With all the hats you wear when running your business, it’s normal for your finances to occasionally fall by the wayside, but no one wants to deal with the consequences. So, before we plunge into knowing the best self employed accounting software, be familiar with their essential functions first.
Accounting software is made to assist businesses or self employed individuals in keeping track of their earnings and outlays. It prepares them for their tax returns obligations and helps them streamline their filings of self assessment tax.
There are a lot of existing accounting software for self employed nowadays, so picking the best one can be challenging. Due to feature overlap, it’s easy for business owners to select unsuitable accounting software.
What to Look for In a Great Self Employed Accounting Software
Unless you’re an accountant, the ins and outs of accounting software may seem complicated. First, make sure the learning curve gives you a simple start. Look for accounting software for self employed that provides helpful, comprehensive resources, such as webinars, manuals, videos, and more.
As you evaluate the online accounting software programs best for the self-employed, keep the following in mind:
Simple interface: Your chosen accounting software should include a setting that makes financial data entry easier. A clean, uncluttered user interface will be a long-time partner toward your business growth. A simple interface makes it easy to notice crucial accounting details and built-in capabilities so you can perform accounting calculations automatically.
Multi-user access: In most businesses, multi-user access is required for the smooth operation of an ecommerce business. Finding accounting software that supports several users without charging extra would be ideal.
Basic features: All the software you shortlist, make sure that everything you need is all in one place, including invoicing, tracking payments, logging deductible expenses, time tracking, inventory management, and more per month, which even free software possesses.
Security: Financial statistics are very sensitive. The accounting software you pick needs to provide excessive tiers of protection to safeguard your data. Choose accounting platform apps from any well-known app store that offer Two-Factor Authentication, open communication, and encrypted email address passwords, and train yourself approximately their safety mechanisms before you start using them.
Help centre: A good customer service representative should be accessible via live chat, offers several support options, informed about the accounting software, and most importantly, pleased, eager, and able to assist you. Ensure that the average waiting times aren’t too long and the chat support hours correspond to yours.
What Accounts Do Self-Employed Businesses Need to Keep?
You need to keep six types of accounts for your self-employed business to cover yourself for accounting, tax returns, and legalities. By regulation, you must record expenses and profits and preserve those for five years from each 31st January, the self assessment tax return submission date through the Making Tax Digital system. You or your team of accountants for ecommerce must have them prepared for HMRC if they’re requested.
Here are all of the records you should keep per month:
- Every sale and income
- Business income and expenses
- VAT returns records
- PAYE records
- Personal income records
- Your grant
Keep the records for proof, such as store receipts and stock, bank account statements, cheque book stubs, sales and purchase invoices, till rolls, and bank accounts slips. You should keep those records with supporting documentation per month because doing so will enable you to calculate your financial position for your tax returns and present them to HMRC upon request.
The 8 Best Ecommerce Accounting Software
A solid accounting foundation is just as crucial for the self-employed as for larger businesses. After utilising various accounting software and considering what works best for e-commerce, we have found the following are the eight best options:
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is a Toronto-based organisation’s product which is now utilised in more than one hundred and sixty international locations. It includes many capabilities that make it excellent accounting and invoicing software for any freelancer, sole trader, and small business owner. The software makes it simple to maintain structure, monitor bills that need to get paid and expenses already incurred, send custom invoices, connect your bank, and receive bank account payments.
FreshBooks was set about as a manner to manage invoices and perform receipt capture, and then it grew to be an accounting product. However, it is not recommended for rapidly growing businesses due to user and client constraints in its subscription plans.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks has earned popularity for being a classic accounting software for small businesses. It can be tailored for any industry, from straightforward freelancing to multi-location retail enterprises.
QuickBooks Online has never been a disappointment for eCommerce retailers. It includes excellent invoicing features, like the capacity to calculate sales tax, income tax, corporation tax, and VAT rate instantly and apply it to a payment portal. It also has the ability of mileage tracking, 1099 contractor management, bank account integration, and default access for two accountants.
Furthermore, QuickBooks enables property management organisations to divide net earnings by property type and location. With QuickBooks Online, you can add unlimited clients to your account regardless of which plans you have subscribed to.
