Business accounting software has seen quite a few changes over the years and with its use increasing at an ever-growing pace, we thought it’d be a good idea to have a look at some of the best accounting software available in the market today.
But, before we do that, let’s discuss what business accounting software really is.
What is Business Accounting Software?
It’s best to think of these apps as a fully automated bookkeeper. From payables and receivables to payroll and trial balance, the best accounting software for small businesses can keep track of everything.
Now, without any further ado, let’s have a look at some of the best paid as well as the best free accounting software available today.
The 10 Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses
1. FreshBooks
- Rating: 4.7 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starts at $15/month
- Small Business Accounting Software
When it comes to FreshBooks, its aim is to be the best accounting software for small businesses. To achieve this goal, they are providing some nice perks like free trials and budget-friendly price plans.
The thing that we absolutely adore about this app is how easy it is to use. It’s obvious that the designers made an extra effort to make this app user-friendly.
Key Features
- Invoice Maker facility for easy (and stylish!) invoicing
- All expenses are in front of you, classified and organized
- Easily keep track of the total time spent on a project
- Project collaboration is easy and fun
- Makes payments fast and easy thanks to its credit card support
- Has a dedicated mobile app
Pricing
Currently, FreshBooks offers 4 different price plans:
- Lite: priced at $15/month and supports a maximum of 5 billable clients
- Plus: priced at $25/month and supports up to 50 clients
- Premium: priced at $50/month and supports up to 500 billable clients
- Select: can support 500+ clients, contact sales for inquiry
2. Intuit QuickBooks
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starts at $6/month
- Best Accounting Software for Mac
As the name suggests, QuickBooks wants to make accounting smooth and easy. The way this app achieves this is by keeping everything well-organized and easy to understand.
QuickBooks can import transaction data from apps like PayPal, Square, etc. This brings all your cash flow data into one place hence, it becomes a lot easier to keep track of income and expenses.
Moreover, with this app, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional accountant or not, everything is organized and right in front of you and this makes everything a lot easier to deal with.
Key Features
- Keep a close track of each project’s profitability
- From creating recurring payments to paying multiple vendors simultaneously; managing bills is easy
- Track every single mile you’ve traveled and bill all expenses
- Close tracking of income and expenses
- Manage contractors right from QuickBooks
- Manage payrolls seamlessly
Pricing
Currently, QuickBooks is offering 4 different price plans;
- Simple Start: this the basic plan and it starts at $6/month
- Essentials: starts at $12/month and can be used by up to 3 users.
- Plus: this is their most popular plan and it starts at $21/month. It supports up to 5 users.
- Advanced: this is their most-feature packed plan and can be availed at $45/month.
QuickBooks also offers Self-Service Payroll and Full-Service Payroll add-ons on all its plans.
3. Xero
- Rating: 4.4 out of 5.0
- Pricing: starts at $20/month
- Best Online Accounting Software
The team behind Xero is quite clear about making the app one of the best accounting software available in the market and honestly speaking, when you look at the number of features they’re offering, it’s not hard to see that Xero is well on its way to becoming the best.
The only downside to signing up for Xero is that it can be a little expensive for startups and small businesses, especially the Starter pack (at $20 per month).
Key Features
- Users can create recurring invoices and know when the invoice has been opened by the receiver
- Allows users to do businesses all over the world by allowing multi-currency accounting
- From invoicing to time tracking, more than 700 third-party apps can be integrated into Xero
- Create recurring payments and pay suppliers in batches
- Create and send custom purchase order right from the app
Pricing
As we mentioned earlier, the Starter pack starts at $20/month and offers a limited amount of transactions and invoicing. The Standard plan starts from $30/month and offers limitless invoicing and transactions.
The Premium package starts at $40/month and offers the ability to handle multiple currencies. “Projects” and “Expenses” are the two add-ons being offered on all three plans.
4. Zoho Books
- Rating: 4.5 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starting from $9/month
- Best Small Business Accounting Software
What makes Zoho Books one of the best accounting software for small businesses is the fact that it is budget-friendly. Also, Zoho Books is offering add-ons like inventory management, expense reporting, and subscription management, all completely free of charge.
For a small amount of $9/month, Zoho Books is one of the best small business accounting software out there.
Key Features
- Communicate effectively with clients using the Client Portal. From accepting bulk payments to getting feedback and sharing bank transaction data, the portal can do quite a lot.
- Cash flow statement, balance sheets, and other power reporting features let the user stay on top everything
- Keeping an eye on your stock and hence, inventory management becomes easy when your business accounting software tracks your inventory in real time
- Easily link bank accounts to Zoho Books and manage your business’s cash flow
Pricing
Zoho Books comes in three distinct price plans;
- Basic: starts at $9/month, offers 50 contacts and allows 2 users.
- Standard: starts at $19/month, offers 500 contacts and allows 3 users.
- Professional: starts at $29/month, offers unlimited contacts and allows 10 users.
