Sole proprietors and freelancers can often use free accounting software to track income and expenses to file tax returns. The best free accounting software should include the ability to track all income and expenses, import bank account transactions, and produce basic financial reports like the profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow reports. We’ve identified five great free accounting software for small businesses.
Top 5 Free Accounting Software for Small Businesses
- Wave: Best overall free accounting software (3.40 of 5 points)
- Sunrise: Best free accounting software for mobile app users (3.35 of 5 points)
- GnuCash: Best free desktop accounting software for experienced bookkeepers (2.63 of 5 points)
- NCH Express Accounts: Best easy-to-use free desktop accounting software (2.45 of 5 points)
- ZipBooks: Best free accounting software to create simple invoices (2.10 of 5 points)
How to Choose the Best Free Accounting Software for Your Small Business
If your small business cannot afford accounting software, you’re not necessarily stuck using an Excel spreadsheet. During our research, we found great options for accounting software that have at least one plan that is free and does not expire. Here are a few things to consider when choosing the free accounting software for your small business:
- Price: All of the software options we present have at least one free plan that does not expire. You might also consider the cost of their more advanced plans that might be needed as your company grows.
- Features: Your free accounting software should have some basic features like connecting to your bank accounts, reconciling bank accounts, generating and emailing invoices to clients, tracking unpaid bills, and producing financial statements.
- Ease of setup and use: Free software often has little customer support, so it’s important that the product uses simple language that doesn’t require you to have a bookkeeping or accounting background.
- Ability to give other users access: The ability to give a bookkeeper or certified public accountant (CPA) access to your data is a huge time saver. This is one area where cloud-based programs are far superior to desktop programs.
- Mobile accessibility: There is no reason to be tied to a desk when you keep your own books. A good accounting program, even a free one, should be accessible from your mobile device.
How We Evaluated Free Accounting Software
We considered an array of accounting software for small businesses that offered a plan that is free forever. We evaluated the free software in terms of general features we’d expect to find in paid software, but also evaluated the free software on whether they have very basic features that we take for granted in paid software like bank feeds and bank reconciliations. Finally, we evaluate the software on pricing, ease of use, and our own expert evaluation.
10% of Overall Score
Software must not only be free, but include unlimited users, customers, vendors, and transactions to receive all five points for pricing.
20% of Overall Score
We include our subjective evaluation of the software’s ease of use as well as the availability of customer support and the ease with which you can integrate online payments and payroll.
50% of Overall Score
In addition to features like inventory and project accounting, we evaluate whether the free software has very basic features we take for granted in paid software like live bank feeds, bank reconciliations, and comparative financial statements.
20% of Overall Score
Our expert evaluation is a subjective scoring of each software for features, mobile apps, invoices, reports, and the popularity of the program. The popularity of the program is an important determinant of the available integrations as well as a user’s ability to find bookkeeping assistance from third parties.
Wave
PROS
- Bank transactions are imported automatically
- Bank reconciliations are automatic
- Vendor bills and customer invoices can be created and tracked easily
- Transactions can be created by scanning receipts with the Wave Receipts mobile app
CONS
- Bank reconciliations don't work if there are checks written that have not cleared the bank
- No mobile app with full accounting features
- Financial statements can’t compare current period to prior periods
- Cannot track project profitability
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
| Ease of Use | 3.88 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| General Features | 3.50 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Analysis | 1.88 | OUT OF | 5 |
Our Expert Opinion
Wave is easy to use and can connect directly with your bank and credit card accounts to import transactions. Users then assign the transactions to the appropriate accounts. Wave will learn from your work and start to make suggestions for where to assign transactions. Many banks only allow transactions within the prior 90 days to be imported automatically, but Wave can import these older transactions in a comma-separated values (CSV) file if one can be downloaded from your bank.
While Wave is the best overall free software, it does lack some functions that are taken for granted in paid software. For instance, you can’t reconcile a bank account if there are any outstanding transactions, such as checks written that haven’t cleared the bank. This means that you’ll need to date checks with the date they clear the bank vs the date written. Be sure to make an adjustment at the end of the year for outstanding checks since checks can be deducted when written.
