12 Best Cloud-Based Accounting Software of 2024

The most cost-effective and time-efficient way of handling accounting is picking the right cloud-based accounting software.

Taking into consideration the needs and reviews of users from all industries and business sizes, we have compiled a list of the best cloud accounting software that will help you save upfront on costs, save great amounts of bandwidth, access the tool from any device at any time, enjoy the enhanced security, and much more.

But, what if you want to know what are the other benefits of this accounting model and how does it compare to the traditional?

In the article below, we have the answers to these questions and the guidelines to help you identify the specifics that your ideal cloud accounting software covers.

Read on, and find your best cloud-based accounting solution.

Best Cloud Accounting Software

1. FreshBooks

Best Cloud Accounting Software for Service-Based Businesses.

FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting and invoicing solution with a user-friendly interface that allows you to automate invoice reminders, payment collection, and other operations while handling your basic bookkeeping needs.

As a service-based business, you can send, receive, print, and pay invoices much easier, but you can also send proposals, request deposits, collect client retainers, track project times, etc.

Log and organize expenses so you're always ready come tax time, log your working hours and put them into invoices automatically, and get paid up to 11 days faster as you accept credit cards online.

Pricing

The Lite plan will cost you $6 per month.

Pros

• Create professional-looking invoices in seconds
• Log and organize your expenses
• Log your working hours into invoices automatically
• Ensure accuracy and compliance with automatic checks and balances
• User-friendly interface and appealing design
• Wide selection of third-party integrations
• Improve your workflows through collaboration
• Get paid up to 11 days faster with online credit card payments

FreshBooks is an affordable accounting solution that will help you wow your clients with stunning invoices, and the mobile app allows you to stay connected with your team and regulate the cash flow from anywhere.

2. Sage 50cloud

Best Small-Business Desktop Accounting Software with Comprehensive Financial Tools.

Sage 50cloud will ensure you stay on top of your incoming and outgoing cash flow, allowing you to easily handle debts, manage late payments, and track expenses.

Connect your bank feeds and eliminate manual data entry and simplify payment acceptances with automatic reconciliation.

The software will give you full control over your purchase orders and enable you to view quantities on hand with advanced inventory management.

Setting up job records, phases, and cost codes is easy, and you can track job costs through purchasing, inventory adjustments, payroll, and more.

Pricing

The Pro Accounting subscription for one user is $340.00 per year.

Pros

• Broadcast invoices to many customers and create custom recurring invoices
• Automate purchase orders, invoices, payments, bank feeds, and account reconciliation
• Stay on top of purchase orders and view quantities on hand
• Set up job records, phases, and cost codes
• Track job costs through purchasing, inventory adjustments, payroll, and more
• Print reports and track total amounts spent and net revenues due for each job
• Direct deposits, paycards, direct-deposit checks

Sage 50cloud will provide you with great customizability and in-depth contact and item records, and strong inventory management tools, while allowing you to leverage the payroll setup wizard to perform advanced payroll tasks and its rich set of integrations.

3. Wave

Best Free Cloud Accounting Software.

An ideal accounting tool for service-based small businesses and freelancers, Wave allows you to send simple invoices, generate financial reports, track receipts, organize your income, expenses, payments, and invoices.

Wave lets you create and send professional invoices in seconds, set up recurring invoices, and automatic credit card payments.

All your invoicing and payment information will be automatically synced with the free Wave Accounting software that's included in your account.

View your history with each customer and track invoices, automated reminder emails while receiving instant notifications when an invoice is viewed, becomes due, gets paid through the free apps for iOS and Android.

Pricing

Wave is 100% free.

Pros

• Recurring invoices
• Wave automatically syncs your payment and invoicing information with the Wave Accounting software
• Track payments and communications, and keep records of customer activity
• Free iOS and Android apps
• Receive instant notifications for any invoice activity
• Send automated reminders
• Accept payments online

With no trace of their branding on your invoices, Wave enables you to create the most engaging invoices and use the tool to run multiple businesses under one account with an unlimited number of users for free.

4. Zoho Books

Best Small Business Cloud Accounting Software for Superior Depth in Records and Transaction Forms.

