10 Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses 2019

The best accounting software for small businesses should be affordable, easy to use, and allow you to easily track income and expenses. The software should also include detailed financial statements to give you insight into the health of your business. We looked at over two dozen products and narrowed it down to our top 10.

Top 10 Accounting Software Options for Small Businesses

Accounting Software	Best For
QuickBooks Online	(Best Overall) Most widely-used small business accounting software that scales as you grow.
FreshBooks	Solopreneurs and freelancers who need to streamline customer invoicing and payment collection.
Xero	Business owners who want an alternative to QuickBooks Online.
Wave	SMBs on a tight budget needing a free option with a lot of features.
Zoho Books	Businesses that use other Zoho products, like Zoho CRM.
QuickBooks Premier	Businesses in the nonprofit, manufacturing & distribution, professional services, contracting, and retail industries.
ZipBooks	Startup businesses looking to upgrade from an Excel spreadsheet.
JobPower	General contractors, subcontractors, and home builders in the industrial, commercial and residential industries.
Truckn Pro	Independent owners of small truck fleets needing an accounting and trucking management system.
PCLaw by Lexis Nexis	Law firms that manage accounting for their firm and clients.

How We Evaluated Accounting Software for Small Businesses

We looked at over two dozen accounting software products and compared them based on cost, user friendliness, as well as their ability to pay bills, invoice customers, pay employees, accept online payments from customers, connect bank and credit card accounts, and run key financial statements.

Listed below are eight key areas we used to evaluate the best small business accounting software:

• Cost: The software should be affordable for small- to large-sized businesses.
• Setup and ease of use: Anyone without bookkeeping knowledge should be able to use it.
• Manage accounts receivable: The ability to create invoices and track payments.
• Manage accounts payable: The ability to enter and pay bill payments.
• Connect bank and credit card accounts: You can download transactions from your bank or financial institution.
• Payroll processing: The software should include payroll processing or the ability to add it when you are ready to hire employees.
• Accept online payments: The software allows customers to pay their invoices online.
• Prepare key financial statements: You can generate profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flow reports.

Based on the above criteria and the time we invested in learning how each product performed, we recommend QuickBooks Online as the best accounting software for small businesses. QuickBooks has a pricing plan that fits most SMB budgets ($17 to $150 per month), and can meet your business needs whether you are a solopreneur or own a large corporation.

How to Choose Bookkeeping Software

The key to choosing the right bookkeeping software is to make sure the software includes features you need to manage your business finances. At a minimum, bookkeeping software should track income and expenses, give multiple users access, generate detailed reports to file your taxes, and give you 24/7/365 access to your data.

The four primary features that should be included in the bookkeeping software you choose are the ability to:

• Invoice customers: You can create custom invoices and email them to customers.
• Pay bills: You are able to enter bills and pay them with a check or credit card.
• Integrate with bank and credit card accounts: You can easily connect all bank and credit card accounts so transactions automatically download into your bookkeeping software.
• Review detailed reports: You have access to detailed reports such as profit and loss and balance sheet to make tax time a breeze.

In addition to the features listed above, your bookkeeping software should be scalable so that you can give other users access (like your accountant), add payroll services, and accept credit card payments from customers when you are ready.

Why Online Bookkeeping Software Is Recommended

When I purchased my first computer, online bookkeeping software was not an option. Nowadays, the majority of software companies only offer online bookkeeping software and desktop software has become obsolete. While you can still purchase desktop software, you cannot access your data from any device and you have to pay an additional fee to access new features. On the other hand, online bookkeeping software offers more flexibility, saves you time, and gives you access to the most recent product updates.

Some key benefits of using online bookkeeping software over desktop versions are:

• Provides the ability to access data on any device: Since there is no software to install, you can access your data using any mobile device, computer, or laptop with an internet connection.
• Allows for increased automation: Having the ability to connect your bank account eliminates the need to manually enter transactions.
• Simplifies the communication with tax and accounting professionals: You can give your tax preparer or accountant access to your data so they can pull the reports needed to file your taxes without bothering you.
• Allows for frequent and automatic updates: Online bookkeeping software is constantly being updated with new features and options. You automatically have access to these improvements without having to upgrade out of pocket, like you would with desktop software.

The accounting software products that made our list include online software options that allow you to do basic bookkeeping, such as invoicing customers and paying bills. In addition, you, your accountant, and tax preparer can access your data from anywhere at anytime.

