One of the most essential activities you have as a small business owner is keeping on top of your finances and your bookkeeping.
Having a clear and up-to-date record of your business finances makes tax time easier, and allows you to make informed business decisions through accurate reporting and trend mapping.
If you’re looking for a simple way to keep on top of your bookkeeping, without spending all your time manually updating spreadsheets, it’s time to consider a bookkeeping app.
A quality bookkeeping app can save you a lot of time and headaches by streamlining your transactions and reporting, and helping you to stay up to date with your ATO obligations.
There are plenty of quality computer-based options to choose from, depending on your business and bookkeeping needs.
To help you get started, we are comparing 4 of the best bookkeeping apps business owners in Australia can use:
- Xero
- MYOB
- QBO (Quickbooks Online)
- Zoho
1. Xero Bookkeeping App
Xero is one of the most powerful accounting and bookkeeping tools available.
Xero offers affordability for businesses who need to include a limitless number of users, without incurring additional costs.
With Xero, you can manage the basics, such as creating and sending invoices and generating reports to see your financials at a glance. Their reports are visually appealing and easy to understand, giving you real-time access to profit and loss statements, balance sheets, inventory tracking and more.
As one of the more user-friendly apps, Xero allows you to smoothly manage sales tax, with options for automatic and manual sales tax configurations.
A strong option for e-commerce businesses, Xero includes inventory management for product-based businesses with ten thousand SKUs or less (if you have more than, it could be worth looking into an enterprise option). You can use Xero to track your products and cost of goods, receive low inventory notifications, set up custom reports to track important metrics, manage your vendors, and create your purchase orders.
Xero also integrates with all major credit cards as well as bank account payments, PayPal, ApplePay, AndroidPay and Square.
2. MYOB Bookkeeping App
MYOB (short for Mind Your Own Business), is a cloud-based accounting system that is suitable for many businesses, from solopreneurs right through to large businesses.
Offering unlimited payroll across their different plan levels, MYOB can help your business to track income and expenses, create and send unlimited invoices and quotes, accept payments, scan and store receipts, track GST and lodge BAS.
MYOB also connects to bank accounts (with the number of available accounts increasing across their package tiers), tracks jobs and provides financial reports.
Whilst MYOB Essentials (the basic tier) is aimed at sole traders and smaller businesses, MYOB’s Advanced tier offers additional features such as CRM (customer relationship management), sales pipelines, payroll, inventory and more, meaning it can scale with your growing business.
Whilst MYOB doesn’t offer the full scope of advanced features available through other apps such as QBO or Xero, it does offer a sturdy platform for larger businesses, or new businesses looking for a bookkeeping app at an affordable price point.
MYOB is also known for their 7-day-a-week access to Australian-based customer support.
3. QBO Bookkeeping App
Popular for its advanced, intuitive and time-saving invoicing features, the QBO bookkeeping app allows you to create and customise invoices, match payments and set up recurring invoices.
For e-commerce businesses with ten thousand SKUs or less, QBO provides inventory management, meaning you can track products, cost of goods, receive notifications when your inventory is low, customise your reports, manage your vendors and create purchase orders.
QBO also integrates with major e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Etsy and Shopify.
Whilst QBO offers some of the most robust sales tax management features, the learning curve can be steeper than with other apps, such as Xero, particularly if you’re not a bookkeeper or tax professional.
In terms of reporting, QBO offers robust, comprehensive and highly customisable reports. This means you can set up your reporting to see the key data and metrics relevant to your business, and track trends that help you make informed business decisions. The QBO advanced plan also offers access to Smart Reporting which includes machine learning.
QBO offers a range of add-on packages and employee-based membership tiers, which include additional features such as payroll management.
QBO integrates with major credit cards as well as bank account payments, PayPal, and Square.
4. Zoho Bookkeeping App
Zoho is a robust yet low cost bookkeeping app that can generate and send estimates and invoices to customers, create reports, and store expense receipts.
Zoho Books handles mundane accounting tasks so you can focus on your business. Features include projects, estimates, a handy client portal for better collaboration, plus receivables, payables, inventory, bank feeds, GST tracking, financial reporting including BAS returns.
If you access Zoho through the Wave App link here: https://www.waveapps.com/, you’ll get a Free 30 Day Trial.
Important factors to consider when selecting the best bookkeeping app for your business
- Do you use a professional bookkeeping service or accountant? If so, it’s worth asking them if they have a preferred software
- Is your business service-based, or are you an e-commerce business?
- Are you a solopreneur, or do you have employees? How many employees do you have?
- What are the key features you need from your bookkeeping app?
Key takeaways
Xero, QBO, MYOB and Zoho are 4 of the best bookkeeping apps business owners in Australia can use.
Each offers a range of features and pricing that can suit your business at different stages.
If you would like support in finding the most suitable bookkeeping app for your business, it can help to talk to a bookkeeping professional.
Depending on who you choose, many bookkeeping professionals can support you with:
- Choosing the right bookkeeping app for your business needs
- Setting up your bookkeeping app correctly to ensure ATO compliance and accurate reporting
- Maintaining your payroll records, and
- Filing taxes with the ATO.
Get professional help
If you’re ready to streamline your bookkeeping, Maree’s Mobile Bookkeeping is experienced in helping Australian business owners to set up all of the bookkeeping apps mentioned in this post.
Maree’s Mobile Bookkeeping provides a complete Bookkeeping, BAS Lodgement and Payroll Service for small business owners. As we work virtually, we service business owners from anywhere in Australia. From bookkeeping services through to payroll services, we’re here to help you take control of your bookkeeping and compliance functions so that you can focus on growing your business.
To find out more about how a professional bookkeeping service can save you time and money, phone Maree today on 0429 363 047.
