AccountEdge vs. QuickBooks Online

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AccountEdge
Score 6.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
AccountEdge is a small business accounting software for Mac and Windows users. AccountEdge allows business owners to organize, process, and report on their financial information. Its features include accounting, integrated payroll, sales and purchases, contact management, inventory, and time billing. It was acquired by Priority Software in January 2018 to expand that company's small business portfolio.
$20
per month
QuickBooks Online
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
QuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.
$38
per month
Pricing
AccountEdgeQuickBooks Online
Editions & Modules
AccountEdge Pro
$20
per month
AccountEdge Network Edition
$30
per month
AccountEdge Hosted
$50
per month
Simple Start
$38
per month
Essentials
$75
per month
Plus
$115
per month
Advanced
$275
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AccountEdgeQuickBooks Online
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AccountEdgeQuickBooks Online
Considered Both Products
AccountEdge
Chose AccountEdge
Originally the decision was made for us when Quickbooks abandoned Mac users for a number of years. However, now that QuickBooks has returned to serving the Mac market, we are satisfied with AccountEdge's support of our platform. The user-friendly interface has made it easy for …
Chose AccountEdge
I have considered Quickbooks, but a cursory use did not lead me to believe that it was a good replacement for us. I might take a look again in the future if we can't link bank accounts to AccountEdge soon.
Chose AccountEdge
I haven't tried any alternatives other than using Quicken for my personal use.
Chose AccountEdge
Originally Account Edge topped out other comparable accounting suites with the feature set sought after for account management, order-invoice creation & user based role deployment on the server side out to workstation use. This has not changed to current revision & we are …
Chose AccountEdge
I think AccountEdge is superior to Peachtree, which is not a high bar. Its compatibility with MAC OS is good, but I think Xero will be taking much of the Mac based customers as it appears to be a better product.
Chose AccountEdge
My hands down preference is to keep my accounting off of the cloud but that is not always the case with my clients. So, to make this comparison somewhat fair I will consider only the items containing parity in cloud vs desktop.

AccountEdge vs Xero. AccountEdge has superior …
Chose AccountEdge
A number of my clients use QuickBooks, mostly on PCs, so I'm quite familiar with what it does. I'm just glad I'm using AccountEdge for my own accounting, because it's more straightforward and doesn't create 'hidden' transactions. Some years ago, a client on QuickBooks …
Chose AccountEdge
I have not used any other accounting software.
Chose AccountEdge
For Mac enthusiasts, AccountEdge is the complete installed software solution for small to medium-sized businesses, as it has so many capabilities that QuickBooks for Mac lacks. However, it holds your hand less than QuickBooks for Mac does, so you ought to know what your are …
Chose AccountEdge
Some of my clients use QuickBooks, some use AccountEdge. Hands down I prefer the user friendliness of AccountEdge over QuickBooks. There is no comparison in the return on profit when having the proper tools to be able to do a task efficiently and quickly. The more time wasted …
Chose AccountEdge
AccountEdge had already been implemented when I started working at Lake Industries.I have some experience in several other accounting & CRM software. AccountEdge has really come together in the last couple of years. The software is strong, easy-to-use, and great for daily …
Chose AccountEdge
AccountEdge is a much easier product to learn, and it is also much better integrated. That being said, AccountEdge could definitely use a few updates to bring it forward into today's world of technology.
Chose AccountEdge
AccountEdge is more adaptable as a large and diverse inventory control system.
Chose AccountEdge
I think that AccountEdge is a good alternative for Macs.
Chose AccountEdge
I have a client who is in the firearms manufacturing industry that makes components. They had been using QuickBooks credit card processing feature and their service was recently canceled by QuickBooks for political reasons. QuickBooks is a privately held company so they can do …
Chose AccountEdge
I have used QuickBooks in the past and, although I really liked it when I started with them, when I switched to a Mac computer they were not at all compatible. AccountEdge filled the gap with a small learning curve where QuickBooks just couldn't satisfy. The only other products …
QuickBooks Online
Chose QuickBooks Online
I think of the two products this has less hassle as it is pretty straight forward and streamlined. Unfortunately, as much as we use the payroll version I cannot give that product the same raving reviews as QuickBooks Online. I really wish Payroll was not as complicated as it …
Chose QuickBooks Online
We use QuickBooks Online since it is user friendly and it has the ability to accommodate small businesses with more complex accounting needs. Price is not that expensive although the users that you can add are limited, if we need to add a user we need to remove the other users.
