7 Best Small Business Accounting Software in 2024

Pros

• Is industry-leading accounting software widely used by accountants
• Has a vast network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors
• Offers inventory tracking with automatic calculation of cost of goods sold (COGS) cost of goods sold
• Provides free meeting with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor to get set up

Cons

• Is a bit expensive compared to similar software
• Requires at least Plus subscription to track inventory and project profitability
• Can’t enter bills or record time worked from the mobile app
• Requires one subscription per organization

• Simple Start: $30 per month for one user
• Essentials: $60 per month for up to three users
• Plus: $90 per month for up to five users
• Advanced: $200 per month for up to 25 users

You can try QuickBooks Online for 30 days or get 50% off for three months if you subscribe immediately.

Add-ons:

• QuickBooks Bill Pay: Starts at free for five automated clearing house (ACH) payments per month (read our QuickBooks Bill Pay review)
• QuickBooks Payroll: Starts at $45 plus $6 monthly per employee (read our QuickBooks Payroll review)
• QuickBooks Live: Starting at $300 monthly after custom-priced startup fee (read our QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping review)
• QuickBooks Time: $20 base fee plus $8 monthly per employee (read our QuickBooks Time review)

QuickBooks Online is our best small business accounting software because it is widely used by business owners and accountants, making it extremely easy to find help. It has a strong feature set, including the ability to create classes and locations for tracking income and expenses. This is particularly beneficial for businesses that operate in multiple departments or physical locations.

The program is versatile, so you can customize it to specific industries, such as churches, restaurants, and nonprofits. It is also easy to use and allows you to share data and files effortlessly with employees, certified public accountants (CPAs) Certified Public Accountants , and tax professionals. Since QuickBooks for Mac has been discontinued, QuickBooks Online is our choice for the best accounting software for Mac.

It also has a vast network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors, who can help you with various accounting workflows, such as setting up specific reports, customizing invoices, and optimizing the chart of accounts. If you need expert help, read our guide on how to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

On the downside, QuickBooks Online is a bit costly, especially for very small businesses with only basic accounting needs. If you are starting out or are on a tight budget, you might find the free Wave accounting software sufficient.

In our accounting rubric, QuickBooks Online consistently stands out across various criteria, such as banking, A/P, A/R, and inventory. It earned near-perfect marks for its support network because of the availability of QuickBooks ProAdvisors. However, we docked a few points for project management because you can’t track estimated and actual project costs in the Plus plan.

The platform received a fairly high score for mobile accounting, but it could have done better if the app allowed users to enter and pay bills, just like Zoho Books. And while it is generally easy to use, we want to see an improvement in customer support. Unless you purchase Advanced, you can’t place a direct phone call to an agent; you need to send a ticket first and wait for a call. If you want access to direct phone support, then we recommend FreshBooks or Zoho Books.

The good thing is that QuickBooks Online offers many self-help guides to help new users get the most out of QuickBooks. If you need additional training resources, you can check out our free QuickBooks Online tutorials.

• Location and class tracking: Set up tags to track your income and expenses across different departments, properties, or locations of your business.
• Access to a vast network of QuickBooks ProAdvisors: You can easily find an accounting professional or bookkeeper who is knowledgeable of QuickBooks Online products.
• Inventory: QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced let you track the cost of inventory on hand and allocate that cost between ending inventory and the COGS.
• Project accounting: Also available in Plus and Advanced, this feature lets you set up projects to include income, expenses, and wages, and create project estimates
• Invoicing: QuickBooks Online’s invoicing feature calculates the sales tax rate automatically to apply to your invoice based on the customer address.
• Bill Pay: Pay your bills electronically with QuickBooks Bill Pay. Read our QuickBooks Bill Pay review to learn more.

