5 Bookkeeping Apps That Will Actually Change the Way You Do Business

If I want to look at the bookkeeping apps that will actually change the way anyone does business, I know exactly where to go. I click right into my bookmarks in Chrome and a folder under “Services” called “accounting.”

That’s where I have the five apps I most frequently use in my own business and for my clients. I know firsthand how these apps can change a business for the better.

The 5 Best Bookkeeping Apps for Small Business

QuickBooks Online

In my opinion QuickBooks Online has the best reporting of all of the cloud-based bookkeeping apps. This is important, because it is the ultimate output of your books. Reports are how you get the information you need, in order to determine how well your company is doing.

QuickBooks Online also has a great mobile app and a powerful ecosystem at apps.com that lets you complete a solution for just about any industry and any business model.

The video below highlights what you need to know about QuickBooks Online.

Bill.com

This app should change your life. I am being serious. Bill.com is a bookkeeping app that will save you a ton of time. If you are using QuickBooks Online and Hubdoc (mentioned below), then you can quite literally, and completely, automate your accounts payable process.

Bill.com makes it easy to get bills into their system, and then using a super-fast data entry screen that is rendered right alongside the bill itself, you can get bills entered lightning fast. The bill, and eventually the payment that you make, syncs to QuickBooks Online, so you only enter something once.

Bill.com can also manage your accounts receivable, and when you have it handling both sides, you also wind up with a powerful cash flow management tool.

Bill.com makes it so you spend less time entering and paying bills (which you can now do from the beach, using the mobile app) and more time focusing on growing your business.
The video below highlights what you need to know about Bill.com.

Expensify

Expensify is to expense reports what Bill.com is to accounts payable (and receivable). This app makes it a snap—literally with your mobile device’s camera—to capture your receipts. Then you can throw them away and forget about it. Expensify’s SmartScan will figure out the payee, amount, and other critical info from the receipt. Then you can submit it, to be synced to QuickBooks Online, and, if necessary, reimbursed.

Since travel comes along naturally with expense reports, it makes sense that Expensify has an amazing travel concierge and trip planner. Just forward your itinerary to Expensify and it will track your trip for you. You’ll even get updates about your flights where applicable.

Expensify has another use not many people think of. It has to do with the business expenses you charge on a personal card. Many small businesses co-mingle funds this way. With Expensify you can avoid that by linking up your personal card’s feed and then submit only the business-related expenses to be synced to QuickBooks Online.

The video below highlights what you need to know about Expensify.

Finagraph

This is where bookkeepers become virtual CFOs in a click or two!

Finagraph gives you the kind of information that CFOs would otherwise have to spend time calculating and then uses spreadsheets and charts to get them into a visual format that makes sense to the typical small business owner.

Not only does Finagraph give you the ratios based on what’s in your QuickBooks Online company but explains them. And it explains what can be done about them if they need improvement.

Finagraph is a powerful analytical tool that makes it easy to analyze the financial health of your company and then form a plan of action for how to improve it. Finagraph keeps a history of your “finagraphs” so that you can get comparative info and make sure you’re always improving.

The visual interface of Finagraph makes it a powerful tool for small business owners to use together with their accounting professional. You can download almost any component in PDF or any image format. Some modules are interactive, giving you a “Large View”—a close-up look at working capital or accounts receivable.

The video below highlights what you need to know about Finagraph.

Hubdoc

Hubdoc is simple to explain. It logs into all of your online accounts and fetches your bills, and then it archives them. You can then configure any bills from any account to push to your favorite cloud accounting software such as QuickBooks Online.

Here’s a scenario, using three of the above apps:

1. Hubdoc can fetch your Verizon Wireless bill.
2. Then Hubdoc can push that bill into QuickBooks Online as a bill to be paid.
3. Minutes later, QuickBooks Online will automatically sync that bill to Bill.com.
4. Then you can head to Hawaii, and from the beach, you can pull out your Bill.com mobile app and pay that Verizon Wireless bill.
5. Bill.com will then sync that payment back to QuickBooks Online and mark the bill paid.
6. Next time you update your bank feeds, the Bill.com payment will match up with your online banking.

Notice what didn’t happen during any of the above steps?

Not a single thing was entered by human hands. The only thing hands did was tap a button to pay the bill via Bill.com.

The video below highlights what you need to know about Hubdoc.

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from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/bookkeeping-apps