Best Accounting Software and Apps for Freelancers

With such a solution on board – which is available for computers and mobile devices alike – managing invoices, estimates, bills, taxes and the like is a breeze. And if the app is upgraded via the wide variety of third-party solutions available, then the software can become an almost fully automated powerhouse, meaning that your focus can be shifted to the only thing that really matters: advancing your career as a freelancer.

Best accounting apps for freelancers

There are plenty of good online accounting solutions, each providing the most essential features for freelancers. But as is the case with any online app, accounting programs aren’t all equal. In fact, some of them may offer more than you would expect:

Integrating other apps and tools

Even though the following features are usually present in online accounting software, sometimes they are not advanced enough to satisfy a user’s needs. However, due to the fact that APIs are often offered and supported by the vast majority of online accounting solutions, replacing built-in features with something more advanced is a piece of cake – and integral to making a freelancer’s life simpler.

Invoicing

No online accounting solution lacks an invoicing feature, and in fact this is usually the feature that accounting software providers put most of their effort into. However, there may be instances where invoicing is limited, for example most of the time the appearance cannot be tailored further. A bigger issue is when the built-in invoicing solution is not capable of creating invoices in other currencies beyond USD or when they cannot be sent to clients on a recurring basis. But since accounting programs can integrate with various online invoicing solutions, all of these problems can be eliminated to further boost your professional performance.

Time tracking

Unfortunately not many accounting solutions contain this feature by default even though it is a must for freelancers, particularly those who do contract work that either cannot be specified by quantity or doesn’t require special equipment. Thankfully, professional accounting solutions support integration with the market’s best time tracking app with which freelancers can properly manage their time and start billing by the hour or minute. But there is greater benefit than even this: if a time tracking solution is combined with accounting software, not only does time management become much easier but all that extra time spent on the project with additional activities can be easily added to the client’s invoices.

Estimates, quotes

Despite being another feature that less advanced online accounting apps often lack, it can be added in with solutions provided by third-party developers. However, most of the time integrating an online invoicing solution will be enough to enable this feature. This may seem like overkill, but the advantage of being able to create quotes and/or estimates is that it becomes possible to provide clients with an estimated price for which you’d take the commission. Doing that not only does suggests professionalism and care but it is also a huge step towards simplifying the invoicing process since quotes or estimates approved by the client can be turned into full-fledged invoices that can be sent when the job is finished.

Expenses

Aside from standard invoicing, real-time expense management is always present in modern accounting solutions. In fact, by leveraging the software’s app it becomes possible to automatically process expenses taken from a receipt by capturing it with the camera of a smart device.

However, expense management software developed by third-party companies can add even more advanced features into the mix, like automated expense categorization or the recording of travel mileages and work time. Additionally, these solutions also let you automatically send reimbursement requests or – as in the case of quotes and estimates – turn expenses into full-fledged invoices to send to the clients.

Tax Reporting

Businesses and sole proprietors have been aided by bespoke online solutions for quite a long time, but in many cases they still can’t avoid the tedious task of manual data entry. However, utilizing online accounting software is already a huge step towards simplifying the tax preparation process for various reasons.

Accounting apps can calculate and implement different tax rates for use on invoices, bills, quotes, or even in the software’s database, but as a result are then automatically imported into your monthly or annual sales tax reports each time the account is updated with an income or an expense. Additionally there is the option to separate personal and business incomes and expenses to maximize tax deductions as well as to prepare Schedule C reports either within the program itself or by copying the necessary data over into a tax preparation solution.

However, while preparing the necessary tax documents this way is a great asset for saving time, remember that in the vast majority of cases tax-related data has to be added manually to your business tax return unless the accounting program can cooperate with a tax prep solution by default, like how QuickBooks Online Self-Employed does with TurboTax Online Self-Employed.