Accounting is not everyone’s cup of tea. It is a challenging task which involves bookkeeping, calculating, procurement, and generating invoices. To master the art of it, an accountant has to embrace the accounting basics to achieve the desired results.
But you can not deny the inevitable that is human error — one of the primary reasons to bring the accounting automation process into play.
Gone are the days when accounting books were maintained on paper.
For every company, including small businesses, accounting software is the core of its success.
An accounting software solution records and processes all financial transactions, acting as an accounting information system. It drastically reduces the potential for human errors and allows you to access critical information in just a few clicks.
However, choosing the right business accounting software from a never-ending list of vendors is a tedious task. But fret not, this article will give you quick business accounting software selection and implementation tips to help you evaluate.
How to Choose Accounting Software?
Whether it is handled by a sole accountant or a team of CFO, a business software should easily let users access and analyze data, manage efficient budget processes, ensure regulatory compliance, and distribute financial reports.
Here are the following factors to consider:
i. Data Accuracy and Security
The information and business data generated by the system must be precise and secure.
Look for solutions that offer high-level security such as two-way authentication sign-in, admin-based control, and more. It will protect your data from falling into the wrong hands and keep your important business information confidential.
Besides, the system security level should be strong enough to not fall into the hands of hackers easily.
Always enquire where the data is stored and who has access to those data.
ii. User Interface and Complexity
The UI/UX design plays a significant role in choosing the accounting system for small businesses.
The main purpose of online accounting software is to make the whole process of maintaining and accessing data easy. The system should have a well-designed interface with easy navigation so that your employees can access it even without much technical knowledge.
In other words, go for the system that has a clean interface, allowing you to focus on the important task while reducing the learning curve.
iii. Functionalities Requirements
Make a list of all the essential features you need in your small business accounting software. You don’t want to burden the system with unnecessary features that will only slow down your process and cost you extra than required.
Some of the features to look at —
- Track expenses and reimbursements
- Maintain account payable and receivable
- Create journal and ledger account
- Create and manage tax
- Ensure tax statutory compliance
- Support for multi-currency transactions, & much more.
iv. Scalability
You may start your business small, but you aim to grow your business with time. Without realizing this, most businesses buy an application that suits their needs at the time of purchase.
But later, when the business starts to grow, the accounting system fails to accommodate more users and features alongside. Thus, it requires them to switch to a completely new solution that can be a painful process. Plus, it’s a waste of time and money.
So select a small business accounting software that scales with your business. You will find vendors that offer entry-level as well ad feature-rich versions for you to upgrade to once you start growing.
13 Best Accounting Automation Software
1. myBillBook
myBillBook is a simple-to-use GST billing & accounting software designed to help small businesses manage their day-to-day business operations using mobile or desktop. No prior accounting knowledge is needed to use this accounting software. You can create bills, maintain stock, track account payables/receivables, record expenses, track cash & bank balance, etc.
Features:
- Provides a secure platform for SMB owners to record day-to-day transactions & track business performance on the go
- Create customized & professional GST & non-GST bills, record purchases & expenses, maintain stock and manage payables/ receivables directly from mobile phones or computers
- Sends automated payment reminders to customers & help businesses collect payments faster
- Tracks & manages inventory using features like stock adjustment, low stock reminders, etc.
- Helps SMBs to take strategic decisions using 10+ business reports like GST reports, P&L reports, party ledger, etc.
- Available in 4 languages – English, Hindi, Gujarati & Tamil
- Get 24*7 support for queries related to the app functionality via chat, call, or WhatsApp
- 100% safe & secure environment. All the transactions are encrypted and stored in best-in-class secure cloud servers
2. TallyPrime
TallyPrime is the leading and best accounting automation software available in the market. From accounting to inventory management from banking to payroll, this automated accounting system is well-versed with everything. It’s comprehensive, yet straightforward architecture makes it wieldy.
Features:
- Thorough control over bookkeeping that comprises of accounting, payroll, and inventory management.
