12 Best Accounting Software for 2024 (Free, Small Business, Enterprise)

Updated Nov 21, 2022.

Are you shopping for good accounting software to manage your personal or business bookkeeping quickly and accurately? Read on to discover 12 of the best accounting solutions in 2022, including their features and pricing.

QuickBooks icon

Intuit QuickBooks Online

A holistic accounting solution that’s both powerful and incredibly easy to use. Used by many corporates.
FreshBooks icon

FreshBooks

A straightforward platform that provides efficient and precise accounting tools to freelancers and service-based businesses.
Sage Intacct icon

Sage 50cloud

Accounting software that combines the reliability of desktop accounting platforms and the flexibility of the cloud.
Wave icon

Wave Accounting

Wave accounting is free, making it the perfect solution for businesses and entrepreneurs on a tight budget.
Kashoo icon

Kashoo

An excellent solution for beginners looking for simplicity, ease-of-use, and basic accounting features.

Our work is supported by affiliate commissions.

Reliable accounting software is crucial for business owners or individuals who want to manage their finances properly.

Accounting software makes it easy to efficiently and accurately track money coming in and out of your business bank accounts, create and stick to budgets, streamline your inventory management, track hours worked for better billing, and so on.

If you’re looking for a reliable tool to manage your accounting, the dozens of available small business accounting software options can easily leave you confused.

Fortunately, I have done the research for you and identified the top accounting software vendors for you, including their most significant features, as well as their pricing.

Best Accounting Software For 2022

Here are my top recommendations for 13 of the best value accounting software applications this year.

1. Intuit QuickBooks Online

Holistic, Feature-Rich Accounting Tool For All Kinds Of Businesses

Editor’s Take
9.2 out of 10
Best For
Overall accounting software
Price
$12 – $90 per month
Annual Discount
Save 12%

I love QuickBooks Online because it conveniently gathers all the information and tools you need in one dashboard, making accounting more efficient and fluid. I also love its user-friendly interface and reliable customer support options.

Intuit QuickBooks Online is one of the most popular accounting solutions for small businesses, including sole proprietorships, LLCs, corporations, and nonprofits.

Since its founding in 2001, QuickBooks Online has built a reputation as a powerful solution that provides business owners with the tools they need for all their bookkeeping needs.

You can use QuickBooks Online to manage and pay bills, accept business payments, manage payroll, manage taxes, track expenses, and other accounting-related activities. You also get access to extensive training resources and forums to help you get the most out of the software.

Key Features

  • Invoicing: QuickBooks has a simple invoicing tool that you can use to create invoices and send them with just a few clicks. You can also set up the invoicing tool to automatically send out recurring invoices on predetermined schedules.
  • Expense tracking: The expense tracking feature makes it a breeze to keep track of where your money is going. You even have the option of keeping records of your expenses by taking photos of your receipts using the mobile app.
  • Reporting and data visualization: QuickBooks Online makes it easier to see how your business is doing by enabling you to generate financial reports and visualize financial data in an easy-to-understand manner. For example, you can use this feature to express your expenses as a percentage of your income or generate a chart to show your highest costs.
  • Time tracking: The time tracking feature allows business owners to track billable client or employee hours and automatically add them to an invoice for easier, more accurate billing.
  • Integrations: QuickBooks Online natively integrates with other software in the QuickBooks suite, including Intuit GoPayment and QuickBooks Payroll. It also supports integration with third-party apps like XeroSquare POS, PayPal, Salesforce, and Shopify.
  • Inventory management: QuickBooks Online has more advanced inventory features than you’ll find on other small business accounting applications. With these features, you can automatically track the quantity and cost of your inventory, send automatic reminders to order new inventory when stocks are running low, and calculate profits and taxable income from sold goods.

Pricing

Intuit QuickBooks Online - Pricing Plan

Intuit QuickBooks Online offers three plans – a Simple Start plan starting at $8 per month, an Essentials plan starting at $12 per month, and a Plus plan starting at $17 per month. A 30-day free trial is available with all three plans.

2. FreshBooks

Budget-Friendly Solution For Service-Based Businesses And Freelancers

Editor’s Take
9.1 out of 10
Best For
Service providers and freelancers
Price
$6 – $20 per month
Annual Discount
Save 10%

FreshBooks’ greatest strength lies in billing and invoicing. It takes billing and invoicing out of your hands and puts them on autopilot while at the same time allowing you to collect payments from your customers through multiple payment channels.

FreshBooks is a popular small business accounting software that started as invoicing software. However, with time, it got more features, transforming it into one of the best accounting solutions in the market.

FreshBooks works particularly well for service-based businesses and freelancers, such as web professionals, designers, IT professionals, marketing agencies, freelance writers, architects, lawyers, plumbers, and so on.

