David Barrett, Founder and CEO of Expensify ("expens...
15 votes by Tor Grønsund, Jacob Esparza, Pashmina Lalchandani, (more)
Hi all, sorry for the slow reply. I'm biased, being the founder of Expensify, but here's my take: these options aren't alternatives so much as complementary tools. Expensify integrates with Freshbooks and QuickBooks, for example. So it's not so much a question of which you use individually, but what subset you use as an integrated collection.
If you were going to pick only one, honestly, I'd pick QuickBooks (specifically, QuickBooks Online). That's what your accountant is going to eventually pick so you might as well just get started with it. It is a bit of a pain, especially if you're a non-accountant, but if what you want to do is "accounting" then that's the tool for the job.
On the other hand, you might not actually care about "accounting" in the classic sense -- and that's ok. Most small businesses are just struggling to get off the ground and dealing with the IRS is one of those "problems I'd love to have". So if you're in that boat, I'd ask: what do you *really* want to do (versus, what do you think you're supposed to do).
If what you really want to do is submit invoices to clients and accept payment, FreshBooks is probably your best choice. It's designed explicitly for this and does a great job. it's what all the other contractors use so it's the obvious choice.
As for Expensify, we're the right choice if you have a lot of expenses that you want to track, such as if you do a lot of travelling for work and need to get reimbursed (or reimburse employees). Basically, anything involving business expense tracking, credit card purchases, mobile receipt scanning, or expense reporting is our turf.
Next, there are flavors on the above answers. If you are a consultant and you "re-bill" a lot of expenses to clients, you might consider using Expensify to track those expenses, and then bill them to the client using Freshbooks. Or maybe even skip Freshbooks and just submit invoices to your clients directly through Expensify. (An advantage of this is your clients can pay you directly via Expensify using a credit card or direct deposit, without you needing to set up a merchant account.)
And of course you can always get started with one (eg, Expensify) and then later when your accountant wants you to use QuickBooks, it's a simple matter of exporting all your accumulated expenses to it.
The upshot is these aren't "either/or" options. So I'd suggest figuring out what your greatest pain point is, pick the tool that solves that in the fastest and easiest way, and then you can add the other tools as needed.
-david
Founder and CEO of Expensify
Follow us at http://twitter.com/expens
If you were going to pick only one, honestly, I'd pick QuickBooks (specifically, QuickBooks Online). That's what your accountant is going to eventually pick so you might as well just get started with it. It is a bit of a pain, especially if you're a non-accountant, but if what you want to do is "accounting" then that's the tool for the job.
On the other hand, you might not actually care about "accounting" in the classic sense -- and that's ok. Most small businesses are just struggling to get off the ground and dealing with the IRS is one of those "problems I'd love to have". So if you're in that boat, I'd ask: what do you *really* want to do (versus, what do you think you're supposed to do).
If what you really want to do is submit invoices to clients and accept payment, FreshBooks is probably your best choice. It's designed explicitly for this and does a great job. it's what all the other contractors use so it's the obvious choice.
As for Expensify, we're the right choice if you have a lot of expenses that you want to track, such as if you do a lot of travelling for work and need to get reimbursed (or reimburse employees). Basically, anything involving business expense tracking, credit card purchases, mobile receipt scanning, or expense reporting is our turf.
Next, there are flavors on the above answers. If you are a consultant and you "re-bill" a lot of expenses to clients, you might consider using Expensify to track those expenses, and then bill them to the client using Freshbooks. Or maybe even skip Freshbooks and just submit invoices to your clients directly through Expensify. (An advantage of this is your clients can pay you directly via Expensify using a credit card or direct deposit, without you needing to set up a merchant account.)
And of course you can always get started with one (eg, Expensify) and then later when your accountant wants you to use QuickBooks, it's a simple matter of exporting all your accumulated expenses to it.
The upshot is these aren't "either/or" options. So I'd suggest figuring out what your greatest pain point is, pick the tool that solves that in the fastest and easiest way, and then you can add the other tools as needed.
-david
Founder and CEO of Expensify
Follow us at http://twitter.com/expens
Nichelle Stephens, Have a degree in accounting. done boo...
3 votes by Mark Bakker, Jennifer Dunn Escalona, and Casey Allen
Not all the services do the same thing. Freshbooks and Quickbooks are bookkeeping/accounting applications. Shoeboxed and Expensify help you keep track of expenses, but don't do invoicing, accounts receivable and other bookkeeping functions. Outright.com is a good simple applications where you import banking transactions and income tax summary (Schedule C) is generated. Also there is Kashoo.com, and ZohoBooks. Zoho Books doesn’t have bank integration yet. Zoho Books costs $24/month which is way more than the $9.95 for Outright and Kashoo
Sara Rosenfeld, Community Manager & Customer Advocate...
3 votes by Garrick Saito, Christophe Primault, and Stephen Valenta
Hi,
Great insights so far, I just thought I'd join in and add my two cents. As mentioned above, there really is no one accounting/invoicing software that is best across the board for all small businesses. It really depends on your accounting needs, level of skill with accounting, price point, and the amount of time you are able to devote to your accounting. The more complex your accounting needs, the more likely you are to need a more complex system.
First and foremost, you should determine whether you are looking for accounting, invoicing, or both. You should also try to identify whether you are looking for a financial tracking tool (such as Outright.com ) or if you are looking for real double-entry accounting (such as with http://kashoo.com or www.waveaccounting.com) Disclaimer: I work at Wave. If your accounting needs are complex and you will be allocating a lot of time and resources to your accounting, you may want to consider an option such as Quickbooks online.
