10 Best QuickBooks Alternatives for Small Businesses

Wondering if you really need a bookkeeper and accountant? Not every small business needs a financial pro, but many growing businesses find it’s a good investment to have that expertise in managing finances. It all comes down to deciding if the return you get from having a bookkeeper is worth the investment.

Bank statement lines are fed into your software – it’s automatic, and reduces the amount of data entry and potential mistakes. A University of Hawaii study found that 88 percent of spreadsheets contain errors. Businesses are now choosingaccounting software as a more robust alternative, and here’s why. The bottom line with this sunsetting is that Intuit will no longer support QuickBooks Desktop 2016 software. You’ll need to upgrade to a new version of software if you want to manage your bookkeeping.

When you use cloud-based software, you’ll be able to take advantage of apps that sync with your financial data. Inventory management, invoicing and a whole lot more can take the time and hassle out of small business accounting. Your company’s real-time financial data is kept in one central place – online, in the cloud.

There are plenty of other competitive and comprehensive programs ready and willing to compete with this accounting giant. Make managing the financial side of your business easier. Instead of wading through piles of paper, software such as QuickBooks requires nothing more than a computer and internet connection to manage your company’s accounting functions easily. Even with those advancements, the last things you may want to tackle at the end of a long week are journal entries.

While Xero isn’t quite to the level of some of the other solutions on the market, it’s close. The accounting software solution is affordable, usable and generally solid. Xero can save you time and simplify accounting by automating tasks. Xero comes with 24/7 email and live chat support and outbound phone assistance at no extra cost.

What accountants think

Once you’ve switched to the newer software, you’ll have access to more features with better, current security measures. This means users can no longer access these features of their desktop software, and you’ll no longer receive any new, critical security updates. This will leave your version of QuickBooks vulnerable to data breaches. QuickBooks Enterprise is designed for the needs of larger businesses, claiming to have 6x the capacity of other QuickBooks editions.

They can help you maximize your tax credits and deductions so you can keep more of your business income. And they make sure your business follows all tax regulations to keep you from facing issues.

A monthly subscription for QuickBooks Online Essentials (the most popular choice, according to Intuit) lists for $26.95 per month. The application compares closely to the $300 version https://bookkeeping-reviews.com/ of QuickBooks Premier. In just one year you’re paying $323 for QuickBooks Online Essentials. Compared to the one-time $300 payment you would’ve made for QuickBooks Premier.

Zoho Books is the best accounting software for freelancers, sole proprietors, consultants, artists and home businesses. Here’s a full list of accounting software vendors and a summary of what each company says it offers. To determine the best accounting software for small businesses, Bookstime Services we spent dozens of hours researching the top applications. If you use a free accounting software app, there’s an assumption that you’re using a lesser product. Wave delivers fantastic features, including automated tasks related to invoicing and payment reminders.

The Enterprise edition scales up to 30 users, supports up to 1 million list items, and offers advanced reporting, https://bookkeeping-reviews.com/ inventory and printing. SlickPie provide basic expense management for start-ups and small businesses.

Become a certified QuickBooks Pro advisor – In addition to the user certificate course, Intuit also offers a course for those looking to manage accounting for businesses. This is an 80 hour course that is more intense than the “User” course. An exam must be taken for each of the 10 sections in each of the four main areas.

You would install the software on your desktop computer or on your server. You could purchase QuickBooks Premier for about $300 and install it on just about any Windows 7 or 8 machine. Like Intuit’s other desktop products, QuickBooks Premier is now all Financial Accounting the way at the bottom of the products page, overshadowed by its QuickBooks Online offerings. Once upon a time, not very long ago, it was a different experience buying software. Take QuickBooks, the popular small business accounting system, for example.

You’ll find some solutions that excel at invoicing but offer nothing in terms of accounting solutions. Other solutions feature solid accounting services, but the invoicing tools are comically bad. It can seem nearly impossible to find that perfect middle ground. Luckily, FreshBooks made a solution that hits the sweet spot.

