Accounting Software Comparison

Not sure which accounting solution is right for your business?  There are a ton of solutions out there to choose from, some ranging from $1,000 per year to as little as $9.95 per month.  Here is a comparison of some of the latest accounting software packages out there, one new one on the list this year is QuickBooks Online Plus and FreshBooks.  QuickBooks 2011 will be arriving in the fall, so stay tuned for an updated review.

Peachtree ($349.99)

Peachtree is decent accounting software made by Sage, but isn’t well known by accountants, so it really won’t help you get the job done. If you need tax advice from an accountant or outsource parts of your business like payroll processing or accounts receivable to a bookkeeper, you’ll need QuickBooks Pro or QuickBooks Premier 2010.  Update: QuickBooks 2011 should be available online with the 20% discount in October.

Quickbooks Pro 2010  ($159 with the Discount)

QuickBooks Pro 2010 is the gold standard in small and medium-sized business accounting.  You can’t go wrong with QuickBooks for two reasons 1) Any accountant or bookkeeper will know how to help you if you get into trouble 2) It is by far the lowest price point for accounting software.  The QuickBooks Pro 2010 retail price is $179, but with the QuickBooks Pro discount you can pick it up direct from Intuit for only $159. Click Here to Active the Discount Code. If you’re looking for a directory of accounting software, click here for the Accounting Software Directory, a free directory of accounting software.

FreshBooks (Free to $19 per month)

The free version of FreshBooks won’t get you much.  You are very limited in the number of invoices you can send out and number of customers you can add to your account.  Overall, FreshBooks is good for sending invoices if you are a very small business or freelances, but it doesn’t deliver on the online accounting feature set that QuickBooks Premier or QuickBooks Online have.

QuickBooks Online Plus (free trial available, $34.95 per month)

Intuit QuickBooks Online is a great accounting package for small and medium sized service businesses.  In the last month QuickBooks Online inventory rolled out in QuickBooks Online Plus, so it’s really an all around bookkeeping solutino.  QuickBooks Online also has mobile accounting for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android if you’re a smartphone user.