• Invoicing: As our best invoicing software, QuickBooks Online offers professional-looking invoices and calculates sales tax rates automatically based on the customer address or transaction location.
• Bank reconciliation: QuickBooks Online has the most comprehensive bank reconciliation of all the leading accounting software programs on the market. Check out our top-recommended bank reconciliation software to see what makes QuickBooks Online stand out.
• Startups with plans to scale: We ranked QuickBooks Online as our best startup accounting software. Our guide on the leading startup accounting software explains why QuickBooks is better than most similar solutions.
• Specialized industries: While QuickBooks Online has no industry-specific features, it can be customized to almost any industry and integrates with many other apps to incorporate niche-specific functionality. For example, when integrated with RAMA Logistics Software (RLS), QuickBooks Online becomes our top trucking accounting software.

Pros

• Offers free basic accounting features, including income and expense tracking and invoicing
• Can import bank transactions with bank feed
• Lets you send an unlimited number of invoices
• Has a great inexpensive receipt scanner
• Has a paid plan that supports unlimited users with different roles

Cons

• Has no advanced features like inventory tracking and project management
• Lacks scalable options
• Can’t reconcile bank statements when timing differences exist
• Has a free plan—but it excludes a bank feed; must import bank transactions from bank statement

• Starter: Completely free for a single user
• Pro: $16 per month for unlimited users

Add-ons:

• Wave Receipts: $11 per month for unlimited receipt scans via the mobile app (included with Pro plan)
• Wave Payroll: $40 monthly for tax service states or $20 for self-service states, plus $6 per month, per active employee, or independent contractor (read our Wave Payroll review)
• Wave Advisor: From $149 per month for bookkeeping support
• Accounting and payroll coaching: $379 per coaching session and email support

Wave is our recommended free solution for small business accounting and our overall best free accounting software. It includes free bookkeeping, invoicing, and expense tracking features, making it a great fit for freelancers and small businesses with simple accounting needs. For sole proprietors looking to upgrade accounting software, Wave is one of our favorite alternatives to QuickBooks Self Employed.

The main advantage of upgrading to the Pro tier is that it supports unlimited users, which can be useful for small businesses or freelancers working with a team. The most important added feature is automatically importing and categorizing your expenses from a bank feed. That’s nice but not necessary. With the free plan, you can import bank transactions from a statement and then manually categorize them.

Despite the limitations of the free option, it is still by far the best free accounting software we’ve found. We suggest starting with the Free plan—if you only need one user—and then deciding later if you want to upgrade for the additional banking features.

In addition to pricing, Wave performed well in terms of ease of use and general basic features, such as invoicing and income and expense tracking, which is expected given that it’s a very simple software. However, as a trade-off for being free, its features are not as flexible as those in premium software like QuickBooks Online.

For instance, it doesn’t allow you to reconcile bank accounts when there are timing differences—explaining its low score for banking. The reconciliation feature can’t account for when a check is deducted in the software but hasn’t cleared the bank yet. This could be a pretty big problem if you issue a lot of paper checks.

Additionally, Wave lacks some advanced features, like class and location tracking, inventory tracking, and project management. If you require such features, look into QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, and Xero. Wave also didn’t meet our expectations in mobile accounting because the app doesn’t allow you to enter and pay bills, categorize bank transactions, and generate reports. Our top recommendation for mobile accounting is Zoho Books.

Another weak point is customer service as Wave has no live customer support, like phone or live chat. However, users can easily forgive this since it’s part of the trade-off for Wave’s very low price tag.

• Sufficient basic features: Wave offers solid basic accounting features, including invoicing, income and expense tracking, and reporting.
• Unlimited user access: You can add as many users as needed in the Pro plan.
• Financial statements: Either Wave plan can produce both a Profit and Loss Report and a Balance Sheet.
• Optional receipt capture services: Available for $11 per month (or included in the Pro plan), Wave has receipt scanning and is on our list of the best receipt scanners for its affordability, with impressive features, such as optical character recognition and unlimited cloud storage for receipts.
• Payroll integration: Wave offers a payroll service for only $40 or $20 per month plus $6 per employee. Read our Wave Payroll review to learn more.
• Bookkeeping support: Wave can access bookkeeping support starting at $149 per month through the Wave Advisor program.

