08/16/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 08/16/2024 05:53
Published: August 16, 2024
If you're a small business owner, I'm sure you'll agree that your company's financial health is your top priority. And with that comes the need for accurate and agile accounting for your business.
But with so many accounting solutions available, how do you find the best accounting software for you? To help you make that decision, I've compiled a list of the leading accounting software currently on the market. I recommend reviewing these accounting software examples, their key features, and the pricing options, to inform your decision-making.
Intuit QuickBooks might be the first resource that comes to mind when you hear the term "small business accounting software" - and for good reason. Beyond its first-rate suite of capabilities, the program sets itself apart with elements like receipt capture and 24/7 chat support.
QuickBooks is also playing a part in integrating AI into the field of accounting - a booming market - by launching their AI-powered accounting assistant Intuit Assist. This virtual assistant provides personalized financial insights to build action plans for growth.
In addition to AI in accounting software, the importance of AI sales tools cannot be underestimated in the quest for growing your business. Manual tasks such as data entry are automated and data-driven insights help in sales forecasting.
What I like about QuickBooks:
What I think QuickBooks can improve on:
Intuit QuickBooks pricing: Starts at $15.00/month
All plans allow you to track income and expenses, send invoices and receive payments, run reports, send estimates, track sales and taxes, and capture and organize receipts. More advanced plans allow you to track inventory, track time, and even run full-service payroll.
Pro tip: Before paying the subscription fee, I recommend doing a test drive of the software by creating an invoice on QuickBooks Online.
FreshBooks is a straightforward solution that prides itself on making small business accounting more efficient. The platform integrates with many business applications and provides you with a single dashboard to manage your finances and accounting.
With FreshBooks, expenses can be categorized by creating budget spreadsheets. If you are new to creating budgets, I suggest starting out by reviewing budget templates. To do a test run of punching your numbers, the personal budget template is the best place to start.
If you send out recurring invoices, need time-tracking capability, or run a subscription model business, FreshBooks could be ideal for you. Its suite of resources lends itself to companies that fit that bill.
What I like about FreshBooks:
What I think FreshBooks can improve on:
FreshBooks pricing: Starts at $7.60/month
Pro tip: Opt for an annual subscription to get a 10% discount.
Melio is an online business-to-business payment solution. It's made for businesses of all sizes to pay and get paid their way - by ACH, check, or credit card. Melio has no subscription or monthly fees, and while it's mostly free to use, some transactions do carry a small charge.
For businesses, cash flow is everything and that's why Melio lets them pay their business bills with a credit card, to defer payment, earn rewards, and hang onto their cash. Additionally, payments are synced to QuickBooks Online, which means they stay in sync with their accountant or bookkeeper.
What I like about Melio:
What I think Melio can improve on:
Melio pricing: Starting price is free, and it includes features such as unlimited users, approval workflows, bill capture, payment tracking and updates, bill management, custom payment requests, and more.
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Pabbly Subscription Billing is a recurring and subscription management software for small to medium-sized businesses. This software provides real-time actionable metrics on your monthly payments, revenue, net revenue, active customers, and new subscriptions. It also automates all your business workflows, customer communication, and invoice creation so you can focus on your business growth.
One of Pabbly's key selling points is its subscription billing model. It's one of the only software on this list that doesn't charge any extra fees on the basis of per-transaction and monthly revenue generation. That kind of consistency - paired with its first-rate functionality - make Pabbly a solid option.
What I like about Pabbly:
Pabbly pricing: Starts at $9/month
Wave is a powerful accounting solution for small businesses and individual contractors. It places significant emphasis on ease of use and synchronicity - letting you link your bank accounts, track your expenses, and balance your books without any trouble. It also lines up with Wave's additional resources, providing you with an all-in-one solution if you opt to invest in its other products.
In my opinion, if you are operating as a freelancer or have just a few employees, Wave could be for you. Most of its services are free, including invoice and transaction management. However, if you're looking for built-in time tracking, inventory tracking, or project management, you'll likely need different software.
What I like about Wave:
What I think Wave can improve on:
Wave pricing: Free, but with additional monthly costs for some add-ons.
In short, it is great for small businesses on a budget.
Clockify is known for its time tracker software, but the app excels at many other functions, including tracking billable hours, setting hourly rates, and generating reports or invoices. The software is available on all platforms including Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and Web browsers.
Clockify is suitable for both large and small accounting businesses and is mostly used for tracking work hours and expenses. Managing time and tasks as well as tracking activity across shared devices is what Clockify excels at.
