Best Accounting Software for Your Business

What is Accounting Software?

Accounting software helps accountants & bookkeepers record and report financial transactions. Invoicing, general ledger reconciliation accounts payable (AP), and accounts receivable (AR) are among the recurring processes of business accounting software. Investing in an accounting system can help you streamline and automate business various functional processes, improving operational efficiency and ensuring accurate records. Accounting software can come with cutting-edge features like the depreciation of specified assets and multi-currency support, depending on its size.

Who Uses Accounting Software?

A company's accounting department varies in size depending on the size of its company and the complexity of its operations, and accountants, controllers, chief financial officers (CFOs), and other accounting department members use accounting software. 

The accounting department can include one person responsible for everything or many employees accountable for a specific financial operation, including AP, AR, cash management, or expenses.

• Accountants

Financial reporting is done by accountants using the latest accounting software, which includes forecasting, profit and loss statements, and cash flow statements.

• Accounting Corporations

External accountants may be required to use the software of the customer or their software to help clients with their finances. Accounting firms manage finances for their customers.

• Managers/CFOs

Using accounting software, executives ensure that controls are built into how data is compiled, assess the company's financial position, and ensure that rules are built into their system. Most executives require access to financial reports and dashboards but rarely handle transactions or other accounting tasks.

What are the Types of Accounting Software?

There are various types of accounting software available in the market that can meet diverse organizational requirements. Below are some of the types of accounting systems:

Cloud VS. On-Premises

• Cloud

Users can pay on a usage-based basis for cloud-based solutions since they are easy to implement, do not require hardware investments, and don't require hardware investments.

Cloud tools often find it difficult to provide robust offline functionality that allows users to access accounts and complete actions without connecting to the internet. Because cloud accounting is cheaper, it is usually the best option for small businesses.

• On-Premises

Systems on-premises might be client-server tools, which require each user to install software, or they might be browser-based. Investing in hardware and IT support is required for on-premises tools, which offer additional security and can usually be customized without vendor involvement.

Based on the size of the company

A small business accounting team will typically look for a tool that offers a low-cost, easy-to-use interface that can handle billing and invoices. Most of these services are cloud-based and have mobile phone apps, offering convenience to the small business owner despite their simple, standard bookkeeping and financial reporting capabilities.

A large company needs software that can handle many complex accounts with input from multiple roles. Due to higher volumes and greater complexity, reconciliation measures should be more rigorous. Larger companies can also ensure the integrity of accounts maintained by various employees by implementing audit trails and security measures.

Suite VS. Best of Breed

There are many modules within suite systems for accounting, inventory management, expense management, time management, payroll, etc., which make reconciliations between these accounts simple and automated. In addition, more specialized companies may benefit more from a system that caters to their needs.

For example, a service provider may only need an accounting system that manages expenses; a consulting firm may only need an accounting system that includes time-tracking information.

Based on the industry

Buyers must determine if a product is specialized in meeting their industry's standards or is versatile enough to be customized to meet their needs since tax codes, regulations, and best practices differ by sector. Companies of all sizes can be affected by this, whether small businesses or established companies.

What are the Benefits of Accounting Software?

Accounting software comes packed with a host of benefits that can give your firm a distinct competitive advantage. Some of the most significant benefits of accounting software include:

1. Saves time

Accounting solution takes some time to get up and run. Still, once you do, they will save you hours of manual accounting by automating previously time-consuming manual processes. Also, it will save you hundreds of hours by taking over time-consuming manual bookkeeping and accounting processes

2. Generates financial reports quickly

You can easily download your Earnings Statement, Balance Sheet, etc., which contains key insights such as a month, quarter, or year's income and expenditures with the click of a button in accounting software platforms.

3. Promotes data accuracy

Whenever you make changes to your records, you don't have to update multiple cells in multiple sheets manually. Instead, accounting software will automatically update your financial statements and reports to reflect any changes you make to keep your data error-free.

4. Simplifies payroll

Even though you may need a technical payroll system at some moment, many small businesses use accounting software to keep track of their payrolls. In addition, using accounting software lets you automate worker payroll, estimate healthcare, and insurance contributions, and figure payroll taxes.

What are the Features of Accounting Software?

1. Financial Reporting

You can generate financial reports with any accounting program, but some programs have more basic features than others, and some require you to pay more for advanced features.

If you need precise financial reports, you’ll want to guarantee they’re present in the software application and your chosen plan. Detailed reports can assist you in making informed business decisions based on your financial data.

2. Bank Feed

This feature lets you connect your business bank and credit card accounts to receive daily transaction updates. Many people like this feature because it saves them time by not uploading transactions manually. It also lets you see a daily overview of your accounts rather than just monthly.

