Choosing the Right Accounting Software for your Online Business

One of the pain points business owners face is the accounting aspect of their business. It is a tedious yet necessary requirement for year end reporting, filing taxes and keeping track of the business’s financial health. 

Methods to keep track of accounts have evolved over time, especially with the demand to digitalize. Gone were the days of manual bookkeeping as accounting softwares emerged into the market. 

The emergence of accounting software has now made performing financial tasks more streamlined, accurate and much, much quicker. From basic invoicing, billing and project management to generating insightful financial reports and managing clients, accounting softwares are essential tools that increase a business’s productivity and growth. 

You might have already decided to choose an accounting software for your business, but there are just so many options out there that you don’t know where to start. Fret not, we are here to help you make a more informed decision. 

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Choosing the right accounting software for your business

Much like many of your other business decisions, when choosing an accounting software for your business, you need to understand what your business needs are and if a basic feature will suffice or more extensive features will be required.  

For most SME owners, you will probably need to keep a close eye on the money coming in and the payments going out. As such, you will need to look out for an accounting software that helps you accomplish your daily accounting tasks, including tracking expenses, recording payments, customer invoicing and transactions reconciliation. Your chosen accounting software should also allow you to generate reports to analyse your business performance and help you to manage your business’s financial health. 

Here are 6 factors you should consider when choosing your accounting software. 

1. Cost

Most accounting software will have tiered plans with features ranging from basic to advanced functions. Depending on your needs, you may want the basic tier to do the bare minimum but if you want a robust system, you might want to consider the advanced tier.

User Interface

The interface needs to be intuitive and easy for you to understand and use. Icons and labels should be straightforward and your accounting tasks should be performed with minimal clicks/input.

Extensiveness of Features

Most accounting softwares are able to handle basic finance compliance. However, some software might offer even more features such as project management, invoicing and allowing access to multiple users.

Integration support

Integrations with third party marketplaces or payment gateways are key to automating and simplifying your accounting. Ideally, you will want the accounting software to support at least major platforms such as WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento or be compatible with the ecommerce platform of your choice. 

If the accounting software has poor integration support, you will end up having to manually enter the transaction details each time which is very time consuming and prone to human errors.

Customer support & Response time

It is quintessential to have excellent customer support for the accounting software that you are relying on so that you are able to get the software running properly and to guide you through technical difficulties you might face.

I am sure you do not want a situation where you are trying to get something done but are unable to due to technical difficulties or certain functions not working as intended only for the customer support team to get back to you a week later. 

Software updates

Technology moves fast, it is common for software to have patches and updates occasionally to cover security vulnerabilities. You will want software that is managed by a competent team to provide the necessary updates frequently. 

There are always new vulnerabilities discovered from time to time, also known as zero day exploits that might affect the accounting software. The last thing you will want is to have unauthorised access to your accounts and even worse, have your accounts leaked publicly.

Five Accounting Softwares you can consider

QuickBooks

If you are looking for an established company for your accounting software, look no further. QuickBooks is a popular cloud based accounting software used by 4.5 million customers globally. 

QuickBooks has a myriad of features for your accounting needs. From invoicing, expenses tracking to even inventory management, QuickBooks does it all. You can easily prepare to file your taxes with IRAS, sort out your GST with their tools. The financial health of your business can also be easily monitored with their insights and reports so that you can plan your next steps.

QuickBooks supports popular integrations such as WooCommerce, eBay, Shopify, Bigcommerce, Magento, OpenCart for your eCommerce platforms, MailChimp for your email marketing needs and even SalesForce for your customer relationship management (CRM) needs.

As QuickBooks is a cloud accounting software, they will keep it updated for you without you even noticing it. They too, have their own mobile app for you to get work done at your convenience but you will have to remember to update it whenever updates are pushed. With their base plan, you can easily work with your accountant to prepare your financial statements. 

Your data is automatically backed up with QuickBooks so you never have to worry about losing it. They have 24-7 surveillance for their servers, both physically and virtually to prevent breaches. Along with redundant servers and backup power supply, their servers are available more than 99.8% of the time in the past 3 years. QuickBooks is highly recommended for their wide range of features and security.

Xero

Founded in 2006, Xero is another popular cloud accounting software with over 3 million global subscribers. Xero is another well established company and they pride themselves on their team leadership capabilities. 

From basic accounting functions such as generating reports, invoicing, managing GST returns to more advanced features such as inventory management, daily bank reconciliation and the ability to connect to the bank to automatically track your transactions, Xero covers it all. Xero also has a mobile app for you to get work done on the go.

Xero has over 1000 supported third party apps that can integrate with their accounting software in their very own app store, making it a breeze to automatically track your finances and get even more out of their software. One might even be tempted to spend too much time in their app store till they accidentally neglect their work.

