You’ll still need to issue invoices, collect payments, and pay bills—tasks that most business owners prefer to control. I recommend Wave as the top free accounting software for small businesses. As our overall best free accounting software, it offers free bookkeeping, invoicing, and expense tracking, making it ideal for freelancers and small businesses with straightforward accounting needs.

The efficient way for your clients to thrive

QuickBooks Online isn’t the onlyaccounting software out there, but our research does recommend it for most business needs, even above other top picks like FreshBooks or Zoho Books. For those in specific industries like hospitality, you might also want to consider the best accounting software for hospitality businesses to ensure you’re getting the most relevant features for your needs. By far, the largest headache in preparing a tax return is compiling your income and expenses. If you use QuickBooks during the year, all you need to do at tax time is print your financial statements. Better yet, with QuickBooks Online, you can invite your tax preparer to access your account directly so that they can review your numbers and print whatever information they need to prepare your return. Available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced plans, the inventory management feature helps you track the quantity and cost of your inventory.

• QuickBooks Online — often considered the industry standard for accounting software — is fairly user-friendly, but some basic accounting knowledge will help you get started.
• I checked out online reviews to see if users have positive experiences with the software.
• I evaluated basic financial reports (such as a balance sheet, income statement, and general ledger) and common management reports (like A/R and A/P aging).
• It allows you to connect to your business apps and create reports to gain business insights to make smarter financial decisions for your small business.
• The mobile app is missing essential features like receiving payments, recording time worked, and viewing reports—features that Zoho Books’ mobile app includes.
• The core home page now shows customizable shortcuts, a task list, bank account balances, and more charts and graphs than in the past (including a new one for taxable profit).

Managing Bills and Expenses

QuickBooks Online also excels in inventory accounting and is a bit easier to set Legal E-Billing up and use than Xero. However, if you need more than five users in QuickBooks, you’ll have to upgrade from the Plus plan to Advanced, which increases the price significantly from $99 to $235. Xero offers a cost-effective alternative for companies with inventory, providing unlimited user access with solid inventory accounting at a much lower price.

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When subscribing to this service, you’ll get a 1099 e-file of forms and a next-day direct deposit. If you want to save time and money, using accounting software for your small business is the right choice. QuickBooks accounting software can automate invoicing, track payments and prepare reports so you can free your time and focus on running your business. No, there’s no free version of QuickBooks for businesses, but there’s a 30-day free trial for new users. However, QuickBooks Online Accountant is free for professional bookkeepers. For accounting software with free options, check out our top-recommended free accounting software.

Wave Pro ($16 per month) and Xero Early ($20 per month) are the least expensive alternatives I’ve tested, but they lack many features and some flexibility. A popular add-on is the payroll feature where you can run payroll and access benefits in one convenient place. It does cost more to access this, which is approximately $22.50 more per month plus $6 per employee, per month.

Track and pay bills

Like QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books, it quickbooks accountant tracks inventory levels and automatically allocates costs between inventory on hand and COGS throughout the year. The dashboard and transaction management are great, but the customer and vendor records are a bit slim. Transaction forms, like invoices and expenses, are as detailed as they are on the web. QuickBooks Online moves a big step closer toward using your accounting data to prepare your taxes.

The platform is straightforward and works well for simple accounting needs, but its free nature does come with trade-offs compared with premium options like QuickBooks Online. Those who want to take their accounting on the go will appreciate the mobile app. It brings most of the features of the online platform, plus it enables mileage tracking and receipt capture for quick and convenient recordkeeping. Another cumbersome feature that users don’t like is the requirement that clients must establish their own accounts to pay an invoice.

It lets you invoice customers, pay bills, generate reports, and print reports to be used bookkeeping to prepare taxes. The QuickBooks product line includes several solutions to support different business needs, including QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Payroll, QuickBooks Time, QuickBooks Payments, and QuickBooks Checking. I find Zoho Books impressive, especially its powerful mobile app, which I consider one of the leading mobile accounting apps. It lets me handle advanced tasks like sending invoices, accepting online payments, entering bills, and viewing reports. The ability to create recurring invoices and track time worked is why I think it’s the best accounting software for freelancers.