The methods adopted by the accountants in the past have been successful for sure, but the increasing demand for quick access to financial records having 100% accuracy has made the accountants struggle with the traditional methods. Technology has advanced at a great pace, and every business is getting streamlined with its use in one way or the other. The new accounting challenges are best met by the new accounting solutions, i.e., adopting the use of the latest accounting software. With accountants dealing with multiple transactions daily, the need for an error-free and acceptable accounting practice is met exclusively with the latest accounting software.
How does Accounting Software Help in Business Growth?
In our post, you will know about the accounting software benefits that will aid in your business growth and take it to the next level. With the help of accounting tools, you can save lots of time and manage your financial tasks more efficiently. Apart from this, it lets you speed up the accounting process, along with providing a single screen view of entire financial data.
1. Optimized Business Processes
With the use of the latest accounting software, you can optimize your business processes to a great extent. These software make you work smarter and not harder. The time and effort you invest in managing bookkeeping, and other accounting tasks can be utilized in focusing on core business activities. Apart from this, it lets you speed up the accounting process, along with providing a single screen view of entire financial data.
2. Secure & Accurate Accounting
The accounting software provides excellent security to the financial data by eliminating any possibility of unauthorized access or uninformed sharing with third-parties, along with zero scope of data loss due to its paperless structure. Accuracy is achieved with perfection through accounting software with its potential of handling complex mathematical calculations during tax preparation and otherwise.
3. Workload Sharing
The accounting workload is complicated as there are multiple tasks that need to be addressed by people with different expertise. Assigning these tasks to various team experts like a bookkeeper, auditor, preparer, CPA through login is much easier than manually taking care of the same.
4. Terminating Guesswork
Due to the manual management of the huge financial data, accountants were unable to gain clear insights like profit/loss, revenue trends, cash flow, asset/liability, relying more on guesswork. However, accounting software provides you with analytical tools to show you the present financial scenario and make financial decisions based on real facts and figures.
5. Relaxed Accounting Work
The manual paper-and-scale method of accounting is hardly used in the present times. Every business is looking to streamline its accounting operations through automation using accounting software which comprises of the latest features like automatic invoice processing, updating tax-related information regularly, graphics features for a better interface, complex calculations handling, and more.
6. Generates Quick Reports & Saves Cost, Time
Through accounting software, creating balance sheets, ledgers, and cash books become effortless, making you save a lot of time on the work to be done. Reducing human efforts means saving considerably on manual and infrastructure costs. The financial reports are generated quickly, providing a clear view of your income and expenses, eventually helping you to make better financial decisions.
7. Streamlined Invoicing
Cash management is indeed a top priority for businesses with invoice processing forming an integral part of it. An invoice system which is integrated lets you collect cash by automating invoice reminders to the customers, saving you from financial loss due to any non-payment.
8. Uncomplicated Tax Compliance
Invoices require taxes and accounting software to provide you with a platform that automates the tax amount on every invoice generated. This makes the audit and tax preparations extremely easy, along with the option of integration in order to compare ITRs and making calculation changes as per the latest policies.
9. Multiple Integration
The automated accounting software lets you integrate with other systems such as e-filing and online banking. This definitely saves you an enormous amount of time and effort as you get to make different financial executions on a single platform itself.
10. Boosting Client-Employee Relationship
With automated accounting, there is no scope of payment delays and invoice reminders. Information is conveyed, on the other end, quickly and timely, providing enough time to the clients for payments. This structured transaction processing leads to a better relationship between clients and employees.
11. Tracking Inventory
It is imperative to know how much stock you have in hand, and the accounting software helps you track exactly the same, even when the orders are processed. This removes any kind of vulnerability of going out of stock as you always have the option of ordering more in advance. Selecting software for accounting constituting inventory management demands both money and time. It is essential to carefully assess your business needs before choosing any software, with a key focus on your present tracking process for inventory while buying.
12. Multiple Currencies Dealing
Dealing with multiple currencies, along with managing a plethora of accounting tasks manually is like asking a lot. With efficient accounting software, you can trade in multiple currencies and get relaxed for the changes related to the exchange rate.
13. Overseeing Cash Flow
Overseeing cash flow is a tough task as one needs to keep track of every cash transaction that is going outside or coming inside the business. The software lets you track invoices, incoming cash, and overdue payments, making you aware of any important financial transactions. Future cash flow forecasts can be made since the accounts payable feature tracks bills upon arrival. So, let’s see which all software have the potential to provide you with all the above-mentioned benefits.
Top 10 Accounting Software for Business Growth
If we go by the stats, QuickBooks leads the pack with approximately 6,00,000 customers and 12,000,000 users with 49,100/231,911/191,803 followers on Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin, respectively. Now, let us discuss in detail below the ones who make it to the top 10 list in the reversible order.
10. Kashoo Online Accounting
Kashoo is an easy to use cloud accounting software for businesses who want to have a simplistic approach towards the management and control of their books. Starting at $16.65/ month, Kashoo is available in the form of iOS as well as the Web version. This accounting software comes with a multi-currency option with unlimited connections and invoices to more than 5,000 online financial institutions to reconcile accounts with. Apart from this, Kashoo accounting software is a good option for income and expense management, providing varied customer support in the form of phone, social media, email, live chat, and more. Kashoo is mostly used in China, Asia, Middle East, Australia, the UK, Africa, and the US. If we talk about the free trial offer by Kashoo, it comes to a good number of 14 days, with 180 countries paying home to over 150,000 registered users.
