Financial reporting software helps you make decisions for your U.S. business. It makes importing and analyzing your financial data and accounting statistics possible. However, the financial reports of a small business are very different from those of a large enterprise. This makes it challenging to find the best financial reporting software.
We’ve rounded up the best financial reporting software for businesses of all sizes. It helps you narrow your search. Both QuickBooks and Xero performed exceptionally well in our testing. QuickBooks earned a high score of 4.7 out of 5 from our accounting expert. It is compared to Xero's 4.5 out of 5. These impressive scores are a testament to the quality of these accounting tools. The high scores indicate that QuickBooks and Xero are efficient tools for managing your business's finances. After all, it is mainly for small U.S. businesses. This article deals with finding the best accounting software for U.S. small businesses with better financial reporting.
Xero vs QuickBooks: A Comparison
QuickBooks and Xero offer many features. It involves all the essential abilities that make these two options the best U.S. small business accounting software. Our comparison of the core features Xero and QuickBooks provide is detailed.
1. Tax Tools
Both QuickBooks and Xero give tax preparation characteristics, and that characteristic is just one reason why our researchers gave both assistance a perfect5/5 for financial reporting. All QuickBooks plans can let U.S. small businesses track sales tax and manage 1099 contractors, except the Self-Employed plan, which helps freelancers estimate their quarterly taxes. Moreover, all plans give tax deduction maximization tools. They are creating it to let an account and see the books. It also allows all users to export documents, group income or expenses by tax class, and automatically sort each new cost into the correct tax category.
Like QuickBooks, Xero can estimate sales taxes for each invoice automatically. A tax default can be set for any purchase, and Xero gives integration with Avalara TrustFile to help you point out/file your returns. Xero's tool also lets you map your accounts to various classes of revenue forms, keeping everything organized.
2. Expense Tracking
QuickBooks and Xero offer great expense tracking tools, earning each a5/5 accounts payable score from our study. There's one distinction, though: All of QuickBooks' plans let you follow your expenses and sort each into the proper tax classes. But Xero limits expenses to its established plan, with none of this software in its early and growing plans. You can even take photos of your concrete receipts with QuickBooks. The software automatically matches the existing costs. Transactions can be imported from bank accounts and credit cards. It can also be imported from third-party services. It involves PayPal, Square, etc.
Xero's raft of expensing abilities enables you to scan receipts to record and track cost claims. It also slots each expense into the best category for a record. The established plan also assists in a multi-currency process. It converts 160 foreign currencies into your U.S. small business’s local currency.
Financial Reporting Software: Characteristics
There are some essential features of financial reporting software. It involves:
1. Data Import
Financial reporting software should integrate with all your data sources; most come with pre-built connectors. The software should also allow you to manually upload data via an Excel sheet or another file format.
2. Pre-built reports
The best financial reporting software should already have a library of standard financial reports, such as profit and loss statements. These pre-built templates enable the generation of a new report in just a few minutes.
3. Custom templates
The monetary reporting software should also let you save your reporting templates. It happens in addition to the pre-built templates. You should be able to build your own from scratch and edit and save existing templates.
4. Report export
You can share it through multiple avenues once the final report is ready. Some of them involve downloading a PDF and emailing it to colleagues. However, some financial reporting software allows you to publish it online.
How do you choose the best financial reporting software?
Consider your needs as well as your budget. It helps to choose the best financial reporting software for your business. A small business will likely be satisfied with a few basic reporting templates at a lower price. At the same time, enterprises will be willing to pay more for advanced features.
Make a list of your must-have features. You have to prioritize those during your search. You might have to be willing to compromise on some of them to keep costs low. It will needed if you have a strict budget. Ask yourself if the lower fees are worth skipping the missing features.
QuickBooks & Financial Reporting
QuickBooks helps in accounting and bookkeeping. But it offers a very robust library of monetary reports as well. The entry-level Simple Start plan already comes with dozens of records/reports, and the Plus plan gives access to more than 60 different reports. QuickBooks also has plenty of other advanced features. It involves time tracking and inventory management. These are depending on your plan only.
Pricing
QuickBooks Online offers four different pricing tiers. It involves:
- QuickBooks Simple Start: $30 monthly with access for one user.
- QuickBooks Essentials: $60 monthly with access for up to three users.
- QuickBooks Plus: $90 monthly with access for up to five clients/customers.
- QuickBooks Advanced: $200 per month with access for up to 25 customers.
First-time customers can choose to explore QuickBooks. This will happen without committing to a plan by signing up for a 30-day free trial. After all, you can skip the free trial to lock in 50% off for your first three months. But you can’t choose both.
Features
- Automatic sales tax calculations are involved.
- Bookkeeping automation cuts down on manual work.
- Share your documents with your accountant smoothly.
- Automatically follow mileage for reimbursement using the mobile app.
Pros
- More than 60 monetary documents/records to choose from.
- Unlimited invoices and bills on each plan.
- Mobile receipt capture on each plan.
- Multiple pricing plans provide scalability as your business grows.
Cons
- More expensive than some competitors.
- Each pricing plan limits the number of customers/clients.
- Customer support needs to be better viewed.
Xero & Small Business
Xero is an excellent option for a small business owner looking for simple financial reporting. This accounting software provides a limited selection of default reporting templates. It involves profit and loss statements and assets.
You can also create custom reporting templates. After all, you can save them for later to make it easy to generate future records/documents. Xero also gives a better selection of other accounting characteristics. It involves invoice creation and expense management.
Pricing
Xero accounting also has three different pricing tiers. It involves:
- Xero Early: $15 per month.
- Xero Growing: $42 per month.
- Xero Established: $78 per month.
Xero gives a 30-day free trial to test drive the software. It can be done before committing to a paid plan.
Features
- Expense and mileage tracking are available.
- Inventory management is available on all pricing plans.
- Create quotes, enter bills, and send invoices.
- Sync the bank statements for automatic tracking.
Pros
- Unlimited users on all accounts.
- Affordable pricing plans.
- The low learning curve for beginners.
- Easy to explore the interface.
Cons
- Not as many monetary documents as some other competitors.
- It would help to upgrade to an established plan to get many characteristics.
- Invoices and bills are limited on the early plan.
Winding Up Note
Both QuickBooks and Xero provide excellent, easy-to-use, and justifiably famous services. After all, both have some disadvantages that the other addresses. Xero only helps administrate costs with some of its plans, even though QuickBooks does. However, QuickBooks doesn't manage inventory with its Simple Start plan. But while Xero provides a great raft of features. It involves top-tier invoicing tools. Quickbooks received top marks in five of eight product classes while maintaining better support and advanced tools than Xero. It makes Quickbooks the best accounting software for financial reporting.
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