Xero has readily available courses and guides at their disposal that covers accounting basics to maximising the usage of their software. The software is well documented which means you can easily get started and find out even more about their capabilities. Along with their 24-7 customer support, you are sure to overcome any obstacles you face to get to your accounting goals.

You can easily export your files and hand it over to your accountant to get it sorted out and prepare for your annual filing with their online file storage. Xero provides multiple layers of protection for your data. From data encryption to intrusion protection systems, you can be assured your data is in safe hands.

Even though Xero costs more than some of the available solutions, Xero is a very strong competitor due their extensive third party app support, feature set and not to mention their well rounded security. 

FreshBooks

Have you ever experienced losing your invoices because you forgot to save it? FreshBooks was developed to ensure this will not be a problem for you anymore. Whether you’re a freelancer, self-employed professional or business with employees or contractors, FreshBooks aims to execute extraordinary experiences everyday. 

FreshBooks boasts a wide array of features including invoicing, expense tracking, estimates and proposals, time tracking, project management, payments, client management, accounting services and report generation. 

More than just providing accounting services, FreshBooks also integrates with over 100 apps so that you can automate more work and gain some precious extra time. Here are some apps that FreshBooks integrates with:

• Gmail: you can turn your gmail contacts into FreshBooks clients and create and send invoices right from Gmail
• Shopify: sync your Shopify clients and orders to FreshBooks so that all your accounting information is in one place
• Dropbox: you can create new expenses from image files (receipts) imported from Dropbox

FreshBooks is also available as an app on your mobile, allowing you to run your business and keep track of your business’s finances anywhere and anytime. 

When you choose FreshBooks you can have the ease of mind that someone will support you along with every step of your journey. Whether you’re on their 30-days free trial or a new customer, you will be spending your first month with their support team. This will help the support team to gain a better understanding of your needs and serve you better in the future. 

Zoho Books

Zoho Books is an online software that manages your finances, automates business workflows and helps you work collectively across departments. 

Zoho Books has an extensive list of features which includes the basic accounting functions such as account receivables and payables, report generation, invoicing, time tracking to more advanced features such as inventory management, daily bank reconciliation and ability to process automatic payments. Zoho Books also has a mobile app for you to manage your finances wherever you go. 

Zoho Books also boasts a powerful API to help streamline your business. They partner with major payment gateways, POS Apps, Cloud Uploaders and other integrations. Some examples of frequently used integrations include Stripe, PayPal, G Suite and Office 365. 

Zoho Books runs a free webinar series and provides guides to help you get accustomed to their accounting software. Clients are also welcomed to mail any of their queries to their support staff. They also provide a free demo account or free 14-day trial for you to try out and determine if their software suits your needs.

Akaunting

Akaunting is an open source project with contributors from all over the world. From freelancers, new businesses to even established businesses, Akaunting is able to cater to all sorts of needs. 

You may be wondering what an open source project is? Well, it essentially means that the accounting software is transparent. The programming and codes are open for all the public to view. Individuals will be able to constantly scrutinise the software and test it. This is a great benefit as the many contributors of Akaunting will be able to quickly squash any bugs identified.

Much like the other softwares mentioned, Akaunting allows you to access your financials from any device instead of being confined to a single computer. You can also work on your finances simultaneously with other collaborators, with the option to also customise the access rights of your collaborators too. 

With the numerous worldwide contributors, it is no surprise that Akaunting boasts a wide range of features.From bookkeeping, customer management, generating detailed reports to even automating invoices and payments, Akaunting will definitely meet your needs. If their built-in features are not enough for you, they even have an app store for you to install additional functionalities and integration.

If you are afraid that it will be difficult to get started with Akaunting, Fret not, they have detailed guides that are readily available on their website to help you. You can also choose to either issue a ticket to get support from the developer of the app directly, or get dedicated support from the friendly staff on technical, installation and configuration issues within a time frame of 6 to 48 hours. Do note that you will have to pay for the dedicated support. 

Akaunting has 2 plans available, the free cloud plan with limited features and the premium cloud plan with more extensive features at a low cost of $36 per month. With the wide variety of features, worldwide contributors and various support channels, Akaunting is definitely one you should consider too. 

Conclusion

The key to choosing the right accounting software for your business is to do your research and ensure it meets your business needs. Check that the accounting software has the specific features and capabilities you’re looking for and arrange a demo or call to make sure you fully understand the software. 

With so many transactions a day for an online business, it will be tedious to manually keep track of everything every single day. The right accounting software can help improve your business efficiency, allow you to track the financial health of your business and to simplify work for you which enables you to focus on growing your online business.

If you are still unsure which accounting software is best suited for you, do contact us and we will help you access which accounting software best suits your needs. Web Imp is a Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) approved vendor for ecommerce. We can build your ecommerce website with 70% grant support along with advising which accounting software is most suitable for your needs and integrate it into your ecommerce store.