Is Quickbooks accounting software right for the self-employed or your business

What is QuickBooks Online?

Since its creation in 2002 (when Intuit launched QuickBooks for small businesses in the US), QuickBooks Online is now trusted by 4.5 million users worldwide (over 200,000 UK users).  

Essentially Quickbooks is easy to use yet detailed bookkeeping tool. With it, you can automatically organise, calculate and prepare your Self-Assessment, VAT and Construction Industry Scheme tax. Payroll, invoices, bills, and expenses are all covered in a straightforward subscription. You can also connect your bank accounts so that transactions are automatically imported, just leaving you to allocate a labelled description to them and attach receipts or invoices. 

Quickbooks calculates that you can save around two hours a week managing your accounts with its software.

With incredibly competitive monthly fees, plus everything you need to make bookkeeping simple, it is easy to see why Quickbooks is the ‘go to’ software for so many small businesses and start-ups to simplify their accounting processes.

The software is also constantly evolving with recent new product launches for self-assessment, a payroll portal, plus new Workpapers for accountants to help streamline year-end reporting.

QuickBooks Online has some great things going for it: robust reporting, customisable invoices, inventory capabilities, multiple currencies, as well as 100’s free and paid app integrations, including Dext, Expensify, Futrli, GoCardless, A2X & Stripe.

Additionally, there are several features offered by QuickBooks Online that you cannot get with the more t

Additionally, there are several features offered by QuickBooks Online that you cannot get with the more traditional QuickBooks Desktop (such as automatic sales receipts, split transactions, scheduled invoices, and location and class categories). 

Many customers believe the mobility offered with QuickBooks Online is well worth the upgrade, despite some minor navigational difficulties and the odd technical glitch. You can also invite us as your accountant or bookkeeper to collaborate on your accounts, meaning we will have instant access to your data and any reports. 

This review will explore the top-line features and tools Quickbooks has to offer small businesses, accountants, and bookkeepers to help you decide whether this online software is the right fit for your business. 

Fusion Accountants is a Quickbooks Platinum ProAdvisor which means we can guide our QuickBooks clients on how to best get the most from the online accounting software both from a technical and accounting perspective.

Who does Quickbooks suit best?

Suppose you are a small business owner, sole trader or self-employed. In that case, QuickBooks makes it easy to manage your business finances from anywhere, so you can track all financial data and create various reports summarising all aspects of your business.

For the self-employed, you may predominantly want to use it to prepare your self-assessment, connect your bank or credit cards transactions, stay on top of your income and expenses, upload receipts anywhere from your mobile or desktop.

Pricing

Rating – Excellent: 5/5

QuickBooks Online is competitively priced, offering small businesses and self-employed workers plans. In addition, you can add payroll features to the small business plans for an additional monthly fee. A demo of the software is available, which is a good option that allows you to see an up-close view of the software. There is no contract, so you can cancel it anytime. But, if you do want to leave, you must give one month’s notice. 

Quickbooks current pricing structure offers this as standard across all its packages free of charge:

• Live chat/Request call back/24-7
• Screen sharing
• Mobile app download
• ‘How to’ guides. video tutorials and community hubs
• Find a QuickBooks certified accounting professional using their directory

Small Business subscriptions + VAT (pricing as of Feb 2021)

• Simple Start plan costs £3 per month and is designed for a single user. You can create and send customised, pay-enabled invoices, self-assessment preparation, MTD for VAT submissions, income & expenses management & much more besides.

• Essentials plan is £5.50 per month and supports up to three users. It includes all Simple Start features plus trading & invoice in multi-currencies, create recurring expenses and pay multiple vendors and multiple invoices.

• The Plus plan costs £8 per month and supports up to five users. It includes the above mentioned features. Users can also create track products and costs, create purchase orders, manage inventory and manage projects.

Self-Employed Subscription (pricing as of Feb 2021)

QuickBooks self-employed is specialist software to help prepare and file a Self-Assessment tax return, track your income and expenses and have everything in order for tax year-end.

• The Self-Employed plan costs £2 per month and is for a freelancer or independent contractor. Estimate your future tax bill and see your income, expenses & mileage all in one place.

Features and benefits

Rating – Good: 4/5

Quickbooks make it painless with its intuitive design and layout and plenty of tutorials and helpful material. However, the downside of this (which also applies to Xero) is that there is quite a steep learning curve. You will need to understand how to use it, which is unavoidable. 

When you first sign in to your QuickBooks Online account, you will be directed to the homepage dashboard, which will display your company overview, giving you a quick business update (like the status of your income and expenses, your bank accounts, and more).

Sync with bank. You can connect your banks and credit cards to QuickBooks for a complete, real-time view of all your purchases, cash withdrawals and fund transfers – so no more manual entries! In addition, you can import up to 2 years of transactions. 

Create professional invoices. You can create customised invoices and brand them with your logo, then email, print or post. Choose whether you want to accept payments with PayPal or bank transfer, and your customers can settle up instantly by debit. 

or credit card using the ‘pay’ button on your invoice. Your dashboard will also show you any due or overdue invoices, prompting automatic reminders.

