Which Tools are Most Useful for Accountants?

Accounting professionals, financial managers, and bookkeepers all use some type of tool to help automate repetitive tasks and reduce human error. It’s like getting productivity and collaboration tools for small businesses, except that there are solutions that are dedicated to crunching the numbers and making informed decisions.

We understand that there’s a handful of accounting solutions to choose from, making it difficult to find the one that works best for the business. That’s why in this article, we’ll help you choose among the most in-demand tools that accountants and other finance professionals recommend to their clients and their peers.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks is an intuitive accounting software used by many accounting professionals because of its simplicity. The good thing about it is, you don’t necessarily have to have any accounting background for you to understand how it works.

In terms of price, FreshBooks’ cheapest version called Lite is available for only $6 per month where you can bill up to five clients. This model is best for solo entrepreneurs and accounting professionals who just started their career. But if you’re servicing more clients and you want to enjoy over-the-top functionalities such as sending unlimited invoices to multiple clients, you can sign-up for its Premium Plan.

Xero

If you’re part of a small business and you want to reconcile all your bank accounts in one place, Xero is the best accounting solution for you. Xero allows you to take a look at all your financials through its smart dashboard, which is available both on its mobile app and desktop platform.

Starting at only $20 per month, you can already personalize your financial reports and invoices, prepare payroll, and pay your company’s expenses. What’s more, this tool allows your team to simultaneously work on different accounting tasks at any given time. Its multiple login feature lets you finish more tasks with your peers at the same time.

To date, Xero has more than two million global subscribers--and the number keeps growing every single day.

QuickBooks Online

Most self-employed businesses use QuickBooks online because it allows you to do everything you need without complicated functionalities. You can track your income and expenses, customize invoices, create reports in time for tax season, and record all receipts through your mobile phone. More importantly, QuickBooks Online offers bank-standard security so you won’t have to worry about cybercriminals snooping and stealing your data when you’re not looking. And should you encounter any problems, the tool also offers 24/7 customer service to respond to you anytime you need help.

What’s great about it is, you can integrate it with Paypal, Shopify and Square, empowering you to crunch the numbers from various sources. This is why about five million people are already using QuickBooks Online even though it's relatively pricier than its counterparts. The value it brings to your business is definitely worth the price.

Zoho Books

Want to automate your business workflows? How about collaborate with your team members? Is inventory tracking important for you? If you answered ‘yes’ to all these questions, then Zoho Books is the right accounting software for you.

Zoho Books allows you to designate roles to your colleagues, accountants and bookkeepers so they can log time, view reports or manage accounts. It’s very useful for companies who need to manage and track their inventory, as well as organize their goods by writing critical information such as SKUs, costs, stock-on-hand, and price.

Zoho Books has more than 40 collaboration applications that will allow you to add more users, perform auto scans, create custom domains and more. More importantly, this tool allows you to toggle automated payment reminders for clients who need to pay you on a specific day.

Wave Financial

Last but not least is Wave, which is an award-winning, fully integrated accounting and business platform. Wave allows you to create invoices and scan receipts through any device, helping you organize everything you need in one place.

Wave accounting is seamless in such a way that it creates all the financial reports you need to make strategic business decisions. You can prepare your profit and loss statements, cash flow, balance sheets, sales taxes, general ledgers, accounts payable and receivable, and vendor purchases in just a few clicks.

More importantly, Wave has been recognized for its security features. It is safe for users with large data storage requirements because its servers are protected by 256-bit SSL encryption. The company also passed the Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) Level 1 compliance, which means that Wave is capable of carrying more than six million Mastercard or Visa transactions annually in the most secure fashion.

Still confused? Choosing the right accounting tool for your business is not easy especially when there are pools of options out there. What you have to do is identify what your business needs and the budget you have then go from there.