Key Features

  • Invoicing: This is FreshBooks’ core feature. You can create and send beautiful and personalized invoices that give your business a professional feel. You can also collect payments from customers with a 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee. Supported payment channels include credit cards, Stripe, PayPal, and Google Checkout.
  • Automatic expense tracker: FreshBooks comes with a powerful expense tracker that enables you to easily stay on top of your expenses without dealing with endless spreadsheets and receipts. Simply connect your credit card or bank account to FreshBooks, and it will track all payments made from your account. You only need to upload a photo of the receipt for cash payments, and FreshBooks will capture the data from the receipt and add it to your expenses.
  • Time tracking: You can tell at a glance how your team members are spending their time and how long tasks and projects take. In addition to helping gauge your team’s productivity, time tracking also makes it easier for you to bill clients accurately based on time worked.
  • Reporting: FreshBooks keeps you aware of the financial status of your business by providing you with multiple financial reports, including expense reports, profit and loss statements, balance sheets, sales tax summaries, and so on, in an intuitive dashboard.
  • Project Management: You get more than an accounting tool with FreshBooks. FreshBooks also comes with project management features that allow you to collaborate with your team, share files, grant different permissions to team members, and even collect feedback from clients.
  • Integrations: You can integrate FreshBooks with dozens of third-party business tools, including Gusto, Bench, Shopify, ZenPayroll, PayPal, Mailchimp, Stripe, and Basecamp.

Pricing

FreshBooks - Pricing Plan

FreshBooks has Lite, Plus, and Premium plans starting at $6, $10, and $20 per month, respectively. The main difference between these plans is the number of billable clients supported.

FreshBooks allows you to send unlimited invoices to up to 5 billable clients on the Lite plan, 50 billable clients on the Plus plan, and unlimited clients on the Premium plan. All three plans come with a 30-day free trial.

There’s also a Select plan offering unlimited billable clients and specialized features. To buy the Select plan, you’ll need to contact FreshBooks for a custom quote.

3. Sage 50cloud Accounting

Desktop Accounting Software With Robust Cloud Features

Editor’s Take
8.7 out of 10
Best For
Small Businesses
Price
$33 – $87 per month
Annual Discount
Save up to 16%

I love Sage 50cloud's hybrid nature, which gives you the best of both worlds. You get the strength and reliability of a desktop accounting tool, coupled with cloud features such as remote data access, cloud backups, bank access, and Sage Capture.

Sage 50cloud is an innovative solution designed to help small business owners with their bookkeeping, inventory management, and tax management.

Sage 50cloud is a desktop application, but it also gives you some of the benefits of cloud-based accounting applications, such as cloud backup for your data, remote access to your data, and access to your online bank accounts. This is what makes Sage 50cloud one of the best small business accounting platforms.

Key Features

  • Automatic reconciliation: Eliminate manual data entry and reduce errors by connecting Sage 50cloud to your bank account. Sage 50cloud will automatically track and reconcile all payments into and out of your account.
  • Cash Flow Manager: This powerful invoicing tool gives you an up-to-date summary of the money moving into and out of your account. With this tool, you can quickly see your cash account balances, expected bills and expenses, and expected payments. You can also get a more detailed view of your business finances by customizing the Cash Flow Manager settings or applying filters.
  • Advanced inventory management: Sage 50cloud has an inventory management tool that keeps you updated on what your small business has in stock and what you need to order. You can also use the tool to track costs and quantities.
  • Job costing: This feature enables you to track expenses that go into client projects, which leads to better pricing of these projects. With this feature, you’ll easily track the total amounts spent on each job, expected net revenues and quickly identify if jobs are going under or above budget.
  • Payroll Wizard: Sage 50cloud has a Payroll Wizard that simplifies setting up employee records, tracking worked hours, processing payroll checks and taxes, and performing advanced payroll tasks like managing paid time off and tracking employee tips.
  • Reporting: Make informed decisions about your business by leveraging the 150+ reports available on Sage 50cloud. What’s more, Sage 50cloud gives you access to specialized reports for different industries, including manufacturing, construction, and distribution.

Pricing

Sage 50cloud Accounting - Pricing Plan

Sage 50cloud has three pricing plans that cost $33, $52, and $87 per month when you pay monthly, or $340, $528, and $876 annually. Unfortunately, Sage 50cloud does not offer any free trials.

4. Wave Accounting

Best Free Accounting Tool

Editor’s Take
8.6 out of 10
Best For
Free accounting software
Price
$0
Annual Discount
None
Promotion
100% free

I love Wave Accounting for one primary reason. It offers many features you’ll find on premium apps, but it’s a completely free accounting software. Wave Accounting is my top recommendation if you’re on a tight budget.

