The final choice will come down to the advanced customization features in QuickBooks Desktop that help with job costing, estimating, and monitoring ongoing profitability. If you have the accounting knowledge and need for those, then QuickBooks Desktop is the obvious choice.
However, those advanced features come at both a financial cost and increased complexity. Tasks in QuickBooks Desktop can take several more steps than similar steps in QuickBooks Online. This can quickly become tedious if you don’t necessarily need all of those extra features.
QuickBooks Online is a great choice for small to medium-sized construction businesses that don’t necessarily have complex jobs or estimating requirements. QuickBooks Online is still very capable, though, and it’s hardly a “basic” app.
It also integrates with virtually every other popular business productivity software you might want to use. Your books are also immediately shareable with any accountant in the country since QuickBooks is such a standard in the field.
Overall, both of these versions are capable accounting tools for construction companies. QuickBooks Online excels with its ease of use, intuitive Project Dashboard, and surprisingly good mobile app.
QuickBooks Desktop shines with enhanced customization regarding estimating and reporting, although the app and integrations are not as good as QuickBooks Online.
Depending on your needs, either of these versions should be able to help you run and manage your construction more efficiently.
Ultimately, it’s all about getting the job done right and on time while ensuring your costs are tracked accurately, whether on a per-job, per-employee, or per-period basis. QuickBooks can help – but it does best when properly integrated with apps that offer functionality QuickBooks lacks – like time tracking with Workyard.
Workyard was built from the ground up to support construction companies. With Workyard, it’s easy to manage the schedules of dozens or even hundreds (or more) of employees while accurately tracking their time on the job with our mobile app’s industry-leading GPS and geofencing capabilities.
Experience the difference Workyard can bring to your employee time-tracking efforts, and see how easy it can be to connect your Workyard data to QuickBooks – whether it’s in the Desktop or Online apps. Sign up for a free trial today or contact (650) 332-8623 for more details.
