QuickBooks Desktop Pro vs. QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)

Quickbooks Desktop Pro and Quickbooks Self-Employed are both accounting software designed to handle financial data, invoicing, and reporting. Both versions of Quickbooks share a lot of features, but Quickbooks Desktop Pro is designed for businesses with employees, whereas Quickbooks Self Employed is built for freelancers or very small businesses. As a result of these design decisions, Quickbooks Desktop Pro is a popular choice for small to mid-sized businesses while Quickbooks Self-Employed is used almost exclusively by very small businesses.

Features and Limitations

Quickbooks Desktop Pro and Quickbooks Self-Employed both offer the same suite of essential features for financial management. These features include income and expense tracking, downloadable transaction information, and automated data backup. Despite these similarities, there are also a few key differences between the products.

Quickbooks Desktop Pro includes features for tracking employee timesheets and payments, and also allows for multiple users. These features are essential for businesses with employees to manage or multiple accountants that need to access financial data. Quickbooks Self-Employed lacks these features but allows for the separation of personal and business expenses, which can save time for users.

Pricing

Both Quickbooks Desktop Pro and Quickbooks Self-Employed offer 30-day free trials for users to try out the product before purchasing. After the free trial, Quickbooks Self-Employed costs $7.00 per month. Quickbooks Desktop Pro is priced at $299.95 per workstation. This pricing makes Quickbooks Self-Employed an affordable option for businesses without employees while Quickbooks Desktop Pro is ideal for small to medium businesses.