The 10 Best Accounting Software Programs for 2024 Compared

• Invoice Generator: Create professional-looking invoices in seconds, add your company’s logo and colors, personalize the email with the invoice link, and send it to your clients in seconds.
• Payment Flexibility: FreshBooks supports small businesses in taking credit cards (MasterCard, Visa, American Express) and ACH. It also sends payment due date reminders automatically, saving you time tracking down payments from clients.
• Expense Tracking: We enjoy the simplicity of FreshBooks expense tracking. This accounting software allows you to take receipt images, forward email receipts to your business accounts, and import expenses directly from your business bank account, eliminating the need for manual entry.
• Project Management: Keep your team in sync, easily manage contractors, and quickly exchange critical business files with clients, stakeholders, and team members.

FreshBooks provides four subscription tiers designed for business scalability. It charges based on the number of clients and uses.

• Lite: This plan is designed for freelancers or self-employed professionals who manage up to five clients.
• Plus: This plan suits professionals or business owners with an extensive client capacity.
• Premium: This plan is suitable for small business agencies with unlimited capacity for client management but with a few employees.
• Custom plan: This plan is ideal for small firms with few employees.

All FreshBooks plans include 100% security and customer support. However, you may have to pay for add-ons such as more team members, which cost $11/user/month, and payroll is charged at a customized rate for all membership tiers, starting at $40 plus $6/per person each month.

You can test the product for free for 30 days before making a financial commitment.

FreshBooks is the best small business accounting software thanks to it’s ease-of-use when it comes to basic accounting tasks, such as invoicing, expenditure tracking, and payment options.

• Inventory Management: Quickly categorize your inventory using critical information such as SKUs, cost, and available stock. For even more information, you can generate detailed inventory reports and restructure your inventory correctly.
• Reporting: Aggregate data from many places on the platform and use visuals to understand your business performance better. It also allows you to design custom report fields specific to your company.
• Automatic Payment Reminder: Automating payment reminders lets you keep your business organized while being professional with your customers. Zoho has automated this process to keep your clients informed, eliminating the need for a manual approach.
• Customization: For example, you can tailor the chart of accounts, invoices, and reports to your preferences. After you generate invoices from quotes in seconds, you can personalize and polish them with logos, brand colors, and fonts before sending them globally.
• Multi-currency Transactions Support: Zoho Books allows you to create invoices, bills, and other transactions in multiple currencies and automatically converts them based on the exchange rates you select.

Zoho Books’ pricing balances affordability and functionality. It offers a free plan for life and five premium plans.

• Free: This free plan is suitable for businesses with annual revenue of less than 50K USD. One limitation is that you can’t use Zoho Books’ add-on with it.
• Standard: This is a basic plan that supports three users, allows you to manage up to 5,000 invoices, accepts payment gateways and journal template creation, enables transaction period locking, and supports ten custom financial report generators.
• Professional: This plan is suitable for companies just beyond the startup stage. It supports five users and includes all the features in the Standard plan.
• Premium: Supports ten users, all the features in the Professional plan, vendor portal, budgeting, 50 custom reports, dedicated customer support
• Elite: For up to ten users, all the features in the Premium plan, advanced inventory control, unlimited custom reports, and multi-currency support
• Ultimate: Maximum 15 users, all the features in the Elite plan, analysis and tracking of key financial metrics, customized reports and dashboards, and collaboration features.

Zoho Books provides a 14-day free trial so you can test and see if it’s a suitable fit. Zoho only makes add-ons available to premium users.

You can purchase add-ons such as Advanced auto-scans, which are $8 for 50 monthly scans across all plans, and Additional users are available for $2.50 per month.

Small retailers can benefit from Zoho Books’ inexpensive pricing and feature-rich free plan.

• Bank Reconciliation: Bank reconciliation simplifies keeping account balances and bank statements up to date and ensures that each business activity is documented and accounted for.
• Inventory Management: As a sophisticated solution, Xero provides inventory handling with stock-level tracking, detailed inventory reports, and the option to add items to invoices with a single click.
• Payroll Management: Set up recurring monthly payments for your employees, send payments in batches, and even integrate third-party payment systems into the financial accounting software.
• Fraud Detection: Xero automatically checks every payment for fraud, allowing you to accept credit card payments without fear of scams or fraudulent charges.
• Multiple User Support: Unlike other online accounting software such as FreshBooks and Zoho, Xero allows several users to log in concurrently and access the platform without restrictions.
• Bank Integration: You can connect your business’s bank accounts to Xero to automate the entry of every bank transaction and keep track of every dollar moving in and out of your business.

