It’s never too soon to start thinking about bookkeeping and invoicing for the photography business. But whose job is it? Who’s going to get out the calculator, take your lunch break and get this done? I blame you for not doing it yourself. Perhaps you justified it to yourself by spending time shooting instead of building a website or editing photos from your last shoot.
Whether you’re a commercial, corporate, or wedding photographer who’s just starting out, it’s important to have some basic bookkeeping skills. You don’t want to be stuck on tax time, trying to figure out how much you made on an invoice. And you’ll probably want to easily invoice your clients so you can get paid. In this post, I’d like to introduce you to some free spreadsheet software that will allow you to run your photography business on the cloud and help automate your bookkeeping and invoicing.
FreshBooks
A web-based accounting software designed for all kinds of businesses including photographers to trim down their time and help them focus on the core aspects of their business. FreshBooks helps you create invoices, track expenses, create clear and insightful financial reports, track your time, and many more.
This accounting software also offers you collaboration functionality which lets you give access to your team members. With this invitation granted your team members, they can input their own hours and record expenses.
Designed with an easy-to-use dashboard, FreshBooks lets you have accurate and real-time insights into your business’ expenses and income, and also streamlines the process of generating all your financial reports without necessarily having to have an accounting background.
With FreshBooks’ time-tracking feature, you can seamlessly plan your next photoshoot, schedule your project hours and send reminders to your customers on overdue payment. Also, this app helps you monitor your invoices and provides your customers with a secure online payment so you can get paid faster.
If your business is such that involves dealing with repeat customers, the app will help you automate your invoice generation and send invoices to your customers on time thereby saving you time.
Most interesting of it all, if you’re already using a studio management software or other accounting apps, FreshBooks lets you integrate with third-party apps like Google, Wufoo, Zapier, Gusto, Zoho, Basecamp, OneSaas, and more.
What We Like About FreshBooks
- Double-entry accounting feature
- Seamless integration with lots of other apps
- Excellent customer support
- Secure online payment capability
- Recurring profiles that lets you automatically create and send invoices to your repeat customers
- Excellent financial reports generation
- Easy-to-use dashboard
- Robust time-tracking capability for planning and scheduling your next photography projects
Pricing
FreshBooks offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required and a 30-day refund policy if you’re not satisfied with what you got. Thereafter, if you’d like to continue, there are three paid plans for you to explore such as the Lite, the Plus, and the Premium. The Lite plan starts at $13.50 per month and it’s suitable for those professionals whose needs are basic. The Plus costs $22.50 per month and it’s specifically meant for business owners who need more automation and insights. The Premium plan goes for 45.00 per month and this is the best option to choose if you’re looking for a way to expand your growing business and your employees.
Studiocloud
This photo studio accounting software, which also doubles as a great project management system, is free for single-user accounts and comes with some pretty sweet features, including comprehensive invoicing and payment tools, online booking, and bookkeeping reports. It also integrates well with Google Calendar, Mailchimp, and Quickbooks, so it may be a good option if you plan to go for a paid accounting software down the road. It’s also accessible via your desktop, online, and your smartphone, making it easy to track your business activity on the go.
If you’re already familiar with Studiocloud as a CMS, accessing the financial tools for accounting on this platform will be a breeze!
Wave
Wave is a free software designed particularly for photographers to help them save time on bookkeeping so they focus on other aspects of their business. As photography accounting software, the app is useful for managing your business’ inflow and outflow so you’ll have an accurate picture of how the business is doing. Wave offers amazing features like automated reminders, customizable reports, accurate financial reports, an exciting dashboard, and flexible software to suit your changing needs, double-entry accounting, and tax filing, among others.
There are some other mouth-watering free features such as a free invoicing app, free receipts scanning software, and recurring billing features.
What We Like About Wave
- Automatic import from your banks to Wave
- Easy-to-generate mobile invoicing
- Cost-free software with lots of amazing features
- Easy to set up and use
Pricing
Wave is 100% free to use.
ShootQ
This photo studio accounting software was designed “by photographers, for photographers” and has a free plan for single users, perfect for a photographer just starting out. Get quick invoicing, online payments, and financial reporting tools that use client data to give you the most comprehensive picture possible. You can also integrate Quickbooks with ShootQ to access additional accounting tools and features.
ShootQ is known for its customization, making it easy for you to set up your own workflows, client documents, and financial reports. With an iOS app feature you can access on the go, and an Android version forthcoming, ShootQ is a good choice for free accounting software for photographers that’s easy to customize. And if you end up loving this option, you might consider upgrading to a paid plan in the future.
QuickBooks
Suppose you are a photographer looking for new accounting software that provides excellent features, easy-to-access data online, and mobile access in one single platform. In that case, QuickBooks Online is the best option.
QuickBooks Online has all the tools that any accountant would need to have, be it a freelancer or an in-house accountant working on photoshoots. Moreover, it’s free to use without any annoying ads or whatsoever. Just sign up with your email address and start using it!
QB Online is compatible with both iOS and Android devices. In addition, you can create an account in any of the countries you are currently located in. It’s straightforward to use, and it has a user-friendly interface. Most of the features are automatically synced with your desktop version of the software, so there’s no need to worry about whether or not Google storage is free.
One feature that separates QuickBooks Online from other online accounting programs is the team collaboration feature, where members of your team can access shared documents from their phone or tablet within QuickBooks Online.
Studio Ninja
We chose Studio Ninja as one of our best accounting software for photographers because of its extreme simplicity. With a very clean interface, this app offers a holistic client management solution for photographers trying their productivity by personalizing their workflows, schedule payment plans, and effect automation for their emails.
Additionally, Studio Ninja lets you keep track of every job and task completed so you can follow up on your clients for payments.
What We Like About Studio Ninja
- Seamless integration with other apps like Gmail, Xero, Google Calendar, etc
- Smart payment and income tracker
- Customizable workflows
Pricing
Studio Ninja offers a 30-day free trial without credit cards. After this trial expires, you can get started with their paid options. Their Pro plan starts at $19.20/month or $230.00/year billed annually. There is also the Master plan. This plan costs $29.10/month billed annually.
Flowlu
Flowlu was originally created for small businesses, and it works well as a free accounting software for photographers, too. The free version of Flowlu includes financial management tools like revenue, expenses, and payment tracking, as well as direct invoicing. You can also access financial reports that analyze your financial data and business activities, giving you a better sense of how your business can improve.
For a free option, Flowlu is a solid choice for photographers looking to do simple accounting and tracking their finances.
Conclusion:
There is no more challenging and complex enterprise than a photography business. It doesn’t matter if you are a wedding or portrait photographer, or whether your foray into photography is through freelancing, event photography or art – keeping accounts and invoicing for your business can be a nightmare. If you want to be certain that all your finances are kept in perfect order and fully auditable, then only the best bookkeeping software for photographers can do it.