QuickBooks for Mac is financial accounting solution from Intuit for small businesses and accounting professionals. The solution allows users to create professional invoices, track sales and expenses, and manage accounts payable. Best Overall Small Business Accounting Software: QuickBooks Online QuickBooks Online is great for businesses of all shapes and sizes, especially for businesses that are quickly growing and expanding (or expect to do so in the future).
Important offers, pricing details, & disclaimers
* Offer valid for a limited time only. This offer is valid for the first 3 months only. This offer cannot be combined with other offers. Requires an active QuickBooks Online subscription, high-speed Internet access. 24/7 access is subject to occasional downtime due to systems and servers maintenance. Terms, conditions, pricing, features, service and support options subject to change without notice.
QuickBooks for Mac 2019 supports round tripping with QuickBooks for Windows 2019 Important: If the individual product requirements above do not specifically state that an operating system, hardware, software, firewall or antivirus is supported, it has not been tested. Quickbooks for Mac however fits this mould quite well. The typical quickbooks software for PC is the exact same thing you can expect from a Mac. It allows an alternative for those who wish to do accounting on a Macintosh device.
QuickBooks for Mac 2019 supports round tripping with QuickBooks for Windows 2019 Important: If the individual product requirements above do not specifically state that an operating system, hardware, software, firewall or antivirus is supported, it has not been tested.
Terms, conditions, pricing, features, service and support are subject to change without notice.
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Pros
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Overview
QuickBooks Mac is back! In 2016, QuickBooks Mac was discontinued and users were forced to wait out their last three years of support or switch over to QuickBooks Online. Now, QuickBooks has released a brand new 2019 version of QuickBooks Mac. According to QuickBooks:
Feedback from loyal customer highlighted just how important QuickBooks is for them. We’re excited to offer our first new QuickBooks Desktop for Mac products in 3 years.
QuickBooks Mac is a locally-installed program designed specifically for Macs. The software combines the best of both worlds by joining together the feature set and accounting complexity of QuickBooks Pro with the ease of use and more modern UI of QuickBooks Online.
While many loyal Mac users are excited to see this software return, Intuit seems to have accomplished very little on the product during this three-year hiatus. The software is less buggy and runs more smoothly, but there are hardly any new features and there’s still not a single integration. These shortcomings paired with poor customer support, no payroll, and no payment processing put QuickBooks Mac out of the running for many small business owners.
Continue reading to see if the pros outweigh the cons for your business.
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Table of Contents
Pricing
Rating: Fair
QuickBooks Mac is locally-installed software. You can purchase a QuickBooks Desktop for Mac license for $299.95 directly from Intuit. Free touch typing program for mac. The software can also be bought from resellers like Staples, Best Buy, or Amazon.
When you purchase a QuickBooks Mac license, the license will last you three years. After three years, QuickBooks drop support for the software. This means you’ll be forced to constantly update and repurchase the software. Fortunately, QuickBooks Mac can often be found at a discounted price at the Intuit store.
Intuit does offer a 60-day satisfaction guarantee. If you are not pleased with the purchase, you can return the software for a full refund. Representatives usually point to this guarantee rather than offering a free trial of the software. Don’t let that pressure you into purchasing before you’re ready, though; deep within the depths of the QuickBooks Community, you’ll find access a free 30-day trial. No credit card information is required for the trial, and you can uninstall the software at any time. Warning: Use of free trials may inhibit users from being eligible for software discounts upon purchase.
QuickBooks Mac License
Extra Costs
There are a few extra costs to be aware of before purchasing QuickBooks Mac.
Cloud-Based Or Locally-Installed
QuickBooks Mac is a locally-installed program, although internet is required for certain functions (like payroll, downloading the software, and product updates). QuickBooks Mac has also added a brand new feature where you can share data between computers using iCloud.
Hardware & Software Requirements
Rating: Good
QuickBooks Mac is compatible with macOS v10.12 (Sierra) or higher. Exporting data requires Apple Numbers (v3.5) or Microsoft Excel 2016 or later. Contact Intuit directly for more information on QuickBooks Mac’s computer requirements.
Specific Size Of Business
QuickBooks Mac is designed for small businesses that have no more than three users. The software has the in-depth accounting features required to run most small businesses. The sheer number of features and learning curve may be too much for micro-businesses, and the software is not ideal for larger businesses that require payroll, integrations, or more than three users.
QuickBooks Desktop for Mac does support multiple companies and there are users permissions available.
Accounting Method
Rating: Excellent
Both accrual and cash basis accounting.
Ease Of Use
Rating: Good
QuickBooks Desktop products generally have incredibly steep learning curves. While QuickBooks Mac can be difficult to navigate at times, the software is much easier to learn than QuickBooks Pro and has a much fresher, more attractive UI. It’s a sort of happy medium between QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Online if you will. As a Mac user for 10-years, I found this software easy to use and understand. My only complaint is that oftentimes certain features only appear as icons, leaving you guessing what on earth each button means.