• Startups and very small businesses: Wave is a practical option for businesses that are just starting out or those on a tight budget.
• After-the-fact bookkeeping: Companies that wait until tax time to compile their income and expense will do well with Wave. No reason to pay for an expensive software if you’re not going to use it to manage your business.
• Simple businesses with multiple users: You can invite as many team members or collaborators as needed to access and use Wave Pro. This can be useful for companies with multiple team members who need access to financial information or accountants who work with multiple clients.

Pros

• Has strong project management features
• Can compare estimated vs actual costs
• Lets you track time and expenses and add them to invoices
• Offers unlimited invoices in all plans
• Has a mobile app for invoicing and accounting

Cons

• Charges additional fee for each extra user
• Requires live bank feed to track account balances
• Is unable to track activity by class
• Is unable to track inventory and COGS

Each plan includes only one user:

• Lite: $19 per month; up to five billable clients
• Plus: $33 per month; up to 50 billable clients
• Premium: $60 per month; unlimited billable clients
• Select: Custom pricing for unlimited billable clients and specialized features

FreshBooks is now available at 70% off for four months, or you can try Lite, Plus, and Premium plans for free for 30 days.

Add-ons:

• Additional team members: $11 per person, per month
• FreshBooks Payroll powered by Gusto: $40 per month plus $6 per employee (read our review of Gusto)
• Advanced payments: $20 per month (unavailable with Lite plan)

FreshBooks is our top choice for project-based companies because of its robust project management and time-tracking features. Hours and expenses can be tracked by project and then easily added to the customer’s invoice. This makes it a great choice for consulting firms and marketing agencies that bill clients based on the time worked by their employees.

We also like that FreshBooks can issue project-specific estimates that can then be compared to actual expenses, which isn’t possible with QuickBooks Online. This helps you determine whether you are over or under budget, which allows you to make the necessary adjustments to your project plan or budget if needed.

Unfortunately, FreshBooks isn’t a great fit for product-based businesses as it has no inventory and COGS tracking features. If you have inventory to manage, we recommend QuickBooks Online for five or fewer users and Xero if you need more than five users.

FreshBooks aced our evaluation of project accounting, justifying its position as our top recommendation for service-based businesses. We docked points mainly in general accounting features and inventory management, but it did a great job in other aspects, like A/R management, general features, integrations, and a mobile app.

We want to see an improvement in FreshBooks’ banking features. Expenses entered manually in FreshBooks cannot be assigned to a specific bank or credit card account until they are matched to a transaction transferred in from a bank feed. This means you can’t track bank balances unless you agree to establish live bank feeds. If you want flexible banking features with the ability to reconcile transactions manually, you should consider QuickBooks Online.

Another shortcoming is pricing since only one user is included in the base price, you may find FreshBooks expensive if you need multiple users to access your software. Businesses with many users can save money with Xero since they can add as many users as needed without any additional fees.

• Project accounting: FreshBooks allows you to create estimates with time and expenses, convert estimates to projects, track time, and convert time entries to invoices instantly, and more.
• Phone support: You can directly call customer support. With other providers like QuickBooks Online, you have to send a request and wait for them to call you.
• Mobile app: The FreshBooks mobile app lets you create and send invoices, enter and pay bills, accept payments online, and record billable time from your smartphone.

• Small service-based businesses: FreshBooks doesn’t have inventory accounting features, so we highly recommend it for small service-based businesses that need a strong project management solution. Billable hours and expenses entered by employees and contractors can be assigned to projects and compared to estimates.
• Freelancers who charge hourly rates: Its user-friendly interface and streamlined invoicing process allow freelancers to create and send professional-looking invoices easily. Also, its built-in time tracking feature lets you track billable hours and then easily add them to a customer invoice.
• Businesses that need a complete but simple DIY accounting solution: FreshBooks has complete accounting features, but it’s more affordable than similar software like QuickBooks Online if you only need a couple of users. This makes it suitable for startups and small business owners with no accounting background.

