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Small Business Accounting Software in the U.S.

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Good accounting is critical to running a business. But accountants often find themselves needing to balance a large database of information across multiple accounts. That is why they need an easy, intuitive, fast, and the most secure options for their financial needs.

Most small business bookkeeping software solutions offer packages with different functionalities to cater to businesses specific needs and sizes.

Small Business Accounting Needs

Accounting platforms are designed similarly and have an interface with a general ledger for double-entry bookkeeping. Each accounting software provider has crafted its own solution for meeting these needs. Specifically, small businesses use accounting software for a variety of bookkeeping-related tasks, financial statements and invoices, managing bank accounts, organizing purchase orders, payroll and more.

Accounting Solutions for Small Businesses

Business owners and their accountants use accounting software to monitor business affairs like tracking transactions and generating financial business reports. Either the software program will contain these features, or a third-party provider will host their features on a compatible platform. In both situations, there are core functionalities that small businesses should look for in an accounting software solution. The most common accounting software features include:

  • inventory management,
  • invoicing,
  • financial reporting,
  • payroll,
  • revenue analysis,
  • fixed assets,
  • accounts payable and receivable.

Which Accounting Software Should You Purchase for Your Business?

When shopping for the software that fits your business best, it is advisable to consult the program’s support portal and ask about which software will best fit your business’ needs specifically. Some key considerations when weighing your options are cost and efficiency, intuitive interface, training, responsive customer support, any program limitations,  accountant access  and compatibility, transaction processing programs, and tax support.

What Are the Pricing Options for Accounting Software?

The price of the subscription your business will need depends on the size, scope, and services of your business. Pricing for each accounting software product is usually administered on a monthly subscription basis, usually under $100 for small businesses.

What is the Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses?

The following companies provide the best accounting software for small business. Each has online accounting software and can be accessed from multiple devices for convenient business transaction. They all offer the standard features mentioned above, but each offers different accounting packages for small business. These packages vary in cost and functionality.

  • Intuit QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a time-tested, classic solution for small business accounting. The platform has very high workability and productivity ratings with its capability to track, calculate, and organize efficiently. It cross-communicates between departments, allowing for automated billing, payroll, recurrent payments, and provides tax penalty protection programing.

Highlighted Features

  • Income and expense tracking
  • Invoice creation
  • Timekeeping and payroll
  • Calculating tax deductions
  • Determining business expenses
  • Report analysis
  • Automated and customized growth charts and projections
  • Customize interfaces
  • Compartmentalize business and personal trips
  • Customizable reports
  • Simultaneous user capability

Price

QuickBooks offers multiple packages with various functions and features, which allows users to specifically cater the business’ needs and only pay for what works best for the business.

QuickBooks lets business try a free 30-day trial before committing to one of the various packages. The essential package starts around $13.00 per month and increases to $35.00 a month, then to $75.00 per month and beyond. The incremental increases reflect better organizational, management, and inventory features of the product. There are also annual subscription payment plans that range from about $200.00 a year to about $1,200 a year. QuickBooks offers customized plans, which makes this option a good fit for small and mid-sized business.

Support

QuickBooks plans include expert support. They provide video tutorials, webinars, and training classes with step-by-step instructions for learning the software program. And, the virtual support includes a live online chat box.

  • Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a cloud accounting software that supports financial management for small businesses to medium-sized businesses. Sage Intacct features financial reporting, operational insights, billing and invoice software, small business accounting software, subscription management software, and the ability to automate critical financial processes.

Sage Intacct offers powerful automation for complex processes. It uses smart solutions to automate complex revenue and billing processes, which allows for multi-dimensional data analyses. It is also the only preferred financial management software solution endorsed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Accountants find this program to be more agile and powerful than other conventional systems. The program saves time and is easy to use. Sage Intacct also uses internet-based software (as opposed to the conventional desktop software) that is easy to navigate and access from multiple sources, anytime and anywhere. It offers a very secure and thorough login processes, and it does not require advanced financial training.

The Sage Intacct base package is called the Core Financials. It includes a general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, order management, and purchasing. However, there are advanced features that can be purchased for an additional cost. These include global consolidations, revenue management, inventory management, multi-currency, project accounting, Salesforce integration, user-defined dimensions, and a check delivery service. The annual Sage Intacct subscription includes 24/7 operations, upgrades, and enhancements, U.S.-based support, and 15GB of storage.

Highlighted Features

  • General ledger
  • Payable and receivable accounts
  • Financial management
  • Customized user interfaces
  • Immediate reporting
  • Management of times and expenses
  • Profit and loss reporting

Sage Intacct features are known to be easily intergraded with other software like customer relationship management (CRM), Payroll, Point of sale (POS), MineralTree, and other third-party service providers.

Pricing

A Sage Intacct subscription begins at $8,000 a year for a single user system for a single enterprise and goes up to $50,000 for multiple entities and users in an organization. However, in addition to the subscription cost, small businesses should make sure to budget for training and skill implementation. Proper implementation is expected to cost once or twice the annual subscription amount. Implementation prices are either fixed or by the time and materials and can vary substantially depending on circumstances.

Sage Intacct offers a 30-day free trial allowing potential users and colleagues to try out the platform’s top features and functionality, including reports and dashboards, before committing to the program.

Support

There are multiple ways to connect with support at Sage Intacct. Users can consult their support directly through an online chat box accessible on the platform’s website or connect with a professional in the Sage Intacct support community, which is available 24/7. Or, users can submit a support case and keep tabs on the status of a case. The community platform is also a great place to discuss and exchange advice with modern financial professionals. Sage Intacct also has a blog with articles on common issues and troubleshooting solutions that users can consult anytime for self-help.

  • Xero

Xero is specifically designed for small businesses and the simplicity of the program is what makes it attractive. The software is popular for its innovative tools, structures, features, and resources to help users spend less time accounting, like invoicing, bills, reporting and allows for business management that is seemingly effortless. IT also has special inventory tracking features for easy management of stock and for adding items into invoices and orders.

Xero has mobile app access, which allows transactions to be checked form anywhere any time on any device. Invoices can be sent with online payment options. Projects can be constantly monitored to better evaluate how much money and time are being spent on jobs and to increase profitability.

Highlighted Features:

  • Customized interface
  • Monitor transactions
  • Automated payroll and payments
  • Create custom purchase orders
  • Computes foreign currencies
  • Payable and receivable accounts
  • External communication across platforms and with the bank
  • Billing and invoicing
  • CPA resources and accounting
  • Tax support
  • Manage, record, and claim expenses and receipts

Price

Xero offers three monthly subscriptions: one at $9.00 a month, another at $30.00 a month, and a third at $60.00 a month. Each plan offers a set package of access to platform resources. The lowest-tier plan offers 5 invoices and quotes, 5 bills, and 20 bank transactions, while the most expansive plan offers unlimited preparations in each of those categories plus additional features. But any plan you choose can include additional features for an extra cost and users also have to pay $6.00 a month per person within their organization using the platform. An accountant can demo each option during a 30-day free trial.

Support

Xero has reliable experts available to support users 24/7 in the form of a chat box. Xero Central, is the program platform for support topics and articles, asking questions, offering solutions, and finding answers in discussions with other users and getting in touch with Xero support team members.

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