Every business needs accounting software. But what is the best accounting software in South Africa for small businesses? Should you go for cloud accounting software or install accounting software on your PC? Should it be accounting software that integrates with your ecommerce platform or some other type of accounting software?
There are many financial software providers in South Africa. However, it remains the most difficult task to find the best accounting software for your business. With choice comes confusion.
FNB instant free accounting software
This accounting software is free for FNB business account holders. One of the best all-round free software in South Africa, FNB instant accounting has a variety of features to help you run your day to day business finance.
The software is capable of storing all your clients and creditors and it is linked to your business account. Whenever you make a payment to a third-party you can record the transaction instantly. It helps with managing your employees’ salaries so you can perform monthly debit orders for employees’ salaries and make automatic data captures to relevant accounts.
The software also helps with your VAT calculations, using this function you will cut off your VAT accounting costs and do it yourself. You will be able to pay all your SARS bills using this software such as paying PAYE, Skills Development Levy, and UIF for employees and directors.
GnuCash Free Accounting Software
GnuCash is open-source accounting software and it is freely available to anyone who wants to make use of it. GnuCash is available for Linux, Microsoft, and Mac OS. GnuCash can be optimized to fit South African standards of accounting and has built-in IFRS and GAAP functions. There is more to benefit from using this software and the benefit is not only monetary but also the quality of output that the software offer. Further benefits include
- Double-Entry Accounting
- Stock/Bond/Mutual Fund Accounts
- Small-Business Accounting
- Reports, Graphs
- QIF/OFX/HBCI Import, Transaction Matching
- Scheduled Transactions
- Financial Calculations
If you are looking for multicurrency free accounting software that is linked to your business bank account and offers flexibility then GnuCash is for you.
ZipBooks
ZipBooks offer three accounting sofware solutions and only one is for free. For a very small business with no sophisticated accounts needed to operate your business you might consider ZipBooks as your accounting software choice.
The free ZipBooks software is easy to use and all you to link your business bank account and PayPal account to the software to make accounting easier. However, on a free ZipBooks website, you will have to make reconciliations for yourself since the plan doesn’t cover such. With ZipBooks you will be able to manage unlimited customers and make unlimited invoices for free.
Wave Accounting Software.
Wave Accounting software is among the top 10 free accounting software in South Africa. As a small business owner, you can download this software online. The software offers all the basic bookkeeping features you may need. Wave is special for both freelancers and entrepreneurs. These mostly transact online and thus in need of tracking their income and expenses from multiple clients or businesses as well.
The Wave design is well-thought-out and simple to use. Besides, Their application is completely free, and users are not required to upgrade to a paid plans when using it.
Note that: Wave will always charge you for processing payroll as well as accepting online payments. With Wave, Multiple users can access your data, and you can also connect as many credits and bank cards as you wish at no any costs. To ensure you access all the said features, you will have to enter a few details to create your user Identity Card.
WAVE Free Software as a Canadian based company, operates worldwide and provides software services in finance and small businesses. It’s unarguably one of the best free accounting software in the world.
Some other Wave features include,
- The Wave software is user friendly and thus can easily be used by anyone.
- It can be easily optimized to use the tax framework of South Africa.
In addition to that, WAVE uses International Financial Reporting Standards for financial statements. This enhances reliability especially when it comes to practicing world best standards. As a business owner,you’ll not have to worry about:
- Invoicing needs,
- Payrolls, and accounting entries to the financial statements.
TurboCASH
TurboCASH is a software that has been in existence since April 1985. The developers are always on a mission to make it better for contemporary users. Today, the software can be used to manage both small and medium-sized enterprises.
It handles multiple users, multiple companies, value-added tax, creditors, and debtors. There is a paid option for those who wish to upgrade to access enhanced features such as running TurboCASH from the cloud and PDF reports. Download TurboCASH here.
Akaunting
Talking about free, Akaunting is all free accounting software with no subscriptions involved. Akaunting will help your company to track.
- Cashflow- you will be able to track your company cashflow and how liquid your business is at any given point.
- Invoices- you will be able to track paid and unpaid invoices so that you can make follow-ups if necessary.
- Expenditure – all your expenses will be tracked and you will be able to know where you spend most of your money and if there are any cuts that need to be made.
Palladium Accounting
Palladium offers multicurrency accounting software that uses current accounting processing technology. The software is easy to use and to navigate so learning how to use the software won’t take as much time.
There are no mandatory fees attached to the software application and you can store your data on the cloud. It is a good option for a start-up business with inadequate resources.
Conclusion
In the consulting industry, you deal with a variety of businesses from different industries. As a consultant, I have to manage many parts of a business at the same time. With the technology in an accounting firm becoming more sophisticated, accounting software in South Africa has come a long way in making processes much smoother.
In South Africa, it is very important to have a good grasp of live business affairs from both a sales and expenditure perspective, so as to ensure that the business is behaving as it should. For any business this tracking process steadily becomes a necessity as it grows. With Accounting Software, you can effectively track your earnings and expenditure, see their correlation with sales, and determine whether or not your company is making a profit.