Choosing the right accounting software helps to manage the financial activities of the startup as well as it is very essential to run a business successfully whether you are providing a business loan or providing machienries. The components of the software assist the entrepreneurs in managing their finance daily.
Today we will get to know about the accounting software suitable for your business. But before understanding about various software, we should understand the various features.
Table of Contents
Elemental Accounting Features
Small business enterprises generally look for basic accounting functions like invoicing, income and expense tracking, financial report generation, and customer management.
Paradoxically if the business comprises selling of the product then the feasible software will be such, which can track your inventory, manage vendors and supports in the purchase order.
Time-Saving Features
Accounting software facilitates recurring invoices & past-due notifications automatically. It helps in saving time with the invoices and account receivables.
The price quotations shared by a business to its customers can be converted to an invoice through accounting software.
Tax Formation
The accounting software assists in tax formation and compliances related activities. It consists of features such as automatic tax calculations, multiple tax rates, and tax reporting.
Additional Services
Integration with third-party software such as payroll services, payment processing gets easy through the majority of the accounting software tools, helping in accepting the invoice payment online easily and pay employees. Though they are not free but are available at competitive pricing.
Third-Party Integration
Accounting software makes it easier to run the business by integrating the programs and services already in use, which helps in automatically share the data in real-time between the systems.
Some of the examples are POS systems, payment processing, e-commerce, ERP, advanced inventory management, CRM, etc.
Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses 2020-21
The important accounting software tools are:
Marg Accounting Software
It is simple to use and can be customized as per the requirement. Some of the key features are the preparation of the balance sheet through importing the data from the inventory software, maintaining customer account, facilities of all types of VAT form, provision of filing e-return online, and integration with the wide range of customized reports for data analysis resulting in better cost control and decision making.
Zoho Books
Through this software, the users can send out quotes, track project durations, get critical business insights on the IOS, Android, and Windows devices.
The most important one is the inbuilt client portal which helps in accept bulk payments, process estimate approvals, share recent transactions, and capture customer feedback effortlessly.
Busy Accounting Software
The accounting software is designed as a three-tier architecture
First Tier – It is a front end that accepts inputs from the user & gives the desired report.
Second Tier – Business logic provided to the data from the first tier to write or read data from the database
Third-Tier – It is the actual database where the database is stored
Quick Books
The software has been around for almost two decades which speaks about the efficiency it offers. Second of all, the software still stays at a pedestal higher than its competitors.
Mainly because the UI/UX extended by QuickBooks is remarkable. It is easy to learn and use. QuickBooks is a smart and powerful feature-packed accounting software solution for small and medium-sized businesses.
Moving further, one of the best features of QuickBooks is that it is cloud-friendly, QuickBooks cloud is a dream come true, both for accountants as well as business owners.
Device independence, freedom of access, easy collaboration, and flexibility are some of the many benefits that users get to enjoy with QuickBooks hosting.
There is certainly free accounting software that can come in very handy. These are as follows:
- SlickPie provides a simple tool to manage the micro-business clients, saves time and money and it is a complete bookkeeping and accounting software
- Ledger Tap is one of the best business management software, most suited for the Indian GST system. Some of the functions are GST bill creation and sharing with the customers, real-time inventory and stock detail, offline and desktop-based data.
- ProfitBooks is free simple accounting software. You can do the important aspects like Invoicing, expense recording, generation of reports like Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet. There are other productivity features like task management and document management as well
- BOKAS is completely free GST accounting software which includes a salary module as well. Compared to other software it is very easy to learn. The whole concept is divided into three windows form like Customer, Transaction, and Administration. It handles both Product and services in inventory and one can take a backup of the balance sheet at the start of each day and so opening and closing information is available at any time
- WaveApps is an easy to use free online accounting software that is designed for small businesses. It has all basic accounting functionalities but is not GST compliant. So, if yours is a non-GST compliant business, then Wave will work great for you.
There is one more software that needs to be taken note of is the ZipLoan – quick business loan app. Though it doesn’t term as accounting software it has a great feature called Udhaar Khata which is a free feature where the person can add the amount received and payable from his/her customer and suppliers, track payment status, send reminders, etc.
Hubstaff
This software lets you accurately keep track of how much your projects are consuming and the time you spend on each task. Hubstaff lets you create project budgets, set bill rates and pay rates, and automate payments and invoicing. You’ll receive notifications as you approach budget limits. You can generate custom reports as well.
Hubstaff supports over 30 integrations and runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Best Accounting Software – Frequently Asked Questions
1. SlickPie
2. QuickBooks Online
3. Sage 50
4. Kashoo
5. Xero
QuickBooks is widely regarded as the top accounting software solution for small businesses.
Accounting is considered one of the harder business majors because it’s up against majors like marketing, management and business admin.
Accounting is not a stressful job. It just requires attention to detail and hard work like any other profession.
1. Xero: Best overall QuickBooks alternative.
2. Sage: Most versatile QuickBooks alternative.
3. FreshBooks: Best for self-employed people.
4. YNAB: Best for financial reporting.
5. QuickBooks Self Employed: Best for sole proprietors.
6. Wave Accounting: Best freemium accounting software.
Xero is one of the best free online QuickBooks alternatives that you can use to manage your business accounting. As an accounting software, Xero is known for its highly friendly user interface.
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