A stand-alone accounting software for small business and self-employed. Aside from helping you to manage your finances, this free accounting software is also designed to help you keep track of the money you earned. It offers printable invoices and receipts for future reference, tax reports and more.
Free accounting software can be a lifesaver for small businesses and home-based operations. Best free accounting software help you organize your finances and improve your business management.
Wave
Wave was the first invoicing software I used for my freelance business.
(The only reason I upgraded to paid software was because Wave became unavailable outside of the US and Canada. It also didn’t integrate with my UK bank.)
It’s a great, free-to-use accounting software for freelancers that’s super easy to use. You don’t need tons of financial knowledge to find your way around it, but it still gives you all of the financial data you need to know.
Features include:
- Free, customizable invoices with automatic payment reminders.
- Sales tax add-ons (if you need it).
- Bank connections for explaining transactions and attaching receipts.
- Accountant sign-on. If you’re working with an accountant come tax time, you can create a login for them to sign into your Wave dashboard and collect your data.
“I like Wave. It’s really basic and makes sense to me because I only send invoices and monitor the rest of my finances in spreadsheets.”
AFOMA UMESI, FREELANCE WRITER
Best suited to: Freelancers and small businesses in the US and Canada.
Pricing: Free.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is a good fit for self-employed business owners, but, with four plans available, it can also grow along with you. And because FreshBooks does not offer a payroll plan, it remains a terrific option for self-employed individuals and sole proprietors who don’t have a staff to pay.
FreshBooks can create professional invoices with numerous invoice settings and options available. Source: FreshBooks software.
FreshBooks offers excellent invoicing capability even if you have no idea how to write an invoice. The platform also recently added an ACH payment option that makes it easy for your customers to pay you online. And for self-employed attorneys or accountants, FreshBooks includes a retainer feature that makes it easy to bill your clients a retainer fee.
Other features available in FreshBooks include:
- Custom invoicing with branding capability
- Bank connectivity
- Time-tracking, including a desktop timer
- Project management
- Client estimates and proposals
- Payment management
- Integration with more than 100 apps
- Live support options
Reporting options are adequate for self-employed business owners, and the reports page lets you manage your favorite reports for easy future access.
FreshBooks’ pricing structure has recently been updated, with four plans available. They include the Lite plan, which runs $13.50/month and includes five billable clients.
If you have more clients, you can opt for the Plus plan, which is $22.50/month. Both offer unlimited expense tracking and invoicing and include a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. Also available are the Premium plan, which is $45/month and supports up to 500 clients, and the Select plan with custom pricing for more than 500 clients.
One of the biggest benefits of using FreshBooks is that it has the features self-employed individuals need without a lot of unnecessary fluff. You can easily track expenses, bill clients, and manage your bank accounts.
Zoho Books
Want accounting software that minimizes the amount of time you have to spend on finances? Zoho Books’ basic plan includes automated recurring invoicing, expenses, and payment reminders. (Pricier plans let you set automatic recurring bill payments too.) Like FreshBooks, Zoho Books includes a client portal so your customers can quickly approve estimates and pay invoices.
But if you plan to eventually hire employees, you might want to look elsewhere. While Zoho Books starts at $15 a month if you pay annually (or $20 if you pay month-to-month), additional Zoho plans for features like inventory and CRM can cost extra. Plus, Zoho also lacks payroll integration, which means you’ll have to spend time entering your employees’ payroll data into your accounting records. These types of issues shouldn’t pose huge problems for the self-employed, but if you plan to grow your business down the line, bear in mind that Zoho’s costs will start to add up.
FreeAgent
FreeAgent is a great option for UK freelancers–and the one I use both for my own freelance writing business and for Peak Freelance.
Built for LTD companies, it’s the one I’d recommend for small business owners who want a user-friendly accounting tool that has all of the features they need to create invoices, track expenses, and run financial reports.
One of my favorite features is the automatic tax forecasts. You’ll see key dates your financial reports need to be submitted by, along with an estimate of how much you’ll pay. It’s a great feature that will make sure you have enough money saved for tax time.
Features include:
- Cyber Essentials certified and strong encryption to keep your business’ financial information safe.
- A mobile app (Android and iOS) to snap receipts, track expenses, and check finances on the go.
- Sales tax add-ons to add VAT to your invoices for clients in the EU.
- Bank reconciliation, which pulls your bank statements into the online dashboard for you to approve, upload a receipt, and map invoice payments.
“For me, most of the time my invoices are either net 15 or net 30 days. The invoice timeline helps me get a quick view of how much money I’m due overall and if there’s anything overdue that I can click into and check out.”
ALEX BOSWELL, FREELANCE WRITER
Best suited to: UK freelancers with LTD companies.
Pricing: From £14.50+VAT/month for your first six months. It’s £29+VAT/month after that. (It’s completely free if you have a business account with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank, or Mettle.)
AccountingSuite
AccountingSuite is not as well-known as its competitors, but it offers many of the same features designed for the small business owner, including self-employed individuals and sole proprietors. A great fit whether you’re selling products or services, AccountingSuite includes excellent sales and inventory management capability, plus a time-tracking feature.
One feature that sets AccountingSuite apart is its budgeting capability, which allows you to create a current or future year budget with the ability to choose the accounts you wish to include. To see how accurate your budget is, run the Budget report, which compares budgeted totals to actuals.
AccountingSuite offers a rare commodity in small business software, which is excellent budgeting capability. Source: AccountingSuite software.
Other features AccountingSuite offers include:
- Advanced accounting features, such as period closing capability and recurring journal entries
- Sales quotes and sales orders
- Custom invoicing
- Cash receipts
- Purchases
- Customizable extensions that fit your business
- Inventory management
- E-commerce integration (Pro with e-Commerce plan only)
AccountingSuite also includes good reporting options, with reports easily customizable to better suit your needs.
AccountingSuite currently offers four pricing levels. The Start Up plan at $19/month is perfect for those just starting out and offers banking, accounting, projects, time tracking, and reports. The Business plan, at $25/month, also including sales, purchases, and sales tax management. A Professional plan at $55/month and a Pro with an e-Commerce plan at $129/month are also available.
Another asset of AccountingSuite is its ability to integrate with e-commerce platforms. While the Pro plan is not cheap, AccountingSuite will completely integrate your accounting platform to your online business, eliminating the need to enter information twice and saving you a lot of time in the process.
Xero
If you sell handmade products on Etsy or plumbing supplies out of your home, try Xero. It’s one of the only accounting software providers to offer inventory tracking with each plan. Xero also helps sales-based businesses stay afloat with features like customized purchase orders for fast, clear communication with suppliers. Its automated sales tax calculations streamline end-of-year tax reports, and its 24/7 live customer support means you won’t be left hanging if you’re hit with a tech problem mid-invoice.
While Xero doesn’t limit the number of clients you can bill, its Early plan ($11 a month) lets you send only 20 invoices and enter only 5 bills a month. If your monthly workload and expenses are higher than that, you’ll have to scale all the way up to Xero’s Growing plan, which includes unlimited invoices at a pricey $32 a month.
Conclusion:
These have many cost and time saving features and benefits, and it may be ideal for your needs and your budget. You can easily access financial reports to help you manage your business finances and cash flow. They offer reliable, cloud-based solutions that enable you to make calculations quickly and effectively.