Wave Accounting is a straightforward bookkeeping and payment solution built for small businesses with simple business structures and simple accounting needs. It is a fully functional accounting tool, yet it is easy to use, even for those without any prior experience with accounting tools.

Being a free tool with only essential tools, Wave Accounting works best for small businesses with less than ten employees. However, wave Accounting is not the right tool for you if you plan to scale your business quickly because you’ll soon outgrow it.

Key Features

  • Extensive accounting features: Wave Accounting gives you access to all the features you’ll need for your basic accounting, including income and expense tracking and balancing your books. You can also use Wave Accounting for double entry accounting, ensure seamless tax compliance, and connect to and sync your bank account.
  • Invoicing: Creating and sending professional invoices is remarkably easy with Wave’s invoice software. You get an unlimited choice of templates, which you can easily customize with a few clicks. Wave Accounting also supports advanced invoicing features like automatic payments and recurring invoices.
  • Customer management: Wave allows you to quickly create customer profiles and communicate with customers from any internet-connected device. You can also use Wave to send receipts, payment reminders, and follow-up emails to customers.
  • Payment processing: Despite being a free tool, Wave Accounting allows you to accept customer payments, either from credit cards or through bank transfers (ACH). However, Wave charges transaction fees a bit higher than you’ll find on other payment processors.
  • Integrations: You can use Wave’s native integrations, as well as other apps like Zapier and Appy Pie, to connect Wave Accounting to your favorite business tools. Some of the tools you can connect to Wave include Google Sheets, Etsy, Shopify, Stripe, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Slack, Pipedrive, and 1500+ others.
  • Basic reporting: Wave Accounting gives you access to basic reports such as cash flow and balance sheets. While Wave’s reporting capabilities are pretty limited compared to other accounting software, it’s not a big issue considering Wave Accounting is a free accounting software.

Pricing

Wave Accounting is completely free. There are no plans, free trials, setup fees, hidden fees, or limitations. The platform is 100% free, forever.

Wave also offers a payroll service that is available as a monthly subscription. Full-service payroll costs $35 per month plus $6 per employee, but it is only available in 14 states. There’s also a limited payroll service that costs $20 per month plus $6 per employee and is available in all other states.

5. Kashoo

Easy-To-Use Accounting Software Tool For Beginners

Editor’s Take
8.1 out of 10
Best For
Accounting Beginners
Price
$0 – $30 per month
Annual Discount
Save 10%

I love Kashoo because they don’t try to do everything. Instead, they promise one thing and deliver on it – simplicity. As a result, Kashoo is my top recommendation for any small business owner looking for an easy, uncomplicated way to manage their bookkeeping.

Kashoo is a simple small business accounting software designed to provide you with the essential tools you need to do basic bookkeeping quickly, even if you’ve never used an accounting tool before.

Owing to its simplicity, Kashoo works best for freelancers, small businesses, designers, and developers who average less than 500 transactions annually and are only looking to create invoices, track expenses and incomes, and accept payments.

If you’re looking for advanced features like time-billing or inventory tracking, Kashoo is not ideal for you.

Key Features

  • Ease of use: The first thing you’ll notice when you start using Kashoo is how easy it is. Setting up your account is straightforward, and all the information you need is readily accessible. Kashoo also has an intelligent inbox that keeps you updated about your business purchases and transactions. The best part is that the smart inbox learns from you and automatically tags transactions.
  • Easy invoicing: Kashoo also has easy invoicing with customizable templates that you can quickly edit and send to your customers directly from the platform. It takes less than a minute to create and send an invoice on Kashoo.
  • Payments: Kashoo enables you to set up and collect online credit card payments from your customers, reducing the time spent on chasing payments. You even have the option of adding a payment link to your Kashoo invoices.
  • Bills To Pay: This handy feature gives you all the crucial information about your vendor bills. With this feature, you can easily view the total outstanding amount owed, total bills for the year, how long your business takes to pay different bills, and so on.
  • Streamlined reports: Kashoo has one-click reports that make it easy to see how your business is performing and gain insights to help you make smarter business decisions. Being a simple tool, however, the reporting feature is a bit limited, with a choice of only eight reports – general ledger, income statements, balance sheets, history, all transactions, trial balance, unpaid bills, and unpaid invoices. You also can export the reports as Google Sheets, CSV, Excel, or HTML.

Pricing

Kashoo - Pricing Plan

Kashoo has a free forever plan that is a great option for beginners looking for a free accounting software. Kashoo also has a $20 per month plan that supports invoicing, expense tracking, accounting, and payments, and a $30 per month plan that comes with extra features like advanced reporting, multi-currency support, and payroll features.

The two paid plans come with a 14-day free trial.

6. NetSuite ERP

Best Financial Management Tool For Large Businesses And Enterprises

NetSuite ERP - Discover the power of the suite

NetSuite ERP is more than an accounting tool. It is an end-to-end Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that provides you with an integrated suite of applications to manage and automate various aspects of your business.

