My Honest Review of ZipBooks For Accounting

My Honest Review of ZipBooks For Accounting | Accounting Smarts
Charles Hall

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Charles Hall

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June 10, 2022

There are plenty of bookkeeping software platforms to consider, but not many can offer intuitive features like ZipBooks at such a low cost.

There are plenty of bookkeeping software platforms to consider, but not many can offer intuitive features like ZipBooks at such a low cost.

As a lower-cost accounting platform, ZipBooks is underrated by many and ranks at the top with plenty of useful features. It contains a full suite of accounting, billing, and reporting tools along with an intelligence tool to improve the way you run your business on a day-to-day basis.

Some ZipBooks alternatives include Wave Financial and BigTime with similar features and platform designs. However, we rank ZipBooks near the top because of the cheap pricing options with a free plan for entry-level users. Neither Wave nor BigTime provides a reliable billing tool or intelligence platform like the one ZipBooks has either.  

Not only does ZipBooks provide amazing customer support, but the Knowledge Base contains everything you need to know about using the platform. Our team has done plenty of research and tested the software to understand exactly how it can be a beneficial tool for users. Keep reading to learn more about all of the ZipBooks features.

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Table of contents

What Is ZipBooks?

ZipBooks is one of the most popular accounting software in the market today. It handles all your business needs, including invoicing, billing, time tracking, and payroll.

You can use it on any platform or device you want and it has a user-friendly interface that will help you get started easily. It aims to help freelancers, contractors, and small businesses better manage internal finances to improve their day-to-day operations.

ZipBooks is a perfect place to create and manage your invoices, automate expense tracking, and generate insightful financial reports. You can even lock completed books and consistently reconcile your accounts without the concern of clunky software full of clutter.

With ZipBooks features such as cloud-based storage, time tracking, and advanced reporting, there are several reasons why this software is worth purchasing.

For starters, this software comes with an entry-level free plan so you don’t have to make the investment until you are sure it is the right software for you.

However, ZipBooks does lack some of the complexity other options offer with features like payroll, inventory management, and a full suite of add-ons or integrations. But the software is priced accordingly, with free plans and low-cost options for every business.

ZipBooks Features

ZipBooks is a cloud-based accounting software that helps small businesses to manage their finances. The company has a range of features that both help in the accounts side and the management side.

The company has multiple features that cover every aspect of accounting for a business, from invoicing and billing to expense tracking and managing suppliers.

They also offer flexible pricing plans depending on your needs, such as free or paid plans with different levels of functionality. We took an in-depth look at the five primary features that have to offer.

Accounting

The accounting suite within ZipBooks is designed for the beginner without an accounting degree. It contains all of the necessary features to properly manage your expenses, income, transactions, and everything in between with ease.

The accounting feature has a detailed accounts receivable tool, automated bank connection, bank reconciliations, and auto-categorization of any and all transactions. You can eliminate the tedious tasks from your daily routine by automating them within ZipBooks.

The accounting reports are highly detailed too. Some of the key reports available are the balance sheets, general ledger, income statements, and tax reports. These are all kept internal through your automation rules and are kept extremely accurate by the intuitive software.

Billing

Beyond your basic accounting needs, you can also rely on ZipBooks as a billing tool to help better pay vendors, bill customers, and accurately process payments internally. Many businesses choose to use third-party payment options but when you use the one built into your accounting tool it saves you both time and money later on.

ZipBooks provides a range of features to its users including reminders, invoices, customer management, multi-currency, credit card processing, and more.

For small businesses that are not familiar with this type of software, ZipBooks is an easy way to get started. It's also a good choice for those who are in the business of online product or service sales who need a more efficient way to collect payments.

Expenses

ZipBooks allows businesses to manage their expenses, track their spending, and save receipts. They use artificial intelligence to automatically categorize invoices, track monthly spending, and generate reports. It offers unlimited backup storage for receipts and other documents.

The expenses feature of this tool allows small business users to categorize their expenses according to different categories like travel, entertainment, and the like. This makes it easier for businesses who want to keep track of their spending.

ZipBooks also provides its users with expense management features that allow them to keep track of whom they owe money and how much. They can follow up on overdue invoices and manage vendors accordingly so that they don't have to worry about late payments again.

Intelligence

ZipBooks Intelligence has a multitude of features that can help you streamline your business and make smarter decisions. The objective is to continuously analyze the health of your business using key metrics to grade how things are operating internally based on things like a Business Health Score.

This feature is unlike anything any competitor can offer because it is highly intuitive and uses machine learning to deep dive into each individual business. The software even analyzes your invoice and grades it based on the design and messaging included.

Speed up your business with ZipBooks Intelligence's smart search capabilities that provide data-driven recommendations on the best invoices for each client. It also offers insights for better management of sales, customer retention, and customer experience.  

Time Tracking

This tool is best geared for individuals working as freelancers or contractors but it can also be extremely useful for small businesses with employees. You can set up users to track their time worked with this tool so payroll is more accurate and you and your employees are both on the same page.

