We often hear complaints from small businesses about software and too much information, but that’s exactly what they should have. Desktop accounting software is there to help, not to hurt. As soon as small business owners discover how easy it is to use accounting software for small business desktop, they quickly discover a surprising amount of value and cost savings. Information is crucial when it comes to effectively running your business, especially if you do not have complicated business management systems in place. However, desktop accounting software proves that it is still powerful enough to improve accounting for small businesses across the globe and this has been true for years.
Are you a small business owner trying to figure out how to navigate the world of accounting software? I totally understand. Accounting software for small business can be super confusing! This is especially true if you’ve never used accounting software before. There are so many different tools to choose from and it can be hard to know if they’re right for you and your business.
Plooto
Plooto is a powerful payment processing system that provides end-to-end AP/AR automation for accountants and bookkeepers. Handling all the facets of your cash flow is what this platform does best. It ensures that every bill is accurately paid without delay thanks to smart approvals.
Moreover, it allows you to stipulate approval tiers based on the bill amount and assign approval roles to your trusted lieutenants. It does all this without relinquishing control over the cash flow thanks to the audit trail and record-keeping tools. Not to mention, Plooto allows you to make electronic payments in more than 30 countries around the world. The vendor offers a comprehensive free trial to get you up to speed with the features.
On the other hand, Plooto is designed to facilitate fast and easy payments. Features such as the Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) agreement offer an easy way to receive payments with less effort. That’s not all, the platform automatically imports invoices from your accounting software and sends a request for payment to your clients. It enables the client to make payments with ease and without sharing their bank details.
What’s unique about Plooto?
- Powerful approval workflows. Whether you have outsourced accounting teams or have remote payment approvers, there is nothing to worry about. Plooto’s approvals workflow tools and the customizable approval tiers work in tandem, allowing you to define clear roles for everyone to streamline the approval process and eliminate all bottlenecks.
- Audit trail and record keeping. With the audit trail, you can assign approval roles to different people and keep track of the entire process. The platform keeps details about each payment, so you can know who approved what and when.
- Automatic account reconciliation. In addition, Plooto works harmoniously with the existing accounting software. This way, when a payment is made or money is transferred to your account, the details are synchronized automatically into the accounting software. As a result, it instantly reconciles your books and requires no human effort to do so.
- Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) agreement. An interesting Plooto feature designed to simplify payments for recurring bills. For example, with PAD and the recurring payment features, property managers can agree to have funds automatically deducted from the tenant’s account when rent is due. Every tenant receives receipts automatically and in case any of the payment is unsuccessful, the manager is notified to take appropriate action.
- Contact management. Moreover, Plooto makes it easy to manage the client’s contact information in a centralized system.
Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct includes support for core accounting, financial reporting, billing, purchasing, sales and use tax, inventory management, and project accounting. The financial management system offers a suite of accounting features that could serve medium and large-sized businesses with consolidated ERP and e-commerce features.
Most of Sage Intacct’s applications are financial-based, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, a general ledger, order management, purchasing, and reporting and dashboards. Intacct also includes support for financial reporting, billing, sales and use tax, inventory management, and project accounting.
The Intacct solution is particularly popular with professional services companies based on extensive support of time-based billing, ease of use for remote professionals, and strong project accounting features.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is a Canadian-based company that was founded in Toronto in 2003. It uses cloud-based accounting and invoice software that can be accessed via iPhone, Android, and iPad apps.
It is our choice for best overall accounting software because it’s easy to use for business owners with little or no accounting experience, offers robust features and helpful functions, is reasonably priced, and can be used on the go.
FreshBooks’ features include:
- Payment reminders
- Recurring invoices with customizable options including due dates and discounts
- Online credit card payments
- Multi-currency and language billing
- Automatic tax calculations for sales tax
- Tax-friendly expense categories
- Remembered vendors
- Time tracking with a Chrome browser extension
- Bank deposits, recurring payments, and auto bills with bank integration
- Tax help integrations with tax apps, estimates, deductions, and filing tools
- Easily integrates with other products including GSuite and Gusto
FreshBooks’ pricing is tiered as follows:
- Lite: $15 per month for the self-employed business owner with five billable clients
- Plus: $25 per month for businesses with 50 billable clients
- Premium: $50 per month for growing businesses supporting unlimited billable clients
- Select: Custom features and pricing for businesses with unlimited billable clients
FreshBooks may also offer discounts or bundled pricing if you pre-pay, so make sure you check the website for any offers before you sign up.
Wave
A free product (yes, free!), Wave is cloud-based, offers a simple interface and easy setup, and allows for project-based accounting and fixed asset management. The goal is to help the business owner prep for tax time. It’s simple, reliable, and secure with a lot of focus on data security protocols.
Wave is a forever-free accounting solution that offers accounting, invoicing, payments, payroll, and receipts. Wave is very transparent into their pricing structure. The accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning is 100% free. Collecting payments via credit card or bank transfers, or running payroll for your employees, does come at a price, however.
Wave is not only one of the most popular free accounting solutions, it can also be thought of as one of the most popular accounting solutions period. Because of this, it’s a great choice for freelancers and start-ups who are strapped for cash.
Sage 50cloud Accounting
While some business owners are content with reporting basics, others desire more comprehensive reporting options. If that’s you, check out Sage 50cloud Accounting, which offers some of the best reporting options around.
Sage 50cloud Accounting offers excellent reporting tools. Source: Sage 50cloud Accounting software.
Along with complete financial statements, including balance sheet reporting, Sage 50cloud Accounting also includes general ledger, payroll, accounts payable, and accounts receivable reports.
All reports are fully customizable and can be exported to Excel for further customization. Good for small and growing businesses alike, Sage 50cloud Accounting also includes optional bank connectivity, customer and vendor management, and payroll capability.
The customer management feature allows you to effectively manage customer information, such as establishing credit limits, offering customer-specific discounts, and the ability to create customer quotes and full proposals.
Sage 50cloud Accounting also includes good inventory management capability, with the Premium and Quantum plans offering product assemblies as well.
One of the biggest benefits of using Sage 50cloud Accounting is its scalability. Another benefit is good budgeting capability for creating financial projections.
Product support options are good: Telephone, email, and chat support options are available to all registered users, with complete access to all product updates and enhancements.
Sage 50cloud Accounting is scalable, with three plans available: Pro, which is a single-user system, and is available for $299.95/year; Premium, which supports five users and is available for $1,105.95/year; and Quantum, which supports up to 40 users, with a 10-user system available for $1,978.95/year.
AccountEdge Pro
AccountEdge Pro is desktop accounting software for small businesses founded in 1989 and has developed new features and enhancements over the years. If you need to access your finances on the go or from your smartphone, you can use their cloud-based app or their hosting platform. It’s geared toward small to medium-sized businesses, has a basic version and a pro version, and offers comprehensive accounting solutions full of customizations.
We chose AccountEdge Pro as our best accounting software for experienced accountants because of its robust features and reporting capability. It’s a bit more complex than some of the other software, so this software works best if you’re already familiar with accounting terminology.
AccountEdge Pro’s features include:
- Bank feeds with integration
- Direct deposit
- Inventory management
- Payment processing
- Turn quotes into invoices
- Customer and vendor management
- Full-service payroll
- Free accountant copy
- Unique sales tax code per line item on a single invoice
- Data sync with company files
- Email support
Pricing for AccountEdge Pro is as follows:
AccountEdge Basic (Windows only): $149 one-time fee for one user, and $199 fee for phone support
AccountEdge Pro (Windows or Mac): $499 one-time fee or $15 per month for multiple users, $199 fee for phone support, and additional fees for licenses, payroll services, and more.
To find out more about what features are included and how much add-ons cost or to add custom features, it’s best to contact the company directly.
Tipalti
Tipalti is an accounts payable automation solution that prioritizes efficiency across an end-to-end global payables workflow. Supporting AP and payment management in their cloud platform, Tipalti helps users scale and adapt to their business’ changing needs.
Invoice-based supplier payments are the heart of Tipalti, helping growing companies focus on improving their AP workflow. Larger companies can enjoy global and performance based mass payments to partners depend on their marketplaces, networks, or communities.
Tipalti lets vendors register on your Supplier Hub, helping yorui business reduce data entry and ensure supplier identity with tax IDs. Vendors can then upload invoices and allow you as the payer to review what has been keyed in and approve any invoices and schedule future payments.
What’s unique about Tipalti?
- Automated payment. The system automates around 50% of all payment processes in 190 countries. It’s a leading solution for payment reconciliation, financial reporting, and AP. It normalizes data over a wide array of payment gateways.
- Payment facilitation. The software makes payment easier than one can imagine. Users can pay across 190 countries, 120 currencies, and 6 payment methods. It has an advanced payment configuration, providing myriad financial controls.
- Tax compliance. The app collects W-9 and W-8 tax forms to be able to withhold payment for non-compliant payees. This allows for the prevention of payment to illegal parties. In addition, the software creates forms with ease while computing for the right tax.
- Advanced Reporting. The product has an excellent payment reporting system, generating accurate payment reconciliation reports. This is done with minimal intervention from managers.
Conclusion:
Running your own small business is an exciting time, but there’s a lot to do and not necessarily tons of funds. It can be difficult at times to know your way around the different tools available to you, and what each of these tools can do for you. Anyone who has dealt with getting a business loan knows that you need to keep your books in order. Especially if you have investors, government funding and a number of other reasons why you need to show people your numbers.