The 10 top small business accounting software options are:

QuickBooks Online: Best Overall Small Business Accounting Software

QuickBooks Online (QBO) is ideal for businesses of all shapes and sizes. If you’re looking for an accounting software that you can grow from a sole proprietor to an S corporation (S-corp) or C corporation (C-corp), choose QBO. While QBO is pricier than its competitors, between $17 and $150 per month, it gives you the most bang for your buck.

QuickBooks Online Pricing & Features

QuickBooks Online offers five pricing tiers (Self-Employed, Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced). Pricing starts at $17 per month for Self-Employed and $20 for Simple Start. While these two plans are the most affordable, they are also limited in the features included.

All five QuickBooks Online plans include the following features:

• Ability to connect bank and credit card accounts
• Unlimited tech support via telephone or chat
• Ability to accept online payments from customers
• Access key financial statements such as profit and loss and balance sheet

For a more in-depth look at QBO Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced, check out our QuickBooks Online Comparison guide.

QuickBooks Online Accounting Software Plan Comparison & Summary

	Self-Employed TurboTax Bundle	Simple Start	Essentials Plan	Plus Plan	Advanced Plan
Monthly Pricing	$17	$20	$40	$70	$150
# Users Included	1	1	3 plus 2 accountants	5 plus 2 accountants	25 plus 2 accountants
Setup/Ease of Use	Easy	Easy	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Connect Bank/Credit Card Accounts	Limited	Limited	✔	✔	✔
Accept Online Payments	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Manage Accounts Receivable	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Payroll Processing		✔	✔	✔	✔
Manage Accounts Payable			✔	✔	✔
Prepare Key Financial Statements	3	20+	40+	65+	100+
Smart Reporting Powered by Fathom					✔
Accelerated Invoicing					✔
Custom User Permissions					✔
Dedicated Success Manager					✔
Training for Staff ($2,000 Value)					✔

Listed below are the QuickBooks Online pricing plans and the type of business each is right for:

QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE) TurboTax Bundle

QuickBooks Self-Employed is ideal for an individual or a business that files a Schedule C and pays most of their expenses with a debit or credit card. QBSE does not have payroll processing or the ability to manage and pay bills. Unlike the other QBO plans, it includes the ability to transfer your data to TurboTax and file both your federal and state tax returns.

QuickBooks Online Simple Start

QBO Simple Start is ideal for a small business that doesn’t want to give other users access to their data but needs the ability to pay employees. Unlike QBSE, you can add payroll processing to QBO Simple Start for an additional fee. QBO Simple Start also includes more than 20 reports, like profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows.

QuickBooks Online Essentials Plan

QBO Essentials is ideal for a small to medium-sized business that needs to give other users access to its data and has heavy accounts payable needs. Unlike QBSE and QBO Simple Start, QBO Essentials allows you to manage the full accounts payable cycle, including entering bills, managing due dates, and printing checks to pay bills. It also includes double the amount of reports that QBO Simple Start has (40 versus 20).

QuickBooks Online Plus Plan

QBO Plus Plan is ideal for a product-based business that needs to keep track of inventory purchases and sales. Unlike the other three QBO plans, QBO Plus includes the ability to track inventory, create budgets and forecasts, and it has more than 65 reports.

QuickBooks Online Advanced Plan

QBO Advanced is ideal for a fast-growing business that needs to give access to more than five users. Unlike the other QBO plans, you can add up to 25 users with customized permissions for certain areas like bank and credit card transactions. QBO Advanced also includes a reporting tool called Fathom, which allows you to generate reports for key performance indicators (KPI). Plus, you get a dedicated account manager and free self-paced training for your staff.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how QBO stacks up against its competitors:

Cost

When it comes to cost, QBO gives you the most bang for your buck when compared to its competitors. The QuickBooks Self-Employed plan starts at $17 per month, which is almost double the cost of the starter plans for Xero and Zoho Books.

However, it includes the following features that you won’t find in any of its competitors on our list:

• Ability to separate personal expenses from business expenses
• Automatically calculates quarterly estimated tax payments
• A mobile app to keep track of the miles driven for business
• Automatically transfers income expenses to TurboTax and files both your federal and state tax returns, if applicable

Setup & Ease of Use

When compared to FreshBooks, Zoho Books, and Wave, QBO is more complex to set up. This is because like Xero, it is much more robust than its competitors. However, navigating the program is very easy to do.

