The Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses in the UK – 2024

• Project Tracking: Track income and expenses for each project, which helps you see how profitable they are. This is especially helpful for service businesses or if you’re handling many projects.
• Automated Workflows: Save time and reduce mistakes by automating tasks like sending invoices and paying bills that happen regularly.
• Powerful Integrations: Xero’s app store offers a wide range of third-party tools and apps for integrating with invoicing, time tracking, payroll, customer relationship management (CRM), and more.
• Inventory Management: Adding products to your invoices and purchase orders is simple and shows you which items sell the best. Plus, it has alerts to tell you when you’re running low on stock in real-time, so you never run out.
• Advanced Analytics: The dashboards and custom reports help you stay up-to-date. Generating financial reports shows your cash flow and lets you track important financial numbers.

Xero may not be the cheapest accounting software, but its plans have great features that make the cost worth it.

• Starter – Essential accounting tools to kickstart your business. You can send invoices, manage bills, and track bank transactions easily. It also includes document storage with Hubdoc.
• Standard – Xero’s standard has everything from the Starter plan and more such as the ability to reconcile bulk transactions.
• Premium – Added functional like multi currency support for businesses dealing with international clients.
• Ultimate – This tier includes everything from the Premium plan, plus a built-in payroll feature for up to 10 people, expenses and project tracking for up to five people, and Analytics Plus.

Xero offers new users in the UK two months of free access to its payroll add-on, giving you time to try it out. For the first three months, you can also use its Analytics Plus add-on for free.

• Seamless Payroll Integration: Streamline the payroll process with seamless integration with its payroll software. This eliminates the need for separate payroll software and data entry, saving time and minimizing errors.
• Scalability for Growth: With its modular design, you can add features and integrations as your needs evolve, ensuring your accounting software keeps pace with your business.
• Profitability Tracking: Robust project profitability tracking. This allows you to track income and expenses associated with each project, giving valuable insights into project performance.
• In-Depth Inventory Management: Advanced tools make it easier to control stock, reduce stock shortages, and keep inventory levels right, especially for businesses with complicated inventory needs.
• Advanced Tax Tools: Making tax preparation a breeze. QuickBooks helps you categorize expenses for accurate deductions, calculate quarterly taxes, and even integrate with tax filing services.

QuickBooks offers four simple pricing plans, which include:

• Self-Employed – Perfect for non-VAT registered businesses that must prepare for Self-Assessment. With this plan, you can easily estimate your Income Tax, keep your personal and business transactions separate, and manage your income and expenses.
• Simple Start – For solopreneurs managing VAT and Income tax and preparing self-assessments. The plan includes everything in the basic plan, including cash flow insight, making tax digital ready, CIS calculation, and VAT error checks.
• Essentials – This is the best option for businesses that provide services. Extra features include managing bills, support for up to three users, and time tracking.
• Plus – Adds advanced features like inventory and project profitability tracking. It also has a dedicated account team and can have up to five users.
• Advanced – This is ideal for bigger businesses that need advanced inventory management. It includes everything in the Plus plan and adds features like setting up payment reminders, handling batch invoices and expenses, and offering training classes for new users.

You can try QuickBooks for free with a 30-day free trial before purchasing the software. Promotions like a 75% discount for the first six months are often available.

• Cash flow management: Optimize your receivables process for steady cash flow management. You can easily create invoices, track payments, and manage outstanding amounts.
• Professional Invoicing: Automate invoice creation for accurate tax calculations and enhance your brand with custom branding. You can also set up recurring invoices for timely payments from regular clients.
• Online Payments: Improve client experience with convenient online payment options through payment links or client portal. You can also set up automated reminders to ensure prompt payments.
• Vendor Bill Management: Keep track of what you owe to whom. Convert vendor invoices to bills, record payments, apply credits, and seamlessly track the status of all vendor payments.
• Inventory Management: Track every item in your inventory to maintain stock levels and efficiently fulfil orders.

Zoho Accounting offers various payment plans tailored to different budget sizes and needs:

• Free – Ideal for small businesses with annual revenue under £35k.
• Standard – This plan is perfect for businesses looking to streamline their transactions, accounts, reports, and books.
• Professional – Suitable for growing businesses with multiple users and increasing transaction volumes.
• Premium – This is suited for larger businesses with complex workflows and integrations.
• Elite – This is best for businesses with significant inventory management needs and desire extensive customisation.
• Ultimate – This plan is ideal for larger businesses with a high user count and a need for advanced data analytics. It provides scalability and in-depth insights for businesses seeking growth and enhanced performance.

Although each plan limits the number of users/branches allowed, you can add more for just £2.5/user/month and £8/branch/month.

