If you are engaged in a business you need to track the flow of your finances. So you need bookkeeping software, howsoever small that may be. Small bookkeeping software for your small business will be able to track your revenue, expenditure, taxes, etc. and present it all in a summarised way. You can get a bird’s eye view of your state of financial affairs with one click in the dashboard. However, as you set on in your pursuit of choosing the best one among the plethora of bookkeeping software for small businesses, you are very much likely to be confused. In fact there is a maze of accounting and bookkeeping software in the market. Unless you are very sure of the desired features and functionalities you are likely to get lost in the maze. So here is a lowdown on the most basic features and functionalities of small bookkeeping software that you must have for responsible and cost effective accounting purposes.

Cloud based software or offline

It may sound big, but it is in fact friendly for small as well as big enterprises. You have to decide whether you want standalone offline software or a cloud based accounting service. Offline software is rigid and not scalable. If you go for a offline booking software you have to invest in a number of subscriptions for users that you are going to induct in future. So it involves upfront expenses with a horizon of 6 months to 1 year or more. On the other hand if you go for online software you need not pay for users that don’t exist now. Cloud based bookkeeping tools and services are hugely and smoothly scalable. You just need to pay the subscription for the existing number of users. As and when new users of the services come up you just need to go on increasing the number of subscriptions. This is not only fast, but also cost effective.

Integration with add on tools

There are a number of add on bookkeeping tools, available in the cloud, that can really give you deeper insight into specific areas of your finances. Based on the type or niche of your businesses you may need more flexibility in a particular area such as invoicing or expenses. As your organisation grows up in size you may also need to have a tab on your inventory. There are a number of tools available over the internet that can cater to such specific requirements. The only thing that you need to ensure while purchasing small bookkeeping software is that it can be integrated with these cloud-based bookkeeping tools.

Accepting online payment

A very important aspect of any modern bookkeeping software is integration with online payment processors. This is important because a lot of customers, distributors and dealers prefer to pay online. If there is such online element in at least 25% of your receivables, then it makes sense to integrate your bookkeeping software for small businesses with a secured and trusted online payment processor. So make sure that the software is capable of being integrated with such a processor.