Free Accounting Software Options in 2022: Our Top 8 Picks

Bonsai is an all-in-one small business accounting software with a free trial. It tailors primarily to freelancers, but it can also cover the needs of small businesses. Founded in 2016 in San Francisco, California, it features a fully-automated bookkeeping system with international coverage, making it a good choice for those with a global clientele. 

Overview

If you’re a freelancer or run a small business, Bonsai is an ideal tool for helping you keep track of your business finances. It’s both user-friendly and affordable.

To kick-start your Bonsai journey, all you need is to connect your bank account. The online accounting software uses the data from your transactions to create and update your financial reports automatically.

Bonsai offers a 14-days free trial, so you can explore its features and decide if it’s the right fit for you before committing to a paid plan. Once you do, you can choose the Starter option, which costs $24 per month and provides you with all the basic accounting features such as invoicing and payments, time tracking and expense tracking.

If your business needs workflow automation and integrations with popular third-party apps, you should try the Professional and most popular plan. For $39 per month, it offers everything from the Starter plan along with a few other perks like a client portal. 

Finally, if you run a small business or an agency with more tasks and you don’t necessarily need free software for accounting, Bonsai's Business plan will give you all the features from the Professional plan, plus subcontractor management, unlimited subcontractors, unlimited project collaborators, and the option to connect multiple bank accounts. The price is $79 per month.

Keep in mind that if you choose to pay yearly,  you'll get two months for free, plus a significant discount.

No matter which plans you choose, once you're all set, you'll find a range of features to help you with your finances. With its smart invoicing option, you'll be able to set your mind at ease while the platform creates your invoices.

Even though Bonsai’s accounting software for a small business isn’t free after the trial period, you’ll still find more features that you’d get with free platforms. The software lets you create and e-sign contracts by using templates that you can further customize and even standard NDAs. With a customizable lightweight form and proposal builder, you can automate your contract workflow.

You can also keep track of your taxes, profits, and expenses, whether you're paying with cash, check, or credit card. When it comes to time tracking, not only are you able to manage your hours with ease, but you'll also get a Bonsai Time Tracker & Invoices app for your iOS or Android device. 

Most free accounting software doesn’t offer CRM features, but with Bonsai, you'll get a client management system that will help you keep track of your clients, projects, and tasks. You can also use the platform to collaborate with other freelancers or agencies, as well as manage subcontractors. 

On top of that, Bonsai lets you integrate with Zapier, Calendly, Slack, QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, and other popular apps. And if you need any help, the software has a great customer support team that will answer all your questions via email. There's also an extensive FAQ section on the website.

Final Thoughts

If you want to use small business accounting software for free, Bonsai isn’t the right option. However, it is an excellent choice for any business that needs an affordable, easy-to-use accounting solution with a wide range of features. 

With its smart invoicing option and customizable contract workflow, Bonsai can help you save time and money. The 14-day free trial is also a great way to try out the platform before committing to a paid plan.

ZipBooks is free bookkeeping software made by the company of the same name based in American Fork, Utah. The app has been around since 2015, with the first stable release coming in 2017.

Overview

ZipBooks is a little different than the apps we’ve reviewed so far, in that its free Starter plan is one of four available online accounts management options. There are also the $15/month Smarter plan, the $35/month Sophisticated plan, and – if money is truly no object – the all-inclusive $125/month ZipBooks Services plan. As this is an article about free accounting solutions, our review will focus on the Starter plan.

The Starter pack provides basic accounting features such as accounts receivable and payable processing and financial statement generation. The company’s small business accounting software has free unlimited invoicing, but only one user and bank/credit card account per account. Aside from access to unlimited bank and user accounts, time-tracking is another useful tool that you get access to only by upgrading to the Smarter plan.

When it comes to accounts receivable, you can accept online payments, send invoices to your customers, and run aging reports. The accounts payable tracking process is entirely manual. You manually enter your paid bills and payment methods. When comparing Zipbooks vs Wave, Zipbooks still wins here, but GnuCash has a much better accounts payable system.

ZipBooks a handy free small business accounting software to download, but unless you pay for a dedicated accountant in one of the more expensive payment plans, there is no option for creating cash flow statements. All the other standard options – such as profit, loss, and balance sheet reports – are present, though.

The software also has a very well-designed user interface and feels snappy and responsive to use. Third-party software support includes Square, PayPal, Stripe, WePay, and Slack. There is an ancient and poorly supported Android app floating around, but you’d be well advised to stick to their iOS app or simply access the mobile-friendly online platform if you have an Android phone.

As with other bookkeeping software with free plans, there are some limitations when it comes to customer support. For all plans but the most expensive Services plan, the options are limited to email and in-software chat, as well as the robust help center. The Services plan adds dedicated phone support, and we’ve even found reports of the company’s staff making personal calls to users with particularly troublesome problems, which is a great touch.

Final thoughts

Overall, ZipBooks bookkeeping software is great for all your basic accounting needs. With excellent payments receivable and reporting options, as well as a brilliantly snappy interface, the app is a joy to use. Free account limitations (one user and one credit card/bank account) are a bit of a downer, as is the lack of cash flow reporting and proper Android support.

