Quickbooks Review – Online Accounting Software for Small Business and Freelancers


  • 30-day free trial
  • From $15/month
  • Sign up at quickbooks.com

What is Quickbooks?

Quickbooks has been around for a long time, first as a desktop version and now as online accounting software.

Quickbooks have heavily invested in their AI and automation features to help you quickly tag and categorise your invoices and expenses so you can see what you’re really making and spending

Connecting QuickBooks to your bank account and credit card accounts, and let QuickBooks do the work for you. You’ll eliminate tons of data entry, and your books will always be up to date and accurate.

For expenses, QuickBooks fills in who you paid and what it was for. You can change this information if you need to. This is where QuickBooks starts to help you out. It can find other expenses that look like the one you just added, and assign them all the same category.

QuickBooks can also automatically categorise client payments to a sales account. If QuickBooks isn’t sure about a category for an expense, it’ll leave it as uncategorized. You can pick a category or choose Ask My Accountant to file it away to go over with your accountant later.

QuickBooks lets you know if you have any expenses that need to be reviewed. As you categorize more expenses, QuickBooks learns from you so it can help. A transaction in green means QuickBooks recognizes that you categorized a similar transaction in the past. So it automatically assigns the same category for you.

Reports like the profit and loss report show you more detail about how your expenses are categorized. You can even see your expenses as a percentage of your income. This is very helpful in understanding where your money is going.

You can even explore QuickBooks for yourself with a free product test drive.

QuickBooks Features

  • Automates standard bookkeeping tasks such as entering transactions, performing calculations, and organizing data to keep your books balanced.
  • Automatically Imports your bank transactions and organizes them
  • Built-in sales tax calculator that calculates sales tax based on where you are, what you sell, and the address on the sales receipt or invoice
  • Track business expenses all year to get every deduction at tax time.
  • Automatically sorts expenses into expense categories and keeps them organized for you.
  • Track your bills and their due dates in one place so that you always pay on time and avoid late fees.
  • Set up automatic payments so that your bills are paid for you
  • Use the QuickBooks app to turn your phone’s camera into a receipt scanner. Snap a photo of a receipt and QuickBooks will attach it to the expense in your books
  • Create custom, professional business reports, access your balance sheet, cash flow statement, income statement, and over 50 other reports
  • Create professional estimates and quotes for a prospective customer
  • Create invoices and get paid fast via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, and more
  • Bill incrementally and get paid throughout the course of the job or project

Quickbooks Pros

  • One of the easiest online accounting software to use ‘out of the box’.
  • Links directly to your bank account for reconciliation.
  • A very capable product with some great features
  • Suitable for small businesses with only one currency who are happy to pay PayPal’s premium rates for payment processing.
  • The customer support is fast, friendly and efficient.

Quickbooks Cons

  • Some have found the interface to be slow and confusing
  • Lack of payment processors: PayPal is the only option
  • No helpdesk support system for tickets
  • Direct Bank Feeds can take from 5 days to several weeks to set up
  • Invoice Templates are very basic

What freelancers think of Quickbooks

“Good platform and great support – would definitely recommend to anyone looking for any easy to use accounting platform.” – Virginia

“Great software, wish i started using it earlier. A lot to get your head around, but they are a phone call away if you get stuck.” – Seun

“I’ve been a QuickBooks user for a lot of years and was very pleased when the online version became available. I’ve had a couple of hiccups and the initial response wasn’t particularly impressive. However, when I eventually got connected to the right person in Technical Support, I have to say, I couldn’t fault his commitment to sorting out my issues.” – Sean

Sign up to a free 30-day trial to Quickbooks at quickbooks.com

Read our roundup of the best online accounting software for freelancers and small business

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