QuickBooks Vs. Free Accounting Software – What Should You Know?

Small and medium businesses have a significant contribution to the overall economy of every country. They create job opportunities, bring innovation to the masses, and develop the required infrastructure. However, while small business owners undertake diverse aspects of their businesses, accounting and bookkeeping often get overlooked. QuickBooks – a comprehensive accounting software, lays a helping hand.

As the world knows, QuickBooks caters to various business needs, be it accounting, inventory management, invoicing, cash flow management, and many others. However, many individuals search for free accounting software in the current competitive environment. They check QuickBooks vs. free accounting software feature comparison blogs and tables to decide.

Many business owners would find it easier to manage their operations using free accounting software. So to look for a QuickBooks alternative is not a bad thing. What matters the most is to dig deeper into the differences in this software in terms of features and benefits before selecting any of them.

This blog post will cover QuickBooks vs. free accounting software comparison in detail.

QuickBooks vs. Free Accounting Software – What Makes QuickBooks Stand Out?

• All-In-One Business Application

A major disadvantage of working with free accounting software is that you need to rely on other applications to manage your business altogether. For example, you might not have the invoicing facility in free software and hence, will need a separate application for this task.

QuickBooks is considered the only accounting software that can empower diverse business tasks. Using this single application, you can manage accounting tasks, keep track of the inventory, check sales, and many other tasks. In comparison to free accounting software, the all-inclusive features of QuickBooks make it a highly preferred choice in the accounting industry.

Recommend read: How to Pick the Right QuickBooks Versions?

• Integration with Third-Party Applications

In general, free accounting software supports integrations with limited third-party apps. It is another reason why many business owners resort to different applications for a wide variety of tasks. However, it ultimately means no cost savings as expected. 

On the other hand, QuickBooks has hundreds of connected applications to help you manage the business efficiently. In addition, QuickBooks supports various third-party integrations, whether it is a payment app, customer management app, or time tracking app.

• Tax-ready Invoicing

For every business owner, it is quite important to manage to invoice for their clients efficiently to get paid on time. However, invoicing also requires significant templates to include brand logos, color codes, and other brand elements. Relying on free QuickBooks alternatives may not provide extensive customization options or have built-in data fields to create tax-compliant invoices.

On the other hand, you can fast track customer payments and invoice with QuickBooks’ innovative invoicing features. You can quickly generate tax-compliant invoices and auto-schedule them to be sent to your clients automatically.

• Availability of Tax/Accounting Reports and Customization Features

Accurate reporting is a part of life for every accounting and tax professional. However, if you need various reports about the accounts, balance sheet, or cashless, QuickBooks wins the race against other free accounting software. With this advanced software, you can generate tax return reports, cash flow statements, accounts receivable and payable reports, etc. 

Besides this, you can also customize the reports or use their standard formats before sharing them with your clients. This is different from free QuickBooks alternatives, which do not have the report customization feature. Also, the number of reports they support is limited.

• Inventory management

Another significant difference you will find in the QuickBooks Vs. free accounting software comparison is the inventory tracking feature of QuickBooks. The software enables you to check what sells more and what to reorder. You can also create purchase orders and sales receipts easily.

With free accounting software alternatives, you might not be able to manage inventory as efficiently as with QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Vs. Free Accounting Software Comparison at a Glance

Conclusion

Making a software-buying decision based on pricing alone may seem like a good choice for your business. However, you will lose out on an all-inclusive suite of QuickBooks features that can help streamline your business processes. So make sure you select the correct software after carefully assessing its pros and cons.