Business owners today like to keep most of their data on digital storage units, and rightly so. There are so many benefits of storing data on the cloud such as availability, backup, and retention. Similarly, business owners these days also like to have a digital bookkeeping and accounting system, to make the job effortless and more efficient than traditional methods.
Owing to the many advantages of bookkeeping software, Business owners are in constant search of the perfect tool, tailored to their needs, which can best handle and adapt to their accounting system. Since there are several free open source bookkeeping and accounting software options available to help you stay organized and on top of your finances, this search might prove to be exhausting. However, to make this software hunt effortless, here we discuss the best free accounting and bookkeeping softwares for businesses most recognized by the industry, so you can choose the one that suits your business.
Best Free Accounting Software
Steps to Choose A Free Accounting Software
Choosing the right free accounting software is an important decision for any business. It can help you track your financial transactions, prepare tax returns, and make informed decisions about your business. With so many options available, it can be overwhelming to determine which free software is best for your needs. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll walk you through the process of selecting the right free accounting software for your business.
- Step 1: The first step in selecting the free accounting software is to determine your specific needs. Consider the size of your business, and features you may need, such as inventory management or invoicing.
- Step 2: Once you have a clear idea of your needs, it’s time to research your options. Choose the above-mentioned list of tools and visit the pricing plan section on the company’s website and browse the features provided in the free plan.
- Step 3: Chat with customer support and ask all the questions which are in your mind. Narrow down the options that best suit your needs.
- Step 4: Once you have narrowed down your options, it’s a good idea to test out the software to see how it works in practice. Try out the software and see if it meets your needs.
- Step 5: After researching your options and testing out the software, it’s time to make a decision. Consider the features, user interface, and integration capabilities of each software, and choose the one that best meets your needs.
When to Upgrade from Free Accounting and Bookkeeping Software
If you’re currently using free accounting and bookkeeping software, you may be wondering if and when it’s time to upgrade to a paid version. Here are a few things to consider when making this decision.
- Business size: Small businesses have less complex financial structures compared to large-size businesses. Hence, if your business starts growing and it seems difficult to manage everything with the basic features available in the free plan, then you consider upgrading the plan.
- Features: Free software often has limited features compared to paid versions. If you need specific features such as inventory management, project tracking, or advanced reporting, you may need to upgrade to paid software.
- Budget: Budget is one of the main factors to consider when deciding whether to upgrade from free software is your budget. While paid software can come with a higher upfront cost, it may save you time and effort in the long run, and ultimately, be more cost-effective for your business.
- Support: With free software, you may not have access to the same level of support as you would with a paid version. If you rely on timely support and assistance with your accounting and bookkeeping tasks, paid software might be a better choice.
Best Free Bookkeeping and Accounting Softwares For Businesses
- Zoho Books
- Xero
- Akaunting
- Wave Accounting
- Lendio
- Zipbooks
- Manager.io
- GnuCash
- CloudBooks
- Brightbook
- Vyapar
- Sleek Bill
- Realbooks
Zoho Books
| Rating | 4.4/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Scaling Businesses |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Desktop (Mac and Windows), Mobile (Android, iPhone, iPad) |
Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting solution that enables you to effortlessly track cash flow in and out of your business. Keep track of your customers, invoices, and expenses to ensure efficiency. Keep track of your banking transactions, collaborate with your accountant in real time, and reconcile bank accounts. Above all, Zoho Books aids you in making decisions with greater accuracy and keeping track of your business.
Zoho books is loaded with all the essential functionality of bookkeeping software, it provides seamless integration with 50+ Zoho software. Integrating other Zoho apps and syncing data into Zoho books as per the requirement of the business is very easy. Moreover, its powerful and robust automation tool helps to eliminate repetitive tasks of business.
Features Offered by Zoho books
- Vendor portal allows your vendors to manage their business transactions, invoices, and payments. Through this portal, vendors can create invoices, and you can store those invoices as bills for your records. Vendors can also see all their transactions related to you in one place.
