Business Services: Bookkeeping Software

Bookkeeping Software

1. Wave Accounting

This one isn't a download, it's an online program so will be compatible with any computer system with an internet browser.

I have been using Wave Accounting for many months and I think it's a wonderful online accounting program for small businesses who offer services of some sort, or who sell products but don't need to track inventory, or can track inventory in another program.

What you get with Wave

I love that you can connect your (world-wide) bank account to Wave and have your transactions uploaded automatically at the press of a button; you still have to allocate each transaction to the relevant income or expense account but this process is the same as what you have to do with Xero.
You can access Wave from your smartphone.
The Dashboard displays your Bank Account balances (where you click on Update Now to get the new transactions from your bank), A Financial Snapshot showing a chart of Income vs Expenses, Setting Tips, a summary of bills you owe and what's owed to you, a summary of your Net Income, and a colorful wheel chart comparing business expenses.
There are several sales invoice designs to choose from.
If you go shopping you can automatically upload a copy of your receipt to Wave Accounting with your smart phone, or scan and email it to your Wave account.
As Wave can be used world-wide, they have a section where you enter your own sales tax options (GST/VAT) based upon your country's sales tax laws.
Customize your list of accounts.
View and print/pdf a range of important financial reports such as Income Statement and Balance Sheet.
Payroll is available but only for North America and you have to pay to use it.
They have a Wave University so you can learn for free how to use this program.
There are so many great features that you need to go and check it out yourself!

Cons

You can do basic inventory tracking but will have to do journals as a work around. If you are looking for intensive inventory tracking, this is not the right program for you. At the time of writing this article, Xero is the same - only offering basic products - but Xero allows other inventory intensive software programs to connect to Xero to push the right financial details through.

Check it out now by clicking on the image below.