- GST-enabled invoicing for dealers
- Manages inventory and product databases
- Manage and generate electronic bills as per the business requirement
- Files all kind of GSTR precisely
- Manages assets, keep track of sales, and ensures account reconciliation
- Excellent customer support with a live chat feature
3. ZOHO Books
ZOHO Books is the smartest automated bookkeeping software application available in the market to automate your accounting workflow and manage back-office operations. You can readily access this accounting automation software on iOS, Android, and Windows.
Features:
- Pre-integrated with other Zoho applications like expenses, subscriptions, and CRM to eliminate any duplicate entries.
- Generates and sends professional invoices
- Administers the expenses and inventory in real-time
- Manages financial documents, performs account reconciliation and generates profit/loss statement
- Automated follow-ups to the clients for delayed payments
- Banking integration to track the cash flow in real-time
- Multi-linguistic and multi-currency support for extensive reach
4. EzyRokad
EzyRokad is an easy-to-use accounting automation tools. It has been designed to fulfill the requirements of business owners who have no idea about DR/CR accounting & GST. Moreover, it can be customized to serve 25+ trades.
EzyRokad is a 3-page software and sales purchase tool. It can also minimize the necessity of after-sales support. You can complete your daily accounting work with EzyRokad in just 5 mins and get reports and balance sheets in a single click.
Features
- Handle multiple customers on a single system
- Issue items in challan and convert them into bills
- Auto production of finished goods & by-products
- Convert sale order into bills
- Auto interest & TDS calculation
5. HDPOS Smart Accounts and Billing
HDPOS Smart Accounts and Billing is a boon to small and mid-sized businesses. It can ardently control the entire business operation from a single window or multiple terminals. This feature-loaded accounting automation software can manage various tasks simultaneously, like tracking employees, orders, transactions, and many more.
Features:
- Inventory management to keep track of stocks for transfers, replenishment, audit, etc.
- Account management to monitor daily transactions, collection, data entry, tax management, and credit limits
- Offers fast and precise billing
- Dispenses discount, multiple price limits, exclusive offers
- Accepts payment through different modes like cash, card, credit, bank transfers, and many more
6. Saral Accounts
Saral account is an intelligent automated accounting system that can help you to generate all your financial reports in just one click. It has an intuitive dashboard to provide insights on stock management, cash management, and material workflow.
Features:
- GST-compliant accounting for account books and financial statement
- Creates and manages service, bulk service, and sub-service invoices
- Insightful reports with SMS & email notifications and consumer service facility
- Generates all kinds of GSTR and electronic ledgers for GSTN
- Generates and sends eWay bill in a single click
- Keeps track of the complete process from manufacturing to procurement to dispatch
- Integrated mobile application for remote monitoring of the entire business operation and importing data from any source
7. Vyapar – Accounting & Invoicing
Vyapar is a GST-enabled accounting automation tools and inventory management system. The learning curve ability of the software enables anyone with a non-tech and no accounting background to operate it smoothly. It provides a rpa in finance and accounting, streamlining all the bookkeeping operations and providing detailed business insights.
Features:
- Unburdens you from the struggles of additional CESS, manual billing, and warehouse & product management
- Enables automation of accounting process by tracking cashflow, cheques, stock value, and sending timely reminders
- Integrated digital platforms like Whatsapp, email, SMS to share bills, and invoices.
- Evaluation of business performance by creating a profit/loss report on a daily/monthly/yearly basis
8. MARG ERP 9+ Accounting Software
MARG ERP 9+ is an award-winning application that predominantly contributes to the automation of the accounting process and inventory management. Acclaimed as the fastest and advanced rpa in finance and accounting, it takes care of the entire business operation from start to end.
Features:
- Generates detailed invoices as per the business requirements
- File your returns directly with this automated accounting online
- It avails auto bank reconciliation facility with hundreds of bank
- It creates an insightful report on the purchase, sales, accounting, and inventory.
- Barcode management to centralize and track the products quickly and accurately
- It provides you with cashier management and a home delivery facility to entitle you with absolute control over your business
9. MProfit for Accounting
Get automated accounting online with MProfit and obtain detailed portfolio insights. It has a powerful and user-friendly interface that provides insights on investment portfolios for you and your clients. This automated accounting system is easily accessible across Android, iOS, Desktop, and Web devices.
