As business owners in the e-commerce world, you probably know the agony of deciding which version of a software app has just the right features for your needs. It’s even more of a challenge to find what you need for a price that fits your bill. Good news! I’m here to help ease some of your struggle, at least for your accounting software in particular. So, what’s the right version of QuickBooks Online for Shopify sellers like you? In this article, I will give you my insights.
Click on the link below to watch: What’s the right version of QuickBooks Online for Shopify Seller?
Did you know that you could be overpaying for your QuickBooks Online subscription? Read on to find out if that’s the case for you, and learn which is the right version of QuickBooks Online you should be using as a Shopify seller.
Your QuickBooks options
First, what are the available versions for QuickBooks Online? When you go to the QuickBooks website, you’ll see a choice of up to four QuickBooks versions:
- Simple Start,
- Essentials,
- Plus,
- and Advanced.
Bear in mind that sometimes you won’t see all of these versions. When the QuickBooks marketing team decides to experiment, you may only see Simple Start, Plus, and Advanced. Or you may only see Advanced and Essentials. They like to test to see whether people are interested in some versions more than others. Just be aware that there are four QuickBooks Online versions.
Narrowing down your QuickBooks choice
Now that you know which versions are available, you need to make a choice: which version of QuickBooks Online is the right version for you? Most Shopify sellers select the Plus version because it says that you can track inventory. They say, “Well, I’m a Shopify seller. I have inventory. I need to track inventory.”
But beware! The type of inventory that you would track in QuickBooks Online is not specific to Shopify sellers or e-commerce. In fact, the inventory functionality that QuickBooks Online has is extremely limited, and it’s really not made for e-commerce sellers.
So now, your choice has been narrowed: you can cross out QuickBooks Online Plus.
Let’s keep whittling it down
So since you don’t need the Plus version, then do you need the Advanced version? Well, the Advanced version is really for much bigger companies. It allows up to 25 users, and it has a lot of very specific functionality that you probably don’t need.
Another one bites the dust: you can cross out QuickBooks Online Advanced.
Down to two
That leaves you with Essentials and Simple Start. The main difference between Simple Start and Essentials is that Simple Start does not have any accounts payable functionality. That means that you can’t enter any vendor bills in the Simple Start version. But a lot of e-commerce sellers and Shopify sellers don’t enter vendor bills in QuickBooks.
If you do, however, want to have accounts payable functionality, then choose the Essentials version.
Another difference is that the Simple Start version allows you to have only one user, whereas the Essentials version allows you to have three users. If you will need more than one user for your company, stick with QuickBooks Online Essentials.
Still stuck?
After taking all this into consideration, if you’re still not sure, go ahead and begin with Simple Start. If you ever need a few more users, or realize that having accounts payable is important to you, just go ahead and upgrade to the Essentials version at that time.
In the same vein, if you’re using the Plus version, you can always downgrade. That means you can switch from Plus to Essentials or to Simple Start whenever you need to. Just keep in mind that if you set up anything in inventory, you won’t have that functionality in the Essentials or the Simple Start version.
Is the QuickBooks Online live bookkeeping set up worth it?
As a final note, when you’re looking at the QuickBooks Online pricing, you may have noticed the option to get set up with a “live bookkeeping expert”. But is this “expert set up” really what they make it sounds like? Is it worth your money?
These live bookkeepers are mainly trained to set up very generic businesses, and they don’t know how to set up your Shopify books the correct way. Shopify bookkeeping is very different, and you should work with an expert who knows how to set up the books specifically for Shopify sellers. At my company, VM Wasek, my team and I work with Shopify sellers so that they can get their books set up correctly. We also set up the integration with Shopify for you, and we can coach you, so you can continue to DIY your own books, or we can even do the books for you.
Closing
I hope this helps you in the struggle to know what’s the right version of QuickBooks Online for Shopify Sellers. Now that you know which version of QuickBooks Online to use, are you ready to work with an experienced and reliable Shopify accounting pro to help get things set up the right way? Then visit my website to learn more about my services and how we might be able to work together.
If you’ve found this content useful, then follow me on Instagram for more DIY bookkeeping tips and insights for Shopify Sellers. Or subscribe to my YouTube channel, ring the bell, and give me a thumbs up. Finally, I want to invite you to come join a group of both bookkeepers and DIY’ers in my 5 Minute Bookkeeping Community on Facebook.
I also have plenty of resources for DIY Shopify bookkeepers in my 5MB Academy, including my free Shopify Bookkeeping Blueprint. I encourage you to grab your free copy!
