The 6 Best Small Business Accounting Software (2023)

Intuit QuickBooks is the best overall accounting software on the market in 2022. QuickBooks, not to be confused with QuickBooks Online, is an easy-to-use, straightforward accounting software that is a favorite among freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small-business owners. 

Popular for small businesses because it is online and cloud-based, you can also scale up as your business and its needs grow. 

Some of the significant features of Intuit QuickBooks include:

• Job costing by checking out which projects are making money and which ones are costing you money.
• Expense tracker for tracking expenses across all of your accounts.
• Invoicing by creating professional invoices, bill management, inventory, and 1099s for independent contractors.

There are many different pricing packages, starting from $25 per month for a simple start and up to $180 for advanced. If you are looking for straight off-the-shelf functions, the prices start as low as $7.50 per month. 

QuickBooks contains hundreds of different customizable features, works best with integrating other QuickBooks software, and ranges from large to small businesses. This is an excellent option if you’re looking for a popular and well-trusted accounting software company.

ZohoBooks provides an excellent value for an accounting service at low costs, which is ideal for startups, freelancers, and small businesses. Even better, if you like other Zoho applications, you can easily integrate them. 

Zoho’s interface is easy to learn on iOS and Android, making it easy to set up workflow automation, payment reminders, and invoice templates across any device. With Zoho, you can create up to 10 workflow automations with the professional plan and up to 200 automations with the premium plan. You can also link your bank accounts, payment processors, and e-commerce platforms, to name a few. 

Along with the mentioned features, Zoho gives you a real-time view of your finances and offers advanced features such as project accounting and time tracking. 

One massive perk of signing up with Zoho is that if you have a revenue of less than $50,000 per year, you can sign up for ZohoBooks’ free plan. It has one user account and lets you manage clients, create recurring invoices, import bank and credit card statements, and track expenses and mileage. 

Upgrading to the standard plan comes with even more support options, customized fields, reporting tags, and bulk updates for $10 per month. The Professional plan costs $20 per month, and the Premium costs $30 per month. 

Zoho is best and most effective when integrated with other Zoho services and is often a perfect fit for entrepreneurs, service-based workers, freelancers, and small businesses.

FreshBooks is one of the most accessible accounting softwares, especially for invoicing. FreshBooks offers more customizations for invoicing than other accounting software on the market. Its primary functions include sending, receiving, printing, and paying invoices. FreshBooks also has easy-to-use features for new users, such as expense tracking, project management, and viewing client reports. 

Besides its starter plans, it offers custom plans with custom pricing depending on your business needs. 

With FreshBooks mobile app, you can efficiently respond to client questions and get immediate notifications when they pay invoices or if they are overdue. 

This accounting software is best for small-business owners who want an easy-to-use accounting service, especially those with many billable clients.

Xero is one of the most popular accounting software options for small businesses looking for a simple service that allows many users. Their Early plan costs $12 per month and includes essential features such as bank account reconciliation, bill and receipt capturing, short-term cash flow, and business snapshots.

As with many other software services, you can upgrade your pricing plan, and features as your business grows. They have a special promotion for $39 per month; you can add payroll software with Gusto to any plan. 

Businesses can also collect payments online from customers through Xero’s integration with Stripe and GoCardless. With their Growing Plan, for $34 per month, you will have unlimited numbers of invoices, bills, and quotes that you can send. This plan allows bulk transaction reconciliation and the ability to track projects, use multiple currencies, claim expenses, and view in-depth analytics. 

Xero is best for small businesses looking for accounting software with third-party payroll add-ons.

Wave is a good option for accounting software for small businesses that do not necessarily need a payroll service. This accounting software has unique free features such as limited accounting, invoicing, and receipt scanning with no transaction or bill limits. That’s a massive bang for no buck at all.

This accounting service is ideal for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers who do not need payroll services and can have their accounting needs covered with their free options. 

You can also run multiple businesses in one account, and they have a simple mobile app. Because there are so many free features, there are higher rates for credit card payments, and their full-service payroll is limited to only 14 states around the U.S. 

If you are lucky enough to be in one of the states that Wave covers, their free options are unbeatable for small-business owners.

Kashoo can be an excellent choice for an accounting service for startups because they offer a variety of plans that have significant potential to grow with your business. They provide a free starter plan which is perfect for sending invoices and tracking payments. 

The Truly Small accounting plan allows you to track income and expenses automatically, and if your business requires double-entry accounting software, Kashoo has options for that as well. 

The invoicing plan is free, but the accounting plan starts at $20 per month, and the advanced plan is $30 per month. 

Kashoo is an excellent accounting service for startups looking for affordable accounting and plans available for their growing business.