3. Recurring Invoices

Using this feature, you can schedule recurring charges, such as subscriptions, to be automatically billed. In addition, you can set how frequently invoices are sent, such as every day, each week, monthly, or annually, and specify an end date.

4. Integrations

It saves you a lot of time to connect your accounting software to different programs because it eliminates the need to move data between them manually. Among the popular integrations available with accounting software are payroll, payment processing, point-of-sale (POS) systems, and customer relationship management (CRM).

How to Buy Accounting Software?

Compare Accounting Software Products

Depending on the industry and the buyer's needs, the buyer might want to create a long list of business software designed to assist businesses in the particular industry, such as retail, manufacturing, restaurants, etc. For example, platforms are built explicitly for companies operating in retail, manufacturers, and restaurants and for many different types of commercial organizations.

Accounting software built for smaller businesses is often easier to use but lacks advanced features in enterprise software. After reviewing the software on the longlist, the buyer can narrow down this list based on budget. It is readily available to suit all budgets, and some general accounting applications can be downloaded for free or purchased off the shelf at a lower price.

Selection of Accounting Software

Negotiating a contract is an important part of any business relationship. Whether it is about performance protection, security protection, or just ensuring that both parties agree on what they want from each other, gathering all the relevant information is essential before signing off on the deal.

Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses

Here is a list of accounting software in India for your business:

1. Sunrise

Invoicing, recurring invoices, costs, estimates, and much more are all possible with Sunrise, the most used accounting software in India for lone entrepreneurs and small companies. In addition, a new feature called Capital Health has recently been added to Sunrise, which improves the account balance visualization, and other accounting categories improvements have also been made to the app.

Features

• Tax & Cash Management
• Spend Management
• Purchasing & Multi-Currency
• General Ledger
• Expense Tracking

2. Zoho Books

Zoho Books is the cloud accounting solution for growing businesses. With Zoho Books, you can simplify company transactions, track revenue and costs, automate business operations, and connect with other enterprise systems, such as CRMs and inventories.

Using automation features such as reminders for payments, scheduling reports, and setting triggers for certain workflows, business owners can save a lot of time from repetitive bookkeeping tasks.

Features

• Customizable Invoice Templates
• Online payments & Transaction approval
• Recurring expenses
• Inventory tracking
• Schedule & Customize reports

3. Microsoft Dynamics 365

As a comprehensive business administration solution, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central links small and midsize businesses' finance, sales, and operations teams to a single, user-friendly application, enabling them to accelerate deployment and adoption with a step-by-step onboarding process, contextual next-best action intelligence, and interoperability with Microsoft 365 applications.

Features

• Finance management 
• Purchasing and payables
• Inventory management
• Service management
• Supply planning and availability

4. Wave

Using Wave Accounting, businesses can streamline bookkeeping by invoicing, billing, tracking payments, managing payroll, processing credit cards, and scanning receipts. In addition, to improve efficiency and accuracy in bookkeeping, businesses can manage all bank account and credit card information in real time with Wave's bank reconciliation tools.

Features

• Invoicing
• Billing & payment tracking
• Payroll management
• Credit card processing
• Receipt scanning

5. myBillBook

myBillBook is amongst the top 10 accounting software in India. A company owner can set up role-based approval protocols for different data users using myBillBook's data security tools. In addition, the log management tools on myBillBook provide executives with real-time visibility into everyday workforce movement. Experts can also monitor and track production processes to identify bottlenecks.

Features

• GST Invoicing/Billing
• Analyze business reports
• Customized bills and invoices
• Flexible printing options
• Barcode scanning

6. Vyapar

One of the best accounting software in India, Vyapar, is used to manage a company's day-to-day business activities. A few of the features of Vyapar are easy and fast billing, bar-code generation, free transaction messages, payment mode selections, printing and sharing invoices, etc. Some include other accounting categories such as billing, accounting, inventory management, online sales management, etc.

Features

• Invoice History & Creation
• General Ledger
• Billing & Invoicing
• Financial Reporting
• Income & Balance Sheet

7. NetSuite

Thousands of organizations use NetSuite to automate key processes and gain real-time visibility into operations and financial performance by automating core processes. Organizing accounting, goods, production, supply chain, and warehouse processes are more comfortable with a single, integrated suite of applications.

Features

• General Ledger 
• Cash Management 
• Accounts Receivable & Payable
• Tax Management 
• Fixed Assets Management 

8. Xero

A double-entry accounting solution for small businesses, Xero supports sales, assets, accounts, costs, inventory, and payroll. In addition to providing great reports and cutting-edge analytics, Xero also offers tools to track projects. As part of its automation processes and improved connectivity with financial websites, it makes good use of artificial intelligence.

