Easy to use bookkeeping software small business

Read More. Start Trial. Visit Site. Read more below to learn why we chose these options. Good accounting software should be easy to use, have affordable pricing, and have enough features to handle all of your accounting needs.

Here are eight of the best accounting software programs that meet these needs, including Xero, QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and more. FreshBooks used to be an invoicing software with a few bookkeeping tools tossed in. The introduction of double-entry accounting helped propel FreshBooks into a comprehensive accounting solution that will help your business quickly catch and rectify any accounting errors.

The software is incredibly easy to use and free of accounting jargon. FreshBooks is best for small businesses that are looking for simplicity, strong invoicing, proposals, and good customer support.

If you are running a small business, you know that even small accounting problems can lead to major headaches. Most features are included in all plans, so each larger level mainly adds more billable customers. Additional features such as advanced payments and payroll through Gusto are offered as plan add-ons. FreshBooks boasts a straightforward user experience and has an attractive UI.

Setup is simple, and the software takes very little time to learn. This easy bookkeeping software is ideal for small businesses that need to save time on sending invoices, tracking expenses, and creating proposals.

If the simplicity of FreshBooks sounds appealing to you, take the software for a spin with a free trial or read our comprehensive FreshBooks review to learn more. Get Started with FreshBooks. Read our in-depth review. Jump back to comparison chart. QuickBooks Online is a fully-featured accounting software program that is generally easy to use.

QuickBooks Online is best for small businesses looking for a full-featured accounting solution and is ideal for businesses with five users or fewer though you can add up to 25 users for an additional cost. The larger the plan, the more features you can access, and the more users you can have. QuickBooks Online may be a good fit for businesses looking to get the most bang for their buck in terms of features. However, it may be a bit daunting for any businesses that are new to accounting software, as the interface can be unintuitive at times.

Read our comprehensive QuickBooks Online review to learn about all that this software has to offer, or sign up for a free trial to see for yourself. Get Started with QuickBooks Online. Zoho Books offers unbeatable invoicing and strong mobile apps. Recent updates have put Zoho Books on par with QuickBooks Online in terms of features, but with better customer service and a more user-friendly UI, Zoho Books is a great option for small businesses.

Zoho Books is best for small businesses in need of strong online accounting, great mobile apps, and good invoicing. The software is ideal for international businesses. Each plan comes with basic features. With good customer support and a well-designed UI, Zoho Books is easy to learn and use. The best part about Zoho Books is its invoicing offerings.

Zoho Books offers 16 customizable invoice templates, a client portal where customers can pay invoices directly online, recurring invoices, and the unique ability to encrypt invoices. With almost as many features as QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books is an accounting software contender worth considering.

The software is easy to use, and its invoicing features are unbeatable. Great customer support, a good number of integrations, and international features are also perks of the software. If Zoho Books sounds like it might be a suitable choice for your small business, start a free trial, or read our complete Zoho Books review to learn more. Get Started with Zoho Books.

Read our Review. QuickBooks Self-Employed is tax software designed to help freelancers with basic bookkeeping and tax support. QuickBooks Self-Employed is best for freelancers, contractors, and other self-employed individuals and is ideal for managing estimated quarterly taxes and maximizing deductions.

There are three pricing options for QuickBooks Self-Employed. QuickBooks Self-Employed is well-organized and easy to use. The features help simplify estimated quarterly taxes and allow freelancers to manage their expenses and track deductions.

The software is easy to use, and the QuickBooks app allows for quick access to your data. To learn more about this software, read our complete QuickBooks Self-Employed review.

Entirely cloud-based, it covers the basics and includes some attractive automated features and reports. If you need to have more than one person access the system, be sure you factor that into the price. Our pick for: unlimited users. In addition to allowing unlimited users, Xero lets you set up different permissions for each user so employees only have access to what's relevant to their job. By contrast, QuickBooks Online Advanced allows just 25 users and three accounting firms.

The New Zealand-based company, which has accounting software that is a market leader in some parts of the world, is working to make inroads in the U. It offers a full certification program for accountants like QuickBooks does , with more than , accountants and bookkeepers using Xero — which makes it easier for Xero customers to find outside help. Our pick for: low-cost, high-value.

You can create five automated workflows under the basic plan and up to 10 workflow rules in the Professional plan and up. Zoho is perhaps best-known for its customer relationship management, or CRM, and productivity apps, which integrate well with its accounting software.