5. Kashoo
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starts from $9.95/month
- Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses
Kashoo is an easy-to-use accounting solution for freelancers, small business owners, and independent entrepreneurs to track income and expenses, manage taxes, send invoices, and other accounting functions. Kashoo also has an iOS app that can be accessed both through the iPhone as well as the iPad. On mobile devices, offline work mode is supported, and data is synced once an internet connection is established.
Get paid faster with Kashoo by creating and sending customizable invoices and using the built-in payment processing system. Users can also track expenses by attaching expense receipts—never worry about losing receipts for tax filing again. Kashoo also enables users to automate the process of bank reconciliation by syncing data with various banks across the globe.
Business owners can export the financial reports they need right from Kashoo. Profit and loss statements, accounts receivable, balance sheets and more are supported. Use the reports for making informed business decisions and to prepare accurate tax filings. See all of your business financial data at-a-glance in these reports as well as on the Dashboard.
Key Features
- Easily track income and expenses
- Create and send invoices. Accept payments
- Capture photos of each receipt and link it to its project, transaction, etc.
- Track sales and compare past and present results
- Easily calculate your sales tax
- Manage unlimited projects and add multiple users
- Make payments in multiple currencies
Pricing
Kashoo offers only one price plan; $19.95/month or $199/year ($16.65 per month on the annual plan).
6. GoDaddy Bookkeeping
- Rating: 4.4 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starting from $4.99 per month
With its most affordable plan starting at just $4.99 per month, it’s not hard to see why the GoDaddy’s Bookkeeping is ranked among the best accounting apps.
Low prices could mean that most features are taken out, but that is not the case with GoDaddy.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping can track cash flow, keep a record of your taxes, create and send invoices, record details regarding your income and expenses, and track time.
Key Features
- One of the cheapest accounting apps available
- Import data and make automatic payments
- Being cloud-based, the app can be accessed from anywhere and anytime
- Tracks and organizes all transactions, cash flow and taxes
Pricing
GoDaddy Bookkeeping comes in 3 price plans:
- Get Paid: Starts at $4.99 and offers business reports regarding current year only
- Essentials: Starts at $9.99 and doesn’t have any limits on time tracking
- Premium: Starts at $14.99 and adds the ability to set up recurring invoices
7. FreeAgent
- Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starts at $10/month
Like many accounting software on this list, FreeAgent too has set startups and small businesses as its main target audience.
And, to become one of the best small business accounting software available in the market today, this app has 4 weapons in its arsenal; a well-done invoicing feature, nice and thorough expense tracking, a bird’s eye view of projects and, bank account synchronization.
The unique thing about FreeAgent’s invoicing feature is that not only does it allow its users to create recurring invoices, but it automatically reminds the late-paying clients to clear their dues.
Another great thing about this app is that it lets you view all expenses, transactions, income, time tracking data and tasks in one place so that the user can have a bird’s eye view and see the bigger picture while retaining their ability to observe every little detail.
Key Features
- Syncs with bank accounts and provides transaction data in real-time.
- Lets the user record expenses by taking a picture of a receipt and uploading it directly to the app
- Automatically create and send professional-looking invoices and reminders to clients for due payments
- Powerful reporting features convert cash flow data to charts and graphs
- Can show expenses, income, and other data in one place to allow users to monitor the entire project and see the bigger picture
- The app allows the user to make an invoice in multiple currencies and can also calculate the sales tax
Pricing
FreeAgent comes with a 30-day free trial period after which the user pays $10/month to continue using the software.
After a 6-month period, the monthly rate is increased to $20/month for all future use. This is the only package FreeAgent currently offers.
8. Wave
- Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Free
- Best Free Accounting Software
Wave is one of the best accounting software for small businesses that we’ve tried this year. The app works nice and smooth, offers almost all the same features as paid accounting apps and, above that, it’s offering add-ons like invoicing and receipt scanning free of charge too.
Wave doesn’t charge its users anything for using its accounting software – everything is free, no questions asked. Wave offers paid services for payroll management, and by taking a small cut on bank transactions and credit card payments.
Key Features
- Keeps an eye on cash flow and can give the user a simple overview as well as the detailed view
- As the app is cloud-based, users don’t have to download anything to use Wave; just create an account on their website and get started
- Users can download their free mobile apps to access the invoicing and receipt capture features from their phones
- Income and expenses are well-organized which makes calculating tax quite easy
- Bank data connections are encrypted using 256-bit encryption
Pricing
Wave is free to use.
9. Sage 50cloud
- Rating: 4.3 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starting from £20/month
With features like Office 365 integration and bank account synchronization, Sage 50cloud can make accounting easy for small and medium-sized enterprises. And, with a free 30-day trial, any business can give this app a test run and see if it works for them.
The only real downside to Sage 50cloud? It can get a little expensive. With pricing plans starting at £20/month, most accounting apps are offering their standard or premium versions. Sage 50cloud’s Standard and Professional packages might be a little too expensive for small and medium-sized businesses.
