Each year, business owners are faced with new challenges and the numerous tax adjustments related to changing tax laws. This fact has had an impact on the tax accounting industry. Tax accounting software must be flexible enough to adjust to ever-changing laws, rules, and regulations.
Here are the most used tax accounting softwares.
Jetpack Workflow
Jetpack Workflow is a tool designed for accountants and bookkeepers to ensure that client work never falls through the cracks. It’s built to help you grow by standardizing your workflow and giving you a bird’s eye view of your firm.
Jetpack Workflow’s features:
- Easily deploy workflow for new clients
- Set up recurring jobs and duplicate them across your clients
- Assign tasks and collaborate as a team
- Dashboard that lets you manage what your staff are working on
- Email digest so you can stay on top of your upcoming jobs/tasks
Jetpack Workflow’s pricing: $40 (USD) per user/month
CCH iFirm
CCH iFirm is a complete practice management suite tailored specifically for accountants/CPAs. It gives you visibility across your workflow, performance and efficiency of your firm. Wolters Kluwer says that you’ll free up more time so you can deliver better work to your clients.
CCH iFirm’s features:
- Workflow automation with recurring jobs means you’ll save time and ensure nothing is missed
- Simple email marketing automation built in
- iFirm Documents allows you to access all of your client documents from the cloud
- Better collaboration with the client portal
- Dashboard that reports on all aspects of practice performance
CCH iFirm’s pricing: Starting at $999 annually for 1-3 users
Pascal Workflow
Pascal Workflow is a practice management and workflow software built specifically for tax and accounting firms. They are trying to become a full practice management suite that includes everything from making the sale and client onboarding to managing projects.
Pascal Workflow’s features:
- CRM so you can track communication with your clients
- Projects and workflow management with automated follow ups
- Document management so all of your client documents are in a single place
- Ability to accept payments from clients
Pascal Workflow’s pricing: Freemium with paid plans starting at $55 per user/month
Thomson Reuters Onvio
Onvio is a full practice management solution for accountants and tax professionals. Thomson Reuters is trying to include every tool that a practice needs to manage their back office. The Onvio suite has a big emphasis on mobility, giving you and your staff the tools you need everywhere you go.
Onvio’s features:
- Full featured tax and billing built-in
- Project manager
- Document management that integrates Dropbox and Google Drive
- Client portal
- The tax module helps you save time lodging tax forms
Onvio’s pricing: Contact for pricing
Financial Cents
Financial Cents is an accounting practice management solution that helps firms manage their staff and hit their deadlines. It allows you to collaborate with your staff easily and track the status of client work to ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
Financial Cents features:
- Workflow dashboard to easily track the status of client work
- Built-in team collaboration to keep everyone in the loop
- Time tracking for billing, capacity planning, and tracking team productivity
- Ability to automate client data collection with automated client requests
- A Client CRM to store all your client information in one place
Financial Cents’ pricing: Starting at $23 per user/month
Canopy
Canopy is a tax practice management software that gives you one place to manage your contacts, documents, notes and tasks. Their software is modern and looks great. With their tax resolution module, it’s a great option for tax practices.
Canopy’s features:
- Unlimited client document management
- Client portal so they can easily share documents
- Penalty abatement assistant so you can see what your clients are eligible for
- Custom workflow templates so you can track progress across your firm
- Engagement letter generator for easy client onboarding
Canopy’s pricing: Starting at $99 (USD) per user/month
Senta
Senta is a practice management suite that’s trying to cover everything an accounting firm would need. Their goal is to make accounting practices more scalable and more profitable by giving them more time to run their business.
Senta’s features:
- CRM so you can close more deals and manage client relationships
- Easy repeatable workflows and tasks
- Client document management with a built-in secure portal
- Custom dashboard so you can keep an eye on everything happening in your practice
- Integrations with Xero, GoCardless and more
Senta’s pricing: £29 per user/month
BEST OVERALL QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online is the best overall accounting software for small businesses of those reviewed. Not only do the majority of small business accounting professionals use QuickBooks Online, but there are also endless online training resources and forums to get support when needed. All accounting features can be conveniently accessed on one main dashboard, making bookkeeping more fluid and efficient.Pros
- Scalable
- Commonly used by accounting professionals
- Integration with third-party applications
- Cloud-based
- Mobile app
Cons
- Upgrade required for more users
- Occasional syncing problems with banks and credit cards
Intuit’s QuickBooks Online has been the most common accounting software used by small businesses and their bookkeeping and tax professionals. The software is cloud-based and can be accessed through a web browser or through the mobile app.
After the 30-day free trial, the four options for subscription plans include: Simple Start at $25 per month, Essentials at $40 per month, Plus at $70 per month, and Advanced at $150 per month. Typically there is a significant discount offered for the first few months, and some accountants are able to offer wholesale pricing to small businesses, as well.
The monthly subscription for this software can be upgraded as a business grows, and there are many customization options with the mobile app that can be used to receive payments, review reports, capture an image of a receipt, and track business mileage. For businesses looking for a payroll solution, QuickBooks Payroll fully integrates with QuickBooks Online.
Each plan offers more advanced features like inventory management, time tracking, additional users, and budgeting. Most service-based small businesses will find that Simple Start meets all of their needs. For product-based small businesses, Essentials or Plus will have more options for inventory and customizations. The Advanced subscription is a new offering and provides robust financial reporting that is powered by Fathom. Fathom is an elite online financial report analysis tool used by many large companies all over the world.
All plans allow integration with third-party apps such as Stripe or PayPal. QuickBooks Online’s app store breaks down all of their apps by function and provides helpful examples of the benefits of each app.
BEST FOR MICRO-BUSINESS OWNERS Xero
Xero is the best in our review for micro-businesses that are looking for very simple accounting software. This software has a clean interface and also fully integrates with a third-party payroll service. Businesses can collect payment online from customers through Xero’s integration with Stripe and GoCardless.Pros
- Cloud-based
- Mobile app
- Payroll integration with Gusto
- Third-party app marketplace
- Simple inventory management
Cons
- Limited reporting
- Fees charged for ACH payments
- Limited customer service
Xero was founded in 2006 in New Zealand and now has over 2.7 million users worldwide. This accounting software is popular in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Xero has over 3,500 employees and is growing rapidly in the U.S., as well.1
Xero offers three monthly subscription options and a full-service payroll add-on: Early at $11 per month, Growing at $32 per month, and Established at $62 per month. The full-service payroll option is offered through Gusto and is an additional $39 per month, plus $6 per employee. The company offers a 30-day free trial and a promotion for 50% off for two months.
The Early plan limits usage and only allows entry for five invoices or quotes, five bills, and reconciliation of 20 bank transactions per month. This limited plan may be suitable for a micro-business with high-ticket transactions, but only a few per month, such as a consulting or small service provider. Both the Growing and Established plans offer unlimited invoices, bills, and transactions. The only difference between the two is that the Established plan has additional features like multi-currency, expense management, and project costing. All three plans offer Hubdoc, a bill and receipt capture solution.
Conclusion
Tax software is used to tweak or modify your tax information to reduce or eliminate penalties that may be levied for late filing or incorrect filing. The tax management software often features improved filing capabilities, improved e-filing support, tax research tools and so much more. Managing taxes has never been easier! These tax software products are designed to solve all the problems you encounter in your financial life in one easy-to-use program. Tax software can even help in accounting, calculating payroll taxes, and other aspects of payroll including child care, health care, retirement plans and employee benefits.