15 Best Online Accounting Software in 2024

Invoicing, billing, and tax calculations are no easy tasks, and they’ll only get harder.  The more your business expands, the more complex your financial data becomes. To help you address these needs more effectively, investing in capable online accounting software can provide you with the tools you need to manage your financial data.

To help you determine the best online accounting software for your business, we conducted an in-depth evaluation of various products on the market today and came up with a list below. In this article, you’ll find the 15 best online accounting platforms, all chosen carefully based on their features and capabilities and the benefits they bring to different types of businesses.

In many ways, the digital era has transformed the way businesses do accounting. From relying heavily on spreadsheets and manual data entries, the advent of cloud accounting has allowed accounting firms and professionals to simplify complex accounting processes and reduce overhead costs.

Cloud-based accounting solutions bring numerous advantages to businesses. For one, cloud accounting makes financial data readily accessible to firms and accounting professionals. Since the software is in the cloud, accountants always have the most up-to-date version of their client’s financial records. Other benefits of cloud accounting include automation of accounting and banking tasks, producing accurate financial statements, and ease of tax compliance.

According to recent accounting statistics, 58% of accounting professionals say that automation of accounting tasks improves their efficiency and productivity (Sage, 2020). Meanwhile, 35% indicate that updating accounting systems has helped them meet client demands and increase customer retention rates.

It’s not easy to find accounting software that you can use for your business. It’s even harder to find a system that can meet each and every requirement of your organization in terms of financial-related processes. That’s why we decided to come up with this list of the best online accounting software that are widely known for their core capabilities and the benefits that they bring to businesses. Here are our top picks.

15 Best Online Accounting Software

1. FreshBooks

FreshBooks is one of the most highly regarded online accounting solutions for small businesses and medium-sized enterprises. It is a simple and cost-effective accounting solution that makes it easier for businesses to create invoices, track payments, and manage financial data. With the solution’s automation and customization features, businesses can easily send recurring invoices and accept payments from their customers online.

The platform comes with a list of extensive features and affordable pricing plans. FreshBooks is widely known for its wide range of accounting capabilities, such as invoicing, payment processing, general ledger, and accounts payable management. Purposely-built for freelancers, self-employed professionals, and businesses with contractors, the solution enables users to streamline and automate their accounting processes.

Complete with invoicing tools, FreshBooks allows you to track the status of your invoices and facilitate online payments directly through the platform. Additionally, the solution helps you keep track of your income and stay on top of your cash flow. To ensure the financial health of your business, FreshBooks gives you the most up-to-date financial information about your business.

Another useful feature of FreshBooks is its time tracking feature, which allows you to bill your clients depending on the number of hours it takes to complete tasks and projects. Integrations with Basecamp, Asana, Trello and Teamwork also ensure that you can track time directly from the apps you already have and send invoices to your clients for every billable hour.

FreshBooks

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Key Feature of FreshBooks

1. FreshBooks lets you record and track expenses, enabling you to map out your cash flow and accurately predict any expenses you might incur in the future.
2. The solution provides you with an accurate calculation of your profits and losses.
3. It also helps you organize your financial data, allowing you to import and categorize each financial transaction.

2. NetSuite Cloud Accounting

NetSuite Cloud Accounting is another powerful online solution that enables businesses to automate and streamline their AR and AP processes. It simplifies the entire process of recording transactions, collecting taxes, and managing financial assets. The solution automates a number of accounting tasks, from reconciling account statements to creating journal entries.

As a web-based accounting solution, NetSuite Cloud Accounting stores your financial data in the cloud, making it accessible to you and your accountants at any given time. You can access your books any time and from any interconnected device, whether mobile, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. Coupled with its core finance and accounting functions, the solution helps you optimize your cash flow and ensure the financial health of your business.

NetSuite Cloud Accounting also offers a general ledger function, which automates core accounting processes like organizing account types, auto-posting of journal entries, and rules-based transaction matching. With this tool, you can easily produce detailed financial reports, maintain accurate records, and close books on time.

