Accounting is the crux of the business world. Quickbooks/ quickbooks alternativers help companies to pay bills and manage payrolls through both in-house and cloud-based applications. Quickbooks, an accounting software package is an excellent option for small and medium-sized business. Charts, business plans, spreadsheets, invoices, and much more are all possible with QuickBooks. Quickbooks application can be used for Invoicing, payment acceptance, tracking income and expenditure, estimation, billing, inventory, taxation, and a few areas.
Live bookkeeping has never been this so comfortable thanks to Quickbooks. Money management, expense tracking, receipt generation, invoice management, and reporting have all been possible to manage with a click of the mouse making finance/ accounting management very easy to maintain. While Quickbooks is beneficial to manage various aspects of finance, graphs & reporting, accounting registers, lists, and forms are some of the basic features of Quickbooks.
Quickbooks pricing & features
Tracking income and expenditure is a vital step in the success of every business. Companies make purchases and send invoices to their clients in a large volume. Keeping track of it even if entered manually could lead to a lot of confusion. The billing management feature of Quickbooks enables businesses to have a no-hassle and error-free billing.
Reporting/dashboard plays a very crucial role in the success of a business. It allows companies to keep track of various activities and make strategic decisions based on that. Missing a payment to a client or sending invoices to a customer can prove hazardous to the reputation of a business. Quickbooks invoicing feature resolves all the challenges a company would face with invoicing and payments.
The quick books quick start plan costs $25 every month payable as $8 for the first quarter. Creating invoices, estimation of taxes, reporting, sales and sales tax, and tracking income and expense are the features covered in this plan.
Flexibility & functionality challenges and lack of bank transaction feed usability are a few challenges that the Quickbooks users have faced. Syncing the online version with the desktop version is not available and hence can make things very complicated for flourishing businesses.
Is the Quickbooks available for free?
Quickbooks are not available to use for free. You will have to get a basic paid subscription plan to use it, making it an issue for a small business/ freelancer to consider it. While the Quickbooks versions are not super expensive, it is a challenge for freelancers and small-sized companies to invest in accounting software without actually trying it out for a short time. Hence users wonder if there are any Quickbooks alternatives.
How to use Quickbooks
- An excellent choice for business owners - It enables them to make some of the strategic decisions based on the collected and analyzed financial data(invoicing).
- Easy to use for Small business - Quickbooks helps companies to arrange their accounting data with ease and efficiency. Quickbooks are a hassle-free solution for companies to manage their receivables and payables effectively and efficiently. Quickbooks also enables small businesses to integrate with payrolls and banks effortlessly.
- Freelancers - If you are a freelancer looking for an accounting system that is pocket friendly and is compatible with most systems, then you would like to have a look at QuickBooks. Billing, taxation, and remote access are some of the features helpful to freelancers with remote working.
Reviews of Quickbooks
Customers across the globe think Quickbooks is an excellent option for taxation, billing, inventory, and other accounting related issues. Users have been raving about the features that are easy to use and implement.
Customer support and technical glitches seem to be the major concerns for most of the users, making them wonder why there haven't been any improvements around it.
Now that we know the usage, reviews, pricing, and features of Quickbooks.
What are some of the QuickBooks alternatives?
Quickbooks have tons of exciting features with its own set of pros and cons. Not every freelancer and business can use/ afford Quickbooks. There are numerous Quickbooks alternatives in the market. Invoicera, Xero, Sage, Zipbooks, Hiveage, Wave Accounting, and a few others make some of the best Quickbooks alternatives that offer a variety of features with different price plans. However, it depends on individual requirements to choose particular accounting software.
A freelancer might need software that works well for invoicing and taxation, and a small business might need Quickbooks alternatives that offer features like sales and inventory management. While companies can afford to opt for a subscription plan, a freelancer would want to try out the free trial to understand how it works and if it is worth using. Most of the Quickbooks alternatives offer free trials for a limited timeframe. It would be wise to use the free trial and then consider a subscription plan best suitable.
Let us look at some of the Quickbooks alternatives their usage, features, and pricing plans.
1. FreshBooks
FreshBooks is among the Quickbooks alternatives that are cloud-based accounting software, best suitable for freelancers. Freelancers would like to concentrate on their skills and complete their work on time and build a reputation with their clients and not be bothered about the hassles of invoicing and taxation.
- Time tracking, invoicing, expense tracking can all be done in a few minutes instead of spending hours together on it. FreshBooks also offers a free trial for 30 days without taking your credit card details.
- Expense and time tracking features of Freshbooks are helpful for legal billing, the accounting feature comprises of bank reconciliation, billing & invoicing accounts receivable, and expense tracking.
- Mobile payments, online invoicing, payment processing, tax calculator, hourly-billing, multi-currency are all a part of the billing & invoicing feature.
- The Lite plan costs $6 every month and is an excellent Quickbooks alternative for freelancers. The lite plan covers features like Customized unlimited invoices, unlimited - expense entries, time tracking, and estimates. Taxation reports, Credit card payments, and Bank transfers are a few other features that make your accounting easier if you are an individual managing your business or a freelancer looking for accounting software that is easy to use.
- The Plus subscription plan is an excellent fit for small businesses looking to grow exponentially. The plus plan costs $10 per month and covers fifty billable clients and covers all the features available in the Lite plan. The Plus plan also includes features like accounting reports, automation of recurring invoices and payment reminders, and unlimited proposals.
- The Premium plan costs $20 a month and is a good fit for large businesses with dynamic teams. The premium plan covers 500 billable clients and the remaining features as available with the Plus subscription plan.
However, suppose you are a thriving business looking for a customized plan that includes integrations, training, and a personal account manager. You can contact the team directly and consider working on a personalized subscription.
Xero is an excellent choice of Quickbooks alternatives for all small and medium businesses looking for a complete accounting software package. Xero covers legal accounting features like account & document management, time & expense tracking, calendar management, and automated billing system. Fixed asset management, payroll management, purchase orders, tax management, fund accounting, and a few other accounting features.
Xero rates highest on easy to use, customer service, and features on the reviews by users and most of the users recommend it.
Sage is another Quickbooks alternatives that are great to manage to account for small business owners. Sage offers cloud-based accounting software that enables business owners to try it out for free and access it from anywhere through cloud and is compatible with ios and android also. Sage offers accounts receivable & payable, Tax management, payroll management, expense tracking, bank reconciliation, and billing & invoicing features.
Most users approve Sage as a very easy to use accounting software, with excellent features, and a high ROI. However, customer support services seem to need improvement as per a significant share of reviewers.
Sage accounting start is a subscription plan that suits you best if you are a small business looking to manage your basic accounting. The accounting start plan costs you $10 per month and offers features like managing your bank feeds, creating sales invoices, and account receivables. You can try this plan for free.
The accounting plan is also available to try for free, and the subscription costs you $25 a month. Automated entry of accounts, cash flow statements, purchase invoices, lets you stay connected to your bank, and real-time reporting are some of the features available in this plan. The features of the accounting start plan are also available in this plan.
4. Wave Accounting
WaveAccounting is a complete accounting software package with users that are mostly individuals or small businesses with less than ten employees. WaveAccounting includes numerous features like -
- Sales tax
- Transaction history
- Security
- Billing
- reporting & statistics
- Real-time updates
- Payroll management
- Multi-currency
- Expense & time tracking
- Drag & drop options
- Balance sheet
- Invoicing
overall accounting management making it a complete package. Wave Accounting is an excellent alternative to QuickBooks. It is an excellent choice of an accounting solution that covers all your accounting needs, irrespective of the size of your business.
WaveAccounting has a free plan making it an excellent choice for small businesses to consider as accounting software that covers all their accounting needs.
The Wave Accounting "Open" plan enables you to manage unlimited bank and credit card accounts, helps you organize income & expenses and align it into tax categories. The dashboard feature helps you to make changes as per the business performance instantly. Unlimited users/ partners/ collaborators are covered. Tracking sales tax is much more comfortable with the available features making it one of the best Quickbooks alternatives available in the market.
The accounting, invoicing, and receipts features are all of zero cost.
Credit card payments are as per transaction.
The payroll management costs $35 every month for tax service states and $20 monthly base fee for self-service states.
Features, ease of use, and ROI are some of the areas that have received a top rating by the users; however, customer support services is not a big favourite among the users the least.
If you are looking for alternatives for accounting software, then the Zipbooks accounting software might be a great fit irrespective of the size of your business. Billing & Invoicing, bookkeeping, account receivables, expense reporting, financial reporting, and other basic accounting is all made possible with a few clicks through Zipbooks features making it a great alternative to Quickbooks.
The accountant subscription plan is a customized plan that enables the business to migrate from existing accounting software, time tracking across various clients, dashboards, and other financial accounting are all a part of this plan. The cost may depend on the customization of the subscription plan and should be a part of the discussion with the ZipBooks team.
Hiveage is an easy to use accounting software that works well for a small business. Online invoicing, estimating, convenient online payments, reporting, automated recurring payment, time & expense training, and collaborating with multiple companies is all made possible with Hiveage making it one of the best Quickbooks alternatives.
The free subscription plan covers payment gateways, unlimited estimates, invoices, time & expense tracking, and enables you to 5 clients.
- The Basic plan costs $16 per month and an excellent fit for a freelancer. The basic subscription plan covers all the features in the free subscription and enables you to manage 50 clients. Financial reporting and unlimited recurring billing are a few other features that are a part of the basic plan.
- The Pro plan is most suitable for small-sized business and costs $25 per month. This plan enables you to manage 250 clients. Domain emails, customized email notifications, and automatic payment reminders are some of the other features available under the Pro plan apart from the features available in the "basic subscription plan".
- The Plus subscription plan costs $42 per month and enables you to add upto 1000 clients and ten team members. All subscription plans are available to try for free before opting to pay for it.
Ease of use, features, customer service, and ROI has all received great reviews from the users, making it the best among the Quickbooks alternative.
7. Invoicera
Whether you are a freelancer or a big size business, Invoicera offers excellent features to manage invoices. Invoicera software is compatible with the existing environment, can be customized and integrated as per the business needs. Sending invoices can be quite a challenging task for high volume business. An easy to use invoicing software, cloud accounting is enabled so that data is easily accessible and allows integrations too.
Invoicera offers a free plan with numerous integrations and customized invoicing templates. However, Invoicera does not facilitate live bank feeds, expenditure recording, and a majority of users have reported unsatisfactory customer support.
All the small business and freelancers that are users of Quickbooks alternatives have begun to understand the importance of online accounting software packages. They are user friendly, offer a simple method to check the cash flow into the business, tracks income and expenses, and enable users to maintain their accounts without any hassles. While most of the Quickbooks alternatives offer cloud-based accounting solution to address all the accounting challenges of any business, they also make it easy to use and save time for the users.
You cannot use Quickbooks free instead Quickbooks alternatives are available for free and charges per month based on the plan that you use. There are tons of accounting software available in the market that work well as Quickbooks alternative and users have reviewed it to be an easy to use accounting software. Small business can save a lot of time by using Quickbooks alternative for their accounting management. The best Quickbooks alternatives offer tons of useful features that help place purchase orders, manage inventory, tracking income and expenses, invoicing, real-time reporting, and a few other accounting solutions.
Accounting software made available online for users to manage their end-to-end accounting solutions, whether they are small business/ freelancers saves time and is worth the money invested. It enables users to track their income and expenses, make real-time changes on the software, will allow them to manage purchase orders, schedule automated credit card and other recurring payments.
While Quickbooks alternative providers enable you to use it on a mobile app and customize many features as per the plan, they hold the rights reserved for the software.
Most of the Quickbooks alternative is user friendly and covers income and expenses tracking without a paid subscription.
8. Zoho Books
Zoho books are also another accounting software package that enables freelancers/ businesses to keep an eye on the cash inflow and outflow, manages bank account reconciliation in real-time, and helps to manage invoicing and payments. Zoho books not only manages the accounting part of the business it also enables companies to make strategic decisions based on the accounting reports. If you are a small business/ individual looking for an accounting software package with a small number of users that is not only user friendly but also pocket friendly, then Zoho books are a great choice.
- Zoho Books also have add-on plans that can increase the capacity of your account with several users and contacts. Also, if you are keen on inventory management software or an expense tracking software, then Zoho books can work with you for some customized plans.
Zoho Books also offer a mobile app that is compatible with ios and android making it a Quickbooks alternative. Small businesses considering to opt for free Quickbooks can find Zoho books as a replacement. Zoho books are user friendly with customized templates, available for users to access CRM and other real-time data on the mobile app if they have the required software. They can track income and expenses apart from many other features. Zoho Books is an excellent choice for small businesses looking for quick book free.
Benefits of using Zoho books
Conclusion
Numerous companies have designed accounting software that is available on various interfaces and affordable too. If you're looking to use some great products for your accounting needs, then this article would help you understand the one that is best suitable for your needs. Financial reports, invoicing, inventory, payroll, bank statements can all get overwhelming. While it is terrifying to try out free accounting software, it would be a great idea to list out the accounting requirements of the company before choosing the right tools.
Irrespective of the size of the business accounting and taxation are two areas that are inevitable for any business. If you are browsing through for deals to get Quickbooks online, then you should consider the Quickbooks alternatives available online. Tons of them are both user and pocket friendly. If you are buying accounting software to manage your finances, then you should find some of the Quickbooks alternatives useful.
Zoho Books, Xero, Sage, FreshBooks, WaveAccounting, Hiveage, Invoicera, and Zipbooks are some of the top Quickbooks alternatives that cover features like real-time reconciliation of bank statements, invoicing, automated recurring payments, reporting, taxation, and payroll management. A business involves a lot of financial transactions. Starting from capital investment to deduction of the cost incurred and the profit management along with payroll, and other banking transactions requires an array of services.
The Quickbooks alternatives cover all the financial/ accounting management in its software package along with real-time banking reconciliations, making it a perfect package of accounting that is easy, efficient, and pocket friendly. The features, pricing, and usage of each of these accounting packages vary from one to the other it is vital to understand the subscription plans and the features covered under the subscription plan to choose the best accounting software.
Questions asked while looking for Quickbooks Alternatives:
Caroline is an editor and contributor to Wikipedia articles; loves writing around food, wine, and small business. For a short time, she also worked for the Polish marketing consulting firm.
