Best accounting software for small businesses(2019)

Posted by Daniel Austin on October 16th, 2019

A smart accounting software not only allows you to seamlessly record financial transactions but offers a wide variety of features—taxation, inventory, and payroll—saving time and energy and enabling your business to run more efficiently. 

Which software to choose?

The plethora of options leaves an important question to be answered: how do you determine the right software to purchase? 

With many options available, it can be frustrating to pick one and leave out others without concrete reasoning. 

This article presents five top software you can use for your business needs. 

Moneypex

Moneypex is a premiere accounting software that offers to invoice, tax submission, bookkeeping, and much more. Moneypex is best known for it's Optical Character Recognition (OCR) feature which enables you to rapidly create invoices and automatically detects all the components in an invoice. You can create unlimited invoices customized for your business.  

Moneypex facilitates ‘non-tech’ people through its easy and simple to use interface. 

In terms of pricing, Moneypex offers three packages: free, starter, and standard. The Starter package is priced at £ 5.99/month. The standard is priced at £11.99/month.

If you are a freelancer with a low budget, the free version is a potent financial machine and save you thousands of pounds in revenue.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks has been around for quite a while, offering a basic package for freelancers and an accounting and VAT one for small businesses. For both packages, you receive a 50% discount for the first six months. The basic package for freelancers is priced at £10/month (£5 for the first six months). The plus package offers some advanced accounting features like tracking project profitability that will help you financially analyze the trajectory of your business. 

Zoho Books

Zoho is most known for its customizability. It can also connect with your bank account for real-time updates on cash flow. In terms of pricing, Zoho has three monthly options: Basic (£6), Standard (£12), and Professional (£18). The professional package has added features related to inventory and sales orders. 
Moreover, Zoho offers a yearly package upon which you get 2 months free. 

Xero

Xero is highly popular software that has a wide range of features like expense claims, inventory, and payrolls. It also connects with your bank account and integrates other Zoho apps.

Apart from a free trial, there are three monthly options: Starter (£10/mo), Standard (£24/mo), and Premium (£30/mo). You get half the price for each package for the first four months. 

Xero is comparatively an expensive software.

FreshBooks

Simplicity is emblematic of FreshBooks. It is jargon-free and easy to use. It is ideal if you do not have 

FreshBooks has three monthly packages starting at. 

Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing a Software

Now that we have acquainted you with a number of highly proficient accounting software, you need have to look for certain key aspects while the final decision.

Can you use the software?

The very first thing to consider is your tech proficiency. Although operating accounting software is far from rocket science, you still need a certain level of comfort to seamlessly operate the features. 

Some software like Moneypex and Freshbooks have deliberately created an easy to use interface for people not comfortable with navigating apps. 

Purchasing an app you cannot use is similar to purchasing a car you cannot drive. It will do you no good.  A good tip is to check out the interfaces of each software on Youtube to see whether they are customized to your comfort. 

Can you afford the software?

Whatever software you choose, ideally you should stick to it for a considerable period of time. Moreover, transitioning to a different software will always involve a period of discomfort since you will use to an entirely different interface. 

Hence, the first thing you should look for is a software you can financially sustain not for a month, but for at least 6 months. So, DO NOT look at the monthly price in terms of a short-term expense. See it as a fixed cost. 

Narrowing a software by looking at the long-term cost will immediately eliminate several options, allowing you to make a smoother decision. 

This doesn’t mean you cannot change software you feel isn’t providing you with the service you need; this means your initial decision should be backed by a strong intention to commit long-term. After all, changing software will incur a loss of time, money, and energy. 

Does the software provide all the key features you need?

Different categories of pricing entail the exclusion of certain features. While you should definitely aim to go for the cheapest option, you do not want to miss out on features that essentially save you significant effort, and hence deductively from the law of lifetime is money—save you, yup you guessed it…CHA-CHING. 

For example, the free version of Moneypex does not support filing VAT with HRMC. The option to file tax digitally without struggling through tedious bureaucratic procedures is an enormous weight off your back. 

To take another example, the essential package offered by FreshBooks includes multi-currency support for a simple increase of €2 per month compared to the basic package. If your customers compensate in a different currency, think of the ease this feature would provide. 

So, keep in mind the specific needs of your business while making a choice between different packages. You do not want to miss out on features essential to your business needs. And remember, your business needs vary. So, not every expensive support will cater to what you require. You can quite likely acquire certain features at a lower price in another software.