From negotiating deals and raising sales orders to invoicing, Zoho Books takes care of mundane accounting tasks while allowing you to delegate role-based access for your colleagues and accountants to log time, view reports, and manage your accounts.

Send estimates, convert them into invoices, send payment reminders to your customers, and get paid on time.

Manage your payables, create and send purchase orders, upload expense receipts.

Keep track of your inventory, setting reorder points and replenishing stock, and organizing SKU, cost, stock on hand, and more.

Set up your bank accounts and import your transactions, set up rules to categorize your banking transactions, and reconcile transactions in moments.

Pricing

Zoho Books offers a free plan for businesses with revenue of under 50K per annum.

Pros

• Handle payables and receivables hassle-free
• Keep track of inventory and import your transactions
• Manage multiple projects easily
• Create invoices directly from projects
• Track unbilled hours and expenses and time spent on projects
• Manage your customer and supplier contacts from within Zoho Books
• Collaborate through the client portal
• Generate profits and loss statements, inventory summary, and other reports
• Schedule reports and email them to yourself and the team

An affordable accounting solution with an excellent user interface and robust mobile apps, Zoho Books will equip you with records, transaction forms, inventory management, and banking capabilities of unmatched depth.

5. Intuit QuickBooks Online

Best Overall Cloud Accounting Software.

The majority of small business and accounting professionals choose QuickBooks online when choosing a small business accounting solution that comes with easy-to-read dashboards where all the reports can be conveniently accessed.

You can receive payments, review reports, capture receipt images, track business mileage while on the go with the customizable mobile app.

Each plan will equip you with advanced features like inventory management, time tracking, additional user access, budgeting, and more.

Among the rare accounting tools that feature a companion payroll solution built into the software, QuickBooks Online, offering self-service and full-service payrolls.

If you are looking for a completely free software or more integration options, or maybe a solution with an interface that aligns with your preference more, you can browse for the best Quickbooks alternatives in a quick Google search and find your match.

Pricing

The Essentials plan is $2.20 per month, and by taking a quick look at Quickbooks Online's pricing, you can see which plan suits your business and growth stage the best.

Pros

• Run your business from Mac, PC, tablet, or phone
• Send custom quotes and invoices to get paid faster
• Track your sales and expenses, and sort receipts
• In-depth contact records and transaction forms
• Project profitability
• Hundreds of add-ons and integrations
• Robust assistance center with online chat
• Automatic backup of your financial information
• Receive electronic payments directly

With QuickBooks Online, inventory tracking is easy, the reports are fully customizable, the payroll support is complete, and the slick UI lets you access in-depth contact records and transaction forms from anywhere with the sturdy mobile app.

6. Xero

#1 Accounting Software for Account Reconciliation, Data Imports, Sales & Purchase Transactions, and Project Tracking.

With a super-clean interface and integration with over 800 apps, Xero will help you foster great financial health and allow you to facilitate easy reconciliation, create invoices and expense claims, and integrate with Gusto for premium payroll support.

You can easily import any CSV, TXT files and QuickBooks transactions and records.

Through the slick dashboard, you can access the information on the account balances, links to reconciliation screens, graphs representing outstanding invoices and unpaid bills, the account watchlist, expense claims, and more.

With flexible user permissions in mobile apps and the browser-based version, Xero's expense and sales tax tracking functionality allows you to create expense records, specify accounts, assign them to projects or customers, add labels, or upload images.

Pricing

The Starter plan is $20 per month.

Pros

• Introductory video with best practice suggestions
• Categorize your bank transactions
• Create records for customers, suppliers, employees, and items
• Import transactions, records, and other data from QuickBooks Online with the direct-conversion tool
• Thorough reconciliation tools
• Import opening inventory balances and configure inventory levels
• Premium payroll support with Gusto
• Create expense records and assign them to projects or customers with images, labels, foreign currencies

With thorough reconciliation tools, a growing integration network with hundreds of third-party apps in financial and productivity categories, Xero delivers an expense tracking, invoicing, and reconciliation tool ideal for medium to larger-sized and enterprise companies.

