QuickBooks Online (QBO) is the cloud-native successor to QuickBooks Desktop and Intuit's flagship small-business accounting product. For HVAC contractors, QBO's dominance matters as much as its features: almost every field service platform (ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, FieldEdge, Service Fusion, BuildOps, and dozens more) ships with a native QBO integration, so transitioning from paper-and-spreadsheets to a modern FSM+accounting stack almost always lands on QBO as the GL.
Functionally, QBO covers invoicing, bank feeds and reconciliation, bill pay, sales tax, 1099 management, multi-user access with role-based permissions, class/location tracking, and financial reporting. The Plus tier adds project profitability and inventory; Advanced adds custom roles, workflow automation, revenue recognition, batch invoicing, and dedicated support, useful for HVAC shops running multiple trucks, locations, or service lines. QBO Payroll handles tax filings in all 50 states.
QBO pricing in 2026 runs $38/month (Simple Start) to $275/month (Advanced), with 1-25 users depending on tier. New customers typically get 50% off for 3 months or a 30-day free trial. QBO is the correct default for HVAC shops up to roughly $20M in revenue that have a field service platform handling dispatch and invoicing; above that, many contractors layer Knowify or move to Sage/Foundation for true construction-grade job costing.