- Give access to the software to your employees based on the different roles they do for you. Restrict them from customizing everything by limiting their access to any specific portion.
- Manage your project and count every working minute to bill your client accordingly with the time-tracking feature of Zoho. Convert your billable minute to invoice in one click and send it to your client for payment.
- Connecting your bank account to your Zoho account will help to fetch all your business banking transactions to your Zoho banking dashboard.
- Leverage the access of multiple payment gateways to accept payment. You can also collect payments on a recurring basis.
Pros:
- Free plan available
- 50+ Zoho app integration
- User-friendly interface
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Customizable invoices
- Excellent customer support
Cons:
- Poor automatic matching
- Weekly comments are not allowed
- Restriction on the number of users
Try ZOHO Books For Free
Xero
| Rating | 4.4/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | All small and medium sized businesses and accounting & bookkeeping practices. |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Mobile (Android, iPhone, iPad) |
This award-winning accounting program has been designed especially for small business owners and accountants to use online. Accessible from any device that has an internet connection. Xero is committed to providing an effortless accounting experience with its effective accounting software. It has more than 3 million subscribers worldwide who trust Xero. Day-to-day business compliance with zero errors has never been easy, but with Xero, it is possible to investigate financial documents in no time.
How To Use XERO – Accounting Software Tutorial for Small Business
Features Offered by Xero
- Scheduling the most important accounting work is the most influential feature of Xero. You can create a working paper using trial balance information on Xero and assign it to your staff to work on.
- Capture your data automatically to your Xero account using hub doc. Now there is no need to waste your time by entering data manually. Just take photos, scan them, and upload them to Xero.
- Multi-currency accounting in 160 currencies to pay and get paid. Only a few accounting software provide currency conversion to this extent with rate change updates.
- Show your business professionally by utilizing the benefit of online quotes from Xero. Create a quote, send it to clients, wait for approval, and once approved change it to an invoice in a single click.
- Record, update, and manage your assets and liabilities in one place and access anywhere using the internet.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use interface
- Mobile app available
- Wide range of third-party integration
- Multiple user collaboration
- Hubdoc to capture data automatically
- 30-day free trial
- Inbuilt payment option in online invoice
Cons:
- Only online support is available via chat
- Need to purchase payroll separately
- Free plan is not available
- Lack of graphic chart of reports
Akaunting
| Rating | 4.0/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Businesses Looking for a Truly One-Stop Free Accounting Software |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, On-Premise (Windows, Linux) |
Akaunting is the best free open source accounting software developed to help small businesses manage their finances and maintain their financial stability. Simplifying invoicing, setting up online payments, and managing expenses is easier than ever. It helps you view all your financials from any device and location, with an open-source system, which also ensures the safety of your data and finances. Akaunting offers tools for cash flow, invoicing, reporting, and transaction categories, along with a client portal to accept bulk payments.
Features Offered by Akaunting
- Akaunting allows you to remotely view your financials from any device and location without risking data loss or theft owing to its open-source accounting.
- Manage customers by sending them invoices and accepting online payments, and setting authorization for entering client portals.
- Assign bills and payments to vendors that you create and filter transactions, and manage finances with bills and accuracy.
- Akaunting allows deposits and transfers between accounts to keep an active account balance, and seamlessly manage taxes with convenient names, for specific products.
- Add unlimited bank accounts and deal in different currencies and convert the balance to your currency.
Pros:
- Free forever plan available
- 50+ app integration
- Easy invoicing with a client portal
- Simple interface
- Lifetime free updates
- Financial Reporting and easy bank reconciliation
- Can be installed on your self-hosting
Cons:
- Some customers experienced poor support
- No mobile application
Wave Accounting
| Rating | 4.4/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Sole Proprietors and Small Businesses |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Mobile (Android, iPhone) |
Wave Accounting provides completely free, open source, accurate double-entry bookkeeping for small businesses. Wave is a cloud-based application, enabling you to access your data from anywhere, add multiple collaborators and manage all aspects of your business with one login. With Wave, you can avoid tedious data-entry while getting easy access to financial reports and reclaim valuable time for the things you love doing. Seamless integration of your accounting with invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing and payroll is possible with this tool.
