In the wake of the current economic crisis, small businesses are going bankrupt at an alarming rate. Many people are trying to find out best small business accounting software open source or about open source free accounting software . They had used paid accounting software for a long time and now want to save by purchasing free open source online accounting. So we will try to give you some information about free accounting software.
Small Business Accounting Software used to be a problem for many businesses. But things have changed, and nowadays there are plenty of platforms you can use. Free accounting software has become very popular in the past few years – starting with free bookkeeping software and now encompassing much more.
Skrooge
Key Highlights:
- Personal finances manager
- Tailored for Plasma Desktop but compatible with others too
- Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and macOS)
Skrooge is one of the most useful personal finances manager by KDE. It is originally tailored for the Plasma Desktop but other desktop environments are compatible.
Supports most of the basic features (reporting, budgeting, etc.) and allows you to work on some pretty big data sets.
Akaunting
Key Highlights:
- Online accounting software
- Completely free and open source
- Client portal
- Invoicing
- Expense tracking
- Reporting
- Cashflow
Akaunting is an interesting online accounting software that’s available for free. Yes, surprisingly, there’s no hidden subscription charges or additional upgrade options. It is totally free. If you are looking for a FreshBooks alternative, you should give it a try.
Ranging from invoicing to managing deposits and transfers. A whole lot of features. You can either utilize their hosting (again, it is free!) or host it yourself. It’s fit for both personal and enterprise needs. Try it out!
Apache OFBiz
Key Highlights:
- ERP & CRM
- Developer-friendly
- Powerful Java Web Framework
- Cross-platform (Linux and macOS)
We’ve already mentioned this in our list of best open source CRM software. Apache OFBiz is an impressive open source solution that incorporates an ERP system and a CRM suite for various types of requirements.
It’s completely free – however, you will have to host it yourself (or just hire someone to do it). In addition to all the basic features needed for accounting software, it lets a developer extend/enhance features easily while being a Java-based web framework.
iDempiere
Key Highlights:
- Community-focused
- Simple and useful
- Cross-platform (Linux and Windows)
Originally based on ADEmpiere ERP. It is a community focused accounting software maintained by an active group of people. iDempiere aims to utilize technologies like Apache Maven to provide a business suite ERP/CRM/SCM.
There’s a ready-to-use Virtual machine available to download. In addition, you can utilize it on Windows or Linux.
Odoo
From agriculture and construction to real estate and telecommunication, Odoo accounting caters to businesses of all sizes, regardless of industry. It offers both on-premise and cloud deployment and is available as an app for Android and iOS devices.
A preview of Odoo Accounting’s general ledger.
Noteworthy Advantages
Odoo possesses various differentiators that set it apart from the competition.
- Free Forever: This platform is free for infinite users so long as you don’t need additional applications or hosting options. The community/open-source version only has invoicing and payment capabilities.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI): Scan and upload PDFs or images to vendor bills and automate their creation with AI.
- Customer Portal: Obtain order statuses, invoice and payment tracking through the client portal. Patrons may revise their plans, order upgrades, downgrade or unsubscribe in one centralized location.
- QR Codes: Scan QR codes with the user’s native banking program to complete transactions. The QR code is also available on PDF invoices and appears on payment screens for quotes and bills.
- Bank Statements Import: Leverage OFX, QIF, CSV or Coda formats to import bank statements when a bank isn’t supported through Odoo.
- Balance Sheet Calculation: Add current year earnings to balance sheets automatically. Profit and loss is promptly calculated according to selected dates. Administrators can lock entry dates for all users.
- Multiple Currencies: Work with various currencies and automatically change currency rates at different intervals.
- Revenue Dashboard: Access various metrics such as MRR, recurring revenues, churn, CAC, CAC ratio, growth, forecasts, ARR, CLT and CLTV.
- Tax Audit Report: Evaluate tax report calculation for audit purposes. Pick a line and click the audit button to audit journal items.
- Reconciliation Report: Gain reconciliation reports to account for differences between bank statement balances and accounts.
- Country-Specific Statements: Work with country-specific statements, including Intrastat reports, VAT statements, profit and loss/BS of the country, VAT subjected customer listings and more.
Key Features
Bank Reconciliation
This apparatus offers automatic reconciliation propositions, additional journal item registrations, record searching and the inputting of manual reconciliations for open and paid invoices. You may also immediately work with partial and full reconciliation propositions from invoices or bank statements. The automated reconciliation function allows bank statements to sync from more than 15,000 banks in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand in real time.
Tax Management
The tax engine offers a wide range of tax calculations such as price included or excluded, percentage, grip, partial exemptions and more. This module delivers tax reports in accrual or cash-based formats according to a particular region. You may also implement tax rules that automatically cipher values on invoices.
User Management
Establish default configurations for accountants and adviser roles, allot infinite users with various access rights as the administrator and automate business flows with inter-company regulations. Govern company subsidiaries within the same system with the user management feature. You can even arrange documents into several journals by department or type of activity and split roles throughout multiple users.
Reporting
Handle numerous pre-made templates ranging from cash flow statements to profit and loss. Link multiple companies’ bookkeeping data into groups. You may also take notes on reports and include more modifiable rows.
