Choosing the Right Small Business Accounting Software

Accounting software makes it easier for you to track your business's financial health and monitor the money moving in and out of your accounts. It can create invoices, track expenses and generate a variety of reports that help you analyze your business's performance from various angles. Many applications can also help you track your bills and manage your inventory or projects.

Choosing accounting software can be challenging. Each program includes a different set of features, and most offer multiple pricing plans to choose from, which also vary by feature, number of users, or other factors. Here are three items to keep in mind when selecting accounting software for your business:

Costs. Would you prefer inexpensive, basic accounting software or an application that costs more but includes extra features?

Usability. How many users need to access the software? Do you prefer a cloud-based system you can access anywhere or desktop software? Do you need it to have a mobile app?

Features. What do you need the accounting software program to do? Do you need both accounts receivable and accounts payable tools? Which reports do you need it to generate? Do you need it to track inventory? Do you need it to include ancillary services, like time tracking, project management and payroll?

How much does accounting software cost?

Accounting software varies in cost, depending on the number of features included, the number of users supported and other such factors. Most accounting software companies offer cloud-based software as a service rather than software licenses, and charge a monthly subscription fee.

You can usually choose from multiple plans, with paid packages typically ranging from $10 to $40 per month, though high-end programs cost much more. If you're willing to pay for the software annually rather than monthly, discounted rates are often available.

More expensive plans often include advanced features such as expense tracking, sales tracking, recurring invoices, automatic past-due billing, team functionalities, payroll services, advanced reporting capabilities, inventory tracking and purchase ordering. Many accounting software companies offer integrations to augment the software's capabilities or to connect it to another business program, though often at an additional cost.

Several companies offer a free version of their accounting software, though these usually have either basic features or limit the number of users, clients or transactions. Some free accounting software providers make their money from the paid add-on services they offer. These programs are useful if your business is very small or if you want to take the software for a longer test run than the trial period allows.



Source: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com
Image Credit: Rawpixel/Shutterstock

Theresa Todman, Managing Partner/CEO of B&M Financial Management Services, LLC . Theresa works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to assist them with financial management and creating organized systems and procedures. She specializes in bookkeeping, accounting, QuickBooks solutions, small business tax issues and consulting.

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