If You’ve Got a Small Business, You’re Going to Need This Top-Rated Accounting Software
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If you own your own small business, or work in HR, one major wall you may have found yourself running into is trying to work with a large firm to manage taxes and payroll. With big box stores posting record profits, the market is growing more hyper-competitive by the day — but you don’t have to step outside the office to keep tabs on your financials in-house, track your expenses, and be in tip top shape for tax season.
One way to overcome this financial management hurdle is by expanding your search for software online — the best accounting software helps small business owners track their accounts, both receivable and payable. If you spring for accounting software, your small business can often benefit from the software right off the bat, without too much extensive customization (although if you decide to scale your business, you might eventually need to switch to a custom enterprise resource planning, or ERP, system).
But with so much accounting software on the market, it can be hard to choose the right one for your small business. If you’re tracking your income from freelancing, you won’t need the same type of software as you would if you were running a storefront with several employees (or if you were working with bookkeepers or accountants, anyways). Overall, you should not only be able to glean an understanding of your profitability easily, but choose from add-on services that offer you the flexibility to scale as your business does.
This is why we like Intuit QuickBooks for small business — they’re the most intuitive, user-friendly choice for a variety of business types (it’s also popular amongst freelancers). It’s an easy favorite of ours, and provides thorough and comprehensive reporting. If you want to know how to manage payroll and expenses for your business online, QuickBooks is one of the best accounting software to do it on. Here’s how.
How Does QuickBooks Work?
Through our research and comparison of the top accounting software on the market, we’ve found that QuickBooks is the best choice for managing small businesses. Not only can it help you make smarter business decisions, but it makes it easier to pay your bills on time, every time.
Know where your money is going and get stress-free financial planning with all your accounting management conveniently located on one main dashboard. There are four different tiered plans, and starting at just $30 per month, you can track income and expenses, send invoices and estimates, run financial reports, organize your receipts, manage your cashflow, manage 1099 contractor payments, and more. Overall, it makes your bookkeeping more efficient, and with seamless tracking, you’ll get a birds-eye view of where your business is heading.
Already have an accountant? You can invite them to access your QuickBooks Online and utilize all your features for free. This is especially helpful if your business has complex financial needs or if you have multiple streams of income, since the software is well-known by accountants. You can also use the company’s ProAdvisor network to help you find QuickBooks-certified bookkeepers to work with. If you really need someone who can help you be prepared for tax time, you can use QuickBooks Live to work with a QuickBooks-certified bookkeeper who understands your business. They’ll do your books for you so you can stay focused on growing your business.
QuickBooks
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The scalability of the QuickBooks Online is also a huge plus, allowing it to evolve as your business does. You can upgrade your QuickBooks with other Intuit add-ons, like QuickBooks Payroll or QuickBooks Point of Sale, to help run payroll faster, or build up your retail business and know what’s in stock and what’s on order in real time. There are also several handy customizable features, such as reviewing reports, taking photos of receipts, and receiving payments. The software is also compatible with more than 750 business apps (like Stripe and PayPal), and offers more than 50 different accounting reports.
How Much Does QuickBooks Cost?
As previously mentioned, there are four QuickBooks plans to decide from when you’re choosing the best accounting software for your business — Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. No matter which plan you end up going with, luckily, all plans automatically include everyday customer phone support and 24/7 chat support, as well as access to QuickBooks mobile apps and third-party app integration.
The Simple Start plan is $30 per month, and has all the basic reporting, income and expense tracking, and cash flow managing functionality. For $55 per month, the Essentials plan gives you all the features of Simple Start, but allows you to run enhanced reports, manage and pay bills, and track billable hours. Upgrade to the Plus plan for $85 and you can track inventory and cost of goods, as well as project profitability. The Advanced plan, for $200 a month, lets you do batch invoicing, manage employee expenses, monitor your financial performance with more enhanced analytics powered by Fathom, as well as access exclusive app integrations for add-ons like HubSpot and DocuSign.
Buy QuickBooks Online Get 50% Off
So how do you know which plan is right for you? Well, if your small business is service-forward, Simple Start will cover most of your bases. Essentials or Plus have more flexibility with inventory management and customizability if you’re selling a product. The Advanced plan is the most robust and is best if you need more sophisticated analysis of your financial reporting, or if your business is rapidly growing.
Just need a bare-bones accounting software for your side hustle? Check out QuickBooks Self-Employed, with plans that stat at $15 per month. It’s specially designed for the needs of freelancers and independent contractors.
Does QuickBooks Have a Free Trial?
Want to see which flexible plan is right for your business? Try out Quickbooks’ 30-day free trial plan here. You’ll be able to access the same bookkeeping features and see how your business is performing just as you would with a Simple Start plan.
Buy QuickBooks 30-Day Free Trial
Already know which plan you want? You can currently save 50% on the first three months of your QuickBooks Online + QuickBooks Payroll subscription now with their extended Cyber Monday deal. See the QuickBooks deal here.
You can try it out for yourself if you want to see what having an efficient accounting platform can do for your business. There will be challenges to scaling your workforce, but small businesses with varying needs can rely on QuickBooks for every part of the process, from payroll from payday to tax time.
