Is QuickBooks the Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses?

While many factors contribute to a startup’s growth, few activities are as essential as bookkeeping. If business owners want to thrive despite exigent market circumstances and mounting competition, they need financial visibility.

In other words, they must frequently track and account for company revenues and expenses. Equipped with this information, a business leader can then make the most prudent operational decisions.

Fortunately, bookkeeping processes that were once conducted manually have been largely replaced by automated accounting software, such as QuickBooks. 

But, you may wonder, “Is QuickBooks small business accounting software the best on the market?” Read on as we discuss why QuickBooks is such a popular choice. 

Small Business Bookkeeping 

Bookkeeping is the process of documenting the company’s financial transactions to know how exactly much you are making and spending. 

Maintaining these financial records is no simple task. In fact, for many small business owners, it can be an overwhelming process—and that is true without touching on more complex financial accounting issues, such as cash flow, profitability, taxes, or financing. 

In the past, much of a company’s accounting activities were conducted manually or via rudimentary spreadsheets like Excel. Either method was slow, prone to errors, and, frankly, not the best use of a business owner’s time. 

Accounting software, such as QuickBooks, has largely remedied this issue, helping to streamline and simplify the bookkeeping process. And the right software can automate many record-keeping procedures and conduct data analysis so that you can make the most informed decisions.

What Is QuickBooks Small Business Accounting Software

Intuit’s QuickBooks is a cloud-based accounting platform that small business owners can use to manage cash flow and track the company’s finances. It offers robust accounting functionality, an exceptional user experience, and extensive customizability, making it ideal for beginners and veterans alike.

QuickBooks is one of, if not the most popular accounting software on the market for small businesses. Of course, other strong, low-cost (or even free) options are worth reviewing, such as Xero and FreshBooks. But over the past few years, QuickBooks has repeatedly been named the top choice on the market. As PC Magazine noted: 

“Intuit QuickBooks Online is still the best online accounting application for small businesses, thanks to its depth, flexibility, and extensibility. It is easy to use, well designed, and built to serve a wide variety of users.”   

Moreover, thanks to its popularity, business owners can leverage countless online educational and training resources to master the software. 

Quickbooks Features

Why is QuickBooks the top pick for accounting professionals? 

Just look at the “Plus” package—the most popular plan—to see many of the standout features: 

• Income and Expenses – Track where your company’s money flows with secure transaction imports and automated sorting and tax categorization. 

• Invoice and payments – Create and track professional invoices, receive status updates, and send payment reminders. 

• Tax deductions – Share your company books with your accountant, and organize and sort income and expenses into their proper tax categories.  

• Comprehensive reports – Create inventory, sales, and profitability reports for visibility that keeps finances on track.

• Receipt capture – Quickly upload photos of receipts, which will be automatically matched to existing expenses or used to create a new expense report. 

• Cashflow – Manage your cash flow with online payments and cash flow forecasts. 

• Includes 5 users – Provide Quickbooks account access to five different users. 

• Bill management – Organize your bills in a centralized location, plan payments, and decide how vendors get paid.

• Enter time – Clock employee time and billable hours by employee, client, and project then automatically add these costs to invoices.

• Inventory – Manage your inventory by tracking products, cost of goods, and inventory levels. You can create purchase orders, manage vendors, or track popular items. 

• Project profitability – Track your labor costs, payroll, and expenses from a bird’s eye perspective to determine project profitability at a glance. 

Benefits of QuickBooks 

Naturally, adopting and integrating new accounting software is an investment. But, there are several potential advantages that any of the top platforms could provide to create immediate ROI: 

• More accurate bookkeeping – Compared to manual-based processes or excel spreadsheets, QuickBooks is far more accurate. If a change occurs in one place, it will be automatically reflected in statements and reports. By digitizing the month’s end close, you can reduce the likelihood of data entry errors, missed tasks, and misstatements.

• Time savings – Once you have the software, you can save countless hours of time-draining manual bookkeeping and accounting processes. This, in turn, frees up business hours that will be better spent on value-add activities. 

• Payroll simplification – Small businesses typically do not require a specialized payroll system. With Quickbooks, you can automate employee payments, healthcare and insurance deposits, and ensure that your payroll taxes are in order. 

• Actionable insights – If you manage your books properly, QuickBooks can analyze your financial information, helping you highlight strategic opportunities.  

The Next Step: Hiring Accounting Professionals  

As your business grows, the financial complexities and time constraints of managing and running the company will likewise increase. 

Eventually, many business owners reach the stage where the accounting and financial management demands become too significant a task for them to still handle personally, even with an accounting program like Quickbooks. This critical juncture requires hiring accounting professionals whose sole task is to manage your books and prepare the company for tax season. 

However, many small- and mid-sized business leaders have opted to outsource these specialized financial services rather than hiring in-house. By hiring a fractional accountant or controller, you can:

• Optimize your internal resources
• Gain immediate access to financial experts 
• Save money on hiring
• Improve your regulatory compliance practices
• Strengthen your record keeping