Complete accounting software that helps you manage your finances offline and online, from home, office or mobile. Effortlessly take care of your business expenses and accounting processes all in one place with Free Accounting Software, a powerful and easy to use software that is compatible across all devices. From recording transactions, invoicing customers and importing bank statements, our accounting and invoicing software can handle the whole lot for you.
Manage your expenses and keep track of your finances with accounting software. I am here to provide you the accounting software what you need in your business. Offline software is the best one for your business, I will tell you why? The online accounting software is the good one but the offline accounting software is the best.
What Does Accounting Software Do?
New entrepreneurs on the block might not realize this, but accounting software is one of the most vital solutions for your business’s success. The first thing that most accounting software solutions do is automate data entries that make compilation easier and speed up the settling of accounts.
Small business accounting software is further useful for managing all your financial transactions, including cash flow statements, profit and loss, or the accounts book.
Accounting software can save large streams of data securely and provide real-time information about your company’s finances. Popular accounting software also has features such as payroll, inventory management, and so on.
What is Offline Accounting Software?
As the name suggests, offline accounting software is those programs that can be accessed when you do not have a constant connection to a network. Offline accounting software can be hosted on-premise or self-hosted servers.
With this, you can ensure the security of critical accounting information. Offline accounting software, you also get complete ownership of all the tools and do not need to worry about your monthly subscription.
Advantages of Offline Accounting Software
- Better control over your financial data with the help of self-hosted servers.
- Can access most critical data even if you are not connected to the internet.
Disadvantages of Offline Accounting Software
- Offline accounting software does not have the option to encrypt your data automatically. You have to do it manually.
- It saves all your data locally on the system, which requires a lot of free space.
- Only the person on whose system the software has been installed can readily access it with offline accounting software. Thus, limiting the access of other team members.
- Offline accounting software updates have to be done manually.
What is Online Accounting Software?
Online accounting software needs a constant internet connection to work properly. However, it supports a high degree of automation and helps send invoices to third-party vendors or suppliers and receive them as well.
Since online accounting software stores your data on a remote cloud server, that can be accessed virtually anywhere as long as you are connected to a stable network.
Advantages of Online Accounting Software
- Data gets encrypted automatically — no need for manual intervention.
- It is perfect for carrying out online transactions. You can easily link your bank accounts with the software for processing payment.
- You or your accountant can easily share the books with other accountants or authoritative people.
- It can be easily integrated with cloud-based software.
- Online accounting software receives automatic software upgrades without any need for manual intervention.
Disadvantages of Online Accounting Software
- If you are not connected to the internet, there is not much that you can do with online accounting software.
Examples of Offline Accounting Software
Here is some of the best offline accounting software popularly used by retail stores and SMBs.
- Output BooksWith Output Books, your organization can have simultaneous access for multiple employees. The software is also suitable for managing all your warehouses and branches located across multiple locations.
- AkauntingAkaunting is preferred by companies for syncing accounts and setting recurring bills. The software can be accessed from multiple devices such as phones, desktops, tablets, etc.
- GnuCashGnuCash offline accounting software is suitable for vendor tracking and job costing. GnuCash has an extremely friendly user interface and is available for Linux, Mac OS, Windows, etc.
Examples of Online Accounting Software
Online accounting software has a wider usage across growing businesses. Some of the most popular online accounting software are:
- Wave Accounting SoftwareWave accounting software is known for adding unlimited credit and debit cards to your account. You also have the option of creating professional invoices and sending them to your clients.
A top free accounting software to consider from the start of your search is Wave accounting software. Through this option, you’ll be able to connect unlimited bank and credit card accounts to your books. You’ll also be able to add unlimited income tracking, expense tracking, and guest collaborators for free. Plus, you’ll be able to invoice and scan receipts for free as well.
