Business Accounting Software

What are the options for your business accounting software?

If you are starting out in business or you are planning expansion one of the tools you may need to look at, is your accounting software. There are several different options available and finding the right solution may take some time.

A good starting point may be to speak to your accountant or bookkeeper if you have one, they may have a product that they use and can recommend. It is also worth speaking to other businesses or look on forums for recommendations.

We have outlined some of the options available for your business. Look at each option and find the advantages and disadvantages.

Free Accounting Software

We have written our own free accounting software (due to be released January 2012), which we have made simple to use. It is designed for the small business as a simple cash book, with reports for Profit & Loss and Balance sheet. The software is ideal for the small business. In the future we plan to upgrade the software to include debtors and creditors. Look at the features of Account IT - Free accounting Software.

Business Accounting Software - Free Microsoft Excel Templates

There are several free excel bookkeeping templates available for down load, most of these are for the very basic business and you may find that you need to transfer to another product fairly quickly. Some of the templates are also fairly difficult to use and mistakes can easily be made. Ensure that you test the template first and if they have a demo take a look to see if the reports included are useful.

Paid Microsoft Excel Templates

Paid for excel templates can be a cheap solution with a one off payment. If you are going to pay for a template ensure that you can do a trial first.

Business Accounting Software - Cloud Accounting

What is cloud accounting? Cloud accounting is becoming a very popular product for business accounts. You pay a fixed fee each month which includes support and upgrades. All the software and data is held on a remote server, which you can access from any PC. Most of the suppliers offer a free trial with up to 60 days. Some of the popular suppliers include, Kashflow and e-conomic.

Accounting Software Packages

The tradition way is to purchase an accounting software package such as QuickBooks or Sage. This can be an expensive initial outlay, but in the long term may be cheaper than paying monthly for cloud accounting. On top of the software you may also need to pay for support on a yearly basis.

Look at our accounting software reviews section for further details about the different packages available.

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