Like its competitors, you don’t need a bookkeeping background to setup your business in QBO. We’ve got a free QuickBooks Course that includes video tutorials to get you up and running in no time.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Similar to all of the competitors we have listed, QBO allows you to create customized invoices to bill your customers for the products and services you have provided. In addition, you can stay on top of unpaid invoices by running an accounts receivable report. Staying on top of your accounts receivable balances will help you to avoid the need to send collection letters.

Manage Accounts Payable

Two out of the five QBO plans allow you to keep track of the outstanding balances that you have with your suppliers. QBO Essentials, Plus, and Advanced include the ability to enter bills, pay bills, and run an accounts payable report to review open balances, whereas the ability to keep track of accounts payable balances is not available in Wave, Zoho Books, or FreshBooks.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

The beauty of using cloud accounting software like QuickBooks is that you can connect your bank accounts as well as your credit card accounts to the software. Similar to Xero Early plan, QBO Self-Employed and Simple Start are limited in the number of transactions you can download. However, QBO Essentials, Plus, and Advanced allow you to connect an unlimited number of bank and credit card accounts.

Payroll Processing

Unlike FreshBooks and Zoho Books, which do not have a payroll add-on, you can easily add payroll services to all five QBO plans. There are two QBO payroll plans: enhanced and full service.

Below is a brief description along with the fees associated with each QBO payroll plan:

Enhanced Payroll:

• Cost: $39 per month plus $2 per employee, per month
• Services included: The employer can process payroll for all employees, including direct deposit payments and check payments, file and pay all payroll taxes directly from QuickBooks, and print and mail W-2 forms.

Full Service Payroll:

• Cost: $99 per month plus $2 per employee, per month
• Services included: The employer provides hours worked each payroll and the system processes payroll for all employees, including direct deposit and check payments, files and pays payroll taxes on your behalf, and prints and mails W2 forms.

Accept Online Payments

Like all of its competitors, you can get paid faster by adding online payments to your QBO account. Unlike its competitors, QuickBooks is the only product that has its own online payments processor, QuickBooks Payments.

Below you will find the fees associated with adding online payments to any QBO plan:

Transaction Type	Fee
Bank Transfer (ACH)	Free
Card - Swiped	2.3% + 25 cents
Card - Invoiced	2.9% + 25 cents
Card - Keyed	3.4% + 25 cents

Prepare Key Financial Statements

Out of its competitors, QBO Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced include more reports than its competitors, with more than 20 in the Simple Start plan and over 100 in the QBO Advanced plan.

In addition to the standard profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows, here is a list of just a few of the reports that you will find in QBO:

• Accounts Receivable Aging Report
• Accounts Payable Aging Report
• Sales by Customer Report
• Sales by Product Report
• Budget versus Actuals Report (QBO Plus only)
• Key Performance Reporting (QBO Advanced only)

What QuickBooks Online Is Missing

At this time, QBO includes all of the features a small business would need to start, run, and grow their business. However, they do not offer a free version of the software like you get with Wave.

QuickBooks Online User Reviews

QBO users like how easy the software is to navigate and the ability to access their data from any mobile device using the QBO app. A few users feel that QBO is a bit pricey, but quickly admit that it is more than capable of handling all aspects of their business. Check out all of our QBO user reviews or leave your own review.

Where to Find QuickBooks Online

To get up and running with QuickBooks, head over to their website and sign up. You can save up to 50% off a paid subscription.

Visit QuickBooks Online

FreshBooks: Best Accounting Software for Solopreneurs & Freelancers

FreshBooks is perfect for solopreneurs and freelancers looking to streamline their billing process to get paid faster. FreshBooks makes it easy to track hours worked by employees and contractors, transfer hours to an invoice, and email invoices to your customers. Pricing plans start at $15 per month for the Lite plan and $50 per month for the Premium plan.

FreshBooks Pricing & Features

Similar to Xero and Zoho Books, FreshBooks has three pricing plans that start at $15 per month. Besides cost, there is only one primary difference between the three plans, and that is the number of clients that can be invoiced monthly. The Lite plan allows you to invoice up to five clients and the Select plan includes more than 500 clients.

