In other cases, even if you are an educated accounting professional, you still might want to hire a professional to assist in your company’s accounting and bookkeeping system. Having an expert in business finances can help with journal entries and set up great accounting systems. They can give you and the other business owners the freedom to focus on your products and services’ growth path instead of slaving over tracking each line of data. Although it’s a virtual service, Bench personalizes its clients’ experiences by assigning them a dedicated team of in-house professionals. The team takes over all bookkeeping functions, including setting up your account and linking it with all your financial accounts to upload data. The team then categorizes all your transactions, reconciles your bank accounts, and prepares monthly financial statements.

The online version gives you access from anywhere, plus you get access to the faster loading Android and iOS mobile apps. When it comes to expenses, most small businesses are overwhelmed by the amount of information they need to keep track of. It’s easy to end up duplicating your receipts, and manually entering your payments and other data causes even more confusion and frustration. FreshBooks business accounting software eliminates these problems instantly. There are hurdles to overcome right from the start and many of these new businesses never make a profit.

Eric Anderson, CPA

The main reason you might consider buying QuickBooks Online is that it handles well, and most accountants are familiar with how it works. So using it makes sense if you’re hiring an accountant to do your books. While we draw many of our clients from southeast Wisconsin, our services are 100% virtual and available to businesses anywhere in the country. Sign up below to receive our free eBook on accounting, finance, and tax topics that every startup needs to be aware of to help avoid surprises and headaches down the road. Jennifer started with the firm in 2023, working in our Outsourced Accounting practice.

• If you don’t already use a software program, the accounting firm will recommend a package.
• Some accounting firms offer these services as bundled packages, while others allow customers to select the services they need on an a la carte basis.
• Whether you simply want to outsource your bookkeeping or need help preparing an initial business plan, our firm has the experience and the heart to help you meet your goals.
• You also can add a fractional CFO to help with financial projections, cash management, business analytics, and budgeting.
• Our process often includes opening/closing accounting periods, recording accounting activities for the period’s end, accruals, adjustments and closeout.
• After assigning a weighted score to each category, we formulated rankings for each company.

Look for a bookkeeper or accounting firm that uses cloud accounting services like Xero or QuickBooks Online, not desktop solutions. You don’t want them having to come to your office every month to close the books. You also want them to recommend (or even insist) that you use other cloud services in the finance stack like automated payroll, expense reporting, management, forecasting, and bill pay. The purpose of automation is to save YOU, the client, time and money. InDinero has been establishing itself as a major player in the online accounting space for nearly 14 years. Its bookkeeping service comes with its Enterprise plan, which costs $399 per month when billed annually.

Best for Startups

Accrual accounting tracks all business transactions, even when cash isn’t involved. For example if a business records its invoices before they are paid, this is considered accrual accounting. The cash accounting method tends to be simpler and more convenient for most startups.

• Its features include transaction management, cashflow management, tax management, financial statement management, reporting, expense tracking, data management, and more.
• With office locations in Milwaukee, Brookfield, and Madison we draw many of our clients from southeast Wisconsin – however, our services are 100% virtual and available nationwide.
• However, for others, such as companies that seek VC funding, businesses with government grants, or highly regulated industries, a specialized accounting firm may be the best bet.
• The services are delivered via a secure online platform and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.
• Now that I’ve listed out what I think small businesses and startups should look for in an outsourced accounting provider, let’s dig into the top alternatives to Pilot right now.

We at Giersch Group are a certified QuickBooks™ Online ProAdvisor, so we have the ability to train your staff on using the software. Alongside this, we can offer you the option to purchase the accounting software at half price. Albert started with the firm in bookkeeping for startups 2023, working in our Outsourced Accounting practice. His experience includes AP/AR, general ledger, month-end reconciliation. Candice has worked with the firm since mid-2014, handing our internal accounts payable and accounts receivables, and reconciliations.

How We Chose the Best Accounting Firms

But, we go the next step and have our experienced team do several levels of reviews to help catch anything that the automated systems might miss. Making the financial statements correctly mirror these dashboards is not as simple as it sounds! But, correct accounting relies on more than just data feeds, and our team knows the questions to ask our CEOs for the information needed to produce GAAP revenue. Early-stage companies move quickly, and you need an experienced bookkeeper or accountant to review your books and financial records to make sure that the automated systems haven’t made any errors. There are particular moments when automated systems are likely to introduce mistakes, such as when employee benefits are changed. Location has much to do with the selection of an accounting firm’s specialty.

And that means picking up the phone or returning calls quickly when the client has a question. You think that the online store you opened last year to sell hand-knit beanies made a profit. Yet with hundreds of different business expenses, you’re not sure which qualify as tax deductions to reduce what you send to the IRS.

We then provide a custom solution that fits your business needs now and a plan to scale with your future growth. Our Foresight Business Intelligence provides you with insights as to where you are going & enables you to be proactive vs. reactive. Like private equity firms, many family offices have several product companies reporting up to one statement.

Read on to discover the perfect accounting firm for your small business. While I don’t think small businesses need to insist on outsourced bookkeepers and accountants with decades of experience, I do believe that experience matters. A big problem I have with the technology disruptors who are “innovating” in the accounting space is that they are often learning at their clients’ expense.

What is the best small business accounting app?

Basically, it’s a list of all of the places where you might want financial transactions to be recorded. Their system has a solid audit trail, works easily online, and interfaces with your accounting system automatically, saving you time. You can also use it to pay contractors – which is a pretty common expense for most startups. We generally recommend that businesses move away from spreadsheets and into an accounting software as soon as possible.

She previously worked for BLVD Residential, HMH Engineers, Ruth & Going, and ReSurge International, all in their accounting departments. Katie previously worked for Blend, LLC before joining us at SD Mayer. Her accounting experience includes working with QBO, Bill.com and she has worked in e-commerce and with small businesses. Brian has worked at SD Mayer since 2014 as the firm’s Controller, also working in the Outsourced Accounting department as an outsourced Controller, as well as supervising the team.