• Automatic Tax Filing and Accounting: Automating accounting tasks like manage expenses can improve your cash flow and give you a clearer, up-to-date picture of your business’s performance.
• Payment Capabilities: Users can receive payments directly on the platform and link the app to any other business bank account to handle transactions.
• Supplier Payments: To pay your supplier, go to the payments section, upload the invoice, and schedule the payment for a later date.
• Invoicing: Tide offers simple invoice templates which you can personalize by adding your own notes, units, contact info, and more.
• Accounting Integrations: Connect your accounting software seamlessly to Tide to avoid manual data upload. Tide integrates with many accounting software such as Xero, Sage, Quickbooks, etc.

Tide offers a free plan and three payment options. However, there’s no option for an annual subscription, which might disappoint those seeking a discounted long-term deal.

• Free – This plan features a Tide business card, accounting integrations, scheduled payments, and invoicing.
• Plus – Everything in the Free plan plus phone support, app support, exclusive member perks, and 20 free monthly transfers.
• Pro – Additional features include two free expense cards and unlimited transfers in and out.
• Cashback – This includes everything in Pro, including a dedicated team of account managers and 0.5% cashback when using your Tide card.

Tide Accounting offers a competitive pricing model with a flat fee of £9.99 per month, making it an attractive option for individuals and smaller businesses in the UK.

Businesses can opt for either the free or paid plan based on their requirements. However, Tide charges transaction fees of 20p for transfers in and out, £1 for ATM cash withdrawals, and 3% of the total transaction value for cash deposits through Paypoint.

• Live Tax Experts: Get access to live tax specialists who can guide users through the preparation process, allowing people to make informed decisions regarding their taxes.
• Coverage for All Major IRS Forms and Schedules: The comprehensive coverage of all major IRS forms and schedules required for various types of tax returns simplifies the process of submitting financial information.
• Tax Law Updates: TurboTax, being a human-based tax aid platform, keeps up with changes in tax laws and regulations to ensure that users have a compliant tax procedure.
• Automated Data Entry: Automatically import information from W-2 forms, 1099 forms, and bank records to streamline tax preparation. This automation eliminates the need for manual data entry and reduces the likelihood of errors, saving users time while maintaining accuracy.

TurboTax’s plans include a free version for simple returns, an assisted plan for maximizing deductions, and a full-service plan for more complex situations like investment income. Additionally, live expert assistance is available for personalised guidance.

TurboTax only list their pricing in USD, to aid in comparison we’ve included what this would be in GBP.

Do your own taxes – This plan is designed for solo businesses that have the confidence to do their taxes. This plan offers 100% accurate calculations by the system, a minimum refund guarantee, and easy scan and upload.

Assisted – This plan features everything in Do your own taxes with expert approval, unlimited help from real tax experts, specialist review, and support. This plan is suitable for small businesses that need expert assistance in filing their taxes accurately.

Full Service – This is a full expert service plan that takes your hands off the taxing processes. This plan is for businesses that prefer a dedicated expert to manage their tax filing for them. In some cases, you may have the option to choose an independent Intuit TurboTax Verified Pro.

TurboTax concentrates on tax filing and does so effectively with its human expert advice, assisting businesses in staying compliant. This pricing may be a little steep for small enterprises because the listed price is subject to change.

The final price is determined by your real tax situation and the forms utilized, so you may spend more than you expected.

• Advanced Inventory Management: This option offers functionalities like multi-location inventory tracking, barcode scanning, and bill of materials.
• Multi-currency Support: Sage supports multiple currencies, which is great for international businesses. It’s more detailed than Xero’s currency feature, which is simpler and insufficient for complex global transactions.
• Project Costing & Tracking: Sage is accounting software designed for project costing, helping you keep detailed records of expenses, materials, and labour costs.
• Customisation Options: You can adjust workflows and reports to perfectly suit your business.
• Seamless Integration with Sage Products: If your business already uses other Sage products, like CRM or HR software, Sage Accounting seamlessly integrates with them, creating a unified system for managing your business.

Sage costs a bit more than other providers like QuickBooks or Tide, but for that extra cost, you get lots of powerful features beyond just accounting.

• Accounting Start – Accounting Start is perfect for new businesses, especially those run by sole traders or micro-businesses. It’s simple and easy to use.
• Accounting Standard – Accounting Standard is an excellent choice for small businesses looking for more features. It includes everything in Start and adds advanced features like uploading receipts and invoices by taking a photo.
• Accounting Plus – If you need even more, Accounting Plus has everything from Start and Standard, supports multiple currencies and helps manage inventory.

With Sage, you can handle payroll and carry out payments, deductions, and tax calculations. Payroll Premium allows you to manage HR tasks like timesheets and overtime.

• Customizable Templates: Bonsai stands out with its customizable invoices and contracts. This is an excellent feature for firms of all sizes, independent of sector or market segmentation.
• Project and Time Management: Project management tools, such as time and task tracking, assist both freelancers and professional businesses by ensuring that projects run on time and remove the need for multiple tools or manual processes.
• Client Management: Bonsai saves you a ton of time by providing a consolidated platform for managing relationships with clients. Its CRM allows you to add prospects, existing clients, project data, and internal comments to keep track of all your contacts.
• Workflow Automation: One of the advantages of using Bonsai is that it automates repetitive operations such as contract administration, invoices, payment reminders, and so on. This saves users time and increases company productivity.

