The Best Accounting Software, is part of an ongoing Small Business Toolkit series, here at The Simple Dollar. Parts 1, 2, and 3 covered the Best Cloud Storage Providers, Best Email Marketing Services, and Best Project Management Software. Now we turn our attention to a crucial task for all small businesses: accounting.

• More than anything, you have to choose the software that you will be happy using. For some people that's going to be cloud accounting, but if you want the steady control offered by desktop accounting software like AccountEdge Pro, then sign up for a trial version and give it a shot.
• GnuCash is the best free accounting software for businesses that want an open source accounting software that you can customize to meet your needs. For example, if you need a report that is not in the list of report options, you can build it from scratch in GnuCash because a programmer or developer can change the code behind the scenes.

Best accounting software

Read on for our detailed analysis of each product

Probably the most important aspect to running a business, and one of the most difficult, is keeping tabs on your income, outcome, and overall profit.

This is especially when you're a start-up, and it's easy to become overwhelmed with all the administrative tasks you need to manage. However, similar applies to larger corporations as the volume of invoices can make it difficult to be entirely sure of the financial position of the business at any one time.

This is way having a good accounting solution in place from the start is a seriously good idea, so that you can ensure you can keep on top of tracking money in and out of the business as and when you need to check. This is even more important as the business grows, because without a solution in place problems from lack of oversight can snowball along with stress levels.

This is particularly the case for businesses who might want to simply leave everything to their accountants at the end of the year. While technically it means the accounts are done and taxes filed, without a proper idea of the day-to-day costs and earnings then the company is almost certainly losing money.

Luckily, there are some very easy to use and well-developed software applications available, which can not only make it easy to manage your accounts, but also make everything clearer for your accountant at the end of the year, saving administration costs there.

Some accounting packages are downloadable software, but these days it's more common for applications to run in the cloud, which means you can access them through a web browser or app on almost any device, including on your phone while on the go.

Here then are the best in accounting software currently available.

• Also check out our feature on everything you need to know about small business accounting software and our best free accounting software packages

• Want your company or services to be added to this buyer’s guide? Please email your request to desire.athow@futurenet.com with the URL of the buying guide in the subject line.

1. FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a popular cloud-based accounting service designed specifically for small business owners.

The package has plenty of features – invoicing, expense tracking, time tracking, a host of business reports, even an option to take credit card payments (for a 2.9% plus 30 cents transaction fee) – but a straightforward interface aimed at non-accountants ensures you'll be up-and-running right away.

Despite the simplicity, there's real depth here. You can bill in any currency, save time by setting up recurring invoices, allow customers to pay via credit card by checking a box, and even automatically bill their credit card to keep life simple for everyone.

If you need more power, the system integrates with many other services, including PayPal, MailChimp, Basecamp, WordPress, Gusto, Zendesk and more.

Management hassles are kept to a minimum. You're able to access and use the system from your desktop or its free iOS and Android apps, and because it's a cloud-based system there's no need to worry about backups.

If this sounds appealing, you can try FreshBooks for 30 days without using a credit card.

The Lite plan gives you invoices, estimates, time tracking, expenses, plus the ability to accept online credit card payments and import expenses from your bank account. It's $15 a month, but only covers you for five clients.

The Plus plan supports a more reasonable 50 clients, adds the ability to send proposals, and saves you time by providing recurring invoices and the option to automatically send payment reminders. It's decent value at $25 a month.

The $50 a month Premium plan lifts the client limit to 500, and further users can each be added for $10 per month.

2. Intuit QuickBooks

Veteran cloud-based suite that covers all business needs

Intuit QuickBooks may have been around since the days of DOS, but the latest version is right up-to-date – it's an easy-to-use cloud-based suite for just about all your business needs.

Even the Essentials plan for $20 per month has plenty of features: invoicing, expense tracking, as well as time tracking, manage bills, and works for up to three users. There's also the option to add either self service payroll or full service payroll for an additional fee.

Just like FreshBooks, there are a pile of apps to add more features: inventory management, Shopify integration, job scheduling, CRM and more. These can be expensive – many services cost more than QuickBooks itself – but there are exceptions.

Add GoCardless (which is available for UK customers), for instance, and you're able to set up and take regular Direct Debit payments from customers for a mere 1% transaction fee capped at £2 – and there are no sneaky setup charges or other hidden extras. QuickBooks also offers mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Overall we'd usually prefer FreshBooks, but there's plenty to like about QuickBooks, too, and with free trials available it's easy to try them both.

