These days, you don’t need to hire an accountant to handle this aspect of your business. Instead, you can enlist the assistance of a reputable accounting software service to take care of it, saving thousands of dollars over hiring a CPA. But how can you determine which software solution is the best fit for your needs?
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What can business accounting software do for your company? For starters, it helps you with expense tracking and tax season preparation. In addition, accounting software can assist you in setting reasonable expectations for the growth of your business. It can also provide custom reports that identify which parts of your business provide the best return on investment.
Last, but far from least, using accounting software can help you prepare reports for investors. When you have clear and concise financial data at your fingertips, it’s easy for potential investors to get a snapshot of your business activities and decide if they want to invest in your business or not.
QuickBooks Self-Employed can tackle all of these tasks and more, but is it the best accounting software service for you?
QuickBooks Self-Employed is an outstanding option for any freelancer or contractor seeking affordable accounting software. Let’s quickly run down some of its pros and cons before we take a deeper dive.
QuickBooks Self-Employed starts at $15 per month, and there are also upgraded plans available for $25 or $35 monthly. The $15 package only includes the QuickBooks Self-Employed accounting software service, while the two higher-priced plans add tax support through TurboTax.
While there are accounting software solutions available for less than the $15/month offered by QuickBooks Self-Employed, we still think this is the best option for freelancers and contractors. That’s because this is the best tool in the industry for people looking to track both personal and business expenses, which is a welcome tool for self-employed individuals.
If you also want help with your taxes, the higher-priced packages are also good values. These plans add TurboTax functionality (and the top-tier plan includes TurboTax Live) for less money than it would cost to buy both TurboTax and QuickBooks Self-Employed separately, making them a solid bargain.
QuickBooks Self-Employed is produced by Intuit, the same software company that makes QuickBooks Payroll, along with Mint, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp. Intuit has been around since 1983 and has 10,600 employees. As you have probably guessed, this is one of the industry giants, and few competitors can even touch its level of experience.
The largest collection of customer feedback we found for QuickBooks Self-Employed was in the Apple App Store, where it has an excellent 4.7/5 average score with a whopping 73,000+ ratings. Clearly, customer feedback is a big advantage for QuickBooks Self-Employed.
QuickBooks Self-Employed offers customer assistance from 9 am to 9 pm ET every weekday. We’ve always received helpful and timely support from Intuit’s reps. That said, due to the massive size of this company, there isn’t much personalization involved with its customer service. It’s only a minor drawback, especially considering the solid hours of availability, but we felt it was worth mentioning.
There wouldn’t be much point in using an accounting software service if it didn’t make the process of tracking your company’s finances significantly simpler. Thankfully, QuickBooks Self-Employed does just that, with an easy-to-use interface and intuitive features.
If you’ve ever used other Intuit products, you likely know what to expect from QuickBooks Self-Employed: a tool capable of complex tasks while still remaining user-friendly and intuitive. There’s a lot you can do with QuickBooks Self-Employed, but it likely won’t take you long to learn how to do it.
The Apple App Store has more than 73,000 ratings for QuickBooks Self-Employed, and the fact that QuickBooks maintains a 4.7 average score out of 5 is highly impressive. In digging through some of these reviews, we learned that QuickBooks Self-Employed customers often rave about the product’s ease of use and discuss how much time it saves them compared to their previous accounting methods.
Overall, customer feedback is a big advantage for QuickBooks Self-Employed, as it has both a higher volume of reviews and a higher average rating score than most competitors.
QuickBooks Self-Employed is an excellent option for any contractor or freelancer without significant expansion plans. We thoroughly appreciate the outstanding customer feedback this company receives, and it’s hard to top the experience advantage you’ll find with any Intuit product.
If you’d like to take a look at your other options for accounting software services, take a look at our guide to the best companies in the industry.
For more information on managing your finances, be sure to check out our guide on Accounting 101: For Freelancers and Self-Employed. If you’re still deciding on which software is right for you, take a look at our article on Think Carefully When Picking Business Accounting Software. Additionally, understanding tax obligations is crucial, so consider learning more through our Accounting and Tax Filing course.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
Written by Team ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness has helped people start, run, and grow over 700,000 dream companies. The editorial team at ZenBusiness has over 20 years of collective small business publishing experience and is composed of business formation experts who are dedicated to empowering and educating entrepreneurs about owning a company.
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