7. Quicken

Best Cloud Accounting Software for Bill Management, Investment Monitoring, and Personal Finances.

Quicken is an accounting and personal finance management tool that allows you to create and manage personalized budgets, manage your investments, track your account balances and transactions, view your income and spending with custom reports, and much more.

Providing a complete financial picture at glance, Quicken allows you to dive deeper into your investment returns with specialized reports like R.O.I and IRR, transfer money between bank accounts, outline the best plan to pay down your debt with the debt reduction planner, and so on.

You can track all your bank accounts, investments, credit accounts, and even rental properties right from your computer or mobile device while also tracking investments through the cost basis to understand the tax implications of buying, selling, and your whole portfolio.

For your small business, you can track all the assets and liabilities, track business and personal transactions separately, and store contracts, receipts, leases, and other documents.

Pricing

The Starter plan is $35.99 per year.

Pros

• Customize invoices with your logo, color, and weblink
• Email PDF invoices with a PayPal payment link included
• Invoices and bills are automatically tracked as payables and receivables
• Speed up the workflows with customer lists, vendor lists, and invoice templates
• Schedule A to E, tax summary, and capital gains reports
• Find business deductions from mixed personal accounts and credit cards
• Debt reduction planner
• Free phone support from Monday to Friday, 5 A.M. to 5 P.M, Pacific Time

The affordable budgeting, reporting, investment, accounting solution from Quicken is best suited for individuals with side businesses or sole proprietors looking to manage their account balances, investments, bills, and taxes.

8. Kashoo

Simplest Cloud Accounting Software for SMBs, Freelancers, Developers, and Designers.

In Kashoo, all transactions that occur in your business are automatically categorized and sorted with the smart inbox feature recognizing the vendors you usually do business with and keeping track of all activity.

Covering double-entry accounting, Kashoo enables you to track incomes, expenses, and project costs and allows you to access the chart of accounts, record templates for clients, suppliers, inventory items, transaction forms for invoices, bills, preformatted reports, and more.

If you want to go deeper past the superb categorization and simple filing the tool provides, you can access sub-categories for insanely detailed reports and capture cash and paper transactions in a couple of clicks.

Pricing

Kashoo's entry-level plan is $20 per month.

Pros

• Connect to your financial institutions, download transactions, and reconcile accounts
• Customize your invoices in seconds from anywhere
• Utilize real-time client statements and track which clients are the slowest to pay
• Cash flow, income statement & balance sheet, accounts receivable & payable, trial balance & general ledger reports
• Have your sales tax summary ready in seconds
• Track costs by a project on a dedicated page
• Free, unlimited email, chat, and phone support

Kashoo is among the best small-business accounting software that ensures you get everything paid faster and more securely with automatic deposits to your bank accounts where everything is sorted, categorized, and reconciled, as the tool regulates your books for you and serves you with real-time cash flow insights.

9. Chargebee

Cloud-Based Accounting Solution for Businesses of All Sizes.

Chargebee will cover the accounting needs of businesses from telecommunications & media, eCommerce, IoT, and other industries, equipping you with subscription management, invoice management, payment management, custom report generation, and many more functionalities.

The software will always keep you in line with the latest tax rules, ranging from compliance requirements to EU-VAT complications, along with encrypting all your activity with PCI Level 1 certification.

Through dunning management, you can set up the number of reminder emails you want to send for failed transactions, and you can automate the revenue recognition model to deal with cancellations, track charges, manage refunds and write-offs.

Pricing

For three users and the first EUR 90K in revenue, you can access Chargebee’s Free plan.

Pros

• Invoice management and automatic billing
• Easy product subscription management
• Manually record offline invoices like cash transfers and postal orders
• Calculate taxes based on location
• Payment management and custom report generation
• Set a number of reminder emails to be sent automatically in case of failed transactions
• Integrate with several payment processors
• Translate the content of a webpage and configure checkout in multiple languages

Chargebee is a very adaptable cloud accounting solution that allows you to manage your product subscriptions without a hassle, covers several different payment processors, adjusts the tax calculator and the checkout process according to location, enables offline payments while equipping you with the complete invoice management package.

