Best Accounting Software for Small Business

Accounting software for small businesses requires customization tools and apps to meet the needs. At the top of the list are the general ledgers, tax management, payroll, and financial reporting.

Small businesses need software that streamlines and simplifies financial processes with professionalism, allowing them to focus on business growth. That brings us to listing the best accounting software for small businesses, mentioning pros and cons, and the pricing plans:

The Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses

I searched deeply to discover the unknown features in each software for small businesses that have no knowledge or lack experience in the financial field.

1. Daftra
2. QuickBooks Online
3. Xero
4. FreshBooks
5. Wave
6. Zoho Books
7. SAGE
8. Wave
9. Kashoo
10. TrulySmall Accounting
11. ZipBooks

Let’s start with accounting software most commonly used in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the Middle East; the most commonly used is “Daftra.”

1- Daftra accounting software

Daftra software fits small businesses. No matter the field, it streamlines the long processes of doing business, starting with minimizing errors, reducing liability, and continuously improving financial record-keeping.

When I ask myself what small businesses need, I find that the complexity of operations is the last thing any small business wants to face, especially at first, so the software must feature an uncomplicated and friendly interface, step-by-step guidelines, and support availability 24/7.

Our findings suggest that Daftra accounting software is the most suitable choice for small businesses, being personalized in each field and system, and even customizable in colors and tools to match your brand identity and goals.

Daftra's Versatile Components for Diverse Industries

Accounting software should include various modules for different industries. For example, Daftra offers a sales management software that records and tracks sales, manages customer relationships, and analyzes performance.

As well as customizable invoicing features and a tracking system for payments to manage the cash flow. Additionally, the point-of-sale system, which is integrated with retail to enable transactions and real-time inventory management, also generates reports.

Efficient Journal Entry Management in Daftra Accounting

Daftra can manage both automated and manual journal entries through its integrated transaction system, which connects related accounts and data. It automatically generates entries for each transaction, including the debtor and creditor details, saving time and effort while minimizing errors.

Financial Year and Closing Period Management

Daftra financial closing periods assist in marking the timeframe for finalizing financial records (monthly, quarterly, or annually). It accurately records, verifies, and adjusts all account balances and protects the financial data from unauthorized changes, plus simplifies audits while ensuring reports' compliance.

Streamline Invoicing with Daftra Accounting Software

With Daftra accounting software, you can customize invoice templates to match your branding. Additionally, the software automates recurring invoices, saving you time and effort.

Daftra Accounting Software also includes a payment tracking feature for unpaid invoices, enhancing cash management.

Effortless Bank Reconciliation with Daftra

Daftra simplifies bank reconciliation by automatically matching transactions in your accounts with your bank statements. It also detects discrepancies quickly, helping your business maintain accurate financial data.

Seamless Multi-Currency Management

Wherever you are, Daftra handles multi-currency with real-time exchange rates, sending invoices and catering to international clients as well.

The Essentials of Mobile Accounting

A mobile app for accounting software is not a feature; it is a necessary element that should exist. It is helpful in managing the accounts and enhances business processes by providing real-time updates of account data and reports, and other things.

Preparing and Managing General Account Reports

Through Daftra’s interface, you can create and track all reports related to product sales, invoices, and sales profits—whether by category, product, service, or specific time period.

Additionally, Daftra’s accounting software facilitates the preparation of financial reports for product purchases and payments, segmented by time, calculates supplier balances, automatically generates supplier account statements, and tracks the aging of accounts receivable in the general ledger.

Cash Flow Report

Daftra helps you calculate and track cash flows from all sources—whether operating activities, investing activities, or financing activities—followed by the automatic calculation of the total cash flow from each source.

Automated Sales Accounts

Daftra delivers precise performance through the smart automation of sales-related accounting tasks. It takes into account product categories, branches, sales returns, and applies applicable tax rates and discounts (if any) to automatically calculate the total sales figure with ease and accuracy. This greatly simplifies the calculation and monitoring of cash flows and profits from sales revenues.

Daftra’s Pricing Plan for Small Businesses

2- QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is an internationally used accounting software due to its integration system that streamlines time and effort in creating invoices and managing journal entries, besides generating different reports, among other features.

QuickBooks offers 4 plans: simple, essential, plus, and advanced. The monthly subscription prices range from 7 SAR to 257 SAR. All plans include real-time financial data, free support, secure cloud storage, accountant access, reports and dashboards, and unlimited invoices.

It's important to mention that a free one-on-one session with a member of the onboarding team is included.

Services Provided by QuickBooks for Small Business Management

• Banking transactions and reconciliation: Perform and reconcile banking transactions while providing banking summaries to monitor business performance in real time.
• Automatic transaction matching: Match sales and purchase transactions automatically by comparing them with cash flows, invoices, and expenses.
• Data import and transfer: Import and transfer data into the system, such as bank statements and CSV files containing sales and purchase invoices along with related taxes, customers, suppliers, and currencies.
• Automated invoicing: Schedule customer invoices and send them automatically, along with reminder notifications at due dates, while automatically calculating discounts, taxes, and shipping costs.
• Specialized financial reports: Generate financial reports such as the balance sheet, cash flow statement, and profit and loss statement.
• Inventory valuation and tracking: Automatically assess and manage inventory using the First-In, First-Out (FIFO) method, ensuring older stock nearing expiration is used first.

PROS

• User-friendly interface.
• One-month free trial.
• Real-time cloud syncing across devices.

CONS

• Requires accounting knowledge to unlock its full value.
• Limited industry-specific templates.

QuickBooks for small business pricing plan overview

3- XERO Accounting Software

If you are a small business, sole trader, or freelancer, “XERO” accounting software will assist your business perfectly; it provides efficient online invoicing, offers bank connection data from 21,000+ global institutions, and has expense management tools.

The XERO system tracks stock levels and populates invoices and orders with bought and sold items, among many other features to discover.

XERO accounting software monthly Pricing ranges from 108.82 SAR to 258.91 SAR per month; features include invoice and quote sending, bill entry, bank transaction reconciliation, short-term cash flow, business snapshot, and multiple currency support.

PROS

• Automation capabilities
• Strong integration ecosystem with over 1,000 apps
• Smart data and insights to grow your business
• Mobile app enable instant action and data visualization.

CONS

• Slow customer support
• lack advanced capabilities for small business.
• High prices, especially when requesting payroll.

XERO Accounting Software Pricing Plan

4- FreshBooks Accounting software

FreshBooks accounting software meets the needs of small businesses and self-employed professionals, providing features from creating professional invoices to calculating taxes and customizing payment options. It also allows for expense tracking via mobile devices and offers real-time tracking with its accounting tools.

FreshBooks pricing plans typically range from around 7.88 SAR to 24.43 SAR, but it's advisable to check their official website for the most current rates.

PROS

• User-friendly, ideal for freelancers and solopreneurs.
• Best suited for simple service-based businesses.

CONS

• Limited advanced accounting tools.
• Costs can escalate quickly with add-ons.

FreshBooks Accounting Software pricing plan overview:

5- WAVE Accounting software

Wave's software manages invoices, accounts, journal entries, and other tools and apps, requiring only an internet connection and a browser. As well, you can use the mobile app to create and manage invoices and input expenses.

Wave offers efficient customer support 24/7 on all plans. Besides, you can use Wave Payroll for free for up to 30 days.

The Pro plan pricing is 772.24 SAR per month, and features included are automated bank transaction import and categorization, unlimited digital receipt capture, scanning, and expense tracking.

PROS

• Mobile and receipt scanning support.
• professional coaching support options.
• Unlimited users, businesses, and reports.

CONS

• Limited international support
• Not suitable for larger businesses

Wave Accounting Software pricing plan overview:

6- Zoho Books Accounting software

Zoho Books is a comprehensive accounting software for small businesses that offers advanced features for recording and analyzing financial information. It helps save time through automation, reducing the need for manual intervention.

