Top 5 Free or Affordable Accounting Software Tools For Small Business and Freelancers
Now, I certainly wouldn’t put you off having an accountant to help you to maintain your books and do tax returns, as most freelancers (including myself), will tell you that a good accountant quickly pays for themselves in terms of the time, effort, stress and saving they make for you.
However, some freelancers may prefer to do it themselves and in which case you want to do it in a cost effective way which means you might be looking for a good quality free, accounting software tool. As a small business leader you might also choose to do your accounts yourself or you may have grown large enough to have an in-house accountant. Either way you might also be in the market for a free or affordable software accounting tool.
And so I below, I have outlined 5 free or affordable software accounting tools for small business and freelancers.
1.Sage Business Cloud Accounts. This tool has versions for the UK, US, Spain, Germany, Canada, France, Portugal and Ireland. In the UK, the starting fee is just £10 a month plus so a very affordable system. It includes a mobile app, free 24/7 support, auto updates, bank reconciliation, invoicing, VAT, basic supplier management. You’ll need to pay an extra £5 a month for payroll and an extra £10 a month for quotes, and management accounting functions and multi-currency.
2.Wave. This is a US tool and so will be geared towards US based freelancers and small businesses. This is a comprehensive and totally free accounting software tool which enables you to do invoicing, expense tracking, reporting and payroll. This can be connected directly to your bank account and paypal account and other data sources to help automate data entry.
3.FreshBooks Cloud Accounting. Software is allows you to send professional invoices fast, add tracked time, note pricing, calculate expenses and manage your business finances all in one place — and all from the cloud. It also allows fully integrated, industry standard double-entry accounting features. Currently running a 50% offer.
4.Freeagent. This is a UK geared accounting software tool, so suitable for UK business and freelancers. It starts at £15 a month plus VAT for sole traders going up to £25 a month + VAT for small businesses, and so fairly affordable and about half the price of an accountant, which would set you back around £40 to £50 month, so making it very affordable, considering the time it saves you. Has all the required features such as time-tracking, banking, invoicing, expenses, projects, estimates, self assessment, corporation tax.
5.Kashflow. This is another UK geared accounting software tool. You can manage the books, invoice customers, produce payslips, calculate VAT, do quotes and estimates, purchasing, bank accounts, credit control, etc… This starts at a mere £5 a month and so a very affordable, entry level accounting option.
6.Kashoo. This is a US tool and so will be best suited to US businesses. It includes invoicing, expense tracking, income tracking and at $49.99 a year is a very affordable and lightweight accounting app, probably suited more to freelancers and or the typical one man/women band.
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