Wave Pricing
Wave is 100% free and does not offer a paid plan. Wave does charge for accepting online payments and processing payroll. However, even expensive software generally charges extra for these services.
Sunrise
PROS
- Great mobile app
- Connect to bank and import transactions
- Print financials statements comparing current and prior year
- Create and track vendor bills and customer invoices
CONS
- No bank reconciliation
- Cannot extract information from receipts captured to create transactions
- No tracking of project income and expenses
- Expenses paid cannot be assigned and billed to customers
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
| Ease of Use | 3.38 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| General Features | 3.60 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Analysis | 1.88 | OUT OF | 5 |
Our Expert Opinion
Sunrise’s approach to small business bookkeeping is unique. Predominantly, Sunrise is an online bookkeeping service, but it make its accounting software available for free to any small business that wishes to do its own bookkeeping. This is ideal for new companies that want to do their own books for now but can convert to assisted bookkeeping when they become larger.
Sunrise is an outstanding accounting program for a service-based company, except for the lack of bank reconciliations. Reconciling your bank account monthly is a cornerstone of good bookkeeping that assures the transactions in your accounting records agree to the actual transactions processed by your bank. If you conduct all your transactions electronically or with a debit card, then the balance in your accounting records should always match your bank balance, and you can live without a reconciliation. However, if you write checks that take time to clear the bank, I recommend accounting software that provides bank reconciliations.
Sunrise Pricing
The Sunrise Self Service plan is free and includes the accounting program. Customers can upgrade to the monthly bookkeeping plans to receive support from a dedicated bookkeeper. The monthly bookkeeping plans range from $149 to $499 per month.
GnuCash
PROS
- Reconcile bank and credit card accounts
- Open-source software can be customized by programmers
- New user tutorial downloads with program
- Large list of reports
CONS
- Difficult to use without bookkeeping experience
- Only accessible from one desktop computer
- Invoices cannot be emailed directly from the program
- Reports cannot compare current and prior periods
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
| Ease of Use | 0.63 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| General Features | 3.40 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Analysis | 2.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
Our Expert Opinion
GnuCash has the best accounting features of all the free accounting software reviewed but, unfortunately, it’s difficult to use, and I don’t recommend it for anyone without considerable bookkeeping experience. It allows a live connection with your bank and credit card accounts but needs some configuration that might require information technology (IT) assistance. If you don’t establish a live connection with your bank, you can still import your bank account transactions from a CSV file and perform a complete bank reconciliation.
Other than its difficulty to use, the major drawback of GnuCash is the inability to access your company data when away from your computer. Many small businesses like to issue invoices from the field, which you can’t do with GnuCash. However, if you have some bookkeeping experience and want to keep your books on one computer, GnuCash is powerful free software.
GnuCash Pricing
GnuCash is 100% free, but the volunteer developers that support GnuCash accept donations. You can download the software to your Windows, Linux, or Mac computer for free with no credit card required.
NCH Express Accounts
PROS
- Reconcile bank and credit card accounts
- Upload banking transactions from CSV files
- Easy-to-use for small business owners
- Inventory accounting add-on is available for a fee
CONS
- Cannot establish a live connection with your bank or credit card account
- Remote access to your program requires configuration of your firewall and router
- No mobile app
- Cannot attach receipt images to transactions
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 5.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
| Ease of Use | 1.38 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| General Features | 2.25 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Analysis | 2.75 | OUT OF | 5 |
Our Expert Opinion
NCH Express Accounts has comparable features to GnuCash but is much easier to use. Most transactions can be accessed from the home tab, which displays transaction types in an easy-to-understand format based on workflows. Banking transactions can either be entered manually during the month or uploaded from a bank statement at the end of the month. Customer invoices are easy to create, and any service or product descriptions are remembered for future invoices.
The major drawback to NCH Express Accounts is the lack of a live banking connection to transfer transactions daily to minimize data input automatically. However, when writing manual checks, I always recommend immediately entering them in your software so that you can track outstanding checks not yet paid by the bank. If most of your transactions are manual checks, then a live bank connection is not necessary, and this might be terrific software for you.
NCH Express Accounts Pricing
NCH Express Accounts is generally a paid software, but small businesses with fewer than five employees can download and use the program for free. For larger companies, the program can be purchased for $79.99.
