15 Best Accounting Software Systems for Your Business

Accounting is an ever-evolving field. New types of accounting techniques and focus areas arise. These include forensic accounting and green accounting. To keep up with these, together with the garden-variety financial kind, one needs to find flexible accounting software to handle all intricacies accurately and in real time.

There are numerous accounting products available to cater to different business sizes, types, and niches. To jumpstart your search, we compiled the top products in the category. You can explore each product, determine if it matches your requirements, and narrow down your choices.

Thanks to the COVID-19 situation, remote work has become the norm. The pandemic fueled a higher rate of cloud-based software adoption in many fields, including accounting. Hence, by using cloud-based tools, more businesses and professionals got to know the benefits of using them better.

With the way industries are shaping up, remote work is here to stay. So expect cloud-based accounting software adoption rates to shoot up in the next five years.

However, even before the outbreak, accounting professionals already had a positive stance toward the use of accounting software tools. About 67% of accountants claimed tech in accounting enables them to be more efficient and to finish their work faster. Furthermore, in a 2020 report, 83% of accounting professionals believe that they need to keep up with tech adoption in order to be competitive. In particular, they are investing in the following emerging technologies:

As the chart shows, accounting professionals are investing in new technologies like Big Data, 5G, AI, and IoT. They believe that these can further empower their accounting processes by making data much easier and faster to gather, manipulate, and analyze. We also expect these technologies to be widely available and deployed in the future and be well-integrated with the top 15 tools on this list.

1. NetSuite ERP

NetSuite ERP is essentially a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, but the platform can be used for sales and marketing automation, as well as order management and customer support. It offers a myriad of tools and features to make financial management simple.

Standard features include pre-configured dashboards that can be customized by users for their specific needs. NetSuite ERP also offers robust automation and scalability features. It can grow with your company and automate processes such as financial management, order management, revenue management, fixed assets, inventory management, and billing.

The vendor offers a great demo of the product that will introduce you to all key features.

NetSuite ERP

Try out NetSuite ERP with their free trial

Another great thing about NetSuite ERP is that it comes with great reporting features. For starters, users can easily customize their view of key performance indicators and generate reports that are specific to their role in the company. They can also track vendor performance and monitor inventory levels, allowing them to further improve the customer experience.

2. Paychex

Next on our list is Paychex, which provides payroll solutions to SMBs and large enterprises. For small businesses, Paychex offers a free mobile application where you can easily run your payroll with a couple of clicks or with the help of Paychex Voice Assist for a hands-free experience. Its online payroll services that you can access on a desktop or the mobile app enable you to automate payment calculation and processing, as well as the filing of payroll taxes. Employees can also use the mobile application where they can utilize self-service tools to access payslips, update their bank information and tax details, and more.

Paychex

Try out Paychex with their free trial

For growing businesses and large enterprises, Paychex offers fully customized payroll and HR services, as well as guidance from payroll specialists. Customer support is also accessible 24/7 via chat or phone call. As for how much the subscription plans cost, Paychex follows the quote-based pricing model for all their payroll service packages.

3. Gusto

Gusto is an all-in-one accounting and HR platform that allows you to automate basic to more advanced payroll tasks. Built specifically for accountants, the solution has clear and detailed financial reporting features to help businesses see exactly where their money goes. With its accounting dashboards, Gusto also provides real-time analytics that business owners can turn to when they need immediate information about their financial records.

Additionally, Gusto is equipped with all the essential accounting tools that businesses need to strategize and improve their cash flow. It also provides valuable financial trends, insights, and data that professional accountants or accounting teams need to know to jumpstart meaningful advisory conversations with their organizations.

Gusto

Try out Gusto with their free trial

For instance, Gusto enables businesses to combine payroll data with financial trends to discover insights about their company expenses, revenue, and profit per employee. The platform also serves as a helpful tool to monitor employee metrics, enabling businesses to see their team growth and employee retention insights.

4. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is an accounting solution for small businesses, freelancers, and independent accounting firms. This cloud-based application combines all essential accounting tools in a single platform to help small businesses streamline accounting and financial management tasks.

