The next thing we are talking about is the “where” of bookkeeping. Where should you do your bookkeeping? A coffee shop? In your home office? A co-working space? I’m kidding! That’s not what this section is about. We’re actually answering the question: what bookkeeping software should be used? 

The good thing about cloud bookkeeping is really that it can be done from any of those places that I mentioned and you really could choose where you’re going to do it based on how you feel that day or what your plans are for the day. But what we’re going to talk about is the actual software and where you’re going to record all of your financial transactions. What accounting software should you use? 

If you do a quick Google search for “bookkeeping software,” you’re going to get about 48 million results. How intimidating is that?! Now that doesn’t mean that there are 48 million different software out there, although sometimes it feels like it. There are a lot of choices. But a lot of those 48 million results come because there are countless articles detailing things like, “top 10 bookkeeping software” or “comparing the top 3 bookkeeping software.” And while articles like that can be helpful, especially if you’ve been having a hard time deciding what software to use, it can also cause confusion and really make you second guess your initial decision. 

So for now, I’m going to focus on my number one choice and the software that we use exclusively at Steadfast Bookkeeping Company. So be sure to take advantage of those 48 million results on Google and do some research for your business, although I do think Quickbooks Online can really work for pretty much every business out there. Especially for online entrepreneurs- because of the kind of business that you are doing and the way you are accepting payments. 

Quickbooks Online really is great software. It’s the leading bookkeeping software in the U.S. for small businesses and it’s for a good reason. It truly is user-friendly so if you’ve never used it before you’re able to learn how to use it, navigate it, and they also have good customer service. Really the software will adapt as your business grows. You could literally start using Quickbooks Online from day one of your business all the way to 20 or more years down the road when you may have a large team, an in-house bookkeeper or you’re tracking inventory bringing in seven figures. Or maybe you decide to stay small and run a one-woman or one-man shop, that’s okay too, Quickbooks Online can stay with your business the way it is, or it can grow with you which is really great. 

There’s a lot of things that you can do with Quickbooks Online- some of the things that I love that are super easy to do, super user-friendly, and probably would be beneficial for you are that you can send estimates and invoices to clients. You can track all of your income and expenses by syncing your bank accounts and your credit card accounts, and it will automatically download transactions and then you’re just telling Quickbooks where to put those transactions. If you need to print paper checks, you can. You can even accept mobile payments and online payments right through the Quickbooks Online software or you can access it from a mobile device, which is really cool for when you’re traveling or on-the-go. You can also have multiple users and you can actually control their level of access. So if you don’t want somebody to have access to everything but maybe you need somebody on your team to have the ability to send out estimates or invoices, you can set up that level of access.

Quickbooks Online integrates with a lot of apps so if you are using third-party apps for your business to collect payments or maybe to send contracts or things like that, there’s a good chance that it will be able to integrate with Quickbooks Online. If you need to track inventory you can even do that! You can prepare and send 1099s, you can create a budget, you can run payroll, and there are so many reports available for you as the business owner in Quickbooks Online. 

So that’s a lot of stuff, right? And that’s not even really touching the surface of everything that it can do. So, as I said, I really think it’s a great option for every business out there. It’s easy to use, there are good customer service and support and it really is a great solution. And it’s super popular with bookkeepers and CPAs. So that’s another good reason to try it out! If you are doing the bookkeeping on your own right now but you know that you have the ultimate goal in mind to outsource or if you’re going to be handling the bookkeeping on your own but you are going to have a firm filing your taxes every year, it’s super popular and common for a CPA or some type of accounting firm to know Quickbooks Online. 

A lot of times they’ll simply ask for accountant access that way they’re able to get in, look at the reports, grab the data that they need to, make entries if they need to and they’re not having to ask you to print reports and bring them in or mail anything. They are able to access it through the cloud with their own log-in and that’s something that I promise as an accountant and owner of a bookkeeping and CPA firm myself, we really appreciate it when somebody has software like this that we can just log-in to and get all of the information we need. So be sure to check out Quickbooks Online. They’re typically running some type of special. You can typically always get a 30-day trial to try it out and see how you like it and see if it’s going to be the best solution for your business!