Zoho Books
Zoho Books is advanced accounting software that offers excellent functionality for businesses of all sizes. Zoho Books is significantly more detailed and functional. It includes more than fifty financial reports and sixteen invoicing templates and offers advanced automation and workflow rules.
Nonetheless, Zoho Books is more challenging to learn than more straightforward accounting tools like FreshBooks. Zoho Books is the best option if you already have accounting knowledge and are comfortable with the fundamentals. It reaches its full potential when you know how to integrate it with other Zoho software tools using Zoho suits of products.
Xero
In its accounting software programme, Xero blends flexibility and usability. It is cloud-based accounting software which enables small business owners to do admin work from any location. It integrates with more than 1,000 accounting app.
Growing corporations may afford it because it is less expensive than rivals like QuickBooks Online and doesn’t charge extra for additional users. Numerous features of Xero enable it to manage intricate accounting procedures for small- and medium-sized organisations and larger ones.
Xero’s invoicing proficiency allows you to create and customise an invoice for clients and then accept swipe card or bank transactions within the invoice itself. Users can put their logo on online invoices, instantly collect payments through the invoice, use bank feeds, automate client payment reminders, and invoice directly from the Xero mobile app.
Sage 50cloud
Sage business cloud accounting is a fantastic accounting tool for individuals under self employment. A complete accounting service will be available, and software will safely keep data in the cloud. Sage excels in producing invoices, profit and loss statements, time tracking, and other necessary documents.
The unique features of Sage business cloud accounting are its ability for jobs and project management, dividing significant works into phases, expense tracking by phase and cost code, and charging as the job is finished. In addition, it permits online backup and Microsoft Office Premium integration.
Wave
You need to go no further than Wave Accounting if you want high-quality accounting capabilities at a cost you can afford. Wave has no expensive plans you need to subscribe to access more features and via CSV file, making it the ideal solution for independent contractors and solo entrepreneurs. You already have full access to Wave’s features once you proceed from the free plan and sign up.
FreeAgent
FreeAgent is proven to be the best for individuals who are established in their careers, working on larger projects, and handling bigger financial decisions. There aren’t many flashes or frills, but the user experience is straightforward and attractive. It should feel more organised than many other programmes because the procedure for creating invoices or other papers is step-by-step and divides the large chores into smaller ones.
It receives a higher rating on the website business4beginners, although it is more expensive than alternative accounting software. Therefore, if your company is growing and accounting is becoming more complex and involved, you should switch to FreeAgent.
Crunch
Crunch might be a good place to start if you only require essential invoicing software with a few bookkeeping tools. Crunch falls short of other providers in terms of features. Therefore, owners of small businesses with a meagre project budget will likely outgrow it quite quickly.
Crunch provides free bookkeeping software. You can upload an unlimited number of expenses and create invoices, although VAT return submission is charged, and the payroll option is expensive.
All of this effort will be worthwhile. Finding the best accounting software may help you operate your business more quickly, efficiently, and tension-free, so you can save time and focus on what you’re excellent at.
Professionals at Legend Financial can handle your accounting system most effectively to support your startup business, allowing you to take full advantage of all the benefits of self employed accounting software. We are available to synchronise your business’ current finance with the best accounting software to expand your business.
References
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Best self-employed accounting software. (n.d). Retrieved from startups.co.uk: https://startups.co.uk/accounting/best-self-employed-accounting-software/
The Best Self-Employed Accounting Software for UK Businesses in 2022. (n.d). Retrieved from business4beginners.co.uk: https://www.business4beginners.co.uk/best-self-employed-accounting-software-uk-businesses/
The best self employed accounting software in 2022. (2022). Retrieved from Zapier: https://zapier.com/blog/accounting-bookkeeping-software-freelance/
Business records if you’re self-employed. (n.d). Retrieved from gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/self-employed-records/what-records-to-keep
5 Best Self Employed Accounting Apps. (2022). Retrieved from GoCardless: https://gocardless.com/guides/posts/5-best-self-employed-accounting-apps/