What I like about Clockify:
What I think Clockify can improve on:
Clockify Pricing: Free standard subscription with upgrades starts at $5.49/month.
Sage is another example of an accounting software that helps you spend less time on administrative tasks. The software sends invoices, tracks payments and expenses, and calculates what you owe come tax season. Time-tracking and collaboration tools are two things you won't get with Sage, and payroll is a separate product.
What I like about Sage50cloud:
Sage50cloud Pricing: Starts at $60.08/month
Sage50cloud is the most expensive tool on this list, but it has an impressive enough suite of features to justify its price.
Xero lets you get financial performance reports sent straight to you, and connect your bank account for a seamless experience. One of Xero's most impressive characteristics is its mobile experience, making it an excellent option for business people who work on the go. The software allows you to send custom invoices, track inventory, and create purchase orders to attach to bills - all from your phone or tablet.
What I like about Xero:
What I think Xero can improve on:
Xero pricing: Starts at $3.75/month
Zoho Books is an excellent resource for helping your small business manage cash flow and finances. The software lets you automate workflows and work collectively across departments. It includes first-rate tools for inventory management, banking, time tracking, and financial reporting - all backed by an industry-leading UX.
What I like about Zoho Books:
What I think Zoho Books can improve on:
Zoho Books pricing: Starts at $15/month
Kashoo is a solution that offers powerful functionality at a reasonable price. Among the software's features are automatic reconciliation, categorization using machine learning technology, and income and expense tracking.
What I like about Kashoo:
What I think Kashoo can improve on:
Kashoo pricing: Starts at $216/year
AccountEdge Pro provides double-entry accounting tools - from time billing and reporting to inventory - that are customizable and optimized for desktop users. The program is also available for a one-time fee, potentially saving you a lot of money down the line by avoiding subscription costs.
If a lack of a mobile option isn't a deal-breaker for you, AccountEdge could be just what you need. As I mentioned, the software is designed specifically for desktop users - and that experience is extremely solid - but you can't take AccountEdge with you on the go. That said, there's a cloud collaboration option available for purchase that gives you mobile flexibility.
AccountEdge Pro pricing: Starts at $20/month
OneUp is another double-entry accounting solution. It syncs with your bank, categorizes bank entries, and validates suggested entries so your books are done quickly and accurately. All told, those elements amount to roughly 95% automation of your accounting.
OneUp might be best known for its inventory management capabilities. The program automatically adjusts your inventory levels as they shift and tells you when to reorder.
OneUp pricing: Starts at $9/month
Tipalti automates the accounts payable process, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business. The solution can streamline international payment processing in around 190 countries, automate your payment operations, and even make sure you're tax compliant.
Tipalti is perfect for deadline-driven businesses. It can help you keep tabs on and meet time-bound payment objectives every time. Late payments, non-compliance, and administrative overload are all issues the program aims to correct. I like Tipalti as a solution as it helps keep the accounts payable process straightforward and timely.
Tipalti pricing:Starts at 129/month
OnPay can help you automate tax filings, enter payment data, and manage benefits including compensation insurance, health insurance, and 401(k). It also offers unlimited payroll runs for W-2 and 1099 workers.
And, OnPay can estimate your payroll taxes, manage tax form filings, and even pay your taxes. A bonus here? They'll also take responsibility for any tax filing errors committed while using the product.
OnPay's area of expertise is reflected in its name. If you're a small- to medium-sized business that needs help streamlining payroll and entering payment data, you might consider investing in OnPay. I'm not saying the rest of its features aren't impressive - it's just to say that the solution fits businesses interested in a payroll-centric solution particularly well.
OnPay pricing:Starts at $40/month plus an additional $6/user
NetSuite's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) product helps small businesses with functions like financial management and planning, order management, supply chain, fulfillment, and procurement - integrating these functions into a single streamlined system.
NetSuite prides itself on growing with businesses "from pre-revenue through IPO and beyond" - with functionality that can assist you at every stage of your business as it scales and matures.
I personally like NetSuite ERP because it's an all-in-one software with a wide array of features such as accounts receivables, account payables, cash management, close management, fixed assets management, and payment management.
NetSuite ERP pricing: Available upon request
Accounting Seed offers subscription or recurring billing options, has a secure and reliable API, and works with your company to link critical business applications and bank accounts for real visibility into the financial state of your business. And it automates many of the menial tasks that eat up your day.
