What Is The Easiest Accounting Software To Use?

What Is The Easiest Accounting Software To Use? | Accounting Smarts
Charles Hall

Last updated by

Charles Hall

on

June 10, 2022

For some business owners, the most important feature of accounting software is its ease of use. Luckily, there are multiple options that fill this requirement.

For some business owners, the most important feature of accounting software is its ease of use. Luckily, there are multiple options that fill this requirement.

As a beginner with not much experience using business account software, you can become easily overwhelmed with the array of features available. We recommend using Wave or Kashoo as a newbie looking for an easy-to-understand user interface. They also provide excellent educational materials to learn the software better quickly.

When looking at accounting software, determining the ease of use depends on a few key factors. First, the user interface determines how easily a user can navigate through the platform without getting lost or confused. Second, look for how they display the complex double-entry accounting metrics. For example, Wave hides the confusing aspects in the background to keep your dashboard and navigation clean.

Our accounting experts have used many different business accounting platforms while also conducting tests to see how well a brand new user can acclimate right away. The goal of this guide is to show you the easiest accounting software to get started with today for your business. Keep reading to learn more about Wave, Kashoo, and others too.  

This article may contain affiliate links where we earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

ShowHide

Table of contents

What Is The Easiest Accounting Software To Use?

Accounting software is not a universal product that serves every business the same. Some options are better tailored towards customers based on the top features available, like user interface and usability.

We consider Wave and Kashoo the two easiest accounting software to use for business owners. Both Wave and Kashoo are cloud-based software with simple designs and an array of features available at affordable monthly pricing. If you are a beginner looking to improve your business accounting process, both of these options are an excellent place to start.  

Wave

Wave provides double-entry accounting support for users with an affordable price tag. We typically recommend Wave as the best option for those just getting started with their own business, freelancers, and independent contractors.

The onboarding procedure is designed to teach you everything you need to know right away so you can best optimize your time in the future with a full focus on your bookkeeping needs. When you sign up, you get access to invoicing, accounting, payments, and payroll if required.

Wave is built to be a tool for people with minimal understanding of accounting and accounting practices. The interface is easy to navigate and understand, with plenty of support available to help you maintain your financial books the correct way.

They even offer a free pricing plan for newbies. This gives you unlimited time to test out the software and become an expert. It also makes it much more affordable to scale your business while using Wave.

Pricing

All Wave accounting and invoicing features are free forever. If you need more advanced features like payments and payroll, the monthly price increases but only slightly.

Free - $0/mo
  • Unlimited expense and incoming tracking
  • Sales tax tracking
  • Full double-entry accounting access
  • Bank and card integrations
  • Excellent reporting capabilities
Payments - $0/mo
  • Credit card fees - 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (Visa, Mastercard, Discover)
  • Card card fees - 3.4% + $0.30 per transaction (American Express)
  • Bank payment fees (ACH) - 1% per transaction
Payroll - $20/mo or $35/mo base fee depending on the state
  • $6/mo per active employee
  • $6/mo per independent contractor
  • Tax service includes automatic tax filing for $35 a month in 14 states
  • The self-service plan starts at $20/mo in 36 states

Pros

  • Extremely simple layout for new users.
  • Cloud-based platform to access from anywhere.
  • Low pricing is unbeatable compared to competitors.
  • Bank reconciliations
  • Double-entry accounting

Cons

  • New feature updates cause the software to slow down temporarily.
  • Upgrades are required to access either payroll or payments functionality.
  • Inventory tracking is below average.

Kashoo

Kashoo is a more underrated choice on the market, but it provides many features to improve your accounting processes with a slight learning curve to get started. The setup process is made easy by an excellent support team, and they walk you through every step of the way to ensure you understand the platform perfectly.

It is a cloud-based accounting software solution to give you access from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. The backend of Kashoo is incredible because of the accuracy of machine learning to identify expenses. Kashoo can properly identify and categorize expenses, income, credit card charges, and more without the user needing to do it by hand.

Kashoo provides easy access to invoicing with the opportunity to scale your access to get involved with all the available features. These features include accepting payments, sending payments, income tracking, expense tracking, double-entry accounting, reporting, sales tax calculation, and much more.

Pricing

Starter

The starter plan is best for freelancers looking for quick access to an invoice tool. The price is completely free every month, and you get customizable invoice templates along with the ability to place your own company logo too.

Basic

The basic plan is better for businesses looking to add more features. For the low cost of $20/mo, you get full access to invoicing, payments, critical reporting, sales tracking, and the double-entry ledger.

Advanced

The advanced plan is best for growing businesses that need more than one user added to the backend. For a price of $30/mo, you get all features in the previous plans plus multi-currency use, inventory management, payroll, and multiple user licenses.

Pros

  • The interface is simple and easy to operate.
  • Income and expense tracking is extremely thorough
  • The world-class customer support team for ongoing needs and initial setup
  • Integrates well with other payroll software
  • Continuous feature upgrades

Cons

  • Lack of addons or integrations
  • The mobile app is limited
  • No time tracking feature

Benefits Of Accounting Software

Whether you are looking to improve your business accounting process or keep better track of your personal finances, accounting software is the best decision to make this happen. For beginners, finding software that is easy to use is essential to getting started too.

The options we have listed all provide tremendous benefits to put you on the right path towards automated accounting procedures. Here is a look at some of the key benefits.

Low Cost

Both accounting software solutions listed in this guide come at an extremely low cost to get started. They provide plenty of free tools and support if you are on a tight budget, with plans scaling for better features at low monthly costs.

Accounting software providers understand the importance of these tools and they price them accordingly to ensure everybody has access to structure their internal accounting processes without concern over cost.  

Improves Your Business

Small businesses need to get all of their financials in order before they start growing faster. The worst thing to do is try and get everything sorted after you have started to scale your operations. This is where accounting software can help.

You can organize all of your financials into one place and activate automations to maintain important records for the future.

Saves You Time

These tools use machine learning and smart technologies to automate tedious tasks. For example, you can link your cards or bank accounts with your accounting software and they will automatically categorize your expenses so you don’t have to do it manually.

By doing so, you eliminate hours of work you would be responsible for in the future. There are plenty of ways to use the software to automate the small tasks to eliminate time-wasting and focus more on growing your business.

Wave vs. Kashoo: What’s Better?

Both Wave and Kashoo are excellent accounting software selections with easy-to-use interfaces for beginners to get started without too big of a learning curve. Determining the best depends on your specific requirements.

If you need a lower-cost tool, Wave is the clear winner because they offer a solid selection of accounting tools for free. Overall, Wave provides a bit more for your business that will keep you on track in an efficient manner to better scale your business operations.