Top 5 Online Accounting Services

Accounting is an important process for businesses large and small. It’s an excellent way to track and assess a company’s financial health while providing opportunities for strategic insight. Emphasizing accounting for your business will also help prevent headaches when tax season comes around or if you ever needed to present your financials for an audit or business valuation.

Because many business owners are not accountants or recordkeepers, utilizing online accounting software can help relieve some of the burdens if you decide to bring your accounting internally, instead of hiring a professional CPA.

Finding a reliable online bookkeeping service is an excellent option for business owners that do not have the time or patience to track their company’s books manually, and do not want to work with an independent CPA Firm. It’s estimated that small business owners can save 16 hours a month by using an online accounting program.

If you need help narrowing down the top online accounting services, here are five to consider.

Intuit QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks is hands-down one of the most popular and well-known online accounting services on the market. Their bookkeeping options make it easy for small businesses or solopreneuers to quickly and effectively track cash flow, and their payment processing functionality will automate invoicing and collections from your recurring customers.

Intuit’s QuickBooks software offers reliable options to manage your money and has multiple plans that you can choose from as your business grows. With their affordable bookkeeping software, you can track expenses, manage bank statements, maximize your tax deductions, send invoices, and much more. Moreover, you can hire a local CPA Firm like Rivero, Gordimer & Company to consult and train you on QuickBooks’ best practices. 

Plus, you’ll have the reputation of one of the largest brands on your side.

Xero

Xero is another popular online accounting software for businesses to streamline their bookkeeping, payment processing, and inventory management. In fact, Xero offers its users a wide range of features such as intuitive invoicing, reporting, asset management, and collections, among other services.

This online accounting program integrates seamlessly with other applications and workflow assistants, so you can stay focused on the tasks at hand. Xero has three price and performance tiers, starting at $20/month, with options to expand for multiple users, global currencies, and other features.

Wave

If you want to keep things simple and affordable, check out Wave, which offers free accounting services for small businesses. This is a great option for small businesses that want to get their feet wet with online accounting before looking at some of the more intricate software. 

While the free services are excellent ways to save money on accounting software, they are limited to bookkeeping, invoicing, and receipt scanning. If you want to use Wave for payroll management or online collections, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan.

Wave is an easy and affordable accounting solution for small businesses and freelancers.

FreshBooks

One of the top names in small business accounting, FreshBooks offers a range of tools for companies large and small. Invoicing, time-tracking and project management, financial reporting, and mobile apps are intuitive, energy-saving features that FreshBooks offers its customers.

They have three pricing packages, starting at just $15/mo, depending on the number of clients you work with.

AccountEdge

For those who can handle a richer data experience, and would rather store all of their information securely on their computer, try utilizing the accounting software AccountEdge.

While their features may not appear as simple or visually stunning as the others on this list, they pack a punch when it comes to bookkeeping, financial management, payroll, taxes, and other needs of a growing enterprise. Buy this software with a one-time purchase, and use it for as long as you’d like — no extra surprises.

If you are tired of manually creating invoices, checking up on late payments, or calculating your taxes, it’s time to switch to an online accounting program. Choose the right one for your business, and you can save yourself a significant amount of time and energy. The five online accounting services above are some of the most popular options and provide a great place to get started if you are looking to take your accounting into the 21st century.