About Quickbooks For Mac

QuickBooks for Mac vs Windows

From Patrick Bonnaure, founder of ProLedge Bookkeeping Services

QuickBooks Desktop for Mac 2020 supports conversion to and from QuickBooks for Windows 2017. 1 Transfer data from Quicken 2016-2019, QuickBooks Mac 2016-2019 and Microsoft Excel 2010 SP2, 2013, 2016, Office 365 (32 and 64 bit). QuickBooks for Mac Desktop helps you organize your business finances on a Mac. It's built for the Mac, so it looks and works like you expect. Easily get set up, learn and use. No accounting knowledge is necessary. Stay on top of invoices and manage expenses. Get 100+ financial, sales and tax reports in one click. Quickbooks for Mac, as you might have already guessed, is Intuit’s Mac-compatible version of their Quickbooks desktop software. According to TrustRadius users, this software is best for the Mac user who prefers an on-premise desktop accounting solution to one hosted on the cloud.

The debate between Mac and Windows is getting almost as polarized as our beloved Congress. Until recently, the bookkeeping world had managed to remain relatively immune to this debate, but with the increased market share of the Mac in the small business space, the question of QuickBooks for Windows vs QuickBooks for Mac has started taking more prominence.

At first glance, it should not be an issue: “If you are a Windows person, get QuickBooks for Windows. If you are a Mac person, get QuickBooks for Mac”. Unfortunately, it is more complicated than this. For the foreseeable future, selecting QuickBooks for Mac will handcuff you in several ways:

QuickBooks for Mac has fewer features than the Windows versions
The vast majority of CPAs and bookkeepers do not support QuickBooks for Mac
Converting QuickBooks file back and forth between Mac and Windows doesn’t work well and can corrupt the data.
QuickBooks for Mac doesn’t interface with as many 3rd party applications

I’ll expand a little bit on these items below, but if you own a Mac, your logical next question would be: “I am stuck then?”. Of course not. You have a number of options that will keep you in the QuickBooks world without having to switch to a PC:

Accept the limitations of QuickBooks for Mac and stick with it. This is a very viable solution if you are a very small business, you don’t need 3rd party help and you have limited need for integration with 3rd party applications.
Switch to QuickBooks Online, the web based version of QuickBooks
Work with a QuickBooks hosting provider. From your Mac, you will get access to the full featured QuickBooks for Windows.

QuickBooks for Mac doesn’t have Premier and Enterprise versions. It has fewer features than even the Pro version of Windows.
Fewer reports
Fewer payroll options
Limited inventory capabilities
Online banking not as well integrated

In summary, QuickBooks for Mac can be a very good option for you if your needs are relatively simple and you don’t need as much integration with the outside world (professionals and applications). The good news is that QuickBooks for Mac is not a dead-end. If QuickBooks for Mac becomes too restrictive for you down the road, there are multiple options for migrating to alternative solutions.

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