Starting a Bookkeeping Business
The main objective of book-keeping is to keep a complete and accurate record of all the financial transactions in a systematic orderly, logical manner. This ensures that the financial effects of these transactions are reflected in the books of accounts.
“But wait, all these things you’ve written make bookkeeping sound hard!”
We also wanted it to be easy to use and have timesaving features that reduce manual data entry and automate some of the most tedious accounting tasks, such as bank reconciliation. Finally, we wanted it to have a robust mobile app that gives you the data you need to monitor your business and accomplish basic accounting tasks remotely. Most small and medium-sized businesses can benefit from accounting software, no matter how many employees you have.
Many one-man-band businesses that start to grow may be looking for your services. Most sole traders are likely to prepare their books themselves but need someone to prepare accounts and get them to the inland revenue. So promote your services through the many online business forums and offer impartial advice to get recognised. The data from these books or ledgers creates the foundation for the annual accounts for tax and company accounting purposes.
Kashoo is an accounting software program offered through the Apple App Store for iPad, iPhone, and web use. The format of this program is through the cloud and is widely used by smaller businesses already using any Apple product. The program allows small business owners to send invoices, manage finances, enter in expenses, and generate reports from the comfort of their own mobile device. Payroll Software/Provider – Depending on the bookkeeping/accounting software that you choose, there will generally be a payroll processing option that you can just turn on when you are ready to hire employees.
Career Advice: Accounting Vs. Bookkeeping
If you decide to go with QuickBooks, they offer a variety of payroll options to choose from. If you decide that you just don’t want the headache of dealing with payroll, check out our guide on 6 Payroll Competitors that beat ADP when it comes to price. Since you are starting a bookkeeping business, I’m sure that you have already given some thought (or made a decision) on which accounting software to use for your business.
We updated this page to include a few more links to articles we found helpful for our readers—most notably, a link to our piece on the best bookkeeping software for small businesses. Your go-to source for weekly updates on accounting and financial news. In a post on Accounting Web Foster says there are still many opportunities and bookkeeping doesn’t need to suffer.
Pay and Track Business Bills
Accounting turns the information from the ledger into statements that reveal the bigger picture of the business, and the path the company is progressing on. Business owners will often look to accountants for help with strategic tax planning, financial forecasting, and tax filing. Accounts receivable and accounts payable are available through Kashoo, as well as cash management, CPA firms, and bank reconciliation.
It’s usually offered as an add-on; for example, QuickBooks’ payroll add-on services start at $35 per month plus a $4 per employee monthly fee. We recently reviewed and updated this page to include a few key pricing updates (specifically to QuickBooks Online’s Simple Start plan, which now costs $25 rather than $20). We also added in more pricing information for Zoho Books, GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping, and ShoeBoxed. Finally, we revamped our frequently asked question section to give readers more information on how to determine if accounting software works for them. The most important part of bookkeeping is being consistent.
The Sales account tracks all incoming revenue from what you sell. Recording sales in a timely and accurate manner is critical to knowing where your business stands. If you’ve borrowed money to buy equipment, vehicles, furniture or other items for your business, this account tracks payments and due dates. Being adept at digital marketing, for example, isn’t enough if you don’t have a clear financial picture of your business and run headlong into cash flow problems.
The Premium plan also takes care of recurring invoicing—automatically bill your regular customers without lifting a finger. The Standard plan, Zoho Books’ most popular option, costs $19 per month, lets you add up to three users and 500 contacts, and enables 10 automated workflows. And the Professional plan, starting at $29 per month, has unlimited contacts and 10 users, though it sticks with just 10 automated workflows.
For more information on choosing an accounting method, see how to decide between cash and accrual accounting for your business. For instance, ever looked at your bank statements and thought, Where is all the money we made this month? Proper record-keeping for small businesses makes the process easier and keeps you compliant with the law. You never want to waste time chasing down last month’s missing invoice, and you certainly don’t want to find yourself in trouble with legal requirements.
