Managing your business finances is a lot easier today than it was prior to the proliferation of online, cloud-based software solutions that can do everything from automatically posting transactions to figuring your quarterly taxes. There is a lot to choose from when it comes to online tools, with more appearing every day. Here are a few stand-outs.
1. GoDaddy Bookkeeping – If you’re not sure about double entry bookkeeping and you have a very small business without any employees and hire only contractors, GoDaddy Bookkeeping may be the answer. You can sync it with your PayPal account, bank account, and/or FreshBooks account to help accomplish a lot of data entry tasks, automatically cutting your time spent on the books down to a bare minimum.
Link:
GoDaddy Bookkeeping – https://bookkeeping.godaddy.com/
FreshBooks – http://www.freshbooks.com/
2. PayPal.com – Anyone who wants to do business online these days needs to accept PayPal. It’s a great way to accept credit cards without having to go through the hassle of getting a merchant account along with the associated fees. In fact, most people who have merchant accounts typically end up with PayPal accounts anyway.
3. Wave Accounting – This is a full-featured online accounting software that does invoicing, accounting and payroll. You can even manage your receipts using Wave by scanning and uploading them to their system to keep track of them. You can email receipts, upload them via the web, and take pictures of them with your mobile device to upload them. No need to hang on to paper receipts any longer, and that’s just one of the great things about Wave.
Link:
Wave Accounting – http://www.waveapps.com/
4. QuickBooks Online – A favorite of accountants, CPAs and bookkeepers, QuickBooks Online is what everyone else aspires to be. It’s serious accounting software with all the features you’d expect at a surprisingly affordable cost. You can start using QuickBooks Online for less than $15.00 a month and build on from there, depending on the features you need adding and subtracting as your business grows and/or contracts. With QuickBooks Online you do not need any other software to do invoicing, bookkeeping, 1099s, payroll, bill payment, and so forth.
Link:
QuickBooks Online – http://quickbooks.intuit.com/
5. inDinero – This software seeks to be a one-off solution for everything a business owner needs to manage their finances. They help take care of all your accounting needs, including filing your tax returns. The software can help you take care of simple bookkeeping and accounting tasks as well as payroll, 1099s, payroll, bill payments, and more. InDinero can grow with your business so you only pay for what you need.
Link:
inDinero – https://indinero.com/
6. BudgetTracker – From time sheets and invoices to inventory, BudgetTracker is a full-featured online piece of software that you can use for tracking spending, organizing your life and even forecasting your income. You have access to graphs and charts, and creative features you may never have considered, with the ability to track anything you’re doing. The business version is inexpensive, and has many features that other online software doesn’t offer, such as a full-featured client relationship management tool.
Link:
BudgetTracker – https://secure.budgettracker.com/info_biz.php
7. FreshBooks – This is really time-tracking, invoicing, project management and billing software more than accounting software, and FreshBooks is easy to use. You can send invoices by email to their FreshBooks account, or via mail. They keep your data in the cloud, so you won’t lose track of any of your client’s information or time that you’ve worked. You can also use your mobile device to update any invoice, time worked on any account, and even add expenses.
Link:
FreshBooks – http://www.freshbooks.com/tour.php
8. iBillTo – This app is available in the App Store at iTunes and is a way to keep track of your clients, billing rates, hours worked on specific projects and expenses. This app is currently only for iPhone and iPod Touch. All the information you input is saved online “in the cloud” so that you don’t have to worry about syncing and other problems with some online systems that use space on your desktop.
Link:
iBillTo – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibillto/id322332930?mt=8
Finding online tools to help you manage your finances is not hard to do. Deciding which one is right for you will depend entirely on your needs. But these eight tools should give you a good place to start looking.