It helps you manage, make, and move your money digitally. It helps you organize your income and expenses, and track monetary advances such as payrolls and invoices. Wave also lets you create professional invoices with its Invoice Software, with some advanced features. Moreover, Wave allows you to scan receipts anytime and anywhere with just your mobile phone.
Features Offered by Wave
- Wave allows you to set up credit card payments and switch between automatic and manual payments. Wave sends an invoice or an email receipt accordingly.
- You can also customize your invoices for recurring payments and schedule them for any frequency and time.
- Wave offers customizable invoice templates to bill your clients for any services and add details for the clients to know what they are paying for.
- Build invoices in Google Docs, Sheets, Word, PDF, and Excel format, and useful tips by customers for better interactions with them.
- Wave also offers a smart dashboard and unlimited accounting and invoicing and syncing accounting records.
Pros:
- User-friendly dashboard
- Personalized help from wave advisors
- Invoicing, accounting, and banking are 100% free
- 30-day free trial on paid features
- 256-bit SSL encryption to ensure safety
- iOS and Android apps available
Cons:
- The software is glitchy sometimes
- PayPal import was abandoned
- Advisors’ plans are costly
Lendio
| Rating | 4.5/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Small Businesses Looking for a Bookkeeping Solution |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Mobile (Android, iPhone) |
Lendio is a cloud-based financial software that helps you with accounting, taxation, document preparation, expense tracking and more. Lendio is backed with multiple data centres and encryption, which provides top-notch security to all your financial data. Its beautiful and easy-to-interact user interface has made bookkeeping simpler. The automatic expense tracking feature of Lendio is a differentiating factor from other accounting software, which allows users to track all their expenses automatically.
Features Offered by Lendio
- Powerful dashboard equipped with all the financial statistics of business in one single interface. This feature will help you analyze your business condition at a glance.
- Hassle-free discount and refund processing feature to speed up your accounting work.
- Data security is the key feature of Lendio and it allows you to export all your financial data from the cloud to your desktop in a matter of seconds.
- The financial forecasting tool of Lendio helps you to do an in-depth cash flow analysis for better-taking business decisions.
- Focus on your business and forget about preparing tax documents because the Lendio tax assist feature will do all this work for you based on your financial reports. The tax estimator of Lendio forecasts the estimated advance tax which you need to pay, this helps you to plan for your tax filing decisions.
Pros:
- Completely free to use
- Best of small businesses
- Automatic expense tracking
- Easy-to-use interface
- Integration with Gusto for payroll management
- Expense auto-categorization
- Stripe, PayPal, and Square integration for payments
Cons:
- Doesn’t offer a lot of integration
- Difficult to input expenses
Devashish Shrivastava
Zipbooks
| Rating | 4.5/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Small Businesses Looking to Upgrade From Spreadsheets |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Mobile (iPhone, iPad) |
Another top free open source accounting software designed for small businesses, independent contractors, and accounting professionals to consider is ZipBooks. Zipbooks is a simple and robust accounting software which offers you the tools to enhance your bookkeeping. It allows you to create professional invoices and get paid seamlessly with automated payment reminders, offers you smarter reporting and simple reconciliation with auto-categorization, as well as insights to retain the most loyal and profitable customers.
How To Use ZipBooks
Features Offered by Zipbooks
- Store immaculate accounting records and keep track of what you owe and who owes you, and with the help of smart feedback, know how much the revenue actually is.
- Zipbooks lets you get paid the way you want. It accepts payments from credit cards to automated billing.
- Calculate and record employee payouts, equipment expenses and other costs for running your business seamlessly.
- Expense management is made easy with Zipbooks with the help of billable expenses, save receipts, and split categories.
- Zipbooks offers data-driven intelligence and smart features to help retain customers and make faster payments.
