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 organise 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.

But ac­count­ing apps for iOS and Android are gaining pop­ular­ity because they are easy to use and simplify many ac­count­ing processes greatly. 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 greatly sim­pli­fied using ac­count­ing apps, including writing of invoices, order con­firm­a­tions, delivery notes, and payment reminders. These can be automated in-app.

Further benefits of ac­count­ing apps include the following, among others:

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

Ac­count­ing apps are usually as­so­ci­ated with web ap­plic­a­tions, that is, they are often mobile versions of web-based software. That means many ac­count­ing tools exist for use on both desktop and mobile devices. There are also down­load­able ac­count­ing tools, but ever more busi­nesses choose cloud-based solutions for unlimited storage of files. Depending on your tech­no­logy set-up, display size or system re­quire­ments you may prefer a mobile app over in­stall­able software. A central user account usually provides access to all available software versions of the app. That means 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 di­git­isa­tion 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. There are many others, but these stand out for the reasons discussed.

The Quick­Books ac­count­ing app automates many tasks to save time such as recurring invoices or bill payments. It also allows users to cat­egor­ise 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 Starter plan for self-employed users costs £10 per month. This limits users to five invoices, five bills and 20 bank trans­ac­tions. The Premium plan costs £30 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 quit whenever you feel like it.

In­ter­ested users can trial the app for 14 days for free after which a Basic plan costs £6 per month. 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 £18 per month and can support 10 users and over 500 contracts. Zoho offers several add-ons, for example, you can add another user for £2 per month.

Wave does not limit trans­ac­tions by number of invoices or number of users. However, in the UK version, there does not appear to be support for payroll. Although it lacks more advanced functions that SMBs may require, Wave is a great option for freel­an­cers and small busi­nesses just starting out.

Please note the legal dis­claim­er relating to this article.