The two usual reasons to move from Simple Start to Essentials are these: a second person in your business needs to log in, or you bill for time and want hours to go straight onto invoices. Enhanced reports and custom performance metrics can be a third reason, if someone relies on those reports every month. Simple Start is $38 a month for 1 user; Essentials is $85 a month for 3 users. Your accountant doesn’t count as a user on either, so their login is never the reason.
What actually moves you to Essentials?
Usually one of two things, sometimes a third.
- A second person needs to log in. Simple Start allows 1 user. A partner who sends invoices, an office manager who enters bills, an assistant who reconciles: each needs a user, and Essentials allows 3 users.
- You bill for time. Essentials lets you add employee time to invoices, so logged hours become invoice lines instead of being retyped.
- You need more from your reports. Essentials runs enhanced reports and tracks custom performance metrics. If you read your numbers every month, or a partner or lender asks for reports that Simple Start’s general business reports don’t cover, that’s a reason too.
What doesn’t move you: your accountant (both plans include accountant access) or paying suppliers by bank transfer, which Simple Start includes. Intuit’s pages describe the cost of those payments differently: its help center says standard ACH bill payments are free, Intuit’s notice adds that limits may apply to the number and amount of payments, and the Simple Start plan card mentions a per-payment fee past a monthly allotment it doesn’t size. Either way, it isn’t a reason to move to Essentials.
What does the move cost?
Simple Start is $38 a month and Essentials $85 a month, every month, for the whole business. There’s no yearly price on the US pricing page, so that’s the bill for as long as you stay.
If you’re new to QuickBooks and going straight to Essentials, choose the discount or the trial: on Essentials the discount saves $127.50 and the trial $85. Over the first twelve billed months, Essentials comes to $892.50 for the first year with the discount, or $1,020 with the free trial instead.
Intuit’s notice changed the prices of Essentials, Plus, and Advanced for renewals from a set date and left Simple Start unchanged, and recent subscribers keep their price for their first six months. Every figure here is today’s list price, with the date it was checked.
Say you’re a one-person executive coach, and you’re bringing on a part-time assistant to send invoices and chase payments. You don’t bill by the hour; clients pay a monthly retainer.
The assistant is the second login, so Simple Start no longer fits, and your bill goes from $38 a month to $85 a month. Before you upgrade, ask whether the assistant needs to be in the books at all: if they only send invoices you’ve prepared, or your accountant is the one who reconciles, you may be able to stay on Simple Start. If they do need a login, the upgrade is the price of that.
When a second login isn’t worth Essentials
If a second person is the only reason, compare the jump with tools that don’t charge by the login. Xero lists no per-user license fees, and Zoho Books’ Standard plan includes 3 users. See Xero pricing and Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice pricing for what each includes, and after a QuickBooks price increase for when moving pays once you count the switch itself.
Staying put has value too: your history, your bank rules, and your accountant’s familiarity all stay. Switching to save the difference is worth it only if you’d also be happy on the other tool’s features.
The two plans side by side
| Plan (US name) | Monthly | Yearly, per month | Promotional price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Start | $38 | Not listed | $19 for the first 3 months (monthly), for new customers |
| Essentials | $85 | Not listed | $42.50 for the first 3 months (monthly), for new customers |
| Plus | $140 | Not listed | $70 for the first 3 months (monthly), for new customers |
| Advanced | $340 | Not listed | $170 for the first 3 months (monthly), for new customers |
The discount and the free trial are alternatives. You choose one.
Simple Start: "50% off for 3 months" for new customers. Alternative to the 30-day free trial; the two cannot be combined.
Essentials: "50% off for 3 months" for new customers. Alternative to the 30-day free trial; the two cannot be combined.
Plus: "50% off for 3 months" for new customers. Alternative to the 30-day free trial; the two cannot be combined.
Advanced: "50% off for 3 months" for new customers. Alternative to the 30-day free trial; the two cannot be combined.
What each plan includes
- Simple Start
Limits: Users: 1. Accountant access: 2 accountants. Bill pay, standard ACH: Free, per Intuit’s help center; Intuit’s notice adds that limits may apply to the number and amount of payments, and the Simple Start plan card mentions a per-payment fee past a monthly allotment it doesn’t size.
Adds: Invoicing and payments, Automated bookkeeping, General business reports, Bill pay by standard ACH (free per Intuit’s help center; limits may apply), Intuit Intelligence.
- Bill pay, standard ACH: also from quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/pay-bills/pay-bills-quickbooks-bill-pay/L4XfPGnJl_US_en_US, checked
- Essentials
Limits: Users: 3. Accountant access: 2 accountants.
Adds: 3 users, Custom performance metrics, Time tracking.
- Plus
Limits: Users: 5. Accountant access: 2 accountants.
Adds: 5 users, Inventory, Project profitability, Budgets and scenario planning.
- Advanced
Limits: Users: 25. Accountant access: 3 accountants.
Adds: 25 users, Advanced project financials, Advanced report formatting, Advanced app integrations, Workflow automation.
The plan you’re on is the bill for the whole business. The user limit is the number that usually decides it.
Our view
Stay on Simple Start until a second person in your business truly needs to work in the books, you start billing for hours, or someone needs the enhanced reports every month. Our position: don’t upgrade for your accountant or “to be ready”; upgrade the day one of those needs arrives, because QuickBooks lets you switch plans at any time. What this gives up is a little convenience if you’d have liked the extra reports before you needed them. If the second login is the only reason, price a tool that doesn’t charge by the login before you accept the jump.
Your next step
List who will log in to QuickBooks this year, leaving out your accountant. If it’s only you, you don’t bill by the hour, and Simple Start’s reports answer your questions, stay on Simple Start. If a second person needs in, or you’re about to bill time, compare Essentials with a tool without per-user pricing this week, then upgrade or switch before they start. See QuickBooks’ plans.