What does your small business need to thrive, grow and prosper? One of the most important things you will need is good business software. This will help you to increase sales, manage staff and your finances. When it comes to choosing your invoicing software one thing is clear; there are plenty of options out there. That makes finding the best invoice app more difficult than it first seems.
In this review are the best UK invoicing systems. Check them out.
QuickBooks – best value for money
Our rating
- From £8/mo
- Trusted provider in the UK
- Multi-currency support
- Great support for HMRC filing
Mostly known for accounting software, Intuit QuickBooks’s invoicing is an integral part of their offering too. All the tiered QuickBooks packages include a variety of business tools, so this is a good choice for managing your books and invoice payments in one place.
The QuickBooks invoice app gives you an intuitive overview of paid and outstanding payments.
If you’re already using QuickBooks for bookkeeping, you might as well use the invoicing features which are included to some extent on all plans. The less dispersed your documents, invoices and receipts are, the more streamlined your admin can be. A plus is that QuickBooks is HMRC-recognised and adheres to the government-incentive Making Tax Digital.
The app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets.
The number of invoicing features depend on your plan. The cheapest subscription, called Self-Employed (£8/month), is for sole traders who are not VAT-registered. It includes unlimited invoices by email and the ability to track which ones have been read.
The next tier, Simple Start (£12/month) is for sole traders and companies, whether VAT-registered or not. This plan has more customisation tools, payment tracking, recurring invoices and the ability to accept invoice payments online.
Higher plans do not include more invoicing functions, only more advanced accounting tools.
Pricing
Monthly fee: £8/mo for Self-Employed, £12/mo for Simple Start
GoCardless payments: 1% transaction fee
PayPal payments: From 3.4% + 20p for domestic cards, from 3.9% + fixed fee for international cards
Stripe payments: Fees through Stripe
You can either accept payments outside the QuickBooks system and mark when invoices are paid, or accept payments through a link on the electronic invoice.
The latter can be done as a GoCardless Direct Debit integration which has no setup fee or monthly costs, just a 1% transaction fee. Other payments, such as PayPal and Stripe, can be integrated too – but integrated payments can only be done on the Simple Start and higher plans.
Integrated payments: PayPal, Stripe (Visa, Mastercard, American Express), GoCardless Direct Debits
Best for: SMEs wanting a complete invoicing and accounting system compliant with HMRC.QUICKBOOKS WEBSITE
Zoho – free invoice generator, more features optional
Our rating
- £0-£21/mo
- No sign-up for free invoice generator
- Good choice of payment integrations
- Many features on all plans
Zoho is another all-round accounting system with invoice tools. If you only want to create a PDF invoice to download or send from your phone, you can in fact do that for free – without having to create a login or sign up for anything. You can also pay for the Zoho Invoice app that includes various invoicing features.
Zoho Invoice is compatible with iOS, Android and Windows phones and tablets.
The invoicing apps are supported on iOS, Android and Windows mobile devices. To be clear: the Invoice Generator app is a separate app you can download and use for free. The free and paid plans described below require the Zoho Invoice app.
The feature-rich Zoho Invoice app has a Free plan limited to one user, with the ability to create transactions for up to five customers.
On the Basic plan (£6/month paid monthly), one user can invoice up to 50 customers. On Standard (£12/month on annual plan), three users can invoice up to 500 customers, and Professional (£18/month on annual plan) allows 10 users to invoice unlimited customers.
All the plans include recurring invoices, estimates, expense tracking, time tracking, multi-currency features, a ‘snail mail’ service and many more features. The pricier plans have more reports, automated workflows and integrations.
Pricing
Monthly cost: Free (Invoice Generator app) or £0-£21/mo (Zoho Invoice app)
Transaction fees: Through payment processor (PayPal, Square, Stripe, etc.)
Zoho can integrate with a number of payment services, so you can accept payments through the invoice rather than outside the platform. Transaction fees depend on the chosen payment system.
Integrated payments: 2Checkout, Braintree, GoCardless, PayPal, Stripe, Square, others
Best for: Cheap way to start small, with options to expand features later on.ZOHO WEBSITE
SumUp – better than average for a free solution
Our rating
- No monthly cost, no contract
- SumUp processes the card payment
- Payouts in 1-3 working days
- POS and remote payment features
SumUp is perhaps best known for their cheap card readers and payment features for small businesses. In recent years, however, SumUp has added a wealth of new features to help merchants receive payments remotely – and this includes digital invoicing.