Among its features are automated tax calculations, expense tracking, invoice management, balance sheet reporting, bill management, sales monitoring, and more. QuickBooks Online supports multiple devices and is equipped with auto-syncing options so your data will be up to date no matter what device you are using.

QuickBooks Online

Try out QuickBooks Online with their free trial

In terms of integrations, you can integrate QuickBooks Online with other Intuit applications, including QuickBooks Payments and QuickBooks Payroll. As for third-party applications, QuickBooks integrates seamlessly with Bill.com, Jobber, Mavenlink, Method CRM, Shoeboxed, and Time Tracking by TSheets. QuickBooks Online’s subscription plans start at $10.00/month for one user.

5. Tipalti Approve

Tipalti Approve is a cloud payment automation and management software that helps simplify global mass payments. This makes the software suitable for companies with offices worldwide. Notably, you can accept payments in more than 190 countries, use 120 currency options, and rely on six payment methods, including PayPal, wire, local bank transfer, and debit cards. Moreover, the software simplifies the daily task of ensuring that your company’s financial data and processes are timely, accurate, and easy to understand.

The software helps businesses avoid late payments, noncompliance, and over-tasking of the accounting team. It also has flexible payment reconciliation, AP, and financial reporting features that work with a myriad of payment gateways and ERP systems.

The vendor also offers an appealing test drive of all software features through its free trial.

With it, you can minimize, if not eliminate, downstream issues and human error, by letting suppliers input tax data directly in the Supplier Management portal. A Remittance Validation Engine, which monitors over 26,000 national and international standards, guarantees the integrity of supplier data.

6. FreshBooks

FreshBooks is one of the leaders in our accounting software category. Our team found FreshBooks to be the most easy-to-use accounting solution for freelance accountants and small businesses currently in the market.

The software is being used by more than five million users around the world to streamline time tracking and invoicing. The vendor has recently updated the product to allow for easy collaboration between team members and has added a redesigned dashboard where you can prioritize tasks and manage payments. The classic features have not changed, and FreshBooks continues to offer top-rate invoice-to-payment functionalities, including direct payment gateways, overdue payment reminders, delay fees, and payment claims. You can use the system to collect payments easily and automate the recurring billing process to accept Google Checkouts, Amex, PayPal, and credit card payments.

What’s more, is that pricing is affordable for almost any budget, and the vendor offers a convenient 30-day free trial to enable you to test drive the features before you decide to part with your money.

FreshBooks also recently added features such as bank reconciliations, invitations for up to 10 accountants, new balance sheet reports, directly adding the credit card to the client profile, and adding payments in bulk. It also improved the navigation experience by adding sections for Invoices, Reports, and Accounting.

FreshBooks has not neglected any utility, and companies can use it to manage invoices as well as expenses. You can easily generate insightful tax summaries and reports after the data is processed. The vendor also offers a handy mobile app. The system seamlessly integrates with other business apps, such as billing and invoicing software. You can rely on the support of knowledgeable and experienced agents if you have any issues.

7. AvidXchange

AvidXchange is a comprehensive invoice management and payment automation system built for businesses of all sizes. It is equipped with features for paperless invoicing, purchase order automation, as well as payment processing to help you streamline accounting operations. It also comes with a highly configurable interface and intelligent approval workflows to boost efficiency and reinforce visibility across your accounts payable processes. In addition, the platform has search and filter tools that make it easy to track invoices as well as review transactions.

Using AvidXchange, businesses can lower the cost of accounts payable processes as well as improve operational productivity. It also makes it easier for companies to pay their suppliers faster because payments can be made securely from the platform. More importantly, as AvidXchange comes with advanced security and fraud detection functionalities so users can prevent unauthorized transactions and payment requests.

In addition to the abovementioned, AvidXchange has more than 180 integrations. It can connect with popular ERP platforms as well as accounting systems like SAP, Oracle NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Blackbaud. This way, it is easier to import and export data as well as streamline your operations.

8. Rossum

Rossum is a powerful cloud-based platform designed to streamline account payable processes from importing documents, collecting and capturing data, purchase order matching, to invoice processing. This software’s system is powered by a self-learning AI engine that automates various critical processes, thus reducing manual efforts and human error.

