Small business owners do have a choice when it comes to accounting software.
There are so many accounting software packages to choose from The first thing you need to do is make a list of what you want this software to do. Once this is done, you can do a comparison search for packages. I used the search “comparing low cost accounting software”. I have come up with a few that I think would work for a small business.
QUICKBOOKS
FRESHBOOKS
ZOHOBOOKS
XERO
ZOHO
WAVE
This is not an all-inclusive list but just a few I found and compared. I will go through each and give a quick breakdown of some of the features and costs.
QuickBooks Online
This comes in 4 different plans
Self-employed $10/mo.
Simple start $15/mo.
Essentials $40/mo.
Plus $60/mo.
This is probably the most recognized software. It does:
Income/expenses tracking
Imports bank/credit card accts
Manages A/R, A/P
Prepares key reports P/L, Balance sheet, Cash flows
If you want to add payroll or track inventory you will need to go to the Essential or Plus plans. All in all this is very good accounting software but there are others that may suite your needs and cost less.
FreshBooks
It comes in 3 different plans:
Lite $15/mo.
Plus $25/mo.
Premium $50/mo.
FreshBooks has the same features as QuickBooks but it offers you customizable invoices. So this could be an alternative to QuickBooks.
Xero
It comes in 3 different plans.
Starter $9/mo.
Standard $30/mo.
Premium $70/mo.
Xero also performs the same tasks as QuickBooks but offers payroll for up to 5 employees without having to add a payroll subscription.
ZOHO
It comes in 3 different plans.
Basic $9/mo.
Standard $19/mo.
Professional $29/mo.
ZOHO also performs the same tasks a QuickBooks but allows users to connect to one of its other components i.e. inventory, reports.
Wave
This is the most unique because it is free. It performs the same tasks as QuickBooks but has ads in the right margin of the screen. So if you are starting out and are on a very low budget, this would be a good choice if you don't mind seeing their ads.
These are 5 different accounting software programs to take a look at. There are many more but these are 5 good ones to choose from.
Here are links to each:
Remember - you can always contact the SBDC office (716 338-1024) if you have further questions or for any of your business decision needs.