 QuickBooks Desktop 2023. QuickBooks Desktop versus QuickBooks Online. Let's do it within two weeks. QuickBooks Desktop 2023. Support Accounting Instruction by clicking the link below, giving you a free month membership to all of the content on our website, broken out by category, further broken out by course. Each course then organized in a logical, reasonable fashion, making it much more easy to find what you need than can be done on a YouTube page. We also include added resources such as Excel practice problems, PDF files, and more like QuickBooks backup files when applicable. So once again, click the link below for a free month membership to our website and all the content on it. Before diving into downloading and using the QuickBooks Desktop software, we first wanna take a step back and think about the different options for accounting software, specifically through Intuit, Intuit being the owner of QuickBooks, the two main categories being QuickBooks Desktop versus QuickBooks Online. However, you can also think of these two broad categories, Desktop versus Online as being applicable to accounting software in general, the desktop software being a kind of software that we would download to our desktop, typically thinking of the data file on our actual computer, whereas the online software we would be accessing through the internet, the data files not on our computer typically, but rather on the servers of the company offering the software, in this case, that being Intuit. Thinking about different kinds of accounting software can get quite confusing very quickly even if we're just looking at the software offered by Intuit, which is the owner of QuickBooks because there's a lot of different variants of the QuickBooks software. So you first wanna think about the main two categories of software that being the desktop software versus the online software. Once you've then narrowed down which one you want there, Desktop versus Online, then we can look into further categorizing different options within each of those categories. This course will be focused on the desktop version. So first we'll just compare it to the online version and then we'll dive into some more options within the desktop version. So now we're just doing the overall comparison desktop versus online. QuickBooks desktop used to be a one-time purchase model, now a subscription model. QuickBooks online has always been a subscription model. Now this is still a relatively new change, has some significant implications, so I'm gonna try to explain it in a bit of detail, look at a little bit of history of what has happened over time. Note that QuickBooks desktop, like many other kinds of software, like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, for example, used to be something that you could purchase either online or from an actual store, download on the computer and then create multiple data files with that software. For example, Microsoft Word on the computer can then be used to make multiple Microsoft Word documents. The QuickBooks desktop then could be used to make multiple QuickBooks data files for different companies, for example. Now then you would have updates to the software, so QuickBooks was usually quite routine in their updating of the software, so there would always be a new version of the software and if you want the latest and greatest version, you always have to buy the new version and put it on the computer. However, the older versions would still basically work, so you can generally hold on to the older versions for some time before possibly you need to be updating them at some future point. So they've kind of moved away from that and most software is trying to go to the subscription model whether it has kind of a desktop component to it or not, obviously if you look at like Microsoft products, they've gotten out the Microsoft 365, I believe it is and they're trying to move to like a subscription model with the QuickBooks desktop, you've got a similar kind of process where they want to be able to have someone buy it on a subscription base so that they don't have to sell the new software each time, they're gonna just update the current version and they can access those updates because they can basically access them through the online process, even though it's a desktop software, would be the general idea. Now, obviously the QuickBooks online because that software is not on your computer at all, really it's basically on the Intuit servers, they can update those anytime they want which is kind of a convenient process in a lot of ways for Intuit. So that's one of the big differences and some of the changes we'll see or some of the differences between the software will kind of stem from some of these differences between the desktop and the online and where they're located. So with the desktop version, you can have multiple company files with one purchase of QuickBooks. So with the online version, must set up a new online account for each new company file. Now this is still one of the big advantages of the desktop version. So it used to be the desktop version had a couple of advantages, one would be you can buy just one time shop and be able to keep that for a few years usually and it's still be working for you. You no longer have that capacity as well anymore because they moved it to a subscription model and you'll still have to pay kind of annually. But it still kind of works like you would expect like a Microsoft Word to work versus having to purchase a whole new kind of software for each company, right? So in other words, you can still kind of think of it as though the QuickBooks desktop is downloaded on your computer, kind of like Microsoft Word. And then like Microsoft Word, creating multiple Word documents with that one piece of software, you can create multiple QuickBooks desktop data files with that one desktop version. So depending on the kind of work that you do that could save you money if you have a lot of bookkeeping that you're doing through the QuickBooks, through that one QuickBooks desktop, it depends so you can have multiple files that could be a huge benefit. Whereas with the QuickBooks online then every time you wanna set up a new company file then you need to set up