NetSuite ERP gives you all the tools you need to sell your products, manage inventory, track and manage leads, generate and send quotes, automate customer communication, and enhance collaboration within your team.

Key Features

  • Centralized accounting: NetSuite provides you with a central location to manage your accounting. View your financial metrics, and ensure your business complies with tax codes, government regulations, accounting standards, and internal policies, all from one central place.
  • Automations: Save time and eliminate errors by using NetSuite to automate repetitive manual tasks, such as collecting and normalizing data from different departments, reconciling account statements, and creating journal entries.
  • Seamless integrations: NetSuite Accounting Software integrates seamlessly with other NetSuite applications, giving you a unified platform for managing all aspects of your business. Aside from the accounting features, you also get a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, an eCommerce module, human resource management, data management, professional services automation, warehouse management, and project management.
  • Accounts receivable: With NetSuite, you can automate all aspects of invoicing and payment collection, resulting in increased liquidity and faster credit-to-cash cycles.
  • Accounts payable: NetSuite also allows you to save time and boost efficiency by automating your bill payment processes. This, in turn, leads to better cash flow, since you’re now able to benefit from early payment discounts and avoid late fees.
  • Tax management: Whether your business is a national company with subsidiaries across multiple states, a multinational with branches across different continents, or a local business, NetSuite gives you access to an easy-to-use tax solution that will ensure that your business is compliant with the tax regulations of all the locations in which you operate.
  • Close management: Closing your books is usually a hectic activity, but with NetSuite, you can make the process easier and quicker by automating manual tasks like account reconciliations, journal entries, intercompany transaction reconciliations, and variance analysis.
  • Fixed assets management: NetSuite also simplifies the management and control of depreciating and non-depreciating company assets throughout their lifecycle, from planning and acquisition to disposal. The best part is that you don’t need countless spreadsheets to do this, even when the assets are spread across multiple facilities.

Pricing

NetSuite ERP doesn’t offer fixed packages. Instead, you get custom pricing based on the tools and features you need, your location, as well as the size of your business.

7. Zoho Books

Powerful Automated Accounting Solution For Growing Businesses

Zoho Books - Online accounting software, built for your business

Zoho Books is an all-rounded accounting tool that provides businesses with all the tools they need to manage their finances, automate their workflows, and enhance collaboration.

The platform takes care of all the accounting tasks associated with every aspect of your business, from negotiation deals to invoicing.

Zoho Books is particularly well-suited for growing businesses because it scales with you – you can upgrade to higher bundles with more advanced features as your needs change.

Key Features

  • Intuitive interface: Zoho Books has a crisp and uncluttered interface that anyone will find remarkably easy to use. Simple navigation allows you to find everything you want with ultimate ease, while a well-labeled side pane gives you access to all the commands you need.
  • Receivables: Keeping track of your accounts receivable on Zoho Books is a cinch. Generating estimates and sharing them with clients is easy and quick, and with a few clicks, you can convert the estimates into invoices. Automatic payment reminders ensure you get paid on time, and you also have an online payment option for faster payments.
  • Accounts payable: Zoho Books simplifies the process of managing your accounts payable, so you always know where your money is going. Everything is pretty straightforward, from creating and sending purchase orders and tracking payments you’ve made to uploading expense receipts.
  • Inventory management: If you deal in physical products, Zoho Books allows you to efficiently track your inventory levels, reorder new stock when levels are running low, and maintain proper inventory records with crucial information like stock on hand, cost, and SKU.
  • Banking: Skip manual data entry by connecting Zoho Books to your bank account, which allows you to automatically import your transactions to Zoho Books and reconcile them automatically.
  • Time tracking: Zoho Books allows you to effortlessly track time spent on projects, track billable hours and expenses, and automatically turn the billable time into invoices.
  • Reports: To gain insights into your business performance, Zoho Books provides you with robust reporting features, which offer 50+ automatically generated business reports. Zoho Books also allows you to filter data and customize the reports for even better insights and quickly share the reports with your team.
  • Integrations: Zoho Books supports native integrations with the 40+ apps that come as part of the Zoho Suite, as well as other third-party apps like HubSpot, Evernote Teams, Microsoft 365, PayPal, OneDrive, Google Drive, Zapier, and many more.

Pricing

Zoho Books - Pricing Plan

Zoho Books has four plans – Free, Standard, Professional, and Premium plans that cost $0, $15, $40, and $60 per organization per month, respectively, if you pay annually. If you pay monthly, the plans start at $0, $20, $50, and $70, respectively.

Zoho Books offers a 14-day free trial on all paid plans.

