With so many accounting software and invoice generators out there, how is a small business owner to choose from? What do you do when you’re starting a small business and have no idea about accounting?
Our recommendation for small business accounting software:
| Software | Best For |
| QuickBooks Online | Overall Small Business Accounting |
| Wave | Affordability |
| Zoho Books | International Invoicing & Mobile Apps |
| FreshBooks | Ease of Use |
What should small businesses look for in accounting software?
When searching for the best accounting software for your business, it’s important to know what good accounting software should bring to the table. For beginners, ease-of-use, feature set and support should be taken into consideration. What counts most for small business owners, however, is affordability.
Most small businesses are on a fixed budget. Since most of the cloud-based SaaS software is broken down into more affordable monthly payments, you shouldn’t have to break the bank just to keep your finances in check.
we recommend subscribing to cloud-based software which provides customized processes, scalability and pricing flexibility.
While choosing an accounting software that meets all of your business needs, Here are some of the significant characteristics that you should consider:
- Strong Accounting
- Feature Set
- Time-Saving Automations
- User-Friendly Interface
- Good Customer Support
- Affordability
- Integrations
- Strong Security
- Inventory Control
You may measure the importance of each of the above points differently depending on your business needs. However, we find these to be characteristics that make up a powerful accounting solution. The list below should save your product research time significantly.
Plug: TeamWave is an integrated CRM, Project Management & HR platform for small business. TeamWave has deep integration with both Quickbooks & Xero.
1: QuickBooks Online
Best for: Small businesses looking fully-featured cloud accounting software that’s easy to use. Ideal for ten users or fewer.
Pricing:
- Simple Start: $7/month for one user
- Essentials: $17/month for up to three users
- Plus: $30/month for more than 5 users
Quickbooks Online is one of the most popular cloud-based accounting platforms for small businesses — and for good reason. It is one of the top choices for accounting firms with 2 million+ customers.
The Simple Start plan comes with the ability to track your income and expenses, invoice and accept payments, and run basic reports.
If you choose the Essentials plan, you’ll be able to handle your bills and enable multiple users to access your account, as well as track time. The Plus premium plan offers project and inventory tracking and even full-service payroll.
| Pros | Cons |
| Strong accounting | Limited Customer Support |
| Advanced feature set | A little expensive |
| Strong invoicing | Occasionally unintuitive |
| Good mobile apps | |
| 500+ integrations |
2: Wave
Best for: Freelancers and small business owners looking for full-featured and free accounting software. Ideal for eBay sellers as well.
Pricing:
- Free: Accounting, Invoicing, Receipt scanning
- Online Payments: 2.9% + $.30 per transaction
- Payroll: $35 per month base in tax service states and $20 per month base fee in self-service states
Wave is a free accounting software developed, particularly for small businesses on a tight budget that still wants strong accounting features.
Most of the features of Wave are free. With an easy to use UI, a strong feature set and the most affordable price, Wave is one of our top accounting choices. Wave offers invoice- and transaction-management, expense tracking, inventory, and even lending.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | Limited integrations |
| Easy to use | Poor customer support |
| Good feature set | Limited mobile apps |
| Positive customer reviews | Inventory tracking |
3: Zoho Books
Best for: Best for small international businesses in need of strong accounting at a reasonable price. Perfect for international invoicing.
Pricing:
- Basic: $9/month per organization
- Standard: $19/month per organization
- Professional: $29/month per organization
Zoho has proved itself to be one of the leading third-party cloud-based software providers in the world. And the company’s Zoho Books has been giving QuickBooks Online a run for its money by offering almost all the identical features as QuickBooks Online at half the cost.
Zoho Books offers all of the basic features that small businesses need as well as advanced tools like automation, and the ability to send international invoices. With exceptional customer support, strong mobile apps, and great invoicing, it’s easy to see why Zoho Books has the best price for all of its capabilities.
| Pros | Cons |
| Excellent customer support | No payroll |
| Numerous features | Limited integrations |
| International invoicing | |
| Affordable monthly costs | |
| Strong accounting |
4: FreshBooks
Best for: Small or micro-businesses looking for easy-to-use accounting software and invoicing solutions, or which aren’t ready for a full accounting service.
Pricing:
- Lite: $15/month for five clients.
- Plus: $25/month for 50 clients.
- Premium: $50/month for 500 clients.
