Research Paper: Accounting Software

There are many factors that I considered when looking for a new accounting software including the usability factors, different features, and cloud-based software or desktop hardware. The usability factors that seem to be most important are who are using the software and how. Because only a select few are going to be using the software, I have decided on a software that will allow multiuser access in order for the two employees to collectively and effectively use the software. When it comes to the features of an accounting software, the company does not need to waste money on a more expensive software that comes with a vast amount of features that we have no use for. An example of this is choosing a software that will generate a daily financial report that is simple to generate, customizable, and not hard to understand. Some software’s provide a feature that can provide a standard financial report that are more complex and not needed. Since we are a consulting company, we do not need an inventory feature in the software. The company only needs a software to keep track of clients, services, and will help with invoices. A nice feature to have is a feature that will allow us to connect the company’s financial accounts to the software in order to keep track of how much we spend and to where. The last thing I considered was cloud-based hardware. Cloud-based hardware will more likely be payable on a month-to-month basis, but it will allows us to sync different financial accounts to it and allow access wherever there is internet. Desktop hardware can sometimes only access data saved to that computer and accidents can happen. 

The three best accounting software are Intuit QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks Accounting Software, and Xero. Intuit QuickBooks Online is a great and popular software that will help allow us to create invoices, accept payments, and keep track of finances. This software also creates financial reports from scratch which is a key feature. It is also easy to use and to navigate. The only negatives with the software are that the basic plan starts out at $15.00 a month and will include some unnecessary features. There are a couple cheaper accounting software on the market that can also do what we are looking for. I chose this software as a contender because it is the most popular, easy to use/ navigate, and will allow us to effectively keep track of the company’s finances. FreshBooks Accounting Software is a cloud-based software that specializes in allowing companies to create invoices, accept payments, and track financials as well. This software can connect to the bank and can create simple financial reports for the company. This software also integrates with more than 80 business applications to give us a better overall view of the company. This software is similar to Intuit QuickBooks Online, but specializes in invoices and is starts at only $4.50 a month. The downside is that it is not as strong when it comes to product-based accounting and may cost a little more a month to have multiple users. I chose this software because it is highly rated, popular, effective to use, easy to navigate, and is cheaper than most of the other accounting software. Xero is an accounting software that is made for growing companies, such as our own. It delivers the same features as Intuit QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks Accounting Software, but is not as effective and not as popular. It is also more expensive than FreshBooks as it is $11.00 a month. I chose this software because it is designed to grow with its company and will provide us with the same features as the other software and more.