Xero’s pricing plans ensure that your business accounting needs are met while offering opportunities for growth. Each plan is only accessible monthly, not annually.

• Starter: The Starter plan is designed for businesses with limited invoice needs. The plan allows you to send quotes and 20 invoices, reconcile bank transactions, and capture bills and receipts with Hubdoc, short-term cash flow, and business snapshots.
• Standard: This plan is for businesses with unlimited invoice transactions. It comes with unlimited invoices, quotes, bills, bulk transactions, and short-term cash flow.
• Premium: This plan also supports unlimited invoice creation and features everything in the Standard plan, plus the ability to use multiple currencies.

You can explore Xero’s features during the 30-day free trial.

Xero is ideal for firms that need collaboration among teammates or the services of several people to access accounting software.

• Custom Invoice Creation: QuickBooks lets you create personalized invoices, enter billable hours, and track each invoice in real-time.
• Tax Management: Automatic tax computations are completed each quarter, so you’ll know precisely how much to set aside. In addition, you will have all of the necessary documentation on hand, ensuring that you are well-prepared for tax filing.
• Project Profitability: Compare the cost of individual projects to their income. This allows you to examine the profit margins of all active projects at a glance and see which clients are making you the most revenue.
• Ecommerce Management: QuickBooks automatically imports data from your connected ecommerce store to ensure that your financial transactions are tracked and reported.

QuickBooks provides monthly pay-as-you-go pricing options in four tiers.

• Simple Start: This plan supports only one user and one sales channel connection, allowing you to manage invoices and payments, general reports, receipt capture, manage bills, deduct sales tax, and mileage tracking.
• Essentials: This plan supports three users and includes everything from the Simple Start plan, enhanced reports, multiple currencies, and employee time addition.
• Plus: Here, you can add five users and include all the Essential plan features, including inventory management, project profitability, and financial planning.
• Advanced: This is the highest plan, and it supports twenty-five users. It includes everything in the Plus plan plus fixed assets auto-tracking, data sync with Excel, workflow automation, data restoration, and custom access controls.

QuickBooks price plan supports no minimum contract period and plans that can be canceled anytime. Its price plans include free mobile apps, QuickBooks support, and app integrations.

While it doesn’t offer a free plan, it offers a 30-day free trial and 30 days of free Live Assisted Bookkeeping.

QuickBooks is a solid bookkeeping program for small business owners that want more insight into profit and spend magins.

• Free Audit: TurboTax provides free one-on-one audit help annually, so you’ll be fully prepared for an IRS audit.
• Deduction Finder: Compare over 350 tax deductions and credits to ensure you receive the maximum tax refund possible.
• Accurate Tax Calculation: You may be confident that your tax calculations will be 100% accurate and completed correctly. Otherwise, TurboTax will pay any applicable IRS penalties.
• Data Security: TurboTax implements security features such as multi-factor authentication, biometric support, auto email notifications, data encryption, and login activity.
• Expert Guidance: When you choose TurboTax Live Assisted Deluxe or TurboTax Live Full Service, you will be given a local tax expert who will provide you with unique insight tailored to your specific case. This expert will work with you to get every dollar you deserve and complete your taxes correctly.

Turbotax is a tax filing software that provides basic functionality for free. This means you may try out its interface and in-app features before committing to a membership because you only pay when you file.

• Do your own taxes – This plan is designed for individuals or solo businesses that can handle their taxes independently without external assistance from Turbotax. With this plan, you may get 100% accurate calculations with Intuit AI assistance, a minimum refund guarantee, and easy scan and upload.
• Assisted – This plan is available to people who need expert assistance to guide them as they file their taxes. It features everything in the previous tier, with expert approval, unlimited help from real tax experts, specialist review, and support.
• Full Service – This full expert service plan takes your hands off the taxing processes. It is suitable for realtors managing many properties and would love to focus on other business processes while experts manage their tax processes for them.

Turbotax pricing is not tied to a monthly subscription but is based on a pay-as-you-file process.