Although most accounting software services are invoicing tools, FreshBooks is incredibly easy to use and offers excellent customer support and mobile apps. It also offers 70+ integrations and excellent time tracking capability.
FreshBooks comes in three plans. The Lite version is perfect for small businesses that only need up to five people to access financials and offers unlimited invoicing and estimating while Plus and Premium are available for up to 50 and 500 people respectively.
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to use | Expensive |
| Excellent customer support | Limited users |
| Good mobile apps | |
| 70+ integrations |
Other Alternatives
5: Xero
Best for: Ideal for businesses with many users in need of powerful accounting.
Pricing:
- Starter: $9/month
- Standard: $30/month
- Premium: $70/month
Xero is one of the top accounting software choices because of it’s strong cloud accounting and a grand number of well-developed features. For the best part, no matter which plans you have, Xero offers unlimited users.
The differences between Xero’s pricing plans center on the number of invoices and quotes you can send every month, the number of reconciled bank transactions you have, and whether you need to run payroll.
The Starter plan of Xero allows you to send five invoices and quotes each month, enter five bills, and reconcile 20 transactions per month. Whereas, the Standard version only allows payroll for up to five people but allows for unlimited invoicing, bills, and bank reconciliations. Jumping to the Premium version, it allows payroll for 10 people and offers the same features of Standard plan.
6: AccountEdge
Best for: Businesses with sole proprietors to automate their bookkeeping
Pricing:
- AccountEdge Pro: $399 one-time fee
- AccountEdge Basic: $149 one-time fee
AccountEdge provides full-featured accounting software for small businesses with double-entry accounting tools from time billing to inventory. It is fully optimized for the desktop version and doesn’t have a mobile option.
It offers two pricing plans for its software. The Basic plan of AccountEdge helps sole proprietors automate their bookkeeping, while the Pro version is full-featured accounting software for small businesses.
7: FreeAgent
Best for: Small to medium businesses in need of unlimited users. Ideal for UK companies.
Pricing:
- For the first 6 months: $12/month
- Afterward, $24/month
FreeAgent has users over 70,000. The software comes with an array of tools such as easy to bill clients, setting up recurring invoices, automatic payment reminders and, most importantly, VAT support and international invoicing, making it ideal for UK users.
It also offers unlimited users — all for a single flat monthly fee. Adding to its small business friendly interest, it’s low-cost pricing available in a universal plan of $12/month for 6 months, then just $24/month afterward.
8: Sage 50cloud
Best for: Small-to-medium-sized businesses looking to manage their financials and stay compliant with taxes and reporting requirements.
Pricing:
- Pro Accounting: $46.83/month for one user
- Premium Accounting: $72.41/month for one user
- Quantum Accounting: $182.91/month for three users
Sage 50cloud is a best-in-class accounting solution that comes with impressive features such as taxes, inventory, budgeting, cash flow, and invoicing. In addition, it automatically backs up your data to the cloud and has remote access capabilities.
It also gives you extreme flexibility by combining the strength of desktop software and the accessibility of the cloud to manage your financial business operations. To manage your cash flow, It integrates with Microsoft Office 365 and connects to your bank accounts.
Choosing the Best Accounting Software
With this review of the leading eight accounting software for your small business, it can be difficult to know which accounting software is best.
Sure, we may be given QuickBooks online, the title of best accounting software for small businesses overall, It all comes down to what your business needs from accounting software.
Not all small businesses need the extra features and assistance that paid accounting services to provide. It’s better to get started with a free trial and have a firsthand look and feel of the application you have in mind. There are many affordable options out there to meet all levels of your accounting expectations.
Below is the overall comparison to help you choose the right software for your business.
| QuickBooks Online | Wave | Zoho Books | FreshBooks | |
| Pricing | $20 – $150/mo | $0/mo | $9 – $29/mo | $15 – $50/mo |
| Size of Business | Small – Medium | Freelance – Small | Small | Small |
| Ease of Use | Moderate | Very Easy | Very Easy | Very Easy |
| Customer Service | Fair | Poor | Very Good | Very Good |
| Number of Users | 1 – 25 | 1 | 1-9+ | 1 |
| Number of Integrations | 500+ | 4 | 30+ | 70+ |
| Cloud-Based or Installed | Cloud-Based | Cloud-Based | Cloud-Based | Cloud-Based |
| Mobile Apps | iOS & Android | iOS & Android | iOS, Android, Windows, & Kindle | iOS & Android |