Best Project Accounting Software in 2024

• Project tracking: Zoho Books allows users to set up and track projects, making it easier to monitor project-specific income, expenses, and profitability. You can assign income and expenses to specific projects, track project-related time, and generate reports to analyze project performance.
• Expense management: This enables you to manage project expenses efficiently. Not only can you capture and categorize project-related expenses, but you can also record vendor bills and track reimbursable expenses. This helps to allocate costs accurately and ensures that project costs are accounted for.
• Invoicing: The platform comes with features that are beneficial for project-based businesses. You can create customized invoices, bill clients for project work, and track payments received. Zoho Books also offers the option to bill clients based on project milestones or time-based billing rates.
• Time tracking: This allows you to monitor the time spent on project tasks. You can track billable hours, record employee timesheets, and associate time entries with specific projects. This helps in accurate project costing and invoicing based on hours worked.
• Reporting and analysis: Zoho Books has various reporting features to generate project-specific financial reports. You can assess project profitability, analyze project expenses, and monitor overall financial performance. These insights are critical to making informed decisions and managing projects effectively.

• Project-based businesses: Zoho Books is a great option for project-based businesses such as construction companies, architects, event management firms, and creative agencies. Its project accounting features enable accurate tracking of project-related income and expenses, time tracking, and invoicing based on project milestones or hourly rates.
• Retail and inventory management: Zoho Books includes basic inventory management features, allowing you to track inventory levels, manage stock movements, and generate reports to monitor sales and profitability. This is especially beneficial for companies that utilize inventory as part of their projects.
• Service-based businesses: Zoho Books is a good fit for service-based businesses, such as consultants, agencies, information technology (IT) services, marketing firms, and professional service providers. It offers features like time tracking and client invoicing, allowing businesses to track time spent on projects and bill clients accordingly.
• Businesses working remotely: The top spot in our guide to the best mobile accounting apps is Zoho Books—and for good reason. It has excellent functionality for both iOS and Android devices and even has an app integration with Apple Watch. All of the features available in the computer interface are also accessible with the mobile app, which makes it useful for businesses working remotely.

Our evaluation shows that Zoho Books’ biggest strengths are general accounting, project accounting, and customer support. The only downside is that the platform doesn’t allow you to generate a report that compares actual to estimated labor and inventory. If this feature is crucial to tracking your project profitability, then we recommend FreshBooks or Xero.

Unfortunately, Zoho Books isn’t the most affordable project accounting software on this list. You need to purchase at least Zoho Books’ Professional plan ($50 monthly) to use project accounting. If you want a more affordable solution, the best alternative we recommend is Sage Business Cloud, which allows you to manage projects for as low as $11 a month.

• QuickBooks ProAdvisors: If you don’t have the time or inclination to maintain your books, you can hire an independent QuickBooks ProAdvisor who is trained and certified by QuickBooks. For more information, read our guide on how to find a QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Even if you keep your own books, it’s always a good idea to work with a local accountant to save you time when issues arise.
• Location and class tracking: Location tracking allows you to tag transactions based on different physical or virtual locations within your business. This feature is useful if you have multiple locations or branches, operate in different regions, or want to track financial data for specific departments or divisions. Class tracking lets you tag transactions based on different classes within your business, such as projects, products, services, or any other category that you want to analyze independently.
• Receipt scanning: You can scan receipts for operating expenses and billable expenses and attach the receipts to your expense entries for documentation purposes. With your smartphone camera, you can capture receipts and match them with expense entries easily.
• Mileage tracking: You can use QuickBooks Online’s mileage tracking to stay on top of your mileage expenses for client billing. You can also account for non-billable mileage expenses to track your expenses and profit. The solution offers the added benefit of GPS mileage tracking to make billing even easier.
• Mobile check deposit: This new feature allows you to deposit checks from the mobile app. Available for QuickBooks Business Checking users, when you take a photo of your check and upload it to QuickBooks, the software will generate a digital transaction automatically. Read our QuickBooks Business Checking review for more information about the account.

• Startups seeking a scalable solution: We selected QuickBooks Online as the overall best startup accounting software because it is fairly scalable in case your business needs advanced accounting features as it grows. It offers multiple subscription plans that cater to different business sizes and needs. As your business grows, you can easily upgrade to a higher-tier plan to accommodate additional features. You can also grant access and set permissions for multiple users, controlling what information each user can view or modify.
• Business owners who need help to get started: QuickBooks Online offers a free meeting with a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, who will assist you with setting up your company and chart of accounts and answer your general bookkeeping-related questions.
• Businesses that want one platform for all of their business management needs: QuickBooks Online integrates with WORKetc, which is a complete business management system that offers a customer relationship management (CRM), time tracking, project tracking, customer support, and more. It allows you to export invoices, transactions, and expenses from WORKetc directly to QuickBooks Online, then sync payments made against WORKetc invoices to QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online earned excellent scores in our evaluation of accounting and project management, which isn’t surprising given that it’s our overall best small business accounting software. However, we found some minor drawbacks in its project management tool, such as the inability to track estimated vs project costs, similar to Zoho Books.

