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Originally Posted On: https://bluefireaccounting.com/whats-the-best-bookkeeping-software-for-small-businesses/

 

You might be moving fast, but the business world is moving faster. It can be nearly impossible to keep up with all the transactions and accounting necessities that your business needs all on your own. Whether you’re just starting up a sole proprietorship or you have a booming local business, small business bookkeeping is demanding and stressful. The best bookkeeping software for small businesses is out there, but it’s up to you to decide which features and assistance are most important to you.

You might feel confident in one area but completely lost in another. That’s why we’ve built this list of the top small business accounting software on the market.

Check out these excellent tools for bookkeeping for businesses to find the best fit for you!

Wave: Most Affordable

When freelancers or small businesses are just getting started, they usually have an extremely small budget. Bookkeeping is one of those tasks that can be done on your own manually for free, so entrepreneurs often try to do this to save money. As time goes on, however, bookkeeping gets complicated, confusing, and time-consuming for even the most diligent workers.

Wave offers a completely free platform for entrepreneurs to get started with bookkeeping on a digital platform. Many of the services that other platforms offer for a subscription fee or added charge are offered for no cost with Wave. For simple, small businesses, this platform is a miracle.

Access All The Basics

Wave offers all the basic services that entrepreneurs need just starting. You can get income and expense tracking, invoicing, profit and loss statements, and even receipt scanning.

Wave even has a mobile app, but it is limited. The app is mainly for invoicing, in which you can track the status of invoices.

Unlimited Use

A unique positive of using Wave is that you’ll never be limited to the number of partners, collaborators, accountants, or even accounts that you can add. You’ll have unlimited credit card and bank account connections and any professionals you need to allow access to the platform.

Great Integration Options

Wave allows you to connect your bank accounts so that the platform tracks your transactions for you. You can also connect the software to Stripe, HubSpot’s CRM, Shopify, and more for a charge.

Options for Premium Add-Ons

Wave is there for you as your business grows, and they hope that you’ll begin paying for add-ons as you need them. They offer payroll, payroll tax assistance, and payment processing for invoices. You can even pay for an expert to help with your taxes at the end of the year.

If you’re a small business or freelancer who does not need inventory management or payroll, then Wave is a great affordable way to do bookkeeping.

Freshbooks: Invoicing Expert

Does your business handle tons of invoices? Are your clients from all different places, using different currencies and languages? Freshbooks is best known for its expertise in customizing and handling invoicing.

While other bookkeeping services offer invoicing, Freshbooks does so in a way that allows automation and ease of use. You won’t have to closely handle hundreds of invoices and payment deadlines anymore.

Invoice Customization

Freshbooks allows you to customize unlimited invoices. You can make invoices look and function exactly how you envision, and you can even set up payment reminders. In addition, you can set up Freshbooks to add late fees automatically, which takes a lot of the work out of managing late payments and sending out fees.

Freshbooks allows you to accept payments through the platform as well, so you won’t have to track deposits anywhere else.

Integration of Organization and Tax Apps

If your business is set up with other organization or business software, you can easily integrate Freshbooks. For example, Freshbooks is compatible with other software like Gusto and GSuite.

You can also integrate tax software so that tax filing is made super easy at the end of the year.

Impressive Paid Plans

Freshbooks allows you to choose yearly or monthly plans. You have three set plans to choose from, but you can also upgrade to a Select plan that allows you to customize the plan to your needs and get a dedicated account manager. The three set plans are:

• Lite: $15 per month
• Plus: $25 per month
• Premium: $50 per month

With the Lite plan, you get all the basic features. You can invoice up to five clients while accepting bank transfers and credit card payments. You’ll also have unlimited access to tracking expenses.

If you have more than 5 clients and want to invite your accountant on board, you’ll have to upgrade to the Plus plan. With this plan, you can get automatic expense tracking along with invoicing for 50 clients. For the extra cost, you’ll also get health reports and the ability to set recurring billing.

With a Premium plan, you’ll get to invoice unlimited clients. You’ll also add on bill payment and tracking, project profitability tracking, and more.

If you’re looking for even more, such as the Select plan, you’ll have to book a demo.

Quickbooks: Top Choice

With just one search online for small business bookkeeping software, you’ve likely stumbled across advertisements for Quickbooks. Intuit’s Quickbooks is one of the most popular platforms for businesses big and small for accounting, invoicing, and tax filing assistance. In our opinion, it’s extremely popular because it is the best choice for most entrepreneurs.

Here’s why.

All-Inclusive

Quickbooks is an amazing choice for businesses that need one platform to take care of their entire bookkeeping process. With the most basic plan, a business can easily access accounting, reporting, tax-filing, time-tracking, invoicing, and bill pay.

Depending on your needs, you can choose from four different plans.

• Simple Start: $25 per month
• Essentials: $50 per month
• Plus: $80 per month
• Advanced: $180 per month

Simple Start is a great choice for young startups or freelancers because you’ll get the basic features for only one user. This plan allows you to track your income and expenses as well as send invoices. You’ll also have access to basic reports and general assistance with sales tracking and sales taxes.