8. AccountEdge Pro

Best Small Business Accounting Software For Mac

AccountEdge Pro - Powerful small business accounting software for the desktop

AccountEdge Pro is an advanced desktop accounting tool that allows you to manage all financial aspects of your business, including sales and purchases, invoicing and billing, inventory management, contact management, and payroll.

Due to its robust features, AccountEdge Pro is perfect for advanced users who have good accounting knowledge. However, new users will find the learning curve to be pretty steep.

AccountEdge Pro is designed for use on desktop and is particularly optimized for Mac. However, it is also compatible with Windows and has a cloud option for better collaboration and remote access.

Key Features

  • Account management: This feature enables you to monitor and manage all your business bank accounts, including managing account numbers, monitoring account balances, and tracking your budgets. There’s also a Chart of Accounts that tracks all accounts associated with your business, including incomes, expenses, assets, equities, and liabilities.
  • Banking: AccountEdge Pro has a Spend Money feature that allows you to make electronic payments or write checks for basic receipts, donations, and non-purchase order bills, while a Receive Money feature enables you to receive money that is not associated with a sales order, such as donations and received rebates. AccountEdge Pro also allows you to automatically reconcile your bank transactions and notify others when you send payments.
  • Sales management: With this feature, you can create quotes and estimates for items sold or services ordered and convert them into orders and invoices. You also have the option of accepting payments on open orders and setting up recurring transactions for repeating sales. In addition, if you have a Shopify store, you can sync it with AccountEdge Pro for sales and inventory management.
  • Time billing: AccountEdge has a robust time billing feature that allows you to track employee hours and use them to bill clients based on the employee’s billing rate or activity rate. You can convert tracked time into an invoice with a click and set different billing rates for employees depending on employee experience, type of activity, or customer loyalty.
  • Purchase management: Convert bills into orders, track purchase orders, receive items to your inventory, make electronic or check payments, and send payment notifications, all this without having to re-enter any data.
  • Tax management: AccountEdge Pro allows you to track and report the taxes required in your area of operation. You can use AccountEdge Pro to track sales tax, VAT, GST, input taxes, import duty, and voluntary withholding tax.
  • AccountEdge Connect: This is an add-on that gives AccountEdge Pro cloud capabilities. With AccountEdge Connect, users can access their AccountEdge Pro accounts remotely from a browser, enter sales, bill for time, make payments, record purchases and bills, and so much more.

Pricing

AccountEdge Pro - Pricing Plan

AccountEdge Pro charges a one-time fee of $499, with the licenses sold separately. You can try the software for free for 30 days.

9. Bench

Managed Accounting Service For Professional Bookkeeping And Tax Filing

Bench - You run your business. We’ll handle your finances

Bench is an all-in-one financial toolkit designed to help businesses professionally manage their bookkeeping and taxes. However, Bench is more than an accounting platform. It is an accounting service that gives you access to professional accountants to take care of all your bookkeeping needs.

Bench is an excellent solution for entrepreneurs who don’t have the time or experience to do their own bookkeeping. Simply hand over your financial data to your dedicated team of accounting professionals, and they’ll handle everything else for you.

Key Features

  • Dedicated bookkeepers: This is a handy feature that you’ll not find on any other accounting platform. When you sign up on Bench, you’ll be assigned a team of experienced accountants to do the grunt work for you. Your bookkeeping team will keep track of and categorize your transactions and reconcile all transactions from various sources, including your credit card, bank, and PayPal accounts. In addition, if you have any questions relating to your bookkeeping, they’ll be there to help.
  • Bench Dashboard: Bench has a well-designed, intuitive dashboard that gives you access to all your financial information and enables you to communicate with your dedicated accounting team. You can share your financial documents with your accounting team through the dashboard and even schedule phone calls if you want something explained to you.
  • Expense tracking: Connect your bank account to your Bench account, or upload your bank statements, and your bookkeeping team will track all your expenses and send you a summary of the same every month.
  • Real-time reports: Bench gives you access to interactive financial reports every month, giving you an excellent way of tracking your profits, revenues, and expenses. If you need more detailed reports, just talk to your dedicated bookkeeping team, and they’ll generate the reports for you.
  • Tax support: Bench sends you a package with all the documents you need to fill out your tax forms at the end of every financial year. If you’re on the Premium plan, you’ll also get access to a tax professional to help you with preparing and filing your taxes, as well as around-the-year tax consultation support.
  • Integrations: You can connect your Bench account to various third-party apps and tools, including Shopify, FreshBooks, Square, Stripe, Gusto, and BigCommerce.

Pricing

Bench - Pricing Plan

Bench offers two pricing plans – an Essential plan costing $249 per month and a Premium plan costing $399 per month if you pay annually.

If you pay monthly, the Essential plan costs $299 per month, while the Premium plan costs $499 per month. Both plans come with a 30-day free trial.