a new software you gotta pay for the new company file that's gonna be set up on the Intuit server each time. It's also really, really nice for practice problems to use the desktop version because you can do things like have multiple files, play with those files, you can copy the files, you can make backups of the files so that you can go back to certain things. That kind of stuff is stuff that you cannot do as much online because it's all in real time going forward and if you can't just make another company file and test things out quite as easily with the desktop version. So that could be a huge benefit for a practice that has multiple company files that they're trying to make and it's a huge benefit when you're just practicing the use of the software. So if you're practicing the use of the software that can be a great tool and we'll use it here. We'll also use backup files which are a great tool that you can't use as easily with the QuickBooks online version and that's the next thing you got the static backups versus the data stored on the Intuit servers. Now there's two main purposes for backup files. Note that one is that you wanna of course secure your data. So you've got your data file, you wanna make sure that if you don't lose your data file. So with QuickBooks desktop, if your data file is stored on your computer, then you wanna make sure it's backed up so if the computer crashes, you have a backup. With the QuickBooks online, the data is stored on the Intuit servers. Now in theory, the Intuit servers are far less likely to crash than your server, than your computer. So the argument from Intuit is always that the online version is secure, more secure than even anything that you can do on your backup system because they double back up their servers and all that kind of stuff and that may be true. So you might have a good backup system that you're not gonna lose your data possibly. However, there are of course downsides to it being online. One is with the static backups, you can still come up with a pretty secure system cause you can back it up basically every night. It doesn't take long to back up the backup files or zipped files and then you can back them up to the cloud or something like that. So you can still have them on a separate location. So you can still come up with a pretty secure backup systems. Also, you can make the backup for different reasons. So if you wanted to test something out with your data file you're not sure it's gonna work. You're trying to connect to another application or something like that or you're trying to enter something that you're not confident about. You can do a backup, a static backup, try it out and if it doesn't work, you can restore the backup. And the restoring of the backup for QuickBooks desktop is really pretty straightforward and easy thing to do. You can feel pretty comfortable with it if you've done it a few times. You can't do that with the online data because you're not actually making a physical backup. The system is backing up automatically on the server. So you can't really test things out as easily which you would really like to do especially if you're gonna be like connecting to other apps and stuff like that. You're like, does that work? Do I wanna make that move or not? So those are one of the pros and cons with it. Also note that with the Intuit servers you do have, since you're online all the time, one risk is that you lose your data file with the backups but the other risk of course is that someone hacks into your account online. So it's a lot easier for someone to hack into your account, your data file online and be able to then access it online and do whatever they're gonna do to sort your data basically online then get into your actual computer. And we know that's true because I read the tax news, for example, every day from the IRS and they're saying all the time that they're saying that people are trying to access tax preparers, tax software that is on the cloud basically so that they can file fraudulent tax returns. Well, it's a lot easier to hack into the software if it's online. So you've got that as a, there is some security issues that go back and forth between the backup system. So then the look and feel is way different as well between the desktop version and the online version. Notice that the basic breakdown of the double entry accounting system and the names of the forms will be generally the same but the look and feel of the desktop version, one thing they have that I think is quite nice is they've got the flowchart on the homepage. The online version keeps trying to put the flowchart on the homepage but it's not quite the same and they keep changing it. So I don't think it's quite as solid. I think when people are starting out that flowchart is quite helpful. Also the look and feel of the desktop because it's on the desktop and not on a website has been much more static over the years. So it's not gonna change all the time and that's kind of a superficial changes when they make changes to that kind of stuff because everything still works the same but when you're trying to find something it's easier to find it once you get used to the desktop version. The online version because it's a website they're gonna be continually kind of testing things out and this might be good. This could be a good thing because they're trying to do like A-B testing. Meaning they change the look and feel of the website and then try to test out which look and feel people prefer which hopefully leads to a better website. However, the fact that they constantly do that means that as a user you're working with something that's changing a lot over time whereas the look and feel of the desktop version is much more static and it's been something that's been in place for a long time so it's a pretty good design and it's been a well-proved design and basically it's gonna stay mostly the same much more so than the online version. Also the online version currently seems to be trying to test out other terminology which isn't like as professional kind of sounding terminology from an accounting standpoint and trying to sound kind of like more casual which might be a good thing you might enjoy that but again, it could also