Most custom-goods shops end up running the business out of QuickBooks because it was already there for the books. Quotes get built as estimates, jobs live in a spreadsheet beside it, proofs go back and forth by text, and nobody can tell you what a job actually made.
QuickBooks is very good at what it is for. It is an accounting system. It was never designed to run a production shop, and in August 2026 it got considerably more expensive to use as one.
What QuickBooks Online costs now
Intuit raised US prices for renewals on or after 1 August 2026. Current list pricing:
| Plan | Before | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Start | $38 | $38 (unchanged) |
| Essentials | $75 | $85 |
| Plus | $115 | $140 |
| Advanced | $275 | $340 |
Free, Lite, Ledger and Simple Start were left alone. Everything above them moved, and this was the third increase in two years.
The tier that matters for a shop is Plus, because that is where inventory, purchase orders and project profitability live. That is now $140 a month, $1,680 a year, before payroll or payment processing.
The important thing: these are not the same product
This page is not an argument for cancelling QuickBooks. Most shops running fulflo keep it. The question is which system runs your shop floor and which one keeps your books.
| fulflo | QuickBooks Online | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Running the shop | Accounting and tax |
| Quotes to customers | Purpose-built, converts to job | Estimates, generic |
| Job pipeline and status | New PO → In progress → Completed → Invoiced → Paid | None |
| Job clock / production days | Yes | None |
| Proofs and approvals | Versioned, with approval history (Pro and above) | None |
| Purchase order import from email | Forward a PO, it becomes a job | Manual entry |
| Branded customer portal | Unlimited customer users, free | Invoice links only |
| Online storefront | Included (Pro and above) | None |
| Product variants and inventory | Up to 3 option axes, per-variant pricing | Inventory on Plus and above |
| Bank feeds and reconciliation | Not an accounting system | Core strength |
| Payroll, sales tax filing, P&L for your accountant | No | Yes |
| Per-user cost | Team included at $39 / $79 / $149 | User counts are capped by tier |
What QuickBooks cannot do for a shop
None of these are criticisms of an accounting package. They are simply not accounting problems:
- It cannot tell a customer where their order is. There is no job status, so the answer to "is my order ready?" is a phone call or a text, every time.
- It cannot hold a proof. Artwork versions, customer approval and the record of who approved what live in email, which is where disputes come from.
- It cannot read a purchase order. A distributor PO arrives as a PDF and someone retypes it.
- It cannot price a decorated product properly. Colour by size by placement, with different prices per combination, is not what an estimate line was built for.
- It cannot show you job profitability the way a shop thinks about it without a lot of manual class and project setup that most owners never finish.
How the two work together
The clean split most shops land on:
- fulflo takes the work from first enquiry to paid — quote, job, proof, production status, invoice, payment through your own Stripe account, and the customer portal that keeps clients out of your inbox.
- QuickBooks takes the money once it has moved — reconciliation, expenses, sales tax, payroll, and the reports your accountant actually wants.
Because the shop side no longer needs QuickBooks' inventory, purchase orders or project tracking, a fair number of shops find they can sit on a lower QuickBooks tier than they were on. If Plus at $140 was carrying features you only used because you had nowhere else to put them, that is worth checking before your next renewal.
Migrating in
fulflo imports directly from QuickBooks exports. The importer handles QuickBooks report exports that carry title rows above the real header, matches columns by score rather than first-match, and normalises dates across the common US and ISO formats. Customers, invoices, products and jobs all come across, with a mapping step and a preview before anything is written.
The short version
Keep QuickBooks for the books. Stop running the shop out of it. If you are on Plus at $140 a month largely because it was the only place to track jobs and inventory, moving the operational half into a purpose-built system usually costs less than the increase Intuit just handed you.
Common questions
Does fulflo replace QuickBooks?
No. fulflo has no bank feeds, no reconciliation, no payroll and no sales tax filing, and it is not a system of record for your accountant. It replaces the spreadsheets and email threads around QuickBooks, not QuickBooks itself.
Why did QuickBooks get more expensive in 2026?
Intuit raised list prices for Essentials, Plus and Advanced for renewals on or after 1 August 2026, citing new automation and reporting capability. Free, Lite, Ledger and Simple Start were unchanged.
Can I import my QuickBooks data into fulflo?
Yes — customers, invoices, products and jobs import from CSV, including QuickBooks report exports with title rows above the headers. You map columns, preview the result, and only the rows that fail need attention.
Will I be double-paying for two systems?
You are paying for two different jobs. Many shops offset part of it by dropping to a lower QuickBooks tier once inventory, purchase orders and project tracking move into fulflo.