10. ZipBooks

Best Cloud Accounting Software for Basic Income and Expense Management.

One of the easier cloud accounting interfaces to navigate, ZipBooks allows you to create records for contacts and items, send invoices, track time, projects, and tasks.

Very good at tailoring its capabilities to your company's needs, ZipBooks lets you create your organization's profile, set up the payment processors, add team members and assign permissions by task type, attach documents, and establish preferences (currency type, default terms, specific parameters for your invoices and estimates, boilerplate email message text, and more).

ZipBooks can enable you to encourage your customers to review your business and highlight the reviews on Facebook, Yelp, and Google.

Select the ideal contact record template for customers and vendors, and the software will display totals to date for revenue and expenses, a list of recent invoices, estimates, and recurring profiles.

It is no wonder that platforms like Gusto suggest ZipBooks as one of the go-to integrations for handling contractor payments, employee wages, payroll tax, and more.

Pricing

The Starter plan is free with unlimited invoices.

Pros

• Task, time, and project tracking
• Task-based user access permissions
• Create invoices with auto-billing and set reminders
• Invite your customers to leave reviews after getting paid
• Simplify reporting with reconciliation, color coding, auto-categorization
• Retain the most profitable customers with smart insights
• Income graph, complete activity history, customer statements, list of email exchanges in the contact records
• Compare your results with those of your competitors

ZipBooks will enable you to send unlimited invoices, manage unlimited vendors and customers, accept digital payments, and view basic reports in its free Starter plan, covering all the small-business bookkeeping basics effortlessly.

11. NetSuite

#1 Cloud Accounting Software for a Complete View of Cash Flow and Financial Performance.

NetSuite will simplify the process of recording transactions, managing payables and receivables, collecting taxes, closing the books and enables on time, and generating accurate reports with greater control over financial assets.

View real-time insights into profitability ratios, inventory margins, liabilities, as well as fixed assets, taxes, and cash positions while ensuring compliance with accounting standards, government regulations, tax codes, and internal policies.

Automate journal entries, account statement reconciliations, and other repetitive tasks, and unlock the unified platform's other solutions within the suite, such as inventory and order management, customer management, HR, eCommerce, and more.

Pricing

To acquire the license pricing, you will need to contact NetSuite's team.

Pros

• Customize account types, transactions, and reporting segments
• Optimize cash flows, monitor bank accounts, manage liquidity
• Automate all aspects of invoice delivery, payment processing, and collections management
• Automate your accounts payable processes
• Ensure compliance with internal policies and avoid payment fraud with automated review and approval workflows
• Manage domestic and global taxes
• Allow multiple tax schedules for GST, VAT, consumption taxes, and general sales taxes
• Manage the complete lifecycles of depreciating and non-depreciating assets

NetSuite's cloud accounting software will help you automate your AP and streamline tax management, optimize your AR, track and streamline your cash flow and financial performance.

12. Aplos

#1 Fund Accounting Software for Nonprofits.

Aligning with the nonprofit organizations' specific needs, Aplos allows you to easily track funds such as grants and special programs, create a flexible chart of accounts, identify your tax-deductible income by purpose, manage membership and sponsorship invoices, handle financial summaries through general ledger, and more.

Through the use of online donation tools, custom communications, donor database reports, and event registration capabilities, Aplos allows you to fundraise more effectively.

The fund accounting tools let you delegate report transactions, manage finances, track cash flows, and create journal entries for direct double-entry accounting.

Pricing

The Aplos Suite subscription is $14.75 per month.

Pros

• Fund accounting
• Donation tracking
• Budgeting
• Nonprofit financial statements
• Pledge tracking, donations by a donor, lapsed donors, budgeting reports
• Budgeting by fund or tags
• Custom financial reports by budget, campaign, department
• Automate transaction entries, form 990 reports, fixed asset tracking, income & expense allocations

Designed to serve the needs of nonprofits and church organizations, Aplos will cover your fund accounting, online donation management, reporting, fundraising, event management, and custom communications.

How to Choose the Right Cloud-Based Accounting Software

What Usability Factors Should You Consider?

