7 Top-Rated Accounting Software
Your business’s success depends on how well you manage your funds. Whether you’re a freelancer, solopreneur, or small business owner, accounting software can track all of your spending and income so you have a better grip on your company’s finances.
In this article, we alphabetically list the seven best accounting software, based on verified software reviews. Read more.
We’ve categorized these tools into two groups: stand-alone accounting software and accounting software that’s part of a broader business management platform or suite that offers additional functionality such as inventory management and time tracking.
1. Bill4Time
Bill4Time is a legal time tracking and billing platform that offers trust accounting and invoicing capabilities. It enables businesses to track their accounts payable, accounts receivable, outstanding balance, payment activity, and more. Businesses can set up custom billing rates for each client or project. They can also customize their invoices by adding line items for different services, expenses, and taxes.
Product features of interest*:
Financial reporting: Generate comprehensive reports to view account activity such as outstanding balances and expenses within a specific time frame. You can easily export the data as a PDF or CSV for additional analysis.
Expense tracking: Upload images of expense receipts from your desktop or mobile device to capture transactions for reimbursement.
Online payment: Get a built-in online payment portal where your clients can clear their dues. You can also generate payment reports and review the payment history of each client.
Customer support options: Chat, email, knowledge bank, and phone
Who should consider Bill4Time?
Bill4Time is worth considering for finance professionals in the legal sector who are looking for software to not only track billable hours but also create invoices with detailed time entries to highlight the time spent on specific client tasks.
*Analysis accurate as of April 2023
Starting price: $27 per user, per month (billed annually)
2. FloQast
Unlike Bill4Time, FloQast is a stand-alone accounting solution that specializes in cash flow management, bank reconciliation, and financial close processes. It tracks incoming and outgoing cash flow and monitors balance changes between financial periods. It also provides templatized checklists to track accounting tasks that need to be completed before financial close, such as requesting information from department heads, reconciling accounts, and confirming payments.
Product features of interest*:
AutoRec transaction matching: Automate the reconciliation process for bank, clearing, credit card, intercompany, and other accounts. This feature offers pre-configured matching patterns that expedite the process of identifying which transactions have cleared and flagging discrepancies or unmatched transactions for further review.
Review notes: Once the software flags a reconciliation mismatch or discrepancy, attach a review note to it, and assign the review to a team member. When a pending review is resolved, you can update its status on the review note.
Flux reports: Generate flux reports to showcase current assets, cash, and cash equivalents in a given fiscal year. You can also create summary reports or period-over-period reports to analyze how your business is growing financially.
Customer support options: Chat
Who should consider FloQast?
Businesses looking to expedite their financial close process should consider FloQast. Its automated reconciliation functionality leverages artificial intelligence to match transactions faster, ensuring accuracy and saving hours of manual processing.
*Analysis accurate as of April 2023
Starting price: Available upon request from the vendor
Pro tip
Before shortlisting any software vendor, research their market reputation by reading customer reviews, seeking recommendations from other businesses, and assessing the vendor’s track record for software updates, bug fixes, and overall customer satisfaction.
3. Gestionix
Gestionix is an ERP suite with accounting and financial reporting capabilities. It also supports billing and inventory management. It enables companies to keep track of incoming payments, check the payment status, and reconcile payments against invoices. Businesses can create digital invoices, payroll receipts, and consignment notes. They can also generate financial reports such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
Product features of interest*:
Bank reconciliation: Reconcile bank statements by importing bank account transactions digitally and matching them with corresponding entries in the system. You can also create reconciliation reports, showcasing reconciled transactions and outstanding balances.
Chart of accounts: Get access to a structured listing of all the accounts your organization uses to record financial transactions. This feature also helps categorize account types such as asset, liability, equity, and revenue accounts.
Multi-currency support: Process transactions in multiple currencies and automatically convert transactions to your home currency to simplify calculating tax liabilities.
Customer support options: Chat, email help desk, and phone
Who should consider Gestionix?
Businesses with a predominantly Spanish accounting or retail workforce can leverage Gestionix’s Spanish interface and make it easier for staff members to understand and use the software. Additionally, retail and eCommerce businesses can benefit from Gestionix’s inventory tracking and eCommerce integration capabilities to effectively manage their operations.
