The best small business accounting software is easy to use and has essential bookkeeping features, including accounts payable (A/P) and accounts receivable (A/R) management, income and expense tracking, and financial reporting. Some businesses may do well with free software like Wave, while others may need premium options like QuickBooks Online or Zoho Books for advanced tasks, such as project accounting and inventory management.
That said, here are the six best accounting software for small businesses:
- QuickBooks Online: Overall best accounting software for small businesses with class and location tracking and a huge network of QuickBooks Online ProAdvisors
- Wave: Best free solution for sending invoices and tracking income and expenses
- FreshBooks: Best for small service-based businesses seeking strong project accounting features
- Zoho Books: Best for mobile accounting
- QuickBooks Desktop: Best desktop accounting software for managing multiple companies
- Bench: Best online bookkeeping service as an alternative to do-it-yourself (DIY) accounting software
QuickBooks Online: Get invoicing, bill pay, and inventory tracking. Now 50% off for Three Months. |
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We are committed to providing you with an unbiased, thorough, and comprehensive evaluation to help you find the right accounting software for your business. We meticulously and objectively assess each software based on a fixed set of criteria—including pricing, features, ease of use, and customer support—in our internal case study.
To delve deeper into our best small business accounting software, we tested and used each platform to evaluate how the features perform against our metrics. This hands-on approach helps us strengthen our accounting software expertise and deliver on the Fit Small Business mission of providing the best answers to your small business questions.
Best Small Business Accounting Software: Quick Comparison
QuickBooks Online: Best Overall Small Business Accounting Software
Pros
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 5 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 + $8 monthly per employee (read our QuickBooks Time review)
Our Expert Opinion
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, CPAs Certified Public Accountants , and tax professionals. Since QuickBooks for Mac has been discontinued, QuickBooks Online is our choice for the best accounting software 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, 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.
Wave: Best Free Solution for Sending Invoices & Tracking Income & Expenses
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 Has no advanced features like inventory tracking and project management
Cons
- 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
Our Expert Opinion
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 absolutely 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.
FreshBooks: Best for Small Service-based Businesses Seeking Strong Project Accounting Features
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)
Our Expert Opinion
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 few 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 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.
Zoho Books: Best Accounting Software for Mobile Accounting
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 US
- 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
Our Expert Opinion
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.
QuickBooks Desktop: Best Desktop Accounting Software for Managing Multiple Companies
Pros
- Doesn’t require an internet connection after the initial setup
- Allows you to manage the books for multiple companies without additional fees
- Offers industry-specific editions in the Premier and Enterprise versions
- Eliminates security issues associated with cloud access
Cons
- Is a desktop software; requires installation and setup
- Is not as easy to use as a cloud-based accounting software
- Requires an additional fee for each extra user
- Is difficult to share books with an external accountant
- QuickBooks Pro Plus: From $549.99 per year for one user (3 users maximum)
- QuickBooks Premier Plus: From $799 per year for one user (5 users maximum)
- QuickBooks Enterprise: From $1,410 per year for one user (40 users maximum)
- QuickBooks Accountant: Included with $799 annual QuickBooks’ ProAdvisor membership
QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and Enterprise offer discounted prices for each additional user. This means that as you add more users to your QuickBooks Desktop account, the cost per user is reduced. For instance, QuickBooks Pro Plus costs $549.99 per year for one year, $749.99 per year for two users, and $949.99 per year for three users.
There is no free trial, but all QuickBooks Desktop products come with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
To help you determine which version of QuickBooks Desktop is right for you, read our:
- QuickBooks Pro vs Premier comparison
- QuickBooks Premier vs Enterprise comparison
- QuickBooks Desktop Premier vs Accountant Edition comparison
Note that QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise are the most popular desktop versions of QuickBooks for Windows. For Mac users, check out our list of the best accounting software for Mac.
We recommend this program if you don’t want cloud-based software like QuickBooks Online. As our best multicompany accounting software, you can manage the books of an unlimited number of companies for a single subscription price. With all the other paid software in this guide, you can set up and manage multiple companies, but each company requires its own subscription.