All FreshBooks plans include the following additional features:

• Time tracking
• Project tracking
• Over 100 custom invoice templates

FreshBooks Accounting Software Plan Comparison & Summary

	Lite	Plus	Premium	Select
Monthly Pricing	$15	$25	$50	Customized
# Users Included*	1	1	1	1
# Clients	5	50	500	500+
Setup/Ease of Use	Easy	Easy	Easy	Easy
Connect Bank/Credit Card Accounts	✔	✔	✔	✔
Accept Online Payments	✔	✔	✔	✔
Manage Accounts Receivable	✔	✔	✔	✔
Payroll Processing	Gusto	Gusto	Gusto	Gusto
Manage Accounts Payable	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Prepare Key Financial Statements	Limited	Limited	Limited	Limited

*Additional users can be added for $10 per user, per month.

Listed below are the pricing plans for FreshBooks and who each is right for:

FreshBooks Lite Plan

FreshBooks Lite is ideal for a brand-new startup business with no more than five clients that need invoicing each month. This plan is the most economical out of the four plans at $15 per month ($180 per year). Similar to Wave, you cannot keep track of your accounts payable balances. While FreshBooks does not include payroll processing, it does integrate with Gusto payroll.

FreshBooks Plus Plan

FreshBooks Plus plan is ideal for a solopreneur with no more than 50 clients that need to be invoiced monthly. At $25 per month, this plan is less expensive than QBO Essentials, which is $35 per month. However, QBO allows you to bill unlimited clients versus 50 with FreshBooks Plus. Unlike QBO Essentials, you cannot manage accounts payable (A/P) with this plan. However, you can add the Gusto payroll app, which can process paychecks, payroll tax payments, and filings.

FreshBooks Premium Plan

FreshBooks Premium is ideal for a small- to medium-sized businesses with up to 500 clients that need to be invoiced monthly. This plan is $50 per month versus $70 per month for QBO Plus.

Unlike QBO Plus, FreshBooks Premium does not have accounts payable. However you can process payroll for employees by adding the Gusto app.

FreshBooks Select Plan

FreshBooks Select is ideal for a business that has a large volume of credit card transactions. With this plan, you could qualify for a lower credit card transaction rate based on your volume. Similar to QBO Advanced, FreshBooks Select includes a personal account manager and custom training for you and your team.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how FreshBooks stacks up against its competitors:

Cost

When it comes to cost, FreshBooks plans cost $15 and up per month, which is slightly less than QBO plans ($17 to $150 per month). However, there are a few missing or limited features. For example, most of the FreshBooks plans put a limit on the number of customers you are able to bill on a monthly basis.

All FreshBooks plans are missing or limited in the following features:

• No ability to track accounts payable balances
• Limited in number of clients that can be invoiced monthly (Lite, Plus, and Premium plans only)
• All plans only include one user; an additional $10 per user, per month is required to share your data

Setup & Ease of Use

As mentioned previously, FreshBooks is easier to set up than QuickBooks because it is not quite as robust. Similar to all of the competitors on our list, it’s very easy to navigate around the FreshBooks program.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Out of all its competitors, FreshBooks allows you the most flexibility to create invoices that suit your brand. With FreshBooks, you can choose the style, font, and colors that match your brand. In addition, you can set up automatic payment reminders and automatically charge late fees for overdue customer invoices. You can also stay on top of open balances by running an accounts receivable aging report.

Manage Accounts Payable

Similar to Wave and Zoho Books, FreshBooks does not have the ability to manage and pay bills. Unlike QuickBooks, you can’t stay on top of the balances owed to your vendor suppliers, and you can’t print checks to pay your bills. However, if you pay most of your expenses online with a debit or credit card, FreshBooks may work for you.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Unlike QuickBooks Self-Employed and Simple Start, FreshBooks does not limit the number of transactions or bank and credit card accounts that you can connect. You can connect all your bank and credit card accounts to all three FreshBooks plans. This will save you a lot of time that you would have normally spent entering banking and credit card data manually.

Payroll Processing

Unlike QBO, which has a built-in credit card processing tool that you can just turn on, FreshBooks does not. However, the good news is that you can visit the FreshBooks Apps page to sign up for Gusto Payroll, which integrates with FreshBooks.

Accept Online Payments

Like QuickBooks and the other competitors, FreshBooks allows you to accept online payments for an additional fee. FreshBooks does not have its own credit card processing system like QBO does, so you will need to visit the FreshBooks Apps page to select a payment to use for your online customer payments.