Be sure to note, though: If you want your invoiced customers to be able to pay online directly through the invoice, you’ll need to pay for that. Wave charges 2.9% + $0.30 for each credit card payment and 1% (with a minimum of $1) for each ACH payment. You’ll also need to pay for payroll through Wave. Depending on where you do business, you’ll pay a monthly base fee of either $35 or $20, plus $4 per employee and contractor on your payroll.
- ZipBooksZipBooks online accounting software is a popular expense management and invoice generation software. It offers intuitive report generation, auto-categorization, and color-coding of different sections of your invoices.
Another top free accounting software for small businesses to consider is ZipBooks. ZipBooks offers all the crucial features of an accounting software—reports, bank syncing, billing, expense management, and invoicing—in one free account.
If you want to offer online payments to your invoiced customers via ZipBooks, you’ll need to do so via Square or PayPal. You’ll pay the standard PayPal rates and Square rates for those transactions.
ZipBooks offers an integrated payroll add-on option with Gusto. Gusto starts at $39 per month, plus $6 per person per month. For a limited time, you can get the Core plan for a discounted price of a monthly $19 base cost for the first six months. Gusto also has a new option for contractor-only employers, who simply pay the $6 per employee rate and no base price.
- SlickPieSlickPie software is known for its automated receipt entries. With this software, you can automatically convert information from receipts into a digital format.
- GiddhGiddh accounting software helps in easy bank reconciliation, which makes checking cash position efficient. With Giddh, you can serve international clients, too, as the software allows you to deal in foreign currencies.
- QuickBooksQuickBooks online accountant is your go-to software if accessing several reports and managing expenses is your business need. The software also offers several features, including invoice building and sending payment reminders.
Offline Vs Online Accounting Software: A Quick Comparison
| Specifications | Offline Accounting Software | Online Accounting Software |
| Data Access | Limited to One System | Access Anytime, Anywhere. |
| Data Security | More security against virus and data theft | Data is end-to-end encrypted. |
| Data Backup | Manual | Automatic |
| Data Import | Majorly supports .csv format | Multiple file format supported. |
| Feature Updates | Needs to be done manually. | Automatic updates are available. |
| Multi-Platform Support | Runs only on the system where it’s installed originally. | Can be accessed from any device. |
| Storage Space | Consumes system storage space | Data is stored on the cloud. |
| IT Infrastructure Cost | Higher as it depends on the system configuration. | No cost as on-premise installation is not required. |
| Bandwidth Requirement | Not dependent on the internet availability | Work is dependent on the smooth internet connection. |
| Uninterrupted Workflow | Only single person can access it. | Anyone in the team can access it as per the license. |
| Real-Time Data Exchange | Becomes difficult if all users are not connected through a LAN network. | Easy online data sharing. |
The answer to this depends largely on the size of your business. If you are an upcoming venture, you can try online accounting software the first time around because you don’t need to establish any internal IT infrastructure.
On the contrary, larger organizations deal with huge data. To maintain its security, they can shift some of the data on online servers and transfer the remaining to on-site servers.
Offline accounting software can be preferred if you own a retail store and create over-the-counter invoices. Or you are conducting business in such a location that encounters frequent network issues.
How to Choose Online Accounting Software?
When comparing different online accounting software options, it’s important that you consider their ease of use, cost, customer support, and full feature list. Many services offer free trials and a variety of pricing options, matched only by the variety in features they offer. Make sure that you choose a provider that has features and extras relevant to you and your business so you don’t end up paying extra for something you do not need.
While many programs boast that there is no accounting experience required to use their software, make sure that you learn about how intuitive the software is and how long it will take to become familiar with using it. The tougher the software is compared to its competition, the more you will want to consider a record of strong customer support, including phone, e-mail, live chat, and forum communities.
Conclusion
Do you have an accounting software to manage your business finances? Can you afford paid software? If you are looking for the most cost-effective and efficient offline accounting software then it is best to try out SmallBusiness Accounting Software. It can be used by a single user and can also be used by multiple users. From the network access not just to the local computer but even from mobile devices like tablets and smart phones and can be used anywhere in the world.