Additional Accessories
Although Odoo Accounting has all of the common open-source accounting software features, it offers supplementary tools for your accounting practices. These additional accessories include:
- Account Receivable: Build invoices with payment conditions, numerous taxes, discounts, price lists and more as well as print out invoices or send them via email.
- Credit Management: Promptly propose emails, follow-up letters and responsibilities for users to administer credit collection procedures.
- Bills Payment: Trace deposit tickets and print checks in large quantities.
- Accounting Analytics: Allocate a single accounting entry into several analytic accounts with analytics tags and pliable distributions.
Limitations
Like most solutions, this program has some limitations. These drawbacks include:
- It doesn’t offer payroll modules.
- It lacks third-party debt recoveries.
- It doesn’t account for unpaid fees or penalties.
ERPNext
ERPNext is an extendable ERP that consists of various programs such as HR and payroll, accounting, manufacturing, sales and purchase, CRM, asset management and others. It’s designed for businesses of all sizes and also employs cloud and on-premise deployment. It’s available as an app for iOS and Android devices.
An example of ERPNext’s dashboard.
Noteworthy Advantages
ERPNext contains various strengths that help it outdo the alternatives.
- Journal Entry Template: Permit users to establish and pick a preselected account and options list as they create new journal entries.
- Payment Terms Template: Gather various payment conditions and add transactions. This template relays to ERPNext to fill in the table in the payment terms schedule portion of the sales or purchase documents.
- Chart of Accounts Importer: Import chart of accounts, download a template that aligns with the chart and fill out the template efficiently.
- Payment Order: Manage this internal document to chronicle bulk payments against suppliers and capture various payment requests against vendors.
- Item Wise Taxation: Leverage this tool for item-wise taxations, create item tax templates and allocate them to an item or item group, and assign legitimacy to tax templates.
- Loyalty Program: Draft customer loyalty programs, review loyalty points earned on a client’s dashboard and adjust conversion factors, expense accounts and expiry durations via the redemption section.
- Period Closing Voucher: Detect profits and losses for an accounting period that’s been balanced in the books. Implement a period-closing voucher to set all income and expense accounts to zero after inputting special entries for the existing fiscal year.
- QuickBooks Migrator: Link ERPNExt with QuickBooks online API, migrate information across both solutions and create an ERPNext account for every QuickBooks tax rate received.
- Margin: Apply margins to quoted and sales order items automatically if the pricing rules are determined.
- Asset Value Adjustment: Govern fixed asset values by making alterations if necessary. Purchase or sell an asset and draft all the required documents for it.
- Localization: Support local standards for every global region, add custom fields and custom reports to support rules in a specific region and handle more than 70 languages.
- Auto Repeat: Develop particular documents at any given time automatically, establish auto repeat from documents, alert specific contacts through email when repetitive documents are created and review the auto-repeat frequencies.
- Third-Party Integrations: Access pre-made integrations with third-party solutions including Google Calendar, Plaid, Amazon, Shopify, LDAP, Google Maps, Dropbox and more.
Key Features
Tax Management
This module offers tax withholding categories for most cases by default and you may create more if necessary. You may set which particular tax templates you need for certain sales and purchase transactions with the tax rule extension. This appliance enables you to set a tax category to apply numerous tax rules to a transaction under different considerations. Lastly, if some items have different tax rates from the established tax rate, you may develop separate item tax templates and allocate them to a specific item or item group.
Bank Reconciliation
Synchronize bank statements and entries made within the solution by just pressing “Update Bank Transaction Dates” in the bank reconciliation apparatus. ERPNext has two reconciliation appliances. One is manual reconciliation that permits you to define clearance dates against payment entries, sales invoice payments or journal entries. The other is semi automatic and clears bank transactions against payment entries, sales and purchase invoices payments, journal entries or expense claims. Chronicle bank transactions in ERPNext to reconcile them with current costs and even suggest corresponding payments for an amount that seems to match a selected bank transaction.
Accounting Reports
The reporting module offers an array of different accounting reports. Examples of reports are:
- General ledger
- Accounts receivable
- Accounts payable
- Tax reports
- Sales invoice trends
- Customer credit balances
- Party wise trial balances
- Budget variances
- And more!
Additional Accessories
ERPNext has other accessories worth mentioning to streamline your account practices. These extra capabilities include:
- Journal Entry: Reverse credit and debit amounts against relevant accounts to reverse journal entries.
- Sales Invoice: Develop sales invoices from sales orders or deliver orders as well as add items with barcode scanning.
- Pricing Rules: Institute pricing rules for selling or purchasing items and set date intervals when those pricing rules will take effect.
- Point of Sales: Join a sales campaign with a point of sale profile to trace total sales against it.
- Multi-Currency Accounting: Initiate exchange rate revaluations to handle a company’s chart of accounts with various currencies.
Limitations
Like most programs, ERPNext has a few drawbacks. These cons include:
- Not offering multi-sessions.
- The accounting apparatus doesn’t have offset tools.
- Lacks electronic data Interchange (EDI).
Conclusion:
As more and more people switch over to working remotely, it has now become imperative for every small business to find a software that can help them with managing their financial records. However, there are a myriad of options when it comes to enterprise accounting software these days that makes it too difficult to decipher which one is the best.