Features:
- Enables you to import bank statements and contract notes from thousands of sources
- Allows you to manage your assets, stocks, products, and finances
- Generates detailed reports on income tax, profit & loss, and balance sheet
- Simplified automation of accounting process and auto-generated vouchers
10. ProfitBooks
This automated bookkeeping software helps you in administering the stock purchases and fulfillment of the sales orders. The sole purpose of this automated accounting system is to increase the volume of your orders. With ProfitBooks, you can manage your inventory and make your business operation more systematic.
Features:
- Monitor and record the movement of stock among warehouses, products available, goods running out of stock, and refilled stock
- Enables one-click notification to the vendor about the purchase
- Multi-currency support for hassle-free cashflow
- Track expenditures and transaction from the beginning, i.e., production till the end, i.e., dispatch to streamline account reconciliation
11. Busy Accounting Software
Busy performs accounting automation with par excellence and proficiency. The rpa in finance and accounting offered by it aids you to perform complex accounting operations in minutes. This integrated platform is viable for all kinds of businesses and makes automated accounting online seamless.
Features:
- Manages multiple projects, tasks, finances, stock, and taxation simultaneously
- Bar integration to monitor product flow
- Integration with email and SMS to receive notifications regarding any transaction, product movement, dispatch, and procurement
- Reporting feature to dispense every minute detail of the business operation
- Inventory management facet to keep track of the goods so that the stock does not run out anytime.
12. Book Keeper – Accounting & Invoicing
Book Keeper is a highly skillful and widely acclaimed automated online accounting software. It performs various business processes such as inventory management, report creation, invoice generation, tax filing, and many more.
Features:
- A thorough analysis of all the business aspects to generate report and receipts
- Offers an offline mode to manage the account on the go
- Online sync all the data via Dropbox to access it from anywhere with any dev
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- Role-based access feature for multi-user collaboration
13. Quickbooks
it is the smartest way to organize your business finances in one place. It’s a simple online software solution for business users to make informed decisions. QuickBooks is the Best Cloud accounting Software developed by Intuit Inc. It was launched in the 1990s and since then has been one of the market leaders in accounting software.
Features:
- It is a completely web-based software hence no operating system compatibility issues are faced by the user. Instead of traditional downloading a simple web browser log-in is sufficient.
- One can log in to the QBO at any time from anywhere in the world, thus keeping up with the dynamic economic environment on an international level. Moreover, multiple users can access the same account with different levels of security permissions specified for each of them.
- You will not need to install an additional QuickBooks that will serve as your inventory management software and retailing software. Quickbook will easily be able to manage your stock and help handle customer transactions. Quickbook is the best cloud accounting software in India.
- With the Auto backup of data every two hours, QBO meets the highest online security standards for data storage.
- The Company Snapshot screen, one of its remarkable and unique features, tells the user his spending, his makings, and his overall performance compared annually thus helping to take better financial decisions at the management level.
- QBO specifically designed for Indian business entities computes the tax liability with a single click.
- Handling multi-currency transactions has never been easier with QBO’s easy-to-handle multiple currencies and switch between them using up-to-the-minute exchange rates.
- It helps the user in creating professional-looking quotes and proposals for the customers together with instant access to critical information reports.
- Working on web-based technology gives the user the flexibility to access the same account via a desktop or mobile phone or tablet. Hence, whether you are at your home or workplace, QBO handles it all.
Comparison of Top Accounting Automation Software
Our Team at SoftwareSuggest has done extensive research for the best business accounting automation software in India. This infographic shows the top Accounting Software in India along with their important and unique features.
Accounting automation has revolutionized the methods of bookkeeping and reconciliation. It has made tedious and mundane accounting, unchallenging, and hassle-free. Mentioned above is the best software to perform automated bookkeeping, and the features stated are just an outline.
A Chartered Accountant having 10 plus years of experience in corporate finance working as VP Finance with Appitsimple Infotek Pvt Ltd. I have strong interests in preparation as well as analysing financial statements of corporates!
Thanks for sharing such informative blog.