Our pick for: free option. Price: Free. In addition to its accounting functions, Wave has a separate, free invoicing product that adds unlimited invoices and automated invoice reminders. Most accounting products today are cloud-based and can be accessed through any device with an internet connection, in either a browser tab or a mobile app. This generally allows for easier collaboration with accountants and seamless integrations with other business software.

Some accounting products are still desktop-run and can only be accessed from a certain computer. If accessing your accounting data from anywhere is a priority, look for a cloud-based option.

QuickBooks is almost ubiquitous, but other companies, such as Xero, are making inroads as well. You want accounting software that can grow with your business. If you're planning to scale, look for options that come with comprehensive reporting capabilities and can be upgraded to serve a larger organization with more complicated financials.

If inventory management is a priority, look for a system that comes with useful tracking features or integrates with your point-of-sale system. If you're doing business is multiple countries, look for a product that can handle multiple currencies. If you're not sure whether a product fits your business's needs, try out the free trial offered by most providers. When making the decision on which software to try, price is unlikely to be the deciding factor — but it's important to know what costs to expect and which services are included in the price.

We recently reviewed this page and updated our top bookkeeping picks. All three products offer excellent financial statements and are easy to share with your bookkeeper or accountant. We also added Kashoo to our honorable mention lineup. We recently reviewed this page to ensure our information was entirely up to date.

Bookkeeper software helps you keep your books in order, often more affordably than an in-house bookkeeper. At Business. Its detailed reports and straightforward interface make it a good fit for non-bookkeepers.

Keep reading to learn more about QuickBooks Online and seven more standout bookkeeping options. While bookkeeping and accounting are sometimes used as synonyms, bookkeeping means creating financial records by tracking finances, and accounting means analyzing those financial records. In contrast, you can find bookkeeping-only software, but we only recommend it to freelancers who want to track finances without analytics. Want to learn more about bookkeeping before sorting through your software options?

Check out these resources:. QuickBooks Online sets the standard for bookkeeping software with thorough, easy-to-understand financial reporting. Its cheapest plan includes all the financial reporting basics profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements , plus sales tax and mileage tracking. Pricier plans include reports for accounts receivable and payable, budgeting, inventory, sales, profitability, and more.

As an online cloud-based accounting software, QuickBooks Online was made specifically for non-accountants unlike the clunkier QuickBooks Desktop , which was made for accountants. Its ease of use is hard to match. Plus, if you spend more time traveling to on-site jobs and less time sitting in front of a computer, QuickBooks Online includes a fantastic mobile accounting app. You can use it to create invoices, capture receipts for easier expense tracking, and access the same financial reports displayed on the online interface.

Xero is our top accounting software pick for small-business owners—its ease of use, low starting price, and thorough features set it apart. In contrast to most accounting software, Xero includes unlimited users at no additional cost. You can generate interactive financial reports any time and send them to your key financial collaborators, including business partners or tax advisors.

Even though we generally prefer Xero to QuickBooks, QuickBooks Online remains the most popular accounting software for US-based accountants, bookkeepers, and auditing clerks. For instance, most virtual and outsourced bookkeeping services still use QuickBooks or proprietary in-house software—though some, like Bookkeeper , also sync with Xero. That should make collaboration easier for Xero-using small-business owners who wisely! Sage also offers a lot of support to first-time business owners with minimal bookkeeping experience.

The cheaper plan limits you to basic reports and one user only. In contrast, the pricier plan includes more thorough reporting, unlimited users, and cash flow forecasting.

But Zoho Books goes beyond the basics by offering customizable reports in the following categories:. Zoho also lets you tag reports in ways that are easy for you to sort through, read, and understand. It includes access for one user plus one accountant or bookkeeper, a chart of accounts, and bank account reconciliation.

Bear in mind that the free plan lacks some of the automation that sets Zoho apart, such as automatic recurring expenses and report tags. Want a bit more heft? Still, if you want the convenience of automatic data imports without the accounting complexity of QuickBooks Online , GoDaddy is the way to go. Here are three more bookkeeping picks—including Wave Accounting , which is completely free for life—that might suit you.

Wave Accounting is our favorite free accounting software option for small-business owners. Unlike most paid software, Wave has unlimited user access, including easy access for accountants and bookkeepers. And along with foundational reports like income and cash flow statements, Wave Accounting includes sales tax tracking reports. On the other hand, Wave lets you juggle multiple businesses at no additional cost.

