprise level requires sufficient financial planning and management. Companies often utilize the services of software tools to integrate their various accounts and keep their financial management error-free. Among these tools, Quicken and QuickBooks have seen the most popularity in recent decades.

Quicken for instance caters to the personal financial needs of its user and can be useful for small businesses which do not have a separate account. It does offer add-ons, but they are available only in its top-tier subscription plan. QuickBooks on the other hand is a full-fledged software tool that can manage the finances and books of a large organization. It provides countless services and automates all the financial tasks of its users. However, it may appear as an expensive option to most businesses.

Introduction to Quicken

Quicken is a desktop business tool that enables you to manage your finances seamlessly. This software serves as a personal finance management tool. It allows you to track your Investments, Accounts, and Transactions. It lets you turn your computer into a well-endowed finance manager. Furthermore, Quicken receives up-to-date information from every bank and investment that involves your money.

Key Features of Quicken

The following features make Quicken a viable option for your business:

• Cash-flow Tracking: You can easily track your cash flow and calculate the monthly balance related to your account. Quicken requires you to input your source of income and the various expenses like rent, bills, etc, and it will take care of the rest.
• Investment & Budgeting: You can analyze your budgeting and future expenses by analyzing visual reports using Quicken. Apart from this classification, it will also suggest cost-cutting measures and investment rates in various fields.
• Tax Planning: You can calculate your upcoming taxes and refunds and plan accordingly. Moreover, it offers trend graphs that are great to predict your future financial situation.
• Online Banking: You have the option of linking the Quicken application to your bank account for Online Banking. It requires an Internet connection and a few add-on tools which will then provide a seamless way to get real-time bank updates.

Introduction to QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a well-known accounting software that was launched in 1998 to cater to the complex accounting requirements of large businesses. It comes with comprehensive features and options to automate all of your Accounting operations, such as Tax Preparation, Invoice Management, Inventory Tracking, etc. 

Moreover, QuickBooks also comes in an online cloud solution version called QuickBooks Online, which allows users to access QuickBooks through the web browser, even from mobile devices.

Key Features of QuickBooks

QuickBooks offers the following features to aid your financial planning:

• Advanced Insights: Monitor your profit and loss statements to understand your income and expenses. This way you can classify your expenses to track them easily
• Manage Invoices: It offers you an Invoice Generator that keeps track of your sent invoices so you are always clear about your debts and the money that you need to collect. furthermore, you can pay faster by Credit Card or Wire Transfer while using the QuickBooks in-built payment tool.
• Tax Tacking: You can personalize all your Sales Invoices and Receipts within minutes using QuickBooks. Moreover, you can be well prepared for tax periods and obtain all the important tax deductions beforehand.
• Account Management: You can analyze your profit and loss closely by connecting your bank accounts to QuickBooks. It also reviews your bank transactions and combines them with your account records. Moreover, it allows you to easily add new customers and interact with them on the go.

Comparing Quicken vs QuickBooks

Overview

Criteria	Quicken	QuickBooks
Pricing	Starts at around $35/year for basic plans.	Starts at around $25/month for Simple Start.
Features	Personal finance management, budgeting, bill pay, and investment tracking.	Comprehensive accounting, invoicing, payroll, inventory management, and expense tracking.
Accessibility	Desktop and mobile apps are available.	Desktop, mobile app, and cloud-based access.
Scalability	Suitable for personal use or small households.	Scalable for small to medium businesses, with options for larger enterprises.
App Integration	Integrates with banks, credit cards, and some investment apps.	Integrates with a wide range of business tools, including CRM, payment gateways, and inventory management systems.

Quicken and QuickBooks both are excellent financial tools but a different sets of features and objectives. The following parameters will help you solve the Quicken vs QuickBooks dilemma:

• Quicken vs QuickBooks: Pricing
• Quicken vs QuickBooks: Features
• Quicken vs QuickBooks: Accessibility
• Quicken vs QuickBooks: Scalability
• Quicken vs QuickBooks: App Integration

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Pricing

• Quicken offers you an annual subscription that contains 3 plans for both Windows and Mac ranging from $35.99 per year to $77.99 per year.
• Moreover, it has a special Home & Business plan that you can use for Windows at $103.99 per year. It has some advanced special features including tracking business expenses and managing rental property. 
• As compared to the 3 plans of Quicken, Quickbook offers 5 subscription plans which however are usable on monthly basis.
• These vary from the $15 per month Self Employed plan to the Advanced Plan of $180 per month. Now, on paper, QuickBooks may seem like an expensive option, but the fee is justified by its services of providing you with accurate book-keeping and tracking your assets and debts.
• Note: Quicken provides no free trial but it does support a 30-day money-back guarantee. . 

