Quicken vs. Quickbooks

Posted by slpilson

on 27 Feb 2001 8:23 AM

I was wondering if anyone could describe the principal differences between Quicken and QuickBooks, besides price. A small agency I work with uses Quicken right now, and I wondered if it would be worth it for them to think about switching in the future.Thanks,Steve

Posted by ericleland

on 27 Feb 2001 11:27 AM

Quicken is more of a personal finance program - you can manage your back accounts, loans, morgages etc. QuickBooks provides more sophisticated bookkeeping and accounting features and is more geared toward businesses using staff or consultants - providing features such as double-entry bookkeeping, payroll and invoicing.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>As someone who has tried both, Quicken is definitely easier to learn, as it hides many of the accounting calculations and its presentation is more analagous to writing checks, but lacks some important features for business financial management, and most organizations I run into grow out of Quicken while still fairly small. Anecdotally, I have seen some agencies end up switching to Quickbooks on advise of their auditors, who want to see double-entry accounting procedures followed.<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>Check out a good comparison of the two packages at:<:LINEBREAK:><:LINEBREAK:>http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/software/quicken.html

Posted by paddy

on 9 Dec 2005 6:30 PM

The comparison link in the last post was interesting but seems somewhat out-of-date (it's from December, 1998). Here's a more up-to-date comparison, updated Auguest 2002.

Do I need Quicken...QuickBooks Basic...or QuickBooks Pro?
http://www.goflagship.com/articles/ckgen1.htm

Posted by bradpendable

on 28 Mar 2006 12:27 PM

Hi:
One of the significant acctg needs for Non Profits is to do the appropriate Fund Acctg - or the need to know how much of the common bank account belongs to various funds. Plus, of course, know how much each Fund started with and why the Fund Balance changed due to types of Income and Expenditures plus cross funding, etc.
QuickBooks (QBs) can handle Fund Acctg in a variety of ways that are not really doable or as straight forward within Quicken. Please note the web page content below by Jim B. that speaks to various aspects of Fund Acctg as done within QBs.

http://www.bcidot.org/qbb/0601-06.html

Thank you --Brad@bcidot.org
Brad Pendable
CPA-Financial VP
GB Church and Ministries

====================================================

Posted by smraudubon

on 26 Sep 2006 7:28 PM

Is there any source for reduced price QuickBooks for religious organizations? A church I know is interested in this possibility. Thanks for any info anyone might have.

Posted by joelatmarmotorg

on 6 Oct 2006 9:20 AM

Have you tried Church Windows?

Posted by coreperformance

on 7 Aug 2007 1:27 PM

Are there updates to recommendations, now that the prices have changed?

Quickbooks Premier for Non Profits is now available at Amazon for $320. I'm wondering if the nonprofit account codes and reports will be worthwhile at that price.

QB Pro 2007 is $170.

Posted by missmel

on 2 Oct 2007 3:32 PM

Our small non profit arts organization is thinking about Quickbooks for non profits too.

We also recently signed a contract with ETapestry to manage our donor database. I'm wondering if some of the capabilities with Quickbooks non profit wouldn't offer the same.

Has anyone been working with either and what are your thoughts?

Thanks in advance for input!

Posted by jconcannon

on 9 Oct 2007 7:06 PM

It would be helpful to me as well. I'd like to be notified when Quickbooks for Not For Profits comes up on Tech Soup or if it ever does at all?

The bookkeeping for a small not for profit is a real workout. I found the most difficult aspect is knowing what to name the various accounts....

Any advice??

Posted by megankeane TS Star

on 11 Oct 2007 12:25 PM

TechSoup Stock does carry some Quickbooks products. You can find more info here.

Best,

Megan

Megan Keane

Follow me on Twitter: @penguinasana or connect with me on my website.

Posted by sandleach

on 17 Oct 2007 4:16 PM

Quicken products allows one to track personal and business expenses in one place, whereas QuickBooks allows for only business expenses. If Quicken Home & Business is being used, your organizations could just not enter any personal finance info, which is what I suspect they're doing.

Also, QuickBooks offers payroll and inventory tracking.

If the agency is interested in switching to QuickBooks, the data can be imported from Quicken making the transition much smoother.

You can always find out more on your own at
quicken&quickbooks_comparison

Posted by sandleach

on 17 Oct 2007 4:24 PM

QuickBooks Premier allows users to pick which organization their industry is in when they install the software. Nonprofit is certainly an option that turns on those features within the product.

Posted by joescary

on 23 Sep 2008 6:29 PM

Most of the responses hit the nail on the head. While Quicken will handle basic cash functions: cash receipts and cash disbursments, it cannot handle true double-entry accounting, with the ability to make journal entries. QuickBooks is a powerful accounting system with the ability to track receipts, disbursements, payables, receivables and payroll.

The problem with both applications is neither one can handle true nonprofit accounting. While there is a QuickBooks for Nonprofits Version, it is nothing more than the regular version of QuickBooks with some nonprofit window dressing. I.E. Customers are now called Donors, sales receipts are called pledge receipts. You still have to use jobs and classes to segregate revenue and expenses by functional area (program).

And you cannot do Fund Accounting in QuickBooks. Even the Balance Sheet still says Owner's Equity and Capital Stock and does not say Net Assets or Fund Balance.

Your best bet would be to look into an accounting package that is designed specifically for nonprofit organizations.

You might spend a little more money up front, but you'll save it every year if you have to file a 990 or need an audit.

Posted by dglenn43

on 15 Oct 2008 8:47 AM

joescary is correct that Quickbooks does not really do fund accounting. There are two alternate methods to forcing QB to do fund accounting. Both are explained in excellent detail on the Intuit Quickbooks Non-profit user forum. Look at http://community.intuit.com/quickbooks/categories/contents/107 and search for "fund accounting". With some practice, you can make reasonable non-profit reports using either QB or QB imported into Excel. Kind of depends on what your board wants to see. I don't see the value of purchasing the Non-profit edition of QB as the Pro will do everything that the Premier Non-profit will do.

Posted by tdp2008

on 2 Dec 2008 5:49 PM

your link does not work.

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