Pros

• Has solid inventory accounting including COGS
• Offers unlimited users in all plans
• Comes with outstanding basic accounting features
• Has a good network of Xero Advisors

Cons

• Is not as easy to set up and use as QuickBooks Online
• Lacks customer support by either phone or live chat
• Has a marginal mobile app
• Is expensive for single users needing complete software

All plans have unlimited users:

• Early: $15 for 20 invoices and 5 bills
• Growing: $42 for unlimited bills and invoices
• Established: $78 includes project accounting

Xero is currently 90% off for three months, or you can try any plan for free for 30 days.

Add-ons:

• Payroll by Gusto: Billed separately by Gusto (read our Gusto review)

We chose Xero for the great combination of solid inventory accounting and unlimited users. Xero will track your available inventory and allocate the cost of inventory automatically between your inventory on hand at the end of the year and your COGS during the year.

QuickBooks Online also has great inventory accounting, and we think it is a little easier to set up and use than Xero. The problem is that if you need over five users with QuickBooks Online, then you must upgrade from Plus to Advanced, which increases the price from $90 or $200. Xero gives companies with inventory a solid option for unlimited users and a much lower price.

Xero scores extremely well across all the major accounting functions like banking, A/R, A/P, inventory, project accounting, and reporting. While we think it’s a little harder to use than QuickBooks Online, it can do pretty much anything that QuickBooks can do.

The reason we give Xero an overall lower score than Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online is its lackluster mobile app and the absence of any form of live customer support. The Xero mobile app is missing some basic features like receiving customer payments, recording time worked, and viewing reports. Additionally, customer support is only available through email with no phone number to call or live chat function. However, Xero has a lot of self-help material on its website and a user community group.

• Inventory: Xero will track your available inventory and separate the cost between ending inventory and COGS using the average cost method of accounting.
• Unlimited users: All plans include unlimited users
• Banking: Xero has excellent banking features including a great bank reconciliation feature that allows for timing differences between when checks are recorded in the books and when they clear the bank.

• Retailers and wholesalers: Merchandising companies rely heavily on good inventory accounting to account for inventory costs properly. Xero is the most affordable option if you have more than five users.
• Office-based bookkeepers: One of Xero’s weaknesses is the limited features in their mobile app. If your bookkeeper rarely needs a mobile app, then your business might save money with Xero with little effect on functionality.
• Experienced bookkeepers: We don’t recommend Xero to anyone who anticipates needing help to learn the software, but if your bookkeeper is experienced they should have no trouble learning it on their own with the help of the self-help articles available.

Pros

• Has a mobile accounting app that offers more features than similar software
• Offers a free plan for businesses with revenue of less than $50,000 a year
• Has excellent inventory and COGS accounting features
• Integrates with other Zoho apps easily

Cons

• Has limited invoices in the Free and Standard plans
• Can’t track unpaid bills in the Free and Standard plans
• May be difficult to find third-party bookkeeping assistance in the United States

• Free: For businesses making less than $50,000 in annual revenues; includes one user plus one accountant and up to 1,000 invoices per year
• Standard: $20 per month; limited to three users and 5,000 invoices
• Professional: $50 per month; limited to five users with unlimited invoices
• Premium: $70 per month; limited to 10 users
• Elite: $150 per month with advanced inventory; limited to 10 users
• Ultimate: $275 per month; limited to 15 users

You can try any paid plan for 14 days with no credit card requirement.

Add-ons:

• Additional users: $3 per user, per month
• Receipt scanning: $10 for 50 scans per month

Zoho Books stands out from the other accounting software with its powerful mobile app. It tops our list of the leading mobile accounting apps because users can perform advanced accounting tasks on the app, including sending invoices, accepting online payments, entering bills, and viewing reports. You can also create recurring invoices and track time worked, making Zoho Books our overall best accounting software for freelancers.

We believe that conducting business with clients on the go is easier when you have a powerful mobile app. However, that’s not the only thing Zoho Books can offer as it’s also remarkable in other aspects, such as inventory and project accounting. It has features similar to QuickBooks Online—but at a more affordable price. This makes Zoho Books our top-recommended QuickBooks Online alternative.