be kind of confusing when the terms change. You're trying to do something and you're used to the standard professional term and now you've got some other kind of slang term that's gonna be used whereas the desktop version will generally use the more professional accounting bookkeeping terminology. Now also note just when you look at the website at this point in time they just released for the general people the desktop version for 2023 when I took this screenshot and you'll note that they're advertising here the online version even on the desktop version side of things and they even did not put the pro series which is probably the most popular desktop version on their sales platform which I believe I talked to a representative is at the 549.99 and I asked them why they did that and they basically said because we want you if you're asking for the pro version to talk to us basically because they want to talk to you about the online version and see if you would rather switch to the online version. Now again, there's significant pros and cons from the desktop and the online versions there's reasons why you might want to use one or the other but you can see a clear kind of favor from into it trying to ask people whether they want to be switching to the online that might be because people buy the desktop version and they're not aware and that causes problems or it might be because they're trying to get people onto the online version and maybe that hints to me like they would like to get everyone onto the online version and move away from the desktop version altogether. Now when the online version first came out there was kind of, it was thought that that might be the move that they're basically trying to make but then they didn't do that because I think there are a lot of benefits to the desktop version and people still really like the desktop version but there's always kind of this fear as to whether or not into it's just gonna stop doing the desktop version and try to move everybody to the online version and you can see in their marketing that they're marketing more towards the online version it seems to me, again, I'm not sure if the desktop version if they'll ever move away from the desktop version completely because there are benefits to the desktop version and a lot of people like those benefits but keep that in mind as well. QuickBooks desktop, the download of the bank transactions can take an extra step. Now notice when you're on the desktop version you'll link to the bank transactions and the bank feeds which we'll talk about in future presentations. That link is gonna be more automatic on the online version than the desktop version. You can still do the link with the desktop version and again, I think there's kind of pros and cons to this because with the desktop version you have to actually kind of say, I'm linked to the bank and now I would like to download my transactions periodically whereas the online version is kind of downloading the transactions basically all the time. And so that can be easier with the online version a little bit although you can still do the bank feeds with the desktop version. But again, I still think you have a little bit of a security issue with the online version because now obviously I think the Intuit servers are secure in that you're not gonna lose your data but it might be easier for people to hack into your online version than your desktop version and then get access to your bank feeds and so on. So I think that's a little bit more of a danger still with the online version having secure software, backward passwords and whatnot would be a safeguard against that. More difficult to work from different locations. And so obviously this is a huge selling point for the online version. They're gonna say you could work from anywhere you want versus the desktop version. And there's truth to that. You can set up different things to work at different locations from the desktop version. But again, there's pros and cons to that because if you're working on the online version and you have your laptop and you're working from different locations, again, you have to be careful because if you're using different wifi's and whatnot people might hack into and get your password. So you gotta make sure it's more likely that those kinds of things can happen and people will access your stuff online whereas if you work and just do your bookkeeping in one place most of the time which is not as popular these days, I understand then and you do it and you basically do your bookkeeping offline. It might be a little bit less likely that someone's gonna access, be able to access your online software and get into the online software. So I still think there's a little bit of a safety issue even though again, the Intuit servers I think are quite secure. It's the password kind of stuff that you gotta be careful of if you're working in different locations especially if you're using different wifi's and that kind of stuff. So it seems and again, it seems like the desktop version is less favored by Intuit these days whereas the online version seems to be where Intuit is leaning. That's been the way it's been going for again, a long time. A lot of people still like the desktop version. I think for a course to learn QuickBooks the desktop version is great because of some of the things we talked about before because you can have multiple files, you can have the backup files, you can use those backup files to basically jump forward in a practice problem or set up the practice problem to work on it. It's also great in practice because you could have a backup and then test out a new thing and if it doesn't work, you can restore the backup. And I also think it's less likely for someone to hack into and that kind of stuff that we talked about on the desktop version plus the inventory and some of the functionality of the desktop version is better still than the online version. In some cases, like the inventory in some cases can be useful at the desktop. So I'm not sure that Intuit will ever be able to completely, I move away from the desktop version but it does seem that they're pushing the online version in their marketing materials. So that's something to keep in mind. The end.