9. NetSuite
If we talk about the #1 ERP solution in the cloud, NetSuite makes it to the top. It helps in streamlining all back-office processes like CRM, e-commerce, accounting, etc. It is an apt choice when it comes to focusing on the revenue-generating processes rather than worrying about the unproductive back-office tasks. Some of its key applications include billing and order management, financial analytics and reporting, accounting, inventory and supply chain management, and more. The price of NetSuite meets the needs of every customer in the form of add-on modules requirement, ERP configuration, total user count, predicated on defined givens, contract length, and more. If we talk about the monthly license costs, it comes around to $999, with $99 access costs per month for every user. In over 110 countries and 40,000+ businesses, NetSuite has laid down its foundation significantly, with the ‘Best ERP Software’ tag for medium-sized businesses. NetSuite targets businesses irrespective of their size on its platform, along with direct marketing to CIOs, CEOs, Controllers, and CFOs.
8. ZipBooks
When it comes to ZipBooks, a lot of features constitute it. From sending professional invoices to auto-billing payments and reminders, account reconciliation, providing customers with the option to leave reviews, it differs a lot amongst its competitors for the given price. Supported countries: are the United States and Canada. You can add as many team members as you wish to with ZipBooks, regardless of the size of your company. ZipBooks is accounting software that uses the web platform to help contractors, freelancers, and growing businesses manage their bookkeeping and accounting needs with fast payment allowance, etc.
7. PCLaw by LexisNexis
For legal accounting, PCLaw by LexisNexis is regarded as one of the best accounting software. It lets you bill the hours where work is done outside the office premises with the help of Interest on Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA). Manual time entry, along with real-time work tracking, along with client expenses is available to the attorneys for error-free financial management in the future. Apart from this, other product features like automatic bill reminders, pre-populating matter look-ups, automatic reminders for billing, voice-enabled data entry, spelling correction, and at-a-glance updates on billable hours are also available. LexisNexis’s PCLaw is a one-stop solution for practice management that serves 10,000 employees in over 175 countries, with a strong trust network of 13,000 law firms.
6. Xero
Xero accounting software is cloud-based and easily accessible from any device and computer. Xero accounting lets you integrate your business programs with more than 700 applications or customized programs as per the needs of the business. Its services include expense management and tracking, simple budgeting, unlimited users access, configurable reports, and more. If we talk about the usage of Xero software, it is used in over 180 countries with over 1.2+ million customers that account for 8800 firms of accounting. One has the opportunity to add ‘N’ number of users to every plan, which is unlikely to its competitors who charge as per the number of users being added.
5. FreshBooks
FreshBooks is a famous accounting service marketed and developed by 2ndsite, Inc. which is hosted on the cloud. The FreshBooks accounting software has features such as expense tracking, invoicing, time tracking, credit card payments option, along with a host of business reports. With FreshBooks, you have the option of operating the software in as many as 12 languages, which includes French, English, Spanish, German, and more. At $10 per person as a team member, the software is used in more than 120 countries.
4. Zoho Accounting
This affordable online accounting software lets you access your account from any part of the world. With automated features like automatic payment reminders and recurring invoices, it saves your time and efforts at large, with easy follow up options through client portals on payments and quotes. With Zoho Books, you can integrate with multiple payment options like Stripe, Braintree, Paypal, and more. Some of its other features include tracking the entire range of product inventory with customer customized prices, adding multiple various projects through employee tasks addition and assignment, etc. Plan variations are available from as basic as $9 per month to $ 90 per month for you and your accountant (two users), along with the option of adding 5 automated workflow and 50 contacts. If you want more users, contacts, and workflow, various other plans are also available.
3. Wave Accounting
Wave Financial Inc. provides tools and software which are hosted on the cloud and can be integrated anytime. The services include payment and payroll processing, invoicing, accounting, personal finance, as well as receipt management tools. Through accounting by Wave, you can gain access to data from anywhere, along with having a single login for unlimited collaborators. By Jan 2018, Wave Accounting is available in over 200 countries having 3 million customers. You can gain access to your data from anywhere due to its cloud-based feature, along with having a single login for unlimited collaborators and managing the work.
2. Sage Accounting
Sage accounting software provides access to daily activities like time tracking, expenses, invoicing from anywhere at any time, along with being multi-currency and multi-language enabled. Operational and real-time financial insights can be accessed with this software, and also automate the processes which are critical. Sage-Based in England with 6.1 million customers and offices in 24 countries is multinational enterprise software, which accounts for 3rd biggest provider for enterprise resource planning software and 2nd biggest British tech company.
1. QuickBooks Online
Intuit QuickBooks accounting software offers solutions for bank reconciliation, drafting invoices, tracking expenses, monitoring financial reports, and more. It also allows users to take bill photos and use them as expense submission proof, along with providing a customized template option of branding with the desired field and business logo to generate bills, reports, and invoices. The products of QuickBooks are mainly for the medium-sized businesses which offer cloud-based versions and on-premises accounting apps that pay and manage bills, accept business payments, along with the management of the payroll functions. QuickBooks Highlights:
Availability of free trial for 30 days 2 million worldwide users Four pricing tiers which let you add 1 user to 25 users as per the plan
Conclusion
The above-listed business accounting software are undoubtedly the top 10 accounting software for medium and large-sized businesses. These software not only help in streamlining the accounting processes but let the business owners focus more on work productivity and business growth. The features differ greatly and depending upon the requirements of your business; you should opt for the one that fulfills your needs to the maximum level.
