Surprisingly Good Accounting Software for Running a Successful Small Business

Regardless of the size of your business, it still needs excellent management of the finances. Today, living in the era of technology makes it easier to deal with finances and keep records of them using different types of accounting software. Even if you are not skilled in working in Excel or Google Sheets programs, you can perform well using several software programs. You can get on top of things only with a few clicks and understanding the basics of how it all works. To help you out, here are some excellent accounting software for small businesses.

What is Essential to Understand?

You need to understand the list of features each program has and whether it will benefit your business. Also, the program must be easy to work on because you shouldn’t spend too much time figuring out the intricate details of how to make it work. For that purpose, when you are interested in a program, it is best to ask for the trial version first and see how it fits your needs and knowledge.

Furthermore, make sure that it is cloud-based because these programs enable you to save your data, edit it, and change it easily and never lose track of it. The great thing about cloud-based data processing is that you can share your work with other team members and give them access to edit, view, or change things inside if needed.

Moreover, it would be best to prefer software that offers payroll and accounting, invoicing, and bookkeeping. Namely, it would help if you opted for software that can do it all and, on top of that, integrate multiple bank accounts. Finally, the software you choose must be functional for every team member and improved by add-ons and extensions.

Here is the list of accounting software with its features.

MYOB

MYOB is a popular accounting software brand in Australia. There are few MYOB reviews online, but it usually has a 4/4.5 out of 5-star rating when you do find one. MYOB Essentials was reviewed by TechRadar, who gave it a clear and excellent rating.

MYOB’s biggest drawback is that it is designed for businesses in Australia and New Zealand. You can use the app in other jurisdictions, but it does not meet their accounting, taxation, or monitoring standards.

As a result, MYOB is a highly recommended accounting software for small companies in Australia and New Zealand.

What does MYOB do?

MYOB has two bundles available: Essentials and AccountRight. There are three plans in each of these sets.

The Essentials kit begins at $27 a month. The entry-level plan includes up to 25 cash flow monitoring, five invoices, and payroll for one person. Meanwhile, the specialized Accounting + Payroll package, which costs $60 a month, includes various payrolls, staff time scheduling, and work and project monitoring. The Essentials package is available for both Mac and Windows users.

The AccountRight package’s entry-level contract costs $70 a month. The Premier package, which is the most comprehensive and advanced MYOB plan, costs $140 a month.

Features:

• Customize Your Invoices

You can build and modify your invoices and quotes with any software. The addition of the Pay Now button to the invoice also simplifies the payment process for your clients. You will send overdue invoice reminders to clients, receive real-time cash flow alerts, and see if invoices are opened, printed, or charged.

• Monitor Multi-Currency Rates

You can monitor updated exchange rates, get updates on your company’s overseas expenses, and bind foreign banks to your account with over 150 currencies.

• Online Payroll

The Single Touch Payroll will assist you in preparing/setting up, calculating, recording, and sending payslips to your workers. It also keeps you up to date on any changes to the ATO, from taxes to reporting legislation.

• Tracking of Expenses

You will enter details about your expenditures and bills from all of your computers. It aims to keep track of what comes and goes from the business. You should also submit the suppliers’ bills directly to their apps.

• Stock Inventory

Get real-time inventory alerts, compare cost vs. sale price and link stocks to your bank account for quick buying.

• Collaborate with Others

Allow your accountant or bookkeeper access to your accounts and taxes. You may also restrict who has access to or sees your results.

• Employees Monitoring

Through clocking in and out of the MYOB team app, you can keep track of your employees’ time and results. Obtain the employees’ regular or weekly reports, review their timesheets, and provide permission to build payslips. Furthermore, you can tailor workers’ working hours and pay based on their role in the business.

 

Intuit QuickBooks

This software is built preferably for freelancers, independent contractors, and small businesses. It includes a set of features that create and send a desired number of invoices, plus it snaps and stores receipts while tracking the mileage for tax purposes.

There are five plans: Self-employed, which costs $10, Simple Start – $20, Essentials, Plus – $70; and Advanced, $150. The first two plans help you manage bills, payments, and CIS deductions. There is also support for multiple currencies included in the plan. The Essentials one has all of these plus support to create and purchase orders. Moreover, it manages stock and tracks costs according to budget, location, and project. Five members in total can use this plan which is two additional users more than the Essential plan.