Also, we would like to see QuickBooks add a dedicated document management for storing and managing project documents, like blueprints, contracts, and permits. The provider may draw inspiration from Zoho Books, which has a designated inbox for receiving financial files like receipts and invoices.

Furthermore, QuickBooks Online didn’t do well in pricing as it’s a bit expensive, and the Plus plan supports only up to five users. If you want a more affordable solution that can scale with your business, then Xero might be preferable as it allows you to add an unlimited number of users.

• Fixed asset manager: If your business uses special equipment or machines for production, you will benefit from Xero’s fixed asset manager. In the fixed asset module, you can keep track of your fixed assets, calculate depreciation, and account for disposals in the future.
• Multicurrency support: Businesses that deal with international vendors or clients will find that Xero supports multicurrency transactions. You can invoice, track expenses, and reconcile transactions in different currencies, simplifying your global financial management.
• Mobile app: Xero’s mobile app has all the basic features found in the cloud version, such as invoicing, managing expenses, viewing reports, and bank reconciliation. There is also a contact management integration with invoicing. The app also lets you add contacts, and Xero will provide useful information about the person automatically, such as average days to pay and billing activity.
• Integrations: With Xero’s App Marketplace, you can connect different third-party apps such as Fergus and Deputy for time tracking or PayPal and ChargeBee for payment processing. Also included are ecommerce platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and payroll providers. This integration capability extends Xero’s functionality and streamlines your business processes.

• Businesses that value collaboration and integration: Xero allows for easy integration with project stakeholders, such as clients, team members, and accountants. You can grant them access to specific project-related information, enabling smooth communication and coordination. Xero also integrates with other project management tools, such as project scheduling software, CRM systems, and document management platforms.
• Businesses with multiple users: No matter which plan you sign up for, Xero can accommodate multiple users. If you have a large accounting team or want to give access to your managers or supervisors, this is especially convenient. The monthly fee for Xero’s plan that includes project accounting is $78, which makes it an affordable option as well.
• Businesses that need to track fixed assets: If your business uses a lot of fixed assets—such as machinery and equipment—Xero can keep records and manage depreciation. We prepared a guide to fixed asset accounting to help you better understand this essential bookkeeping concept.

Xero’s most impressive rating comes from its project management features. It’s slightly better than Zoho Books and QuickBooks Online because it allows you to compare actual and estimated labor and inventory. It also has other features, such as the ability to track billable time and COGS. A slight drawback is that it doesn’t have a built-in feature for storing and managing project documents.

Its biggest shortcoming is customer support. It doesn’t offer live customer service, like phone support and live chat. If you want access to excellent customer support, you should consider Zoho Books or FreshBooks.

• Time and project tracking: FreshBooks’ time and project tracking features are excellent, with the ability to monitor billable time, communicate with team members, and compare actual versus estimated costs per project to better track profitability.
• Excellent customer service: Users get several customer support options, including phone and email support and self-help guides and resources. You can even call its customer support directly.
• Customizable invoices: The platform allows you to personalize your invoices before submitting them to clients, by adding such items as your logo or a personalized message.
• 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 mobile device.
• Payment reminders: You won’t need to send multiple emails or spend hours trying to contact your clients about a past-due invoice—FreshBooks will send them customized reminders automatically.

• Small service-based businesses: Because FreshBooks lacks inventory accounting features, we recommend it for small service-based businesses seeking a strong project management solution. If your team members are working on multiple projects, its time tracking tool is useful in ensuring that no billable time is missed.
• Businesses seeking a complete but simple DIY accounting solution: FreshBooks is not only easy to use, but it also offers a complete set of features, making it suitable for freelancers and small business owners with no accounting background.
• Project-based companies charging clients by the hour: The software allows you to track the time spent on different projects and tasks, and these time entries can be directly added to client invoices for simplified billing.
• Businesses that want to track estimated vs project costs: Unlike Zoho Books, QuickBooks Online Plus, and Sage Business Cloud, FreshBooks lets you compare estimated project costs against actual costs, which assists with tracking project profitability.

FreshBooks has decent general bookkeeping features, but it has some limitations in terms of project inventory management. For instance, if you purchase inventory items, such as raw materials and suppliers, you can’t assign these specific items to projects. If inventory management is essential to your business, you’ll prefer QuickBooks Online or Xero.

Meanwhile, while FreshBooks at $55 monthly is affordable for a single user, it’s costly for businesses needing multiple accounting user access. If you’re on a tight budget and you have many accounting users, Sage Business Cloud or Xero can be a more affordable option.