Choosing the right QBO edition

QBO is ideal for solopreneurs, freelancers, and mid-to-large-sized businesses with employees and 1099 contractors. 1099 contractors are also known as independent contractors, who you may hire to provide services for your business. Since they are not employees of the business, you must provide a 1099 form at the end of the year to any contractor you have paid $600 or more to in the calendar year.

The needs of your business will determine which edition of QBO is ideal for you. The following provides some additional insight into the ideal businesses for each edition of QBO.

QBO Simple Start

QBO Simple Start is ideal for a freelancer or sole proprietor that sells services only, and no products. You may have employees that you need to pay, but you don't have any 1099 contractors. The majority of your expenses are paid via online banking or wire transfer, so you don't need to write or print checks to pay bills.

QBO Essentials

Similar to QBO Simple Start, QBO Essentials is ideal for freelancers and sole proprietors that only sell services only, and no products. You have employees but you do not hire contractors. Unlike QBO Simple Start, you pay most of your bills by writing checks, and you need the ability to keep track of your unpaid bills, also referred to as A/P.

QBO Plus

Unlike QBO Simple Start and QBO Essentials, QBO Plus is ideal for small businesses that sell products, since it includes inventory tracking. Similar to QBO Simple Start and QBO Essentials, you can pay employees. QBO Plus also allows you to keep track of payments made to 1099 contractors so that you can complete the required 1099 reporting at the end of the year.

QBO Advanced

QBO Advanced is ideal for businesses that have more than five users needing access to their data. QBO Advanced is QBO Plus on steroids: it includes all of the features found in QBO Plus, along with some great bonus features, such as training for your entire team, and Smart Reporting with Fathom.

The bonus features that you will find in QBO Advanced are as follows:

• Dedicated customer success manager: With a QBO Advanced subscription, you are assigned a point of contact, who will learn how your business works in order to answer your questions. They will also provide additional resources that will help you to better manage your business financials.
• QuickBooks training for staff: With QBO Advanced, you get $2,000 worth of self-paced training materials and resources, to help you and your team get up to speed on how to use QBO.
• Smart Reporting with Fathom: With this reporting feature, you can measure profitability, cash flow, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). This feature is not available in any other QBO edition.
• Import customer invoices: Allows you to eliminate manually creating invoices one by one. Instead, you can import and email hundreds of invoices, all at once.
• Custom user permissions: Provides a deeper level of user permissions that allows you to manage access to sensitive data, such as bank accounts.

Depending on your business and individual circumstances, you should now be able to determine whether you will need QBO Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced. It is important to pick the right version for you so that you have access to the appropriate features you will need. Next, we will provide a brief overview of the QBD product line.