FreeAgent vs. QuickBooks Desktop Premier

For micro and small business it is a great solution. The new requirements for MTD for landlords could also be met with this software. Groups and more complex businesses could not use the accounts and tax returns features, however they still could use it for bookkeeping and then export the data to other tax and accounts production software.

QuickBooks Desktop is an easy-to-use software with good services. Their invoicing, employment, and vendor sections are all wonderful. These sections allow efficient tracking and instant business summaries and reporting. However, the pricing for additional services and upgrades and lack of good customer service makes it a less attractive software for small businesses.

Incentivized

• Recurring invoices with automated follow-up is fantastic for helping to get paid on time
• Automated bank transfers are the easiest way to ensure that I can reconcile my accounts with ease
• Support is fantastic
• Built-in Time tracking for projects/tasks (integration with Basecamp to get this info) is fantastic, it allows us to accurately track what we are working on and get paid for it!

• QuickBooks Premier is easy to use, yet flexible and powerful enough to handle some complicated accounting scenarios.
• QuickBooks Premier offers a wide array of canned reports. Custom reports can be easily created.
• QuickBooks Premier with Enhanced Payroll gives us the tools to handle complex payrolls with multiple variables.

Incentivized

• Reporting on financials, time tracking and project status is a little poor. It's adequate for what what we need, but would be great to see more advanced features.
• API is quite closed so cannot integrate with our other project management tools.

Incentivized

• I would like to be able to choose how i want to view accounts receivable aging. I would like some flexibility to sort and choose how to present the data.
• For a seasoned accountant, I would like to see some of the restrictive controls that are in place for novices to be able to be relaxed so that I can easily make some entries and adjust some balances that ordinarily a regular user would not be able to do.
• I would like to see an easy way to clear old outstanding checks that need to be reversed without affecting prior balances/history.

Incentivized

We have used Freeagent for many years now and it serves us well for our needs. To change it would mean a lot of work, and this would most likely only happen if the cost became prohibitive to us.

Incentivized

Because we have been extremely happy with the product and our organization tends to be creatures of habit. We rarely leave a product that works this well for the latest and greatest. Typically we follow the "if it's not broken, don't fix it rule". While QB does make changes we typically just roll with it. If we do find something we don't like we work through it until we fully understand its functionality.

Incentivized

It is a great software that does everything we need for small business clients. It allows to keep the books in a cloud from bookkeeping to accounts production and tax returns, all in one software. There are no major drawbacks and I would highly recommend it for most of our clients.

Incentivized

We switched to a more "robust" software program with the hiring of a new CFO. The migration of historical data and ancillary information has been cumbersome and riddle with errors and issues. In hindsight much of what the new software program was touted to accomplish is not come to fruition. QB Desktop Premier was sufficient for the organization needs

Incentivized

Based in a cloud and never had any issues with down time. I can access from any device

This is very reliable software, the desktop version is fast. If there is a problem, it is most likely on your own hardware!

Incentivized

It takes forever to load.

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I have never personally used support

Incentivized

This is where QuickBooks falls short. Many times my staff has had questions that have not been able to get resolved easily with a chat or call. I personally have had more general questions that have not been answered easily as well. I think QuickBooks needs to provide the resources of having readily accessible help in order to make it simpler to get solutions.

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Did not participate

Incentivized

It is important to do your research. There are tutorial videos online that could help new user of this accounting system. These tutorials are straightforward and easily understandable.

Incentivized

I used Fresh Books for about three years prior to switching to FreeAgent. It was the accounting functionality that made the difference - in the past two years I've not regretted the switch. Fresh Books is good, but its the UK accounting features that make FreeAgent indispensable to my business.

We've used QuickBooks Desktop Premier for many, many years. We've not reviewed any other accounting products internally - but have a handful of the customers that use Cyma (mentioned above). While I've never had occasion to functionally use Cyma, I have had to install and troubleshoot problems with it. Put simply... not impressed. I found installation a bit confusing, and once started up, I wasn't able to easily find anything I would have wanted to find - where conversely, QuickBooks Desktop Premier excels on both of these fronts.

Incentivized

They're getting better. Still room for improvement.

Incentivized

• Has freed up a lot of time based on my previous system of managing my invoicing and accounts through Word and Excel
• I have an accurate day to day handle on the financial position of my business so I can manage my cashflow better
• The inbuilt time recording against projects has saved time in creating the invoices but also tracks my profitability on the work I do

Incentivized

• Most of our business clients use QuickBooks which makes it efficient for us to work on clients that use the program. We can import QuickBooks data into our software which adds efficiencies to our tax practice.
• Having staff that are familiar with the software enables our firm to provide quality service to the clients that use QuickBooks.
• We receive referrals from satisfied QuickBooks clients.

Incentivized