Freelancers who start with just a handful of clients but are interested in growing will find Xero’s accounting software a good long-term option. Wave also features strong reporting features as compared to other accounting products designed for freelancers and contractors. An important feature of QuickBooks Self-Employed is its strong tax support.

accountant for independent contractor connections and reconciliations are easy to set up and use. Inventory management is a nice feature for those who need it. Xero also includes customizable invoice templates, along with an automatic invoice reminders feature, but users report that the software doesn’t handle customer deposits or partially-paid invoices well. QuickBooks Self-Employed allows for income and expense tracking, with the ability to mark a transaction as business or personal, easily separating the two. While this feature is not unique to QuickBooks Self-Employed, the ease with which QuickBooks Self-Employed manages this via a quick click of a button pushes this software nearly to the top of the list.

Software for Bookkeeping and Accounting

The Early plan limits usage and only allows entry for 20 invoices or quotes and five bills per month. This limited plan may be suitable for a micro-business with high-ticket transactions, but only a few per month, such as a consulting or small service provider. Both the Growing and Established plans offer unlimited invoices and bills. The only difference between the two is that the Established plan has additional features like multi-currency, expense management, and project costing. All three plans offer Hubdoc, a bill and receipt capture solution. Intuit’s QuickBooks Online has been one of the most common accounting software programs used by small businesses and their bookkeeping and tax professionals.

FreshBooks offers this automated tracking feature on its iOS app, too. If you bill for time, a lot of that work may occur out of the office. Instead of scribbling notes or simply trying to remember, you can create time entries on your smartphone wherever you are. Other services and apps can help you track time, but if you choose an accounting website whose time tracking capabilities meet your needs, that’s one less app or service to maintain—and pay for. Some offer timers and timesheets, but most at least allow you to create time-based records and bill your customers for your services. Some of these apps offer interesting bonus features—see the Mileage Tracking section below for one example. You may not be able to do absolutely everything that you can do on the desktop site, but the apps’ features should serve you well when you’re out and about.

Why QuickBooks

They can pay with a credit card or PayPal account and send a pre-determined amount. Before you can even begin to think about filing taxes, you’ll need proper accounting of every expense and wage you’ve had for the year . You don’t need a degree or even much experience to make these options work for you.

• Other tax features, like quarterly tax estimates and tax date reminders, ensure you’re ready for tax time.
• Salesforce CPQ speeds up the contracting and proposal processes with the proposal generator, letting you create branded proposals.
• This is the one-stop-shop for accounting and tax in one place.
• The chart of accounts is limited to 15 accounts, so it’s not a great choice for a freelancer needing to track expenses at a more granular level.
• Even the smallest of businesses need to keep themselves and their customers safe.
• Zoho made our pick as best accounting software for part-time contractors because its basic, free version provides everything most contractors will need–all at no cost.

For example, a freelancer wouldn’t need the same features as a restaurant owner. Here are our picks for the top small business accounting software programs. FreshBooks accounting software makes remittances painless by always knowing the sales taxes you’ve paid and collected in any period. FreshBooks accounting software makes it easy to know exactly how your business is performing. With straightforward reports, your success will never be a mystery. Your dashboard shows you, at-a-glance, where you stand so you know where to focus and can run your business like the boss you are. Plus, FreshBooks accounting software will crunch the numbers for you so you’ll be confident when tax time rolls around.