Intuit ends Firm Only Ledger sales and shifts firms to QuickBooks Ledger
Intuit ended sales of QuickBooks Firm Only Ledger on 1 August 2024 and moved firms to the new QuickBooks Ledger. Here is how the two compare.
A product changeover worked its way through accounting firms during 2024. Intuit launched QuickBooks Ledger globally in the middle of the year, then stopped selling its predecessor, QuickBooks Firm Only Ledger, on 1 August 2024. The older product survives on existing subscriptions, but firms bringing on new clients today get only the new ledger, and its feature set is not a straight copy. Renewal and setup time is where the differences bite, because each client’s books now need a deliberate home.
A ledger built for hands-off clients
Firm Only Ledger arrived in 2019 with a narrow brief: a light home in QuickBooks for clients with few transactions, entities that do not trade at all, and books the firm runs end to end. Think dormant companies, family trusts, or an investment vehicle that mostly needs its bank feeds coded and its statements kept current. QuickBooks Ledger keeps that brief. Intuit describes it as a product built for entities with basic accounting needs. Firms buy it and run it inside QuickBooks Online Accountant, the firm-side workspace for QuickBooks Online. The real shift is who else can get into the books.
Client access is the headline change
The new Ledger opens the books to the client as well as the firm, and that is the biggest practical difference between the two products. The following carry both client and firm access:
- Automated bank feeds
- Imported bank transactions
- Bank reconciliation
- Automated transaction coding
- Financial statements and reports
A client on the new product can connect their own feeds, run their own reports, and reconcile accounts from their own login. None of that existed under Firm Only Ledger. There, a client-side feed connection stretched back only 60 days, and client access to reports and reconciliation was simply not offered.
The features the new ledger leaves out
Three capabilities moved backwards, and firms tend to spot them first. QuickBooks Ledger cannot create or send invoices, cannot create or send estimates, and cannot capture and organize receipts. Firm Only Ledger offered all three, at firm level. Bill payment is absent from both products, so neither ledger suits a client whose supplier bills must be managed and paid. Receipts can still flow through a connected app at firm level, since third-party app connections remain available, but the built-in capture tool is gone. The upshot is simple: a client who needs invoicing, quoting, or bill payment calls for a fuller QuickBooks Online subscription, not either ledger.
The parts that did not change
Plenty stayed put. Both products are reached through QuickBooks Online Accountant, though only the new Ledger is sold there; the old one never appeared in that storefront. Third-party app connections sit at firm level in both. Tracking of sales income and GST is likewise firm-only in each. The integration with QuickBooks Tax, powered by LodgeiT for BAS and tax lodgement, also remains a firm-level tool in both products.
Can you still buy the old product?
No. Sales ended on 1 August 2024. Intuit says it will keep supporting existing Firm Only Ledger subscriptions, along with any promotional offers attached to them, for the foreseeable future. No forced migration date has been announced, so firms holding the old product can sit tight for now. What they cannot do is start new clients on it.
Which ledger fits which client?
The practical split runs along client involvement. If a client wants to log in, watch reports, connect feeds, or reconcile, the new Ledger is the only one of the two that allows it. If the firm invoices or quotes on a client’s behalf, the old product could handle that and the new one cannot, which points to a standard subscription instead.
Choose QuickBooks Ledger when the client is happy to stay out of the books entirely, or wants hands-on access of their own, and the work is feeds, coding, statements, and lodgement. Choose a fuller QuickBooks Online plan when the client needs invoices, estimates, receipts, or bills handled. For hands-off entities that need nothing beyond feeds, GST tracking, and statements, either ledger does the job, and only the new one can be started today.
The comparison above follows the vendor’s published feature tables for both products. We will keep this report current as the support window for the older ledger evolves.