Prepare Key Financial Statements

Unfortunately, FreshBooks can only produce one out of the three primary financial statements. You can create a profit and loss report, but you cannot run a balance sheet or a statement of cash flow report in FreshBooks.

What FreshBooks Is Missing

As mentioned previously, FreshBooks can only generate one out of the three primary financial statements required. Additionally, you have to create a manual bank reconciliation report to ensure all bank and credit card balances match up with your bank and credit card statements. Bank reconciliations are not manual in QuickBooks Online, and you can also generate all three of the primary financial statements in just a few minutes.

FreshBooks User Reviews

FreshBooks users like how easy it is to do their billing, and how much time they save by using the automatic invoice reminders and by applying late fees to past due invoices. On the negative side, customers don’t like that FreshBooks is missing key financial reports, like the balance sheet and the statement of cash flows. Check out our accounting software reviews to read more about what FreshBooks users are saying.

Where to Find FreshBooks

If you’re looking for a way to streamline your billing process, choose FreshBooks. Head over to the FreshBooks website to sign up for your FreshBooks account. It will be set up in minutes and you can start invoicing your customers right away.

Visit FreshBooks

Xero: Best QuickBooks Alternative Small Business Accounting Software

If you’re looking for an alternative to QuickBooks, choose Xero. Out of all the competitors we included, Xero comes closest to offering the features found in QuickBooks. Unlike its competitors, Xero does not charge a fee per user or limit the number of users you can have. Pricing run between $9 and $60 per month.

Xero Pricing & Features

Xero has three pricing plans: Early, Growing, and Established. The plans range between $9 and $60 per month. All Xero plans allow you to give unlimited users access to your data, connect unlimited bank and credit card accounts, and run key financial statements.

Below are the features included in all Xero pricing plans:

• Unlimited number of users
• Ability to connect bank and credit card accounts
• Unlimited email tech support
• Access key financial statements such as profit and loss and balance sheet

Xero Small Business Accounting Software Plan Comparison & Summary

	Early	Growing	Established
Monthly Pricing	$9	$30	$60
# Users Included	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Setup/Ease of Use	Easy	Moderate	Moderate
Connect Bank/Credit Card Accounts	Limited	✔	✔
Manage Accounts Payable	Limited	✔	✔
Accept Online Payments	✔	✔	✔
Manage Accounts Receivable	✔	✔	✔
Payroll Processing		✔	✔
Prepare Key Financial Statements	✔	✔	✔

Listed below are the Xero pricing plans and the type of business each is right for:

Xero Early Plan

Xero Early plan is ideal for a startup business that has not generated many transactions. While the Early plan does have accounts payable and accounts receivable, you are limited to only five transactions per month. This means that you can manage and pay up to five bills and send no more than five invoices or quotes to customers each month.

Xero Growing Plan

Xero Growing plan is ideal for a small business that needs the ability to keep track of accounts payable, accounts receivable, and multiple bank and credit card accounts. Unlike the Xero Early plan, you can process unlimited bills, invoice an unlimited number of customers, and connect all of your bank and credit card accounts.

Xero Established

Xero Established plan is ideal for small- to medium-sized businesses that have expanded or have plans to expand globally. Unlike the Early and Growing plans, the Established plan includes multicurrency accounting so that you can create invoices, pay bills, and track bank accounts in multiple currencies. Moreover, this plan also includes the ability to track expenses as well as track project time and costs using the mobile app.

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how Xero stacks up against its competitors:

Setup & Ease of Use

Xero is similar to QuickBooks when it comes to setup and ease of use. Because Xero is a much more robust program than FreshBooks, Zoho Books, and Wave, it will take some additional time to set up areas like the chart of accounts and multicurrency. However, it is very easy to navigate in Xero, and they do a good job of using simple language as opposed to accounting jargon throughout the program.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Like its competitors, Xero plans include the ability to invoice customers, track payments, and stay on top of open accounts receivable balances. However, as with most tier one pricing plans, the features are limited. For example, with the Xero Early plan, you are limited to invoicing up to five customers per month.

Manage Accounts Payable

All three Xero plans include the ability to manage accounts payable. However, like most starter plans offered by its competitors, you are limited in the number of transactions that can be processed in Xero Early. You are only allowed to manage up to five bills per month with the Early plan. However, both the Xero Growing and Established plans allow you to manage an unlimited number of bills.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

All three Xero plans include the ability to connect bank and credit card accounts. However, like QuickBooks Self-Employed and Simple Start, you are limited in the number of transactions you can reconcile in the Xero Early plan. The Growing and Established plans allow you to connect an unlimited number of bank and credit card accounts.