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Key Features of NetSuite Cloud Accounting

1. NetSuite Cloud Accounting offers a range of cash management tools to help you monitor your bank accounts, manage liquidity, and improve your cash flow.
2. The solution is complete with automation tools to streamline invoice processing, payment collection, and tax calculations.
3. It also accelerates accounting processes by eliminating manual data entry in journal entries, account reconciliations, variance analysis, and intercompany transactions.

3. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is a popular accounting solution known for its robust features designed to help accounting professionals manage financial data with ease. From invoicing to bank reconciliation and updating journal entries, the solution offers a range of tools that streamlines financial-related tasks. QuickBooks Online works with a variety of digital wallets, including ApplePay and Google Pay. This allows users to send invoices and facilitate payments directly through the platform.

The solution comes with expense tracking tools, enabling you to monitor and categorize expenses across your organization. In this way, you can have better visibility of your expenses and ensure that your money is being used wisely. QuickBooks Online gives you a complete view of your financial records, allowing you to come up with befitting strategies to improve your cash flow.

With QuickBooks Online, you can have real-time access to your balance sheets, profit and loss statements, VAT information, cash flow statements, and other important financial data. The system’s customizable reporting tools also provide you with valuable financial insights that you can use to make smarter business decisions.

Key Features of QuickBooks Online

1. QuickBooks Online lets you send recurring invoices to your clients.
2. All your financial data is automatically synced across multiple devices.
3. The solution allows you to customize your invoices and use the designs and layout from its invoice template gallery.

4. Sage Business Cloud Accounting

Popular among small and medium-sized businesses, Sage Business Cloud Accounting offers an array of accounting features to help you improve your cash flow, get paid faster, and work more efficiently. It is simple and easy to set up, allowing you to get to the bottom of your accounting tasks more quickly. Complete with automation and financial reporting tools, the solution allows you to keep your cash flow healthy at all times.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting lets you connect to your bank account, enabling you to track your expenses in real-time. By simply capturing photos of your receipts, the solution automatically digitizes your financial records, imports them to the system, and categorizes them accordingly. In this way, you can simplify and automate expense entry data and improve data entry accuracy.

To keep all your accounts in good standing, Sage Business Cloud Accounting takes care of your accounts payables and receivables. Complete with AR and AP management tools, the accounting platform helps you improve the visibility of your financial information. Sage Business Cloud comes with an AutoEntry feature, which lets you upload different types of documents to the system and reconcile your business transactions. These include purchases, sales, credit card and bank statements, as well as employee and supplier expenses.

Key Features of Sage Business Cloud Accounting

1. Sage Business Cloud Accounting has a native mobile app that you can easily use to manage your financial data on the go.
2. The platform integrates with a variety of payment methods, allowing you to facilitate payments and speed up the entire process.
3. From a clear and easy-to-understand reporting dashboard, Sage Business Cloud Accounting gives you a complete and real-time view of your financial reports.

5. AvidXchange

Purposely built for middle-market businesses, AvidXchange is an accounts payable automation software that helps you reduce manual and paper-based efforts required in your accounting processes. It automates invoice processing and bills payment to streamline all your financial-related tasks. Once you have uploaded your paper receipts and invoices to the system, AvidXchange automatically converts these into digital versions, allowing you to keep a record of all your financial transactions in a digital and more accessible format.

With AvidXchange, you can manage your AP processes throughout their entire lifecycles, from receiving invoices and settling payments for your suppliers to maintaining banking relationships. An automated invoice and payment process also means faster execution of payments. Through the platform, you can easily send payments to vendors and suppliers depending on their preferred payment methods, whether by secure paper checks or electronic payments.

AvidXchange also provides numerous invoicing tools, which allow you to streamline your invoice processes and create your own approval workflows. In this way, you can take control of all your invoices and the custom processes that they require. For instance, you can code and assign each invoice to a specific workflow and route them for approval.