As you mentioned invoicing, you might want to consider whether you want to run two separate applications, one for accounting and one for invoicing, or whether you want to find an application that has the functionality for both. www.waveaccounting.com http://kashoo.com and http://www.xero.com/ are all apps that do both, whereas Expensify and Invoicera.com are applications that specializes in invoicing (as mentioned above).
Lastly, I would consider price point. These applications range significantly in price, anywhere from free applications such as www.waveaccounting.com to pricier apps such as Quickbooks online.
As many of these apps offer a free trial period (or are entirely free), I would recommend that once you've narrowed down what your needs are, you try out 2-3 and see which works best for you.
Great insights so far, I just thought I'd join in and add my two cents. As mentioned above, there really is no one accounting/invoicing software that is best across the board for all small businesses. It really depends on your accounting needs, level of skill with accounting, price point, and the amount of time you are able to devote to your accounting. The more complex your accounting needs, the more likely you are to need a more complex system.
First and foremost, you should determine whether you are looking for accounting, invoicing, or both. You should also try to identify whether you are looking for a financial tracking tool (such as Outright.com ) or if you are looking for real double-entry accounting (such as with http://kashoo.com or www.waveaccounting.com) Disclaimer: I work at Wave. If your accounting needs are complex and you will be allocating a lot of time and resources to your accounting, you may want to consider an option such as Quickbooks online.
As you mentioned invoicing, you might want to consider whether you want to run two separate applications, one for accounting and one for invoicing, or whether you want to find an application that has the functionality for both. www.waveaccounting.com http://kashoo.com and http://www.xero.com/ are all apps that do both, whereas Expensify and Invoicera.com are applications that specializes in invoicing (as mentioned above).
Lastly, I would consider price point. These applications range significantly in price, anywhere from free applications such as www.waveaccounting.com to pricier apps such as Quickbooks online.
As many of these apps offer a free trial period (or are entirely free), I would recommend that once you've narrowed down what your needs are, you try out 2-3 and see which works best for you.
Christophe Primault, At GetApp.com I help businesses disco...
2 votes by Chris Bliss and Stephen Valenta
It depends where your startup is based and which are the other applications you use. Freshbooks and Quickbooks Online are popular together with Xero. Zoho has just launched Zoho Books which is very interesting when combined with Zoho Invoice. If you are in the UK, you should also consider Kashflow and Arithmo. If you are interested in checking an organized list of Online Accounting Apps, some with user reviews, you can follow this link http://www.getapp.com/acc
If you're an accountant or have an accounting department they would prefer that you use Quickbooks or similar cause ur not going to make number crunchers switch to anything else other than what's been entrenched. At http://magnumcreative.ca we favor freshbooks simply because it handles invoices and project time tracking in one service but it definitely isn't an accounting level app and all its data will get exported for the accountants from that. Also tried Blinksale and Harvest...would recommend Freshbooks over all but have been looking at http://kashoo.com as an alternative...down side to small startups is that the more features u adopt or buy into the more time u spend in the app...at some point it makes sense to just let an accountant who handles small business needs take care of the books for you
I've been doing a bit of research on this topic as well. I was looking for a solution that would combine our accounting software with a project management tool. I decided on Workamajig. We are currently in implementation mode so I can't provide a real assessment as of yet, but would at least put it out there if others want to consider.
Best of luck!
Best of luck!
I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce SimplyFi - http://www.geminiplatform
Jonathan Schwartz, Agency Owner & Media Advisor
I've been using Freshbooks since we started Bullseye Strategy but there are certain deficiencies as our agency business has grown that I can no longer ignore. No check registry, subpar integration with financial institutions, and inability to email invoices via pdf are among the reasons we are switching. And, yes, our accountants like Quickbooks which will ultimately make our lives that much easier.
Manish Chauhan, AM-eMarketing, Invoicera
I would like you to give Invoicera.com a try, its basic plan starts from $9.95 and you can send unlimited invoices to 25 clients. It supports 20 popular payment gateways so you have more options to get paid on time. It also supports multiple currency and languages so you do not need to worry while sending invoices to your global clients. the most appealing feature of Invoicera is its customize invoice template feature where you can customize the look and feel of your invoice template and design it in the sync with your business look. Some other features that might be helpful to you are invoice scheduling, late fee option, time tracking and expense management.Suggest Edits
Liza Welch, Technology Expert
You can try hosted QuickBooks accounting software. QuickBooks has been developed for satisfying the accounting needs of small and medium size businesses. QuickBooks software is very simple to use. QuickBooks application program has become the leading financial software in the accounting software market for small size businesses. QuickBooks comes in various versions; you can choose the version that suits you the most. My company is using hosted QuickBooks as it offers more advantages when compared to locally installed QuickBooks. We are currently taking services from an experienced cloud computing and application hosting company for getting QuickBooks hosted. We are satisfied with QuickBooks hosting service. With Quickbooks Hosting, you get fast and remote accessibility to QuickBooks via Internet. You and your authorized employees can have simultaneous access to the QuickBooks at anytime and from anywhere via Internet. You get live 24x7 technical support along with robust data backup and full security for your data. You get many other benefits.
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Account Software
When I started up my company there were free tools only that keep importance in the segment to work better. And the tool that keeps importance for accounts management was the spreadsheets. But with the heavy required demand, the tool that I am using as of now is the cloud based expense reporting software from Replicon.
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Nice Article!! Thank you for sharing this informative information. With the help of online invoicing application you can create unlimited invoices and keep track of business and client records.