Payroll Processing

Like its competitors, payroll processing is not included in any of the Xero pricing plans, but it can easily be added for an additional cost. You can visit the Xero App marketplace to add Gusto Payroll to your Xero account. Gusto can handle all paycheck processing as well as payroll tax payments and filings.

Accept Online Payments

Similar to its competitors, Xero allows users to offer online payment processing to customers through PayPal, Stripe, or Apple Pay. Just visit the Xero app store to select a payment app and follow the instructions to get started.

Prepare Key Financial Statements

Similar to its competitors, Xero has detailed reports, like the profit and loss statement as well as aging reports, to help you stay on top of open customer invoices and outstanding bills. You can also run bank reconciliation reports to ensure that your accounts agree with the actual bank account balances.

Check out our best QuickBooks alternative guide to see why Xero is ranked number one.

What Xero Is Missing

When it comes to product features, Xero is not missing any key feature that a small business would need. However, there are a couple of areas where QuickBooks beats Xero. First, all QBO plans include live telephone support—Xero only offers support via email. However, if you need to get up to speed in Xero, we have a free Xero course that will help you get your business up and running on Xero.

Xero User Reviews

Xero users like how intuitive the user interface is and how easy it is to navigate within the program. However, users also feel that the program lacks relevant features that small businesses need, like cloud storage and tax software integration. Check out the Xero user reviews page to see all customer reviews or leave a Xero review.

Where to Find Xero

To get started with Xero, you can visit the Xero website and provide basic contact information about your firm to create your account. Once you do that, you can start entering your data right away.

Visit Xero

Wave: Best Free Small Business Accounting Software

Wave is best for businesses that are on a tight budget because it’s free. It is the best free small business accounting software overall. In fact, Wave meets seven out of the eight criteria listed above. The one area where it falls short is the inability to track and pay vendor bills.

Wave Pricing

With a price tag of free, Wave is the most affordable bookkeeping software on our list. Wave is fairly robust and has much of the functionality you’d expect from a small business bookkeeping software product.

Wave Features

Like its competitors, Wave includes most of the features needed to run a small business. However, it falls short when it comes to managing accounts payable. You can enter unpaid bills into Wave, but you will have to manually mark them as paid.

Set Up & Ease of Use

Similar to its competitors, Wave is very user-friendly. Like FreshBooks and Zoho Books, setup doesn’t take long and you don’t need an accounting or bookkeeping background to do it.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Wave allows you to create custom invoices to send to your customers. You can also manage open invoice balances using the Accounts Receivable Aging report and follow-up with customers before invoices are due or immediately after.

Manage Accounts Payable

As discussed, Wave does not include accounts payable functionality. You can enter your bills and manually mark them as paid; however, you cannot print checks directly from Wave to pay your bills like you can with QBO.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

You can connect all your bank and credit card accounts to Wave, just like you can with QuickBooks. Unlike QBO Self-Employed and Simple Start, you are not limited to a certain number of transactions or accounts.

Payroll Processing

Similar to FreshBooks, Xero, and QBO, you can easily add payroll processing to Wave for an additional cost. Wave Payroll allows you to process paychecks as well as calculate and file payroll taxes and forms.

The fees associated with using Wave Payroll are:

State	Monthly Fee	Details
Tax Service States: CA, FL, NY, TX, IL, WA	Monthly base fee: $35 Plus: $4 per active employee Plus: $4 per independent contractor	Wave will handle payroll tax payments and forms for employers in these six states
Self-service States: All other 44 States	Monthly base fee: $20 Plus: $4 per active employee Plus: $4 per independent contractor	Employers in the other 44 states will be responsible for filing and paying their own payroll taxes

Accept Online Payments

Wave allows you to accept online payments from customers. Similar to QuickBooks Payments, Wave Payments integrates seamlessly with Wave accounting software. Once you activate Wave Payments, you can send invoices to your customers that include a Pay button they can use to make payments via ACH, debit card, or credit card.

The applicable fees to use Wave Payments are:

Type of Transaction	Fee
Credit Card Payments	2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction
Bank Payments	1% per transaction ($1 minimum fee)

Prepare Key Financial Statements

When it comes to financial reports, Wave has a number of detailed reports to help you stay on top of the health of your business. Similar to QuickBooks and Xero, you can run a profit and loss, balance sheet, and a statement of cash flow report.

