Accounting software is a great way for a small business owner, freelancer, or contract worker to keep track of their money. These solutions usually come with features like billing, tracking of expenses, and financial reports. Even though free accounting software won’t have as many features as paid software, it can still help you keep track of your money.
We’ve made a list of our top choices for free accounting software to help you find the best one for your needs. We chose these solutions based on price, features, customer service, reputation, and other factors.
1. Zoho Books
Zoho is a suite of business software that includes accounting software called Zoho Books. The free version has everything you need to get your finances in order, like tracking expenses and mileage, reconciling, sending invoices, and getting help by email. One of its best features is that it can work with other Zoho products, like Zoho CRM. This makes it a good choice for businesses that already use other Zoho software.
Who needs to use it:
Zoho Books works best for small businesses that already use other Zoho products and want to connect their accounting software so that everything works together smoothly.
2. ZipBooks
Some of ZipBook’s competitors limit the number of invoices you can send, but you can send as many invoices as you want with ZipBook’s free accounting software. This makes it a good choice if most of your business’s money comes from bills. In addition to billing, you can also get basic reports, manage your vendors and customers, and use Square or PayPal to accept digital payments. Paid plans start at $15 per month and include things like auto-billing, reminders, time tracking, and the ability to save invoice line items.
Who needs to use it:
ZipBooks’s free accounting software is best for service-based businesses that send out a lot of invoices.
3. Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting is one of the easiest free accounting programs to use. Its interface is similar to that of Mint. With Wave, you can keep track of your income and expenses, send invoices, track sales tax, and make reports. Use the same account to run multiple businesses, check your dashboard to see how business is going, and work with as many partners and accountants as you want.
Paid plans start at $20 per month and include features like invoicing, receipts, tracking payments, and double-entry bookkeeping. It also lets you pay employees with a feature called Wave Payroll. With our Wave Accounting review, you can find out more about what it has to offer.
Who needs to use it:
Wave Accounting is the best free accounting software for businesses that want software that is easy to use.
4. NCH
If your small business has less than five employees, you can use the free version of NCH as your accounting software. The free version doesn’t have all of the big features that are good for big businesses, but it still has a lot to offer. You can make income statements, balance sheets, profit and loss (P&L) statements, and sales analysis by item, customer, and salesperson. This software can be used with either a Mac or a PC.
Who needs to use it:
NCH’s free accounting software is best for small businesses that want to make different financial reports.
5. Sunrise
Sunrise is a good choice if you want free accounting software with good P&L statements. You can not only make P&L statements, but also process payments, track income, send invoices, track expenses, and send quotes. It has one paid plan that costs $19.99 per month and has features like tracking cash flow, automatically putting expenses into categories, and integrating payments.
Who needs to use it:
Businesses that want to make detailed profit and loss statements should use the free accounting software from Sunrise.