The other day I had to do some research for a client, who was in need of an accounting package. Most small business owners who know the fundamentals of accounting, start with Excel. When you become an Excel Power User, it’s amazing how much you can do with this package, including full cycle accounting.
The problem with using a spreadsheet though, is that, as the volume of data increases, it becomes more and more tedious to keep your books up-to-date.
For PC, there are a few well-known and effective Accounting Packages for small business. The most well-known are probably QuickBooks, and Simply Accounting. These products are quite complicated though, and maintaining the infrastructure is not the easiest (you need an IT person handy).
There are a LOT of online applications available in the market now, which allow you to manage your accounting from anywhere. This is the great advantage of the web and cloud computing.
Some of the more obvious choices online are QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books, and FreshBooks.
These are really great accounting suites, and they do pretty much everything most businesses need. However, they are not cheap.
If you are transitioning to online accounting, and your business grows, there’s little doubt that you’ll eventually end up with one of the main offerings. There are features you will need one day.
ERP Solutions, or Custom Accounting Software, is often an end result in larger companies. The flexibility and control of having fully integrated systems is just awesome. Not to mention the money you save in labour, where you would traditionally need 2 or more people just to handle your books every month.
However, if you’re just transitioning away from Excel accounting, which is essentially free, the step up to $30/month or $50/month could be considered hefty.
If your budget is very tight, I have found two great-looking alternatives. You could consider them as stepping stones to the larger packages.
For a total investment of $0 (yes, absolutely free), there is Wave Accounting. Wave Accounting looks incredible, and the feature list is impressive. It seems to be very easy to use, and could be the total answer for many small or home businesses.
I don’t understand how they can do this for free, AND have an advertising budget (they have Google Adwords Campaigns), AND be profitable, but Wave’s been around for a while, and seems to be sustainable. I would expect there to be a lot of marketing flying your way though. They acknowledge that their revenue model is based on affiliate commissions, so they need to sell a lot of stuff to you, to make money.
On the other hand, if you’re ready to pay a little, there’s Kashoo. For only $9.95, Kashoo delivers an equally impressive interface and feature set. With backing from Canada’s largest small business tax preparation and planning firm, FBC, Kashoo looks to be set up to succeed in the long run.
Both Kashoo and Wave offer guest access for your accountant, and all the main features needed to run a small business.
Whichever option you choose at the end of the day, be sure that you regularly make local backups of all your accounting data. Losing a span of accounting data can be catastrophic to many a business.
Update: It looks like Intuit has a basic, entry-level version of QuickBooks Online available for only $12.95 per month. Only 3 bucks more than Kashoo, and with Intuit’s backing, plus easy upgrade path to more feature-rich plans, this may be the best choice of all.
Andreas Huttenrauch
I didn't invent the Internet, but I sure watched it be born and grow up."
