What do you know about the best accounting software for small businesses? Answering this question is like finding out what business cloud software is best. Because there are lots of advantages to small company accounting software such as best payroll packages and w2 services, you need to learn lots of things before making a purchasing decision. For example, if you’re looking for cloud based small business accounting software, then what do you know about the leading cloud accounting systems? There are plenty of good ones and some outstanding ones too. You simply cannot evaluate until you know.
What is the best accounting software for small business? What is the easiest accounting software for small business? The answer to these two questions will always depend on what you need your software to do. Here are the top best accounting software for small business for which you can choose.
FreshBooks
FreshBooks offers a well-rounded, intuitive, and attractive double-entry accounting experience that supports invoices and estimates; expenses; time tracking; and projects. It anticipates the needs of freelancers and smaller businesses well—better than its competitors in this class.
PROS
- Double-entry accounting
- Delightful user experience
- Detailed client records
- Team collaboration and time tracking tools
- Estimate and retainer functionality
- Inventory tracking
- Supports proposals and projects
- Automatic mileage tracking on iOS
CONS
- Minimal setup help
- Some dashboard deficits
- Limited invoice customization
- Mobile apps lack some site features, interface excellence
- No quarterly tax estimates
Xero
We love Xero for its robust features and low starting price. For just $11 a month, Xero lets you send custom invoices, reconcile bank transactions, capture receipts for easier record keeping, and track inventory.
But as a small-business accounting tool, Xero really stands out on the collaboration front. Unlike nearly every other accounting solution (including QuickBooks and FreshBooks), all of Xero’s accounting and inventory software plans include unlimited users. You don’t have to pay extra to delegate responsibilities like bank reconciliation or expense tracking to another team member: time-saving collaboration is built into your price.
However, Xero’s $11 a month plan limits you to entering only five bills and sending only 20 invoices a month. You can send unlimited invoices and quotes with only the Growing and Established plans, which start at $32 and $62 a month, respectively. Plus, you can only track expenses with the priciest plan—both QuickBooks and FreshBooks offer small-business expense tracking up front.
Oracle NetSuite
Oracle’s NetSuite is a great choice for small business owners who want to get a complete picture of their business while automating aspects of accounting. With this software, you can manage all aspects of your business from one dashboard, making NetSuite our pick for the best accounting software with enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools.
NetSuite is a full-featured accounting and ERP program geared toward businesses with more complex needs. You can make and receive payments, run a slew of reports and manage taxes. NetSuite has embraced automation, making it easy to send invoices and receive payments, and it has robust tax management tools that support all currencies and exchange rates. If you have international sales, the software automatically processes sales and payments based on the local laws you’re selling or operating in. There’s also a revenue recognition management solution that helps business owners meet accounting standards and report financial results on time.
Cash flow management is also simple thanks to a robust set of features that provide insight into your cash, making it easier to optimize cash, control bank accounts and remain compliant with rules and regulations. NetSuite’s payment management system centralizes payments, while the planning and budgeting features unify data to help you plan. It’s also easy to create budgets and forecasts, plan for what-if scenarios and run reports on many aspects of your business. To keep you in control, NetSuite lets you set permissions.
NetSuite also has numerous ERP tools to manage finances, inventory, production and the supply chain, and the ERP functionality also helps you plan for the future. Because NetSuite comes with so many features and tools, it’s difficult to get an accurate price without reaching out to a NetSuite sales representative. There’s an online form you can fill out to set up a free demonstration.
NetSuite may not make sense if you are self-employed or a microbusiness without complex needs. But if you require a more holistic approach to accounting and want to be able to budget, plan and forecast, NetSuite deserves serious consideration.
Intuit QuickBooks Online
Intuit QuickBooks Online is still the best online accounting application for small businesses, thanks to its depth, flexibility, and extensibility. It’s easy to use, well designed, and built to serve a wide variety of users. It’s also expensive, however.
PROS
- Excellent user interface and navigation
- In-depth contact records and transaction forms
- Project profitability
- Customizable reports
- Comprehensive payroll support
- Supports hundreds of add-ons and integrations
- New cash flow pages
- New hybrid sales tax option
CONS
- Expensive
- Auto-categorization not very accurate
- Online support improved, but still lacking
- Mobile apps not comprehensive
Wave
For exactly $0, Wave presents you with a slick, user-friendly dashboard and a slew of features that rival those of its paid competitors. For instance, Wave Accounting includes multi-currency support, expense tracking, unlimited invoicing, and double-entry accounting—a more accurate method of accounting that FreshBooks’ basic business accounting plan notably lacks.
Wave also lets you juggle multiple businesses with the same account. If you’re an Amazon or eBay seller who also manages a small team of contractors, you can track both sets of finances without paying anything.
Even though Wave has a useful payroll tool, its accounting software isn’t necessarily right for businesses with dozens of employees. Since Wave offers just one accounting plan, businesses can’t scale up to plans with more features as they grow. And Wave’s lack of inventory tracking makes it better matched to service-based solopreneurs and freelancers who don’t need both accounting and inventory software.
Zoho Books
Microbusinesses need simple accounting software, and that’s where Zoho Books comes in. Zoho Books offers all of the basic features that microbusinesses need, as well as advanced tools such as project billing and time tracking. It also has integrations, so you can continue using the software as your business grows. We selected Zoho Books as the best accounting application for microbusinesses because of its simplicity and value.
With its Apple, Android and Windows mobile apps, Zoho Books makes it easy for business owners to send invoices and manage their books on the go. There are even dedicated apps for the Apple Watch and Android smartwatches. The ability to create and send invoices from the app means that, as soon as you finish a job, you can bill a client, instead of waiting to get back to the office.
When you use simple accounting software, you don’t want an outdated user interface or features that are so basic you can’t glean important business insights from the data. That’s what makes Zoho Books stand out: While the platform is easy to use, it doesn’t lack features, and the interface is modern and sleek. It can also speed up many business processes via automation, which is a nice time-saving feature.
You can set recurring invoices and send automatic payment reminders, and if you link your payment processor with Zoho Books, you can accept payments in invoices. You can automate reporting, too; Zoho Books lets you schedule when to run reports and then automatically emails them to you.
Another feature that sets Zoho Books apart from its rivals is the company’s client portal, a website your customers can visit to view invoices, make comments and pay online. This is a particularly helpful feature for businesses that work closely with their clients on projects. If you want feedback from your customers, you can set up the portal to allow them to review your services.
Zoho also has its own suite of integrated business apps, including customer relationship management (CRM) software, email marketing and social media marketing solutions, spreadsheet editors, and other productivity tools. Like its competitors, Zoho Books integrates with third-party productivity apps and business solutions, including Google apps, the Square point-of-sale (POS) system, several credit card processors, and tax services Tax1099 and Avalara. It also has a Zapier integration, which allows you to connect to more than 1,000 third-party apps. With all those features and services, it’s easy to see why Zoho Books is our pick for the best accounting software for microbusinesses.
September 2021: Aiming to help small business owners as they emerge from the pandemic, Zoho made its Zoho Invoice platform free to its customers. In addition to sending bills, the software lets you track time, manage project billing, and access more than 30 features and tools to help you get paid and collect past-due bills.
Conclusion:
Running a small business has its own set of hurdles. You have to learn from your mistakes and from those of others. This is why small business owners must have the right accounting software in place so they can get an idea of how their business performs financially. With accounting software, you don’t need any prior experience because the task is automated. There are so many accounting software out there, but not all can handle the tasks you need to get done. Run some tests to find out what is the easiest accounting software for small businesses and how it can help you get through your day-to-day task.