Try QuickBooks Self-Employed.

I attended a lot of info sessions on this and I’ve talked with several bookkeepers and accountants. QuickBooks is the industry standard. It makes it easier for them to do their work. This is an area you want to outsource to an expert in order for your company to grow. Having accurate books and well set up books is so useful when you are seeking loans, grants, government contracting opportunities. They all want to see your books. Don’t think about this short term. Look ahead to the future. There are a ton of people who think about business in terms of financials. They need to see books. For you, getting a great bookkeeper and accountant is key to growing your business. Make it easy for them to do their work.

I would use Xero it’s so much easier to manage.

I'm new to self-employment and have found QuickBooks SE easy to use and low-effort. There may be better options out there, but all I had to do was link it to my accounts where it imported everything (and does so continuously). It tags all of the incoming income and goes back a year to calculate quarterly taxes. You can also enter expected numbers for the rest of the year if you think they'll be higher/lower than the previous year and it does the calculations for you. When you're ready to pay, there's a button to push to pay and it reminds you of the deadlines for each quarter. If you go for the premium version ($35/month), you can consult a tax attorney any time which for me, and just starting out with this and being anxious about it, was helpful. I had a bunch of questions starting out and was able to get answers easily. After this year, I'll probably drop down to the version which is $25/month (includes quarterly tax filing at the press of a button, but no tax consultation or oversight of my return). For someone like me who is very new to this and previously only did simple and conventional tax returns with a regular employer, I think the hand-holding is worth it. For more experienced people, it's probably more than they need.

I use quick books for my business and I don’t even have to think. It’s very simple. Download it on your phone and try it

A lot of manual work but it is useful once a year

I used quick books online for years, but their price kept increasing while removing functionality. I finally quit them a year ago. I moved everything to GnuCash, which I have used exclusively for a year. I really liked this program for the flexibility to run things they way I like. I am endeavoring to begin hiring this year, so finding a cheaper method of running payroll was important. I moved to Xero for accounting and use Gusto for payroll. I like both of them so far, and Xero > QBO.

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Hate intuit monopoly power

Bookkeeper here. QuickBooks Online *can* be a great tool if you take the time to use it correctly. It sounds like you already have an understanding of small business accounting so I wouldn’t be too worried that you’d do something to mess up the books. Look at it from a time/cost perspective. Is the monthly subscription worth it for the time saved in using spreadsheet? Usually the answer is yes but only you will really know that. All that being said, Quickbooks is the most popular bookkeeping software in the US so finding resources (online videos, tutorials, etc) to help will be relatively easy if you do run into issues.

MY TWO CENTS: QuickBooks desktop. I wouldn't pay for a subscription.

Xero is a really great option, and if all you wanna do is track income/expenses, then ask your bookkeeper or accountant. They can give you a very basic plan that includes only the essentials of Xero for around $7/mo.

Use the software your CPA uses. Most likely they recommend QuickBooks because they are using it for all your stuff. It integrates with the tax prep software most CPA use. Quickbooks is very quick for expenses. You set up "rules" and can import your banking data. It takes me a couple of hours to book a year's work of data. I hate the monopoly too, but it does make my life much easier and it's worth the $180 price to hand off a complete set of books to the CPA that charges $300+ per hour. Work with your CPA's file so they have everything set up properly.

QuickBooks has many pros and many annoying things about it. Assuming you’re doing at least a couple hundred thousand dollars revenue and not surviving on razor thin margins, I think it is worth it for the following reasons: - As a 3 member LLC you can give your other members more visibility in real time to help with active management. -You can see when invoices have been viewed by clients which cuts down on AR by being proactive when you see a client hasn’t even opened the invoice and it’s nearing a due date. -matching receipts with expenses and categorizing / job costing is seriously easier. I will say that quickbooks and FreshBooks are very similar in many ways so pricing might be more a factor in deciding. However, I think you may find the tools available using these products pay for themselves in time saved and increased visibility to spending, margins, and cash flow in real time.

How much do you pay your CPA overall? And how much do you pay them per hour?

I've got a similar setup but I'm trying to get rid of quickbooks. The software is junk that you'll end up spending just as much time reconciling as you would just doing your own expenses with spreadsheets. I initially liked it for the payments option but after they tacked on that 1% fee we don't use it anymore. Also most clients pay with their own AP service or check anyway now

I use Quickbooks and really like it. Had the CPA help me get it set up, all my banks/cards automatically get everything sent through there. Have a short meeting with my CPA every few months to go over any transactions that don't already have a category attached to it.

Although QuickBooks can do quotes that turn into invoices, if you can settle on pretty much any other solution, you'll be happier. Intuit is a money-sucking leech. The value derived for the cost is not good, imo.

I use Freshbooks. All online and a nice mobile app. I have been very happy with it so far.

It's interesting to see all the disdain for quickbooks. As a bookkeeper/accountant, I find it to be one of the more intuitive apps for small business accounting out there. I think QuickBooks can quickly get complicated without a good accounting background. Every transaction is a double entry made through a subledger, which may be what causes a ton of headaches and confusion. (Other than journal entries).

Our CPA recommended using excel since we’re so small, said QB was probably over kill

Check out https://www.waveapps.com/ Solid alternative. Entry price is free.

Hey! I use i24 to help run my business. Never had any problems. I highly recommended. i24app.com