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The best Mac accounting software won’t just be a facelifted version of PC software. It has to be designed with the Mac user in mind. If you’re an Apple person, all you want is great software, but you’re usually stuck with a poorly built Mac version that was originally designed for PCs.
Mac users value their Apple products because they’re well-built and easy to use–your small business accounting software should have the same strengths. Finding an accounting software that is built only for Macs is possible, but rare.
Software developers usually have a PC-first mindset given that PCs are far more popular than Macs overall. While accounting software with a Mac-specific UI are available, Mac users will find more options to choose from if they are open to online accounting software options.
What To Look For In Accounting Software
Here are some of the things we looked for in choosing which are the best Mac compatible accounting solutions.
- Desktop vs Cloud: We gave preference to those apps that support both an offline and online version. We found that there are very few that offer both although only QuickBooks Online (50% Off) still has both an offline desktop app for macOS and an online cloud based browser version.
- Account Syncing: We gave preference to accounting software that automatically sync with bank accounts to make it easier to keep on top of your accounts.
- Automatic Reconciling: The Mac accounting solutions reviewed here all support automatic reconciling so you don’t have to manually reconcile every transaction that goes through you business accounts.
- Accountant Access: We looked for accounting software that made it easy to share your accounts with a professional account when it comes to filing taxes.
- CRM Integration: We selected the best accounting tools that supported integration with Customer Relationship Manager platforms to make it easier when it comes to invoicing clients and managing contacts.
- Customer Support: We looked for accounting solutions that offer solid customer support when it comes to fixing syncing issues, solving problems and fixing bugs.
- Payroll Integration: More and more accounting packages now handle payroll processing too and we gave preference to those tools that make it easy to do accounting and process payrolls at the same time. Due to ever changing tax rules in different States and regions however, this is a specialist areas and we also recommend checking out our guide to the best payroll software for Mac.
- iOS Apps: Since many Mac users also use other Apple devices such as iPad and iPhones, we also chose those accounting platforms that have iOS app.
- MTD & HMRC Ready: For UK SMEs, we also looked for the best UK accounting software for Mac users that are Making Tax Digital (MTD) & HMRC ready for instant digital filing of taxes and VAT.
1. FreshBooks (60% Off – Best Overall)
If you’re looking for a small business accounting solution that’s unbelievably easy to use on your Mac, you can’t do much better than FreshBooks.
Canadian based accounting software FreshBooks bills itself as “accounting for the non-accountant” and it’s certainly one of the most user friendly accounting software we’ve seen.
FreshBooks has been around since 2003 and is now one of the most widely used accounting solutions in the world with over 10 million users in 120 countries.
For UK users, FreshBooks is also Making Tax Digital (MTD) and HMRC ready for filing tax and VAT returns instantly online without the need for an accountant.
The closest rival to FreshBooks is QuickBooks but FreshBooks is cheaper and offers many features for free which are only available in premium QuickBooks plans.
These include Billable Hours, Expense Categorization, Team Roles, and Simultaneous Users. There are also features in FreshBooks such as Project Collaboration and Proposals which aren’t even available in QuickBooks.
FreshBooks also automates many things such as sending of invoices, tracking time and logging of expenses.
If you work in a team, FreshBooks makes it easy to share invoices and expenses with your accountant or colleagues, share files and follow-up invoices.
You can even setup online credit card payments via FreshBooks own payment system for clients so that you get paid quicker and get notification confirmation when customers have received and read your invoice.
FreshBooks is very reasonably priced with plans starting at $4.50 per month.
You can also currently get 60% off FreshBooks for a limited time.
You can try FreshBooks free for 30 days with no credit card required to judge for yourself.
You can read more in our full review of FreshBooks.
Pros:
- Incredibly easy to use
- Excellent value for money
- Automates invoicing, expense and time tracking
- Allows clients to pay via credit card online
- Many “premium” QuickBooks features included in all packages
- Syncs with bank accounts
- MTD and HMRC Ready in UK
Cons:
- No tax filing integration
2. QuickBooks Online (50% Off – Best On & Offline)
QuickBooks is one of the most widely used accounting solutions by accountants worldwide with over 5 million users according to the developer Intuit.
