I've never used these programs before but I am trying to learn as much as I can to better support the staff that do use it at one of my work sites. What are the fundamental differences, if any? How does one properly backup the files being created by Quickbooks Online?
Posted Sep 9, 2018, 8:47 PM UTC
The fundamental difference is that QBO data is stored in the cloud, which means users can access their company QuickBooks file anywhere from any device with WIFI. Even works on tablets and mobile devices. With your data in the cloud, there's never any risk of data loss due to theft, mechanical failure, acts of God, etc. You don't make backups of your data, your data is stored automatically on Intuit's servers.
I'll let somebody else explain the pros/cons of QuickBooks Desktop
there are lots of threads if you google, and you should ask this in the intuit community forums on their site, but here goes:
there is no backup for QBO -- it's the cloud I heard there is a 3rd party app called rewind, don't know anything about it. The biggest thing this meant to me was that you can't try something and then restore if it doesn't work. You're always working on live data.
there is no fixed asset list in QBO -- it is pretty sketchy in QB desktop, but at least it is there.
I don't use time billing, or payroll or project estimates so I can't comment on those.
Thanks for the tips and info.