Pros:
- Intelligent feedback to improve day-to-day operations
- Transaction tagging for easy accessibility
- Simple and modern UI/UX
- Free plan is available with basic accounting features
- Free trial to test the features of a paid plan
- Advanced smart search
- Business health score to gauge the business growth
- iOS and Android App available
Cons:
- Limited integration options
- Weak customer support
our companies? Unless you’ve got a passion for numbers (or you’re the founder of
an accounting startup), you probably look at accounting a…
Rishabh Rathi
Manager.io
| Rating | 4.8/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Easy to use software for small businesses |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Desktop (Mac, Windows), On-Premise (Linux, Windows) |
Manager.io is a free, full-featured accounting software designed for small businesses. This software provides key accounting functions, tax features and data entry automation that simplify accounting processes. This software is simple to use. With no prior knowledge required, you can become familiar with it quickly.
Manegar.io bookkeeping software comes with three editions: desktop edition, cloud edition, and server edition. Cloud edition and server edition are paid ones that store all your data on the cloud which you can access remotely from anywhere. The server edition will provide a dedicated server for your data which you can customize to increase security. But, since we are talking about free software, the desktop edition is best for small businesses for accounting.
Features Offered by Manager.io
- The desktop edition provides all the essential features of basic accounting software completely free forever.
- The free edition has all the accounting features but still migrating from the desktop edition to the cloud edition or server edition is a game of jokes. You can export all your data easily and import it to the cloud edition.
- Dedicated forum to raise your concern related to software issues. The Manegar.io team is eager to solve your problem and release the software update as soon as they fix the problem.
Pros:
- Desktop edition is completely free
- Bank reconciliation
- Multi-currency access
- Integrated payroll management
- Can easily be set up on your own server
Cons:
- The interface is not user friendly
- Cloud and server editions cost you higher money
- Mobile app is not available
GnuCash
| Rating | 4.5/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Free Accounting Software for small businesses all around the world |
| Deployment | Desktop(Mac,Windows), On-Premise (Windows,Linux) |
GnuCash is a powerful and reliable bookkeeping tool for anyone looking to take control of their finances. It is a free and open-source software package that allows users to manage all their accounting needs. Loaded with essential accounting features like double-entry accounting, profit and loss, and balance sheet, it makes accounting affordable for new businesses.
Graphical report of accounting data empowers users to take a look at business performance. Since it is open-source software, it provides a proper installation guide to configure the software on your system. Windows, Mac OS, and Linux are the operating systems that support the software effectively.
Features offered by Guncash
- It has the ability to create custom reports and charts to track financial performance.
- Support for double-entry accounting to ensure the accuracy and integrity of financial records.
- The free and open-source software that supports multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux
- Ability to track exchange rates and convert between currencies, and also supports multiple currencies.
- Customer and vendor tracking features simplify the task of business management.
- Facility to customize the appearance of the interface in multiple ways.
GnuCash Demo
Pros:
- Payroll management
- Available in 58 different languages
- Account reconciliation
- Completely free to use
- Double-entry accounting system
- Stock and mutual fund tracking
Cons:
- Confusing UI, not suitable for beginners
- Lack of customer support
- No mobile app and cloud-based access
CloudBooks
| Rating | 3.5/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Online Invoicing Software for Freelancers and Small Businesses |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based |
CloudBooks is a free accounting, invoice creation, and management software is trusted by small businesses all around the world. It is ideal for quickly creating and sending invoices online, so you can get paid faster. CloudBooks enables you to monitor time worked, generate invoices and estimates, and receive payments. It helps users manage invoices, expenses, and projects for SMEs as well as freelancers. Moreover, you can send automated payment reminders, accept faster payments, and offer your clients a professional experience like never before.
Features Offered by CloudBooks
- Invoicing is made custom with tools which help you to brand, control, and accept recurring payments, all in one place.
- CloudBooks’ project management allows you to manage teams and communications, for seamless project management.
- Track your employees’ working hours and know where your time is majorly spent.
