A quality mobile accounting and bookkeeping app is essential to today’s small business owner. Luckily, most online accounting programs offer an app, but the functions and quality of the apps vary, so you should consider your mobile app needs before deciding on an accounting or bookkeeping software. We’ve researched the apps from many of the top names in bookkeeping software to help you find the one that is best for your small business.
Best Accounting and Bookkeeping Apps
- QuickBooks Online: Best overall
- Sage Accounting: Best for mobile sales force
- Zoho Invoice: Best for mobile labor force
- QuickBooks Self-Employed: Best for freelancers
- Wave: Best free mobile accounting apps
QuickBooks Online: Best Overall Mobile Accounting App
QuickBooks Online, our pick for best small business accounting software, offers an outstanding mobile app to harness its industry-leading power. The layout is similar to the online dashboard, with most transactions easily initiated with the click of the plus button. Access to the app is included with your QuickBooks Online subscription, including during your 30-day free trial.
 | Features We Like | What’s Missing |
Most accounting functions can be performed | Limited users | |
Scan receipts and create transactions with extracted data | Cannot view or pay outstanding bills | |
Track mileage with GPS | Cannot record hours worked | |
Mobile App Ratings
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Pricing The mobile app is free with a subscription to QuickBooks Online. New QuickBooks Online subscribers can choose between 50% off for three months or a free 30-day trial.
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Features We Like
The QuickBooks Mobile App provides nearly every function available in the online interface. You can issue invoices, receive payments, categorize bank transactions, review reports, pay bills, deposit checks, and more. The dashboard provides an instant look at your profit and loss, outstanding invoices, breakdown of recent expenses, and bank account balances. In addition, the app provides functions not available in the online interface like receipt scanning and GPS mileage tracking.
QuickBooks Self-Employed: Best Mobile App for Freelancers
QuickBooks Self-Employed is a unique version of QuickBooks Online tailored specifically to freelancers and other self-employed taxpayers that report their income on Schedule C of their personal return. QuickBooks Self-Employed is not compatible with other versions of QuickBooks Online and has its own mobile app that allows invoicing, mileage tracking, receipt scanning, and more. You can evaluate the app with a 30-day free trial to QuickBooks Self-Employed.
| Features We Like | What’s Missing |
Track business mileage with GPS | Cannot record payments | |
Separate business and personal transactions imported from bank accounts | Cannot view reports | |
Create transactions by scanning receipts | Cannot upgrade to other QuickBooks Online subscriptions | |
Mobile App Ratings
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Pricing The app is included with your subscription to QuickBooks Self-Employed. New subscribers can choose between 50% off for three months or a free 30-day trial.
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Features We Like
QuickBooks Self-Employed is a scaled-down version of QuickBooks Online that focuses on income and expenses instead of also tracking assets and liabilities. The QuickBooks Self-Employed mobile app is very straightforward, delivering features needed by freelancers, including issuing invoices, tracking mileage, scanning receipts, and categorizing transactions imported from bank accounts. Perhaps best of all, with the Self-Employed Tax Bundle your data can be transferred automatically to your tax return at the end of the year.
Sage Accounting: Best for a Large Mobile Sales Force Using Apple Devices
Sage (formerly Peachtree Accounting) has been in the bookkeeping industry for a long time and has developed Sage Accounting as a great accounting alternative for small businesses looking for a more affordable option. Its mobile app is similar to the program itself in that it provides an easy way to perform basic bookkeeping tasks but lacks the more advanced features of some competitors. Unfortunately, the android app is rated poorly, with users reporting many technical issues that don’t seem to affect the Apple version. You can evaluate the app during a free 30-day trial of Sage Accounting.
| Features We Like | What’s Missing |
Unlimited users can easily issue invoices | Android app is poorly rated due to glitches | |
Very affordable | Cannot track mileage | |
Import vendors and customers from phone contacts | Cannot create transactions from scanned receipts | |
Mobile App Ratings
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Pricing The app is included with a subscription to Sage Accounting. New users can choose between three months at a 50% discount or a 30-day free trial.