It’s also the only serious Mac accounting package which gives you the choice of either using it on your Mac desktop or in a browser which makes it the best offline accounting software for Mac users in 2021.
QuickBooks is from Intuit the makers of the Quicken For Mac personal finance software and if you already use Quicken, you’ll love the seamlessly integration between the two products.
What makes QuickBooks Online one of the best accounting software out there is that it’s advanced enough for professionals but still easy enough to use for beginners.
Some of the highlights of QuickBooks Online include a Mac desktop app, automatic downloading of bank transactions, automatic scheduling of invoices, one click sales and tax reports and multi-user access.
For UK users, QuickBooks is also MTD and HMRC ready for filing tax and VAT returns online.
There are no problems if you want to view or edit QuickBooks on iOS either – QuickBooks for iPad and QuickBooks for iPhone are available for free (although the functionality and features are of the iOS apps are quite limited).
QuickBooks integrates with your bank so that you can make payments online and download transactions automatically.
If your business accepts payments via third-party services such as PayPal or Shopify, QuickBooks also integrates with popular payment platforms so that all your payments and invoices are automatically logged.
It can also save you some serious money in optimizing your tax liabilities. QuickBooks claims it saves users an average of $3,534 per year in tax savings.
Most recently QuickBooks now offers add-ons in the form of QuickBooks Payroll which allows you to pay employees with free direct debit transfers directly from the application.
There are two versions of QuickBooks available to Mac users: QuickBook Desktop For Mac and QuickBooks Online.
The desktop version of QuickBooks For Mac 2021 costs $399.99 which at that price, we don’t think is worth it. It’s also likely that the desktop version of QuickBooks for Mac will be discontinued in the not too distant future.
Our advice is to go with QuickBooks Online version which starts at just $12.50 per month and offers far more features.
You can also get 50% Off QuickBooks Online for a limited period (although if you’re based in Canada you need to go the QuickBooks Canada store).
You can also try QuickBooks now for free to see what you think for yourself.
You can also check our full review of QuickBooks For Mac which also looks at the differences between the QuickBook online vs QuickBooks For Mac offline desktop version in more detail.
Pros:
- Widely used by accountants on both Mac & Windows
- Works both online and offline in a Mac desktop app
- Excellent integration with Quicken
- Tools for both personal and business expense tracking
- Uploads photos of receipts and extracts data
- Generally easy to use and navigate
- Works on any platform
- Now offers integrated Payroll
- Online banking integration
- MTD and HMRC Ready in UK
Cons:
- Online bank syncing can be temperamental
- Payroll features costs extra
- QuickBooks For Mac 2021 desktop version is expensive
3. Sage (Best For Accountants)
Sage is one of the biggest accounting solutions in the world and Sage For Mac is one of the most widely used by accountants on both Mac and PC.
Although Sage is highly scalable, the basic version is user friendly with tools to manage cash flow, easy to understand reporting tools, automated invoicing and ability to manage multiple users at once.
Thee Sage iOS app is also easy to use, well thought out and allows you to manage payments anywhere.
Nowadays, Sage is integrated with Stripe to take payments with a Pay Now button in invoices to make it easier for customers to pay.
Sage is easily one of the best scalable accounting solutions for for Mac users and if you’re expecting your business to grow rapidly, it a great option.
You can try a free trial of Sage to test it for yourself and pricing starts at $7.50/month with 70% off for 6 months.
Pros:
- Scalable from small business to enterprise
- Clean, easy to use interface
- 1 on 1 sessions available with Sage experts
- Free bank feed
- Reasonably priced for such a powerful solution
- 24/7 phone based support
Cons:
- No Mac desktop app
COnclusion
As a business owner, one of the things you should do is to get an accounting software. You have to know what Accounting Software For Small Business Mac there exists so that you can better decide which one you will use to help your business grow. If you have a small business, then the accounting software that you should be looking for is a cloud accounting solution.