The tool includes a collaboration aspect where teammates can be added together to work together on projects. All the time in this tool can be categorized too based on the specific task or project that is being completed.

You can even import time directly into an invoice if necessary for any clients who may require it. The mobile app allows you to use it directly on your mobile phone too.

Smart Tagging

The smart tagging feature is a way to automate transactions internally. It can be done for each customer, project, location, or you can create your own custom rules too. By adding these tags, you can generate specific reports to show everything related to a specific tag.

This will automatically track specific transactions like vendor payments or software memberships. ZipBooks even uses a confidence score when importing transactions using their own accounting expertise so you know how well they were properly imported into the platform.    

Why Is ZipBooks Good For Accounting?

By using this software, you can easily track your expenses and invoice your clients. ZipBooks also lets you add other people in the company so you can send out bills quickly and easily.

ZipBooks is a great tool for accounting because it provides tools that are easy to use and gives the user all the relevant data they need to use them efficiently. It also saves time with its automatic calculations, making it an excellent choice for accounting professionals who are looking for a way to be more productive.

ZipBooks has been designed to be used by individuals and small businesses who need to track their expenses and invoices. This process can be tedious - filing away receipts, writing down what you bought, then manually inputting your expenses into the system.

That's why it is important to note that ZipBooks is a great product for accounting, but it is not just for accounting - it can also be used as an invoicing tool and billing tool too.

If you are looking for easy-to-use, affordable software that does everything an individual or small business needs to do with its budgeting process, ZipBooks is the ideal choice for you.

ZipBooks Plans and Pricing

ZipBooks comes with a Starter plan that offers free access to the basic features of the software. This is best for any new users looking to get started.

The Smarter plan offers features such as unlimited invoicing, custom reports, budgeting tools, and time tracking. The Sophisticated plan includes all of these features plus much more.

ZipBooks even has an Accountant plan with much more customization included to use the platform at scale for anybody who needs it.

Starter

The Starter plan is Free and comes with basic features like unlimited invoicing, unlimited vendor and customer management, digital payment integrations, basic reporting features, and one bank account integration

Smarter

This plan starts with a low cost of $15/mo and includes the features in the Starter plan along with recurring invoices, an auto-bill tool, automated reminders, invoice line item storing, multiple bank connections, time tracking, and five total user licenses.

Sophisticated

The Sophisticated plan is more advanced at $35/mo but includes an array of features that make it an awesome value for the price. The added features include smart tagging, custom account categories, account reconciliation, locking books, document sharing, insightful reporting, and unlimited users.

Accountant

The Accountant plan is geared towards accountants looking to integrate operations with customers too. The pricing is custom depending on each specific user’s need but some of the key features include exporting financial packages, bulk editing, managing clients in a unique dashboard, data migration, and branding customization on your client accounts.

ZipBooks Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Advanced time tracking tool
  • Easy to install and use
  • Reporting is extremely detailed with many different reports available for creation
  • Unlimited invoicing with customization
  • Top-notch customer support
  • Intelligence tool is unlike anything a competitor can offer
  • Low pricing plans for bigger teams

Cons

  • Needs more payment integrations
  • No payroll option

ZipBooks Alternatives

ZipBooks is a popular accounting software, but it's not the only one. There are many alternatives that provide similar features and benefits to the users. Both Wave Financial and BigTime provide many features that resemble those included with ZipBooks at affordable pricing plans.

Wave Financial

Wave Financial is a free accounting software that has a low cost in comparison to the other big-name accounting software ZipBooks. It has a straightforward approach for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

This is a free accounting software that helps small business owners keep track of their finances easily without spending too much money. It lets you create, send, and track invoices, which is something you would need in order to operate your business from home or from wherever you might be working from.

Wave offers features such as an integrated payment module, custom reports, QuickBooks integration, automated billing reminders, and recurring payments. The platform also has an online portal where you can view your financial reports and take care of your finances in just a few clicks.

You can also get full access to payroll with Wave, unlike the offering you can get with ZipBooks. However, Wave charges extra for things like payments and Payroll with a free accounting and invoicing tool for use.

BigTime

BigTime is an ideal platform for bookkeeping and, in general, project management. It has unique integrations that allow users to seamlessly exchange data with their accounting software.

Bigtime is the leading alternative to ZipBooks for project management, accounting, bookkeeping, and sales order management. It’s a cloud-based platform that helps you manage your work-life better by integrating with your favorite apps and providing you with smart tools to work smarter.

BigTime is more similar to ZipBooks because it puts a heavy focus on the project management, business intelligence, and resource management aspects of their product too. It is far more than a basic accounting or bookkeeping tool.

The pricing plans start as low as $10/mo for basic features with BigTime, with similar scalability compared with ZipBooks. However, as an accounting tool, you are getting a much more reliable platform to use with ZipBooks when comparing these two.