Accounting professionals have a variety of software tools at their disposal to help them perform tasks like bookkeeping, financial reporting, tax preparation, and more. Two of the most commonly used programs for accounting work are Microsoft Excel and Intuit QuickBooks.

In this blog post guide, we’ll explore which software accountants tend to use more often – Excel or QuickBooks – and the pros and cons of each option.

Excel is a widespread tool for accounting tasks

Microsoft Excel is, without a doubt, the most widely used spreadsheet software in the world. Its versatility and flexibility have made it invaluable for crunching numbers, analyzing financial data, and more. Given Excel’s prevalence as a business tool in general, it’s no surprise that accountants find it extremely useful as well.

Some key reasons why accountants frequently use Excel include:

It’s included with Microsoft Office

Since most businesses already have Microsoft Office installed on their computers, Excel comes pre-packaged and ready to use. Accountants don’t need to purchase additional software licenses for basic bookkeeping and financial tasks.

Highly customizable

Excel’s customizable interface allows accountants to design spreadsheets tailored exactly to their needs. Things like budget templates, income statements, balance sheets, and more can all be easily set up in Excel.

Familiar interface

With over 30 years of widespread use, the Excel interface is incredibly intuitive and familiar to most. Accountants don’t need extensive training to pick it up and start using it for accounting work right away.

Flexible calculations

Powerful formulas and functions in Excel enable accountants to do all sorts of calculations on financial data, from basic sums and averages to more complex what-if analysis.

Integrates with other Office tools

Links to Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook allow seamless transfer of data between applications. Accountants can easily import Excel data into reports or presentations.

So while not designed specifically for accounting like QuickBooks, Excel’s broad availability, flexibility, and familiarity make it a go-to tool that accountants frequently leverage for common financial tasks.

QuickBooks is accounting software designed for small businesses

In contrast to the more general-purpose Excel, QuickBooks was created by Intuit specifically for small business accounting needs like bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll, and financial reporting. Here are some of the main reasons why accountants often recommend QuickBooks to their small business clients:

1. Made for accounting

With features like a customizable chart of accounts, accounts payable and receivable ledgers, income tracking, and built-in double-entry bookkeeping, QuickBooks was designed from the ground up with accounting workflows in mind.

2. Easy to use interface

While still packed with powerful features under the hood, QuickBooks presents an interface that aims to simplify common bookkeeping tasks for non-accountants. Navigation is intuitive.

3. Integrated invoicing

Seamlessly create, track, and send professional-looking invoices right from QuickBooks. Integration with payment gateways allows customers to pay online.

4. Built-in reports

Pre-configured financial reports like income statements, balance sheets, and account listings take the guesswork out of compliance reporting. Reports can also be customized.

5. Time tracking

Options for tracking billable hours, time by project, and more allow service businesses to efficiently invoice clients based on work performed.

6. Links to banking

With built-in bank feeds, transactions occurring outside the software can automatically sync and be matched to the right accounts.

7. Payroll management

Optional QuickBooks payroll service handles all payroll tax filings, payment schedules, W-2s and 1099s to simplify compliance.

So for small business bookkeeping and basic accounting needs, QuickBooks reigns as a leading dedicated solution thanks to its seamless integration of invoicing, reporting, expense tracking and more small business must-haves. Many accountants recommend clients use QuickBooks for these core operations.

When accountants use Excel instead of QuickBooks

While QuickBooks excels for standard bookkeeping of small businesses, there are some scenarios where accountants still prefer using Excel over dedicated accounting software:

1. Complex/customized accounting needs

For clients with unique or highly customized accounting requirements, spreadsheets often provide more flexibility than off-the-shelf software. Complex allocations, calculations or asset valuations may require tailor-made Excel solutions.

2. Nonprofits or government entities

Organizations operating under fund or grant accounting may have non-standard charts of accounts better suited to spreadsheets than software designed for businesses.

3. Consolidating multiple entities

When combining financial statements of various related companies, divisions or funds into a consolidated report, Excel frequently proves more practical than separate QuickBooks files.

4.Large/complex consolidations

For multi-national corporations or groups handling billions in revenue, top accounting packages like SAP or Oracle may be preferable over QuickBooks or Excel alone due to scale and integration needs.

5. One-time or temporary projects

For short-term accounting tasks outside a company’s normal operations like financial due diligence, project-based consulting work or budget forecasting, flexible Excel models may see more use than permanent accounting software.

6. Advanced analysis and modeling

Power users leverage Excel’s unmatched processing power and versatile formulas for highly sophisticated tasks like capital budgeting, modeling acquisitions/divestitures, or customized analysis beyond basic reporting.

So while QuickBooks remains the optimal choice for standard bookkeeping and basic financial reporting of most small businesses, accountants still find regular use for Excel in more involved, customized or specialized scenarios that leverage its powerful analytical capabilities.

Conclusion

In summary, both Excel and QuickBooks have valuable roles to play for accountants and the clients they serve. QuickBooks’ integrated design focused on core accounting functions makes it ideal for bookkeeping small businesses.

But Excel’s versatility, flexibility, and widespread familiarity ensure it remains a fundamental tool in any accountant’s toolkit for customized work, analysis, and specialized tasks beyond basic bookkeeping.

Savvy accountants pick the right horse for the appropriate race, leveraging both staple applications as needed to best serve their clients’ accounting and reporting requirements. With unique strengths, together Excel and QuickBooks form a powerful one-two punch in any accountant’s software arsenal.