Accounting in the Cloud: Canada - Vendor Shoot-Out QBO / FreshBooks / Wave

Kristopher Morrison for CanadaOne writes what appears to be a Canadian Cloud Accounting Comparison:  In an earlier article, we wrote about the benefits of cloud-based accounting software. Now, we will compare the three big accounting software providers.

QuickBooks has been one of the most popular and well known accounting softwares for years. Now, Intuit has released QuickBooks Online. They offer three packages; their most popular is QuickBooks Online Essentials costing $19 per month. If you want inventory tracking, you will need to go to their QuickBooks Online Plus package for $29 per month.

While FreshBooks does offer a free package, it is limited in its features. As a business owner, you are more likely to sign up for the Seedling or Evergreen packages, costing $19.95 per month and $29.95 per month respectively. The main differences between these two packages are the number of clients you can manage and the number of staff who can access the accounts.

Wave Accounting is completely free. Some features, such as payroll, are added as a paid module, but otherwise you can sign up and begin using the system without charge.

We have spoken with representatives from all three companies to put together a comprehensive list of their features.

Feature	QuickBooks Online	FreshBooks	Wave
Set-up and admin
Create Custom Chart of Accounts	Yes	No	Yes
Create Revenue and Expense Accounts	Yes	No	Yes
Set Pricing and Tax for Revenue Accounts	No	No	Yes
Customer and Expense Management
Create and Manage Customers	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create Invoices, Receive Payments and Make Deposits	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create and Manage Statements for Overdue Accounts	Yes	Yes	Yes
Enter and Pay Bills	Yes	Yes	Yes
Print Cheques	Yes	No	Yes - In Payroll
Banking Features
Set-Up Multiple Bank Accounts	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manage Multiple Currencies	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reconcile Bank Accounts	Yes	No	Coming early December
Connect to Bank and Import Bank Transactions	Yes	Yes	Yes
Connect to E-Commerce Banks Account (like PayPal)	No	Yes	Yes
Taxes
Create and Apply Tax Codes to Invoices	Yes	Yes	Yes
Track GST, HST and RST Tax Paid	Yes	Yes	Yes
Automate GST/HST Returns	Yes	No	Included in sales report but not processed within Wave
Reporting
Profit and Loss (P&L)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Balance Sheet	Yes	No	Yes
P&L Previous Year Comparison	Yes	No	No
Accounts Receivables Aging Summary	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sales Reports	Yes	Yes	Yes
Open Balance Report	Yes	No	No
Other Popular Features
Payroll	Yes	No	Yes - Paid Module
Automatically Create Record of Employment (ROE)	Yes	No	Done by Wave staff upon request
Inventory Tracking	Yes	Yes-Beta	No
Create Estimates and Convert to Invoice	Yes	Yes	Yes
Recurring Expense and Invoice Reminders	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create and Manage Journal Entries	Yes	No	Yes
Additional Apps Through an Apps Store	Canada coming Soon	Yes	Yes
Security and Protection Features
Audit Trail	Yes	Yes	No
SSL Encryption	128-bit SSL	256-bit SSL	128-bit SSL
Active/Active or Similar Content Distribution	Yes	No	No
Anti-Fraud Detection Features	Yes - Reports to filter suspicious activity	No	Yes - In Payroll and Payments
Redundant Back-Ups	Yes	Yes	Yes