Looking for an accounting solution for your small business? If so, QuickBooks is one of the most popular names in the game. These days, the company is making a push toward its QuickBooks Online service, which offers cloud-based features for real-time collaboration. Two of the midrange plans available are QuickBooks Essentials and QuickBooks Plus. In this article, we’ll compare QuickBooks Essentials versus Plus so you can see which option is best for your business.
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QuickBooks Essentials vs. Plus: At a Glance
The biggest difference between QuickBooks Essentials and Plus is who they’re intended for. Essentials is designed for service-based businesses that don’t have physical product offerings. Its focus is on managing your bills and expenses, tracking income and accepting payments.
Plus, on the other hand, is for product- or service-based businesses that want to keep track of inventory, create purchase orders and manage project profitability. Because of these added functions, it also comes with slightly more advanced reporting.
Since both are a part of QuickBooks Online, you’ll get the use of free mobile apps that can help you manage your business on the go. Each plan also has automatic data backup, automated workflows and reports tailored to your business.
QuickBooks Essentials
Cost
$60 per month
($30 per month first three months)
Free trial
30 days
Number of users
Three
$60 per month
($30 per month first three months)
30 days
Three
Essentials is the go-to resource for service-based businesses. With it, you’ll be able to track the status of all your bills, record any payments from customers (in addition to recurring invoicing) and pay your bills all from the same place. Keeping track of your expenses is easy as well, as you can upload receipts with your smartphone and use your phone’s GPS to track your mileage on business trips.
Paying your freelancers is also easy thanks to 1099 contractor management features. Come tax day, Essentials lets you send out 1099s right from the app. And if you have employees who work hourly, they can easily track their hours thanks to integration with QuickBooks Time.
- Detailed profit and loss and customer sales reporting
- Scheduled invoicing
- Tracks income, expenses and miles
- Only has access for three users
- No inventory tracking
- Payroll is an added cost
QuickBooks Plus
Cost
$90 per month
($45 per month first three months)
Free trial
30 days
Number of users
Five
$90 per month
($45 per month first three months)
30 days
Five
In contrast to QuickBooks Essentials, QuickBooks Plus is best for product-based businesses. It comes with everything Essentials does, plus a few extra features. One of those features is the ability to track inventory. You can monitor your product levels and their costs from the same dashboard. The app even sends you notifications when your inventory is low so you can reorder promptly.
Because Plus has more capabilities for tracking your inventory, it can also offer project profitability tracking. You can get detailed reports on budgeting and classes to see how much money you’re making and where it’s coming from.
- Includes inventory management
- Enhanced inventory, sales and profitability reports
- Can track profitability by location
- More expensive than Essentials plan
- Can only track 40 locations and classes
- Payroll is an added cost
How QuickBooks Essentials and QuickBooks Plus Stack Up
| QuickBooks Essentials | QuickBooks Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price | $30 (for the first three months, then $60) | $45 (for the first three months, then $90) |
| Number of Users | Three (plus two accountant firm users) | Five (plus two accountant firm users) |
| Track Income and Expenses | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bill Management | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mileage and Time Tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Inventory Management | X | ✓ |
| Project Profitability Reports | X | ✓ |
| Payroll Included | X | X |
| Chart of Accounts Limits | 250 accounts | 250 accounts |
| Number of Reports Available | 85 | 124 |
As you can see, Plus is notably more expensive than Essentials for only slightly more features. Other than Plus’ extra abilities to manage inventory and create project profitability reports, the plans are strikingly similar when it comes to bill management, mileage and time tracking and income and expense tracking.
Another similarity is the limit placed on the chart of accounts. These are the accounts that QuickBooks uses to track your financial information, so while 250 should be more than enough for most businesses, it could be slightly limiting if you have a lot of assets, liabilities, income or expenses.
If you wanted to add on a payroll plan, both plans require you to pay an additional $45 to $125 a month (discounted to $22.50 to $62.50 for the first three months).
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Reporting Differences in QuickBooks Essentials vs. Plus
Other than the addition of inventory management and project profitability add-ons in QuickBooks Plus, one of the main differences from QuickBooks Essentials is the number of reports you can run for your business. Essentials gives you 85, while Plus gives you 124.
Most of the additional reporting is for inventory and sales reports, which you can organize by class, location or product. However, there are a few useful reports only Plus has that you might expect to find in Essentials, such as uninvoiced time, 1099 transactions and budget overviews. It’s worth taking a closer look at the included reports list to see if there’s anything you’d be missing out on if you chose Essentials over Plus.
Bottom Line
Both Essentials and Plus offer powerful features that can keep your small business on top of its accounting game. However, we’d definitely recommend QuickBooks Essentials for service-based businesses that don’t have products or inventory to track on a regular basis. It’ll help you manage all of your clients, suppliers and employees without hassle.
But if your business sells goods or uses a lot of supplies, QuickBooks Plus will be much more useful for keeping track of purchase orders and vendors. It’s also a better pick if you have numerous big projects in the works that you want to assess for profitability.
