How to read an accounting price after the discount ends

This guide is about reading an accounting-software price when a discount is printed next to a list price. The example is QuickBooks Online, because its pricing page was captured with the discount turned on.

The screenshot of https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/ shows the Small business tab and four cards. Simple Start lists $38 a month, struck through, and $19 a month for the offer “50% off for 3 months.” Essentials lists $85 and $42.50. Plus lists $140 and $70. Advanced lists $340 and $170. The toggle for the three-month discount is on. A 30-day free-trial control is also visible. Payroll is marked as an optional later step and has no price in the capture. The Mid-size business tab was not selected, so its prices are not used.

The lower number is three months long on the offer shown. The higher number is the list price on the same card. Half of each list price equals the sale price, which is a useful check that the two figures belong together: half of 38 is 19, half of 85 is 42.50, half of 140 is 70, and half of 340 is 170. A budget that keeps the lower number for a year is using the promotion as if it were the renewal.

A first-year sketch, if the list price holds and nothing else is added, is three discounted months plus nine list-price months. Simple Start is $57 plus $342, or $399. Essentials is $127.50 plus $765, or $892.50. Plus is $210 plus $1,260, or $1,470. Advanced is $510 plus $3,060, or $3,570. Payroll, payment fees, and a later price change are outside those totals. The sketch is arithmetic on the cards. It is not an Intuit invoice, and it is not a quote for the Mid-size tab.

The trial control is a separate switch. The hero does not say whether a trial delays the three discounted months. The checkout date is the fact that resolves it. User counts are not on these cards, so this guide does not invent seats. The labels “for starting small,” “track custom performance metrics,” and the lines on Plus and Advanced are Intuit’s descriptions of who the card is aimed at. They are not a test of a particular set of books.

QuickBooks is a monthly software bill in dollars. It is not Fidelity Go’s 0.35% advisory fee and not TradingView’s $12.95 charting plan. A business can pay more than one of those. They should not be added into a single “finance stack percent.” Mintcanopy did not create a company file, connect a bank, or start the trial. The eight dollar figures are here because they are on the cards, with the three-month limit attached to the smaller set.

A check a reader can repeat

1. Confirm the toggle. This capture has “50% off for 3 months” switched on and Small business selected. A different toggle position is a different page.

2. Write both numbers from the card you would buy. Simple Start is $38 and $19. Essentials is $85 and $42.50. Plus is $140 and $70. Advanced is $340 and $170.

3. Check that the sale price is half the list price. If a future card breaks that pair, do not force the old half. Read the new card.

4. Budget the list price for month four unless the checkout says the discount lasts longer. The words on the card are three months.

5. If you want a first-year total under today’s list prices, use three months at the low number and nine at the high number. Say that payroll is not in it.

6. Leave user counts out until a page you are looking at prints them. This capture does not.

7. Leave the Mid-size tab out until you select it. Do not borrow Simple Start for a business the other tab is built for.

8. Treat the free-trial control as unanswered until checkout shows the calendar. Do not assume the trial is the same three months as the discount.

9. Keep the bill in dollars per month. Do not convert it into a percent of revenue or a percent of an investment account in order to compare it with a robo-advisor.

10. Reopen the pricing URL on the day you pay. Intuit can change a promotion. The screenshot is the page as captured, not a renewal contract.
## Why the second year is the list price

The three-month discount is a promotion with an end. Month thirteen, if nothing on the card has changed, is the list price, not another $19. A two-year sketch for Simple Start at the captured numbers is the first-year $399 plus twelve months at $38, or $456, which is $855 over two years. Essentials is $892.50 in year one and $1,020 in year two, or $1,912.50. Plus is $1,470 then $1,680, or $3,150. Advanced is $3,570 then $4,080, or $7,650. These are still illustrations on today’s cards, with payroll and payment fees left out, and with the assumption that Intuit does not change the list price at renewal. Intuit’s own pricing notes have said list prices can change for renewals. The illustration is a way to see the discount shrink as a share of the total. It is not a promise that the second-year invoice will match.

The free-trial control does not extend those sketches, because the capture does not say the trial is free of the three-month clock. A person who starts a trial on Monday and subscribes on the following Monday may be inside the discount, past it, or beside it. Only the checkout calendar says which. Writing “thirty days free and then three months at half” would be a story this screenshot does not tell.

Seat counts are the other missing row. A plan that looks cheap at $19 and then requires a second full-price user is a different product from the card alone. Because the capture does not print seats, the honest note is the omission. Look for the seat line on the live page before you multiply the card by headcount in your own spreadsheet. Mintcanopy will not supply the missing headcount from a different Intuit page without naming that page, and this guide is staying with the pricing capture.