This is a list of the best accounting software in 2022. By giving some of the advantages and disadvantages of each software and user interface, we have compared various software programs and found the best of the best. The top three are; Quickbooks (Best Overall), Freshbooks (Best for Invoicing), and Xero (Best for Growing Businesses).
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks is great accounting software for small businesses. The software provides endless online training and is a popular choice among many small business owners when it comes to online bookkeeping software. The user interface is intuitive to use and easy to set up.
QuickBooks offers many different plans at different prices to fit your needs. The more you pay for your plan, the more options you will have with running reports for your businesses and the more users that are allowed. For example, the Simple Start plan is $25.00 a month and allows 1 user. The plan offers mileage tracking, receipt scanning, invoicing, cash flow management, and 1099 contractor tracking. The Essentials at $50.00 a month allows for 3 users and includes everything that Simple Start has plus bill management and time tracking. The Plus plan is $80.00 a month, allows for 5 users, and has everything that Essentials provide plus inventory tracking and project tracking. And finally, there is the Advanced plan at $180.00 a month. It allows for 25 users and has everything that the Plus plan does plus batched invoices and expenses, workflow automation, and additional customizations.
An advantage of QuickBooks is that it is easy to set up yourself but it does provide for expert setup if you don’t want to set up the software. For a one-time fee of $50.00, a bookkeeper will walk you through the setup process.
Some of the disadvantages of QuickBooks is the high pricing. It has some of the highest-priced plans of that for online bookkeeping software, which can be a large monthly expense for small business owners. Another issue with QuickBooks is that the customer service experience needs to be improved. It has very low customer service satisfaction ratings.
FreshBooks Accounting
FreshBooks Accounting is a great bookkeeping software for small businesses and freelancers. It has great customer service reviews. It also provides for customizable invoicing. However, FreshBooks isn’t an ideal program for fast-growing businesses because of user and client limits.
The pricing of FreshBooks is fairly reasonable. For example, the Lite plan is $15.00 a month and provides a number of features including, unlimited and customized invoices, and unlimited expense entries. Acceptance of credit card payments and ACH bank transfers online. It has automated bank import and unlimited time tracking. The Plus plan is $25.00 a month and offers everything that the Lite plan has but also includes double-entry accounting reports, unlimited proposals, and covers 50 billable clients and client retainers. The Premium plan is $50.00 a month and has everything that the Plus plan features as well as covering unlimited billable clients, customized email templates and signatures and information about project profitability. Finally, at custom pricing, the Select plan has everything that the Plus plan has with additional features such as access for two team members and a personal account manager.
Some of the advantages of this software are that it has well-rated customer support that is available by phone and email. It has good invoicing services, which has set it apart from its competitors. It allows you to set up customizable designed invoicing, and recurring digital invoices, easily include discounts, and get instant updates about the invoices such as when a bill has been paid.
Some of the disadvantages of this software are that it has limits on the number of users and clients. There is no bank reconciliation or accountant access in the lowest-tier plan and it does not provide for quarterly tax estimates.
Xero
Xero is cloud-based accounting software that allows users to access it from anywhere. It’s fairly popular in that it has unlimited users with all of its plans and can integrate multiple different apps to allow for more customization.
Xero’s Early plan is $12.00 a month and allows users to send quotes and up to 20 invoices, enter up to five bills, automate bills and receipt capture with Hubdoc, reconcile bank transactions and set up online bank feeds, basic inventory management, reporting and send purchase orders. The Growing plan is $34.00 a month and provides all features in the Early plan plus unlimited invoices, quotes, and bill entries, and the ability to bulk reconcile transactions. The Established plan is $65.00 a month and has all the features of the Growing plan plus works with multiple currencies, project tracking tools for recording time and breaking down job costs, claim expenses, and advanced analytics tools for predicting future cash flow.
A few of the advantages of this software is that it provides unlimited users with each subscription level. You can also set permission levels for each user. It also has customizable reports and dashboards to help transform the data you enter into actionable information at all subscription levels.
Some of the disadvantages of this software are that there is no phone number for customer support. This is a serious drawback if you need help with the software and can’t wait for someone to answer an online request. It also has limits on bills and invoices in the entry-level plan. You can only send up to 20 invoices and schedule up to five bill payments.
Zoho Books
Another cloud-based accounting software that allows for managing company finances from anywhere. It provides for the automation of workflows and can help users work collectively across different departments. It’s a popular option for accounting software for small businesses and has real-time tracking of projects for customer invoicing.
Zoho books offer four different plans, which include a free plan for businesses that have less than $50,000 in annual revenue. The Free plan only supports one user and one accountant. The standard plan is $20.00 a month and it supports up to three users. The professional plan is $50.00 a month and it supports up to five users. The premium plan is &70.00 a month and it supports up to 10 users.
Some of the features that Zoho Books include are accounts receivable and accounts payable automation, including automated invoice creation and payment reminders. The ability to auto-charge customers for recurring payments and auto-generated reports.
