The short answer
Choose QuickBooks if you want to replace your spreadsheet with an accounting platform that does bank feeds, reconciliation, reporting and payroll. Choose General Invoices if you want to keep your Excel workbook exactly as it is and stop typing invoices into it by hand. General Invoices is not accounting software, and QuickBooks is not built to write into your spreadsheet.
Side-by-side comparison
Twelve criteria that actually decide it for an Excel-based business or bookkeeper. QuickBooks details describe QuickBooks Online as of the review date above; features and prices change, so verify on Intuit's site.
| Criterion | QuickBooks Online | General Invoices |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A full cloud accounting platform | A desktop app that automates invoice and receipt entry into your existing Excel workbook |
| Where your books live | In QuickBooks' cloud database | In your .xlsx / .xlsm file, on your computer |
| Migration required | Yes: chart of accounts, opening balances, historical data | None. It learns the workbook you already have |
| Learns your existing spreadsheet | No. You adopt QuickBooks' structure | Yes. It reads your sheets, headers and totals, explains them in plain English, and you confirm |
| Invoice & receipt capture | Receipt snap in the mobile app and email forwarding, reviewed inside QuickBooks | PDF and photo upload, in batches, up to 30 pages per document; email forwarding is planned after launch |
| Review before anything is saved | Captured items land in a "for review" list inside QuickBooks | Cell-level preview of exactly what will change; nothing is written until you approve |
| Backups and undo | Cloud history managed by Intuit | Timestamped backup of your file before every write; the last five are kept |
| Bank feeds, reconciliation, reports, payroll | Yes, that is the product | No. General Invoices is not an accounting system |
| Where your financial data is stored | Intuit's servers | Your computer. Invoice documents and a layout summary with numbers, amounts and dates masked are sent to be read, then dropped |
| Platforms | Web and mobile apps | macOS desktop app; a Windows version is planned |
| Pricing | Monthly subscription by feature tier; see quickbooks.intuit.com for current prices | At launch: free for 10 invoices a month; $29 / $79 / $199 per month for 50 / 200 / 600; custom firm plans |
| Best for | Businesses ready to move fully onto accounting software | Owners and bookkeepers who want to keep their books in Excel |
Who should choose which
Choose QuickBooks if…
- You want bank transactions to flow in and be reconciled automatically.
- You need payroll, sales tax filing, or standard financial reports without building them yourself.
- Your accountant works in QuickBooks and wants you there too.
- Your spreadsheet has outgrown itself and you are ready to migrate.
Choose General Invoices if…
- Your books live in an Excel workbook you built and trust, and you intend to keep it.
- The pain is the typing: dates, vendors, amounts and tax, one cell at a time.
- You want to see exactly which cells will change before anything is saved, with a backup taken first.
- You do not want your workbook, or the dollar amounts in it, on anyone's servers.
What QuickBooks' receipt capture does and doesn't do
QuickBooks Online can capture receipts from its mobile app or by forwarding emails, and it extracts a few fields (vendor, date, total) for you to match or categorise inside QuickBooks. That works well once your books live in QuickBooks. It does not help if your books live in Excel: nothing it captures can be written into a spreadsheet's cells, and the capture is designed around QuickBooks' own chart of accounts, not your workbook's layout.
General Invoices starts from the other end. It assumes the workbook is the system of record, reads its layout, and treats every entry as a proposed change to specific cells that you approve or refuse.
Can you use both?
Yes, and some bookkeepers do. The two products do not connect: General Invoices writes into Excel files, not into QuickBooks. A bookkeeping practice can keep QuickBooks for clients who have migrated, and use General Invoices to automate entry for clients whose books are, and will stay, in Excel.
Questions
Is General Invoices a QuickBooks alternative?
Only for one job. If the thing you want from QuickBooks is to stop typing invoices and receipts by hand, General Invoices does that without making you leave Excel. It is not an alternative for bank feeds, reconciliation, payroll, tax filing or financial reports. QuickBooks does those and General Invoices does not.
Can General Invoices replace QuickBooks?
No. General Invoices is not an accounting system. It automates invoice and receipt data entry into the Excel workbook you already keep. If you rely on QuickBooks for bank feeds, reconciliation, payroll or reporting, you still need something that does those.
Does General Invoices work with QuickBooks?
The two products do not connect. General Invoices writes into Excel workbooks (.xlsx and .xlsm). Some bookkeepers use both: QuickBooks for clients who have moved to it, and General Invoices for clients whose books live in Excel.
Which is cheaper, General Invoices or QuickBooks?
They are priced on different things. At launch, General Invoices will be free for 10 invoices a month, then charge by monthly invoice volume: $29 for up to 50, $79 for up to 200, $199 for up to 600. QuickBooks Online charges by feature tier, and its prices change; check quickbooks.intuit.com for current figures. For many Excel-based businesses the real cost of QuickBooks is the migration, not the subscription.
Keeping your books in Excel? Keep them.
General Invoices isn't released yet. Join the waitlist and we'll email you when it launches.
Notes
- QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online are trademarks of Intuit Inc. General Invoices is not affiliated with or endorsed by Intuit. QuickBooks details on this page are drawn from Intuit's public product pages as of the review date and may change.
- See also: General Invoices vs invoice-to-Excel extraction tools, how to automate invoice data entry into Excel, and how General Invoices handles your data.