If you need more than one person to access the bookkeeping software, you can upgrade to Essentials. This plan allows for three users and includes bill pay and time tracking.

If your business needs help with inventory and some budget assistance, you can upgrade to the Plus plan. This plan offers inventory tracking, project profitability tracking, and allows up to five users.

Finally, more established businesses can use the Advance plan, which allows 25 users and includes exclusive access to premium apps and automation. You’ll even get a dedicated accounts team included.

User-Friendly Interface

Quickbooks is the best DIY option for small businesses because the dashboards, reports, and invoicing tools are all extremely easy to learn and use. You can take full control of your bookkeeping process without needing an extensive understanding of accounting. In addition, Quickbooks cuts down on all the time you’d spend doing everything manually.

Excellent Integration

Quickbooks can be automated so that you never have to input transactions manually. You can integrate your bank accounts and credit cards so that Quickbook monitors all money going in and out. It also manages all your invoices and automatically inputs payments.

For sales, Quickbooks has third-party integrations available as well. You can choose to integrate your PayPal, Stripe, and Square accounts so that all payments and bills are automatically accounted for. You can also use Quickbook’s Payroll service for your employees.

Automation At Its Finest

Further, Quickbooks guides you through an automation process to help you set up rules for the software to follow. As the platform notices trends in your transactions, it will ask you if you’d like to set up a rule so that all future transactions within that trend are filed in a certain way. Soon enough, Quickbooks will be automatically categorizing all your transactions without you lifting a finger.

Not to mention, Quickbooks offers receipt scanning. Not only will you be able to upload and store your receipts for expenses, but Quickbooks will read the receipts and automatically input and match these receipts in your transactions!

On-The-Go Solution

Quickbooks offers a mobile app as well as a browser platform and a desktop app. That way, you can access your Quickbooks account anytime, anywhere. This is especially helpful for scanning receipts, which you can do straight from your phone after purchase.

Xero Bookkeeping

Trying to learn how to use the software on top of learning how to do your accounting is too time-consuming for many entrepreneurs. For business owners that need a quick and easy solution that offers all their basic needs, Xero Bookkeeping is here. Xero Bookkeeping combines simplicity with functionality for small businesses at any stage.

All the Basics

Xero Bookkeeping makes sure to offer all the necessities that small businesses need without overcomplicating the software. With a plan with Xero Bookkeeping, you can take advantage of several services, many beyond what other more complicated software options offer.

First, Xero will give you an overview of your cash flow and accounts payable with easy-to-read reports and charts. That way, you can track your bills and pay them through Xero so that you’re never late. You can get user-friendly reporting of all your assets and transactions.

In addition, Xero allows you to manage invoices and accept payments from clients. The software will keep track of all your open and closed invoices and alert you to any that need your attention. All of these features are part of a larger project tracking feature, which helps you monitor quotes, invoices, and payments as well as time-tracking and costs.

Great Organizational Features

To help you manage all of your business needs, Xero offers many organizational features. Xero allows you to get and keep copies of documents and data without any need for manual entry. In addition, Xero acts as a digital filing system for all your files. Input, manage, and share all your documents, contracts, receipts, and bills safely.

Unlike many other software options, Xero offers contact management. With this tool, you can keep track of all your clients, suppliers, and other business partners. This tool will organize all your sales, payments, and invoices for them in one user-friendly dashboard.

In addition, Xero offers inventory management. Easily track your stock and organize all your orders. Further, if you hire contractors, Xero makes 1099 reporting very easy with customized reports and instant filing.

Handling Money is a Breeze

Xero offers many tools that help you handle your money easily and responsibly. For example, Xero allows you to simplify all your expense claims from employees so you can easily review and approve spending. You can also manage your payroll fast with calculators, deduction tools, and payments.

Uniquely, Xero also provides multi-currency accounting right inside the software. You won’t need to manually convert anything. You can rely on up-to-date exchange rates for 160 different currencies and instantly convert any transaction.

Finally, Xero offers automatic sales tax calculations so that you can track tax expenses and prepare for returns.

Affordable Plans

Xero offers great deals for small businesses that need affordable and easy accounting software. The most basic plan starts at $11 a month. This plan offers the basics but excludes project tracking, expense claims, currency conversions, and bulk reconciling.

The most popular plan goes for $32 a month. It adds bulk reconciliation and short-term cash flow reports to the basic plan.

For established small businesses, the best plan runs for $62. This plan offers all the services available, including in-depth analytics that aren’t offered in the other plans.

If you’d like payroll capabilities, you can integrate Gusto for $39 per month.

Use the Best Bookkeeping Software for Small Businesses

Most of the time, the best bookkeeping software for small businesses is  Quickbooks. That’s because it offers a comprehensive suite of all the essentials for an affordable price. Each business owner has their priorities, however, so make sure to do your research before you commit.

BlueFire Accounting is a leading Quickbooks bookkeeper that can help small businesses tackle any issues, large or small, with their accounting. We have years of experience in Charlotte, NC as the firm that entrepreneurs trust.

To get started with reliable and accurate bookkeeping, contact us!