Wave Accounting
Wave accounting is a free online accounting that doesn’t require any downloads. It provides invoicing, billing, payment tracking, payroll management, finance management, credit card processing, and receipt scanning. It is designed to help businesses streamline bookkeeping processes. Businesses can manage all bank account and credit card information in real time. It also allows businesses to generate reports that include various data such as sales tax, balance sheet, cash flow, profit/loss, and more.
One of the advantages of Wave Accounting is that it doesn’t require downloading and is accessible from any web-connected device. Data can also be imported from other apps, such as QuickBooks. The online interface allows users to access visual dashboards, view reports and have invoicing tools right from their devices.
A few cons about Wave Accounting are that the customer service rating is low. It also has issues working with certain browsers.
Intuit QuickBooks
Intuit QuickBooks is simple and easy to use. It is a good choice for small business owners who may not have the time to learn about more complex accounting work. QuickBooks also offers a service called QuickBooks Live, which can help answer more comprehensive accounting issues that the regular QuickBooks software can not. QuickBooks Live offers direct access to a team of bookkeeping experts.
There are three levels of service for QuickBooks Live, which comes with a subscription fee for QuickBooks Plus. Plans start at $70.00 per month and can come up to $670.00 per month depending on the type of services and bookkeeping a business may need.
Some of the advantages of QuickBooks is that users have access to experienced bookkeepers and custom setups. It can handle advanced accounting tasks and is structured and automated. Some of the disadvantages are that it may be cheaper prices from external firms and it doesn’t support accrual accounting.
Sage Business Cloud Accounting
Sage Business Cloud Accounting is another cloud-based accounting program that provides businesses with an easy interface that is supported by many different browsers. It provides for dependable inventory tracking and can produce some attractive reporting through Sage Intelligence. While it is easy to use, one of the cons of Sage is that it lacks some basic features such as payroll and recurring bills which can be essential for small business management.
Pricing with Sage can be as low as $10.00 a month, which allows for one user and provides for sending invoices and reports. At $25.00 a month, there can be unlimited users and Sage offers more features such as quotes and estimates.
AccountEdge Pro
AccountEdge Pro is accounting software designed for small and growing businesses. Its interface allows for a desktop application, but users can still have remote access with the AccountEdge Pro Hosted which allows for access from anywhere there is an internet connection.
Some of the features included in AccountEdge Pro are, accounts, banking, sales, time billing, purchases, payroll, inventory, customer portal, and card file. AccountEdge Pro also provides excellent pricing plans, from Basic, Pro, Priority Zoom, and Priority ERP. The plans range in price from $149.00 a year to $249.00 a year with each additional user license.
Some of the advantages of using AccountEdge Pro are that it does provide customization in reports and the ability to export data into Microsoft Excel. It also has support offered, however, telephone support comes at an additional cost of $199.00 a year.
GoDaddy Bookkeeping
GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping is a software designed for freelancers and small businesses looking to manage and track income, expenses and other transactions. It has an easy-to-use interface and is popular among businesses looking for a cheap monthly cost, as low as $4.99 a month, and easy to use platform. While GoDaddy Bookkeeping is a popular choice for many it does have a few concerns to watch out for. It has a cash-basis accounting. There is only a single user long and it has limited features and integrations.
What Features to Look for in an Accounting Software
When considering what type of accounting software to purchase, you should consider a few things. First, what type of budget are you on? How much are you willing to spend on the software? Another important thing to consider is the ease of use. You want software that isn’t difficult to use and that won’t keep you busy trying to learn how to navigate its interface. You should also consider if the software is compatible with other software. Does it provide customizable features? What about the software’s security? Is your business’s information safe in the software? Customer support is also another thing to consider when choosing accounting software.
What Software do Accountants Use?
Some of the best software used by accountants are QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Online. Accountants use these software for the management of business finances because of the ease of use of the platform and the many features that are available.
Xero Accounting is another popular software used because of the major offerings such as automatic bank and credit card account feeds, invoicing, accounts payable, expense claims, fixed asset depreciation, purchase orders, and standard business and management reporting.
What Accounting Software should be used for Small Businesses?
Small businesses should select software that fits their budget and needs. Some of the more popular accounting software for small businesses include FreshBooks and QuickBooks. FreshBooks provides a responsive mobile app that makes it easier for users to access data from any device and from anywhere. It also provides cloud invoicing, reporting, and payment processing. Quickbooks also provides an online cloud base platform, making it easy for users to access information from any device.
How much does Accounting Software Cost?
Accounting software vendors use two popular pricing models: perpetual licensing (on-premise) and subscription hosting plans (cloud). Perpetual licensing is good for companies that prefer to host their own data. On-premise deployment requires the business to purchase hardware, servers, and other infrastructure, as well as use IT resources to host and maintain the solution. Subscription hosting is good for companies that don’t have the time or resources to host their own solution and can consider deploying it in the cloud. Then they only need to pay a monthly or annual subscription cost.
Accounting Software has a wide range of costs from free to a few thousand a year. It’s important for potential users to do their research to find which product fits their needs for the cost that fits within their budget.