- CloudBooks also allows you to track expenses and ensure they are spent wisely. Also, record your expenses and attach receipts to view later.
- Get comprehensive reports for an all-around view of your business with expenses, profit/loss, payments, and invoicing tasks.
Pros:
- Detailed reports and analytics
- Pre-integration with stripe and PayPal
- Free trial is available
- Expense tracking in one place
- Automatic invoice generation for tracked hours
- Excellent support
- Easy-to-use interface
Cons:
- Limited accounting features
- Mobile app is not available
There’s a lot of platforms to choose from across every operational aspect of
your company. Onboarding each of them requires a ton of setup and spending the
time to learn their nuances. Then, of course, there’s the cost of pu…
Rishabh Rathi
Brightbook
| Rating | 4.5/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Web-Based Accounting Solution for Professionals and Freelancers |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based |
Brightbook is an online accounting system designed to fulfill the requirements of freelancers, independent consultants, and small business owners, with great performance for the first two groups. This platform is capable of handling all your basic accounting work and provides many free features — like tools for invoicing, cash flow visibility, reports and financial statements — plus some features that require a one-off payment.
Features Offered by Brightbook
- Instant insight to keep your eye on how much you owe and how much you need to settle.
- Track your business transaction by importing all the bank statements into your Brightbook account. This feature removes hurdles to looking into your bank statement frequently.
- The company claims that data Security is as tight as banking security, and it adds an extra advantage to access the data online, using the Internet.
Pros:
- Integration APIs
- Multiple user access
- Quick Cash Flow insights
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Free to use
Cons:
- Confusing user interface
- Only desktop app is available
- No third-party integration
Vyapar
| Rating | 4.4/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Small and Medium Indian Business Management |
| Deployment | Desktop (Windows), On-Premise (Windows), Mobile (Android) |
Vyapar is a Business Accounting, Invoicing, and Inventory management app designed for small businesses. It allows you to create invoices and estimates, accept payments, manage your inventory and online store, and keep track of your clients. It is the perfect answer to all of your business accounting needs. Vyapar is the most lucrative accounting software with a bunch of features and has 1 crore+ happy customers. It stands out on top of modern-age accounting software because of its powerful and robust accounting mechanism. Its most highlighted feature is payment reminder which is capable enough to ensure timely payment from clients.
Features Offered by Vyapar
- 37+ business reports to help you understand the in-depth financial health of your business.
- Varieties of themes are available to make the brand image of your business look professional in invoices.
- Auto tracking of the due date for every order and sending payment reminders to ensure timely payment
- Make your quotations very easily and send them to your potential customers via WhatsApp, email, or SMS in a few clicks. It also allows you to convert your approved quotation into an invoice very efficiently.
- Track your consignment just by the details of the delivery challan created by Vyapar. Easily convert your delivery challan into an invoice once it reaches the customer.
Pros:
- Offline/Online billing
- Intuitive interface
- Multiple payment options
- Priority support
- Professional quotes and estimates
- 15 days free trial on premium plans
- Basic version mobile App is completely free to use
Cons:
- Live support is not available
- Only works on a single system
Sleek Bill
| Rating | 4.6/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | Ideal billing tool for small businesses and freelancers |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Desktop (Mac, Windows) |
Sleek Bill Online is a convenient cloud-based billing solution that you can use wherever you are, no matter what device you’re on. This amazing tool allows for real-time collaboration with team members and allows for the creation of invoices, proformas, quotes, or delivery notes across multiple devices.
Sleek bill bookkeeping software has made invoicing and accounting effortless, even its tagline is “Invoicing made easy”. To remove the complexity of running and managing the business, Sleekbill software offers an easy-to-use interface, beautiful invoices and quick access to reports to cater to small and medium businesses.
Features Offered by Sleek Bill
- Proforma invoice maker to show your commitment towards your product to your purchaser.
- Create invoices, debit notes, and credit notes seamlessly for a better supplier and customer experience.
- Sleek bill uses TSL security encryption to ensure safe data transmission over the internet.
