Business owners who want to save time and money need the right tools. We’re committed to offering the best business software and technology, like free accounting software download. Our books and tax calculations simplify and accelerate your invoicing, product selling, and taxes collection, regardless of whether you sell one product or hundreds.
Do you have a small business and want to learn about free accounting software download? Or about ofree accounting software download? Check out these free bookkeeping tools that will help you manage your small-sized business more effectively.
Wave
Pros:
- Unlimited bank and credit card account connections, income and expense tracking and guest logins.
- Allows you to invoice from within the platform itself and supports receipt scanning.
Cons:
- May not be powerful and feature-rich enough for large or fast-growing businesses.
- Charges per-transaction fees for payment processing.
- Payroll product is separate and requires a subscription.
Why we like it:
Wave is by far one of the most robust and well-designed free accounting software tools for small businesses. Instead of charging users to generate revenue, Wave makes money through fees on payments made within the platform. That means you’ll likely save money in the long run depending on how you intend to use the platform to collect ACH, debit or credit card payments from clients. Visa, Mastercard and Discover come with a 2.9% fee, plus 30 cents, on each transaction. American Express is 3.4% plus 30 cents. ACH bank transfers only come with a 1% fee (or a $1 minimum fee, depending on the size of the transaction).
With Wave, you’ll get unlimited income and expense tracking, sales tax tracking and double-entry functionality, as well as reports on cash flow, profit and loss, and overdue invoices and bills. You can also use Wave’s invoicing tools for free. This includes unlimited invoices, automated invoice reminders, invoice and accounting synchronization and the acceptance of both credit card and bank payments.
Sunrise
Sunrise by Lendio (formerly Billy) is a great free option for businesses that want simple bookkeeping software without the bells and whistles (and high price tags!) of full accounting software. With Sunrise, you can be up and running in just minutes, performing tasks such as sending invoices to clients, managing expenses, and accepting online payments.
One unique feature of Sunrise is that you may qualify for additional funding opportunities through Lendio just by maintaining your books. And if your books become too time-consuming to manage? You can upgrade to Sunrise’s paid professional bookkeeping service, which offers extremely competitive pricing. Throw in support for unlimited users, good customer service, and positive online reviews, and it’s easy to see why Sunrise makes our cut.
Pros
- Supports unlimited users
- Good customer service
- Easy to use
Cons
- Limited integrations
- Lacks advanced features
Sunrise Features & Pricing
With Sunrise’s free self-service software, you’ll receive:
- Unlimited invoices
- Unlimited quotes and estimates
- Expense tracking
- Chart of accounts
- Cash flow tracking
- Journal entry
- Tax support
You can purchase bookkeeping services for an additional fee. While there’s no built-in payroll, Sunrise integrates with Gusto. Unfortunately, Gusto and Zapier are the only integrations you’ll find here, so this could be a problem if you want to integrate with other business apps and software.
Businesses that need full accounting software with advanced features (such as inventory management) will need to seek out other software. However, businesses that want basic bookkeeping software with no limitations, an easy-to-use UI that’s perfect for beginners, and great customer service may find a winner in Sunrise.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is of the most popular accounting tools in the market. It can streamline the management of all your accounting activities like invoicing, time tracking, making payments, and more. The best part is that it is fast, secure, and easy to use.
Key Features:
- Invoicing – You can personalize your emails and create your own invoice with excellent customization, including your logo and signature
- Automatic Expense Tracker – Simply link your bank account with the software and get automated updates about your spending at predetermined frequencies
- Track Your Time – Track the exact time spent on activities like engaging clients, finishing a project, and more
- Accounting – Provides easy to use, double-entry accounting tools
- Project Management – Provides holistic project management features and facilitates collaboration
Pros:
- It’s a mobile-friendly software that lets you stay connected with customers through the mobile app
- User-friendly and intuitive user interface
- Multi-language and multi-currency compatibility
- Cloud-based software, so it is inexpensive and easy to use
- Excellent customer support via phone, email, live chats, and ticket
- Allows excellent customization
- Accepts credit cards, business credit cards, and performs ACH bank transfers online
- Regularly generates project budgets to keep your team up to date
- Generates robust and actionable insights
- 30-day free trial period
- Every transaction is SSL certification encrypted to provide enhanced data security and maintain the integrity
- Provides unlimited expense tracking, time tracking, expense entries, and customized invoices
- Clean, easy-to-navigate dashboards for increased efficiency
Cons:
- On-premise deployment not possible
- Doesn’t have a free plan
- The metrics, goal-setting, and reporting features need improvement
Pricing:
Freshbooks offers four plans.
The first three plans are priced at $6, $10 and $20 per month (billed annually). The last plan is a customized plan to cater to the needs of an individual, and you have to contact a sales rep to get a quote.
ZipBooks
Pros:
- Ability to send unlimited invoices, manage unlimited vendors and accept digital payments.
- Task, time and project tracking.
- Can work with third-party online payment platforms.
Cons:
- Payments and payroll integrations cost extra.
- Overall lack of integrations with other platforms.
- Lack of advanced features.
Why we like it:
ZipBooks provides a great set of features at a price that works for small-scale businesses or companies in their early stages that don’t necessarily need much in order to manage their finances. ZipBooks’ Starter plan is free, with two higher-level tiers that include more sophisticated features for a flat monthly fee, as well as a custom-priced Accountant plan. The ZipBooks Starter plan includes unlimited and customizable invoices, estimates and price quotes. You’ll also get a virtual dashboard to keep track of your business’s outstanding and paid invoices, as well as your overall finances. Plus, if you like ZipBooks Starter, you can always upgrade to a more feature-laden plan as your business grows.
There are a few downsides to ZipBooks, however. You’re limited to one bank account connection, unlike other free accounting software platforms that are more generous. If you want to use ZipBooks’ integration with Square and PayPal, you’ll have to pay credit card processing fees, just as you would with Wave.
Odoo
Odoo is different from the other software on the list because it isn’t accounting software. Instead, it’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. While we could get technical about ERP, we’ll keep it simple: Odoo offers over 40 business applications, including Odoo Accounting. You can stick with just Odoo Accounting, or you can combine several different small business apps. One of the best things about Odoo is that the software is completely customizable to fit your business’s needs now and scalable to meet your needs in the future, too.
For this review, though, we’re focusing solely on Odoo Accounting. Odoo comes with features you’d expect from your accounting software, such as a chart of accounts, invoicing, expense tracking, accounts payable, and basic inventory. In addition, the software is easy to use, and you can choose from web-hosted and on-premise installations, although this may affect your total monthly cost.
Pros
- Open-source software
- Customizable
- Scalable
- Easy to use
Cons
- Poor customer support
- It can be expensive to scale
Odoo Features & Pricing
The pricing structure for Odoo is a bit different than the other software on this list. If you only need Odoo Accounting for a single user, you can get the cloud-hosted version for free. Odoo Accounting includes the following features:
- Invoicing
- Expense tracking
- Accounts payable
- Bank reconciliation
- Journal entries
- Budgeting
- Fixed asset management
- Basic reporting
If you need to add more users or want on-premise hosting, additional fees apply. You’ll also pay an additional fee for each app that you add to your software.
One thing to note is that while you can select a single app for one user at no cost, these free plans lack customer support. Despite these flaws, Odoo Accounting may still be a great choice for users that need ERP software or want a customizable, scalable option that grows with their business.
Conclusion:
Open your door to the world of bookkeeping with the list of free accounting tools for small businesses. Developed by expert accountants, our tools will help you stay organized and crystal clear on important numbers. What’s more, these free bookkeeping tools are always available to you.