Are you a small business that’s looking for a cost-effective compromise between hiring a full-time account and using plain old spreadsheets to track the accounting tasks of your organization? Luckily for you, we’ve done the research and compiled a list of the top accounting software for small businesses.
Xero
We really like Xero because of its low starting price (just $11 per month) and robust features. For this price, you can reconcile bank transactions in order to balance the books, track inventory, share custom invoices, and capture receipts. But, most importantly, this tool really stands out for its collaboration functionality – all of Xero’s plans include unlimited users. You also don’t have to pay anything extra to delegate responsibilities to other team members through the platform, thus helping you save a lot of time.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks allows you to send an unlimited number of estimates and invoices – regardless of which of its plans you choose. Each plan also has a time tracking functionality in order to enable more accurate and easier client billing, plus expense tracking to help keep your budget balanced at all times. But, unlike Xero, FreshBooks does not score on the collaboration front. If you wish to add people to your plan, you will need to pay an additional $10 a month for every single user. Freelancers and solopreneurs will not have an issue with this, but if you want to add many employees to your plan, be prepared to shell out a lot.
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks’ parent company, Intuit, completely deserves its reputation for being perhaps the most reliable tax, accounting, and financial software provider. QuickBooks Online, which is the company’s cloud-based accounting software too, offers a number of typical, yet key, features like billing, invoicing, and receipt scanning – even the cheapest plan offers much more comprehensive tracking in comparison to its competitors.
Wave
With a starting price of $0, Wave offers you a user-friendly and slick dashboard that’s loaded with features – many of which rival those of its competitors that offer paid services. Wave Accounting offers features like multi-currency support, unlimited invoicing, expense tracking, and double-entry accounting. It also allows you to juggle different businesses with the same account.