Key Features of AvidXchange

1. AvidXchange increases your visibility by allowing you to search and manage financial records with ease.
2. With the platform, you can check your accounts, as well as your financial growth and performance from any device.
3. The solution integrates with a wide range of accounting platforms to streamline and keep your accounting processes intact.

6. A2X

A2X is an online accounting solution ideal for ecommerce businesses. It simplifies bookkeeping by enabling you to manage and keep track of all your financial transactions on a single platform. To ensure the accuracy of your bookkeeping records, A2X lets you connect your transactional data from various ecommerce channels into the system. In this way, you can unify all your financial records from sales channels like Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, and eBay.

By connecting your ecommerce channels to A2X, all your sales and fees will be presented to you in a clear and easy-to-understand dashboard. Afterward, the solution breaks down the transactional data and categorizes them according to the transaction type, such as sales, fees, reserves, refunds, gift cards, or taxes.

The next step is linking A2X to your already existing accounting system, such as Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage. In doing so, you do not have to manually encode your financial transactions from various sales channels into your accounting platform. Instead, A2X removes the complexity of posting your sales and fees into your accounting solution by providing you with ready-to-use account summaries that match the settlement payments in your bank account.

Key Features of A2X

1. A2X gives you complete visibility of financial records, whether from a single or multiple ecommerce selling platform.
2. The solution ensures accurate bookkeeping records.
3. A2X reconciles your transactional summaries with your bank account statements.

7. Rossum

Rossum is an accounts payable software that utilizes a unique computer vision technology to read invoices and digitize financial data. It eliminates manual invoice data entry and ensures faster and more accurate data capture. To help you reduce accounting costs, Rossum streamlines your accounts payable management, from receiving financial documents and converting them into machine-readable data to generating smarter financial insights.

The solution leverages a self-learning AI technology to capture financial data from multiple sources. This allows you to intelligently filter, sort, and pre-process financial records and make sure that there are no duplicated entries. Rossum enforces confidentiality, encryption, and security for your financial records every step of the way.

In an intuitive and easy-to-use platform, Rossum automates invoice communication in three powerful ways. First, it receives an invoice from a PDF, scanned image, or XML file. The platform’s AI engine then takes over and automatically analyzes and extracts data from the file. Once the data is ready for processing, Rossum allows you to send the automated confirmations, status confirmations, or correction requests that your clients or business partners require.

Key Features of Rossum

1. Rossum helps you simplify data retrieval and cut down accounting costs.
2. The solution leverages AI to read and analyze data from invoices.
3. It comes with a duplicate detection feature to ensure that no data is repeated in your system.

8. Trolley

If your accounting needs are geared more toward payout processes, then Trolley might be the most ideal platform for your business. This is a comprehensive solution that lets you handle payouts and other financial-related tasks, from payment onboarding to end-of-year financial reporting.

Trolley also automates and streamlines your payout processes, making it easier for you to send payments to your sellers, freelancers, and service providers. Moreover, the platform supports a network of local banking services so you can send payments to end-users more quickly. Trolley allows you to track foreign exchange rates in real-time and send payments in foreign currencies.

Other essential features of accounting software that businesses find useful are its tax collection and compliance, which allow you to streamline your contractor tax processes. From automated tax form collection and validation to calculations and year-end tax reporting, Trolley equips you with the right tools to make IRS tax compliance much easier.

Key Features of Trolley

1. Trolley comes with an array of payout automation tools to simplify your payment processes.
2. The platform allows you to track the status of your payments.
3. It leverages an end-to-end 256-bit bank-level security to keep your financial records secure.

9. DocuPhase

DocuPhase is an all-in-one accounting solution that automates payment processing and AR and AP management. It offers an array of accounting tools that enables you to strengthen your cash flow and reconciliation efforts. The platform’s set of payment automation tools helps you to accelerate the process of sending and receiving payments.

In addition, DocuPhase gives you total control of the entire invoice lifecycle, from data entry to invoice routing and approval tracking. As a fully digital and cloud-hosted platform, DocuPhase allows you to have access to your invoices and make approvals at any given time. The platform leverages a three-way matching technology to speed up the process in verifying orders, receipts, and invoices and ensure that they match the records you have.