A product of Intuit, QuickBooks has long been heralded as the go-to accounting software for small businesses. Two different versions of QuickBooks exist, including an online format, as well as a licensed version. The program offers easy, online access to all of your customers, vendors, and employee records.
To find out exactly how easy it is to use QuickBooks Online, we tried the accounting software ourselves. It was simple to get started with the software and add information to the system. The dashboard interface feels intuitive; the side menu makes it easy to find the features you’re looking for, and you can access account settings from the gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen. To find the best small business accounting software, we evaluated dozens of accounting programs.
For example, QuickBooks (from Intuit) is a low-cost bookkeeping and accounting software package that is widely used by small businesses in the U.S. QuickBooks Online is an impressive accounting system that’s easy to use and includes all of the features most small businesses need to efficiently accomplish their accounting tasks. However, there are some points to consider before you choose your software plan.
In the long term, cloud applications are significantly more expensive for small businesses. A monthly subscription for QuickBooks Online Essentials (the most popular choice, according to Intuit) lists for $26.95 per month. The application compares closely to the $300 version of QuickBooks Premier. In just one year you’re paying $323 for QuickBooks Online Essentials. Compared to the one-time $300 payment you would’ve made for QuickBooks Premier.
It’s crucial that each debit and credit transaction is recorded correctly and in the right account. Otherwise, your account balances won’t match and you won’t be able to close your books. Alternatively, you can pay an accountant, bookkeeper, or outsourced accounting company to manage your accounts and ledger for you. With the right bookkeeping tools, you’ll feel more confident in your business’s future and better able to understand (and plan for) your own profitability. Best of all, you don’t need to become an overnight calculus expert to understand bookkeeping.
Early versions of the software were less than user friendly, but QuickBooks Mac 2011 is a much better product, Intuit spent resources to make it look and feel more like a Mac application than previous versions. It provides integration into Mac apps and service such as MobileMe for backups and iCal for calendar reminders. As a cloud based accounting solution we see people often asking if bookkeeping is hard to learn, what does it involve, and how does it work. Most of those asking these questions are either business owners wondering if they should do their own bookkeeping, or people considering their career options. While we’ll try and address both sides of the issue, our focus will be on the business owners point of view.
- These careers require many of the same skills and attributes.
- You may do this every month, but at the very least, balance and close your books every quarter.
- Whichever option you choose, make sure it’s compatible with what your accounting professional uses.
- If you decide that you just don’t want the headache of dealing with payroll, check out our guide on 6 Payroll Competitors that beat ADP when it comes to price.
- Entries should be made according the company’s chosen accounting method (cash or accrual).The introduction of accounting software has made the two-step process of journals and ledgers almost obsolete.
- The QuickBooks Self-Employed platform was designed with a very specific audience in mind.

The Worst-Kept Secret About QuickBooks Online
The P&L helps you compare your sales and expenses and make forecasts.Cash flow statement. The statement of cash flow is similar to the P&L, but it doesn’t include any non-cash items such as depreciation. Cash flow statements help show where your business is earning and spending money and its immediate viability and ability to pay its bills.

A great deal of finding the right fit depends on the size of the company, the income flow, level of experience of the individual completing the accounting duties, and company budget. If you have a new business, you might want to try a few programs before you find the right one for you. Below are 5 of the more popular easy-to-use programs in the small business realm, and each offer their own special features for various needs. Smart Service® is designed for use with QuickBooks® Pro, Premier, Enterprise, and Online software only.
The other reports generated are only really relevant for a tax consultant. Managing Transactions – Connect your bank accounts to the software and import transactions to allocate them. Set up rules and categories, and the program will automatically allocate them for you. In many cases, people who use Quickbooks Delf-Employed don’t need to spend a lot on an accounting program.
