The 9 Best Small Business Accounting Software of 2023

We reviewed multiple accounting software options using a detailed methodology to help you find the 9 best online bookkeeping services for small businesses. Our ratings considered everything from pricing and customer reviews to the number and quality of features available and what our panel of experts thought about the services available. You may have heard of both bookkeeping and accounting services and wondered if they were the same thing. They may also help with payroll or managing your accounting software. Its bookkeeping service comes with its Enterprise plan, which costs $399 per month when billed annually.

Bookkeeping vs Accounting: Key Differences

If you’re only focusing on expenses and not big-picture financial data, you’ll miss out on some strategic opportunities. Some bookkeeping services can provide a full suite of bookkeeping, accounting and tax services. Examples include bookkeeping journal entries, bookkeeping ledger, bookkeeping reconciliation and bookkeeping trial balance. The cost of bookkeeping services can vary depending on the size of your business and the features you need. Some bookkeeping services charge a monthly fee while others charge by the hour. You can find services for as little as $20 per month while others run thousands per month.

• Plus, not every online bookkeeping service works with both accrual-basis and cash-basis accounting—but Bookkeeper.com does.
• New customers can get 50% off for three months or get a free trial for 30 days.
• In collaboration with Bench (more on them later), we offer expert virtual bookkeeping systems and tax services support.
• Irrespective of your industry, we understand and address your organization’s unique challenges and intricacies.
• Similarly, Zoho Books’s cheapest plan doesn’t include automatic journal entry creation.
• While bookkeepers make sure the small pieces fit correctly into place, accountants use those small pieces to draw much more significant and broader conclusions about a company’s finances.
• Some companies charge by the number of accounts you need them to manage, while other companies charge based on your company’s monthly expenses.

Online Bookkeeping by Bench

All plans come with onboarding, a dedicated bookkeeper and account manager, reconciliation at month-end, balance sheet, P&L, statement of cash flows and a portal with document storage. Higher-tiered plans unlock more transactions and a more frequent service level. InDinero is an outsourced accounting solution for businesses of all sizes. The company’s flexible pricing model ensures you only pay for what you need. Most accounting software providers sync with one or more popular payroll providers (Zoho Books, which doesn’t sync with most payroll software, is a notable exception).

• This service is ideal for business owners who want to get their bookkeeping in order but don’t have the time or resources to do it themselves.
• Bookkeepers and accountants are both critical for the financial health of a company.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects 4% job growth in this field from 2022 to 2032.
• Outsourced, virtual bookkeeping can cost as little as $150 per month and as much as $900 (or more) per month.
• And unless you have the budget to hire an in-house accounting department, you might not know what your options are in terms of making sure your bookkeeping gets done properly and on time.

Pro Small Business Accounting Software by Intuit

Based on its features and pricing alone, it’s a great bookkeeping and accounting company for most business types, from freelancers to LLCs. If you’re looking for industry-specific accounting software, Sage some standout solutions beyond Sage Business Cloud Accounting. For instance, Sage 100 Contractor is accounting and bookkeeping near me a preferred accounting option for professionals in the construction business. And Sage Intacct is one of the best accounting services for nonprofits. FreshBooks’s combination of stellar features, customizable invoices, and well-reviewed mobile apps make it pretty much perfect—especially for freelancers.

Make your money work for you

Another key responsibility for accountants includes conducting routine audits to ensure that statements and books are following ethical and industry standards. The distinctions between accounting and bookkeeping are subtle yet essential. The two careers are similar, and accountants and bookkeepers often work side by side.

Reviews are not provided or commissioned by the credit card, financing and service companies that appear in this site. Reviews have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card, financing and service companies and it is not their responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered. Susan Guillory is an intuitive business coach and content magic maker.

Both bookkeepers and accountants need to be comfortable working with numbers all day. Bookkeepers especially should be able to spot issues with daily expenses and make sure all the data points are tracked correctly. If you want your business to save time and money, then you should consider hiring a bookkeeping service.

Key Differences

If you want more features than just the basics, accounting software typically starts around $10 to $15 a month. Xero, for instance, charges $13 for its most basic plan while FreshBooks starts at $15. QuickBooks Online generally has the highest starting prices in the industry at $30 a month for a basic plan. Most small-business owners don’t have an accounting background but need to carefully track their business’s finances to make sure they’re turning a profit. However, Xero’s $13 a month plan limits you to entering only five bills and sending only 20 invoices a month.

Knowing the differences between the two can help people find their niche in the industry and can give guidance to companies on who to hire for their needs. Bookkeepers who are interested in switching jobs but do not have a college degree might consider becoming an EA after a stint with the IRS. This job doesn’t require a college degree, only five years of tax experience with the IRS. All EAs must have 72 hours of continuing education every 36 months.

As a result, a suite of features from one service will appeal more to very small businesses, while an entirely other set of features from another service might appeal to larger small businesses. If financial terms like income and expense, debits and credits, and balance sheet make you cringe, you probably aren’t alone. And unless you have the budget to hire an in-house accounting department, you might not know what your options are in terms of making sure your bookkeeping gets done properly and on time. Some of the key tasks for accountants include tax return preparation, conducting routine reviews of various financial statements, and performing account analysis.