If you are a retailer you have to do multiple things at once to keep your business running: monitoring your cashflow, manage your inventory and your customers, keep up with marketing, and dealing with taxes and payroll. Your books is where all this information needs to come together, and your accounting is the number one tool in keeping your business in check. Traditional accounting software typically doesn’t play nicely with your inventory management and other data that gets imported, often resulting in manual entry work and mistakes here and there.
Online accounting software contains smart inventory management tools or lets you import data from external inventory software. It lets you see your cashflow and the auto-created reports at a glance, create invoices, bills etc. with a few clicks either in your office or on the go. Furthermore, you don’t have to say goodbye to the other software you used so far: just integrate them to the accounting solution and you will not have a software, but a companion who helps you make your business streamlined.
Online accounting solutions have a lot of features that are useful for every type of business. However, if you are working in the retail business, you won’t need all of them.
So, without further ado, here is a non-exhaustive list of features you need for your business:
Accounting solutions display your cashflow in your main dashboard, which you just have to take a quick look at in order to see how your business is doing. Furthermore, as data syncing happens in real time, your dashboard will always be up-to-date.
With this software you can customize your invoices, create recurring ones, set different due dates, and automated reminders with just a few clicks. Furthermore, thanks to handy mobile applications developed by online accounting companies, you can create invoices on-the-go as well.
An accounting solution lets you record your expenses very easily: just capture a receipt with your mobile device and you don’t have to bother with shoeboxes anymore. Furthermore, you can create batch payments for different suppliers and even reclaim costs incurring on behalf of your clients by adding them to an upcoming invoice.
This feature allows you to record the quantity and price of the items you are selling, and even track said items. Moreover, an inventory accelerates the process of creating an invoice: just select the item, type in the quantity you are selling and let the rest be done by the software.
Don’t let those pesky reports ever bother you again; accounting software automatically prepares reports like profit and loss, balance sheets etc. for you. Just give access to your accountant to view these reports and consider your job done.
If the software has built-in payroll, you can calculate and file taxes with a few clicks, instantly pay your employees who can record their own time using a mobile app.
Do not worry if a feature you need is missing from an online accounting solution. If the company supports and offers an API, you can be sure that many third-party applications can be integrated to your software. From e-commerce software to those that track inventory and manage POS transactions; you have a variety of integrations to choose from. All you have to do is give access to the online accounting software to sync the data of the other software or services and let the accounting solution do the rest for you.
For instance almost all accounting software integrates with PayPal: once connected your PayPal transactions are imported to your software. The PayPal integration is especially handy if you also subscribed to a pay-as-you-go fast payment service which allows your client to pay with credit/debit cards and e-wallets by being directed to a client portal.
There is other software that could be integrated too: Square which allows you to accept credit/debit cards from a mobile device; BigCommerce, online store software with automatic payments and automatic credit notes; Insightly CRM, which captures relevant details about each of your customers, suppliers etc.; and even eBay.
There are so many different online accounting solutions on the market, it is almost impossible to choose therefrom. However, let us recommend you two strong competitors anyway: Xero and QuickBooks Online.
Xero is a progressive and innovative online accounting solution that enables you to manage your accounts more effectively and make your accounting hassle-free. Some of its features include invoicing and quotes, bank reconciliation, inventory, mobile capability, third-party apps, purchase orders and payroll. The mobile version of the software, Xero Touch, makes it possible to access all your accounting data instantly from wherever you may be. Xero integrates and works well with many other third-party applications (such as advanced solutions for CRM, point-of-sale, e-commerce and more). You have a choice of three pricing plans – Starter, Standard and Premium – all of which have slightly different features and a reduced price for the first six months. Xero also provides a 30-day free trial. Customers enjoy efficient and reliable support from Xero online teams. Xero’s US headquarters is in San Francisco, but this publicly listed company’s products are used in over 180 countries. The company has garnered impressive experience in the area of cloud computing and accounting and has continued to innovate and create new products for the market.
It is quite unbelievable that U.S.-based online accounting company Intuit Inc. has already been on the market since 1983. But the success of its main product, QuickBooks shows that they aren’t just simply lucky. The software exists as downloadable software for desktops, and a cloud-based accounting solution dubbed QuickBooks Online, which the company quite aggressively promotes. This latter version, of which we will be talking about, is ideal for everybody from simple sole-proprietors to bigger companies. Regardless of the chosen subscription, you can create invoices, expenses, and estimates with a few clicks, quickly manage sales receipts, create and print checks, payrolls, have multiple tax rates, real-time banking and reports. You can integrate the software with over 300 third-party solutions, and be entitled to full customer support. You also have the option to try out the software completely free of charge for 30 days. Skipping this trial period you get a discount from the monthly subscription fee for six months or a whole year. But if you don’t like the software, you still have a 60-day money back guarantee.
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