*Analysis accurate as of April 2023
Starting price: $299 per user, per month (billed annually)
4. Patriot Accounting
Patriot Accounting is stand-alone business accounting software that enables organizations to track revenue and expenditure, pay bills, create estimates, and invoice unlimited customers. It helps set up multiple accounts, such as expense and income accounts, to handle different types of transactions, such as money deposited or withdrawn, outgoing cash, and incoming money from product sales. Additionally, businesses can connect their bank accounts and credit cards with Patriot software to import bank transactions and simplify reconciliations.
Product features of interest*:
1099 e-filing: Create 1099 payment forms for the independent contractors you hire in a fiscal year, and submit the forms to the IRS and state tax departments.
Customizable invoice templates: Create customizable templates for client invoices. You can edit these templates to add details such as custom rates, unit prices, and discounts. You can also add the payment terms.
Expense tracking: Record and categorize your business expenses by using predefined categories such as office supplies, travel, utilities, and rent. You also have the option to create subcategories or tags within expense categories to get more detailed insights into your spending patterns.
Customer support options: Chat, email, knowledge base, and phone
Who should consider Patriot Accounting?
Patriot Accounting’s patented dual-ledger accounting feature makes it a suitable option for businesses that require both cash-based and accrual-based accounting. It can also be beneficial for businesses that need assistance with year-end payroll tax filing, as it helps create and submit 940, 941, W-2, and W-3 forms.
*Analysis accurate as of April 2023
Starting price: $20 per user, per month
Pro tip
To shortlist a suitable vendor, inquire about their roadmap for future software upgrades and updates. Determine if they regularly release new features, improve functionality, and stay up-to-date with changing accounting standards and regulations under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
5. Ramp
Similar to FloQast, Ramp is a stand-alone accounting solution, but it specializes in managing travel-related expenses. It provides physical and virtual cards that employees can use for company expenses. These cards are linked to the software and have automated receipt matching functionality, enabling businesses to monitor and control spending. Ramp also lets businesses build rules to automate the approval of expenses and review of transactions based on the receipts employees submit.
Product features of interest*:
Intelligent spend insights: Identify areas where you can optimize spending, including recommendations on which subscriptions to cancel, which vendors to negotiate with, and which transactions are not compliant with company policies.
Expense categorization: Automate the process of categorizing expenses based on the type of purchase. This categorization makes it easier to analyze spending patterns and generate financial reports.
Custom spend controls: Set custom spending limits and restrictions on employee cards to limit how much individuals and departments within your business can spend. You can also establish vendor-specific restrictions to manage and control spending.
Customer support options: Email and phone
Who should consider Ramp?
Due to its expense management and custom spend control capabilities, Ramp can be beneficial for businesses that wish to monitor employee expenses and create transaction limits to optimize spending and prevent unauthorized transactions. Its automated receipt matching functionality eliminates the need to manually track and match business receipts against every transaction.
*Analysis accurate as of April 2023
Starting price: Available upon request from the vendor
6. Striven
Similar to Gestionix, Striven is a business management software suite with a dedicated accounting module. It enables businesses to bill their clients, create invoices, record expenses, and generate reports to track overall business finances. It also offers a built-in portal where customers and vendors can view and pay invoices, check the transaction status, accept purchase orders, submit bills, and view their billing and invoicing history.
Product features of interest*:
Customizable visual dashboards: Customize your accounting dashboard with widgets that display financial metrics that matter the most to your business’s financial health.
Budgeting and forecasting: Analyze historical financial data and trends to forecast overall business expenses and create a budget for a specific time period.
Automated bank feeds: Automatically download incoming and outgoing transactions from your bank account to your accounting software. Once downloaded, you can use this data to reconcile accounts by matching bank transactions to accounting activities.
Customer support options: Chat, email, knowledge base, and phone
Who should consider Striven?
Striven’s business management suite is ideal for organizations that need a centralized solution to handle accounting, task and project management, and CRM. Additionally, businesses that need to perform financial analysis by modeling different financial scenarios based on variables such as revenue growth, cost changes, or market fluctuations, and set KPIs for the future can benefit from Striven’s budgeting and forecasting features.
*Analysis accurate as of April 2023
Starting price: $20 per user, per month
7. Synder
Synder is a stand-alone accounting tool that integrates with multiple eCommerce websites and allows businesses to automatically import sales data, expenses, and fees into the accounting dashboard. It automatically tracks different types of transaction fees, including debit and credit card processing fees, across eCommerce channels. It also lets businesses create invoices that have a one-click credit card payment option.
Product features of interest*:
Automated transaction categorization: Define rules to automatically categorize business transactions into appropriate accounts, such as revenue, expenses, and fees.