10. Sage Business Cloud Accounting

Robust Cloud Invoicing Solution

Sage Business Cloud Accounting - Easy cloud invoicing so you can get paid faster

Sage Business Cloud Accounting is a powerful and straightforward cloud-based accounting solution designed to help freelancers and small business owners with accounting, expense management, and tax compliance.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting is quite similar to Sage 50cloud, with the main difference being that the former is a cloud-based platform while the latter is desktop-based.

Key Features

  • Bank reconciliation: Connect Sage Business Cloud Accounting with your bank account, and it will automatically download your transactions and match them to invoices. Sage Business Cloud also monitors your bank account balances compared to your bank statements and can help you detect fraud or cash manipulation.
  • Advanced inventory management: You get access to an advanced but user-friendly inventory tracking tool that simplifies the process of managing your inventory in real-time. In addition to adding and tracking inventory and non-inventory products, the tracking tool also allows you to record crucial information related to your products, such as barcodes and vendors.
  • Debtor management: Sage Business Cloud makes it effortless to follow up with people and businesses who owe you. It has features that allow you to send automated payment reminders and actionable alerts, ensuring that you get paid on time.
  • Advanced reporting: Whether you want to view simple reports like balance sheets and profit and loss statements, or customized reports that give you an in-depth look into your business finances, Sage Business Cloud Accounting has got you covered. What’s more, you can quickly share, print, or email your reports to stakeholders or customers in just a few clicks.
  • Budgeting: Sage Business Cloud Accounting also comes with a budgeting feature that allows you to track how your business is performing against your set targets in real-time.
  • Integrations: You can connect Sage Business Cloud Accounting to a wide range of third-party platforms, including BigTime, Xero, Stripe, Mailchimp, Veryfi Receipts OCR, ExpensePoint, and several others.

Pricing

Sage Business Cloud Accounting - Pricing Plan

Sage Business Cloud Accounting has two pricing plans – A Sage Accounting Start plan costing $10 per month and a Sage Accounting plan costing $25 per month. However, the Sage Accounting plan is currently on a $7.50 per month offer. A 30-day free trial period is available on both plans.

11. Xero

Intuitive Accounting Software For Small Business Owners And Accountants

Xero - Accounting software to do your to do

Xero is another popular accounting software that provides businesses, bookkeepers, and accountants with the tools and features they need to simplify their everyday business tasks.

Xero has an intuitive, clean user interface and innovative features that turn accounting from a mundane, time-consuming task into a simple task that takes just a few clicks.

Key Features

  • Online invoicing: Xero’s intuitive invoicing tools allow you to create and customize unlimited invoices on your computer or smartphone, send them to customers, accept payments, and send automatic payment reminders to customers.
  • Bill management: Take advantage of early payment discounts by using Xero’s bill management to maintain an overview of all your due bills and pay them on time. Xero also allows you to schedule payments to be made at a future date or make batch payments. You can also access your bills on the go using Xero’s mobile app.
  • Expense management: Track your bills painlessly with Xero’s expense management tool. Xero lets you take photos of receipts to record them on Xero, track employee spending, approve and reimburse expense claims, and view analytics to get a detailed view of your business expenses.
  • Bank connections: Stay on top of your business and transactions by connecting your bank accounts to Xero. Xero will automatically download all transactions, categorize them appropriately, reconcile them, and give you a monthly summary of the transactions.
  • Payments: Connect Xero to Stripe, GoCardless, and other payment processors and start accepting payments from your customers. You can also add a “Pay Now” button to your invoices to prompt customers to pay directly from the invoice.
  • Job and project tracking: Xero enables you to track time and costs associated with a job or project and convert them into invoices for easy and accurate billing.
  • Payroll: The payroll features on Xero allow you to keep employee records and make simple online pay runs to employees’ bank accounts. You can either make the payments manually or schedule them to be automatically completed in batches. If you find Xero’s payroll tool too limiting, you also have the option of integrating Xero with a third-party payroll app.
  • Real-time reporting: Stay informed about what is happening within your business and make better business decisions by generating real-time financial reports. You can schedule reports to auto-generate at predetermined intervals or customize reports to show the exact data you want.
  • Tax management: Xero also has a tax feature that automatically calculates the tax due from your transactions depending on your preset sales tax rates. You can then use the reports generated by Xero to fill your tax forms.

Pricing

Xero - Pricing Plan

Xero has three paid plans. There’s a Starter plan geared for sole traders and new businesses costing $22 per month, a Standard plan for growing businesses costing $35 per month, and a Premium plan for established businesses costing $47 per month. A 30-day free trial is available on all three plans.