Track expenses. This feature allows you to automate your expenses and clawback hours of admin time. Any receipts or bills are automatically organised and matched to your transactions. The QuickBooks mobile app lets you track every trip and then mark your miles as business or personal travel.

Connect to apps. QuickBooks offers a vast number of apps for your business. Choose from their library of recommended payroll, invoicing, time tracking & expense apps that will integrate with the software, including PayPal, Lendflo, Shopify Receipt Bank and Stripe, amongst others.

Invoice payments. Create and send invoices that can be paid instantly. Everything is received, recorded and reconciled in QuickBooks and will automatically match payments to invoices, so you always balance your books. See which invoices are outstanding and paid, whether in part or whole.

Self-assessment tax return. If you are a sole trader, freelancer, or self-employed worker, you can use QuickBooks to prepare and file your tax self-assessment quickly and easily, ready to file to HMRC. You can also use it to organise your income tax or Construction Industry Scheme tax.

Online reports. QuickBooks gives you access to various reports that indicate how your business is doing. These include company snapshots, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets.

Running payroll. QuickBooks Payroll gives you an easy way to sort out payslips, pensions and statutory pay. You enter your employee hours, and the software does the rest, then makes real-time submissions to HMRC. In addition, employees can access their payslips, request annual leave, upload timesheets and expenses (available through the Advanced plan – details below). 

QuickBooks offers two payroll products:

Standard: £4 per month +£1 per paid employee/month+ VAT. Perfect for small employers who need speed and simplicity.

Advanced: £8 per month + £1 per paid employee /month + VAT. Ideal for employers who need additional features including HR, time tracking and reporting.

If you have any questions about adding/using this feature, there is a payroll hotline you can call: 0808 168 4291.

Making Tax Digital for VAT. QuickBooks is recognised by HMRC and is designed in line with MTD regulations. You can run our error checker to surface common mistakes and make an online submission directly to HMRC. QuickBooks supports standard, cash and flat-rate schemes. QuickBooks accounting software calculates the amount of VAT you owe and will remind your accountant when it is due so they can submit it directly to HMRC on your behalf.  

Quickbooks Customer Service & Support

Rating – Excellent: 5/5

Quickbooks has pretty much got it nailed when it comes to resources, advice, and support. Unfortunately, Xero has not provided live chat or contact numbers and instead focused on email contact only. Quickbooks has capitalised on this by providing all the above options, plus the obligatory blogs, articles, ‘how-to videos and webinars.

Quickbooks Review – Summary

Rating – Good: 4/5

The Advantages

So, let us pause for a moment to summarise the key benefits our Quickbooks UK review has found so far.

Firstly, you should note that this software comes with a good pedigree. The parent company, Intuit, has been developing tax and accounting software since 1983.

Naturally, one of the most significant advantages of using Quickbooks is the time saved, reduced paperwork, and hopefully reducing your stress levels around essential tax dates. In addition, once you have mastered the various software dashboards, you will see how easily you can keep all of your accounting records up to date. It really should become a walk in the park. 

For a nominal monthly fee, it is a no-brainer. It probably counts as one of the best decisions you will make when running a business, particularly if you are looking at it purely on a Return On Investment (ROI) basis. The streamlining of numerous processes should free you to run and grow your business. There is, of course, their 30-day free trial, which is non-committal.

As mentioned above, the considerable advantage Quickbooks has over Xero (in our opinion) is the many options you have as a customer to talk to real people should you encounter a problem, via their helplines or live chatbox – all of which are free of charge. On the other hand, Xero relies far too heavily on email, which is a huge frustration for many customers. 

The great thing here is how Quickbooks responds to any issues. With many support features, most clients are delighted with their help from a friendly and responsive support team. It is very reassuring as no matter how good your product is if your customer services team falls short, this can make or break a business, so it is good to know that if you experience a problem, they will help you solve it quickly effectively.

There is also the QuickBooks certified accounting professional directory where you will find us as  Platinum ProAdvisers or, even more accessible, connect your current accountant for real-time collaboration.

Are you interested in switching cloud accounting providers? Call our Switching Hotline on 020 8577 0200 for help and guidance.

The Disadvantages

No product or company is ever perfect, and to ensure we present a balanced Quickbooks review, we must look at some of the disadvantages too.

Firstly, like any software, it is not perfect. Whilst it has an 80% excellent rating on Trustpilot, some customers are experiencing technical difficulties, particularly around MTD for VAT, linking bank accounts/Paypal, and, in addition, not all features are available on mobile devices. Whilst there is no doubt the software has plenty to offer (again, like Xero), there is a steep learning curve, but there are numerous tutorials and materials that you might find helpful.

If you are looking to use this software and would like training to get you up to speed or a refresher course, we can provide this for you free of charge. 

Payroll services do cost extra, which does bump up your monthly payment, and you might find you have to plump for the advanced package as the standard is too basic for your needs. 

So, we come to the end of our Quickbooks review, and overall we have found the software to be an extremely attractive choice for sole traders and limited companies.

The range of features will cover virtually every need, while the prices mean that it should not put businesses off on the tightest budget.