QuickBooks Online App Review

When you’re running a business, every minute of your day counts. That’s why having software that makes the accounting part of the job easier and faster is crucial.

If you run a small- to medium-sized business, look no further than the QuickBooks Online app.

Out of a dozen-plus apps that CNBC Select reviewed for our list of the best expense tracker apps, QuickBooks Online stood out for being the best app for small business owners.

The app’s four different plans help business owners manage all their financial transactions, from tracking the company’s sales and expenses to creating invoices and preparing taxes. As a user, you can view your company’s finances at a glance with the app’s real-time dashboard, and you can link the company’s different bank accounts, credit cards and third-party apps like PayPal and Square so that nothing goes unaccounted.

Below, CNBC Select reviews the QuickBooks Online app to give you all the details on its features, including the tools, perks, safety, pricing, availability and ratings so you can decide if it is the right app for your small business needs. (See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best expense tracker apps.)

The QuickBooks Online app offers many tools to help small business owners manage their company’s financials all in one place.

By syncing bank accounts, credit cards and third-party apps like PayPal and Square, all the company’s transactions appear in the app. The app’s dashboard is updated in real time, so users can track their sales and business expenses as they happen. The app even categorizes your expenses for you.

Business owners can also use the app to do all their company’s invoicing, accept payments, manage their cash flow, maximize tax deductions, track travel miles, run reports, send estimates, manage bills and 1099 contractors, plus pay employees.

The features offered depend on the type of plan you purchase, which we break down below.

QuickBooks is an Intuit brand, the company behind Mint and TurboTax®, which millions of people use to store sensitive financial data.

The QuickBooks Online app is a top-notch choice for any small business owner looking for bookkeeping help.

The app syncs to all your company’s accounts, offers a real-time dashboard of where your business stands financially and helps you do accounting tasks like invoicing and paying bills.

If you’re not a business owner but could use some help tracking your personal expenses, sign up for apps like Mint (it’s free), Goodbudget (great for beginners) and, for those serious about budgeting, You Need A Budget (YNAB).

To determine which expense tracker apps offer the best user experience, CNBC Select analyzed over a dozen apps offered by the top companies in this market and looked at their pricing, features, user reviews and ratings.

We narrowed down our ranking by only considering apps that primarily focus on expenses, come with low (or no) cost to sign up, are easy to use and can be accessed on multiple devices so are accessible and compatible for most.

The five apps we selected for this ranking are either free, offer a free version or have a free trial for users to test out before signing up.

All of the apps in our round-up have a sizable number of user reviews and high ratings. The apps on this list have tens of thousands of reviews in the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android) combined, as well as a rating over 4 stars (out of 5) on either platform.

Other factors we looked at included apps’ security features, user customization and educational tools offered.