It’s important to note that Wave software has some crucial limitations, especially compared to QuickBooks Online. Wave doesn’t track inventory—one of the reasons why we recommend this product for service-based small businesses. Also, you can’t track your billable hours, which is a problem if you want to link hours to specific invoices. However, the payroll pricing information hasn’t yet updated on the QuickBooks Online accounting page. We assume the $35 Self Service and $80 Full Service add-ons will update to match QuickBooks’ new pricing structure.
If this is a feature you need now for your employees, you’ll have to add an integration, find a workaround or consider a different accounting application. If you use an outside accountant, you can avoid compatibility issues since the software allows you to give him or her access to the system. QuickBooks Online provides several support channels to its customers.
These will take a lot of the guesswork out of recording different types of transactions and present your information clearly. Many of these programs are available for free or on as a free trial for a limited time.
Accounting is a high-level process that uses financial information compiled by a bookkeeper or business owner, and produces financial models using that information. The complexity of a bookkeeping system often depends on the the size of the business and the number of transactions that are completed daily, weekly, and monthly. All sales and purchases made by your business need to be recorded in the ledger, and certain items need supporting documents.
Accounting software can easily save you time with automated reporting, expense tracking, and invoicing—not to mention all the other useful features. And don’t put off the investment—small to midsize businesses benefit from having business profit, revenue, and expenses in line sooner rather than later. All in all, accounting software can save you a lot of time and headache as your company grows. This bare-bones, no-frills software lets you process debit and credit payments, take care of invoicing, and review basic loss and profit financial information.
Like starting any business, there are several administrative tasks that must also be done before you can start servicing customers. This step is an important one because it establishes your business as a legitimate one. Whether you are doing this part-time or full-time, you don’t want to skip this step. American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) – To become AIPB-certified, you must meet the 3,000-hour work experience requirement and successfully pass a certification exam.
You can also add payroll and tax services for a (relatively) affordable cost, which we discuss below. As a note, QuickBooks Online usually offers promotional pricing of 50% off their plans for the first https://bookkeeping-reviews.com/ three months. However, if you sign up with the promotional pricing, you won’t get a 30-day free trial. But how do you know where to begin when choosing the right accounting software for your business?
QuickBooks Online
Bookkeeping software to make life easier for you or at least an accounting software package that accountants endorse like Kashflow or Sage. At the same time, the accounting data is ‘bias-free’ since the accounting data are not subject to the bias of either https://bookkeeping-reviews.com/ management or of the accountant who prepares the accounts. In historical cost accounting, the accounting data are verifiable since the transactions are recorded on the basis of source documents such as vouchers, receipts, cash memos, invoices, etc.
The Sage Invoicing app (iOS and Android) allows small businesses to send invoices and record expenses. Staying on top of your finances isn’t just about paying your taxes on time. You may need financial statements like a profit and loss statement or pro forma projections if you apply for a small business loan. Plus clear financial information can also help you understand the financial health of your business. Do you take raw materials and build products and need to track inventory for both?
Users can also send out billing and invoicing to customers online. Unlike other accounting software programs, collections and fixed asset management are also offered. SlickPie is an online accounting software program that is tailored for smaller businesses. The software is completely online, making it accessible from almost anywhere.
The Get Paid plan starts at $4.99 per month and manages credit and debit payments. You can also create and send invoices automatically, track your mileage, and run a current year-end business report—not bad for just under $5 a month. This Basic plan allows you five automated workflows, or activities the software will automate for you. Plus, Zoho Books is just one piece of software in the larger suite of Zoho products. Wave’s 100% free accounting software is reason enough for us to recommend this product for small businesses.
Request a Smart Service demo today to take your business to the next level. Sage offers a suite of small business solutions from simple accounting (Sage One) to robust integrated accounting (Sage Live) along with a variety of other options that can serve businesses of all sizes. Small businesses may want to start with Sage One and grow into other solutions. Create estimates and invoices, link bank and credit card accounts and stay on top of your financials.
Once upon a time, not very long ago, it was a different experience buying software. Take QuickBooks, the popular small Bookstime Services business accounting system, for example. Quickbooks Online is designed to track the transactions of business accounts.