Before searching for intricate features, you need to determine how and where you want to use the software and take everyone else who will be using the system into consideration.

1. Multi-user access

Modern accounting software will allow you to invite other users into the system and control the data they can see and tasks they can delegate.

You might want to give your business partner or provide the accountant with full access to your account, for example, while only enabling the subordinates to track their time and invoice customers.

Some tools will allow you to invite multiple users at no additional cost while others only let your accountant access the system for free and charge you extra for additional users joining the system.

ZipBooks, for example, will allow you to send unlimited invoices and manage unlimited vendors and customers in their free plan, but you will need to purchase their $15/month Smarter plan to add five team members, while their $35/per month plan lets you add unlimited users.

Zoho Books takes a different approach, allowing you to add more users by charging you $2.5 per user per month.

2. Multi-business support

If you don't want to pay extra to set up separate accounts for your different businesses, you will need an accounting software that supports multiple small businesses under one account at no additional cost.

Wave, for example, allows you to maintain more than one business individually under a single account.

Xero, on the other hand, enables you to manage as many companies as you want, but you have to pay for each company separately with a discount for a larger amount.

3. Mobile access

While some software offer remote accessibility with their mobile app, others provide separate apps for employees and equip them with time-tracking, expense receipt-submitting, and other functionalities.

Since mobile apps vary in this way, you need to check if the software you're aiming for has the capabilities you're looking for.

Also, you want to be sure that the app works within your platform, as some or compatible only with iOS devices, and others can be transmitted to smartwatches as well.

Kashoo is one cloud accounting software that offers a mobile app compatible with iOS only and requires the iOS 11.0 version or later.

Quicken, NetSuite, Chargebee are among the many software that offers mobile app functionality for iOS and Android devices.

Which Accounting Features Do You Need?

1. Invoicing, inventory, income & expense tracking

As a small business, you can go with the basic accounting features like invoicing, income & expense tracking, financial report generation, and customer management up to a point.

However, as your business expands, you will want your accounting software with inventory management, that can manage vendors and assist you with purchase ordering when selling more products.

Similarly, as a service-based company, you will need software that will help you track time and invoice billable hours easier.

Wave, for example, doesn't calculate or track the unit value of inventory for your business, but they do provide inventory management as a feature.

NetSuite provides you with inventory categorization based on the volume of transactions and value and scheduling of regular, periodic counts of on-hand quantities through their Inventory Management software.

2. Automations and time-saving capabilities

Some accounting software like Freshbooks will save you time on invoicing and accounts receivable tasks by equipping you with automatic recurring invoices and late payment reminders.

Other software like Zoho Books will ensure that the transactions in your bank account match with the transactions you've created in Zoho Books by reconciling your bank accounts.

Xero is a program that will convert the quotes and estimates into invoices and allow you to charge the customers when you have supplied them with goods or services.

In QuickBooks Online, you can reorder products by automatically creating purchase orders and automate all parts of the sales cycle.

3. Tax preparation and accountant accessibility

ZipBooks is an accounting tool that will prepare your income statement, balance sheet, and financial reports automatically and provide you with multiple tax rates.

You want to be able to give your accountant access to relevant data within the system or easily email all necessary data and files to them.

Freshbooks is a tool that allows you to give your accountant the permissions to access your dashboard, invoices, expenses, reports, and accounting.

With all their expertise and advising, the accountant can access the accounting reports like general ledger, balance sheet, profit & loss, add journal entries, manage chart of accounts, review, and manage invoices, expenses, payments, other income, and bank reconciliation.

Investors, owners, creditors, and auditors use balance sheets and income statements to conclude the financial health of a business, which is why exploring and understanding the balance sheet v.s income statement comparison will help you grasp the accountant's expert advice better.

4. Add-on services

Payment processing tools, payroll service, and other accounting software add-ons can simplify the process of accepting invoice payments online and paying your employees.

Starting at $20 per month, Wave Payroll is an affordable payroll service designed for small businesses that can ensure tax remittances, pay stubs, hire reporting, year-end tax forms while enabling you to pay your employees and contractors on time, making it a good contender for the best payroll services for small businesses today.

