Not all accounting and invoicing programs have mobile apps, but the best ones do. Some can only capture receipts for expense tracking, some allow you to create and send invoices, and others have almost every feature the web-based software does. It’s worth checking if the software you’re considering offers a mobile app and, if so, what features are included in the app that will help you manage your business while you’re away from the office. Wave Accounting is one of the most fully featured free accounting software options for small businesses. Its user-friendly dashboard, low learning curve, and easy expense tracking make it ideal for freelancers and small-business owners who don’t mind finding another app to manage inventory. It’s also a lot more comprehensive than most other free cloud-accounting software options.

Check out our list of the year’s best QuickBooks alternatives to get started. Additionally, FreshBooks doesn’t include bank reconciliation with its cheapest plan. Since bank reconciliation is an absolutely foundational accounting task, we can only recommend FreshBooks’s cheapest plan to freelancers or brand-new startups with just a few transactions a month.

Best for a Diverse Range of Solutions

We looked at 19 accounting software companies with specialized products for small businesses before choosing our top five software options. We considered cost, scalability, ease of use, reputation, and accounting features. Investopedia collected and analyzed scores of key data points from 19 companies to identify the most important factors for readers choosing accounting software for small business. Investopedia launched in 1999, and has been helping readers find the best accounting software for small business since 2020. QuickBooks Online topped our list for its scalability, training resources, and mobile app. But micro-businesses may find their needs more affordably met by Xero, and self-employed individuals will appreciate the ability to categorize personal and business expenses with QuickBooks Self-Employed.

Billing can be customized to accommodate individual, subscription, and usage-based transactions or some combination of all three. Accounting software offers features for tracking the revenue and expenses of a business. Small business accounting software is also useful for tax management, ensuring you’re accurately estimating all your tax liabilities and saving money accordingly. The best accounting software integrates with other key business systems like payroll software and HR software, eliminating the need to enter the same data manually in multiple systems. Wave is a free accounting service that is designed for small businesses just starting out.

Best Accounting Software For Small Business 2024

Professional, meanwhile, is a full bells-and-whistles experience that offers 500 contacts, 10 users and 10 automated workflows. If you run into trouble, detailed web help and video tutorials are only a click or two away. We found several options to get support, including a community forum, a knowledge base of articles, year end tips, and even a ‘Sage University,’ that should help make any newbie comfortable. However, for direct support, the only option was for a chat, and we did not find a direct phone number, support portal or email. On the topic of support, we should mention that it is essentially a self help knowledge database, along with a support portal. We disappointingly did not find more options for direct support, such as chat, a phone number, or direct email address.

• If these invoice, bank or billing limitations are are an issue then the Xero Growing plan looks like a better deal.
• It also gives you the ability to run financial reports, and it provides you with unlimited accountant connections and transactions.
• This piece of software integrates seamlessly with known business applications, allowing for streamlined processes.
• A couple of examples are AvidXchange’s purchase order module and approval workflow.

It also gives you a daily, rather than monthly, overview of your accounts. A real-time bank-feed feature can assist with reconciliation, which allows you to make it a small daily task rather than a monthly ordeal. Melio is very easy to use, offering one of our favorite user experiences. Melio lets you enter a vendor’s information manually, upload a file with that date or snap a photo of an invoice. You can invite both internal users and accountants to use the software and then assign roles and permissions so you know who is accessing your information and what they are doing with it. You can set approval controls for transactions, thus preventing you from overextending yourself or having a cash flow issue because you paid a bill early.

Related Accounting Software

The company also has additional payroll and bookkeeping services that business owners can access for a fee. Moreover, it doesn’t limit the number of users or rely on third-party apps for customization. However, it may be cost-prohibitive and present a steep learning curve for small businesses that don’t need access to the advanced slate of features it provides. The platform is also easy to set up and use, allowing you to do everything by yourself to get your accounting software up and running.

Today, many small business owners are turning to accounting software to help them organize their information, create reports, complete accounting tasks, and maintain records. But with so many options for these services, how do you choose the right one for your business’s specific needs? In this guide, we’ll go over the best accounting software in 2024, including benefits, prices, applications, and more. It’s another program that is easy for business owners with no accounting experience to use and is quick to set up, reasonably priced, and offers tools and features that are helpful for small business accounting. However, issues with customer service kept it from taking the top spot.

What are the three types of accounting software?

Service-based businesses that want the best invoicing tools and customization will be best-served by FreshBooks. And if you’re looking for a free solution to business’s invoicing and accounting needs, Wave is a good option. Both the Growing and Established plans offer unlimited invoices and bills. The only difference between the two is that the Established plan has additional features like multi-currency, expense management, and project costing. NetSuite’s cloud-based solution integrates and automates your business’s most essential services, from accounting to inventory management, warehouse management to intensive analytics and reporting.

The downside to the free software is the fact it is not as robust as many of its competitors in the cloud accounting software space. Basic features such as inventory management features, customer support, expansive tax services and time tracking, are not available through Wave. 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. Nine years later, it was purchased by H&R Block and has over 250 employees.

Wave Accounting

Depending on your specific needs, certain platforms might have features that make more sense for your business. Look for accounting software with inventory management, project management, payroll, and other advanced features to help simplify your administrative accounting work. QuickBooks Self-Employed, owned by Intuit, business checking account is a basic online and mobile app designed primarily for freelancers or independent contractors who file a Schedule C for tax purposes. Key features include tracking mileage, categorizing business expenses, excluding personal expenses, full integration into TurboTax, and estimated quarterly tax payment calculations.