One of its drawbacks is that it doesn’t allow you to set up and manage multiple companies under a single account. For this, we recommend QuickBooks Enterprise—which is our leading multicompany accounting software.

Zoho Books nearly aced the majority of our rubric criteria, but it fell short in terms of ease of use and tax management. We awarded it a perfect score for mobile accounting because the app provides more features than most similar apps. It also stood out in customer support because it offers phone support and live chat just like FreshBooks.

Zoho Books, however, has some minor limitations. For instance, its project accounting feature doesn’t allow you to compare estimated and actual inventory used, which is also the weakness we found in QuickBooks Online. Those who need this level of project profitability tracking should consider QuickBooks Enterprise if they also need inventory, or FreshBooks if they’re a service-based business.

• Mobile app: Mobile accounting is one of Zoho Books’ biggest strengths. The mobile app can perform plenty of accounting tasks—including invoicing, accepting online payments, recording bills and bill payments, categorizing expenses from the bank feed, and viewing financial reports.
• Inventory: Zoho Books has complete features for tracking inventory. You can track inventory on hand and the COGS, adjust the cost of inventory, and categorize expenses based on vendor details, product details, and stock-keeping units (SKU).
• Project accounting: Users can track time worked and assign it to a project or customer, create expenses from a project, and generate an invoice straight from the project.

• Those seeking powerful mobile accounting: The Zoho Books mobile app includes essential accounting features, including those missing in the QuickBooks app, such as bill entry and time tracking. Freelancers and self-employed professionals will find the app useful since they often work outside of their office and need to manage their finances on the go.
• Businesses with revenue less than $50,000 a year: Zoho Books has a competitive free plan for freelancers and companies making less than $50,000 per year in revenue and sending up to 1,000 invoices a year.
• Ecommerce companies seeking integrated management software: When integrated with Zoho Inventory or Zoho Commerce, Zoho Books can help you manage and track inventory and manage ecommerce transactions, including sales, refunds, and returns.

Pros

• Lets you manage multiple companies with one license
• Offers a free test drive account
• Has flexible inventory accounting
• Comes with solid all-around accounting features

Cons

• Has a poor mobile app
• Is expensive compared to cloud software
• Is harder to set up and use than cloud software
• Difficult to find proficient bookkeepers in the US

• Pro Accounting: $58.92 per month (one user only)
• Premium Accounting: $96.58 per month for one user to $222.25 per month for five users
• Quantum Accounting: $160 per month for one user to $409.17 per month for 10 users

Custom pricing is available for those with over 10 users. There is no free trial, but you can take a “test drive” in a hosted version of Sage 50 already completed with sample data.

Add-ons:

• Sage Payroll: Payroll can be bundled with any of the plans starting at $993 per year for up to 10 employees and the Pro Accounting plan.

With the discontinuance of QuickBooks Pro and Premier for new users after July 31, 2024, Sage is the only remaining major accounting software provider with desktop software targeting small businesses. While QuickBooks Enterprise remains available as a desktop solution, its starting price is nearly triple that of Sage 50—making it unaffordable for many small businesses.

Sage 50 is a high-quality feature-packed accounting software. It offers outstanding invoicing, bill management, reporting, and inventory features. It can be customized to suit the needs of just about any business. It can even be used to manage the books of multiple companies with the Premium and Quantum plans.

Sage 50 scored very well across all the major accounting features that we looked at in our case study. One of the few missing accounting features was a way to group paper checks and cash into a lump sum deposit amount so that the check register matches your bank statement. It’s exceptionally strong in project and inventory accounting.

Its weaknesses are in pricing, mobile app, and ease of use. It’s a bit expensive compared to cloud accounting programs, but much less expensive than QuickBooks Enterprise—which is another popular desktop accounting program. The only mobile app available captures receipt images but nothing else. Finally, ease of setup and ease of use is about what we expect for a desktop program, but much harder than cloud-based software.

