Do you run or own a medium-sized business? Or maybe, you’re the CFO of one. It could be that one of your associates needs to recommend software for his online accounting needs. Whatever it is, this piece holds some useful information on some of the best accounting software your money can buy.
I am sure you know time is money. It is important for every business owner to do the accounting work in an efficient manner. While saving time through accounting automation, it does not reduce the quality of the invoice your business issues. Have you ever thought of accounting software? It will help you increase efficiency and accuracy of invoices. A number of accounting software are available in the market. It is advised to go for one which meets your requirements in terms of cost, functionality, and size of your business.
Depending on what you’re looking for, you may find yourself overwhelmed with promising and well-priced accounting software. Some will focus on data legibility and invoicing efficiency while others will perform complex debtor analytics and pull off free reports. On the other hand, the most advanced among these tools can even figure out taxation issues and GST/VAT returns on your behalf.
That said, discovering what is the best accounting software for medium-sized businesses is not an easy task. In light of this, we’ve listed the top 7 performers in this category to make the selection process easier for you. All products mentioned here are equipped with features that accountants value most in accounting software. We also highlight some of the features that make them suited to your business’s scale. The price range of each product is included as well to ensure that you’re looking at software that’s within your budget.
QuickBooks Online following two years later. Today, QuickBooks has 2.2 million users across 225 countries.
Nifty features include a client portal, where customers can view, print and pay invoices and a customer relationship management (CRM) system, which helps you keep on top of your customer database.
Where QuickBooks stands out is the quality of its reporting, with punchy snapshots of how your business is performing financially. Its reporting facility is ahead of rivals such as Xero when it comes to customisation.
Pros:
- QuickBooks’s user experience (UX) is easy to understand and pleasing to the eye
- QuickBooks is mindful of scaling businesses and its software can have anything up to 25 users
- Professional accountants rate the professionalism of QuickBook’s reports and its bank reconciliation features
Cons:
- QuickBooks can be difficult to navigate with some features hidden in settings
- It’s a steep learning curve for anybody who’s not technically literate
- There have been complaints that QuickBooks online is still buggy with long waiting times for telephone customer support
Price:
Quickbooks is offering a 50pc discount for the first six months.
Simple Start is £6 per month, rising to £12.
Essentials is £10 for the first six months, rising to £20.
Plus is £15 a month for the first six months, rising to £30.
Sage Intaact – best for businesses who want a reliable name
Overview:
Another UK-based payment-processing platform, Sage began life in 1981 when its founder got in touch with Newcastle University students asking them to help him develop an automatic accounting processes program. Jump forward nearly 40 years and Sage now has 13,000 employees across 23 countries serving over three million businesses using its software. Sage says that every month it helps UK firms create over 500,000 invoices, process 700,000 transaction and sell 1.5 million products.
Sage Intacct is a more advanced product from the provider, offering core financials, reporting, billing and functions such as project accounting and time and expense management.
Features it offers include:
- General ledger
- Purchasing
- Order management
- Multi-currency support
- Accounts payable
- Accounts receivable
Pros:
- The software is intuitive
- Customisable search options
- Easy to process transactions
- Strong integration capabilities
Cons:
- Complicated dashboard
- On the more expensive side
- Building custom reports can be difficult
Price:
Sage Intacct is based on bespoke pricing.
Mobile: iOS, Android
Xero – best for larger SMEs with multiple users
Overview:
Winner of Accountancy Software Provider Of the Year at this year’s British Business Awards 2019, Xero describes itself as “beautiful accounting software” offering unlimited users with free upgrades.
Established in 2006, New Zealand-based Xero has over 1.8m users in 180 countries and is used by over 16,000 accountants.