• One of the great things about QuickBooks—both Desktop and Online—is you don’t have to be an accountant to set up or use the program.
• You can track your income and expenses, scan receipts with your iPhone or Android phone, connect your bank accounts, create financial reports, and more.
• I’ve found I actually get faster response times from them than from Quickbooks – and I don’t need to spend the intervening interval listening to hold music.
• But if to follow it, I will get extra transaction of $5.44cad in my Canadian account, that does not exists in real bank statement and as such account reconciliation will not work.
• The company uses Amazon Web Services to store its data.
• SlickPie is also the only no-cost accounting program to offer automated data entry, through its tool, MagicBot.

QuickBooks is a fine product and Intuit is a fine company. Intuit is no different than any other large software manufacturer intent on growing profits. And small businesses, like it or not, are definitely migrating to the cloud. Back in the day, you would go to the office supply store, or order the software online and it would be delivered to you in a box.

In total, this includes 40 tests plus the general exam, which must pass with a score of 80 percent or more. Excel was simply not built to replace accounting software – so it’s time to give your business the room to grow and succeed, without restrictions. If you’re still unsure about whether your business has outgrown spreadsheets, take this 2-minute quiz to find out.

And you may tend to focus on things such as sales, marketing, and customer retention since those are the things that bring in more money. Financial tasks such as tracking expenses and balancing books can pull you away from other revenue-generating activities, which can affect your bottom line. If you have doubts about whether to hire someone to help with accounting tasks, look for the telltale signs that it’s time to take that step. The main role of an accountant is to make sense of all accounting data you collect.

Set up bank feeds in Xero

When you start a business, accounting software is one of the first business applications you need to buy. Choosing the right one is important, because you’ll use it every day to track the money coming in and going out of your business. QuickBooks is the best accounting software for small business.

Wave is a legitimate accounting software solution that just so happens to be free. Mac users will be absolutely thrilled with Xero, as it gives them access to fantastic features they might not normally have access to when using Macs.

Should you run into a problem, you can call the company to receive help fast and free of charge. That’s ideal for small business owners who need advice instantaneously.

At tax time, accountants file taxes for your business. QuickBooks is one of the most famous accounting software in the market. California-based financial software company Intuit released the first version of the software in 1998 to cater for the need of simplified accounting platforms. Today, QuickBooks, according to the company, holds an estimated 85% of the retail market. In the long term, cloud applications are significantly more expensive for small businesses.

Shoeboxed syncs with many of the top accounting software we recommended here, including QuickBooks, Wave, and Xero. GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping is an easy-to-use bookkeeping software program perfect for small-business owners who don’t need more than the basics. Although FreshBooks is popular, it costs more than the other accounting apps—the $10 monthly fee for each user adds up quickly. Also, it doesn’t have a built-in inventory management feature, but it does integrate with inventory apps like BarCloud.

You might rush through the entries, doing it once and doing it inaccurately. Without a second set of eyes on your work or someone to focus solely on accounting, errors can lead to lost revenues and higher tax bills.

It gives you all the necessary features in an accounting and invoicing software application. While it’s not as comprehensive as some of the other options on the market, FreshBooks offers tremendous value as an accounting software solution with strong invoicing capabilities. If you need to create and send invoices, it can be ridiculously challenging to find a small business accounting software app that matches your needs.

We also use this software for bookkeeping outsourcing work. Interested in learning more about how to make accounting software work for you? See our piece on useful accounting tips for small businesses for more help. Shoeboxed technology scans the receipts, turns them into digital files, and automatically files them for easy access. Digital-only plans start at $9 a month, and plans that include digital and paper documents start at $29 a month.

That info helps your accountant produce financial reports that allows you to make better business decisions. For example, your accountant might help you forecast your business’s cash flow, analyze its financial health, and spot business trends that can increase your revenue. If you have high revenue but low profit, your accountant can look at the accounting data to figure out what’s happening. They might spot costs that eat into your profits, which you can cut to improve your cash flow. You can also look to your accountant for small business tax-related advice.