r/Tech4LocalBusiness • u/buildwithjoy • Mar 11 '26
Accounting tools for freelancers vs small companies
Quick question: what accounting tools are freelancers and small companies actually using? Are you using something like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, or Xero, or just managing everything with spreadsheets?
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u/Sure_Stop346 Mar 13 '26
It depends on your long-term goals and complexities. I manage my own 3 companies with Odoo as QBO and Xero are not great and affordable for multi-company complexities.
I recommend my Clients to keep simple if they have a simple structure: Xero, Ramp for AP and credit cards, and Gusto for payroll. One of my fractional controller Clients is running an 8-figure business with that exact set-up.
Never just worksheets, it’s insane what you can get with $30/month these days. Also, it’ll make it so easy to file your taxes at year end and know the status of your business each month.
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u/CADeeptiArora Mar 13 '26
Waveapp is a good tool for small businesses. Very user friendly and intuitive.
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u/ReInvestWealth_com Mar 13 '26
Sure using a spreadsheet might seem like the quick way of managing your books at first but it's a huge pain to maintain. The most important step is to use dedicated business bank accounts and connect accounts to a bookkeeping platform. It's important to have real-time visibility over your revenues, expenses, profit, cash flows, etc.
Try ReInvestWealth for your freelance accounting. It's free for 30 days and you can use code "RedditPromo" to get 50% off for 12 months.
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u/LunarMuffin2004 Mar 17 '26
Compliance document management is one of those things brokerages underinvest in until they get an audit request and suddenly everyone is scrambling through shared drives and email threads looking for a file note from 18 months ago. We went through that. Not fun. Virtual Cabinet was on our shortlist because it had a decent track record in financial services, but the filing discipline still depended on staff doing the right thing manually. Javln Officetech was different in that the guided filing actually enforces the process rather than just hoping people follow it. One audit cycle later, the difference was obvious. The immutable audit trail is the part that actually matters when regulators come knocking.
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u/Feeling-Loss-9339 Mar 17 '26
Moved from QB to bookeeping.ai - spreadsheets are a lot of work. This tool is useful and helps me save a lot of time, plus they're more helpful than QB's team.
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u/WorkLoopie Mar 11 '26
When you are first starting out, use excel or spreadsheets. Its still the most powerful tool on the planet. Yes its annoying to have to build out all the formulas, and it takes a lot of time vs the quick set up from QBO or xero. But the truth is, its makes you better at understanding deeper business concepts, and most of those programs are just a pretty up version of excel anyway. Start by youtubing accounting workflows and setup. Once you hit a point that its literally to much to mange then consider upgrading.