As an intelligent cloud-based platform, Rossum addresses the downsides of traditional OCR systems. By connecting Rossum to your document sources (i.e., document scanners, DMS systems, API, RPA, and email inboxes), it automatically imports all documents into the Rossum system. Its AI-powered engine also recognizes different document formats and layouts, thus there is no need to set up or create templates for documents and invoices. Furthermore, Rossum identifies duplicates, merged files, and auxiliary data and handles them accordingly to remove all unnecessary information and maintain a clean and organized curated feed of transactional data.

Another advantage Rossum has over other similar systems is its ability to incorporate the changes, customizations, and corrections set by the user. This is helpful when more data that the system was not set to detect before suddenly get added to the information that needs to be extracted from an invoice. All the user needs to do is check the imported invoice and customize the fields that need to be validated and the system will then apply the changes moving forward. Moreover, you can extend Rossum’s functionality by integrating it with your existing systems, such as ERPs and RPAs.

9. A2X

A2X promotes accurate bookkeeping by directing transactional data from sales channels like Amazon and Shopify to your accounting platform. Gone are the days of manually recording sales transactions and using spreadsheets for financial statements. Your financial details are transferred seamlessly into your books as it integrates with esteemed accounting solutions, such as Xero and QuickBooks.

A2x has a free trial plan and a wide variety of subscription plans, starting from $19 per month.

A2X gives you complete visibility into your cash flow by correctly classifying each transaction and summing up your sales and expenses. Your fees, refunds, and other necessary expenses are also accounted for.

You can use A2X to monitor the prices of products sold and the gross margins of moving goods, which can be verified with your business’ financials. Likewise, its inventory accounting feature can be used to accommodate the number of stocks available after a chain of orders has been made. At the end of every month, reports are made to review your stocks, its values, and its locations.

10. Zoho Books

Any member of the Zoho family is a good product, and you can rely on the company’s productivity suite to streamline your business. Its accounting software, Zoho Books is also of top quality, which is why it got a high ranking on our list.

Why is Zoho Books on our list of best accounting software? The reason is this award-winning solution offers great value for money. It easily automates bank feeds, sends payment reminders automatically, and makes it easy to send and track retainer invoices. The system is unique as it integrates with Stripe and makes it simple to do payment reconciliation.

You can use all the features for free for a period of time to see if the software matches your needs.

Zoho Books

Try out Zoho Books with their free trial

Zoho Books is similar to Freshbooks in that it supports collaboration to dissolve miscommunication between a company’s accounting and sales units. Similar to Freshbooks, Zoho Books also offers mobile optimization and API for integration with other business apps. You can also make use of premade integrations with other Zoho products. It also enhanced its features like invoice templates and custom domain and added new features like recurring journals and bulk payments received and project deletion.

11. Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense automates a huge selection of operations related to expense handling, helping you document your transactions in an instant. You can automatically convert receipts into expenses and group them together so you can produce reports whenever necessary. This platform also automatically captures and transforms credit card transactions into expenses.

Zoho Expense has a free trial period, a free plan, and a $15/organization/month plan.

Zoho Expense

Try out Zoho Expense with their free trial

Whatever device you have, Zoho Expense can document your expenses. It can send complete reports both on traditional devices and smartphones. It can diminish all confusion linked to allowed expenditures and spending limits. It ensures that your expense rules are compliant and properly imposed.

The interface of Zoho Expense is functional and trouble-free, offering numerous ways of entering or tracking information. Automated updates also come in handy.

12. Sage 50cloud

Sage 50cloud offers taxes, budgeting, inventory, invoicing, and cash flow solutions to small and mid-sized businesses. This online accounting software also provides a vast array of add-ons for payroll, credit card processing, and more. Its intuitive accounting best practices can be used to maintain compliance and monitor finances as well.

You can use Sage 50cloud for free for a limited time. If you feel like it fits your business, you may continue with its paid plans starting at $50.58 monthly.

Sage 50cloud is generally a desktop tool with a cloud component. It can monitor purchases and vendors and pay bills. Its expense handling functionality has bank feeds and mobile payment. It can link you to your bank accounts, letting you record sales and receipts, transfer funds, monitor receivables, modify bank accounts and make deposits in real-time.

