QuickBooks bundles everything into one subscription. AccountEdge lets you pay for what you need — the core software handles your accounting, and you choose which additional services to add based on what your business actually uses. Add or remove them anytime from your My Account page.
If you're coming from QuickBooks, the adjustment isn't the software itself — it's realizing that a few things you're used to having in one place are now separate services you set up on your own timeline.
What's included with every AccountEdge plan
Your subscription ($20–$50/month depending on plan) covers the accounting engine: invoicing, purchases, expenses, banking, inventory, reporting, budgeting, time billing, contact management, and 10 company files. If accounting is the core of what you did in QuickBooks, this is where most of your daily work already lives.
Matching your QuickBooks setup
If you used additional features in QuickBooks, here's where those same capabilities live in AccountEdge and what's worth knowing as you set them up.
Start with what applies to you — most businesses only need two or three of these.
What you used in QuickBooks | Where it lives in AccountEdge | What's worth knowing |
Payroll | Payroll add-on ($20/month, unlimited employees) | Add through My Account. Includes US and Canadian tax tables. |
Direct deposit | Merchant account | Apply early — approval takes 5–10 business days. US customers apply through Forte; Canadian customers through Elavon. |
Credit card / ACH payments | Accept Payments (merchant account, rates from 2.99%) | Same merchant account application as direct deposit — one application covers both. |
Bank feeds | Bank Feeds add-on ($5/month) | Add through My Account. Connect your accounts once your company file is set up. |
Payroll form filing (W-2s, 941s) | Payroll Forms Service (annual, US only) | This is separate from the payroll add-on itself. If you file quarterly, add it before your first quarter-end. |
Remote / mobile access | AccountEdge Connect (from $15/month) or AccountEdge Hosted ($50/user/month) | Connect is browser-based data entry that syncs to your desktop file. Hosted is the full application in the cloud. |
A note on timing
The software itself is ready the moment you subscribe. But a few of the services above — merchant account approval, tax table downloads, bank feed connections — have their own lead time. If you're switching mid-business, with invoices still going out and employees still getting paid, it helps to start the merchant account application and payroll enrollment while you're still working on your data migration. That way, by the time your books are set up, the services are approved and ready to go.
One more thing worth knowing about payroll
In QuickBooks, "payroll" covers everything in one feature. In AccountEdge, there are three related pieces that are enrolled separately: the payroll add-on (calculating and running payroll), the Payroll Forms Service (filing W-2s, 941s, and state forms), and direct deposit (depositing pay into employee bank accounts through your merchant account). If you used all three in QuickBooks, you'll want all three here.
Related Articles