TurboTax is ideal for individuals and sole proprietors needing assistance filing their taxes correctly. Businesses that need more funding for an in-house accountant may use TurboTax experts to help them with their business tax processes.

• Professional Advice Support: Wave offers 1:1 sessions where experienced accountants can coach or do the job for you, so you’ll be in good hands if you choose this provider.
• Custom Branding: Create professional invoices with your brand logo and colors with Wave’s drag-and-drop functionality.
• Wave Mobile App: Easily upload invoices while on the go with free accounting apps using a sleek design.
• Unlimited Bookkeeping Records: Manually enter your bank transactions or link your bank account to Wave to streamline your bookkeeping procedure and ensure all information is available in one place.
• Dashboard and Reporting: You can easily access key reports, such as profit and loss statements, and learn more about your business’s financial health.

Wave offers a free accounting and invoicing feature and a paid plan that supports more.

Starter – This plan supports startups that only need basic accounting solutions. It features unlimited invoicing, bookkeeping, bills, on-the-go invoicing via the Wave mobile app, and cash flow management.

Pro – This advanced plan caters to growing businesses that want to go beyond basics and achieve more than invoicing while saving more time. It features all the Starter plan offers including the option to accept online payments at a discounted rate, auto-import bank transactions, digital capturing of unlimited receipts and track expenses, and automation of late payment reminders.

For both the free and paid plan, accepting online payment incurs charges starting at 2.9% + $0.60 per credit card transaction.

You can also get the Payroll add-on at $20 per month.

Wave is perfect for sole traders, freelancers, and small enterprises that want a basic accounting system with additional features such as invoicing and double-entry accounting support – for free.

• Numerous Templates: In addition to email templates, Bonsai offers a template for virtually every aspect of your business, including proposals, quotes, contracts, invoices, briefs, and tax forms.
• Built-in Time Tracker: It allows your staff to convert hours spent into invoices with a single click, saving your accountant hours comparing timesheets and confirming invoices for accuracy.
• Team Collaboration: Bonsai’s fully integrated project management allows you to invite collaborators to your projects, assign tasks, and communicate seamlessly.
• Bookkeeping: Tasks like spending tracking, tax projections, sales tax, and profit and loss tracking are automated to assure the accuracy of your bookkeeping.
• Client Management: Bonsai simplifies client management by organizing customer information, tracking contact history, and scheduling follow-up reminders, resulting in simple client interactions using the client portal.

Bonsai provides three pricing levels to meet various business demands. Its pricing model is based on feature differences.

• Starter: This plan is designed for freelancers and contractors just starting out. It features all templates, unlimited clients & projects, invoicing & payments, proposals & contracts, scheduling, tasks & time tracking, client CRM, forms & questionnaires, and expense tracking.
• Professional: This plan is suited for a growing business, and it includes everything in the Starter plan with branding, workflow automation, branded client portal, unlimited scheduling events, and integration with QuickBooks, Calendly, & Zapier.
• Business: This plan is suited for small businesses and agencies. It includes everything in the Professional plan plus resource planning & scheduling, profitability management, subcontractor management, and premium customer support.

There are two ways to get started with Bonsai for free: first, use its 7-day free trial, and second, take advantage of Bonsai’s first two months of free service when you sign up for a yearly subscription.

Bonsai is suitable for small enterprises that need basic company administration software for accounting, project, and customer management.

• Payroll Automation: It automatically calculates all deductibles, including taxes, insurance, and PTO, so you don’t have to spend a week each month double-checking every invoice to guarantee the salaries are exact.
• Sage Accountants Network: This is extremely useful for single entrepreneurs and startups that cannot afford to engage a full-time accountant but need to ensure that all financial aspects of their firm are handled.
• Multiple Payment Options: Sage makes it easy to be paid on time by providing a wide range of payment methods to your clients, including credit and debit cards, vouchers, and real-time online payments.
• Debtors Manager: Stay on top of late payments by conducting a thorough analysis of who owes you money, how much, and when.
• Advanced Inventory: After each transaction, your goods’ amount and actual worth are automatically computed. This reduces time spent manually updating and helps you avoid errors.

Sage offers two price options, which are based on the number of users and features.

