The whole operation falls apart if you’re not on top of your company’s finances. Here are some software tools to make your bookkeeping easier.
Keeping your business finances in check is key to ensuring your operations go off without a hitch. From managing your payables and receivables to your business expenses each month, you need the right tools to keep your bookkeeping in order.
But what program or software is right for your business needs? Is QuickBooks the way to go, or should you look into applications like Xero or Botkeeper?
To find out, we asked 10 entrepreneurs from YEC to share what program or software feature helps them the most when it comes time to do financial bookkeeping.
1. Botkeeper
“We use Botkeeper, which has automated formulas that help speed up the process of bookkeeping. It works by extracting data from the various sources, after which it categorizes expenses, pays bills, sends invoices to customers and enters data into the accounting software. It’s a powerful combination of automation with skilled reviews of the data.” – Marcela De Vivo, Mulligan Funding
2. Fathom
“We incorporated Fathom last year for smarter reporting and their live dashboard feature. It integrated seamlessly with our QuickBooks account and is able to tell us our financial health at a glance. The software predicts future profit and distinguishes KPI trends. We review it monthly to make sure we are on track.” – Connor Tomkies, SupportNinja
3. FreshBooks
“FreshBooks is really useful. You can send and receive invoices, it comes with time-tracking features, and it’s simple and easy to use.” – Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
4. Harvest
“Bookkeeping isn’t always about invoices. If your organization needs to track billable hours across multiple projects, Harvest is hard to beat.” – Sam Saxton, Paragon Stairs
5. Pilot.com
“For financial bookkeeping, there are usually two choices: do it yourself, or hire a human to do it for you. We found and enjoy a third choice: Pilot.com, a bookkeeping software company that combines an accounting team with software. They automatically pull our financial transactions from our bank accounts and categorize everything in QuickBooks for us.” – Alexander Mistakidis, Gamelynx
6. QuickBooks
“We’ve found that QuickBooks is essential to helping you get your books in order in the early days. Then, as your inventory gets more complicated, you might want to consider a tool like NetSuite. It’s key to spend the time early on to get your financial systems set up correctly, as it’s extremely painful to redo it later on.” – Lisa Curtis, Kuli Kuli Inc.
7. Xero
“Xero is the go-to accounting software we use for all of our clients. The company’s focus on simplicity and innovative functions is what won our hearts over. That said, there is no silver-bullet software that can save you if you don’t have the right metrics and processes in place. Therefore, we’d advise identifying your use case and processes before selecting the right tool for the best fit.” – Michael Hsu, DeepSky
8. Zenefits
“Zenefits has been absolutely great for streamlining all of our employee paperwork, timesheet tracking and insurance questions. They now offer payroll capabilities in all 50 states, so we’re working on integrating that into our business now. It makes keeping track of the payroll side of our business a lot more streamlined than it used to be in the past.” – Cassie Petrey, Crowd Surf
9. Zoho Books
“Zoho Books has been a game-changer for us. We love the simple, clean, minimalist interface and system, which is all too rare in the accounting world. Plus, their support is great, available almost 24/7 by phone or chat, and their apps make it easy to track expenses on the road and upload receipts in real time. Aside from outsourcing the whole operation, this is the way to go, in our opinion.” – Justin Faerman, Conscious Lifestyle Magazine
Scott Gerber
Scott Gerber is the founder of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Gerber is also a serial entrepreneur, regular TV commentator and author of the book Never Get a “Real” Job.