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Features

Quickens Home and Business plan offer the following features to its users:

• You can get categorizations for Personal and Rental Real Estate Transactions. 
• You can generate Profit and Loss Projections along with Cash Flow Reports in a single click. 
•  You will get tools to Maximize Corporate Tax Deductions and Create Tax Reports. 
•  Enables you to get Email Business Reports and Rentals from Quicken. 
•  You can create and personalize invoices. 

Irrespective of the plan, you will get the following benefits with QuickBooks:

• Allows you to track income, cash flows, and expenses from numerous accounts. 
• Automatically sort transactions into tax categories. 
• You can view and export reports such as income statements, balance sheets, etc., and even customize them. 
• You can Integrate with other QuickBooks and third-party tools. 
•  Grant account access to an accountant and get customer support by phone or chat.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Accessibility

• Quicken is a desktop service. This implies that the system on which you will install the Quicken application will act as the sole point of access to its services.
• Therefore, you can not operate your Quicken account from multiple devices. Furthermore, you must have a robust internet connection to avoid any sync errors.
• Quicken is a viable option if you are interested in managing personal finances along with business finances in a highly secure manner.
• QuickBooks being an online platform is accessible from, multiple devices easily. Moreover, it provides a simpler user interface in comparison to Quicken. So, if you are interested in having direct and interruption-free access to your financial accounts QuickBooks will suit you better. 
• So depending upon your business, accessibility can be a big deciding factor in the Quicken vs QuickBooks discussion.

Quicken vs QuickBooks: Scalability

Quicken only offers one option for small vendors and contains no extra features or add-ons. If you wish to scale up, you will need to use another service because Quicken has its limitations.

QuickBooks on the other hand provides online services which enable it room to scale up according to requirements. This implies it is easy for you to scale your business on this application by just purchasing a higher-level subscription plan from QuickBooks. Furthermore, it also offers add-ons to improve your business with Payroll, and Inventory Management. 

Quicken vs Quickbooks: App Integration

Quicken supports only a handful of integrations. The key integrations include:

• PayPal: Process online credit card payments from users.
• Dropbox: Storage for valuable documents like contracts and leases.
• Zillow Zestimate: Tool to calculate the market value of the property.

QuickBooks offers a rich library of 650+ integrations, making it easy for users to link their data from major business platforms. The integrations involve applications from Marketing, File Storage, CRM, E-Commerce, Payments, and other domains. A few of the major integrations available to QuickBooks users are as follows: 

• PayPal 
• Microsoft 365
• Shopify 
• Google’s G-Suite
• Square 
• MailChimp 

Quicken Use Cases

The following scenarios are perfect for implementing the Quicken application:

• You want to manage your finances or the family business books. 
• You wish to track your personal and business finances together.  
• You own a small business or a rental property and need to manage specifics like leases and rent. 
• You want to track tenants, rental rates, and rental terms. (Quicken Home and Business works great for rental properties that you own).
• You wish to track personal expenses, investments, and retirement accounts.

QuickBooks Use Cases

QuickBooks is a good choice if you are dealing with the following cases:

• You are a professional in the services industry and depend on invoices to collect most of your payments. 
• You wish to keep your business finances and your accounts separate.
• Your process is more than $ 7,000 per month and wants to set up a one-time processing rate plan. 
• You need tools for advanced financial reporting involving Sales, Inventory, and profitability reports.
• You want a reliable, comprehensive merchant account that easily integrates with QuickBooks Online.

Conclusion

This blog introduced Quicken and QuickBooks along with their key features. It further provided the key aspects that you can follow to solve the Quicken vs QuickBooks dilemma for your business. Furthermore, it also listed down the alternatives and use cases of both Quicken and QuickBooks to provide you with a thorough understanding of these 2 applications.\

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