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.

QuickBooks Payroll uses transparent pricing: a monthly base fee plus a per-employee fee of $7/emp/mo on the entry Core plan, with Premium and Elite tiers adding faster direct deposit, time tracking, and more support for higher fees. QuickBooks often runs a 50% discount for the first three months. The comparison table on this page shows the current base and per-employee fees, and the calculator above estimates your monthly cost on your own headcount.

Yes. QuickBooks Payroll is full-service across its plans, calculating, filing, and paying your federal, state, and local payroll taxes, and e-filing W-2s and 1099s. It also handles new-hire reporting. On the higher tiers it adds a tax penalty guarantee, where QuickBooks covers penalties if a filing it handled is late or incorrect.

You can run QuickBooks Payroll as a standalone product, but its biggest advantage is for businesses already using QuickBooks Online accounting, where payroll and books live in one platform and reconcile automatically. If you do not use QuickBooks for accounting, standalone payroll providers such as Gusto or OnPay are worth comparing on this page, since they integrate with multiple accounting tools.

Direct deposit timing depends on the plan: the entry Core plan offers next-day direct deposit, while Premium and Elite add same-day direct deposit so you can run payroll closer to payday. Faster funding keeps more cash in your account for longer, which matters for businesses managing tight cash flow.

QuickBooks includes Intuit Assist, a native AI assistant that answers questions and surfaces insights across QuickBooks. Intuit has also begun an early-preview Model Context Protocol (MCP) connection, which lets you query QuickBooks data inside an AI assistant such as Claude. It is the only provider in this comparison with a native MCP path, though it remains in early preview, so confirm the current scope before relying on it.