For businesses with complex accounting needs, including those with multiple locations and inventory management, QuickBooks Desktop is a great fit. However, it has some drawbacks. For instance, you can only access your data from the computer it is installed on. Also, it may be more challenging to collaborate with your team or accountant since you need to share the actual data file. It’s more convenient to share files in QuickBooks Online, as you only need to send an email invitation to your accountant.
Bench: Best Online Bookkeeping Service as an Alternative to DIY Accounting Software
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
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.
How We Evaluated Small Business Accounting Software
We evaluated the best small business accounting software using our internal case study. During our evaluation, we focused on the following key categories:
5% of Overall Score
Software is rated based on its price for various levels of users, including one, three, and five users. It is also awarded points if it offers a free trial or discount for new users and if monthly vs annual plans are available.
53% of Overall Score
10% of Overall Score
5% of Overall Score
A good mobile app should be able to perform all the same functions as the computer interface.
20% of Overall Score
7% of Overall Score
We include the average user review score for each software collected from large third-party websites dedicated to the collection of user reviews, such as Software Advice, SourceForge, and G2.
You may need industry-specific accounting software for small businesses if you have unique bookkeeping needs specific to your niche. For instance, law firms require trust accounting features, which are often not offered in general-purpose bookkeeping solutions, such as the best small business accounting software presented above.
To help you select the right solution for your niche, check out our following guides to the best accounting software across various industries:
- Best accounting software for consultants
- Best accounting software for handyman business
- Best accounting software for small manufacturing businesses
- Best accounting practice management software
- Best church accounting software
- Best construction accounting software
- Best cryptocurrency accounting software
- Best ecommerce accounting software
- Best farm accounting software
- Best hotel accounting software
- Best law firm accounting software
- Best nonprofit accounting software
- Best real estate accounting software
- Best restaurant accounting software
- Best retail accounting software
- Best startup accounting software
- Best trucking accounting software
There’s no one-size-fits-all small business accounting software; each program has its benefits and drawbacks, especially in terms of features. That said, if there’s a specific accounting aspect or task you want to automate or achieve within your company, select a platform that is excellent in that area.
Below are our helpful guides to finding the right bookkeeping software tailored to specific features or areas of accounting:
- Best A/P software
- Best bank reconciliation software
- Best cloud-based accounting software
- Best fixed asset management software
- Best invoicing software
- Best mobile accounting apps
- Best multicompany accounting software
- Best project accounting software
- Best small business budgeting software
- Best spend management software
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
QuickBooks is by far the most popular and best small business accounting software in the U.S. However, there are some less expensive alternatives to QuickBooks you may consider, such as Wave and FreshBooks.
Some key factors you need to consider when selecting the best business accounting software include cost, ease of use, deployment method, scalability, features, and customer support. Visit our guide on how to choose the right small business accounting software for the step-by-step process.
Prices may range from $0 to $200 per month for cloud-based software. Desktop accounting software can go as high as more than $1,000 per month, depending on the number of users included in the plan.
Among the software we’ve reviewed, Wave is the simplest and most user-friendly solution for businesses with basic accounting tasks. It lets you easily create and send unlimited invoices, track income and expenses, and create financial reports.
Cloud-based software like QuickBooks Online allows you to access your books from any internet-enabled device. Meanwhile, on-premise programs like QuickBooks Desktop can be accessed only on the computer where it’s installed.
If you only need basic accounting features like income and expense tracking, then you may benefit from free accounting software like Wave. We don’t recommend free software if you sell inventory.
No, you don’t. There are some easy-to-use accounting software that don’t require prior bookkeeping experience. Examples are QuickBooks Online, Wave, and FreshBooks. However, to get the most out of accounting software, we recommend that you work closely with your accountant.
Bottom Line
There are many terrific small business accounting software applications available but none of them are as versatile and comprehensive as QuickBooks Online. However, it isn’t always the best solution, especially if you only have very basic needs and wish to save money. If your priority is mobile accounting, Zoho Books is optimal. If your business needs special industry features, you can choose one of QuickBooks Desktop Premier’s five industry-specific editions.