DocuPhase is equipped with a best-in-class OCR technology that you can use to capture invoice information. In just a few clicks, the platform allows you to scan documents and seamlessly capture line-item invoice details. This helps you eliminate the need for manual data keying and reduce costly errors.

Key Features of DocuPhase

1. DocuPhase offers end-to-end AP automation tools that help you streamline your procure-to-pay processes.
2. Integrations with ERP systems help you improve data visibility and accuracy across your organization.
3. The platform allows you to accept and receive payments from a wide range of payment types and channels.

10. PayEm

PayEm is a global-based spend and procurement platform designed to meet the accounting requirements of multinational finance teams. The platform comes with a plethora of tools to help businesses streamline accounting tasks. These include capturing payment requests and invoices, scheduling payments, creating bills, and sending remittances to clients worldwide.

The solution allows you to accelerate payment processes from beginning to end. You can preconfigure rules, designate payment limits, and produce virtual or physical cards for your payments. This helps you stay on top of your expenses and makes sure that all expenditures are within your budget.

Furthermore, PayEm is popularly known for its global flexibility. It supports multiple currencies and cross-border payments. With PayEm, you can send and receive payments in any currency regardless of the geographical location of your vendors, clients, suppliers, contractors, or freelancers.

Key Features of PayEm

1. PayEm allows you to schedule payments to ensure that you can pay your dues on time.
2. The platform automatically syncs with your ERP to prevent double data entries.
3. It also offers a number of reconciliation tools to help you review your expenses and manage corporate spend.

11. Zoho Books

Coming from Zoho’s suite of products, Zoho Books is widely known for its comprehensive set of accounting tools. As an end-to-end accounting platform, Zoho Books helps you manage financial tasks. From negotiating deals with your clients to generating invoices and collecting payment, Zoho Books arms you with the essential tools you need to get paid on time.

With its AP management tools, the platform allows you to create, send, and manage bills online. You can also set your bills on recurring mode to avoid late or missed payments. Moreover, the system lets you allocate landed costs to your bills to help you calculate item prices more accurately. In this way, you can always decide on the right selling price of your items.

Bank reconciliations are made easier with Zoho Books. By simply importing your bank statements to the system, you can skip manual data entry and reconcile transactions within seconds. This helps you prepare for tax season and ensures that your business remains tax-compliant.

Zoho Books

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Key Features of Zoho Books

1. Zoho Books has a payment reminder tool to help you chase payments easily.
2. To help you get paid faster, Zoho Books supports multiple payment options.
3. The platform allows you to customize your invoices so they match the look and feel of your brand.

12. Zoho Expense

Zoho Expense is a web-based expense tracking tool that helps you regain control of all your business expenditures. It simplifies and automates expense tracking, allowing you to report expenses on the go, simplify approvals, and reimburse exact payments as necessary. To ensure budgetary compliance, Zoho Expense lets you produce purchase requests and submit them for approval.

The solution is loaded with a comprehensive set of features for expense tracking and reporting. For instance, Zoho Expense allows you to scan your receipts. Also, you can use this tool to instantly capture the financial data that you need to keep track of your expenses. With the system’s auto-scan feature, you can save more time and spare yourself the headache of sorting through tons of paper receipts. Aside from storing them in the system’s database, Zoho Expense gives you the option to import your receipts to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Evernote.

Zoho Expense allows you to create and submit detailed expense reports. You can choose to generate these reports automatically. To do this, Zoho Expense begins by sifting through all your financial records and comes up with a list of unreported expenses. While this report is already set for submission, you can still go through the document to ensure the accuracy of the report.

Zoho Expense

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Key Features of Zoho Expense

1. Zoho Expense lets you create an approval workflow to ensure that purchase requests are properly reviewed and approved by the management.
2. Advanced form customization tools allow you to create expense reports and itemize every expenditure.
3. Zoho Expense lets you set preconfigured rules to restrict overspending.