What Wave Is Missing

Like FreshBooks, Wave falls short when it comes to managing unpaid vendor bills. Because you cannot pay your bills directly from Wave, entering and paying bills is a completely manual process. You can’t run an accounts payable report to see what you owe until you have entered all bills and payments into Wave, like you can with QuickBooks.

Wave User Reviews

Wave users like the fact that this is a free bookkeeping software. However, they also feel that a significant improvement is needed when it comes to customer service, as live customer support isn’t available. To get help, you need to send an email to the support team and wait for a response.

Where to Find Wave

Wave is the easiest bookkeeping software to sign up for because there is no trial and no paid subscription. You simply go to the website and provide basic contact information about your business (i.e., name, email address, and type of business), and your account will be created in just a few minutes.

Visit Wave

Zoho Books: Best Accounting Software for Zoho Users

Zoho Books is ideal for existing Zoho users because it integrates with a suite of Zoho products, setting it apart from its competitors. Instead of using several products to manage your business (e.g., CRM, inventory), connect a Zoho app and it automatically syncs with Zoho Books. Pricing plans are $9 to $29 per user, per month.

Zoho Books Pricing & Features

Zoho Books is the most economical paid bookkeeping software on our list. The plans cost between $9 and $29 per month versus the QuickBooks plans, which run between $17 and $150 per month.

All Zoho Books plans include:

• Multi-user access
• Ability to connect bank and credit card accounts
• Able to accept online payments
• Key financial reports (e.g., profit and loss, balance sheet)

Zoho Books Accounting Software Plan Comparison & Summary

	Basic	Standard	Professional
Monthly Pricing	$9	$19	$29
# Users Included	2	3	10
Contacts (customers, vendors, employees)	50	500	Unlimited
Setup/Ease of Use	Easy	Easy	Easy
Connect Bank/Credit Card Accounts	✔	✔	✔
Manage Accounts Payable		✔	✔
Accept Online Payments	✔	✔	✔
Manage Accounts Receivable	✔	✔	✔
Payroll Processing	California only	California only	California only
Prepare Key Financial Statements	✔	✔	✔

Listed below are the pricing plans for Zoho Books and who each is right for:

Zoho Books Basic Plan

Zoho Books Basic is ideal for a small business that has no more than 50 customer, vendor, and employee contacts to manage. Since there is no accounts payable functionality in this plan, it works best for those businesses that pay most of their bills using a debit or credit card.

Zoho Books Standard Plan

Zoho Books Standard is ideal for a growing business that has fewer than 500 customer, vendor, and employee contacts to manage. Unlike the Zoho Basic plan, you can manage your open accounts payable balances by entering bills, paying bills, and running an accounts payable aging report to see open balances.

Zoho Books Professional Plan

Small businesses with more than 500 customer, vendor, and employee contacts should consider using Zoho Books Professional. In addition, you can give up to ten users access to your data versus one user (Zoho Basic) and three users (Zoho Standard).

Based on our minimum criteria, here is how Zoho Books stacks up against its competitors:

Number of Contacts

Similar to FreshBooks, which limits the number of customers you can invoice in two of their four plans, Zoho Books limits not only the number of customers but also vendors and employees that can be managed in two out of their three plans. QuickBooks, on the other hand, allows you to manage an unlimited number of customers, vendors, and employees in all their plans.

Setup & Ease of Use

Like its competitors, Zoho Books is very easy to setup and navigate. Because it doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that QuickBooks has, you can set up your chart of accounts and your products and services list pretty quickly.

Manage Accounts Receivable

Similar to QBO, all Zoho Books plans allow you to manage full-cycle accounts receivable. This includes creating custom invoices, managing customer payments, and staying on top of balances with the accounts receivable aging report.

Manage Accounts Payable

Like QBO Self-Employed and QBO Simple Start, Zoho Books Basic does not include accounts payable functionality. This means that you cannot enter and pay your bills with the Zoho Books Basic plan. However, you can with the Zoho Books Standard and Professional plans.

Connect Bank & Credit Card Accounts

Like all the competitors on our list, you can easily connect all of your bank and credit card accounts to Zoho Books. Unlike QuickBooks Self-Employed and Simple Start, there is no limitation on the number of accounts or transactions that you can process with any of the Zoho Books plans.

