QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online entry pricing starts at $38/mo (Simple Start), with Essentials, Plus, and Advanced tiers above that adding more users, inventory, and reporting depth. The comparison table on this page shows each plan side by side. QuickBooks frequently runs a 50% discount for the first three months, so check the post-promo rate before committing, as the platform has raised prices steeply in recent cycles.

Yes. QuickBooks Online has automated sales tax that calculates the correct rate by jurisdiction based on where you sell and ship, and tracks your liability across multiple states for businesses with nexus in more than one state. It produces sales tax liability reports to make filing straightforward. This automated multi-state handling is one of the main reasons online sellers choose QuickBooks.

Yes. QuickBooks Online tracks payments to 1099 contractors throughout the year, flags who needs a 1099-NEC at tax time, and supports electronic filing of those forms. If you add QuickBooks Payroll, it also handles W-2 reporting for employees. This makes January tax season considerably less manual for businesses that pay contractors.

Payroll is a separate add-on rather than being bundled into the accounting plans. QuickBooks Payroll runs full US payroll with tax filing and W-2 reporting, priced as a monthly base fee plus a per-employee fee. The calculator on this page lets you add your employee count to estimate the combined accounting plus payroll cost so you can compare it like for like against bundled alternatives.

Yes, on the Plus plan and above. QuickBooks inventory tracks quantities on hand, cost of goods sold, and reorder points, and ties into purchase orders. The entry Simple Start and Essentials plans do not include inventory, so product businesses typically need Plus. If inventory is a core requirement, factor the Plus tier price into your comparison rather than the entry price.

QuickBooks Online includes Intuit Assist, a native AI layer that categorizes transactions automatically, flags anomalies, drafts customer follow-ups, and answers natural-language questions about your finances. It is built into the platform rather than sold as a separate module. For connecting external AI agents, QuickBooks currently relies on third-party automation tools such as Zapier rather than an official Model Context Protocol server.