13. Xero

Xero is an online accounting platform that offers an array of tools to help you stay on top of bills.  With its accounting and banking features, the platform helps you improve your cash flow. It gives you a complete overview of your bills, expenses, and purchase orders. This enables you to avoid late or missed payments and keep a good relationship with your customers and suppliers. To make sure that your business gets paid on time, Xero lets you accept online payments via card, direct debit, or digital wallets.

Furthermore, the solution offers a range of accounting tools to help firms, accountants, and bookkeepers manage their clients and staff’s financial requirements from a single platform. It has a project tracking tool that allows you to quote, generate invoices, and get paid for your services. To maximize the profitability of your business, Xero provides easy-to-understand charts that let you keep an eye on each of your project’s financials. As one of the best online accounting software out there, the platform provides many top features.

Key Features of Xero

1. Xero allows you to create professional-looking invoices and send them directly to your clients.
2. The platform supports multiple currencies, enabling you to send and accept cross-border payments.
3. Customizable reporting features also help monitor and analyze the financial performance of your business.

14. Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct is a financial management solution that provides a wide array of accounting tools for businesses of all scales. Whether you are running a startup company or an owner of a larger enterprise, Sage Intacct offers essential tools and functionalities to help you streamline accounting tasks. Its core financial capabilities include AR and AP management, cash flow management, and order and purchase tracking.

Leveraging AI-powered tools, the platform’s intelligent general ledger function helps you to simplify your chart of accounts and set guardrails for consistency and accuracy of your data. The solution also allows you to define and automate your own workflows, enabling you to speed up your accounting processes and eliminate the need for manual data entry. With Sage Intacct, you can easily capture, post, and report on transactions in real-time.

Key Features of Sage Intacct

1. Sage Intacct automates accounting tasks, allowing you to eliminate mundane processes and focus more on improving the efficiency and performance of your growing company.
2. It comes with powerful reporting tools that deliver valuable insights into your financial and operational data.
3. Sage Intacct ensures compliance and auditability of your financial records.

15. Free Agent

Ideal for small businesses, Free Agent is a simple-to-use accounting solution, complete with features for tracking expenses, invoices, and estimates. It provides easy-to-understand dashboards that let you see at a glance the financial health of your organization. With its wide range of visualization tools, including charts and graphs, the platform lets you in on how much you are making with live profit and loss. It also keeps you up to date with invoice and tax timelines.

Moreover, Free Agent is equipped with banking tools to help you simplify your processes, from linking your bank account to the system and importing financial transactions to analyzing your banking data. The system supports most of the popular banks, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Lloyds, and Barclays. Free Agent helps you match invoices with payments, allowing you to stay in control of your finances and improve your cash flow.

Key Features of Free Agent

1. Free Agent offers an expense tracking tool to help you monitor and allocate your financial resources more wisely.
2. The platform’s invoicing functionality allows you to generate, edit, and send multiple invoices at once.
3. It helps you process online payments and bank transfers with ease.

Choosing the Best Online Accounting Software

So there you have it—the most popular accounting solutions of today. The best online accounting software on this list are widely known for their capabilities in simplifying complex accounting tasks. When choosing the right system for you, bear in mind that not all of these platforms are created equal. Hence, it is important to carefully evaluate and identify the features that you need to meet the growing needs of your business.

Signing up for free trials can also help you get to know more about the product that you like. In this way, you can test drive the platform’s features and functionalities and see if it can keep up with your accounting requirements. To start, you can sign up for a free trial of FreshBooks, one of the top products in our online accounting software category, and explore its features firsthand.

For a better understanding of how accounting software works, you can also check out our comprehensive guide to what accounting software is.

By Jenny Chang

Jenny Chang is a senior writer specializing in SaaS and B2B software solutions. Her decision to focus on these two industries was spurred by their explosive growth in the last decade, much of it she attributes to the emergence of disruptive technologies and the quick adoption by businesses that were quick to recognize their values to their organizations. She has covered all the major developments in SaaS and B2B software solutions, from the introduction of massive ERPs to small business platforms to help startups on their way to success.