QuickBooks Self-Employed is one of the QuickBooks Online versions designed for freelancers and independent contractors providing access to one user and meeting basic bookkeeping needs.

QuickBooks Simple Start, on the other hand, is designed for solo entrepreneurs and small business owners giving all the functionalities of the Self-Employed QuickBooks plan with the added ability to configure Chart of Accounts, inviting up to two accounting firms to review books and generate additional reports to check the business health.

QuickBooks Simple Start works well for businesses with single users. It offers basic bookkeeping features like connecting bank accounts, tracking income and expenses, maximizing tax deductions, creating and sending invoices and estimates, etc.

QuickBooks Essentials, on the other hand, is designed for service-based businesses who bill for their time. It supports up to three users and offers everything that Simple Start does along with extra functionality like recurring transactions, multiple currencies, etc. for businesses who need more.

QuickBooks Essentials is specifically designed for service-based businesses and supports up to three users. In addition to providing features offered by QuickBooks Simple Start, it provides added functionality like handling multiple currencies, tracking time, and setting recurring payments.

QuickBooks Plus, however, is for product-based businesses that need to track inventory. It provides all the features offered by QuickBooks Essentials with the added functionality of tracking project profitability, inventory, and providing access to up to five users.

QuickBooks Plus is designed for businesses selling products and thus tracking inventory. It supports up to five users and provides additional functionality such as tracking inventory, project profitability, time, etc. in addition to the bookkeeping features provided by QuickBooks Essentials.

QuickBooks Advanced, however, provides custom tools for growing businesses needing increased productivity and insights. It includes up to twenty-five users and offers advanced features like customizing access by role, batch import and send, etc.

QuickBooks Online Simple Start is one of the QuickBooks Online Versions that works well for single users like solopreneurs and small businesses just starting out. Simple Start offers all the basic bookkeeping features provided by QuickBooks Self-Employed along with added features like managing open invoices across vendor lists, paying contractors or employees, etc. With QuickBooks Online Simple Start you can invite up to two accounting firms to review your books at no additional cost.

To downgrade your plan, see the QuickBooks Online comparison chart to select a plan right for your business. Before you downgrade any of your QuickBooks Online Plans, turn off some features like recurring transactions, extra users, inventory, multi-currency, and third-party apps. Next, downgrade your plan by logging into your account. Go to ‘Settings’ and select ‘Billing and Subscription’ under the profile tab. Select, ‘Downgrade Plan’.

All QuickBooks Plans including Self-Employed, Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced offer the feature to enter, track, and pay bills. However, Self-Employed may be a good fit for freelancers and gig workers. But, it may not serve the needs of the small businesses that manage open invoices and bills across customers.

QuickBooks Online Simple Start works well for a single-member LLC Company for it allows you to configure a chart of accounts with up to 250 accounts to meet your business needs. In addition to this, it fulfills your basic accounting needs like connecting bank accounts, tracking income and expenses, creating and sending unlimited estimates, invoices, and sales receipts, automatically calculating your Sales Tax rates, capturing and organizing expense receipts, and managing payroll.

QuickBooks Online Plus is ideal for businesses manufacturing products and tracking inventory. It supports up to five users and provides all the functionality as offered by QuickBooks Essentials like time-tracking, recurring payments, managing bills, and basic bookkeeping features like tracking income and expenses, creating and sending invoices, capturing and organizing expense receipts, etc. Besides this, it provides additional features like tracking inventory and project profitability.

QuickBooks Essentials is specially designed for service-based businesses that bill their customers for the time invested in rendering services. This plan offers everything that Simple Start does like managing bills, tracking income and expenses, creating and sending invoices, etc. Besides this, the QuickBooks Essentials plan offers the added functionality of time-tracking and supports up to three users.