• Accounting Start – This plan is suitable for solopreneurs who manage their business themselves, as this plan only allows one user access. The plan features the ability to work anywhere, quick invoice creation, and finance tracking.
• Accounting Standard – This plan is best for growing agencies that have team members or collaborators to ensure smooth business operations. This standard plan includes everything with the Start plan plus the ability to add up to 5 users, bookkeeping, VAT calculations, digital receipt capturing, and more flexibility.

Sage pricing, together with its features, is scalability-focused. However, big businesses may pay more extra fees to access advanced features as their team members increase.

Sage is best for growing businesses that need advanced inventory tracking functionalities with in-depth accounting solutions.

• Payment Flexibility: Melio allows you to pay and be paid precisely as you want. You or your clients can use any of the payment methods it accepts to make your preferred payment.
• Seamless Synchronization: You can connect accounting software to eliminate duplicate data entry and simplify reconciliation. Once there is integration, Melio will continue automatically updating vendors, bills, payments, and your accounting software.
• Permission Controls: You can assign roles and permissions for your team and digitize your approval workflow.
• Payment Security: Melio not only makes payments more manageable for your clients but also provides payment protection. It can help avoid bounced checks, chargebacks, forgeries, and ACH returns.
• Unlimited Users: Melio is specifically intended to manage payments and allows unlimited users to access a single account. This facilitates easy team cooperation for productivity.

Melio is free to use and offers transparent transaction fees. However, Melio charges you for each transaction, depending on the transaction option.

See the list below for Melio’s transaction charges:

• Mail check — $1.50 (first two are free)
• Pay by card — $2.9%
• Instant transfer — 1.5% (up to $50)
• Fast ACH bank transfer — $1% (up to $30)
• Fast check — $20
• International payments — $20 (flat fee)

Melio is a great option for small business owners who work with a handful of clients who rely on ACH Bank transfer as their payment method, as Melio supports free bank transfers.

• Automation: Automate the menial, repetitive accounts payable tasks, such as creating new journal entries or reconciling account statements.
• Fixed Asset Management: Easily manage accounts payable and control the full lifecycle of depreciating and non-depreciating assets while eliminating the need for manually entering everything in spreadsheets.
• Multiple Payment Support: NetSuite supports a variety of bank payments and payment processing solutions, making it easy to invoice your clients for the completed work and reduce the waiting times for outstanding invoices.
• Reporting & Analytics: NetSuite provides real-time data to see and monitor your business’s financial performance across all busines functions. The reports and analytics make it easy for you to get the data you need to make quick decisions.
• Intuitive UI: Everything is neatly organized in a clean, slightly dated UI, so you’ll have real-time access to all the data you need to make informed business decisions and manage your cash flow.

Oracle NetSuite charges its services based on your business-specific needs. Your total annual subscription includes the main platform, optional modules, and the number of users.

In addition, you will need to start with a one-time implementation which comes at a fee. You can contact Oracle NetSuite’s sales team to understand the cost of maintaining your business and start enjoying its feature-rich services.

As a comprehensive enterprise resource planning tool, NetSuite is a solid choice for enterprise businesses seeking accounting software that can support their business with other business operation tools and also support scalability.

• Manages outgoing payments to vendors and incoming payments from customers.
• Automates invoice creation, sending, and tracking.
• Tracks outstanding receivables and payables, aiding in cash flow management.
• Offers payment reminders and aging reports to ensure timely collections and payments.

• Automates calculation of employee wages, including deductions and benefits.
• Ensures compliance with tax regulations and labor laws.
• Generates pay stubs, tax forms, and direct deposit files.
• Tracks employee hours, overtime, and leave balances.

• Produces essential financial statements such as income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
• Provides customizable reports for detailed financial analysis.
• Offers real-time insights into financial health and performance.
• Supports audit trails and compliance reporting, aiding in regulatory adherence.

General accounting software – This type of accounting software handles the basics of business finance management, such as expense and income tracking and account balancing.

Payroll accounting software – The payroll accounting software handles tracking of employee paychecks and taxes.

Inventory management software – Sage is an example of an accounting software with strong features in Inventory management. Product-focused businesses usually need accounting software with strength in inventory management to help them track stock counts in real time.

Invoicing accounting software – This type makes creating and sending professional invoices easy and may support unlimited invoicing. This software suits service-based businesses focusing more on invoicing than other finance activities. Wave is a good example of an invoicing accounting software.