8 Best Online Bookkeeping Services for 2024

You’ll have to pay for the service, which can get costly, depending on which option you choose. Direct bookkeeping services for small business File is different from the IRS Free File program, which is a partnership between the IRS and trusted commercial software partners. If you meet certain eligibility requirements like AGI, you might be able to file federal and state returns for free using one of the partner websites.

1. Merritt lets you review and adjust your reports through its user-friendly interface, so you don’t need to know how to use Quickbooks to access your financial information.
2. Some, such as Patriot Software Accounting, support simple, descriptive product records.
3. If this is important to your business, we suggest Bookkeeper360, which aced our bookkeeping services category.
4. It’s an ideal plan for businesses that need minimal monthly support, though if you want more than two hours of help a month, you’ll save more money simply going with a service like inDinero or Bench.co.
5. There are several online bookkeeping services available, but we’ve identified the best in terms of pricing, features, and quality of service.

Online Bookkeeping by Bench

Your bookkeeper will be responsible for flagging discrepancies like typos, duplicate entries, or transactions recorded on the wrong date. They will also handle more complex issues, like fraudulent activity, unrecorded transactions, or timing differences between your books and the bank’s. Sometimes this may involve contacting the bank, vendor, or client to clarify information or request corrected statements.

Making sure transactions are properly assigned to accounts gives you the best view of your business and helps you extract the most helpful reports from your bookkeeping software. Bookkeeping is the process of tracking income and expenses in your business. It lets you know how you’re doing with cash flow and how your business is doing overall. Staying on top of your bookkeeping is important so that you don’t have unexpected realizations about account balances and expenses. Forbes Advisor has put together this guide to help you understand the basics of small business bookkeeping. It’s possible to do your own bookkeeping as a small business owner using accounting software.

Which Transactions Do Accounting Services Support?

Someone had to be there to run the report, save it in the right format and send it out. In this age of cloud accounting and virtual bookkeeping services, they should be able to have reports sent to you on a schedule. If not done at the time of the transaction, the bookkeeper will create and send invoices for funds that need to be collected by the company. The bookkeeper enters relevant data such as date, price, quantity and sales tax (if applicable). When this is done in the accounting software, the invoice is created, and a journal entry is made, debiting the cash or accounts receivable account while crediting the sales account.

If you’re seeking more affordable pricing, then Bench is a good option, although it has its own proprietary accounting software. The best bookkeeping services take care of basic bookkeeping tasks, like reconciling bank statements, inputting transactions and generating financial reports. You should be able to directly call or message your bookkeeper with questions whenever necessary, and some services offer add-ons for tax planning and payroll.

Whether you need tax filing services and advice

Most accounting software offers a range of features that are suited for almost any type of small business. Using the data you gain from keeping a ledger, your next step will be to generate and prepare financial reports for analysis. The major reports to include are the profit and loss, the balance sheet, and a cash flow analysis. Additionally, the aged accounts receivables and aged accounts payables reports are helpful in knowing which customers have not paid and which vendors are yet to be paid. These reports will help you gain greater insights into the financial health of your small business. Bookkeeping is the regular practice of updating a company’s financial records to reflect all financial transactions, credits, and debits.

Pilot has some niche services that make it a uniquely good fit for startup businesses, such as CFO services and R&D tax credit preparation. It also offers quite a few perks, like a discount for pre-revenue businesses and integrations with multiple commonly used business software programs. Before choosing a bookkeeping service, have a clear picture of how many employees and contractors you work with. If you have a lot of employees, it can be helpful to use a service that offers payroll processing. If you work with contractors, your bookkeeping service should include 1099 tracking and filing. All plans come with monthly statements, end-of-year reports, 1099 reports, accounts reconciliation and monthly webinars with Jitasa’s team of former nonprofit CFOs.

The tips below are industry standards that will help any small business excel at bookkeeping. In the end, your virtual bookkeeper should be a partner that can help grow your business affordably. Keep that in mind as you search for the right virtual bookkeeper for your small business. We can fully wipe your data, too—at the end of the day, it’s your info and your call.

It did, however, suffer in the personal bookkeeper category because while it offers a dedicated bookkeeper, it doesn’t provide video meetings, a phone number to call, or a mobile app. Bookkeeper360 offers all three, so it’s a good solution if that is what you’re looking for. At the end of the day, only you can determine which of these services, if any, will meet your bookkeeping needs. All in all, when you sign up for QuickBooks Live, you’ll have access to a certified bookkeeper, as well as a bookkeeping team that can address additional questions. Your bookkeeping team will maintain your books throughout the month and review and close them when the month ends.

Its bookkeeping service comes with its Enterprise plan, which costs $399 per month when billed annually. You’ll get a dedicated accountant, year-round tax advice, tax prep, bookkeeping and financial reports. Although it’s rarely included in the price of bookkeeping services, many online bookkeeping companies also offer tax advisory and filing at an additional cost. If you already work with a CPA and plan to have them continue filing your taxes for you, you don’t need to worry about finding a bookkeeping service that provides tax services.

It’s an excellent choice if you already use other Zoho software or your business is set for growth since it easily scales. Features of the free version include client management, expense and mileage tracking, multilingual and recurring invoicing, online payments and automatic payment reminders, and reports. You can import bank and credit card statements but can’t set up direct connections to your financial institutions.