12. FreeAgent

Invoicing, Expense Tracking And Tax Management Solution For Project And Service-Based Businesses

FreeAgent - Accounting software for small businesses

FreeAgent is an award-winning, feature-rich accounting platform designed to help small business owners and accountants manage their bookkeeping efficiently.

FreeAgent gives you access to all essential accounting features and functions, including expense tracking, invoicing, payroll, tax management, and cash flow monitoring, as well as additional functions like project management.

Key Features

  • Intuitive dashboard: FreeAgent comes with a sleek and intuitive dashboard dubbed “Overview,” which gives you quick access to all the vital information you need to maintain a bird’s eye view of your business’s financial health. You can quickly view your cash flow chart, invoices, time slips, expenses, tasks, and projects from this dashboard.
  • Automatic bank feeds: Automatically import transactions from your bank account and maintain a real-time view of your business cash flow by connecting FreshAgent to your bank account.
  • Advanced expense management: Despite being a small business accounting application, FreeAgent handles expense management superbly. You can link your expenses to a specific project or job, categorize them by currency, or bill them to a customer. Expenses can be automatically imported from your bank feed or added manually.
  • Invoicing: FreeAgent offers a choice of eight attractive invoice templates. In addition, you can customize the templates by adding your own headers, changing the color scheme to match your brand, and adding custom headers. FreeAgent also allows you to send automatic payment reminders and set recurring invoices for projects and jobs billed regularly.
  • Facilitated payments: Linking your FreeAgent account to third-party payment channels like Stripe, PayPal, and GoCardless allows you to accept payments directly into the system and enter them into your books. FreeAgent even enables you to add a payment link to your invoices, making it easier for your customers to pay you. The facilitated payments feature makes FreeAgent a suitable accounting solution for eBay and Etsy sellers.
  • Bill management: FreeAgent provides you with a set of intuitive tools for generating and managing bills. You can add bills to projects, add introductions to bills for easier reference, add attachments to bills, set recurring bills, and so much more.
  • Tax management: Tax preparation and filing is something that most small businesses leave to professionals, but with FreeAgent, even a total beginner can do it. All tax categories on FreeAgent matched with IRS categories, and you can automatically prepare taxes from your reference schedule C.
  • Project management: With FreeAgent, you don’t need a separate tool to manage projects. FreeAgent allows you to view and track all ongoing projects, create task lists for different projects, track project progress, and track project incomes and expenses, so you know whether projects are making or losing money. You can also track time spent on different project tasks, add notes to tasks, and so much more.

Pricing

FreeAgent - Pricing Plan

FreeAgent has one basic plan, which costs $20 per month. This basic plan offers new users an introductory offer of just $10 per month for the first six months. What’s more, you can try the software for free for 30 days.

How To Choose An Accounting Software That Fits

All the accounting tools covered in this guide are highly reliable, but not all are good choices for your business. For instance, Intuit QuickBooks Online is a great accounting software, but it won't fit the bill if you’re only interested in free accounting software tools.

So, how then do you choose the right accounting software FOR YOU? Here are eight things you need to consider:

1. Your Needs

A business that brings in $100 million a year has very different accounting needs from a business that only brings in $100,000 a year. Similarly, the accounting needs of a restaurant are very different from those of a construction company.

Therefore before choosing any accounting software, take the time to understand your business and its needs, and then go for software that meets those needs.

2. Features

What features are you looking for in an accounting tool? These will depend mainly on how your business operates. Ensure the software you’re going for has all the features you need.

Some of the features you might want to look for include the ability to accept online payments, payroll management, budgeting, inventory management, remote access, automations, and so on.

3. Your Accounting Skills

Different accounting software tools require different accounting skill levels. For example, some are designed for novices, while others are built for professional accountants with above-average financial literacy.

Therefore, you need to consider your skill level when choosing accounting software products. Are you comfortable with a powerful accounting tool with advanced features, or would you rather get a simple accounting software tool designed for beginners?

4. Your Budget

Every business operates within a budget, which will definitely affect your choice of accounting software. Fortunately, you’ll find reliable accounting software for almost every price point.

When considering your budget, don’t just go for the cheapest software you can find. You also need to think about scalability. The software might be affordable today, but will it allow you to scale as your business grows?

It is much better to go for a reliable accounting tool that’s a bit costlier but one that will grow with you, rather than having to switch from one software to another every time you need more features.

5. Integrations

If you work with multiple tools, you’ll want accounting software that is compatible with these tools.

For instance, you might want to connect your accounting tool to your CRM software, HR software, or even your Shopify shop. Does the accounting software you’re considering support these integrations?

Generally, more is always better when it comes to integrations.

6. Reporting

Good reports help you monitor the financial health of your business and are also crucial to making smart business decisions. Therefore, it’s important to choose accounting software that offers robust reporting tools.