Features

• Send invoices
• Bank reconciliation
• Pay bills & claim expenses
• Accept payments & Track projects 
• GST returns

9. AlignBooks

One of the best accounting software in India, AlignBooks aspires to help CAs and enterprises of all sizes. With AlignBooks, you can save money on LAN infrastructure, anti-virus protection, and data backups compared to other tools.

In addition, for customers who want to maintain multiple company accounts simultaneously, the offline version provides a smart solution.

Features

• Inventory management
• Expense tracking
• GST invoice generation 
• Payment tracking
• General ledger

10. Sap ERP

SAP ERP Financials Management application provides a general ledger, journal entries, cost accounting, budget management, financial reporting, multi-currency support, and many other features. SAP ERP is a fully functional ERP solution that enables tracking, management, analytics, reporting, compliance, and collaboration.

Features

• Accounting 
• Purchasing and Inventory Control
• Fixed asset management
• Banking and reconciliation
• Financial reporting and analysis

11. BlackLine

BlackLine automates workflows, delivers a safe, centralized workspace for period-end accounting movements, and facilitates financial reporting so that accounting and finance can handle and control the end-to-end financial close process. As a result, teams can focus on analyzing discrepancies and identifying new ways to create value for the organization.

Features

• AR intelligence
• Cash application
• Collections management
• Credit & risk management
• Disputes & deductions

12. Freshbooks

FreshBooks is a small business accounting software product that is well-suited to freelancers and independent contractors. With its powerful invoicing feature and customizable invoicing, it stands out from the competition. Invoices are sent on the go, receipts are scanned, and mileage is tracked; inventory is tracked for billable items; no double-entry accounting reports are included in the least expensive plan.

Features

• Invoicing
• Time and expense tracking
• Simple project management 
• Accounting applications 
• Accurate Payroll Information

13. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is one of the best accounting software for small businesses. Upon completing the 30-day free trial, monthly subscription plans start at $25 per month and offer more advanced features such as inventory management, time tracking, more users, and cash flow.

Features

• Cloud Accounting 
• Invoicing 
• Online Banking 
• Cash Flow Management 
• Time Tracking 

14. TallyPrime

Business management software TallyPrime enables businesses to manage all business functions through a single application, including invoicing, accounting, inventory, banking, cash flow, credit management, taxation, payroll, and cost management.

With TallyPrime, you can manage multiple business functions in an integrated manner, eliminating complexity and allowing you to focus on growing your business.

Features

• Invoicing & Accounting 
• Inventory Management
• Insightful Business Reports
• GST/ Taxation
• Credit and Cash Flow Management

15. Sap Business One

SAP Business One is an incorporated enterprise management solution for small and medium-sized businesses. You can access the SAP Business One software in the cloud or on-premises.

You can streamline and manage your vital business processes with SAP Business One in one integrated package. As a result, you can monitor every aspect of your business more effectively and make better decisions. This includes finances, customer relationships, warehousing, reporting, and purchasing.

Features

• Purchasing and Inventory Control 
• Procurement 
• Master data management
• Warehouse and accounting integration
• Accounts payable

16. odoo ERP

Open-source, Odoo software includes hundreds of expertly designed business applications that are fully integrated, customizable and open-source. Among Odoo's intuitive database options are CRM, Sales, Projects, Manufacturing, Inventory, and Accounting, to name a few.

As a result, Odoo is a comprehensive software package that meets the needs of all businesses, regardless of size (or budget).

Features

• Accounts Receivable
• Clean customer invoices
• Credit Card Payments
• Control supplier bills
• Automate bank feeds

17. Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a flexible business accounting software with excellent accounting abilities for hundreds of companies worldwide. Sage Intacct offers lots of core accounting applications, such as a general ledger, AP, AR, cash management, etc., to any accounting department or finance team,

Features

• Dynamic Allocations
• Revenue Recognition
• Multi-Entity and Global Consolidations
• Vendor Payment Services
• Spend & Inventory Management

18. FreeAgent

FreeAgent is a highly regarded online accounting tool exclusively for SMBs, independent contractors, and bookkeepers. FreeAgent helps thousands of freelancers and businesses keep track of their finances.

FreeAgent aids business owners in handling day-to-day administrative tasks, such as controlling spending, managing RTI-compliant payroll, and time tracking, as well as preparing and sending invoices and keeping track of cash flow.

Features

• Custom invoices
• Profit and loss statements
• Automated bank feeds
• Offers PayPal, Stripe, and GoCardless Integrations
• Timesheet reporting