- Multiple device accessibility with multiple users to manage the business accounts as a team.
Pros:
- Free forever plan is available with limited features
- All the data is stored on the cloud
- Easy inventory tracking
- Professionally designed invoices
- TSL security encryption
Cons:
- Mobile app is not available
- Poor support with no live support
Realbooks
| Rating | 4.7/5 |
|---|---|
| Best For | In-Depth Financial Analysis |
| Deployment | Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, Mobile (Android) |
RealBooks is a comprehensive cloud-based GST and VAT accounting system, designed to make life easier for businesses and accountants alike. It has plenty of features that make bookkeeping and payroll simpler. No matter your business size, its comprehensive feature list and its unique intelligence tools can help increase efficiency at every level.
It offers the best GST compliance feature like GST automated calculation, which do all your GST-related work. Direct integration with the GST portal is a new characteristic that helps in creating e-invoices at no additional cost.
Features Offered by Realbooks
- Manage most of your accounting work anytime anywhere with its prominent mobile app. Create and share the invoice at your fingertip.
- Single platform to manage accounts for your multiple business locations. All your remote locations can upload the documents and you can manage them from a single location.
- Permit users at different business locations to use the software and get a consolidated report of all the branches.
- Dropbox facility to upload bills directly to the cloud. It also offers unlimited storage space to ensure paperless accounting.
- Fully customizable dashboard to provide strategic insights that are valuable for your business.
Pros:
- 256-bit encryption for high-level security
- Mobile app is available
- Free edition with all basic features
- Easy compliance management
- Automated bank reconciliation
- Facility to upload bills via Dropbox
- Unlimited users
- Excellent support
Cons:
- Average user interface
Conclusion
Choosing the right bookkeeping and accounting software is essential for any business, as it helps to keep track of financial transactions and prepare financial reports. There are many free options available, each with their own unique features and capabilities.
Ultimately, the best free bookkeeping and accounting software for your business will depend on your specific needs and budget. It’s important to carefully consider what features and capabilities are most important to your business and choose a software that meets those needs. With the right bookkeeping and accounting software, you can stay organized, on top of your finances, and focused on growing your business.
Preeti Karna
FAQs
What is Bookkeeping Software?
Bookkeeping software is a tool that helps businesses keep track of their financial transactions, including income, expenses, and profits. It can help with tasks such as invoicing, expense tracking, and generating financial reports.
What are some best accounting software for small businesses?
The best accounting software for small businesses will focus on being easy to use, simple, and low-cost. QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Wave Accounting are leaders in small business accounting software.
What are the benefits of accounting software?
Some benefits of accounting software includes:
- It is time saving free accounting software.
- It produces key financial reports right away.
- It links up all your financial information.
- It ensures accuracy of the data.
- It generates financial statements that look professional.
What features should I look for in bookkeeping and accounting software?
The features you should look for in bookkeeping and accounting software will depend on the size and needs of your business. Some common features to consider include invoicing, expense tracking, payroll, project management, double-entry accounting, and support for multiple currencies.
Can I upgrade to a paid version of the bookkeeping and accounting software?
Many free bookkeeping and accounting software options offer the option to upgrade to a paid version, which may offer additional features and support. It’s important to carefully consider your business needs and budget before deciding whether to upgrade.
Is bookkeeping software difficult to use?
Bookkeeping software can vary in terms of complexity and user-friendliness. Some options are designed for small businesses and are easy to use, while others may be more suitable for larger businesses and require more advanced accounting knowledge.
Do I need accounting software for my small business?
Whether or not you need accounting software for your small business depends on the size and complexity of your business, as well as your personal preferences and skills.
Is free accounting software secure?
Free accounting software can be just as secure as paid software, as long as you take appropriate precautions to protect your data including using a strong password, keep your software and operating system up to date, using a firewall and antivirus, etc.
operations of our companies? Unless you’ve got a passion for numbers (or you’re
the founder of an accounting startup), you probably look at accounting a…
Rishabh Rathi