Bonsai accounting software offers three tiers – Starter, Professional, and Business.

• Starter – This plan is ideal for freelancers and contractors who are just starting out. The plan features include expense tracking, proposals, and contract management, online signatures, and project management tools.
• Professional – The Professional plan is ideal for established businesses in need of more automation with their accounting software. This plan features everything in the Starter plan, plus custom branding and payment processing functionalities, integration with Calendly, a branded client portal, and unlimited events scheduling.
• Business – This plan is a perfect package for growing businesses and agencies. It features everything in the Professional plan with premium customer support, subcontractor management, and productivity reporting.

Bonsai’s price offers are feature-rich to cater to any business at any growth level without restrictions. Although it’s a bit pricey, its feature packages are a good consideration when choosing the software.

At the same time, Bonsai allows you to use the software for 2 months for free when you choose a yearly plan. You can as well leverage its 7-day free trial to test the software before making a monetary commitment.

• AI Automation: ClearBooks’ advanced AI technology manages your bookkeeping processes, ensuring compliance, accuracy, and monitoring.
• Combined Payroll and HR Management: ClearBooks offers several HR tools that ease the administration and payment processes. It integrates with payment channels such as GoCardless, PayPal or Stripe accounts to get paid quickly. Its bill management also helps you keep track of bills and payments, protecting you from late fee penalties.
• Comprehensive Report: I love ClearBooks’ high-level reporting processes, which provide a clear snapshot of your business success. With the available data, ClearBooks makes personalised recommendations and forecasts, helping you act quickly and make valuable business decisions.

ClearBooks offers competitive price plans that are adaptable to different business sizes, starting from startups to fully-grown businesses.

ClearBooks’ Small plan caters to startups that only need billing and payment features such as invoice generator, invoice tracker, bank feeds, reports, and dividends tools. Businesses that need more features, such as MTD VAT and CIS, should consider its Medium plan.

There is no free forever plan with ClearBooks, but a 30-day free trial to explore the platform. Its flexible pricing structure allows businesses to choose based on their needs.

There are monthly, yearly, and two-year options. The two-year option offers more discounts, but users have to sign a long-term contract to access it.

• Unmatched Invoicing: You can create professional invoices tailored to your brand with personalized messages, logos, and even custom thank-you notes.
• Automated Workflows for Efficiency: Streamline invoicing and expense management through automation. Automatic late payment reminders ensure you get paid on time, eliminating the need for manual follow-up often required with other traditional software.
• Collaborative Accounting for Teams: Invite up to ten accountants for free with this online accounting software.
• Inventory Management for Streamlined Operations: Robust inventory management tools help businesses track stock levels, set automatic reorder points, and generate detailed inventory reports.
• Top-Notch Customer Support: Exceptional customer support with a comprehensive help centre and readily available support staff. FreshBooks caters to beginners and experienced users with detailed guides, tutorials, and available support representatives.

FreshBooks offers cost-effective subscription plans and an extensive 30-day trial period, allowing users to explore its services for free.

• Lite – FreshBooks Lite lets you set up online payment options for your clients. It does not limit the sending of estimates or tracking of expenses.
• Plus – A good choice for businesses with a bigger client list. It lets you work with up to 50 clients and has more advanced features than the Lite plan.
• Premium – The premium plan lets you send unlimited invoices to unlimited clients, making it perfect for small businesses with contractors or small teams.

FreshBooks provides add-ons for access to additional features. Adding new team members is £8 per user per month, while advanced payments cost £15 monthly.

A 30-day free trial lets you test the service before committing, and you can save an extra 10% by choosing the yearly plan.

• AI and Smart Automation: Moss uses AI to enhance its accounting processes to ensure every financial data is captured. With this smart tool, you can easily automate tedious admin tasks that consume time.
• Flexible Spend Attribution: Its full-spectrum spending attributions are another unique feature businesses can use to track and understand their spending habits. While this feature may appear basic, it’s valuable for companies that need to review their spending behaviours and minimise or eliminate non-impactful expenses.
• Integration With Business Tools: Moss integrates with any business tools to enhance its full accounting functionalities. This integration improves your workflow and reduces time spent on manual data entry procedures.

Moss’s pricing is module-based, charging users based on the functionality needed and transactions.

Although price information is not publicly displayed on the website, I think that Moss’s pricing model is good. It charges a single platform fee regardless of the number of users, which is unique compared to most popular accounting software.

There’s no free trial or plan, but you can book a demo to see the platform in action before committing.

Moss’s comprehensive spending analysis features and flexible pricing model make it a solid option for rapidly expanding UK businesses looking for a scalable solution.