QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Review 2023: Features and Pricing

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise offers a more powerful accounting alternative to the popular QuickBooks Online. It’s packed with the accounting features that larger businesses need, along with educational and support materials to help your business take advantage of your new software. Plus, businesses like contractors, manufacturers, and wholesale retailers can get an extra boost with industry-tailored editions of QuickBooks.

Still, QuickBooks isn’t as powerful as other business accounting tools, so large businesses may prefer a more scalable alternative.

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QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Pricing

Intuit offers three QuickBooks Enterprise plans: Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. So while the software starts at just under $2,000 per year, the cost of Quickbooks Desktop Enterprise will depend on how many features you need. Some features, such as cloud access and payment processing, have additional fees above the cost of your plan.

Fortunately, QuickBooks offers a 30-day free trial, so you can try out all the features for yourself. Plus, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Gold

To get the cheapest price for QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, you’ll want the Gold plan. Starts at $1,830 per year, with annual billing only. (That may seem a little expensive if you’re used to small business accounting software, but it’s perfectly normal for enterprise software.)

You can have up to 30 users on your Gold plan and you’ll get basic QuickBooks features like payroll and built-in reporting. Even on this lowest-level plan, you can use QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop to manage multiple businesses.

Platinum

The next level, Platinum, starts at $2,250 per year. Like the Gold plan, the QuickBooks Enterprise Platinum plan allows you to add up to 30 users and provides you with payroll and reporting.

Of course, Platinum also gives you additional features, such as automation through inventory and advanced pricing. You also get workflow approvals for invoices and purchase orders.

$2,250 per year. Not all businesses will need these features, but manufacturing, retail and wholesale businesses will likely find them worth the extra cost compared to Gold.

Diamond

To get the most features of QuickBooks Enterprise, you can choose the Diamond plan. This one starts at $4,400 per year, but unlike the other plans, it is billed monthly (rather than annually).

This plan gives you additional automation features through assisted payroll. It also gives you the option to add time tracking and the Salesforce CRM Connector, but keep in mind that these features have additional fees per employee. So while this plan offers the most features, it may be too expensive for most businesses.

Key Features of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Accounting tools

As you would expect, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise has a very comprehensive set of accounting features. In fact, it’s so comprehensive that it includes all the features we look for when evaluating accounting software.

For example, QuickBooks includes integrated payroll, so you won’t have to complicate integration with different payroll software. It has a complete set of reports ready to use, along with the ability to create new reports.

You’ll also find tools for scanning receipts, tracking mileage, and accepting payments, not to mention tools for taxes, inventory, and forecasting.

Plus, QuickBooks Desktop integrates with over 200 third-party apps, so you can add additional accounting features that way, too.

Now, QuickBooks tools may not always be the most advanced. It offers some accounting automation, for example, but other software like NetSuite has much more powerful automation. Still, the wide variety of features QuickBooks offers makes it a competitive business accounting software.

Industry Specific Solutions

Along with everyday accounting tools, QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop offers industry-specific editions with additional features. Accountants, contractors, manufacturers, nonprofits, professional services, and retail and wholesale businesses can enjoy an industry-tailored QuickBooks experience.

Take the counter edition. Along with normal accounting tools, it offers specific features for accountants, such as version control and batch transactions, making it a great multi-business accounting software. Or consider the wholesale edition, which allows you to calculate the cost of delivery, offers inventory in multiple locations, and includes additional reports such as open sales orders.

Likewise, a nonprofit can save time by using nine custom reports, such as contribution summaries, instead of setting them up manually. And the professional services edition allows you to analyze profitability by client, geography and other factors, helping you make informed business decisions. It also eliminates the need for other software by allowing you to track advance client payments and create customizable proposals.

These additional features elevate QuickBooks above universal accounting software. So if you work in one of the supported industries, a specific edition of QuickBooks Desktop could save you time and fit perfectly into your workflow.

Learning and support

Like any business software, QuickBooks Desktop can be overwhelming at first. But unlike full ERPs like NetSuite, QuickBooks still focuses on accessibility and ease of use, which becomes evident when you look at its extensive knowledge and support features.

To start, all Enterprise plans come with QuickBooks Priority Circle. This premium customer support plan gives you 24/7 phone and chat help. It also includes perks like callback (to save you time) and screen sharing (to avoid frustration), making it better than run-of-the-mill accounting support.

QuickBooks Priority Circle also gives you access to training courses and webinars, so you can learn best practices for QuickBooks Enterprise and accounting in general.

Add in-depth guides and demos and you and your team should have no problem learning the ins and outs of QuickBooks. That makes QuickBooks Enterprise an accounting product you can actually use from the beginning, which can make it more attractive than more complex options.

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise Professionals

• 24/7 Priority Circle customer support with all Enterprise plans.
• 30-day free trial along with 60-day money back guarantee.
• 200+ app integrations.
• Full-featured accounting with multi-currency support, receipt scanning and more.
• Free access to the counter on all plans.

Disadvantages of QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

• Concerns about continued product support.
• Far fewer automation tools than cloud accounting software.
• Longer setup process than QuickBooks Online.
• Bad reviews for the mobile app.

If QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise isn’t ideal for you, check out these alternatives

Sage

While QuickBooks Desktop is fairly easy to use, it’s hard to beat the ease of use of Sage Intacct. This business accounting software features an AI-powered general ledger, meaning you can get more work done with much less effort. Additionally, Sage Intacct has much more powerful automation tools than QuickBooks Desktop, so you can spend less time on repetitive tasks.

In other words, if you want to save time on daily accounting, Sage Intacct offers more value than QuickBooks Desktop.

NetSuite

Oracle NetSuite is our favorite business accounting software, beating out QuickBooks Enterprise and other competitors. While QuickBooks Desktop offers a complete set of accounting tools, Oracle NetSuite includes many more features in its ERP. Think customer management, e-commerce and more. Therefore, NetSuite can replace more of your software and scale to work in much larger companies.

If you’re worried about QuickBooks Desktop having enough oomph for your business, NetSuite might be a better alternative.

QuickBooks online

If, on the other hand, you’re not sure you need all the tools that QuickBooks Desktop includes, you may want to stick with small business accounting software like QuickBooks Online. It tops our list of the best accounting apps thanks to its variety of plans, excellent invoicing tools, and robust accounting tools. You don’t get all the power of QuickBooks Desktop, but QuickBooks Online costs much less and includes features like cloud access at no additional cost.

That makes QuickBooks Online a good alternative for businesses that aren’t yet ready for QuickBooks Enterprise.

Review methodology

Our accounting software experts rated QuickBooks Enterprise on more than 30 factors across five categories, including pricing, accounting features, ease of use, customer experience, and more. We then use our standardized rubric to calculate how QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise compares to other accounting solutions for businesses and small businesses.