7. Ease Of Use

Whether you will be using the accounting software yourself or have an accounting team, it’s always a good idea to go for a simple, intuitive accounting software application. This will reduce the learning curve required to make the most out of the software and increase productivity.

8. Consult Your Accountant

If you have an accountant, it’s a good idea to consult them when choosing accounting software. This is because they have better knowledge of accounting and are the ones who will be using the software primarily, which means they have the best idea of the accounting features to look for in an accounting software tool.

Accounting Software FAQs

What is the most widely used accounting software?

Intuit QuickBooks Online is the most widely used accounting software and one of the very best in the market. Other popular accounting software tools are FreshBooks, Wave Accounting, and Xero.

What is the best accounting software for small businesses?

The best accounting software for small businesses is Sage 50cloud Accounting. This software gives your small business the reliability that comes with desktop-based accounting applications while at the same time giving them the flexibility of cloud features.

As a small business owner, you will also love that Sage 50cloud offers a 40% discount on the first year.

What is accounting software?

Accounting software is a computer program designed to help businesses record, process, manage, and report financial transactions. Modern accounting software can also perform business transactions, such as making and accepting payments.

Why do businesses need accounting software?

Businesses gain several benefits from using accounting software. These include:

Powerful reporting: Accounting software helps you to automatically generate financial reports that are crucial in monitoring your business’s financial health.

Cost savings: Entrepreneurs can manage their own bookkeeping with accounting software without hiring an accounting team.

Time savings: Using accounting software to record your financial transactions saves more time than doing it manually.

Reduced errors: Accounting software improves data accuracy and eliminates errors that come with manual data entry.

Easier tax management: Using accounting software is an excellent way of simplifying tax filing.

What is the best accounting software for large organizations?

NetSuite ERP is the best financial management tool for large organizations and enterprises. NetSuite ERP provides large organizations with the advanced features they need to handle complex financial reporting.

What is the best cloud accounting software?

The best cloud accounting software is Intuit QuickBooks Online. It is powerful, easy to use, and accessible from any internet-enabled device.

What is the best free accounting software?

The best free accounting software is Wave Accounting. Wave Accounting gives you many features you’ll find on premium accounting software, but it is entirely free.

What is the best open source accounting software?

The best open-source accounting software is Akaunting. This accounting software gives you access to its source code, allowing you to modify the program as you wish to suit your specific needs. In addition, Akaunting is entirely free to use.

What is the best accounting software for nonprofits?

QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit is the best accounting software for nonprofits. In addition to general accounting features, QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit also has tools designed specifically for nonprofits, such as donor information management and grant reports.

What is the best accounting software for freelancers?

FreshBooks is the best accounting software for freelancers. It allows freelancers to automate their billing and invoicing so that they can concentrate on growing their freelance business and enables them to accept payments from clients.

How much does accounting software cost per month?

The average cost of most accounting software is between $10 and $40 per month. However, some accounting software vendors have plans costing as little as $4 per month, and some costing north of $400 per month.

Should my accounting software also generate invoices?

Yes. A good accounting tool should be capable of generating unlimited invoices and managing your accounts receivables.

Choosing The Top Accounting Software

With 50+ accounting software options in the market, picking the right one can be a chore. In this guide, however, I have made things simpler for you by reviewing the 13 top accounting solutions in 2022.

It’s good to note that an accounting tool being on this list doesn’t automatically make it a good choice for you.

You still need to think about your needs, budget, accounting skill level, and so on when making a choice. However, this list provides a starting point by separating the wheat from the chaff and giving you the top accounting tools to consider.

If you want a quick answer, however, here are my top 5 recommendations:

Best Overall

Intuit QuickBooks Online

A holistic accounting solution that’s both powerful and incredibly easy to use.
Best For Freelancers

FreshBooks

A straightforward platform that provides efficient and precise accounting tools to freelancers and service-based businesses.
Best Desktop Accounting Solution

Sage 50cloud

A robust small business accounting software that combines the reliability of desktop accounting platforms and the flexibility of the cloud.
Best Free Accounting Software

Wave Accounting

Wave accounting is entirely free, making it the perfect solution for businesses and entrepreneurs on a tight budget.
Best For Beginners

Kashoo

An excellent solution for beginners looking for simplicity, ease-of-use, and basic accounting features.

If you need more information to help you choose accounting software products, check out our other reviews and comparison articles below.

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Martin Luenendonk

Editor at FounderJar

Martin loves entrepreneurship and has helped dozens of entrepreneurs by validating the business idea, finding scalable customer acquisition channels, and building a data-driven organization. During his time working in investment banking, tech startups, and industry-leading companies he gained extensive knowledge in using different software tools to optimize business processes.

This insights and his love for researching SaaS products enables him to provide in-depth, fact-based software reviews to enable software buyers make better decisions.