In spite of its excellent reports and recurring invoices, though, FreshBooks falls short in a few bookkeeping areas. By all accounts, Kashoo also has fantastic customer service. QuickBooks Online has some of the best reporting and bookkeeping features money can buy. Want a cheaper, fully featured option?

And if you want straightforward finance tracking without in-depth analytics, GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping can help you with the basics. No matter which software option you choose, remember: bookkeeping is foundational to running a successful business. Want to check out software ranked by accounting features, not just bookkeeping basics? Read through our reviews of the best accounting software options for small businesses like yours. QuickBooks Online is one of the most popular bookkeeping software choices in the US.

Its comprehensive reports are easy for first-time business owners to generate and understand, and it offers more thorough reporting than just about any other software out there. For one thing, it starts at an above-average monthly price. Xero and Wave Accounting are more affordable with similar reporting features.

FreshBooks has much better invoicing with clear, color-based reports. Luckily, most bookkeeping software comes with a free trial. Our top free bookkeeping software recommendation is Wave Accounting.

Published on January 06, Share Article. Updated: 4 weeks ago. View all updates. Best financial software for small businesses. Compare the year's best accounting software. How to choose accounting software. We recommend evaluating each software based on the following criteria: Price.

Accounting software can cost as little as nothing and as much as several hundred dollars a month. Free software usually offers fewer features than paid software, so we recommend it primarily to freelancers, solopreneurs, and businesses with few employees.

Bigger businesses should plan on spending quite a bit more per month—or even on outsourcing to a virtual accountant. Accounting and bookkeeping features. At minimum, accounting software should sync with your business bank accounts to help you track each financial transaction.

Even the most bare-bones financial software should include features like invoicing, expense and income tracking, bank reconciliation , and mileage tracking. Most paid accounting solutions will automatically generate journal entries for your chart of accounts every time you accept a payment or pay a bill.

Some automatically reconcile your bank accounts, and still others automatically sync with your payroll software to keep your accounts in order. The more automation, the more time saved hypothetically, at least —but the more you'll pay for your software too.

User-friendly interface. If you can't figure out how to use your software, the amount of bookkeeping features it has doesn't matter. Before you commit to a plan, sign up for a demo or a free trial to get the hang of the software and find out if the interface simplifies your financial life or complicates it. Number of users. If you're a sole proprietor, you probably don't need to worry about finding software that lets you add multiple users.

Typically, even the cheapest base plans should include access for both you and an accountant for free. But if you aren't the only person responsible for your business's finances, you'll want to look into software that lets you add multiple users, potentially with different permission levels.

Xero is the best overall accounting software. Low starting price. Unlimited users with each plan. Inventory management with each plan.

See Xero's Plans. Read our Xero Review. QuickBooks Online is the most user-friendly accounting software. Extensive accounting features and reporting.

Up to 25 users depending on the plan. Unlimited expense and sales tax tracking with each plan. The basic QuickBooks Online plan includes typical features like invoicing, billing, and receipt scanning along with more comprehensive tracking than many competitors: Mileage tracking Sales tax tracking Automatic tax deduction categorization contractor payment tracking QuickBooks also has the absolute best mobile accounting app you can find.

See QuickBooks' Accounting Plans. Read our QuickBooks Online Review. FreshBooks is the best software for invoicing. Middle-of-the-road starting price. Expense and time tracking with each plan. FreshBooks discounts. See FreshBooks' Plans. Read our Freshbooks Review. Zoho Books is the most comprehensive accounting software. Automatic recurring invoicing. See Zoho's Accounting Plans. Read our Zoho Books Review. Wave is the most affordable accounting software. Wave Accounting.

Free-for-life accounting software. Unlimited users. Income and expense tracking. See Wave's Accounting Plans. Read our Wave Review. Get business accounting right the first time. Learn all about business accounting with our free ultimate guide. Sign Up. Accounting software honorable mentions.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting. GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping. Top feature comparison: Accounting software honorable mentions. Brand name. Sage Business Cloud Accounting: Best user-experience runner-up.

Best user experience. Automatic bank reconciliation. Other Sage products. See Sage's Accounting Plans. Read our Sage Review. OneUp: Best for sales teams. Best for sales teams. Plan-limited users. Unlimited invoicing.