Chose QuickBooks Online
QBO works much better for our needs and our business. Netsuite had a few too many layers for our business, it was a little harder to use. QBO makes everything simple you don't need to be an accountant to use it. We are happy with the product and will most likely continue to …
Chose QuickBooks Online
None. The only other accounting software I used was a proprietary MSDOS system 20 years ago; this is much better.
Chose QuickBooks Online
We did not look at any other products as QB online is typically considered best in class.
Chose QuickBooks Online
Desktop is way cheaper, but QuickBooks Online stays more upto date and is way better at integrating with other software.
Chose QuickBooks Online
We went with Quickbooks because it was recommended to us by our accountant, as they too use Quickbooks.
Chose QuickBooks Online
Melio was a little easier to use, but could be clunky while syncing to QB, and also got expensive as they added charges for every transaction as well as syncing.
Chose QuickBooks Online
As an accountant, QuickBooks Online uses the language I learned in school and throughout my career. Xero tries to simplify it, while actually making it more difficult to understand.
Chose QuickBooks Online
I truly hated Sage as a bookkeeper. I know that accountants don't have the same experience, but from a day to day perspective, it was not user friendly.
Chose QuickBooks Online
Easier to use and setup. More accountants are familiar with it so that also made the selection easier. Other software was also more expensive and had features that we weren't going to utilize at our current growth stage.
Chose QuickBooks Online
I have to use SAP for billing with some clients, and I think Ariba is much less intuitive, and the interface/GUI is much less modern and appealing. The fact that the client needs to send a PDF "user guide" says a lot to me about how counter-intuitive a lot of the features in …
Chose QuickBooks Online
Sage Timeslips and Avaza
Chose QuickBooks Online
Reporting is more diverse and ability to add multiple dimensions
Chose QuickBooks Online
I think QuickBooks Online is better than Xero. However I think is is lower then NetSuite and Sage Intacct. The system isself is great because it's cloud based so it can be accessed readily. However, in my opinion, it's not built for companies that are growing or expect to grow. …
Chose QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online has better options for sending invoices and receiving electronic payments.
Chose QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online is by far the easiest and fastest accounting management platform that I have used, especially compared to any industry specific tools like Sage, Foundation, Northstar, etc. I like how user friendly it is, the visual is great, and it can fit for a wise array of …
Chose QuickBooks Online
They are expensive and always have freezing issues and duplicating entries and no one available to address issues. To change the way you use the sites it takes time to update and its too jumpy and makes annoying issues. These effect the whole company and can take a lot of time …
Chose QuickBooks Online
User friendly for smaller communities.
The cost seems to be reasonable for smaller communities.
Support is helpful, and trainings provided online are helpful.
