Once you set up rules to import data, you can upload any relevant documents, and Sage will take care of sorting it out, extracting data, and having it available for you when you need it. It’s definitely a step up from the classic capture how to calculate the carrying value of a bond receipts feature, so if you’re handling a lot of paperwork, this could cut the sweat from the blood and tears equation. Audit trails and cash flow statements, two examples from the over 20 available, can be customized to your liking by applying filters or date ranges. But if you want even more insight into your data, you can send it to Sage Business Cloud Intelligence, a report-building platform that will give you lots of new angles to play around with.

Invoicera: Best Standalone Invoicing Software as an Alternative to QuickBooks

Central to its universal appeal is a simplistic dashboard design that lets multiple users makes use of its many and varied features and functions. Its basic plan costs just $10 a month— but honestly, you get more features with Wave Accounting’s free plan than you do with the basic Sage plan. It hands invoicing, online billing (via Stripe), basic expense management . Still, the basic plan could work if customer support is a must for you.

1. However, additional services like online payments or payroll come with fees.
2. Access to Sage’s receipt capture functionality costs almost twice as much as QuickBooks’, but with Sage, you get more than just receipt capture.
3. The A/P section focuses on vendor management, bill management, bill payments, and other payable-related transactions.
4. There’s also Square’s team management app that you can add on for free to track time for invoicing.
5. And you can set up workflows to automatically categorize your transactions.

LedgerLite – Desktop-Based with Easy Setup

It did score a 2.4 out of 5 in banking, as it offers only basic features like account connectivity and viewing outstanding transactions. Therefore, in our expert opinion, its banking capabilities are quite limited. However, its pricing is very affordable, and the platform includes many useful features like the ability to generate and track invoices, and track mileage. Zoho Books is our top QuickBooks alternative because of its scalability and mobile app functionality. Wave is second on our list as it has a free plan that provides sufficient support for businesses with basic bookkeeping needs. If you don’t need full bookkeeping software and are looking for the best QuickBooks alternative for sending invoices, we also have recommendations for that.

Merritt Bookkeeping: Best for taxes

These solutions typically include features, such as invoicing, expense tracking and financial reports. While free accounting software won’t have all the bells and whistles of a paid version, it can still be a valuable tool for managing your finances. Square Invoices doesn’t limit the number of invoices you send or the number of customers or users you have on your system. If you have a team working for you, track their hours worked for invoicing purposes using Square’s free team management add-on. The only caveat with using Square Invoices is that you’ll have to pay the monthly fee to create custom invoices, save templates and set up milestone-based pay schedules. Freelancers and solo-operated businesses need accounting software, but maybe not as robust as QuickBooks—that’s where FreshBooks makes sense.

We recommend Wave as the best free alternative to QuickBooks because it has a free plan for invoicing and accounting. Support network refers to a community of software users that can extend professional help to businesses. Having an independent software expert perform the bookkeeping is good for overall ease of use.

Evaluate the pricing and features of paid versions of any freemium system you consider before adopting to confirm they can support your growth. And integrate with other systems like dedicated inventory software if you outgrow the alternative’s native capabilities. Simplicity – Some very small businesses just need basic accounting like invoicing without advanced inventory or complex reporting.

It also has a flexible pricing model ideal for scalability and growth. Unlike QuickBooks Online, if you think a certain Zoho Books plan’s features are enough for your needs, you don’t need to upgrade to get more users. Instead, you can pay for additional seats at an affordable price of $3 per user, per month. From the Sage dashboard, you’ll get an overview of everything you need to know about your business, including cash flow statements, forecasting, and your bank account balances.