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Features We Like
With unlimited users, Sage Accounting is perfect for companies with a large sales force that needs to issue invoices, quotes, estimates, and receipts in the field. The app also allows users to manage vendors, enter bills, and make payments. While the app is simple to use, it lacks more advanced features like GPS tracking and report viewing. Users can attach images of receipts to transactions, which is great for recordkeeping, but the receipt data is not extracted and can’t be used to create transactions.
Zoho Invoice: Best for a Mobile Labor Force
Zoho Invoice provides an app for your mobile labor force to track and assign their hours to clients and projects while on the go. Zoho Invoice integrates with an entire suite of apps from Zoho that can be used to manage your entire business, including Zoho Books, which is a comprehensive bookkeeping system. You can try Zoho Invoice for free for up to five customers and one user.
 | Features We Like | What’s Missing |
Track time and assign to customers | Must pay for additional users | |
Track expenses and add to invoices | Must purchase Zoho Books for accounting functions other than invoicing | |
Customize and send invoices | Can get expensive to purchase multiple apps for various functions | |
Mobile App Ratings
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Pricing The app is included with a subscription to Zoho Invoice.
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Features We Like
Zoho Invoice allows your mobile labor force to record their hours in the mobile app. They can also assign their hours and expenses to a customer or project. App admin users are allowed to record hours for other employees, which allows a foreman or supervisor to record the hours for an entire crew. In addition to recording time, Zoho Invoice is a great app for customizing, sending, and tracking invoices. However, it is not a complete bookkeeping system unless you integrate it with Zoho Books, which requires an additional subscription.
Wave: Best Free Mobile Invoicing and Receipt Scanning Apps
Wave is outstanding free accounting software. While its apps are not as comprehensive as most paid software, Wave does have one app for invoicing and another app for scanning receipts. Both apps connect with your Wave online bookkeeping account. Wave is free forever, so give it a try.
 | Features We Like | What’s Missing |
Track time and assign to customers | Must pay for additional users | |
Track expenses and add to invoices | Must purchase Zoho Books for accounting functions other than invoicing | |
Customize and send invoices | Can get expensive to purchase multiple apps for various functions | |
Wave Invoicing Mobile App Ratings
Receipts by Wave Mobile App Ratings
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Pricing Free forever with unlimited users | ||
Features We Like
Wave Invoicing is rated highly by both Apple and Android users. While the app is limited to invoicing, the invoicing function is very thorough. You can customize your invoices, upload your logo, set payment options, and email invoices directly from the app.
Receipts by Wave has very limited functions, but it is extremely easy to use. All you do is snap a picture of your receipt and press send. The receipt will be sent to your online Wave account, where it will create a new transaction that you can review next time you log in. Receipts by Wave is not available in the Google Play store, but you can download the Android app directly from Wave.
How to Choose Your Accounting or Bookkeeping App
Most accounting apps do not allow you to do all of the bookkeeping functions from the mobile app. Things like bank reconciliations and general journal entries are done infrequently and are much easier on a bigger screen. However, when choosing your app, think about the types of things you do on a daily basis that the app should allow. A good mobile accounting app should allow you to:
- Issue invoices: You should be able to generate and email invoices quickly to customers.
- Receive payments: You can record payments received from customers and apply them against outstanding invoices.
- Pay bills: Inputting bills received may be easier on your PC, but you should be able to pay the bills through the mobile app.
- Track mileage: A good app will track your mileage automatically using the GPS from your mobile device.
- Scan receipts: Many apps will allow you to scan receipts and then extract the data to create new accounting transactions. For more information, read our guide, Best Receipt Scanner Apps.
- Categorize transactions: Good bookkeeping programs will transfer transactions automatically from your checking account. The mobile app should allow you to categorize these transactions.
- View reports: A good app will allow you to view financial reports without the need to print them.
Bottom Line
We’ve provided a list of the best mobile accounting apps to help your small business succeed. Before choosing your bookkeeping software, be sure to consider what functions, such as invoicing, you’ll want to do directly from the App. If you want to perform most accounting functions on the go, QuickBooks Online might be your best choice.
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