I’m a self-employed bookkeeper. I know a thing or two about self-employment bookkeeping software. In fact, I’ve helped thousands of small business owners through my bookkeeping service. One thing I’ve learned in these past few years is that there are tons of great options when it comes to the best self-employed bookkeeping software.
Are you interested in self-employed bookkeeping software? Check out our best self-employed bookkeeping software article. It’ll teach you how to keep your business finances organized. Whether you’re a freelance writer, graphic designer, event planner or something else, being organized will help you run your business more effectively.
QuickBooks Online
There’s a very good reason QuickBooks Online tops this list of best accounting software for the self-employed. QuickBooks is the reigning incumbent for accounting and bookkeeping software in the U.S. It’s easy to use, inexpensive, and training resources abound.
QuickBooks Online comes in three different varieties: Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus.
For the best accounting software for self-employed people specifically, Essentials is the best place to start. That’s because Simple Start is too simple for most businesses. As your business grows, you can move up to Plus. But be warned—once you upgrade your subscription, you can’t downgrade it again.
What About QuickBooks Self-Employed?
QuickBooks Self-Employed is a nice solution for freelancers and independent contractors, especially now that Self-Employed users can collaborate with their accountant or bookkeeper right inside the software. That said, QuickBooks Self-Employed lacks certain features that most sole proprietorships will need eventually—if not right away. If you’re not a freelancer, you may want to look into QuickBooks Online instead.
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.
Xero
Xero tops the best accounting software lists in New Zealand, Australia, and several European countries. It’s gaining ground in the United States, too
Similar to QuickBooks Online, Xero has an extensive network of accounting professionals who support it, and it’s easy to find good online training resources. Self-employed users will especially appreciate the lack of accounting jargon that Xero uses. That means no “debits” and “credits” here—just good old-fashioned “money in” and “money out.”
If you’re in a creative industry, Xero may be the best fit for you; it’s popular with marketing firms, writers, designers, etc.
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.
Wave Accounting
Some free software plans sacrifice features for price. Not Wave Accounting. With Wave’s free accounting software, you can send invoices, scan receipts, and accept online payments. And you won’t pay anything more than standard transaction fees. And unlike FreshBooks and Xero, Wave doesn’t limit your invoices, bill payments, or customers. It doesn’t limit you to just one user either. If you eventually expand your business to include a bookkeeper or business partner, Wave is just as free for four users as it is for one.
While Wave’s invoicing and receipt scanning apps measure up, it still lacks a mobile accounting app for you to check cash balances on the go. Customer support is available via email only—real-time tech support is basically a no-go.
Conclusion:
Being your own boss or running your own small business can be exciting, but it can also be challenging. This is true whether you are self-employed bookkeeper software or manage a freelance bookkeeping business. There’s a lot of things to keep track of in the day-to-day, and this includes managing cash flow, paying yourself a salary and ensuring that you have enough insurance in place.