Name: QuickBooks Payments Review: Convenient for Invoicing, but Little Else - NerdWallet
Item: QuickBooks Payments

The bottom line:

If you already use QuickBooks, its payment processing works well for invoicing. Costs are competitive, and data syncs seamlessly with QuickBooks Online. The service might also be OK for the occasional mobile transaction. But if you need much more than that? You'll be better off looking at dedicated payment processing companies.

Software details

Payment processing fees

In-person: 2.5% + $0.00

Online: 2.99% + $0.00

Monthly fee

QuickBooks subscription required.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Automatically integrates with QuickBooks Online.

Low transaction rates.

No long-term contracts.

Businesses processing more than $2,500 per month may qualify for up to 25% off transaction rates.

Cons

Doesn’t sell full POS hardware setups.

No POS software features.

Only available to QuickBooks accounting customers.

Compare to other products

QuickBooks Payments

4.1

NerdWallet rating

Square

5.0

NerdWallet rating

read review

Learn more

at Square

Shopify Payments

4.2

NerdWallet rating

read review

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at Shopify

Helcim

5.0

NerdWallet rating

read review

Learn more

at Helcim

Payment processing fees

In-person: 2.5% + $0.00

Online: 2.99% + $0.00

Payment processing fees

In-person: 2.6% + $0.15

Online: 3.3% + $0.30

Payment processing fees

In-person: 2.6% + $0.10

Online: 2.9% + $0.30

Payment processing fees

In-person: 0.4% + $0.08

Online: 0.5% + $0.25

Plus interchange

Monthly fee

QuickBooks subscription required.

Monthly fee

for Free plan; $49 Plus plan; $149 Premium plan.

Monthly fee

$39

Basic plan; $105 Shopify plan; $399 Advanced plan.

Monthly fee

Need more options? Check our picks for best payment processing systems

Square: Better for brick-and-mortar businesses. Square has the POS software features most small businesses need. Those include staff management tools, a loyalty program and marketing options. You won’t find these with QuickBooks Payments. Read our full Square POS review.

Shopify: Better for online businesses. With hundreds of website templates, Shopify helps you build your online shop from the ground up. QuickBooks can help you process online invoices and send payment links, but that’s about it. Shopify’s plans also feature shipping discounts, social media selling and a custom domain name. Read our full Shopify review.

Helcim: Better for high-volume businesses. Helcim’s interchange-plus pricing and volume discounts are especially advantageous for high-volume businesses. Unlike QuickBooks Payments, which charges flat rates, Helcim passes interchange fees directly to your business. That means you save when customers use cards with low interchange rates. Read our full Helcim review.

Full review

QuickBooks is first and foremost an accounting software company. QuickBooks Payments is essentially a tool within that ecosystem. And it's not bad if you think of it that way.

Millions of business owners have a QuickBooks Online or a QuickBooks Enterprise account. If you're among them, there's little downside to using QuickBooks Payments. Just set realistic expectations. To me, that means taking online invoices with it and little else.

QuickBooks Payments charges 1% for ACH payments, which is fairly standard. Online transaction rates vary by QuickBooks subscription. But you may save money versus competitors, depending on the invoice amount:

Transaction Amount	QuickBooks Online (2.99% fee)	QuickBooks Enterprise (2.9% + 25 cents fee)	Competitors (2.9% + 30 cents fee)
$50	$1.50	$1.70	$1.75
$100	$2.99	$3.15	$3.20
$300	$8.97	$8.95	$9.00
$500	$14.95	$14.75	$14.80
$1,000	$29.90	$29.25	$29.30
$5,000	$149.50	$145.25	$145.30

The 2.99% rate for QuickBooks Online subscribers is worse for higher totals. You may be able to offset that a bit. QuickBooks cuts rates by up to 25% if you process more than $2,500 per month. That'd mean rates as low as roughly 2.24%, though actual discounts vary.

Beyond costs, QuickBooks Payments offers flexibility for your customers. They can pay by PayPal and Venmo (some alternatives don't support this). They can also pay more than one invoice at once. And QuickBooks Payments even has a buy now, pay later option for invoices.

Those last two updates took place in 2026. They show QuickBooks’ parent company (Intuit) valuing Payments for invoicing. Similar investments to make it a full-service payments product are harder to spot.

For example, QuickBooks Payments has few hardware options. There's a card reader, and you can use Tap to Pay with its iPhone app. That’s about it. It doesn’t come with POS software either. So, you can’t use it to do things like manage staff, marketing or loyalty programs.

If you’re a service-based business, this might not matter. You can use QuickBooks Payments to process online invoices or accept payment when you’re at a job site.

But if you have a store? In that case, you could still use QuickBooks for any invoices. You'll want a more robust payment processing company for other purchases, though.

QuickBooks Payments is best for:

✔️ QuickBooks Online subscribers.

✔️ Mobile transactions.

✔️ Invoice payments.

