Accounting software helps small business owners track their financial accounts, income and expenses, prepare for tax season and keep tabs on financials easily. For many small businesses, software is the more affordable alternative to hiring an accountant, a bookkeeper or a large firm to manage their accounting, tax preparation and payroll processes. However, with so many options on the market today, choosing the right solution can be a challenge.

You can set up Kashoo in 60 or so seconds, and the app immediately starts to categorize your expenses and learn your business spending habits. Like Zoho Books, Kashoo’s automation is its selling point—and unlike Zoho Books, it syncs with SurePayroll, one of our top payroll providers. But while FreshBooks doesn’t limit your invoices, it does limit the number of customers you can bill each month. You can send your customers an unlimited amount of invoices, but the cheapest plan limits that client number to just five. Ideally, your accounting software will make your day-to-day routine easier through automation. Here are some key factors to consider when researching and choosing the best accounting software for your small business.

Zoho Books: Best Accounting Software For Mobile Apps

1. As I tested the software, it was clear that the platform was designed primarily for the purpose of storing financial documents.
2. We suggest starting with the Free plan—if you only need one user—and then deciding later if you want to upgrade for the additional banking features.
3. All in all, once I got past the learning curve surrounding account navigation in Zoho Books, I found the software to be feature-rich and with plenty of convenient tools to make completing tasks intuitive.
4. Pricing, mobile app, and ease of use are the other weaknesses of Sage 50.
5. FreshBooks makes it simple to collaborate with your accountant through its shared access tools.

Choosing the best small business accounting software depends on your tlm support 2021 business’s unique needs. Of course, it’s essential to consider things like security, accessibility, and customer support options, but finding the right match means assessing your business’s specific requirements. Although it’s not exactly accounting software, we chose QuickBooks Solopreneur (formerly QuickBooks Self-Employed) because it offers easy bookkeeping and tax support for freelancers.

All feedback, positive or negative, helps us to improve the way we help small businesses. Discover BusinessLoans.com’s lender network offering up to $3M in funding, no minimum credit score required. Read our QuickBooks Online pricing post to learn more, and don’t forget to check if Intuit is running any sales promotions. The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey. We weighted each category equally to derive our star ratings, along with our accounting expert’s opinion and advice.

How We Evaluated the Best Small Business Accounting Software

Finally, there are many online resources, such as accounting forums and blogs, that can teach you how to use accounting software. Once you’ve sent your invoice, you can then track invoices to ensure they’re paid, run reports that show the age of each outstanding invoice and apply invoice payments to specified transactions. Once I filled in the form using drop-down selections or by manually entering text into the field, I simply had to click “approve and email” to send it. Along the top of the interface is a menu with options such as “business,” “accounting,” “projects” and “contacts.” When you click a menu option, you are given a list of options.

Wave Features

AccountEdge has a 4.3-star rating on Capterra with 93 user reviews and a 3.7-star rating on G2 with 23 reviews. Users say that after a small learning curve, the software is easy to use and navigate. They also like that it has lots of reporting features and easy data backup capabilities. Xero is a good choice for small businesses that are looking for an accounting software with payroll capabilities. The software is also a good fit for businesses that are growing quickly and need to track projects and organize their documents efficiently.

You will also want to choose software that uses the accrual basis accounting method for recording transactions. It’s a more detailed (and therefore more involved) method of accounting, but for many businesses — especially those tracking a large amount of inventory and those in need of a business loan — it’s the preferred method. Robust feature set includes thorough record-keeping, comprehensive reporting, excellent invoicing and inventory management, plus a capable mobile app. All in all, I would say that this software is easy to use but I would have preferred it included some features it lacked, such as the ability to send payable invoices from the platform.

FreshBooks was originally engineered as an invoice creation and tracking project to help small businesses and solopreneurs get paid faster. Nearly 20 years after its creation, the accounting software still focuses on helping business owners get paid quickly and accurately. Features like recurring invoices, automated payment reminders and online payments make it easy for clients to pay how they like. We reviewed several cloud accounting software providers using a detailed methodology to help you find the eight best payroll services for small businesses. Our ratings considered factors that included starting price, price range, multiple essential accounting features, reviews by actual customers and scoring by our panel of experts. FreshBooks is one of the best small business accounting software options on the market—and for good reason.

For more information, including a downloadable checklist, read our ultimate guide on accounting software implementation. It provides granular tracking of inventory items and costs through location, category, and stock tracking. However, AccountEdge took a hit in ease of use because of the difficulty due to its outdated interface. It can be overwhelming, and though one can get accustomed to it, that will take time.