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Bookkeeping software automatically calculates payroll amounts in a timely and accurate manner, tracks sales tax on the go, and provides insightful reports about cash flow, revenues, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. You can also use it to build and send invoices and receipts to clients.
These back-office functions can be done manually, but that takes time and effort and increases the odds of human error. With bookkeeping software, bookkeeping for small business becomes largely automated, freeing up your time so you can focus on running your business.
Good bookkeeping software can stay with your business forever, scaling as your needs grow and maintaining a record of tax and payroll documents that go back to the founding of your business. Since information is stored in the cloud, you can use it as an unlimited digital filing cabinet on top of all its other useful functions.
If you are a freelancer or own or manage a small business, a bookkeeping program should be able to keep up with all of your accounting needs. However, large enterprise users might find that bookkeeping programs are lacking, especially if you have a lot of customization needs. That said, bookkeeping software is quite feature-rich and should be enough to handle most of your needs. Let’s look at some of the features you should expect from a good bookkeeping service.
While no two bookkeeping programs are the same, all good bookkeeping software should have at least some functions in the following areas:
Bookkeeping software will enable you to track sales tax daily, including state discounts and refunds. It should also enable you to file tax returns with all commonly used forms.
Payroll tools accurately calculate employee pay and ensure that workers get paid on time. The system should help navigate new hires, mergers, and other events that complicate payroll, saving your business many hours of operational time.
Since bookkeeping software for small businesses keeps track of all your critical financial data, it has all the information needed to generate insightful reports on revenue, accounts receivable, cash flow, and more.
You should be able to build your own invoices and receipts, formatted as you desire and featuring your business letterhead.
Multi-user access is an expensive but essential feature for some teams. Decide whether or not you need it based on the size of your team and which team members need access.
Ideally, your bookkeeping program should be accessible on any mobile or desktop platform. This will provide convenient access on the go, saving you time.
You never know when you might need old tax statements or payroll documents. Simply store away your files and access them if needed. There’s no need to worry about running out of space.
You are already paying for your bookkeeping program. Ideally, customer support should be free and available 24/7. Note the type of support available, whether it is self-service support, phone support, online chat, or email.
Your bookkeeping software should scale as your business grows. Consider whether your bookkeeping software will be able to keep up in terms of the number of users allowed, the types of forms it can file, and the level of support you receive as your business gets larger.
The best way to tell if a bookkeeping program is user-friendly is to try it yourself. Most bookkeeping software providers offer a free trial between 30 and 90 days. Download the trial version and play around with it to see if the interface works for you.
Bookkeeping software ranges in price from around $10 to $60 per month, depending on your plan. Some programs even offer a limited free plan.
Free programs frequently limit the amount of revenue you can make before upgrading to a paid tier.
Plans under $20 per month typically offer tax forms, invoicing, and manual payroll access. Mid-range plans starting at $20 include automatic sales tax and payroll calculation. Starting at around $40 per month, the most expensive plans offer advanced features like employee time tracking and automated workflows.
Another factor to consider is the number of users you require. Some providers will limit the number of users you can have, with more users requiring a higher monthly subscription. To pick the best plan for your company, consider how many employees will need access. Will it just be you, or does your accountant also need access? Will your employees need access to the time tracking and payroll tools, or can you handle that on their behalf?
Once you determine the number of users you need, consider what you need automated. Do you need help with payroll? What about sales tax? Once you have come to a conclusion, calculate the approximate price range from the ranges above, and choose a program from our top 10 list that suits your needs.
Bookkeeping software is great for tracking sales tax, compiling tax forms, managing payroll, and generating reports about the financial health of your business. While it is possible to do all of these things manually, bookkeeping software automatically handles many calculations and repetitive processes. This eliminates human error and frees up time for you and your team to address other, more pressing tasks.
Apart from yourself, your accountant or accounting team should have full access to the bookkeeping program. Other employees should have some access to relevant areas. For example, all employees should have access to a record of their paystubs. Since different team members require different access levels, most bookkeeping programs enable you to control access to various program areas by employee role.
Good online bookkeeping software keeps a backup of all documents in an unlimited cloud storage file. You should be alright keeping all of your documents on the cloud, but it is always prudent to keep a physical backup, at least for some time. The IRS requires that you maintain records for at least 6 years, so keep a physical backup of your tax forms just in case until the 6-year mark elapses.
QuickBooks is possibly the unrivaled star of the accounting world. Put out by Intuit, QuickBooks is a powerful accounting, payroll, and bookkeeping application that includes wonderfully streamlined invoicing within its hefty bundle. And there's a good reason that QuickBooks is still at the top of the charts despite so much competition in the field. For one thing, businesses can accept all types of payments, including credit cards, debit cards, and ACH bank transfer directly from the online invoice. So, you get paid faster.
QuickBooks is completely customizable, including logos, colors, and more. This way, customers know that it's you at a glance. QuickBooks invoicing software offers convenient features, including recurring invoices to bill your clients regularly, the ability to add billable hours directly to your invoice from Google Calendar, TSheets, or your own QuickBooks time tracking, and an auto-matching feature that pairs the payments with the invoices, so your books are always balanced.
FreshBooks is another full-fledged accounting software that allows businesses of every size to easily manage their finances. And it can also help you create invoices online with ease. FreshBooks has a fresh mobile app, so you can handle billing remotely. The invoice app is loaded with plenty of convenient features like expense categorization, due date settings, and late fee setup. FreshBooks has a clean dashboard, and the entire user interface is simple and intuitive, so anyone can manage it.
FreshBooks comes with other convenient features, one of the best being expense tracking. You can track individual expenses and link them to the invoice of a specific client. So, every aspect of the job gets billed properly and efficiently. FreshBooks also lets businesses collect payments online via credit card payments, PayPal, or Google Checkout. This is a newer feature that many other invoicing software options don’t offer and is incredibly useful for clients and businesses. Bundle that with a nice reporting feature, and FreshBooks is an obvious choice for professional and efficient business invoicing.
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Jobber is a smaller name in the invoicing industry, but it’s quickly gaining ground on the competition, especially when it comes to the home & field services industry. From automated invoice follow ups to online payments, Jobber definitely offers the kind of functionality to put it on par with the bigger brands. One of the best features Jobber offers is batch invoicing. You can select multiple jobs to invoice simultaneously, and they’ll all be sent out automatically through e-mail or text. You can even invoice and collect payments on site with Jobber Payments, or set up automatic payments for credit cards saved on file.
Using Jobber, you can also customize many parts of the invoice, including your company's logo, website, email, phone number, and more. You can add a customized disclaimer, change colors, and really personalize the look. Jobber invoicing software syncs with QuickBooks Online for a smooth accounting sequence, offers online booking, time tracking, and provides you with a full client hub and client management system.
