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Small business financial software can help you manage tasks including budgeting, payroll and taxes. However, if you often work outside of a central office, you need mobile finance management solutions. Here are the 13 best finance apps that can help you handle accounting matters from anywhere.
Best Finance Apps for Your Small Business
QuickBooks Mobile App
Xero Accounting App
ZipBooks
Zoho Books Mobile App
Square Point of Sale
Bank of America Mobile Banking App
Wells Fargo CEO Mobile
NetSuite ERP
Microsoft Power BI
Shoeboxed
XpenseTracker
Mint
IRS2Go
Why Use a Finance App?
While you can manage your financial information with Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, it’s more cumbersome to manually collect data, and it can open the door to significant errors that impact your bottom line. For example, the University of Toledo’s budget projections were off by $2.4 million in 2004 due to a typo in a formula on their spreadsheet. Also, a chief executive at TransAlta, a Canadian power generator, said a “cut-and-paste error” in Excel cost the company $24 million in 2003.
Bookkeeping software can automate many accounting processes to help reduce errors. Reconciling your accounts every month can also prevent mistakes. (e.g., QuickBooks software will note any discrepancies in the reconciliation process.)
If you’re one of the U.S. small businesses that use QuickBooks for accounting, the QuickBooks mobile app might be one of the most useful programs available. You can run your company’s finances from your smartphone, performing essential tasks such as:
Entering transactions
Recording expenses
Invoicing customers
Sending reports
The app automatically backs up your data to the cloud and syncs it with all your devices. Thanks to the popularity of QuickBooks, you can easily integrate this app with many other financial and business apps, streamlining your workflow and saving significant time and expenses.
Xero is one of the most popular alternatives to QuickBooks. QuickBooks was initially developed for desktop use and later migrated operations to the cloud, but Xero’s creators specifically designed the finance app to support the needs of cloud-based users. You can use Xero to:
Reconcile bank transactions
Create and transmit invoices
Record and review expenses
Store customer contact details
Let employees access invoices and expenses from their smartphones
If you’re looking for an accounting app optimized for a cloud-based workflow, Xero might be just what you need.
Zoho Books offers a free business finance app to companies using Zoho’s desktop software. With the app, businesses can tackle the following tasks:
Send invoices
View a KPI dashboard
Create reports, including income statements and balance sheets
Monitor expenses
Manage customers’ online payments
Sync with other Android or iOS phone apps to assist with business accounting (e.g., use Apple Maps and GPS to record mileage)
Although the finance app is free, most user plans for the software range from $15 to $60 per organization per month if you pay annually. However, businesses with less than $50,000 a year in revenue can access a free Zoho Books plan.
While both QuickBooks and Xero charge fees, ZipBooks includes a free starter option with essential accounting features: The free version of ZipBooks lets you:
Square Point of Sale can be a viable solution if you need to accept credit cards, but you don’t want to pay a lot in setup fees. By integrating the free app to a credit-card reader that attaches to a smartphone or tablet, the Square POS lets you:
Accept cards, cash, checks and gift cards
Input customer signatures
Add pictures of inventory items to make it easy for employees to help customers check out
Clock employees in and out
Manage customer directories
Keep cards on file for regular customers and recurring charges
Receive customer feedback via digital receipts
View sales analytics data
Manage invoices
Track inventory
Manage data from multiple locations remotely from your smartphone
The Square POS app and the first magstripe reader are free. Additional magstripe readers, chip and contactless payment readers and stand and register readers are available for a fee. Each transaction costs a processing fee.