Like FreeAgent and QuickBooks, Xero offers the following as standard:
- Connects straight to your bank account enabling automatic reconciliation
- Generates quotes and invoices that customers can pay online
- Manages purchase orders, bills and supplier payments digitally
- Helps track stock
- Keeps your account up to date as you buy and sell
- Customisable reports
- Range of apps in marketplace including Shopify, Stripe, PayPal and Square
However, you have to pay extra as bolt-ons if you want to do your payroll on Xero or enable staff to submit expenses, track expense claims.
Pros:
- As voted for at this year’s British Business Awards 2019, Xero is popular with small businesses and especially sales-oriented businesses that need basic stock management built in.
- Its usability, features, extendibility, and network of “Xero certified” accountants make it one of the best small business accounting websites available.
Cons:
- The Starter plan is extremely limited, offering an improbably low allowance of monthly invoices and quotes.
- The drop-down menus on Xero can be a bit clunkier than, say QuickBooks.
- And its reporting functions can be more difficult to navigate. For example, Unlike QuickBooks, Xero lacks any facility to bunch together creditors and debtors by name in its reports, an omission which mystifies some accountants.
- Xero has improved its functionality dramatically but these improvements have come at the cost of dropping built-in payroll with its monthly subscription plans. And you must subscribe to its most expensive £30 a month tier if you want multicurrency transactions.
- There is no telephone customer support and users complain that the online-only support has deteriorated, despite the monthly subscription hike.
Price:
Starter: £10pm allows you to send 5 invoices and quotes, enter 5 bills, reconcile 20 bank transactions, submit VAT to HMRC for Making Tax Digital and offers automatic calculations and reports; there are optional bolt-one for payroll, expenses, projects and submitting CIS returns from Xero.
Standard: offers all of the above for £24pm with unlimited invoicing, bills, bank reconciliation. As with Starter, there are bolt-ons for payroll, expenses, projects and adding a CIS contractor.
Premium: only the top tier Premium option handles multiple currencies for £30pm but payroll, expenses, projects and adding a CIS contractor are all paid-for bolt-ons.
Mobile: iOS, Android
FreeAgent – best for smaller businesses
Overview:
FreeAgent calls itself “mission control for your business” and they’re not joking.
UK FreeAgent began life over a decade ago in 2007 when three freelance developers, frustrated with the mess and inefficiency of bookkeeping, decided to create their own digital bookkeeping solution.
Today, FreeAgent employs a team of 170 and has helped over 70,000 SMEs, freelancers and their accountants with bookkeeping chores.
Its model proved so attractive that Royal Bank of Scotland bought the founders out for £53m in 2018.
Features include:
- Emailing estimates and invoices
- Recording expenses
- Time tracking
- Self-assessment filing
- Making Tax Digital VAT
- Corporation tax calculator
- Bank account connectivity
- Dashboard overview of cash flow, live profit and loss, HMRC deadlines and an invoice timeline.
Pros:
- FreeAgent is a good option for project-based small businesses and freelancers who need to invoice billable hours and expenses to their clients.
Cons:
- Its inventory management features may be too basic for businesses that sell multiple product lines.
Price:
Sole trader: £9:50 a month + VAT for 6 months; then £19 a month + VAT
Partnership/LLP: £12 a month + VAT for 6 months; then £24 a month + VAT
Limited company: £14:50 a month + VAT for 6 months, then £29 a month + VAT
Mobile: iOS, Android
Connected Accounting and ERP ★★★★★★★★★★ (4)Connected Accounting and ERP is a business management application designed for small to midsized companies. Connected can be deployed on traditional networks, with both Mac and/or PC clients, or in the Connected on Demand hosted cloud . The application…Price Range $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ Starting Price$499 (perpetual license)Client OSMac, WindowsDeploymentCloud or On-Premises
Conclusions
A successful small business is like a well-oiled machine. Seen and unseen pieces all work in harmony to keep operations running smoothly. One of the key elements that keeps your business running is accounting…minimizing costs, maximizing profits, and staying compliant with tax laws are just a few reasons why accounting is one of the most important business functions you’ll ever have to master.