Small Business Accounting Software | Achen Henderson CPAs

Take the pain out of bookkeeping and cash flow management. Small business accounting software is a great way for entrepreneurs to have a clear understanding of their expenses and where money goes within their business.

The number of cloud-based accounting software packages and other applications is growing every day, so selecting those that are right for your business has become daunting. We have knowledge of most accounting programs as well as collaborating with software developers who can help you choose and implement the system that best fits your business needs.

Why use accounting software

Accounting software can manage and record all financial aspects of your business, which not only helps keep your business compliant with government requirements, but it can also actually help you make more money in less time! Accounting software can:

Record transactions directly from your bank and credit card accounts
Prepare and send invoices electronically
Collect money from customers electronically
Send money to employees and customers electronically
Provide valuable insights into your company’s financial performance
Create financial reports to help you make better business decisions

Best accounting software for small business

We have outlined the best accounting software available to small businesses and what you can expect from the online applications.

Best overall: QBO and Xero
Easiest to use: Xero
Best for online payments: Plooto
Best for salary only payroll: Wagepoint
Best for a variety of payroll types: Payment Evolution
Best for time tracking: TSheets
Best for helping collect Accounts Receivable: Invoice Sherpa

Accounting software partners

Desktop software is a thing of the past. It’s time to leave your desktop accounting software and spreadsheets behind and move into the cloud.

Although there are many accounting software packages on the market, we recommend the following two for the serious business owner:

Xero Online Accounting Software. Xero has a very intuitive interface, focuses on ease of use, provides a real-time view of your cash flow, and makes it easy to manage your receivables and payables. Xero integrates with more applications than any other accounting software and offers fabulous support.

Quickbooks Online (QBO). Quickbooks has been the dominant force in desktop accounting software for many years and is used by more businesses than any other system. It has all the features a business needs. Quickbooks has recently devoted all of its development dollars to QuickBooks Online, showing you where the market is heading.

Both Xero and Quickbooks integrate with a large number of other cloud-based applications for complete management of all your bookkeeping functions. We are certified partners of both Quickbooks Online and Xero.

Other cloud-based software applications

We also use and recommend a number of other applications to put your business on autopilot, including:

Hubdoc. Keep all of your monthly recurring invoices and statements in one place and upload those invoices into your accounting software. You can also automatically download these recurring statements directly from your vendors.
Dext. Easy automation for collecting, processing and publishing receipts and invoices. With Receipt Bank you spend less time on manual tasks and more time focusing on your business
Invoice Sherpa. Automate your accounts receivable. Get paid faster. Increase your cash flow.
TSheets This software allows you to integrate time-based billing directly into your accounting software for billing, employee payroll, and expenses. Employees can enter their time cards and review their schedule and banked vacation pay right from their phone app.
Plooto. This software takes care of all the administrative paperwork that comes along with payments, so you don’t have to. It’s the easiest way for your business to pay vendors, collect money from clients, and more. And at only $1 per transaction, there’s no need to write cheques ever again.
Payment Evolution. Trusted by thousands of businesses, PaymentEvolution is Canada’s largest and most loved cloud payroll and payments service.
Wagepoint. Online payroll software keeps you compliant with CRA payroll regulations and helps you pay your employees and independent contractors easily.

Accounting software for startups

Often, owners of startup businesses don’t understand financial reporting requirements, the deadlines they must meet, and all the other pieces of an effective accounting and bookkeeping system. As a result, they create a great deal of financial stress for themselves at an already stressful time in their lives. It’s hard enough to run a startup without that additional stress. Things may not be set up properly so the information being produced by your system may be incomplete or imperfect.

We help you set things up properly and efficiently right from the start, so you can focus on making your startup a success.

Get started with accounting software

Accounting software is changing the way entrepreneurs handle the backend of their businesses. There are a large number of software systems to perform virtually any accounting task, and we have selected our favourites. However, our goal is to make sure you have the right software for your needs.

We undertake an extensive onboarding process where we learn the details about every financial transaction your business undertakes with the goal of taking over your bookkeeping, so you don’t have to worry about it. At the end of our onboarding process, you’ll receive your accounting operations manual, which will detail everything you need to know about your newly designed accounting system.

After our onboarding process, we provide you with detailed checklists via email containing the steps you need to take to accomplish a given task, such as approving time entries before a payroll. These checklists will show up in your inbox exactly on time with clear and specific instructions so you know exactly what to do.

In our system, we fetch statements from your major vendors—the banks, cell phone companies, utilities, etc. If you need to submit receipts to us, it is as easy as snapping a picture of them on your cell phone or scanning the paper documents with one of our scanners that uploads your documents directly to the cloud, where we can ensure they are properly recorded and stored. We will queue up your payables for your approval and send those payments out digitally to your vendors so you don’t have to write cheques.

Once your business is running in our bookkeeping system, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.