Software review
QuickBooks Online review: one made-up month of books, tested
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The short answer
QuickBooks Online built the whole test month correctly once we set it up. Its September profit and loss matched our answer key exactly, on cash and on accrual, from one switch.
It suits someone who wants the books to start from a bank statement file. The statement came in without a bank login, and most imports matched their columns for us. The cost is setup: a long onboarding, a new company with one expense category, and no expense import. Its bank matching also proposed the wrong client's invoice for a partial payment, and its AI-written reminder had errors.
We tested the Simple Start plan in the 30-day free trial. QuickBooks also advertises a separate free plan, which we did not test.
The six tasks
We ran six tasks on one made-up month; the method is at the end of this page.
| Task | What happened in QuickBooks Online |
|---|---|
| 1. Set up the business, add 5 clients | About 8 onboarding questions, one per screen. The last screen pushed invoice payments or a bank link and had no skip button; its Close button did not leave the flow, so we went to the home page directly. The company profile was already filled with the account owner's real address, email and phone, copied from the Intuit account. Clients came in by CSV import: the columns matched automatically and the preview of all 5 rows was editable. One problem: our first edit of the company email showed "Changes saved" but kept the old address. |
| 2. Create 12 invoices | CSV import: Settings > Import data > Invoices, upload, map, complete. Every column matched automatically except Customer, which we picked by hand. The first try stopped with "Terms invalid" because our "Net 14" term is not built in; leaving Terms unmapped fixed it, and the due dates came from the file. Result: 12 invoices totaling $8,425.00, matching the answer key. Imported invoices are open at once, not drafts, so they counted as overdue and entered the accrual report straight away. Two invoices were then emailed to our own address from the invoice row's menu. The send window had an editable subject and body on the trial, and it did not attach the PDF by default. |
| 3. Record 20 expenses | We found no expense import. The Import Data page lists bank data, customers, vendors, chart of accounts, products and services, invoices, credit memos, sales receipts, journal entries and bills, and points to a separate app for expenses. The expenses came in through the bank file (task 4). The new company had one expense account, "Uncategorized Expense", and none of our 11 categories, so we added them by CSV import of a chart of accounts. Then each of the 20 withdrawals needed its category typed and a click on Post. Post sometimes needed a second click, so we checked each post against the running total. All 20 posted with the right categories. |
| 4. Import the bank statement, match it | Bank transactions > Upload transactions, with no bank login. A new company has no bank account, so we added one on the spot, with a name and type only. The header row, one amount column and the date format were detected automatically. 28 transactions came in, and nothing reaches the books until each line is accepted. Of the 8 deposits, 5 matched correctly and were quick to accept. The $150 partial payment from one client was matched by amount to a different client's $150 invoice, which would have marked the wrong invoice paid. The two $1,500 deposits showed "3 matches found", because three invoices are $1,500. "Find other matches" fixed both; for the partial payment we changed the payment box from the full $300 to $150. |
| 5. Check a partial payment, send a reminder | The partially paid invoice showed "Partially paid, $150.00 due". The reminder was drafted by AI. We sent it unchanged, to our own address only, so the record shows what a client would receive. The draft had a cut-off subject ("Payment due to"), the wrong due date in the body (October 11 instead of October 12) and a body ending "contact us at ." with no address. The side panel also said "First sent: not yet sent" although the invoice had been emailed minutes earlier. The window offers a tone picker, Rewrite, and a "Switch to default message" option. |
| 6. September profit and loss | Reports > Profit and Loss, with a Cash / Accrual switch at the top. Accrual: income $8,425.00, expenses $612.28, net income $7,812.72. Cash: income $5,575.00, expenses $612.28, net income $4,962.72. All 11 category rows and both totals matched the answer key exactly. Export menu: Excel, Excel with grouping, PDF and CSV. Export to PDF downloaded a file directly. One problem: reopening the report reset the dates and the basis, so we set September and Cash again. |
Task 4 and task 3 were done together through the bank file, because QuickBooks offers no separate expense import. The partial payment was recorded once, through the bank match in task 4.
Screenshots on file
We keep screenshots of the imported customers, the invoice list before and after sending, the posted bank transactions, the partially paid invoice, the AI reminder draft and the sent confirmation, and the accrual and cash reports.
What it did well
- Imports that match columns for us. Customers, invoices and the chart of accounts all imported from CSV. Columns were matched automatically on every import except the invoice customer column, and the date format was detected.
- Bank statement upload with no bank login. A CSV statement came in without connecting a bank.
- Reports. Cash and accrual from one switch, both exact, and a direct PDF download.
- Fast matching when amounts are unique. Five of eight deposits matched correctly and were quick to accept.
- Invoice emails. They showed the business name in the From line, with an editable subject and body on the trial.
Where it tripped us up
- A long onboarding with no skip on the last screen.
- Personal contact details copied into the company profile, and a company email edit that said "Changes saved" without saving.
- No expense import, and a new company with only "Uncategorized Expense" to start.
- "Terms invalid" on invoice import for a custom payment term.
- Bank matching by amount: the wrong client's invoice for the partial payment, and it could not choose between three $1,500 invoices.
- An AI reminder draft with a wrong due date, a cut-off subject and a blank contact line.
- Post buttons that sometimes needed two clicks.
Price check
| Plan | Monthly price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online Simple Start | $38 | 1 user (the plan our trial ran on) |
| QuickBooks Online Essentials | $85 | |
| QuickBooks Online Plus | $140 | |
| QuickBooks Online Advanced | $340 |
Prices are the regular monthly prices on QuickBooks' own pricing page, read on October 22, 2026. The page also showed lower introductory prices for the first months, and a 30-day free trial. Prices change; check the pricing page before you buy. QuickBooks also advertises a separate free plan, which we did not test.
Who it suits
- You want your books to start from your bank statement and you look at reports often: QuickBooks Online. Plan time for setup, and check every suggested match on partial payments.
- You want imports to do most of the typing: most columns were matched for us (on the invoice file we picked the customer column by hand). You will still build your expense categories first.
- You plan to send reminders to clients: read the AI draft before it goes, as ours had a wrong date and a blank contact line.
- You want a free option: QuickBooks advertises a free plan that we did not test, so we cannot say what it includes.
Compare it
How we tested
We made up one month for a one-person web design business, Riley Park Design (September 2026): 5 clients, 12 invoices totaling $8,425, 20 expenses totaling $612.28, and a 28-line bank statement with one partial payment. We ran six tasks in QuickBooks Online's free trial and checked its profit and loss against an answer key worked out from the test files.
An AI assistant carried out the tasks in our own trial account. A person did the sign-up and login and approved every email and download. So we report the steps and problems for each task, not minutes. Test emails went to our own address, and every client in the test is made up.
The test files are the same for every tool we review, so results line up across pages. How we test lists every task and the answer key.
Tested October 20, 2026. Screenshots on file.
Try it: QuickBooks Online