Which Version of QuickBooks 2019 should you buy?

Hector Garcia CPA
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

Currently, QuickBooks has a wide array of choices with their Quickbooks Desktop platform, ranging from QuickBooks Desktop Pro 1-user for $249 to QuickBooks Desktop Accountant 2019 5-user for $1,599. These are “one-time” cost for the purchase of the software, but it is safe to assume that you will be upgrading again every 3 years (as updates to Microsoft Windows and Office will likely to require compatibility upgrade to QuickBooks, which ceases to get updates/support from Intuit every 3 years. For example, any version of QuickBooks Desktop 2019 will likely not get any more updates or support by May 31st, 2022.

That being said, there is another debate going on which is “Shouldn’t you be moving to the cloud using QuickBooks Online anyway?” which is a legitimate debate. QuickBooks Online brings a whole new way of working with your accounting software, which includes: no configuration multi-user capabilities (because is web-based), easy accountant/client collaboration, powerful bank feeds (downloading and auto-classifying transactions from the bank) and many other features. However, the element of cost is still a big deal. QuickBooks Desktop allows you to work with multiple companies with a single subscription. While you will find yourself paying $60/month per company/subscription of QuickBooks Online Plus in perpetuity; which means the 3-year cost of a single company with QuickBooks Online Plus is $2,160 (assuming the price does not change) vs. the 3-year cost of a 5-user QuickBooks Online Accountant 2019 license of $1,549 (assuming you upgrade every 3 years, which is not required to, but recommended) and it can run unlimited company files.

However, price can be deceiving, while some folks value “cloud-access” more than others, that would justify the $650+ 3-year cost difference (and by the way, that number to be is negligible if you are business that takes their accounting seriously anyway…) . QuickBooks Online is just not nearly as feature rich as QuickBooks Desktop Accountant, see this article for details about the features: http://www.quickbooks-training.net/quickbooks-accountant-2019/

I think that if you are an accounting professional or small business owner that needs to manage your accounting in a robust platform for 1 to 5 users, and wants to maximize both their “bang for the buck” and get feature rich software, consider QuickBooks Desktop Accountant 2019 for $549 for 1 user or $1,599 for a 5-user

Email me hector@garciacpa.com if you have any questions, call my office 954–414–1524, and/or purchase it directly at: https://quickbooksprice.com/products/quickbooks-desktop-accountant-2019 use Coupon Code PREORDER for $50 off.