Payroll Processing

Unfortunately, payroll processing is the one area where Zoho Books falls short. Currently, they are only able to process payroll for California employers. Unlike their competitors, they are not compatible at this time with any other payroll apps.

Accept Online Payments

All Zoho Books plans allow you to offer your customers the ability to pay their invoices online. Similar to its competitors, you can choose a payment app from the Zoho Apps center and connect it to your Zoho Books account.

Prepare Key Financial Statements

Similar to most of its competitors, you can prepare the three key financial statements: profit and loss, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. In addition, you can run detailed sales reports and expense reports.

What Zoho Books Is Missing

The biggest drawback to using Zoho Books is the fact that the payroll processing is limited to one state (California). As a result, if you do decide to use Zoho Books, you will need to use a payroll service like Gusto to pay your employees.

Zoho Books User Reviews

Zoho Books users like how user-friendly and affordable the product is for small businesses. However, Zoho Books users don’t like that they cannot process payroll for their employees through Zoho Books. You can check out our Zoho Books reviews page to read all user reviews.

Where to Find Zoho Books

You can take Zoho Books for a test drive for the first 14 days. At the end of the trial, you just need to sign up for a paid plan if you want to continue using Zoho Books.

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QuickBooks Premier: Alternative Accounting Software for Niche Industries

QuickBooks Premier is a desktop software that meets all our criteria. It starts at a one-time fee of $499.95, and it is ideal for companies in the nonprofit, manufacturing, professional services, contractor, or retail industries that make less than $1,000,000 in annual sales and have no more than 20 employees. QuickBooks Premier comes with a customized chart of accounts and custom reports for the above-mentioned industries.

To learn more about QuickBooks Premier, read our QuickBooks desktop guide. Most of the online reviews about QuickBooks Premier are positive.

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ZipBooks: Alternative Bookkeeping Software for Startup Businesses

ZipBooks is best for startup businesses that are currently using an Excel spreadsheet or the old “shoe box” method to keep track of income and expenses. The ZipBooks Starter plan is free, and their paid plans run between $15 and $125 per month. Their top-tier plan, ZipBooks Services, comes with a dedicated bookkeeper. ZipBooks met all but two of our criteria—it does not track accounts payable and you cannot process payroll for employees.

To learn more about ZipBooks and other free accounting software options, check out our best free accounting software guide. The majority of the reviews for ZipBooks are positive.

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JobPower: Alternative Accounting Software for Contractors & Home Builders

JobPower is ideal for general contractors, subcontractors, and home builders in the industrial, commercial, and residential industries. While price varies based on your business needs, plans start at $200 per month. JobPower met all the criteria we used to evaluate the best small business accounting software.

JobPower includes the following features:

• General accounting
• Full customer relationship management (CRM)
• Document management and scheduling features
• Detailed reports that meet all union and certified payroll requirements

To learn more about the cost and features of JobPower, check out our best construction accounting software guide.

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Truckn Pro: Alternative Bookkeeping Software for Independent Trucking Company Owners

Truckn Pro by Fog Line Software is ideal for any independent owner of a small fleet of trucks. It meets all the criteria that we used to evaluate the best accounting software. Pricing plans run between $79 and $219, and include general accounting, payroll processing, and trucking management features.

The common features you will find in Truckn Pro are:

• General accounting
• Payroll processing
• Trucking management features (e.g., vehicle maintenance logs and trip planners)

For more information about the cost and features of Truckn Pro, check out our best trucking accounting software guide.

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PCLaw by Lexis Nexis: Alternative Accounting Software for Lawyers & Law Firms

PCLaw by Lexis Nexis is our top pick for the best accounting software for law firms. It includes all the criteria we used to evaluate the best accounting software. PCLaw is $39 per user, per month and includes features that allow you to manage your practice and client trust accounts.

PCLaw by Lexis Nexis includes the following features:

• Trust (IOLTA) accounting
• Track billable time
• Track client expenses

To learn more about the cost and features included in PCLaw, check out our best law firm accounting software guide.

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Bottom Line

Now that we have presented you with our 10 best small business accounting software options, it’s time for you to choose one. If you’re looking for an accounting software that you won’t outgrow anytime soon and one that your tax professional or bookkeeper will most likely be familiar with, go with QuickBooks.

QBO allows you to manage all aspects of your business, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, and online customer payments. As a Fit Small Business reader, you may qualify for up to a 50% discount on a paid subscription.

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