• Project accounting: Sage 50 aced our evaluation of project accounting. You can assign expenses, billable hours, inventory, and invoices to specific projects. These actual expenses can be compared to the estimate sent to the customer and assigned to the project.
• Advanced inventory management: While QuickBooks Online Plus only allows the FIFO costing method, Sage 50 lets you choose from average cost, FIFO, LIFO, and specific identification.
• Integrations: Sage 50 has a surprisingly good list of integrations considering it’s desktop accounting software. Its popular integrations include Credit Hound, Avalara, Stripe, Time Tracker by eBillity, and eBridge Connections.

• Those seeking desktop accounting software: With QuickBooks Pro and Premier being phased out, Sage 50 becomes the obvious choice for small business desktop accounting software.
• Light manufacturers: Light manufacturers can combine existing inventory items (like raw materials) plus labor to create new finished goods inventory.
• Managing multiple companies: Sage 50 Premium and Quantum allow you to keep the books of multiple companies for the price of a single license. You can even consolidate parent and subsidiary companies with the Quantum plan.

Overall Score: No score Bench didn’t receive a score from our accounting software rubric since its not accounting software. / 5

Pros

• Provides access to a team of trained in-house bookkeepers
• Has a catch-up bookkeeping service
• Offers tax-ready financial statements
• Provides simple tax filing through its Premium plan

Cons

• Lacks invoicing and bill management
• Uses proprietary software; can make it hard to switch to another provider
• Doesn’t sync with QuickBooks for invoicing

• Essential: $299 per month
• Premium: $499 per month; includes income tax advice and return filing

Add-ons:

• Catch-up bookkeeping: Catch up on prior bookkeeping periods for as low as $299 per month
• Specialized bookkeeping: Track A/R, A/P, or segments starting at $100 per month

Fit Small Business readers receive free bookkeeping service for two months without commitment when you sign up with Bench through the button below.

When you outsource your bookkeeping to Bench, which leads our roundup of the best online bookkeeping services, you can free up time to focus on more important aspects of your business rather than getting bogged down in administrative tasks.

Whether you are short on time or don’t have the bandwidth or resources to manage your books, Bench’s team of bookkeeping professionals can help you manage your accounting tasks, such as expense categorization, reconciliations, and financial reporting. For as little as $299 monthly, Bench costs far less than you would pay a local independent bookkeeper, and you can even add on tax filing and advisory services.

However, the service doesn’t eliminate all of your bookkeeping tasks. You’ll still need to issue invoices to your customers, collect payments, and pay your bills. These tasks are closely tied to businesses, and we believe most business owners like maintaining control over these activities. While Bench is doing the rest of your bookkeeping, you can consider using free invoicing software like Zoho Invoice, one of our top free invoice generators.

• Access to human bookkeepers: You’ll be assigned a dedicated team of bookkeepers that will produce monthly financial reports based on managing and reconciling your bank accounts.
• FreshBooks partnership: Bench is FreshBooks’ largest accounting partner. It can import your invoicing activity from FreshBooks to include in your accounting records.
• Tax pros: In the Premium plan, you’ll be assigned a tax pro who is available for unlimited tax consultations and who will oversee the preparation of your annual income tax returns.

• Small business owners who dislike bookkeeping: Don’t spend your time on menial bookkeeping tasks when Bench can do it for you at such an affordable rate.
• Businesses with complex accounting needs: Bench’s in-house bookkeepers are trained to work with a variety of business types, including those with complex accounting needs that need a high level of expertise and support. They can handle a wide range of financial tasks like bank reconciliations, balance sheet and income statement preparation, and cost accounting.
• Companies that have fallen behind in bookkeeping: Whether you have fallen behind on your books by a few months or years, Bench Retro can help you get your books up to date.
• Companies and independent contractors who need tax filing: Bench offers annual business income tax filing as part of its Premium plan. Additionally, they can help you manage estimated tax payments and provide tax planning advice to help you stay up to date with any changes to tax laws that may affect your business.