Chose QuickBooks Online
Unfortunately, in my opinion, QuickBooks Online is not anywhere cloase to coupa or Blackline in terms of functionality. Both platforms are head and shoulders above where i understand QuickBooks Online to be currently. Specifically in relation to task automation and more …
Chose QuickBooks Online
As I've mentioned, there aren't a lot of similar products, and certainly not with all the capability of QuickBooks Online. In my opinion, they nickel and dime for everything but they also do work pretty well across the board. I think the reconciliation process is also by far …
Features
AccountEdgeQuickBooks Online
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
AccountEdge
6.6
Ratings
16% below category average
QuickBooks Online
8.4
Ratings
8% above category average
Pay calculation10.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Benefit plan administration8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Direct deposit files5.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management6.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Reimbursement management4.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
AccountEdge
9.0
Ratings
8% above category average
QuickBooks Online
9.7
Ratings
15% above category average
Role-based user permissions9.00 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
AccountEdge
9.0
Ratings
13% above category average
QuickBooks Online
8.1
Ratings
3% above category average
Dashboards9.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Standard reports9.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Custom reports9.00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
AccountEdge
7.2
Ratings
8% below category average
QuickBooks Online
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
Accounts payable9.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Accounts receivable9.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Cash management8.10 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Bank reconciliation6.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Expense management6.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Time tracking6.00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Multi-currency support9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Multi-division support9.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Regulations compliance7.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Electronic tax filing7.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Self-service portal2.70 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
AccountEdge
8.0
Ratings
8% above category average
QuickBooks Online
7.5
Ratings
2% above category average
Inventory tracking8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Automatic reordering8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Location management8.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Manufacturing module8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
AccountEdge
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
QuickBooks Online
8.4
Ratings
8% above category average
Pricing8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Order entry9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Credit card processing6.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Cost of goods sold9.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
AccountEdge
5.0
Ratings
42% below category average
QuickBooks Online
8.3
Ratings
8% above category average
Plug-ins5.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
API for custom integration00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AccountEdgeQuickBooks Online
Small Businesses
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 10.0 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Performance Management
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AccountEdgeQuickBooks Online
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.8
(0 ratings)
1.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
2.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
1.1
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(0 ratings)
3.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
1.3
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AccountEdgeQuickBooks Online
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are handling a large client list, and are selling services, it is dead easy. If you are managing/selling a physical inventory, it seems like it has great options to do that quite well (disclaimer, I do not use those functions, but I have paid attention as that functionality was built into the software). If you want to link your bank account to a bookkeeping platform, this is not the software for you (at least so far).
Read full review
I appreciate the ability to auto-generate invoices for recurring transactions, which saves time, as well as the option to set up auto-generated transactions. The report option is super helpful when reviewing information, as you can click to view the details in the report without having to go back and forth.
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Pros
  • Complete Macintosh accounting software solution
  • Robust inventory with price levels, quantity price breaks, and item assemblies
  • Robust Job costing including progress billing, budgets, and profitability
  • Mobile and web apps to add transactions from anywhere to sync back to your company file
  • Integrated payroll
  • Retainers and escrow accounts
  • Three levels of transactions categorization-jobs, categories, and departments
  • Multi-currency
  • Network capable for multiple simultaneous users
  • Ability to see profitability on an individual invoice
  • Company file can be transferred back and forth between Mac and Windows with NO conversion needed.
  • Can import text files of practically any kind of transaction
Read full review
  • It enables me to do a P&L for each specific program as requested by the county for the grant money that they give us.
  • It enables me to do [an] organizational budget as well as a budget for each specific program
  • It enables the accountant and the auditor access at any time for transparency
Read full review
Cons
  • Probably our biggest beef is the sales pitch a while back to incorporate their POS system Checkout that was supposed to integrate hand in glove with AccountEdge (it never really did.) Now the company has abandoned the POS program (even the website is now a 404 error page). Checkout is glitchy, and rather than improving it, they just dropped it and left users like us who bought into it unsupported. That doesn't reflect well on the company's customer service in our view. We've been AccountEdge users from back when it was MYOB, but our confidence in their future dependability has been strongly impacted by this move, and if something else came along, our hard-earned loyalty might not be as firm as it has been in the past.
  • Some tasks in AccountEdge take a long time to complete (go get a coffee while the spinning beachball turns).
  • Don't know the feasibility, but it would be nice to have access to older transactions, maybe even in some kind of read-only format.
Read full review
  • Purchase Orders cannot be linked to multiple bill payments which makes tracking purchase orders in QuickBooks Online obsolete. Without the function we have to track this within a different more manual spreadsheet.
  • Would be helpful if you could "split" bank transactions directly from the "review" downloads from the bank. Currently, to split transactions to multiple accounts we need to first categorize, then review after assigning to 1 account.
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Likelihood to Renew
Without a doubt, when you need to do accounting use the program that will get the job done in the least amount of time with the least amount of errors. Once you are using a program that works you stay with it year after year and you will find yourself even excited about the updates
Read full review
QBO needs better integration with non-Intuit products and developers need to use Intuit's open API to develop better add-ons. Clients are having a great deal of problems with their data importing from the bank and this takes time away from better revenue producing activities. Although the efficiencies are there, they are outweighted by the shortcomings of the product. When we ran a parallel of QBO versus other cloud accounting products, we had more issues with the QBO product than any other
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Usability
The intuitive interface does all the tasks we need our accounting software to do. Some tasks are slower to process than I would like but overall very usable. Customizable forms let us choose to either go with the easy ready-made out-of-the-box options or retool them to better fit our specific needs.
