If you're looking into accounting software for your personal or business accounts, you may be wondering whether to go with Quicken or Quickbooks. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each program to help you decide.
For straightforward, personal, single entry or checkbook accounting, Quicken is a good bet. As far as business accounting is concerned, however, its suitability depends on what you need. Quicken has many of the same features as Quickbooks, but some of its characteristics do differ considerably--though not necessarily in bad ways. First, Quicken is much easier to learn. The program is simple, but that also means it has fewer options. Some people find there is not enough space to record the details of the transactions, but if you don't need meticulous records that shouldn't be a deciding factor. It is only meant for a single user, however, which again may or may not be a problem. Second, Quicken has good reporting capabilities but isn't very compatible with Excel. It also allows the use of classes or enterprise codes in order to connect expenditures and incomes with certain enterprises. Third, while it can track stocks and other investments, it has no payroll or inventory systems, no programming interface, and limited support for receivables, invoicing, and so on. Finally, one of the best parts about Quicken is that it's available for only forty to eighty dollars.
Quickbooks works better for double entry accounting, although it can be used for single entries, and many small businesses utilize it in that way. Actually, Quickbooks's qualities are better suited to businesses overall. First, Quickbooks has more options and features than Quicken, although they are more difficult to learn. It also allows for more detailed transactions and multiple users (up to five at the same time). These are great benefits for larger companies. Second, Quickbooks has more extensive reporting capabilities and can export data more readily to Excel than can Quicken. Like Quicken, it offers enterprise codes, but, in addition, its system allows you to categorize multi-level classes (parent and child) and thus provides more flexibility. Unlike Quicken, it does not track investments. It does, however, include payroll and inventory systems, programming interface, and a variety of small business support features. Lastly, because of its greater capabilities, it sells for anywhere from one hundred and fifty to four hundred dollars for its basic versions.
In short, Quicken is an economical choice for personal or very small business accounting. If you're managing a larger company, however, Quickbooks might well be worth the investment.
Karen Siewert of the CertifiedQB Group offers expert QuickBooks training, setup and support for small and large businesses. The author of this article is Katie Robison, a freelance writer.