Every business is eventually going to need accounting software just to make things easier to track your expenses and income and also to speed up you processes.
I like most small businesses probably started off with word and excel spreadsheets, because you wanted to save some money while you built things up. BUT THERE IS AN EASIER WAY!
Yes, you can get free accounting software that will automatically enter in product descriptions and prices, apply discounts without having to pull put the calculator and even take online credit card payments without a website but directly from the Invoices you send out all for FREE.
In this article we’ll look at 3 popular and totally free options, along with a some of the best paid accounting software that you might be better off with if you are a larger business and want all the extra features.
When I went out looking for a free option I found the main problem was most had restrictions on how many invoices you can do, how many customers you can create, how many products you can add or not having an Estimate/Quoting option without moving up to the paid options. So these are the main things I was trying to find in the software and also to have the added bonus of accepting Credit card payments.
This used to be my #1 pick for free option, we used this ourselves for a while, but unfortunately they released an announcement recently to say they are going to be focusing on just the US and Canada customers and will stop supporting those outside this and you can’t connect bank accounts outside the above area’s.
It seems you can still sign up and If you have signed up previously you can still use it but there is no guarantee for how long, but they did offer a transfer to Zoho books with a free first year premium account.
Anyway if you are in the US or Canada then I would highly recommend this cloud accounting software for you.
It has pretty much everything most small businesses need to get started and are continuing to update and improve the experience.
You can also expand with them as you business grows and add other features like payroll this is where you start to pay. The say they are develping more add ons that will be paid options but the base accounting software will always be free.
Features:
One thing to note is that Wave uses a pay-per-use system for online payments by connecting Stripe, meaning that for your business to accept payment for invoices online, Stripe charges a base fee plus a percentage of the payment. But if you’re looking to simply keep track of the ins and outs without forking over any cash, Wave may be worth looking at.
This was one I skipped originally as it had too many restrictions unless you went to the paid option. But since Wave have transfered their customers outside US and Canada it seems they have created a free option thats very similar to Wave and very limited restrictions that shouldn’t really effect you as a small business.
So the only difference in features that I can see is:
Now this is an unusual one it has all the basic aspects of the 2 above except for the Estimates/Quoting, but this can be added with an addon that you just pay a once off ($50) and have unlimited updates and support for for it for a lifetime.
It’s fairly new and with 180,000 downloads, 80,000 cloud users, and 10,000 project contributors, according to the Akaunting website. It is available in almost 50 different languages.
Akaunting aims to remove the stigma of open source software being difficult to use, claiming to get users up and running and fully functional in less than five minutes. Users can download the main accounting core, which includes all the standard accounting features small businesses will need, and add optional features as app downloads. Some of these optional apps include contract management, documents management, white label customization, and some integrations are paid.
If you run into trouble, free support comes through extensive online documentation, and community forums and chat rooms. The project is also monetized through a paid, dedicated support service, starting at $99/month if you really need help and don’t mind spending to get it.
Core features include:
Want to see Akaunting in action? Check out this video:
This was great to start off with but realised after the trial period was over it did’nt allow me to save my items/products unless I went to a paid option at $15 per Month.
Apart from that, if you are happy to type in your items/Products and descriptions everytime, it has most of the main other features the others do and looks very similar.
The Only reason you would go to a paid option is for all the extra bells and whistles included, like payroll, integration with your eCommerce website, Kilometer tracking, Track GST & e-lodge BAS and multiple users with user restrictions.
There may be some other little features that can help with large businesses but thats just it unless you are a medium to large business I would stick to the free ones which some do offer these added extra included or on their paid options at a cheaper price.
