QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition, a version of QuickBooks Desktop Premier, is designed for businesses that bill clients by the hour. Hourly rates can be set based on type of service, employee, or customer, and unbilled time and expenses can be easily added to invoices. QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition is priced the same as the general business edition of QuickBooks Desktop Premier, which starts at $799 per year for a single user.
QuickBooks Premier Professional Services
Overall Score: 4.10
OUTSIDE 5
What we like
- Create billable and non-billable service codes
- Assign billing rates by service code, employee or customer, and job
- Batch invoices for unbilled time and expenses
- Review billed, unbilled, and non-billable time by employee, client, or project
- Fast navigation and input compared to cloud-based programs
what’s missing
- Does not track billing adjustments made for flat rate interactions
- A separate app is required for employees to enter their own billable hours
- The program cannot be accessed from the cloud
- The new updated mileage tracker app is only available for iOS devices
Use cases
Visit QuickBooks Desktop Premier
Are you looking for something different? If you want to explore other comprehensive accounting software, check out our guide to the best small business accounting software.
QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Deciding Factors
QuickBooks Premier Professional Services New Features for 2023
- Cash Flow Center: The new Cash Flow Hub can help professional services firms project their future cash flow based on their bank and activity, helping you make smart budgeting decisions.
- Automatic Mileage Tracking: The new Mileage Tracking App (for iOS devices only) allows you to calculate your company’s mileage automatically. Enter your place of origin and destination, and the app will calculate the mileage automatically. This means you don’t have to manually keep track of your odometer readings.
Alternatives to QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition
Pricing for QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition
QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition costs the same as the General Business Edition. Prices range from $799 per year for one user to $1,999 per year for five users. Your QuickBooks Premier subscription includes free system updates, automatic data backup and recovery, and unlimited customer support. You can add payroll for an additional fee.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of QuickBooks Desktop Premier pricing:
- $$799 per year for one user
- $1,099 per year for two users
- $1,399 per year for three users
- $1,699 per year for four users
- $1,999 per year for five users
Companies that require more than five users will need to upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise, which supports up to 40 users.
Fit Small Business Case Study
We designed an internal case study to create an in-depth review of QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition. Using a unique rating rubric, our case study looks at how each accounting software performs against a set of parameters. The Professional Services Edition has the general features of the QuickBooks Desktop Premier Business Edition, so the rubric scores are the same, as summarized in the table below. These scores are explained in detail in our QuickBooks Desktop Premier review.
Features of QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition
In addition to the general business edition features discussed in our QuickBooks Desktop Premier review, professional services businesses will find even more useful features in the Professional Services Edition.
Professional Menu (Board)
The Professional menu in your Professional Services Edition control panel gives you access to the features that are most relevant to professional services businesses. These include billing, proposal management, weekly time sheets, project costs, and professional services-specific reports.
Professional Menu in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition
Management of proposals and budgets
In addition to quotes, you can create proposals. You can access the proposal form from the Professional menu in your dashboard. To complete the form, you must enter details about the product or service you want to provide, such as class, rate, amount, markup and total.
Create a proposal in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services
Billing rate setup
You can set any number of billing rate tiers and apply them to the employees you choose. For example, in a law firm, you may want to set different billing rates for partners, paralegals, associate attorneys, and outside consultants.
You can also set fixed or custom hourly rates per service item and assign them to employees. Then, each time you create an invoice, QuickBooks Desktop will automatically provide the rate for each item based on the assigned employee.
You can choose between two types of billing rates in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services:
- Fixed rate per hour: This applies a fixed hourly rate to an employee, which can be set in the Hourly Rate field.
- Custom hourly rate per service item: Use this billing type when employees are billed at different rates depending on the service being performed.
Set the billing rate level in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services
price adjustments
You can set an hourly price level and assign it to certain types of work. For example, you can create a lawn care service item and set a price level of $50 per hour, regardless of which employee performs the service.
Additionally, you can set special price levels that will apply to particular customers. For example, you can set a special price level for friends and family equal to 90% of the standard rate for all services. After assigning the friends and family rate to the desired customers, it will be used automatically when calculating an invoice.
Set a new pricing tier in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services
Batch billing
You can create batch invoices for unbilled time and expenses. QuickBooks will provide a display showing all unbilled time, expenses and mileage for work. You can select the clients you want to invoice and the invoices will be generated automatically. You can also choose to select a single job and view unbilled time and expense detail to bill only a portion.
Invoice for time and expenses in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services
time tracking
You can enter employee time on a weekly time sheet and assign it to a particular customer job and service code. Non-billable time can be assigned to a non-billable service item. Timesheet entry is not only used to accumulate hours for billing, but also to calculate an hourly employee’s paycheck if they have subscribed to QuickBooks Payroll. Hours entered for salaried employees will not affect their paychecks.
Weekly timesheet in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services
Project cost
Project costing in QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition lets you track project expenses and compare them to your income, giving you an idea of how much you earn and spend on each project. An important feature that is not available in QuickBooks Online, the cloud-based version, is the ability to compare work estimates and actual expenses.
Sample Report on Work Estimates vs. Actual Expenses
Professional Services Specific Reports
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Is QuickBooks Desktop Premier Professional Services easy to use?
Professional Services has the same interface as the basic Premier program, so if you’ve used other QuickBooks desktop products, you should find your way around easily. To get the most out of the software, we recommend that you have a dedicated accountant on site.
Who should use QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition?
Premier Professional Services is ideal for companies that bill clients by the hour. Some examples are engineering firms, accounting firms, and digital marketing firms.
Bottom line
QuickBooks Premier Professional Services Edition helps businesses that bill clients by the hour (such as engineers, consultants, and lawyers) by managing billing rates so they can bill clients effectively. However, it does not track billing adjustments per employee. Larger companies may want to use it for their basic accounting needs while using specialized software to track the performance of employees’ billable hours.