3 Free Online Accounting Software Options You Should Consider (Wave, Outright, Servora)

Sampson Wu for Business 2 Community writes:   Almost all online accounting software options out there provides a 30-day free trial. I have found only 3 options that give you a free edition that you can use after your trial expires.  If you found or know of any other free online accounting software, please email me.

Wave

Wave Accounting is completely free and contains no restrictions. You can invite an unlimited number of collaborators and send as many invoices as you want. Instead of charging their customers, Wave generates their revenue from advertisers, so expect to see advertisements when you update your books.

Wave has most of the accounting features a small business needs. Its accounting platform allows you to connect and download transactions from your bank accounts. However, one MAJOR shortcoming of Wave is their lack of bank reconciliation. This means that your financial statements are likely to be inaccurate because of duplicate transactions in your books (one from your bank and the other recorded by yourself).

Conclusion: Even though Wave is completely free, the lack of bank reconciliation makes your books pretty much worthless. To read more about bank reconciliation, its importance, and Wave Accounting, I suggest that you read Stephanie’s post: “Why You Should Not Use Wave Accounting Software.”

Outright

Outright Accountinghas a free edition, called Outright Basic, with very limited functionalities. Outright offers Outright Plus at $9.95 per month and includes more features, including Annual, Quarterly and Sales Tax tracking and reporting.
Outright is missing some key accounting features such as invoicing and billing. Instead, they integrate with other online software such as Freshbooks for invoicing and Shoeboxed for receipts (both of which you have to purchase). Once connected, transactions will flow centrally to Outright for financial reporting. Outright is used mainly as a reporting tool and not something you would use on a daily basis unless you like to do data entry and re-entry.
Conclusion: Outright customers have praised Outright’s reporting capabilities. It is a decent accounting software if you already purchased the accounts that they can connect with. These accounts include eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Harvest, PayPal, Freshbooks, and Shoeboxed.

Servora

Servora Social Accounting has a free edition geared towards start-ups, freelancers, and individuals. Servora free edition has no advertisements and is limited to one user login and 10 invoices per month. Other editions include Pro Edition at $29 per month and Team Edition at $59 per month.

Servora free edition provides all the essential accounting features that a small business needs. It includes invoicing, billing, bank reconciliation, and even CRM features such as quotes, activities, and contacts management. Though it doesn’t have automatic bank feed, these features are very complete for a small business with one user. Servora is mainly focused on the internal employee social network for teams to collaborate on financial and sales activities – but that requires additional users at $15 per month.
Conclusion: Servora free edition is a fit for mini-businesses looking to use only one software to manage their business. Servora customers have described Servora as social accounting software with a focus on sales and customers. Note: Servora free edition starts after your free trial expires.

Bottom Line

Most online accounting software for small businesses are quite affordable. I suggest that small businesses take advantage of the 30 day free trial to determine whether the software is a fit or not.