Ac­count­ing apps in com­par­i­son: The best solutions for mobile ac­count­ing

An orderly ac­count­ing process is of enormous im­por­tance to busi­ness­es and the self-employed. That’s because business owners (no matter how small) are obliged to provide a complete and correct de­ter­mi­na­tion of their gross annual income every year. On the other hand, having a full record of your income and ex­pen­di­ture makes planning financial resources much easier in the long run. The ac­count­ing itself, however, requires con­sid­er­able effort – es­pe­cial­ly if your budget doesn’t allow to hire a pro­fes­sion­al ac­coun­tant. That’s why software and apps are popular al­ter­na­tives, with cloud-based solutions being par­tic­u­lar­ly efficient. Cloud solutions can be used on a desktop computer in your browser of choice, but in many cases are also ac­ces­si­ble via ac­count­ing apps from your mobile phone.

We’ll let you in on what makes mobile ac­count­ing so in­ter­est­ing and introduce you to the best ac­count­ing apps to simplify your day-to-day ac­count­ing.

If you run a larger business that employs staff, it makes sense to use a software or an online program to organize your business accounts. If you’re a sole pro­pri­etor or in a small part­ner­ship, keeping track of your income and ex­pen­di­ture using Excel may be enough. But if you’re looking for a more advanced solution, various pro­fes­sion­al software tools are available to help you write invoices and cash books.

Ac­count­ing apps for iOS and Android are gaining pop­u­lar­i­ty because they are easy to use and simplify many ac­count­ing processes. Being ac­ces­si­ble via a mobile device means you can write invoices at a customer’s location. Mobile ac­count­ing apps also stand out because they’re perfectly tailored to the display sizes and controls of smart­phones and tablets. Data is saved on the provider’s servers, making the low storage capacity of mobile devices less of a problem. With cloud-based solutions, you have the option to use ac­count­ing tools as a team and in­de­pen­dent of time and place.

Mobile ac­count­ing apps aim to make routine tasks and chal­lenges with ac­count­ing as simple as possible for users. For example, an invoice can be created in just a few steps, as soon as the data for layout, customer in­for­ma­tion, and job function are saved. In addition, most ac­count­ing apps have a function that lets you send invoices via email or as a letter to the recipient, saving you a trip to the post office.

Many general ac­count­ing tasks are sim­pli­fied using ac­count­ing apps, including writing an invoice, order con­fir­ma­tions, delivery notes, and payment reminders. These can be automated in-app.

Further benefits of ac­count­ing apps include the following:

• Seg­men­ta­tion of suppliers and customers, including a search-and-filter function
• Dig­i­ti­za­tion of receipts using a smart­phone camera
• Easy in­te­gra­tion of shop and payment systems
• Cen­tral­ized overview of all income and expenses
• Data export to a chosen format

Ac­count­ing apps are usually as­so­ci­at­ed with web ap­pli­ca­tions: They are often mobile versions of web-based software. There are also down­load­able ac­count­ing tools, but many busi­ness­es choose cloud-based solutions for more file storage. Depending on your tech­nol­o­gy set-up, display size or system re­quire­ments, you may prefer a mobile app to in­stal­lable software. A central user account usually provides access to all available software versions of the app, meaning you can use your ac­count­ing software on your smart­phone or tablet after reg­is­ter­ing on your device of choice.

Mobile ac­count­ing is the perfect solution for many small busi­ness­es and self-employed in­di­vid­u­als, letting them meet modern business and finance re­quire­ments. These practical, mobile-friendly ap­pli­ca­tions speak to the growth of dig­i­ti­za­tion and the as­so­ci­at­ed trend towards the paperless office, which not only sets an end to masses of paperwork, but also no­tice­ably improves workflow ef­fi­cien­cy.

Although most ac­count­ing apps share many similar features, there are also dif­fer­ences – es­pe­cial­ly when it comes to their range of functions and their cost. This can make the search for the most suitable ap­pli­ca­tion more difficult. Below we’ve provided a brief summary of four of the top ac­count­ing apps currently available.

The Quick­Books ac­count­ing app automates many tasks to save time such as recurring invoices or bill payments. It also allows users to cat­e­go­rize their expenses and send email reports. Data is auto-backed up which is a great feature if you’re worried about losing access to your ac­count­ing data. The Plus plan includes in­cre­men­tal invoicing which business owners can use to allow their customers to pay for certain jobs in stages. Im­por­tant­ly, the app comes with good customer service. So if you’re stuck or need help, you can chat to Intuit to discuss a solution.

Xero also in­te­grates func­tion­al­i­ties for specific business types including retail, eCommerce, IT, non-profits, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, start-ups, con­struc­tion, health­care, farming, tourism and real estate, among others. The company offers a 30-day free trial. Its Early plan for self-employed users costs $9 per month. This limits users to five invoices, five bills and 20 bank trans­ac­tions. The Es­tab­lished plan costs $60 per month and includes unlimited billing, invoicing and trans­ac­tions as well as support for multiple cur­ren­cies. The great thing about Xero is that there are no long-term contracts so you can cancel whenever you feel like it.

You can trial the app for 14 days for free after which a Basic plan costs $9 per month (or $90 per year). The basic plan supports one user and their ac­coun­tant, and it has the lowest re­stric­tions on the number of invoices you can issue per month compared to major com­peti­tors. The Pro­fes­sion­al plan costs just $29 per month and can support 10 users and 5,000 trans­ac­tions. Zoho offers several add-ons, for example, you can add another user for $2 per month.

Although payroll services aren’t part of the free package, they can be added for $20 to $35 per month. The exact costs will depend on the state you’re in. If your business scales or you have an urgent demand for spe­cial­ist advice, you can upgrade and take advantage of Wave+ Book­keep­ing which is available for $149 per month after a 30-day free trial. Best of all, new users can pay a one-off fee of $249 to speak to an ac­coun­tant and learn how to use Wave and keep their accounts in order in a one-to-one session.

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