Key Features
- Track all kinds of cash flow in real time
- Keep an eye on your inventory and schedule restocks
- With Sage Pay, handle all payments to vendors and workers right from the app
Pricing
Sage 50cloud comes in 3 distinct price plans
- Essentials: starts at £20/month and lets you do basic accounting tasks
- Standard: starts at £60/month and adds much-needed features like invoicing and cash flow management
- Professional: starts at £125/month, all of Sage 50cloud’s accounting software features
10. OneUp
- Rating: 4.2 out of 5.0
- Pricing: Starting from $9/month
We’ll be honest. At first, OneUp appeared average. But as we took a closer look, we knew we were looking at one of the best accounting software available right now.
From invoicing to inventory management, this app can do what all other great accounting apps do, but what makes OneUp unique is its CRM feature.
Thanks to its customer relationship management (CRM) feature, users can send quotes, close sales, chase leads and track tasks. For a startup to be able to get such an important feature while availing a great accounting software is a sweet deal.
Another great thing about OneUp is that it doesn’t reserve any feature for its more expensive price plans; everything is available on the cheapest plan. The only difference between the price plans is the number of users allowed.
Key Features
- Customer relationship management easily makes this one of the best accounting software for small businesses
- OneUp can easily sync up with your bank accounts and this feature also helps the app automate up to 95% of your accounting
- The software keeps an eye on your stock levels and can tell you when to reorder
Pricing
Apart from its 30-day free trial, OneUp offers 5 different price plans:
- Self: solo user plan, costs $9/month
- Pro: up to 2 users, costs $19/month
- Plus: up to 3 users, costs $29/month
- Team: up to 7 users, costs $69/month
- Unlimited: allows unlimited users, costs $169/month
Note: OneUp does not offer one-on-one support on the Self price plan.
Conclusion
To some business owners, the CRM feature being offered by OneUp might seem attractive, while some might find Kashoo’s pocket-friendly price plans a good score. Every business is unique and hence; they all have different needs.
If you want to decide which one of them will be best for you, focus on what your business needs and requirements are and which business accounting app can best cater to them.
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It is a free and users may download or use web based.
It also offers free cloud.
As it is translated to 38 languages, employees may also enjoy to use in their languages.
Version 2.0 will be at Beta tests soon 😉
Hello Steve! Thank you for sharing such a knowledgeable blog with us. I appreciate your efforts in accumulating information about each and every software above. Even, I am also using one of the best GST billing software and complete accounting solutions name as BTHAWK for the last 7-8 months.
It helps in every task relating to accounting and also provides an alternative for filing GST returns online.
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Thank You
Really informative article. Worth reading. thanks for sharing…!!
Hi Steve! Thank you for sharing a list of accounting software. I am also using one of the best accounting software named as BTHAWK. I am using this tool for my every accounting activity and also file tax returns online through this wonderful tool. Besides this, I appreciate your contribution to this site by sharing various informative blogs. To know more visit BT Hawk official website.
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Thank You
I think you should also include HostBooks in this list which is also an cloud accounting software. HostBooks transforms and enriches your accounting experience through its structured and automated cloud-based accounting platform.
Thanks so much the list! I also suggest you to try elapseit, as it is a great time tracking tool (which includes invoicing) and it is very user friendly 🙂
Thanks for the great review the best accounting software for small businesses.
You have done a great job!
Nice Article
thanks!
Yes, Intuit QuickBooks online is one of the best accounting software. Besides this, QuickBooks desktop is also one of the products of intuit that provides similar features and can be chosen according to the users. And for using this application with flexibility, it can be hosted in the cloud. For hosting many QuickBooks hosting service providers have come to the market providing the best solutions for the QuickBooks users.
Thanks for sharing such an informational blog which will, surely be a big help to the small medium enterprise so that they can choose the best suited tool for their business.
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Is anyone not 100% comfortable using cloud-based accounting software like these? I get that they have all the bells. whistles and fancy dashboards, but what happens if the WiFi goes out? You could lose all your accounting info! I’m a small business payroll manager and I’ve been using disc-based accounting software for 15+ years. I never had a problem with it.
Great article!
I just loved the way you have explained all the accounting software including its pros and cons. Definitely this blog gonna help small business users to choose accounting software that will meet their needs.
Hello Steve! Thanks for sharing such valuable information. I really appreciate your efforts of writing such an informative blog on the best business accounting software. I am also using one of the best accounting software named as APXPRESS. I am using this tool to make the process of accounts payable easy. It includes features like: Automate Invoice Receiving, Automate Invoice Receiving, Exception Management System, Traceability, and Pre-Built ERP Connectors. And it is totally user friendly.
Besides this, I like to read your blog as it always provides good knowledge. You have done a great job!
Thank You
Thanks for sharing such an informational blog which will, surely be a big help to the small medium enterprise so that they can choose the best suited tool for their business.
Thanks for sharing such an informative blog which will surely be big help to those using the sme tools
Thank you for your information about easy and best Accounting Software for small business owners its really nice blog.
Thank you Radhika.
Excellent blog post. Regardless of whether you are entrepreneur or your freelancer working from home, you’ll require a accounting software.Utilizing a accounting management system will save your time and furthermore money as well. THanks for sharing this great small business accounting software. Keep up the great work!
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Thanks for sharing such an informational blog which will, surely be a big help to the people who have small medium business
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