Online accounting software for small business is taking the business world by storm. I am sure you have heard of Xero and Wave Accounting. These are the major players. Other famous online accounting software options are Freshbooks, Quickbooks, and FreeAgent. If you’re tired of paying for accounting software and want something free, these could be an option for you!
Do you need to organize your finances at home or in your small business? Taking control of your money is the best way to make your finances grow. The Internet offers free online accounting software to help you keep track of all your bills and expenses.
Wave Accounting
Bookkeeping Software Free Wave
As of 30 November 2020 Wave is Only Available for Businesses inside the USA and Canada.
This one is an online program so will be compatible with any computer system with an internet browser.
Wave Accounting is a great accounting program for small businesses who offer services of some sort, or who sell products but don’t need to track inventory, or can track inventory in another program.
What you get with Wave
- Connect your bank account to Wave and have your transactions uploaded automatically at the press of a button; you still have to allocate each transaction to the relevant income or expense account but this process is the same as what you have to do with QuickBooks or Xero.
- You can access Wave from your smartphone.
- The Dashboard displays your Bank Account balances (where you click on Update Now to get the new transactions from your bank), A Financial Snapshot showing a chart of Income vs Expenses, Setting Tips, a summary of bills you owe and what’s owed to you, a summary of your Net Income, and a colorful wheel chart comparing business expenses.
- There are several sales invoice designs to choose from. You can use different currencies.
- If you go shopping you can automatically upload a copy of your receipt to Wave Accounting with your smartphone, or scan and email it to your Wave account.
- Track sales tax.
- Customize your list of accounts.
- View and print/pdf a range of important financial reports such as Income Statement and Balance Sheet.
- Payroll is available but only for North America and you have to pay to use it.
- They have a Wave University so you can learn for free how to use this program.
- There are so many great features that you need to go and check it out yourself!
Cons
- You can do basic inventory tracking but will have to do journals as a work around. If you are looking for intensive inventory tracking, this is not the right program for you. At the time of writing this article, Xero is the same – only offering basic products – but Xero allows other inventory intensive software programs to connect to Xero to push the right financial details through.
Go to Wave Accounting for Small Business
Pandle – New
Pandle Free Bookkeeping Software
Pandle is fairly new software and is developed in the United Kingdom but can also be used internationally and has sales tax features which updates to your country of choice.
At the time of writing this blurb, Pandle comes with two plans:
- Forever Free
- Pro Version – USD$7 per month
What You Get With Pandle
As this article is about free software, I will focus on Pandle’s free version for one company.
- This is online software so you can access it wherever you have internet, or with the mobile app (iOS or Android)
- Your data is securely encrypted, live chat support is available, plus you get help with transferring your data to Pandle so you don’t have to freak out if you are nervous of making a big move.
- You can import your bank statements (bank feeds are only available in the Pro version).
- You can accept payments from customers with Pandle Pay.
- You can create sales quotes and invoices with your logo.
- If you deal with multiple currencies this is available in the free version.
- You get unlimited customers, suppliers and bank accounts (but unlimited Users of your Company is only available in Pro)
- If you’re in the UK you get VAT submissions – it is UK VAT ready.
- Business reports including Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance Cash Flow, Receivables and Payables.
- These features are not available in the free version:
Bank feeds, receipt uploads, projects, cash flow forecasting, stock control.
You can check out Pandle for yourself. Any features that are only available in the paid version have a small blue box with the word “Pro”, so you know exactly what is available in the free version.
Go to Pandle Bookkeeping Software
CloudBooks: Best for Freelancers and Small Businesses
Best for Freelancers and Small Businesses
CloudBooks is a free accounting and invoicing solution tailored to accommodate small businesses and freelancers. The program boasts a user base of over 2 million subscribers and has a suite of capabilities that cover invoicing, time-tracking, reporting, and payment needs — among others.
The platform is an invoice management solution, above all else — and that can be a benefit or drawback in its own right, depending on what you need.
While CloudBooks has features extending beyond that functionality, invoicing appears to be its main selling point — meaning it’s not quite as fully fleshed out with accounting functionality as other programs listed here.
So if you’re looking for exceptional invoice creation and management software, you should check out Cloudbooks. If you need a more robust accounting-specific solution, you might want to look elsewhere.
CloudBooks’ Key Benefits
- Allows for unlimited users
- Features email support
- Offers free cloud data storage
- Upgraded plans are reasonably priced
CloudBooks’ Key Drawbacks
- Only lets you bill one client
- Caps your number of invoices at five
- Lacks phone or chat support
Xero
Best small business accounting software for extra features
TODAY’S BEST DEALSXero StarterUS$9/mthXero StandardUS$30/mthXero Premium 10US$70/mthVISIT SITEat Xero
REASONS TO BUY
+Temptingly cheap Starter plan+Excellent mobile apps+Fully expandable
REASONS TO AVOID
-Basic plan has limitations-Costs start to add up-Some limitations
Xero might grab your attention with its low-cost Early plan account but look closely and limitations soon become apparent – like being restricted to sending a maximum of five invoices, entering five bills, or reconciling only 20 bank transactions.
Still, if you can live with those restrictions there are some pluses here. The service offers smart expense tracking and management, optionally on your mobile with Xero’s excellent app for Android and iOS. There are dozens of configurable reports, simple budgeting, and no limits at all on additional users or the accountants you might want to access the data.
If the invoice, bank or billing issues are a problem then the Xero Growing plan looks like a better deal. It’s a lot more money, but you can issue as many invoices and enter as many bills as you like.
Xero offers plenty of functionality for any small business, including a handy “convert your QuickBooks files” service to help you get started, and it’s certainly easy to use. But if you don’t quite need all that power, there’s better value to be had elsewhere.
Conclusion
Finding the right accounting software for your business can be complicated enough, without having to pay to use it. Over the past few years, there’s been several new online accounting apps launched that gives small businesses (and entrepreneurs) the opportunity to do the books, without the need for expensive third-party software.