All in all, the advantages are numerous integrations and excellent tax support with lots of features and automated synchronization of business profiles on a single dashboard. However, you must pay an additional monthly payroll cost per paid employee, and it is not that useful if you are running the business from outside the USA.

Zoho Books

This software is scalable and extra useful for self-employed people and small businesses. There is no payroll feature included in this plan, but it has other amazing features that make it worth considering. For example, it creates invoices in just a few seconds; it sends payment reminders; it uploads expense receipts and gives customers an online payment option. Moreover, it tracks the inventory of products and offers ready-made invoice templates. You can use it in multiple languages, and there is a two-week free trial. Finally, there is time tracking and project billing to create, edit, and manage all the data as desired.

If you decide to give it a try, you can use cloud accounting specially made for micro-businesses that are easy to use and not expensive. Zoho tools boost the functionality, and such a tool is the all-in-one solution Zoho One.

There are three plans: Basic – $9, Standard – $19, and Professional – $29. Zoho One – the all-in-one solution is $35 per employee (The “all employee pricing”) or $90 per user (the “flexible user pricing”).

Zoho Books is a fully responsive and mobile-ready software, and it can enter up to 50 contacts in the Basic plan. It also offers multiple payment gateways. However, some of the features, including inventory tracking, sales orders, and purchase orders, can be yours only if you choose the most expensive “Professional” plan.

Xero Books

If you are looking for an alternative for QuickBooks, Xero is your best choice. It is an excellent software program for your small business as it makes the process of reconciling bank transactions much more facilitated. It offers fantastic customer support that helps you with tips for quickly resolving your accounting problems and keeping the system up and running.

Among its best features are its ability to send invoices, track them and notify you when the client sees them. Also, it tracks the products in the inventory and connects you to your bank. Moreover, it provides more than 800 business apps while offering fantastic online support. The best of all is that it tracks payroll, and it pays the bills via Xero. Finally, you can download it as a mobile app, use multi-currency on it, and calculate sales tax.

There are three plans, but they are different depending on whether your business is US-located or anywhere else in the world. Therefore, for companies in the US, you can choose among early, which costs $9, Growing, which costs $30, and Established, which costs $60. If you are operating outside the US, the plans are Starter – $20, Standard – $30, and Premium – $40.

To sum up, the advantages, it is safe to say that it has all the features you need for running a small business successfully. It also connects and collaborated online using cloud accounting and the vast number of apps that make it all possible. On the other hand, multi-currency handling is part of the more expensive plans only, and the early-level program enables you to send only five invoices and quotes.

Free Agent

Another excellent software for running a small business successfully is Free Agent. You can have lots of users, clients, and projects without having to pay extra. Among its most significant features are managing expenses, creating a custom invoice, tracking project time, and running a monthly payroll.

There are three plans available: Sole Trader, Partnership / LLP, and Limited Companies. The first one, the Sole Trader, has self-assessment filing. The second one, Partnership / LLP, offers Profit Share Calculation. Finally, the Limited Company plan includes self-assessment filing, dividend vouchers, and Corporation Tax forecasting.

The software provides you with 26 integrations, and among its pros are unlimited users, job costings, international invoicing, and time tracking. However, there are no stock control functions, and there is a limited third-party integration. The pricing is $10 a month for six months, then $20 a month.

To Sum Up

Whichever software from the above you decide to go for, you should know that all of them will become a true partner in running your small business. However, you should compare their features with your priorities and choose what best caters to your needs.

Plus, if you are serious about running a business by yourself, you should consider the opportunity to invest in a more expensive plan because it will definitely pay off in the long run. Never forget to try the trial version first, because in this way you can see whether you can work with it in the future. It is not a bad idea to try several of them before you decide which one you will buy as you will be able to compare the programs and see which one is easier to work with.

Finally, the dilemma of whether to hire an accountant or get an accounting app is still valid. If you don’t have any prior knowledge of managing finances, perhaps it is better to leave it to a professional. The truth is, you must know something about the field even if you have the most accessible software to work with. Another reason to leave it to the professional accountant if you lack confidence that you can do it on your own or if you want to make smarter financial decisions.

You can enroll in an accounting course where you will learn the basics of accounting, and you will be ready to start doing it by yourself. Plus, most software offers excellent customer support to help you out and clear any misunderstanding you might have.

It all comes down to testing the waters before you make a final decision and be sure about it because the financial side of any business is the most important one – we all want the business we run to be successful and bring us profit rather than throwing us in a hole of debt.