Quicken Home & Business or Quickbooks? [Edited]

carolvan

I am an independent contractor and currently have Quicken online. I am wondering if I should upgrade to the Home & Business version of Quicken or bite the bullet and go over to Quickbooks. Any suggestions

jacobs

Quicken is a desktop-based product. If you have desktop Quicken, you can use a web interface to do some, but not all, the things you can do in the desktop program. Is that what you're referring to when you say you "have Quicken online"?

Quicken Home & Business won't change the nature of how Quicken works; it adds some specific features for small business, like invoicing, managing receivables, and some rental-property tracking features. 

Quickbooks online is a very different product — a full-fledged double-entry accounting program.

What features are you looking to add, or what problems are you looking to solve, compared you your current Quicken? 

carolvan

I currently have the online basic version of Quicken. I was wondering if some of the same features on QB would be included in QHB. I am an independent contractor and don't need a full blown accounting system. where can I find what QHB provides?

Chris_QPW

Instead of "Quicken online" I think you are really referring Quicken Subscription.  There is a big difference.
Subscription is how you pay, "online" implies that you can do certain features in a web browser or mobile device.

Note that none of the business functions are available in Quicken Web/Mobile.  The features you see for business functions like on this page are only available while running Quicken on the Desktop.
https://www.quicken.com/product-selector

What you need really depends on your business, independent contractor really doesn't state anything about what features you need.

carolvan

yes, I am using the Quicken Starter by subscription, thanks for the clarification. So is "Quicken on the desktop" still a subscription version??

Chris_QPW

carolvan said:

yes, I am using the Quicken Starter by subscription, thanks for the clarification. So is "Quicken on the desktop" still a subscription version??

Yes, that is correct, and note the Starter "edition" is the very lowest level/features and is very restrictive in you can do in it.

The Quicken data file resides on the Desktop but can sync a limited amount of the data it contains to Mobile/Web for remote access.

Chris_QPW

I noticed that they have updated that comparison web page, it does a pretty good job now for the features supported, not everything of course, but overall, it isn't bad.

And like stated you really have to state what kinds of features you need; it is entirely possible to run a business using even Starter version, but I would suggest at least Deluxe.  Of course, if one needs business features like invoicing then you need the Home & Business.  On the other hand, if you need these business features "on the go" then you have to look elsewhere like to QuickBooks.

volvogirl

QuickBooks info.....

You can track inventory in QuickBooks.  QuickBooks is available as an Online program or a Desktop program.  You can have multiple computers and users.   You can buy it here….

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/products 

 

There is also a QuickBooks Self Employed Bundle.  For one low monthly price, customers will receive a QBSE subscription, which will include one federal  and one state return through TurboTax Home & Business.   Here is the QBSE Bundle page, 

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/self-employed 

jacobs

Just adding for clarity: Quickbooks is a program sold by Intuit. Quicken is a program sold by Quicken. They share the first five letters of their name, and were under the same roof for a number of years — but they're completely separate, different programs.