My own choice of whether to go desktop or online was complicated by being a Mac user. The single Mac version of Quickbooks has been panned by reviewers. Accounting software was my “sticking point” last year when I went through the PC to Mac transition that Scott has been writing about.

I chose to run Quickbooks Premier under Parallels on my MacBook. This sufficed for a year, despite an underpowered machine and major inconvenience. Recently, I gave up on the desktop and transitioned onto Quickbooks Online. After a month of use, here’s what I’ve learned about the differences between Quickbooks on the desktop and online.

• Price: Quickbooks 2010 costs $300 (street price), while Quickbooks Online Plus is $35/month. Even if you upgrade your desktop software every year, you’ll pay more to be online.
• Accountant access: Providing access for my accountant is what prompted my switch to Quickbooks Online. With desktop Quickbooks, we’d have had to set up port access through our router’s firewall, and she’d have only had access when I had Parallels booted. If my laptop was away from home, she wouldn’t have had access at all. With Quickbooks Online, I simply authorized her, and she has access 24/7.
• Dashboard: The dashboard and status report screens are different between desktop and online Quickbooks. The desktop screens are packed with more information and options for navigating your data. The status report, called Company Snapshot, is highly customizable on the desktop, but not online. In this area, I definitely miss the desktop version, which gave me a better “at-a-glance” update on my company’s finances, without having to run reports.
• Security: While I backed up my desktop data, using a single storage location (my home office) for the files left me vulnerable. Quickbooks Online uses redundant back-up; for extra security I can download and store a copy locally as well. Since being online I don’t have to worry about my accounting data being compromised if my laptop is stolen; it’s no longer stored on the machine.
• General usability: The menu system is simpler and more logical in Quickbooks Online. Client and vendor summary screens are both more usable online, too. Although both the desktop and online versions of Quickbooks carry ads for Intuit’s premium services (like payroll and merchant accounts), the ads are less intrusive online. And being online is definitely more convenient than using Parallels. There are two features I find weak online. You can customize forms, but not as much as the desktop allows. Calling up lists as tables that can be bulk edited is very convenient on the desktop; it’s missing online.
• Bottom line: There’s a price to pay in cost and features for the convenience and data security of using Quickbooks Online, but I find it well worth paying.

Would you feel comfortable doing your accounting in the cloud?

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Report: The Real-Time Enterprise

So what’s new for Quickbooks users in 2010? Intuit says it has streamlined the install process from 15 screens to only six for small businesses with simple accounting needs. You will be able to edit multiple items in the lists of items/customers/vendors at one time in a spreadsheet-style screen, and data can be pasted into those lists from Excel. There are new form templates, and more form customization options, including decorative backgrounds. For more advanced customization, there is integrated access to design services. Quickbooks 2010 users will also have the ability to put their signature on their checks directly within the program without printing them.

Some of the more useful-sounding new features are the additions to the Company Snapshot screen that was introduced in Quickbooks 2009. This screen can now be personalized to display the data most relevant to the user’s particular business. If this works half as well as described it will be a great improvement to what was already one of my favorite features in the 2009 version. This is the most promising sounding of the newly announced features, but also reminds me of iPhone cut-and-paste: something that should have been there from the beginning.

Another promising area of improvement is in the reporting. According to Intuit, it’s been “radically redesigned” to make it easier to find reports. The redesign includes a carousel view, a list view, and a search function, as well as a favorites view to show your most frequently used reports. As a Quickbooks user who gets annoyed by having to wade through a massive library of irrelevant reports to get to the few that I use regularly, the ability to go directly to a favorites list of reports sounds very helpful.

The most common complaint about Quickbooks has long been its heavy-handed marketing of add-on services inside what is already an expensive software package. Unfortunately, most of the new features being advertised for Quickbooks 2010 appear to simply be an extension of Intuit’s philosophy of aggressively generating add-on sales. Popular personal finance management app Mint.com, recently purchased by Intuit, also operates under a business model based on selling add-on services through its software. But there is a major difference between Mint and Quickbooks: Mint is free.

The features that fall under what Intuit calls its “Connected Services Strategy” include:

• Document Management Services: These services allow attaching of documents to transactions, accounts or people in Quickbooks. The documents are stored online and can be accessed remotely and shared with others.
• Check Deposit Services: With Intuit Check Solutions for Quickbooks, users can deposit check payments into their bank account. For companies not already using Quickbooks merchant services, the check service starts at $19.95 per month plus per-transaction fees.
• Marketing Center: Quickbooks’ integrated email marketing service (currently in beta) offers customizable templates for creating email marketing campaigns and then allows for tracking the results of those campaigns through Quickbooks data.
• App Center: Everyone has to have apps these days, and Quickbooks is no exception. The App Center contains about 25 programs in four categories. The apps cover topics from task management to project management to online storage. Most are only peripherally related to the core accounting functions, and all but a few require a monthly subscription (although free trials are available).

Quickbooks Pro 2010 will have a single-user MSRP of $199.99, or $179.99 for an upgrade. Pre-order street price for the full version Quickbooks Accounting Pro on Amazon.com is currently $149.99. Quickbooks Premier 2010 will have a single-user MSRP of $399.99, or $349.99 for upgrade buyers. The pre-order street price on Amazon.com is $249.99 for the full version of that program.

If you bought Quickbooks 2009 in the 60 days before the 2010 product announcement on Sept. 28, you will likely be happy to know about the existence of a little-advertised “migration upgrade” program that provides free upgrades to the 2010 version. To get the upgrade if you qualify, make sure you have your 2009 product’s information and sales receipt and call 888-246-8848. Stay on the line after the menu options to reach customer service.

Are you a Quickbooks user? Are you planning to upgrade your software?

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