Using quickbooks is one of the best options for small and mid-sized entrepreneurs as it offers a host of benefits to their business operations. At every stage of doing business, managing and regulating the operations become a key concern especially accounting and managing all financial essentials of a business. 

Quickbooks to mention in simple words is accounting software. When used for desktops, it has many variants with abundance of features that define its benefits in depth and breadth.  Before knowing the various versions of software for quickbooks, let us discuss about the core functioning, benefits, or capabilities of the software. Some of the most important benefits include: 

• Core accounting capabilities like managing accounts payable, ledger, and bank reconciliation
• Billing essentials like creating invoices, automating the process, payment collection, and sharing the automatically created invoice
• Payroll management to track the working hours of employees, calculate payroll tax, and other employee taxes
• Inventory management like tracking orders, managing deliveries, and keeping a track of all product supply chain

Now, let us get into understanding the four important variant of quickbooks for desktops include: 

• Mac: A non scalable version designed especially for Mac operating system.
• Pro: A scalable version that can scale to Premier and Enterprise is especially designed for new entrepreneurs
• Premier: A scalable version that can scale to Enterprise is based on industry-specific needs
• Enterprise: Provides a flexible solution to business and financial management

Now, you are aware of the functioning and the important versions of quickbooks for desktops. So, let us move one by one into learning more about each version so that we can have a clear idea about the depth of each variant and the breadth of features it offers. 

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac

Quickbooks desktop for Mac is mainly established and designed for Mac operating system that is dedicated to Apple users. It comes with a pricing that Apple users can buy and is restricted for use to only Apple laptops and desktops. It comes with the following features: 

• It cannot be scaled
• Managed sales transactions
• Phone support easily reachable
• Effective pricing with the capability to support three simultaneous users
• Dashboard with an ‘Income Tracker to have a clear idea of the unpaid invoices
• Handles accounting and invoicing with ease
• Manages budget and tracks financial progress
• Easily integrates with built in Mac applications
• Can easily share data with Windows users 

QuickBooks Desktop Pro

QuickBooks Desktop Pro is a variant designed for businesses that have just ventured into the business world and are new to accounting and business finances. The main aim was to ease the key process that looks after the accounting, budget, financing, and other similar essentials. The features exclusive to the Pro variant includes: 

• Onetime payment with a pricing that covers phone support, data back-up, and product upgrades
• Can be conveniently purchased as a plus package with entitles you to get access to new features and functionalities
• Helps to reduce the IT costs of a business with easy remote access through any virtual desktop
• High end connectivity of the software with windows
• Simultaneously three users can work with the software to control and manage financial requirements of a business
• A ‘Bill Tracker’ is integrated in the dashboard that works to display pending financial transactions like unpaid bills and purchase orders
• Easily helps track sales and other expenses of a business in multiple currencies
• It features automatic download of bank and card transactions without any additional cost. 

QuickBooks Premier

QuickBooks Desktop Premier is a variant designed for small businesses with industry specific verticals. The features integrated in the Premier variant include: 

• There is onetime payment for purchasing the software outright. Phone support and data back-ups are available at an additional cost
• Plus packages are also available with automatic data backup option and phone support
• There is a possibility of 5 users to work on the software simultaneously. However, 5 different user licenses are required for the same
• Easy budgeting and forecasting
• Fast and easy to create industry-specific reports 
• Easy to customize it to unique business needs like online payments, electronic invoicing, and credit card processing
• Beholds a bill tracker in the dashboard
• Helps manage sales and expenses in multiple currencies

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is the most lucrative solution of financial and operation needs of a business. Well-established businesses can opt to have this version integrated with various significant features. Some of the important features include: 

• Available with an annual subscription in equal payments made over a period of 12 months
• Phone support, data backup, and upgrades are all included in the annual subscription
• There is an additional fee for cloud hosting to get remote access and better connectivity
• There is an additional fee for remote access and multiple users
• Three packages are available, Silver, Gold, and Platinum with their unique set of benefits
• Bill tracker in the dashboard for easy tracking of all bills and invoices
• Ease of use for 14 pre-defined users at the same time
• Easy to access multiple files at the same time
• An added feature of ‘Expanded List’ to track more than 1 million counts concerning inventory items, customers, vendors, and employees

Concluding the brief understanding of different versions of quickbooks, it is expected that you are clear to which version will best suit you. You have the option to buy the expected version or get quickbooks for free using the online download option. However, both the online and purchased versions are same but will certainly have some sort of restrictions in terms of features or functionalities.