Services Provided by Zoho for Small Business Management

• Sales Management Solutions: Zoho includes a variety of tools such as SalesIQ, which analyzes website visitors, enables direct chat with them, and helps convert them into actual customers.
• Sales Route Optimization: Provides a comprehensive visual sales map with route and trend analysis (Route – Plan, Optimize, Navigate). This feature automatically improves sales plans and routes based on customer analytics and site visits, adjusts these plans according to the behaviors and preferences of new customers, and allows one-click navigation to any customer or planned sales route.
• Marketing Services: Includes managing social media platforms, creating paid advertising campaigns aimed at boosting sales, building surveys to understand customer and audience needs, creating company websites, and managing e-commerce stores.
• Business Finance Apps: Offers applications to manage company payments, invoices, and inventory, such as Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Expense, and Zoho Finance Plus.
• Human Resources Management: Supports HR tasks like recruitment and shift management.

PROS

• Strong performance and 24‑5 support (chat, email, phone)
• Smooth interface with automation, customizable workflows.
   

CONS

• Free plan is limited; top-tier plans can be pricey

Zoho Books Accounting Software pricing plan overview:

7- SAGE Accounting software

Sage 50 is desktop accounting software with cloud connectivity. It includes features like account balances, reconciliation, and bank statements, assisting with sales invoices and bill payments. Pricing plans for Sage accounting software start at 221.09 SAR per month.

PROS

• Mobile support across devices.
• Reliable customer support, active community.
• Flexible, cloud-based, scalable with strong invoicing, and reporting.

CONS

• Missing features like time tracking or integrated payroll.
• Less modern UX compared to newer competitors.
• Higher pricing than most accounting platforms for small businesses

SAGE Accounting Software pricing plan overview:

8- TrulySmall Accounting software

TrulySmall Accounting focuses on time-saving and zero effort by reducing manual processes and automatically handling the taxes, transactions, and other processes. The software features highly secure two-factor authentication.

Streamline your business with OCR technology for receipt scanning, matching, and management, which assists in avoiding tax audit anxiety. In addition to allowing users to customize the system to match their needs.

PROS

• Affordable, accessible, and good report functionality.
• Easy setup with quick bank feed import.
• Supports multi-currency.

CONS

• Bank feed connections can be limited by country.

TrulySmall Accounting Software pricing plan overview:

9- ZipBooks Accounting software

ZipBooks is simple accounting software that offers professional auto-billing and bookkeeping, and reporting. Through ZipBook, you can get smart insights and reports of profits, customers, expenses, performance, and competitors.

PROS

• Offers a forever-free tier with basic bookkeeping and invoicing.

CONS

• Reporting depth is limited.
• Support response can be slow.

ZipBooks Accounting Software pricing plan overview:

Top 10 Needs of Small Businesses from Accounting Software

1. Financial Performance Insights: Access to detailed reports that track revenues and expenses accurately to better understand the company’s financial performance.
2. Professional Invoicing: Ability to create invoices that align with the company’s brand identity, send them easily to clients, and track payments based on issued invoices.
3. Inventory and Warehouse Management: Automatic updates of stock levels to prevent shortages or unexpected surpluses.
4. Accurate Accounting Operations: Execution of complex accounting processes with precision and preparation of essential financial reports such as profit and loss statements and balance sheets to understand the company’s financial position.
5. Regulatory Compliance: Adherence to tax requirements, accounting standards, and Saudi e-invoicing regulations set by ZATCA (Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority).
6. Asset Management: Managing both fixed and current assets, including the calculation of depreciation.
7. User-Friendly Interface: Operating through a simple user interface that enhances efficiency and meets small business needs without requiring extensive training.
8. System Integration: Ability to integrate with other systems such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Point of Sale (POS) systems for complete data management.
9. Scalability and Flexibility: A system that can adapt and expand in line with the growth and evolving needs of small businesses.
10. Reliable Technical Support: Availability of continuous technical support to resolve issues and answer queries that small businesses may face while using the software.

Eventually, the best accounting software for small businesses in terms of pricing plans is “XERO.” For customization matters, it is “FreshBooks,” and it fits freelancers’ requests.

In the matter of comprehensive service and an integrated system, it will be “QuickBooks Online.”

If you are looking for simple software with a user-friendly interface, you must try “WAVE.” On the other hand, the best free plan accounting software is “Zoho Books.”

If you require further details from specialists, Daftra is ready to assist.