Features
Rating: Good
QuickBooks Mac has an impressive number of features, although not all of these features are as fully developed as Intuits other accounting products. Here is a summary of the best QuickBooks Mac has to offer:
Customer Service & Support
Rating: Poor
QuickBooks is notorious for poor customer support. Unfortunately, QuickBooks Mac is no exception. While phone support wait times are quite short for a QB product, it’s clear that Intuit’s focus is on its other software. There is no email support and other support resources are limited. Plus, you have to pay an extra $89.95 every three months for phone support.
QuickBooks Mac has made it easier to find customer support since the 2016 version, and the help center is better organized with dozens of how-to articles. The saving grace for QuickBooks Mac is that the help center can be accessed directly from within the software — and the Little Square resource provides tons of support resources and business tips.
Here are all of the support options QuickBooks Mac offers:
User Reviews
Rating: Fair
Negative Reviews & Complaints
The issue with finding QuickBooks Mac reviews is that all QuickBooks products tend to be lumped together — Pro, Online, Mac, Payroll, etc. For example, ConsumerAffairs features the biggest collection of negative Intuit reviews with the company receiving only 1/5 stars. However, most reviews are not about Quickbooks Mac and revolve around Intuit’s other products (like Turbo Tax and Mint).
From customer reviews that are specific to QuickBooks Mac, user experiences seem split fairly evenly between negative and positive, with a slight lean toward the positive. Here are some of the most common criticisms:
![]() Positive Reviews & Testimonials
QuickBooks Mac receives 7.8/10 stars on Trust Radius (based on 63 ratings), 4/5 stars on SoftwareAdvice (based on 313 reviews), and 3.3/5 stars on Amazon (based on 109 reviews). Not all of the reviews making up these ratings are specific to QuickBooks Mac, but there are enough obvious QuickBooks Mac reviews to glean that users usually like the software and many are happy the software has been revived. Here is what users like best about QuickBooks Mac:
Here is what a few users are saying about the software:
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I use QuickBooks for Mac to manage all of my finances for my consulting company. It’s incredibly helpful to organize receipts and invoices with the multiple clients I work alongside.
It’s QuickBooks, it runs on a Mac, now my life is complete.
Best of all the bookkeeping and accounting programs I have used, they have thought of everything. I continued to use Quickbooks even after I sold my business. It works great for your home accounting. I couldn’t balance my checkbook without it.
The Apple Platform is not known for its user-friendliness with many of the accounting softwares out there so QuickBooks coming to Mac was very welcome. The user interface is intuitive, simple to use, and the exportable data is exactly what you would need.
Integrations & Add-Ons
Rating: Poor
One of the biggest downfalls of QuickBooks Mac is that there are no integrations, not even to QuickBooks Payments. Best language to program for mac. While the company focuses the majority of their integrations effort on QuickBooks Online (which has over 400 integrations), even QuickBooks Pro, Premier and Enterprise all have upwards of 200 integrations. Free paint program for mac. So it is incredibly disappointing that QuickBooks Mac doesn’t have a single integration.
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Security
Rating: Poor
Accounting Program For Mac Desktop
With locally-installed software, data security is primarily up to you; this is even more so the case for QuickBooks Mac users. QuickBooks Pro provides automated back-ups and data encryption to Windows users at an extra cost. Unfortunately, this service is unavailable for Mac users. QuickBooks does offer good online resources for learning about protecting your computer.
Read our article How to Keep Your Locally Installed Accounting Software Securefor more information on protecting your data.
Does Quickbooks Run On MacFinal Verdict
QuickBooks Mac is a full-featured accounting solution with ample capabilities and a well-organized, modern design. Job costing, class tracking, contact management, to-do lists, reports, and expense tracking are only a few of the many features this software has to offer. QuickBooks Mac is also one of the few programs designed specifically for Mac users.
However, the software is not without its faults. There are no integrations, no payroll, no multi-currency support, and live bank feeds aren’t live (you have to manually refresh them every time you want to see updated banking information).
Quickbooks Mac Desktop
It seems to me that Intuit puts very little care into their QuickBooks Mac product. After three years, the company has hardly made any improvements to the software. They have very limited customer support options and every time you talk to a customer support representative they try to force you to switch to QuickBooks Online. It seems to me that businesses shouldn’t hold their breath for QB Mac to fix issues like lack of payroll and integrations because Intuit is just going to point users to QBO rather than updating their QuickBooks Desktop for Mac product.
Because of this, I recommend shopping around before you commit to QB Mac. Take a look at our other Best Accounting Software For Macs alternatives, and don’t forget to use the free trial of the software before purchasing.
Chelsea Krause
Chelsea Krause is a writer who has specialized in accounting for over three years and is a QuickBooks Certified User. She has a BA in English & Creative Writing from George Fox University and studied at the University of Oxford as well. She has been quoted in Forbes and her work appears in Startup Nation, Small Business Bonfire, and Women on Business.
To learn more about how we score our reviews, see our Accounting Software Rating Criteria. Comments are closed.
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