While programs such as the Bank of America Mobile Banking app are designed for general purposes, the Wells Fargo CEO Mobile app aims to meet the specific needs of small business owners. This app lets you:
Make instant deposits by snapping photos of checks
Check balances, upload receipts and manage out-of-pocket expenses from your smartphone
Receive notifications about accounts and transactions
Use a mobile token code or “eyeprint” authentication for secure access
Access your finance app through your Apple Watch
Users can download CEO Mobile from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
If you want a comprehensive financial planning tool for your business, consider NetSuite ERP, an all-in-one enterprise resource planning program designed to manage many crucial business functions from a single dashboard. NetSuite ERP includes powerful budgeting and financial planning features, such as:
Integrated financial planning, budgeting and forecasting
Call logging and tracking
KPI dashboard
Capital expense planning
Simplified travel and expense planning
Automated allocations of indirect expenses
Operational expense planning
Customized reporting
Strategic workforce planning
Financial statement planning
Not just a budgeting app, NetSuite ERP integrates its functions with capabilities such as order management, production management and supply-chain management. So if you need robust budgeting and financial management tools, NetSuite ERP offers one of the best apps for company financials.
Artificial intelligence can help companies to make smarter business planning decisions. Microsoft Power BI (as in business intelligence) provides a platform for harnessing AI to optimize your financial planning and budgeting. Power BI’s small business budgeting software gives you the ability to:
Transform raw data into visuals representing economic trends
View visual representations of financial data on the premises or in the cloud
Share visualizations of data with colleagues
Collaborate through shared dashboards and interactive reports
Control who can access data through built-in governance and security tools
Power BI lets you create custom dashboards and use plug-and-play dashboards specially designed to display key financial data.
Your company needs to keep track of expenses for tax purposes, but manually entering receipts into a spreadsheet can be tedious. One of today’s best expense-management apps for small businesses, Shoeboxed simplifies the tracking process by letting you:
Scan in receipts with your mobile device (or mail in your receipts to Shoeboxed, whose staff will scan them for you)
Extract key expense data from your raw receipts
Search and scan extracted data
Organize and export reports on your expenses
Turn over scanned data to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) auditors
Keep your expense data secure during transmission
This can be the best app for some of your company’s financials’ organization and reporting. Users can choose among 3 paid plans — Startup for $18 per month, Professional for $36 per month and Business for $54 per month, for your first year if you select annual billing. All tiers allow for unlimited users and file storage. However, only Professional and Business levels integrate with QuickBooks software and no fees for document returns.
Shoeboxed can save you hours tracking your expenses while saving you money in the process.
Designed for iPhone users, XpenseTracker from Silverware Software offers an all-inclusive expense tracking and reporting platform that can be used both as an app to manage business expenses and personal applications. XpenseTracker lets you:
Track expenses
Track business mileage
Capture photos of receipts with your iPhone and search through captured images
Sort expenses by date, category, payment type or client
Use preinstalled classes, or create your own customized groupings
Key categories to account numbers for easy reference
Organize your expenses into logs
Create customized reports
Display data in the currency of your choice
Export expense data to spreadsheet programs such as Excel
Export photos of receipts
Email your expense data
Automatically back up your expense data
A sister finance app, BizXpenseTracker, includes these features as well as the ability to:
Developed by QuickBooks developer Intuit, Mint has become one of the most popular money-management apps. Mint lets you do the following:
Monitor your finances from your mobile device
Manage all your finances from one central interface, including balances, bills and credit scores
Create customized budgets
Receive automated notification reminders when bills are due
See warnings when funds are low, so you know how much is available for spending
Get AI-generated budgeting tips based on your spending
Check your credit score as often as you want, and get tips on how to optimize it
Keep your financial data secure with encryption and multi-factor authentication
Mint is geared toward personal finance management, so the app might be a better fit for a freelancer or solopreneur. Mint can be downloaded for Android and iOS devices.
All business owners face the unpleasant but necessary task of filing taxes. The IRS2Go app makes this chore easier by letting you use your mobile device to:
Check the status of your federal tax refund.
Make secure payments from your bank account or with a debit or credit card.
Get free tax assistance software, or find a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or Tax Counseling for the Elderly site near you for qualifying taxpayers.
Subscribe to IRS tax tips on social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Receive login security codes for certain IRS services.
You can get IRS2Go through Google, Apple or Amazon.
Roy Rasmussen
Contributing Writer for Fast Capital 360
Roy is a respected, published author on topics including business coaching, small business management and business automation as well as an expert business plan writer and strategist.