QuickBooks Payments Overview

Payment processing model	Flat rate.
Payment processing fees	For QuickBooks Online users: 2.5% for in-person payments. 2.99% for online and invoiced payments. 3.5% for manually keyed payments. 1% for ACH transactions. For QuickBooks Enterprise users: 1.5% plus 25 cents for in-person payments. 2.9% plus 25 cents for keyed and invoiced payments. 1% for ACH payments.
Monthly fee	$0 for the Free plan. $20 for the Lite plan. $38 for the Simple Start plan. $85 for the Essentials plan. $140 for the Plus plan. $340 for the Advanced plan. » MORE: Explore all QuickBooks plans and pricing
Hardware cost	$49 for QuickBooks card reader.
Contract length	No long-term contracts.
Customer support	Phone and chat support available Monday-Friday 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT and Saturday 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT. Phone and chat support available Monday-Friday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT and Saturday-Sunday 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT for QuickBooks Online Advanced subscribers.

» MORE: What version of QuickBooks do you need?

Where QuickBooks Payments stands out

Inexpensive Venmo and PayPal transaction fees

Unlike most competitors, QuickBooks doesn’t charge extra to accept PayPal and Venmo transactions. It costs 2.99% per transaction — QuickBooks’ typical online processing fee. If your customers like to use this payment method to pay online invoices or digital payment requests, this is a great deal.

Even PayPal itself charges significantly more. If a client pays an invoice using their PayPal balance, you’ll owe 3.49% plus 49 cents per transaction.

🤓

Nerdy Tip

QuickBooks Payments is an even better deal for buy now, pay later transactions. You also pay the standard 2.99% transaction fee for those. Competitors like Stripe and Square take a whopping 5.99% and 6% of your sale (plus 30 cents, for good measure), respectively.

Seamless QuickBooks accounting integration

Integrating two separate products can be messy. Generally, you have to choose what type of information each program shares and how often. If you use QuickBooks for accounting, invoicing and accepting payments, you don’t have to worry about that.

Since QuickBooks Payments exists in the same ecosystem as QuickBooks for accounting, transactions flow seamlessly into your books. That means your invoicing records will always be up to date. It also makes it easier to track accounts receivable and who still owes you invoice payments.

Where QuickBooks Payments falls short

Only available for QuickBooks accounting subscribers

It perhaps goes without saying, but QuickBooks Payments’ use cases are limited. You’d basically only use it if you already subscribe to either QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Enterprise.

If you use software like Xero, Zoho Books or Wave for accounting, QuickBooks Payments is out of reach. And quite frankly, it just wouldn’t make sense. In that case, I’d use your accounting software’s built-in processing capabilities to accept invoice payments instead. For example, Wave Payments lets you accept invoice transactions within Wave.

Only one hardware option

QuickBooks sells a card reader. But that’s about it when it comes to POS hardware. This is OK for service-based businesses and other sellers accepting the occasional in-person payment on the go.

But if your business has a physical location, QuickBooks Payments alone won’t cut it. You’ll want a more capable POS hardware setup that comes with a cash drawer, screen and receipt printer. Competitors like Square, Clover and PayPal POS sell these.

What small-business owners think of QuickBooks Payments

I checked online forums like Reddit and reviews from sites like Trustpilot, G2, the App Store and Google Play to gauge how users feel about QuickBooks Payments. I used an AI tool to help analyze this feedback. Here are the major trends I spotted.

👍 QuickBooks integration

Users appreciate how QuickBooks Payments syncs seamlessly with QuickBooks Online. They say managing accounting and invoice payments all under the same roof makes it easy to keep accurate financial records.

Another user mentioned QuickBooks’ bank transfer option. Most providers let you transfer settled credit card funds to a bank of your choice. But it’s nice to hear that the process works smoothly.

👎 Fund freezes

Multiple commenters on Reddit, QuickBooks’ public forum and Trustpilot say the company unexpectedly froze their accounts and held their funds. More than one user says it took six months to receive their money back. Unfortunately, account freezes aren’t atypical when it comes to payment processors. You’ll see similar complaints against companies like Stripe.

That said, ask a representative what triggers account freezes before you sign up for QuickBooks. Also ask how long the company is legally allowed to hold your funds for. I couldn’t find an answer in QuickBooks’ terms of service. So I reached out to a representative and will update when I hear back.

How we evaluated QuickBooks Payments

NerdWallet’s writers and editors independently review payment processing solutions, like QuickBooks Payments, by analyzing more than 30 data points. I also collected data from QuickBooks’ public-facing website, help articles and company representatives.

I looked through individual reviews and feedback on sites like Trustpilot, the App Store, Google Play and Reddit as well. Then I used AI tools to help spot larger trends within those comments.

Since our team cannot verify each user’s individual experience, we don’t incorporate user reviews in our star ratings. For more information on how we score payment processing companies, see our full methodology.

Methodology

NerdWallet independently reviews payment processing companies before determining our top picks. We collect the data for our software ratings from products’ public-facing websites and from company representatives. Our editorial team reviews information on a regular basis for consistency and accuracy.

We also periodically update our scoring system to reflect changing industry norms and business needs. For instance, in 2026, we dropped the “free trials” category from our rubric. Payment processing systems can be time-consuming to set up. Testing out multiple products isn’t an ideal approach. Instead, we recommend taking cost and features into consideration.

NerdWallet’s ratings of payment processing providers reward companies whose products and services are priced well and work in a variety of payment scenarios, among other criteria.

Ratings are based on weighted averages of scores in several categories, including overall cost, hardware and software options, system capabilities, customer service, contract requirements and integrations. Learn more about how we rate payment processing providers.

These ratings are a guide, but fees, hardware, software and contract requirements can vary widely from business to business and provider to provider. We encourage you to shop around and compare several providers.

NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines.