While their templates for customers, vendors, products, and invoices are perhaps less detailed and customisable than some competitors, they still look professional. All support agents are UK-based and can easily be reached by email or by booking a 20-minute support phone call. This may sound a bit laborious, but the turnaround time is fast and at least you know exactly when you’ll get the call and can prepare accordingly.
This is down to their great setup support and initiative user interfaces. If you’re always looking to cut business costs or are a sole trader, small business, or start-up that’s not ready to go premium, this is the best accounting software you’ll find for free. Xero stands out with its modern user interface and ranks among the best for its core accounting features. Its functionality can be expanded further thanks to integrations and the supporting apps are the icing on the cake. You can only tweak and expand your business if you truly understand its financial position. The reports and graphs offered by a sole trader, large business and SME accounting software in the UK give you quick and often real-time insights.
Best for Small Business: Xero
GnuCash began life in 2001, and is a desktop open-source accounting software. QuickFile focuses on core accounting functionalities – but does also offer additional features like automated bank feeds and additional file storage for a small extra fee if you were looking to enhance your experience. QuickFile offers a good range of accounting features, however, compared to other software there are differences in the depth and extent when it comes to certain features, so it all depends on what you need. Most notably, the Standard plan lets you create up to 5,000 invoices per year, as opposed to just 1,000 for the Free plan.
- However, this does require an investment of your own time, both to learn what to do and how to do it.
- You get 70% off for the first 3 months and extra savings for a yearly subscription.
- The competition among accounting software for accountants is fierce, and it’s not easy to stand out when many companies have the same features.
- In fact, all of our accounting software reviews for small businesses put ‘time-saving’ as one of the key factors we are looking for before we recommend a platform.
- Payroll can be added to both plans for £5.40 a month for up to 2 payroll employees, then £2.70 for each additional employee per month.
Crucially, QuickBooks gets updated regularly, with several new features added recently, such as a built-in income tax estimator and a new month-end tool for professional accountants. Be sure to check that the accounting package you’re interested in using is fully compatible with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital vision. Sage is one of the better-known account software out there and is popular amongst medium and large businesses. Unfortunately, it is another platform that has something of a learning curve that may put off people with limited time. If you’re looking for a well-known brand, Zoho offer some of the most-used business software in the world. If you prefer simplicity and ease-of-use over depth of features, the ANNA Business Tools software has everything a new small business might need to keep their books in order.
FreshBooks Features
Even the bottom tier plan has enough support to keep you satisfied, however. The wizard will guide you through each necessary step, including regions and languages, branding, and importing existing data. You can even play with a ‘demo account’ to get to grips with the software. Today’s leading accounting platforms offer standard security overpayment of benefits features like data encryption, secure credential tokenisation and more. While human error will always play some role in security breaches, you can be confident in your accounting platform when it comes to keeping your information safe. TrulySmall free accounting software is best for freelancers who need basic accounting features.
- However, in truth, most of the software out there is good, it’s mostly about finding the one that best suits your individual needs.
- All in all, it helps you maintain accurate and up-to-date financial records, improve efficiency, reduce errors, and obtain valuable insights into the financial health of your business.
- This tried-and-true accounting software offers customizable accounting, strong features, and a traditional feel.
- Better still, because it's a cloud-based system there's always the reassurance that your data is saved and secure.
- As you’d expect, it’s therefore up to speed when it comes to HMRC’s Making Tax Digital campaign, while offering something for business of all sizes.
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based on our tests and personal experience with a product/service. Having been around for over 40 years in some form or another, Sage remains the most used accounting software in the UK. This is followed by long-time rival QuickBooks and a handful of powerful platforms like FreshBooks and Xero. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily make them the best, though QuickBooks still takes our crown. All paying customers are entitled to free training and support, including a one-on-one session with a qualified bookkeeper, which is ideal if you have started a business for the first time.
What is the Most Widely Used Accounting Software?
To help you find the best free accounting software for your needs, we’ve compiled a list of our top picks. We selected these solutions based on pricing, features, support, reputation and more. Thankfully that job is made much easier than it used to be because much of the information you need to record is captured digitally. Most bookkeeping and accounting software will allow you to import a lot of this digital data into your chosen program, meaning much less work is needed to stay on top of both your books and your accounts.
Because GnuCash is open source software it’s a bit more difficult and fruitless to contact the original developers but there are still countless options if you need help. For example, there’s a very thorough online manual covering all of its features. All plans allow you to add payroll functionality for an extra £3.50 per month. As for the Android and iOS mobile apps, although they have separate ones for different functions. These work flawlessly and allow you to accomplish much more on the go than some others. You get extensive help pages on the website, which include FAQs and text and video tutorials.
Sage Business Cloud Accounting
Xero integrates with over a thousand third-party apps, including several expense tracking, project tracking and reporting tools that may be available at a lower cost than Xero’s add-on fee. Top Xero integrations include ApprovalMax, Ignition, Shopify, Invoice Away, Square, GoCardless and many more. On the other hand, Xero Ultimate — Xero’s most expensive and advanced plan — is £15 cheaper per month than QuickBooks’ priciest plan. Choosing the right accounting software is one of the most pivotal decisions you’ll ever make as a business owner.
Software Advice is free for users because vendors pay us when they receive web traffic and sales opportunities. Software Advice directories list all vendors—not just those that pay us—so that you can make the best-informed purchase decision possible. The Making Tax Digital (MTD) scheme is part of the government’s plans to digitise the tax system. If you work with customers or suppliers overseas, you could benefit even more with a Wise Business account. Although we’re never particularly enthused by knowledge bots, Wave has done a pretty good job of implementing one.
Patriot Accounting: Best Accounting & Payroll Software
The Standard and Plus plans are MTD ready and allow VAT to be submitted directly to HMRC. Payroll can be added to both plans starting at £7 a month for up to 5 employees, with additional plans covering up to 100 employees. Excluding the Self-Employed plan, all plans are Making Tax Digital (MTD) ready, allowing VAT to be submitted directly to HMRC. Payroll can be added to all plans (except Self-Employed) for an additional £4 per month plus £1 per employee. Our expert team produce daily news and advice pieces on the most pressing issues facing small companies today, covering topics from how to finance your business to finding the right software and technology. Another issue that might be off-putting for a UK small business owner is that telephone support only works during US daytime (8am to 8pm EST/-5hrs GMT), which means that no telephone help is available before 1pm.