In considering accounting packages for business, Excel (or Google Sheets) could be a serious contender for some small businesses. If you use Microsoft Office anyway, then using Excel for accounting is a free option except for your time. Generally, you would start out with three types of workbooks: income, expenses and balance sheet. You can get Excel accounting templates here. If you need to learn more about accounting then check out the free courses at Alison.Com.
Excel is powerful enough to handle the accounting for just about any small to medium size business. However, as your accounting needs grow Excel might be subject to misstakes. It all depends on how comfortable you are with Excel and with your accounting process. I've seen Excel abused before with way too much data and workbooks linking to each other. Maybe it's a good idea to move to an accounting software program before things get out of control. Accounting programs significantly reduce the probably of errors creeping into the process. It's creeping errors that make Excel problematic when lots of data are involved.
Another other area where accounting programs can potentially shine is in the integration with banks and payment systems like Strike or PayPal. You can import your expenses directly. Also, when you send an invoice the customer can pay online immediately if they're set up for it. You could download an expense file and import it to Excel, but payments are going to be slower.
What about Excel and an accounting program working together?
I would like to suggest that rather than just dumping Excel in order to move to an accounting program, maybe you should think about using them together. This will solve two potential problems: what happens if you want to leave an accounting program, and what if you need one or more different reports that aren't provided?
What happens to your data when you want to leave an accounting program for some reason? Can you get access to all of your input data? If you entered all of your data into Excel and simply exported it to your accounting program then all of your input data could be saved in Excel spreadsheets and possibility an Access database. I've written an Excel workbook that helps you to save input data and export it to a CSV file which can be imported into an accounting program. Just copy the macros into your spreadsheet and update the input areas.
Concerning accounting program reports, normally you should be able to export reports into some kind of Excel compatible file.
Overall, if you're comfortable with Excel then it can play a big role in solving your accounting problems.
Types of data FreshBooks can import: clients, expenses, Items, taxes and vendors.
Types of data FreshBooks can export: clients & staff, invoices, items & expense receipt images and reports.
FreshBooks full import/export with 3rd-party app: Skyvia App.
Third-party app integrations available: Shopify, Gusto, Stripe, G Suite, and more.
The Motley Fool rates FreshBooks 9.2 out of 10 versus QuickBooks rating of 8.4. The primary reason for the difference is that FreshBooks is easier to use and has significantly better support. Freshbooks has four plans which primarily differ by the allowed number of clients: 5 ($15/month), 50 ($25/month), unlimited ($50/month) and unlimited with specialized features (custom pricing.) Its features include everything a small business could need. You can check out a big list here.
You can see the reviews for FreshBooks over at TrustPilot.Com. Currently, its score is 4.1 out of 5.
Why don't some people like FreshBooks?
A recent user interface (UI) change is causing frustration with some people. And some people did not have a good experience with customer service.
Types of data QuickBooks can import: bank transactions, accountant’s changes, general journal entries, batch transactions, customers and vendors.
Types of data QuickBooks can export: reports, general journal entries, and customer and vendor lists.
QuickBooks full import/export with 3rd-party app: Transaction Pro.
Third-party app integrations available: Shopify, Gusto, PayPal and more.
Support seems to be the weakest link for Quickbooks. Its advantage comes with the number of features. It offers four plans that mostly vary by features (below) but also depend on the number of users: 1 ($25), 1-3 ($50), 1-5 ($80) and 1-25 ($180).
QuickBooks Online (UK) got a rating of 4.5 over at TrustPilot.Com. There is no US version.
Why don't some people like QuickBooks Online.
Customer service is the biggest issue. Some people had problems with a feature not working as expected.
Integration
Do you need a way to connect both FreshBooks and QuickBooks? Check out Skyvia's integrate and sync features.
Here is what FreshBooks says about Skyvia: "Integrate FreshBooks with popular accounting, e-commerce, support, CRM, marketing apps & databases. Backup and restore data in few clicks." Integration means full import and export capability.
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