Accounting Seed is a cloud-based platform that's fully native to Salesforce, so I like that you can log in anytime, anywhere - giving you a degree of flexibility and mobility. The platform also lends itself to easy collaboration, offering data visibility to any stakeholders at your business.
With ZipBooks, you get invoicing and billing features such as auto-billing and payment reminders to decrease your admin work. I like ZipBooks because of its intelligence features such as business health score, invoice quality score, and smart search that help make data-driven decisions about finances.
One of ZipBooks' biggest draws is its best-in-class user experience. Its straightforward, color-coded interface offers accessibility without sacrificing powerful functionality. If your business is looking for a solution that gets the job done without being overly elaborate, I would suggest ZipBooks.
ZipBooks Pricing: Free with more robust features starting at $15/month
Holded is a robust solution that offers accounting, invoicing, project, and inventory features - among several others. It lets you connect your bank, reconcile transactions, automatically classify entries, and manage it all in your ledger.
Holded's suite of features is extensive - covering invoicing, accounting, payroll, project management, and inventory. It also boasts an impressive list of integrations, so this this software can impact your business positively across the board.
Holded pricing: Holded's pricing differs depending on your business size. If you are a small company with less than 10 employees, pricing starts from €14.50/month. For medium companies, pricing starts from €49.50/month. For freelancers, pricing starts from €7.50/month.
Cin7 offers a centralized platform that covers virtually every aspect of your business - from purchasing to warehouse management to job costing. That broad array of tools includes a robust suite of accounting features that can help any small business streamline processes like data entry and syncing invoices.
The platform's accounting element also seamlessly integrates with other applications like Xero and Quickbooks - with additional resources that allow for real-time visibility into your financial data.
Cin7 pricing:Starts at $349/Month
Cin7 can touch several aspects of your company's operations - making for a steeper price tag than most other solutions on this list. If you're solely in the market for small business accounting software, this one might not be up your alley.
ZarMoney is an all-in-one solution with an impressive list of features. It covers virtually every accounting process your business has to stay on top of - including productivity, advanced inventory, and reporting.
With payment models that can accommodate everyone from individual entrepreneurs to small businesses to large enterprises, you should have no problem finding a plan that works for you.
ZarMoney's pricing model operates on a sliding scale that incrementally adjusts with every individual user you need to add at a reasonable price. That structure can work for businesses growing at any rate. If you're in the market for a solution that will keep pace with you as you scale, check out ZarMoney.
ZarMoney pricing: Starts at $20/month
Warp is a modern payroll, compliance, and benefits platform built for founders. Warp puts all state tax registrations and compliance on autopilot so you never need to login to another .gov website again.
Most payroll solutions give you a wide spectrum of tools you don't need or use. Warp, on the other hand, is built to automate all payroll, tax compliance, and benefits on a single easy-to-use platform.
Warp pricing: Starts at $20/month
Due to the number of accounting and bookkeeping software out there, it can get overwhelming to choose the right one. To make the choice simple, I recommend keeping the following things in mind:.
Ask yourself, "Do I need a platform that allows me to track inventory, or is receipt-tracking and sales tax more directly important?" I like to ask this question to make a list of my accounting needs and then prioritize them from least to most important.
I believe before researching solutions, it's important to agree upon a goal number of needs your chosen software will meet. You can be flexible here, but it's easy to get distracted by the bells and whistles of a product that solves for 18 needs you don't have.
Before embarking on the research phase of the process, it is important to identify how much you can afford to spend on accounting software. Once you know how much money you have budgeted, try not to spend too much time evaluating software that's outside the realm of possibility.
Pro tip: Budgets often have some wiggle room, but I try to make it a rule that if a solution is more than 25% over my set budget, I'll walk away.
It's easy to get starry-eyed about features. But if you find yourself considering software that specializes in providing accounting services for global teams - and you only conduct business in the U.S. - you might find yourself paying for a lot you just don't need.
Try not to get distracted. Return to your list of prioritized needs and evaluate only the software that meets the majority of those needs.
If you're choosing software that requires a sales process, I love these questions to help gauge if the solution is right for you:
"I can't wait to buy more software..." said no one ever. Of course, if your solution isn't working for your company, you should find a new one as soon as you can. But you don't want to have to switch software in six months because you've already outgrown it.
Be realistic about how quickly your business is growing and ask the sales rep you're working with how well their product grows with clients as their businesses scale.
Leaving your accounting to chance - or an intern - is never something you want to do. Invest in the right software early on, and know when it's time to upgrade, outsource, or find a solution that better fits your company's needs as you grow.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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