3. Xero

Best Desktop Accounting Software For Small Business

Xero might grab your attention with its low $9 per month Starter account but look closely and limitations soon become apparent – like being restricted to sending a maximum of five invoices, entering five bills, or reconciling only 20 bank transactions.

Still, if you can live with those restrictions there are some pluses here. The service offers smart expense tracking and management, optionally on your mobile with Xero's excellent app for Android and iOS. There are dozens of configurable reports, simple budgeting, and no limits at all on additional users or the accountants you might want to access the data.

If the invoice, bank or billing issues are a problem then the Xero Standard plan looks like a better deal. It's a lot more money at $30 per month, but you can issue as many invoices and enter as many bills as you like.

One disappointment is the lack of support for multiple currencies, which only arrives if you sign up for Xero Premium for $60 a month.

Xero offers plenty of functionality, including a handy 'convert your QuickBooks files' service to help you get started, and it's certainly easy to use. But if you don't quite need all that power, there's better value to be had elsewhere.

4. Sage Business Cloud Accounting

Another veteran offering with some tempting subscription plans

Sage Business Cloud Accounting makes a good first impression with its clear and gimmick-free pricing. The top Sage Accounting plan offers decent value at just $25 per month. There is also a 30-day free trial.

For this, you get modules to manage quotes, invoices, handle and submit VAT online, smart bank feeds and reconciliation, cash flow forecasting, some detailed reports, multiple currency support, project tracking and more, all available from your desktop or via a mobile app.

All this is well presented and generally easy-to-use. If you run into trouble, detailed web help and video tutorials are only a click or two away, with the offer of “free unlimited 24/7 telephone and email support” that should help make any newbie comfortable.

Sage also has a more basic offering called Accounting Start. This doesn't include support for quotes, estimates or vendor bills, and has no cash flow forecasts, but it's only $10 per month and could be enough for small businesses.

5. Kashoo

Hassle-free accounting software for small business users

List Of Accounting Software

Choosing an accounting package often involves browsing a complicated comparison table, looking for hidden catches and trying to figure out which is the best product for you.

Free Accounting Software For Small Business

Kashoo avoids all that with a single $19.95 a month plan, or $199 annually, which delivers just about everything you're likely to need.

Kashoo shines when it comes to multi-currency support, an important feature for today’s global economy. It also supports credit card transactions for all the major carriers – Amex, Visa and Mastercard – at a competitive 2.9% plus 0.30 cents transaction fee.

You also benefit from unlimited invoices and connections to over 5,000 financial institutions to reconcile accounts online. We liked the uncluttered interface of this product, and the dashboard that provides a good summary of your current financial situation at a glance.

Kashoo also offers customer support across the gamut of email, phone, live chat and social media – this company will even respond to an old-fashioned letter! One current shortcoming to note, however, is that there is only a mobile app for iOS, leaving Android users out in the cold for the time being. Kashoo offers a 14-day trial for those looking to test the service out.

Also consider these accounting software platforms

Zoho Books is a simple solution for the self-employed and small businesses, who don't need all the bells and whistles, or cost, of full-on accounting software packages. It still comes packed with essential features, but keeps things simple and comes in at a lower price than other platforms. It's also scalable, so if you find you do need more, it's possible to purchase additional plans, features, and extensions to cover your requirements.

Certify is a solution for tracking expenses rather than full accounts, but could be very useful to have in addition to some of the platforms above, not least because not all of them can track expenses with such dedication. This is especially the case for small businesses with a number of employees, where expenses might not always be reported or submitted properly, even though there is a potential tax deductible saving for the business for doing so.

Financial Force is specifically designed to provide a cloud accounting and finance solution for Salesforce. This means full tracking of customer accounts across multiple workbooks, as well as recording assets, payables, collections, and more. This makes Financial Force less of a simple accounting platform and takes it into the realm of enterprise resource planning (ERP), and it is potentially very useful for those businesses already running Salesforce software.

Holded is another software platform aimed more at small and medium businesses, offering an ERP that brings together sales, accounting, inventory, project and time management into a single dashboard. However, despite these diverse elements, the accounting feature is fully developed, and includes automated billing, along with instant reports on profit/loss, and the balance sheet.

Tipalti is another big ERM platform and bills itself as the only end-to-end solution to automate the entire global payables operation in a unified cloud platform. At this point we're talking about a platform that goes well beyond accounting and into direct tax compliance and financial risk assessment, clearly intended for Fortune 500 companies that need full audit trails on a global scale, which is probably why Amazon is advertised as a customer.

Best Desktop Personal Accounting Software

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