Akaunting is open-source, cloud-based, free accounting software for Mac, PC, and mobile platforms. It was built with modularity and ease of use in mind and was first launched in 2017. It has since grown to a mid-sized platform that’s available in 38 languages, with over 100,000 downloads and 30,000 cloud users.

Overview

Akaunting offers cloud-based and download versions of its software, depending on whether you want to use the company’s free hosting services or host it on your own server. The software provides completely free single-entry accounting functions, although you can also opt for a paid double-entry module if you need it. Speaking of modules, the idea is that the base online and offline accounting software is free to download and has support for third-party add-ons. Some of these are free, while others – like the $69 double-entry add-on – come at a cost.

Akaunting’s accounts receivable offer lets you accept payments and issue invoices, but instead of aging reports, tracking unpaid invoices takes place through the dashboard. They can be sorted by their due date or payment status, or integrated with and processed through PayPal or Stripe. Accounts payable features are also supported, and you can enter bills with their due dates into the bills dashboard, then sort them in the same way as the accounts receivable bills.

As is the case with other free accounting software for small business owners, you can use Akaunting to create customizable income, expense and tax summaries. You can also generate profit and loss statements. All of the reports can be sorted into several categories, such as customer, vendor, and year. There is no support for cash flow statements or custom reports, but you can purchase the double-entry add-on for $69 a year in order to create a balance sheet.

The free version of these accounting tools features unlimited users and invoices, but you cannot connect your bank and credit card accounts. You instead need to purchase the OFX add-on for $19. This add-on will allow you to import open financial exchange files in order to put your credit card and bank account data into Akaunting.

Akaunting’s cloud accounting software is free to use on all platforms, but there are no dedicated apps for mobile devices. Instead, the interface automatically adjusts to your platform. The UI is very well designed and features a colorful dashboard, from which you can access all of your income and expenses. Instead of being on Apple’s and Google’s app stores, Akaunting has its own store, where you can download free add-ons or purchase paid ones.

When it comes to customer support, very little is available for free. You can consult the user manual and documentation or head to the forums to elicit some help there. If you purchase one of the app add-ons, you can also place support tickets to get help. Phone support is limited to paid tiers, starting at a one-off fee of $99. Compared to other accounting software for small business that’s also free, Akaunting is lacking in this department.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Akaunting is a good tool for online accounts management. It provides the basic features you’d expect from an accounting app, such as accounts receivable and payable, as well as excellent reporting options. You also get a very pleasant user interface that works well on all devices, as well as unlimited users and invoices, even in the free version. Finally, the program integrates with popular payment apps such as PayPal and Stripe, and it also offers a wealth of add-ons on its own app store. Nevertheless, Akaunting is missing many essential features, such as balance sheet and financial flow statement reports, as well as a double-entry accounting system.

CloudBooks is free accounting software made by the company of the same name, which was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida. The software was first launched in 2013 and has since gathered a customer base of more than two million small business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs.

Overview

CloudBooks is another program on our list to feature both free and paid options. In addition to the free plan that we’ll be focusing on, you can opt for the Team and Agency plans, at $10 and $20 respectively. There is a free 30-day trial available for all plans. The free accounting app has a limit of one client and five invoices (unlimited in the paid plans), but also features unlimited staff logins and bank/credit card account support. Other notable omissions that are present in the paid plans include phone support, live chat, and payroll processing through PayPal and 2Checkout.

The software provides standard accounts receivable functionality. You can set up and track recurring invoices, accept payments, and make accounts receivable aging reports. However, payroll processing through third-party apps is limited to one of the paid plans, which starts at $10. When it comes to accounts payable, you can record and monitor all your expenses, set up separate expense categories, and even attach pictures of your receipts to provide proof of your payments.

Good small business bookkeeping software needs to have a robust reporting system, and Cloudbooks doesn’t disappoint in this regard. It can generate accounting, client, invoice, and time-tracking reports. Speaking of time-tracking, this program’s very handy set of time-tracking tools is completely free to use as part of the project-management feature. Another useful tool is the tax calculator.

The user interface is simple yet effective, featuring a navigation pane on the left-hand side that you can use to access your dashboard, invoices, payments, and reports. There is no dedicated mobile app, but the software is optimized for mobile devices.

When it comes to customer support, the situation is similar to other free accounting programs on our list. The free plan gets you support via email only. By moving up to the Team and Agency paid plans, you also get access to live chat and phone support. People are generally very pleased with the quality of customer support, citing knowledgeable team members who are fairly quick to respond to customer queries.

Final Thoughts

CloudBooks is a great tool for freelancers and small businesses looking to do accounting on a budget. The free version is well-equipped with all the accounts and reporting functionalities you may need, as well as helpful timekeeping and tax-calculating software. Considering the low price of the paid plans, it’s possibly the best free accounting software for startups. Starting at only $10 per month, you can also get access to unlimited user accounts and invoices, which are otherwise the biggest limitation of the free version, which allows only one user and five invoices per month. The other downsides to the free version are the lack of phone and live chat support, as well as the integration with popular payroll apps.