Best Accounting Software For Solopreneurs and SMEs 2024

Whether working as an independent contractor or running a small startup, keeping a tight handle on your finances is essential to your success. We've rounded up the best software to streamline your accounting work. Automate bookkeeping, expense and customer management, purchase orders, reporting, invoicing, audits, and more. Click on each program for more info and special deals!

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1
Xero
9.8
Best Overall
  • Exclusive offer: Get Xero for 75% off for six months
  • Over 4.2 million subscribers use Xero
  • Effortless cloud accounting access
  • Real-time financial insights, instantly
  • Send customizable invoices in seconds
  • Most user-friendly and super intuitive
  • Integrates with your favorite apps
Visit Website
xero.com
Excellent - 4.5
Editors' Choice
2
Intuit Quickbooks
9.5
Great
  • Exclusive offer: Get 50% off for 3 months!
  • Access and manage your books from any device
  • Integrates with hundreds of third-party apps
  • Create, send, and track invoices in multiple currencies
Visit Website
quickbooks.com
3
FreshBooks
9.3
Very Good
  • Buy NOW to get 70% off for 3 months!
  • Industry-standard double-entry accounting experience
  • Trusted by over 30 million users
  • Full-service bookkeeping and invoicing services
Visit Website
freshbooks.com
4
Sage
9.0
Very Good
  • Great for startups and SMEs
  • Seamless integration with payroll and other solutions
  • Bank feed automatically imports bank transactions
  • Easy to use even for non-accountants
Visit Website
sage.com
5
Quicken
8.8
Very Good
  • All-in-one accounting and invoicing solution
  • More than 30 years in the finance industry!
  • Short learning curve
  • Plans start at $3.99 per month
Visit Website
quicken.com

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)


What is accounting software?

Accounting software is a computer program that assists bookkeepers, accounting professionals, and business owners process and record accounting transactions. The functionality differs depending on what accounting software you are using. The best accounting software keeps track of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses. Most of them automatically enter, store and analyze data for you, which is very useful for saving time on tasks like bank reconciliation. Primary functionalities of accounting software also include valuable tools like invoicing, bill payment, payroll, and financial reporting.

Larger companies usually implement customized solutions that integrate a large amount of data from many different departments, including account management, sub-ledger accounting, reporting, and analytics. This provides CFOs and controllers access to accurate financial data and also allows P&L owners visibility into their performance at the operational level.



What can accounting software do for you?

When it comes to business accounting, you have to involve a wide range of activities to capture your business's entire financial picture. Manual data entry is complex, tedious, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Accounting software automates this process and increases efficiency, giving you more time to focus on the administration and execution of your strategies. Basic accounting software requires you to enter information only once and automatically extracts your data when creating a transaction.

They also offer cloud accounting solutions that allow you to access your financial data anytime with a suitable device and internet connectivity. This feature allows you to organize and store your data in ways designed to make your records easy to retrieve, which comes in handy during tax time. Tax return reports are prepared automatically, and you can file returns directly from the software. Cloud accounting solutions also perform regular backups to prevent data loss.



Why is it important to use accounting software?

Accounting software is crucial in running your day-to-day business processes. It makes it simple for you to monitor your company’s financial health, reduce records redundancy, deliver better budgeting and forecasting, and enable a thorough and properly categorized expense management. Cash management capabilities automatically reconcile your transactions to bank statements and allow you to make cash decisions based on payables, payroll sub-ledgers, and external transactions.

Modern accounting software also offers extensive collections management to easily rank customers, setup collection strategies, and initiate late-stage collections for bankrupt customers. Built-in security makes accounting software the best defense against fraud and unauthorized user access.



What advanced features does accounting software offer?

Accounting software provides a multitude of advanced features that help simplify accounting tasks and give you more control.

  • Invoice processing - This gives you full visibility of who owes you, how much, and when the payment is due. Good accounting software also offers features like automatic invoicing, payment reminders, and estimates to invoice conversion.
  • Online payments - Accounting software makes it easy for both you and your customer by supporting payment gateway integrations that allow you to collect payments online.
  • Reporting - Financial reporting is a basic feature of all accounting software. This allows you to analyze your numbers and make decisions for the future.
  • Inventory tracking - This is essential for businesses that sell goods. From tracking your products to sending notifications when you are running out of stock, accounting software can help streamline your operations.
  • Time tracking - For a service-based business, it is important to charge customers for the time that was spent on the project. Accounting software should let you run work timers within the app and convert hours to invoices.
  • Disclaimer


    The aim of this website is to help you find the perfect software for your needs in an easy-to-view comparison list. You can read more about how we review and about our background in the About Us section of this website. Software.fish does not feature all of the software available in the market, we cherry-pick what we consider to be the leaders in each vertical. We try to keep this site updated and fresh, but cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information as well as the prices featured at all times. All prices quoted on this site are based on USD so there could be slight discrepancies due to currency fluctuations. Although the site is free to use, we do earn commissions from the software companies that we have partnered with. If you click on one of our links and then make a purchase, we will get paid by that company. This has an impact on the ranking, score, and order in which the software is presented in our list and elsewhere throughout the site. Software listings on this page DO NOT imply endorsement.