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I had very little trouble setting up the program and migrating from our old accounting system. The daily usage is also very intuitive and easy. Anytime we run into minor trouble with the program, there are always tons of help available on YouTube, so we don't even look up the online manual anymore.
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Reliability and Availability
One of the finer advantages of desktop software, it's always available. AccountEdge doesn't suffer from outages or sluggish internet like web based applications do. It's always there when you power on your device!
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We have rarely had outages in the last 10 years. I can only recall 2 times in the last 10 years where we were not able to access our client files.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Everything process has its bugs lately with the new interface. Nothing has worked smoothly since this all began last month.
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Support Rating
On the few occasions we have needed tech support over the years, they were responsive and worked to get to the root of the issues. However, even though Checkout POS is a separate application, it was pitched to us as a natural extension of the functionality of our AE software that would integrate seamlessly. The company's support for Checkout has been minimal at best, and now totally abandoned. That colors our view of Priority's support unfortunately. And to be honest, that's why it's a 9 instead of a 10. So to be fair, AccountEdge's support itself has been very good over the years.
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In my experience, most representatives keep me on the phone for hours, literally, for a single issue and then usually cannot resolve it satisfactorily. I have 10 open cases that need resolution and, in my experience, there has been NO follow-up communication on any of them.
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Implementation Rating
unfortunately no.
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The person in charge of QB needs to be very accurate with record keeping and is recommended to stay on top of tasks. The biggest issue we have is reconciliation, and those issues occur only when too much time has occurred between reconciliations
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Alternatives Considered
My hands down preference is to keep my accounting off of the cloud but that is not always the case with my clients. So, to make this comparison somewhat fair I will consider only the items containing parity in cloud vs desktop. AccountEdge vs Xero. AccountEdge has superior interface and key response because an internet connection is generally not as responsive as localized software. Period. I also feel that AccountEdge is far more robust in features as well as how my data is presented (visually). I require uniform naming/wording conventions so I can better assimilate data. While this is possible in Xero, it's not as easy to accomplish because of screen response and keyboard workflow. Mouse oriented vs. keyboard oriented. AccountEdge vs QuickBooks for Mac. Succinctly put: cross-platform. AccountEdge data files do not require "saving as" Windows copies or any other such nonsense conversion. They just work equally well on either platform. So for users whose platforms do not match their accountant's, there is simply no issue. Additionally, Acclivity will give a user's accountant a copy of the software for free.
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QuickBooks Online is an accounting software package that allows companies to use a cost-effective and efficient software package. QuickBooks Online allows companies to prepare their balance sheets and income statements. It connects with a variety of other applications, which allows you to be efficient. We are very pleased with QuickBooks Online, and we would highly recommend it.
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
As we have grown along our professional path, we have also expanded our use of QB. The scalability is easy and features seem to be waiting for you until you need them. We have increased profits by over 10x from our first year in business to the current and have yet to find a reason to look elsewhere
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Return on Investment
  • If I didn't have AccountEdge, I would have to make do with Excel spreadsheets, or go back to paper, as I did before 1995, and I wouldn't be able to access client information as easily as I can here.
  • It allows me to manage cash easily, so if clients are slow-paying, I can borrow funds to meet expenses, without incurring overdraft fees, until they come through.
Read full review
  • I think the help function is cumbersome and hard to use. When I go to refresh myself on a function, say quarterly, I feel like I have to cast about just looking for it.
  • The account reconciliation works, but in this place that could benefit from messaging, there are no easy helping functions flagging things like amounts that fit the discrepancy.
  • Even styling invoices and documents is more cumbersome than it should be.
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ScreenShots

AccountEdge Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

QuickBooks Online Screenshots

Screenshot of the accounting and bank transactions interfaceScreenshot of an overview of the accounting inventoryScreenshot of book marksScreenshot of the business tax overviewScreenshot of the customer hubScreenshot of the dashboard