Daily summary and transaction syncs: Get a daily summary of transactions and sync it to your books as a single journal entry per eCommerce platform. You also have the option to sync every single transaction to your books as a separate sales receipt/invoice.
Automated sales tax filing: Integrate the software with your third-party eCommerce platform and record all sales tax data. Once recorded, the software calculates and remits sales tax on behalf of your business.
Customer support options: Chat, email, knowledge base, and phone
Who should consider Synder?
Synder is suitable for online businesses, particularly those that sell on eCommerce platforms. The software integrates with multiple eCommerce platforms and syncs sales data from them into a centralized accounting dashboard.
*Analysis accurate as of April 2023
Starting price: $11 for up to 50 transactions per month (billed annually)
Pro tip
Evaluate accounting features based on your industry of operation. For example, if you have a construction business, ensure your shortlisted accounting software has job costing functionality to help you determine the cost of hiring construction equipment, labor, and material. On the other hand, if you work in retail, your accounting software should also provide inventory tracking to monitor and track sales and purchases for bookkeeping purposes.
How much does accounting software cost?
Accounting software solutions can cost as low as $8.5 per user, per month, or go all the way up to $299+ per month, depending on various factors—features, number of users, infrastructure requirements, business size/type, training availability, deployment options, integrations, and storage. Most accounting solutions typically include the following pricing plans:
Free trials: No-cost trial plans ranging from 14 to 30 days, giving users access to either all or limited features of the software. These are ideal for businesses that wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.
Free versions: Free software plans offer basic features and/or limited premium feature access. These are ideal for small businesses or individuals on a budget.
Entry-level plans: Start at $8.5 per month and offer limited accounting features such as general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable. These are a good option for small businesses or teams with basic accounting and bookkeeping needs.
Mid-tier plans: Range from $16.25 to $25.25 per month and offer advanced features such as double-entry accounting reports and priority support. These are ideal for businesses that have outgrown basic accounting solutions but don’t require the full range of functionality and scalability offered by enterprise-level accounting tools.
High-end plans: May cost upward of $299 per month. In addition to basic and midrange features, these offer unlimited invoicing, project profitability tracking, business health reports, white-labeled accounting dashboards, and third-party integrations with multiple CRM, project management, and payroll software tools. They are ideal for large enterprises with cross-functional teams.
Hidden costs associated with accounting software
Some accounting tools have hidden charges for bank and ACH transfers, third-party payment portals, and card transactions. It’s advisable to ask vendors about such transaction charges so your small business can budget for them when considering a new accounting tool.
Frequently asked questions when selecting accounting software
Can I migrate my current accounting information and customer data?
Data migration is essential if you’re moving to a new accounting tool, and ideally, the vendor should provide data migration as part of the installation process so your accounting team doesn’t have to manually enter all accounting data into the software.
Is cloud-based accounting software better than desktop-based accounting software?
It depends on your needs and preferences. Cloud-based business accounting software is more accessible and affordable since it can be remotely accessed from multiple devices and doesn’t include the setup costs usually linked with on-premise solutions. However, it may not offer the same level of control and security as desktop-based accounting tools, which run directly on local servers and offer more customizability. However, they are more expensive because of upfront hardware investments and also require more maintenance.
Does the accounting software support accrual or cash accounting?
In accrual-based accounting, revenue and expenses are recorded when transactions happen but before cash is received or paid. In cash-based accounting, income and expenses are recorded only when the money related to transactions is actually received or paid. Due to differences in when finances are reported, one method could be better suited for your small business than the other. However, most enterprise accounting software tools offer both cash and accrual methods so it’s easier to track your business’s finances.
Survey methodology
*Our research team identified these features from vendor websites (as of April 25, 2023) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from accounting software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional features, refer to the vendor's website.
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Feature in Software Advice’s 2023 FrontRunners report for accounting software. We selected the top seven products with the highest ratings to include in this article.
Offer general ledger, accounts payable, bank reconciliation, financial reporting, and accounts receivable as core features.
Meet our accounting software market definition: “Accounting software enables accounting professionals in any type of organization to manage accounts and perform various accounting and financial operations such as record keeping, financial reporting, billing, and invoicing.”
We select and rank products based on an objective methodology developed by our research team. While some vendors may pay us when they receive web traffic or leads, this has no influence on our methodology.
Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Software Advice’s accounting software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Software Advice directory that offer them.