The full comparison. Real QBO prices per tier. What's gated where. The subcontractor cost-track gap, the multi-entity gap, and the QBO Plus-to-Advanced upcharge math. If you're paying $115 or $275 a month to QuickBooks Online, this is for you.
QuickBooks Online is excellent at being QuickBooks Online for solo operators and businesses whose accountant does everything. If your bookkeeping needs include segment P&L, real job costing (with subcontractors), or any consolidation across legal entities, QBO charges you for a tier upgrade — or, in the case of multi-entity, doesn't offer the feature at all.
BDFIQ was built specifically for the small businesses QBO has been quietly upselling for years. Same accounting fundamentals. None of the tier-ladder gymnastics.
QBO: Plus tier ($115/mo) and up. BDFIQ: every tier.
QBO: Plus tier and up. BDFIQ: every tier, with side-by-side segment P&L.
QBO: not available (Intuit Enterprise Suite is separate). BDFIQ: every tier.
QBO: no native type — subs distort margin reports. BDFIQ: 3 cost buckets natively.
QBO: yes (Plaid). BDFIQ: CSV import only at launch — by design.
QBO: +12-17%/year since 2023. BDFIQ: Founder's rate locked.
Verified May 2026. QBO tier shown is the lowest tier where the feature is available. Asterisks explain the nuance.
| Feature | QuickBooks Online | BD Financial IQ |
|---|---|---|
| Real double-entry accountingP&L, BS, Cash Flow, GL | All tiers | All tiers |
| Job costingTrack costs by job | Plus ($115/mo) and up | All tiers |
| Subcontractor cost track3rd cost bucket alongside Materials/Labor | No native type — subs blend in | Native 3-track |
| Class trackingTag transactions by class | Plus ($115/mo) and up | All tiers |
| Side-by-side segment P&LOne screen, all segments | Not in any tier | All tiers |
| Multi-entity consolidationMultiple legal entities | Not in QBO (Intuit Enterprise Suite separate) | All tiers |
| Bank feedsDirect from your bank | All tiers (Plaid) | CSV import at launch; direct feeds on roadmap |
| InvoicingSend invoices | All tiers | All tiers |
| PaymentsCard / ACH | QuickBooks Payments add-on | Stripe Connect (built-in) |
| Bills / APVendor bills, payments | Essentials ($75/mo) and up | All tiers |
| 1099 prepEnd-of-year vendor reporting | All tiers | All tiers |
| Custom reportsBuild your own | Advanced ($275/mo) | All tiers |
| User seatsPer tier | 1 / 1 / 3 / 5 / 25 by tier | TBD — not tier-locked the way QBO is |
| Per-user upliftAdd a user past the limit | Must upgrade to next tier | TBD — transparent per-seat add |
| AI categorizationFor imported transactions | Bank rules + AI suggestions | AI on BDB's servers, not OpenAI's |
| Field-service / job-management integrationCrew time, receipts, photos | Third-party apps | Native (via BDB Project Tools) |
| Pricing transparencyPosted on website | Yes — with 50%-off-3-month promo that expires | Founder's rate published at launch |
| Annual price increaseFor existing subscribers | ~12-17% per year since 2023 | Founder's rate locked for the life of subscription |
Not a hit piece. QBO is fine software. These are the specific places where it stops working as a business gets bigger or more complex — and where BDFIQ was built to be different.
If your business has jobs — construction, professional services, agencies, project-based work — you need job costing. QBO won't give it to you below the Plus tier. Same with class tracking, which is how you'd separate two locations or two service lines in QBO.
This is a quiet but huge problem for contractors, agencies, and anyone who hires outside labor. QBO's job costing tracks Materials and Labor. Subs have to be pushed as Service items, which distorts margin reports on sub-heavy jobs — the very jobs where margin tracking matters most.
Run two LLCs? Three companies? QBO's answer is: subscribe to three QBO accounts and reconcile in a spreadsheet. Intuit pushes multi-entity customers to Intuit Enterprise Suite, which is a separate (much pricier) product. The cheapest legit multi-entity option in the SMB market is Zoho Premium at $150/mo.
Intuit has raised QBO prices roughly 12-17% per year since 2023. The $79 Plus tier of 2023 is $115 today. Existing customers don't get grandfathered — they pay the new price at renewal. Compounded, that's a real number over five years.
QBO's homepage leads with "50% off for 3 months." Month four, you pay full retail. Annual billing locks the discount but commits you to a year. The signage tells one story; the bill that lands at month four tells another.
QBO Plus is 5 users. The sixth user means upgrading to Advanced ($275/mo) — even if you don't need any other Advanced feature. That's a $160/mo increase ($1,920/yr) just to add one person.
We're not going to pretend the switch from QBO is trivial. It's a real bookkeeping migration. Here's what BDFIQ commits to doing to make it smooth.
Pull a chart of accounts export, customer list, vendor list, products/services, opening balances, and historical transactions from QBO. BDFIQ provides a one-page checklist of exactly what to grab and where to find it in QBO.
Upload your QBO exports. BDFIQ's wizard maps the chart of accounts (with suggestions where category schemes differ), imports customers/vendors with dedup, brings in products and services, and stages opening balances. You review and confirm before anything posts.
This is the only manual step. QBO doesn't have a Subcontractor cost type, so any subs you've been tracking as Service items get re-categorized to the third cost track. We provide a guided flow. For most businesses this takes an afternoon.
Decide your segmentation: Location, Division, Class, Service Line, whatever fits. Tag historical jobs and customers. Or skip this step and use BDFIQ as a flat-structure replacement — you can add segments later.
Most businesses cut over at month-end or year-end. Close out QBO through that date. New transactions land in BDFIQ. You keep QBO read-only for historical lookups for as long as you want.
BDFIQ produces every report your CPA recognizes. We have a one-page handout for your CPA explaining BDFIQ's data model, the chart of accounts structure, and how to pull the year-end statements they need. The first year-end you might do a courtesy walkthrough with them; after that, it's just GL access.
Get on the waitlist. Job costing, segment P&L, and multi-entity at every BDFIQ tier — locked at the Founder's rate.
Join the Waitlist