By integrating with the programs and services you already use, you can include the POS systems, advanced inventory management, performance management systems, eCommerce, ERP software, CRM, email marketing, Google apps, and more into your accounting software's repertoire of tools.

Traditional Accounting Software vs Cloud-Based Accounting Software

Accessibility

Traditional accounting software requires you to have a dedicated hard drive where you will install the software and store your financial data.

You can access the data through a desktop application that can't be accessed through any other device or network.

Cloud accounting software provides the same functionality as traditional accounting software, but it connects using the internet to run on remote servers.

You can access your financial data and operate through a web-based interface instead of an installed desktop application.

While you can only access your financial data from a specific device and location in the on-premise accounting software, cloud accounting software provides mobility and flexibility in the schedule as it allows you to access your data from any connected device, at any time, regardless of the location.

Scalability

The second difference is viewed in scalability as the cloud accounting software is naturally supportive of business growth because it's not limited to the storage and bandwidth of local servers and devices you can afford to purchase and maintain.

At the same time, traditional accounting software requires installation and access granted for each new user.

Cost

When it comes to the cost of traditional accounting software, you are responsible for maintaining your servers, increasing your storage capacity through investing in new servers, and updating your software.

The cloud accounting software reduces substantial prices associated with hardware, with your subscription fee including as much server storage as you need and covering automatic software updates.

Benefits of Cloud-Based Accounting Solutions

1. Accessibility across Multiple Devices

Unlike traditional accounting software that only works on one computer and data gets moved through external storage units like USB, cloud accounting software is accessible on any device with an internet connection.

2. Multiple Users

Whereas only one person has user access in the traditional accounting software model, the cloud accounting software is equipped with multi-user access which allows you to collaborate with your team and advisors online.

3. Off-Premise and Schedule Flexibility

When using cloud accounting software, there are no working hour limitations as it allows you to access our financial data at any time and make any changes in your operations through whichever mobile device you have at hand.

4. Bank Reconciliation and Account Alignment

Instead of spending hours on transcribing, cloud accounting software will import your sales, income, and purchase data straight from your bank accounts.

Through bank reconciliation, you'll be able to summarize bank and business activity, confirming that payments have been processed and cash collections have been deposited into a bank account.

For a long-lasting harmony between your bank accounts and intelligent accounting software, you can explore the saving and business resources options that the best bank accounts provide, so you can get paid for the products and services you sell.

5. Upgrades and Backup

While upgrading traditional accounting software is expensive, difficult, and time-consuming, cloud accounting software requires nothing you need to install or update.

Unlike the costly and complicated backup maintenance in traditional accounting software, cloud accounting software backs up all your data automatically.

6. Comprehensive Dashboard

You can set up a dashboard displaying important financial information like who owes you money, what bills are due, in what state is your cash flow, and so on.

7. Cloud Security

Being one of the most secure ways to store information, cloud security encrypts your financial data online on highly secure servers.

So, even if your laptop gets stolen, no one will be able to access the data without your password as the data has no contact with any hardware.

By creating strong and random passwords with the help of the best password generators, you can only strengthen the already foolproof data security system of cloud accounting software.

Also, if you invite users to view your data, you can control the levels of access as a much safer method than the old-fashioned email sending and USB storing.

Cloud Accounting FAQ

Which Cloud Accounting Software Should I Pick?

If you want a well-rounded, intuitive, attractive double-entry and financial accounting experience supporting invoices and estimates, expenses, time tracking, and projects, there are a few better accounting software than Freshbooks for anticipating and addressing the needs of smaller businesses and freelancers than Freshbooks.

If you are running a service-based or consulting business and you need excellent time tracking capability, or you are on a tight budget but you want to find a free plan with unlimited invoices, ZipBooks might be your best option.

Finally, our pick as the best overall cloud accounting software for businesses of all sizes is Intuit's Quickbooks Online which allows you to effortlessly collaborate with your bookkeeper or an accountant and get the most out of your alliance.

Easy to use, well-designed, and deep, Quickbooks Online will equip you with the most effective accounting tools while being uninhibited by internet speed and cost effectiveness.

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