Work anywhere with Microsoft tools as Sage 50cloud plays well with MS Office 365. All accounting data are also synced between desktops and the cloud servers of the app.

13. QuickBooks Enterprise

QuickBooks Enterprise is a financial services tool created for growing businesses and nonprofits. It offers accounting solutions minus the ERP implementation. Its platform integrates tasks, such as inventory monitoring, payables, payroll, and more.

QuickBooks Enterprise comes with a free-trial period. On the other hand, you can subscribe to it for as low as $140/month.

QuickBooks Enterprise is a stand-alone framework, but it offers progressive settings and functionalities that can be customized depending on your business or industry. Payroll, advanced pricing, and inventory monitoring are among its more advanced features. Plus, there are more data capacity, more intricate inventory handling, and various entity support.

14. Sage Business Cloud Accounting

Sage Business Cloud Accounting is ideal for small businesses. With that, it offers two affordable plans designed to fit the budget and needs of small businesses. For sole traders and micro-businesses, you can make use of its entry-level accounting solution at $10 per month. If you need invoicing and cash flow management features, you can opt for the app’s higher plan at $25 per month.

The product focuses on streamlining paperwork, minimizing spreadsheets, and staying on top of your finances. It simplifies business payroll and ensures compliance with the Affordable Care Act. It empowers financial management by consolidating data and automating complex financial processes. It also handles payments and banking.

The vendor offers a comprehensive free trial to get you up to speed with the features.

The software connects with other apps and offers intuitive apps for your mobile device. This enables you to manage your invoicing, banking, and cash flow on the go. Sage also regularly fixes and updates its features like bank reconciliations, CSV imports, and journal functionalities.

15. FreeAgent

FreeAgent is a robust accounting software designed for freelancers and small businesses. From running payrolls to handling expenses, its features can help you take control of all aspects of your financial processes. You can send and monitor invoices made by the system. Expenses can be easily tracked as long as you capture a photo of your receipt and upload it to the platform.

FreeAgent offers a free-trial period and the Universal Plan at $10/monthly for six months.

With an intuitive stopwatch and timesheets, FreeAgent can keep time records. You can easily track cash flows, alongside tax bills, through its dashboard. It can be linked to bank accounts, too.

FreeAgent also lets you know how much tax you owe, and even file for your own VAT, RTI, and Self Assessment returns. It has a total of 26 integrations, which include Stripe, Zapier, Receipt Bank, and PayPal.

New Landscapes, New Technology

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that economies can quickly change. And, for many, the change was seemingly overnight when the pandemic hit. Legacy systems and rigid traditional frameworks were the most that were challenged. Those not poised for digital transformation were left lagging further.

Thus, moving forward, we must move with urgency to future-proof our workplaces and businesses. To accomplish this, only new technologies can help us shield from and adapt to the looming changes in the business landscape.

Moreover, the growing awareness of advanced cloud-based tools and their benefits is just a testament to their effectiveness. By automating tasks, businesses can save time and use it for more important metrics like growth, diversification, and optimization. In fact, automation can help with all of these too.

Since the dawn of the computer age, clever people strove to create systems that will allow us to outsource both menial and complex tasks. This is in order to give us the space to focus more on rethinking the fundamentals and improve our execution of tasks, whichever field we may belong to.

With the tools today, we can make their vision our very reality. But choosing the right tools entails a good deal of patience and research.

So, when choosing the right system for you, carefully evaluate and identify the features from these top platforms that you need. Also, try to register for free trials and demos to know more about the product without spending anything. To start, you can try out NetSuite ERP, a top product in the category, and explore its features firsthand.

Happy software hunting and good luck!

By Daniel Epstein

Daniel Epstein is a senior financial research analyst at FinancesOnline and the architect behind our Fintech and ERP content division. His main areas of expertise are blockchain technologies, cryptocurrencies, and the use of biometrics in fintech solutions. His work has been frequently quoted by such publications as Forbes, USA Today, Entrepreneur, and LA Times. With more than 1,800 solutions scrutinized in the last 5 years spent on our team he always prioritized offering readers an unbiased perspective on modern financial technologies.