Plus, they’re available for questions during regular business hours. Finally, they generate the reports you need so you’re ready to prepare your taxes or hand them off to your accountant. Wave offers fee-based bookkeeping services but lacks Intuit QuickBooks Live’s interactive quality. Would you like to let customers pay with credit cards and bank withdrawals?

Whether you think QuickBooks is the best choice for your small business or you think a QuickBooks alternative is better, you should make a checklist of your needs. Aside from the obvious features, such as double entry and time tracking, you should look for software that offers payroll, bill payment and is affordable for your budget. The client portal makes it easy for you to communicate with your customers about custom estimates, timesheets and invoices you create. You can also set up recurring invoices for regular work or even retainer invoices for ongoing work on long-term projects.

Sage 50 Accounting

Xero and Zoho Books go further by letting you create more advanced forms, like purchase orders, sales receipts, credit notes, and statements. All you have to do is fill in the blanks and select from lists of variables like customers and items. Once you have a customer record and start creating invoices, sending statements, and recording billable expenses, you can usually access historical activities within the record itself. Zoho Books is surprisingly affordable, and it even has a free version. Overall, though, Zoho Books is best for businesses that use other Zoho applications, but its appeal isn’t limited to such cases. We also recommend it to larger small businesses, growing businesses, and established businesses that want its customizability, depth, and usability.

Wave includes a long list of bookkeeping and accounting features starting with complete double-entry accounting. Also included is a good sales feature that offers custom invoicing and the ability to accept payments online, although there is a small fee charged for online payment acceptance. Sage Business Cloud Accounting includes double-entry accounting capability, with a default chart of accounts included in the application. A mobile app is included for both iOS and Android devices, and both Sage Business Cloud Accounting plans include invoicing, sales tracking, and bank connectivity. Creating an invoice in FreshBooks takes less than a minute, and you can add an online payment option to get paid quicker.

What accounting software do bookkeepers use?

There is a difference in bookkeeping and accounting in your business firm. Small businesses may have both bookkeeping and accounting functions, and they are synergistic. Bookkeeping is one of the most important tasks that bookkeeping solutions a business owner will delegate over the life of a business. Without it, it’s nearly impossible to produce an accurate record of financial activities that affect everything, from profit to equity to payroll, and more.