3 QuickBooks Online Add-Ons that Maybe Required to Operate Your Business

This article will discuss three QuickBooks Online Add-ons, that you should consider prior to purchasing QuickBooks Online. These add-ons may be important in running your business. This article will inform you of some additional expenses that otherwise may not be clear to you prior to buying QuickBooks Online.

Currently, Intuit offers three QuickBooks Online products. These products are QuickBooks Online -free, QuickBooks Online Basic, and QuickBooks Online Plus. Please refer to my other articles that review the features of QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus.

Credit Card Sales From Customers Add-On- In order to approve, process, and record credit card sales you need to purchase QuickBooks Online Merchant. Accepting Visa, MasterCard, American Express and other credit card types can attract new customers, help you get paid faster, and save you time in collecting payments. This ability to accept credit card payments is called a merchant account service. With the QuickBooks Online Merchant account, you are able to authorize and process credit card transactions with either QB Online Basic or QB Online Plus. This feature automatically records sales from customers, effectively, in real time, thus eliminating the need to manually record credit card sales in your QuickBooks accounts. For this feature, there is a onetime set up fee of $59.95 and a monthly fee of $19.95, along with standard credit card discount and authorization fees. By purchasing from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there are substantial discounts available for these services.

A cost saving aspect is that the use of QuickBooks Online Merchant does save you money because you do not need to lease phone lines and lease terminal hardware or software. It is also important to note that for in store credit card sales, a merchant service card reader does not work and the use of a credit card reader requires QB desktop software, 2002 or higher. Intuit designed their online product so you do not have to use a credit card reader. The alternative is not that bad, you have to manually type in the credit card number and enter the customer sale information typically included in an invoice. In a few moments, you are informed if the customer payment is approved or declined by the credit card company. (For example, the other day when I was in a major department store, and they manually inserted my credit card for the credit card imprint into a manual credit card reader,so even large national department stores still have manual processes.)

Payroll Add On- Payroll for QuickBooks Online is sold separately and is not included with either QuickBooks Basic or QuickBooks Plus. However, Intuit, offers the following solutions as of the date of this article (a) QuickBooks Online Basic ($9.95 monthly) and payroll ($9.95 monthly) and (b) QuickBooks Online Plus ($34.95 monthly) and payroll ($9.95 monthly),sometimes Intuit offers a 20% discount for Plus version. When you purchase QB Online Plus from a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor there is an additional 20% discount available to you, which in total is a 40% savings. QuickBooks ProAdvisor discount pricing are subject to change.

Inventory Add On- Currently, both QuickBooks Online Basic and QuickBooks Online Plus do not offer an inventory accounting package. Many small businesses keep their inventories in Excel and record inventory amounts monthly,quarterly or annually in QuickBooks Online. However, alternatives are available; for instance, you can purchase an inventory add-on such as OE Companion which offers a 30 day free trial inventory accounting or you can obtain other inventory add-ons from the Intuit Market Place located on the Intuit website. I have not reviewed any of these add-ons and make no warranties or representations regarding their compatibility or suitability for your needs. We can look forward to the future, as Intuit is working on an inventory add-on.

The article is introductory in nature and does not attempt to assess your particular business needs. It was written to make you aware of the additional costs and needs for three QuickBooks Online add-ons. Like any purchase of hardware or software, diligence should be applied to carefully evaluate your company’s needs by either your CPA, accountant, or a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor before purchasing an add-on or any software application.

Sandor Lenner,CPA/MBA has been providing small business accounting services for over 35 years. He is also a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and offers discounted QuickBooks software. QuickBooks Online Edition ” Starting as low as $9.95 a month. Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter. I will not share your email with anyone.