SumUp Invoices can be created, sent and managed from the SumUp App.
SumUp has no monthly fees or contract term for invoicing, only a pay-as-you-go rate of 2.5% per remote transaction processed. It’s easy to get started too: just sign up on the website, connect your bank account and start invoicing clients from the SumUp App or web dashboard.
SumUp App is actually a payment or point of sale (POS) app. It has a product library, transaction overview and checkout interface for accepting cards, cash, QR code payments or payment links.
In another section of the app, you can create, manage and monitor invoices. There is no limit on how many email invoices you can send, and items from your product library and customers from your customer library can be added to invoices.
Pricing
Monthly fee: None
Transaction fee: 2.5% for all cards
If you log into your SumUp account on a computer, you can create credit notes too – this is not yet available in the app.
Payouts take 1-3 working days to reach your bank account. With the free SumUp Card (online account and prepaid debit card), you can receive transactions the next day, including weekends.
Integrated payments: SumUp (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB)
Best for: Selection of free payment methods, not just invoices, from the same app.SUMUP WEBSITE
Xero
Xero promises to make the process of creating invoices more aesthetically pleasing. With Xero, it is very easy to be creative and make your own invoices from scratch or you can choose from the variety of useful templates and simply activate the fields that you want to use.
You work on the cloud, on any device and can get paid in an instant so that you do not have to wait. You simply log in and all the reports should be presented to you so that you can work faster. The balancing of books is automated so that you need not worry about your payments falling into the cracks.
Freshbooks
Freshbooks is also a popular choice for invoicing, with around 5 million businesses utilising its services across the globe. It is perfect for small businesses who aim to take on larger and more complex invoicing tasks.
You will find that freelancers that want their invoices to appear more “professional” will see benefit from using Freshbooks. It is simple and fast, which gives you more credibility when you are trying to get invoices paid.
Freshbooks allows you to personalise and automate your invoices so that you never miss a payment and completely does away with human error which can be costly for any business.
KashFlow
KashFlow is a UK-based business, which means many of its features are built with the UK market in mind. For instance, it can link directly to HMRC – the software produces VAT Returns and EC Sales lists and files them to HMRC.
KashFlow is an accounting app, and its invoicing features include turning quotes to invoices in one click and automatic alerts that inform you of any late payers.
The pricing plan is very reasonable: KashFlow says its £8 a month ‘Starter’ option is perfect for sole traders, contractors and small businesses.
KashFlow Go, the mobile version of this invoicing app, is available on both the App Store (iPhone) and Google Play (Android).
Zervant
Zervant is an invoicing app that’s designed with entrepreneurs and small businesses in mind.
The free plan allows you to send unlimited invoices to up to five customers, while the premium plan starts at €8 a month and includes additional features like payment reminders, schedules and recurring invoices.
Zervant is available on both the App Store (iPhone) and Google Play (Android).
Tradify
Tradify is job-tracking software and an invoicing app for people who work in the trades.
The all-in-one pricing model gives you unlimited access to all the tracking software you’ll need for your business. It’s on the more expensive side, costing £19 a month, but includes a wide range of features. They say you can keep track of receipts, quotes, timesheets and contracts all in one place. And the invoicing software includes automatic payment reminders.
Tradify is available on both the App Store (iPhone) and Google Play (Android).
YourTradebase
YourTradebase says it’s ‘made for the trades, by the trades’.
More than an invoicing app, YourTradebase also has software to help you manage scheduling, job sheets, and quotes. To keep things simple, they offer just one plan at £25 a month, and if you need more users you can add them for an extra £5 a month.
YourTradebase is available on both the App Store (iPhone) and Google Play (Android).
Tipalti
Tipalti is an end-to-end invoicing system. It is not only good at payment and invoicing automation, but it is also great at processing tax compliance too.
It is KMPG certified and automatically collects tax forms. It also has the ability to identify and protect against illegal financial processes done by hapless victims of money laundering. Therefore, with this solution, you can rest assured that you and your finances will stay safe.
This particular app is able to automate and streamline the generation of tax reporting, and therefore allows workforces more time to get on with other pressing tasks and not have to spend time pouring hours of their time and effort into tax reporting. Tax reporting is a very important tax and a government mandate, but it can be a lot easier and less time consuming.
Conclusion
Best Invoicing Software for Small Business Uk – Choosing invoicing software can be a daunting task. If you spend a lot of time on invoicing and the numbers involved in the business, this is vital to getting your head around.