ZipBooks
PROS
- Unlimited invoices are very easy to create and track
- Online payments accepted through Square or PayPal
- Attach receipts to transactions
- Unlimited customers and vendors
CONS
- No mobile app
- Can only connect one bank or credit card account
- Cannot import transactions from CSV or spreadsheet files
- Allows only one user
| RATING CRITERIA | Pricing | 4.00 | OUT OF | 5 |
| Ease of Use | 2.63 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| General Features | 1.85 | OUT OF | 5 | |
| Expert Analysis | 1.25 | OUT OF | 5 |
Our Expert Opinion
ZipBooks is the best free accounting software to produce simple, great-looking invoices. ZipBooks provides an invoice template that you can customize with your logo and then fill-in your sales information. It couldn’t be easier to create and send invoices. The downside of the simple invoice interface is that since it doesn’t use predefined products or services, you’ll need to type the entire product or service description for every invoice.
Although it has limited features, ZipBooks is a complete double-entry accounting system that can print a balance sheet and income statement to use for your tax return. A few of the missing features found in other free software are the ability to track unpaid bills, connect multiple bank accounts, import transactions, and perform a bank reconciliation. However, if your main goal is to produce professional-looking invoices in the easiest way possible, ZipBooks is a superb choice.
ZipBooks Pricing
ZipBooks has three pricing plans for small businesses that range from free to $35 per month. The plans ZipBooks offers are:
- ZipBooks Starter: Free
- ZipBooks Smarter: $15 per month
- Connect to multiple bank accounts
- Includes five users
- ZipBooks Sophisticated: $35 per month
- Tag transactions with location and project
- Includes unlimited users
Bottom Line
We’ve provided a list of great free accounting software. Both Wave and Sunrise offer great full-featured accounting software while ZipBooks provides simple invoice creation. GnuCash and NCH Express Accounts are great free desktop accounting programs that provide incredible power and flexibility for users that are dedicated to learning the programs.
Brenda Brown
Eileen, thank you for your informative article on different accounting packages. I have been researching for months now but never quite get the answer I need and I need to find one since we are in the 2nd qtr now. I have been using Drake for a number of years. They discontinued the one I was using which was accounting and payroll. Now I would have had to get their package that included bookkeeping and lots more in the amt of $1750.00 vs the $425 I was paying. I am a retired accountant with only one client (A friends’s son out of loyalty to her). Is Quick Books bookkeeping and accounting. I have read everything about it but nothing really seems to indicate accounting. Does it include what an accountant does and does it work with double entry accounting? Please advise me on this. I need your advise soon. Thank you very much.
Eileen Maki
Hi Brenda!
Thank you for your question! QuickBooks is, indeed, a double-entry system. The difference between QuickBooks and other accounting software you may be familiar with is that QuickBooks often does the double part of the entry for you when you enter a transaction. You can do manual journal entries, adjustments, and more activities that are generally specific to “accounting” focused transactions as opposed to bookkeeping in general. If your client needs to access the books to run reports or research a transaction, etc, I would recommend using QuickBooks Online. But it really depends on what specific activities you need whether you go with QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online. You can also do payroll in QuickBooks. With Online, it is an integrated module that you pay an additional fee for, but it’s still nowhere near the $1,750 for Drake! 🙂
Let me know if you have any other specific questions. I’m happy to help however I can.
~ Eileen
John Young
Hi I have Quickbooks but how do you generate order forms for goods from a supplier, my email address is jdy.training@gmail.com.
I reside in South Africa.
I will be most grateful for the information
John D. Young
WCEM Projects and Training CC
Tim Yoder
Hi John,
You need QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced to produce purchase orders. You’ll need to first turn on the option to use purchase orders before the forms will be available. Here is a link with step-by-step instructions to create and send purchase orders. This is for the U.S. version of QuickBooks Online and I’m not sure if the South African version is the same.
I hope this helps.
Tim
Jala Jann
Great article! Thank you! FYI-XTuple PostBooks is no longer free as of June 20, 2019. I could not find the price on their website.
Amanda Norman
Hi Jala,
Glad you like the article!
Thanks for visiting the site and sharing that information.
Mandy, Moderator