Best Affordable Accounting Software

Well, you can’t beat free, can you? Wave Accounting does offer truly free accounting software, but you will need to realize that with the free price tag you are sacrificing a few things. For example, you cannot do payroll, track time or create timesheets.

That being said, for free software you can still do quite a bit. They even have a mobile app for faster access. With Wave, you can create invoices and even customize them slightly. They also offer a few reports, like balance sheets, accounts payable and accounts receivable.

You can collect payments and process payroll if you add on the services through their third party apps. But, you can link to bank accounts and sync up transactions – then categorize them for easier tax preparation. Wave also allows recurring invoices and you can create estimates to send to clients.

A Few Details about this Software:

Wave is truly free. The only time you would have to pay is if you upgrade to receive credit card transactions via Wave or if you need to process payroll.

Customized Invoices:	Credit Card/Paypal Processing: Added Fee
Expense Tracking:	Import Bank Transactions:
Estimates or Quotes:	Employee Time Sheets
Converts Estimates/Quotes to Invoices:	1099's:
Managing and Paying Bills:	W2's:
Inventory Tracking:	Prints or Electronically Processes Payroll Checks:

WorkingPoint is another remarkably affordable accounting program and their Lightening plan is perfect for those just starting out tracking their books.

With the Lightening plan, you are limited to one user and only 10 invoices per month – but this may be all you need if you’re a freelancer or someone looking for start-up friendly software.

You still get access to tons of features with WorkingPoint too, such as Schedule C calculations and reporting (to make tax time easier), estimated quarterly tax payment calculations and tracking, the ability to collect payments via Stripe and/or PayPal in WorkingPoint, etc. You can also create customized invoices, estimates and if you work on an hourly basis, WorkingPoint lets you track time in their system and automatically generate an invoice from that time.

A Few Details about this Software:

With WorkingPoint you can try it for free for 30 days to decide if you like it. After that, you would pay $9 per month for Lightening or $99 per year.

Customized Invoices:	Credit Card/Paypal Processing: Added Fee
Expense Tracking:	Import Bank Transactions:
Estimates or Quotes:	Employee Time Sheets
Converts Estimates/Quotes to Invoices:	1099's:
Managing and Paying Bills:	W2's:
Inventory Tracking:	Prints or Electronically Processes Payroll Checks:

GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping, formerly Outright, offers tons of accounting features all for under $10 per month.

With GoDaddy, you can do automatic imports of your bank and credit card transactions, then sync them and categorize them within your account. You can also assign categories and rules so that they automatically classify in the future to a particular account.

GoDaddy is also very freelancer-friendly, so in addition to the traditional profit and loss statements as well as other reports, you can get access to tax worksheets, Schedule C printouts and you can also estimate and track quarterly tax payments (which are required by the IRS).

GoDaddy also allows you to invoice customers and you can accept PayPal as well as Stripe payments in your GoDaddy account. They have mobile access too.

A Few Details about this Software:

Unfortunately, GoDaddy doesn’t offer a free trial. But, with such a low price and no contracts, you can always try it for a month and not be out a lot of money.

GoDaddy starts at $9.99 per month. You don’t pay to collect PayPal payments, but you will pay PayPal directly for their credit card processing fee.

Customized Invoices:	Credit Card/Paypal Processing: Added Fee
Expense Tracking:	Import Bank Transactions:
Estimates or Quotes:	Employee Time Sheets
Converts Estimates/Quotes to Invoices:	1099's:
Managing and Paying Bills:	W2's:
Inventory Tracking:	Prints or Electronically Processes Payroll Checks:

Simple Start offers more features for small businesses and is still fairly affordable.

With QuickBooks Simple Start, you get access to income and expense tracking, more than 20 built-in reports, the ability to make estimates and invoices (including custom invoices), accountant and CPA access, and more. You can also process payments through QuickBooks merchant account option (for an additional fee). With the Simple Start version, you also have access to mobile invoicing, expense tracking and you can store receipts right in the system for better document management.

You are not limited with the number of clients or invoices you can send each month either – which is something to consider since a lot of low-priced software programs are that way because they limit your options.

A Few Details about this Software:

QuickBooks Simple Start offers a free 30-day trial, but if you use the trial you cannot access the introductory rate.

The introductory rate is $10.36 per month for six months and after that the price will increase to $12.95 per month.

Customized Invoices:	Credit Card/Paypal Processing: Added Fee
Expense Tracking:	Import Bank Transactions:
Estimates or Quotes:	Employee Time Sheets
Converts Estimates/Quotes to Invoices:	1099's:
Managing and Paying Bills:	W2's:
Inventory Tracking:	Prints or Electronically Processes Payroll Checks:

QuickBooks Self-Employed is designed specifically for freelancers and independent contractors, but when you compare it to other software out there for that same class of workers, it is remarkably affordable.

With the Self-Employed edition you can simplify tax planning. You categorize your expenses (which are automatically downloaded from your financial institution) into Schedule C categories. Then, you can estimate and track estimated quarterly tax payments as well as your home office deductions. They have just added invoicing, but it is still rather basic. That being said, with their list of features and introductory rate, the simplified invoicing may not be a big issue.

A Few Details about this Software:

QuickBooks Self-Employed does come with a 30-day free trial, but if you use that trial you cannot get the introductory rate.

For six months you can try QB Self-Employed for just $4.99 per month. Then, pay $9.99 per month after that.

Customized Invoices:	Credit Card/Paypal Processing: ~
Expense Tracking:	Import Bank Transactions:
Estimates or Quotes:	Employee Time Sheets
Converts Estimates/Quotes to Invoices:	1099's:
Managing and Paying Bills:	W2's:
Inventory Tracking:	Prints or Electronically Processes Payroll Checks: