7 Handy Tools to Help Manage Your Small Business Finances

As any small business owner or independent contractor knows, a lot of your business hours can be wasted on accounting and finances. Who knew there were so many different tax forms and Excel sheets to keep track of? 

Fortunately, there are a lot of financial tools cheaply available to small business owners that can take a lot of the guesswork (and legwork) out of squaring up your finances.

Whether it’s payroll, accounting, inventory tracking, or making sure your employees and subcontractors receive accurate paystubs and tax forms, we’ve compiled a list of handy tools that will help manage your small business finances and automate your bookkeeping.

PlanGuru

One important aspect of a small business’s success is creating a realistic budget plan. Depending on the type of business, you may in fact need several budgets pertaining to projects, business overhead, and anything else that requires budget tracking.

Many accounting software have budget tracking tools, but your business may not have grown to the point of needing dedicated accounting software. However, you still need a good budget planner, and that’s where PlanGuru comes in. It is a stand-alone budgeting tool that is perfect for a small business.

FormPros

There is a lot of paperwork involved with managing your small business finances. And of course, a lot of financial activity requires official forms. For example, employee paystubs or 1099 forms for independent contractors need to specify exact information for tax filing purposes.

FormPros offers solutions that allow many employers to replace payroll and accountant services, such as this form that allows you to create paystubs. You won’t run into any mistakes when using form generators as these, such as trying to create your own paystubs entirely from scratch and missing important information.

FreshBooks

As a cloud-based accounting service, FreshBooks helps you to keep track of invoices, receipts, time management, and receiving payments from clients who prefer to use credit cards. This sounds like fairly standard accounting software stuff, but because FreshBooks is hosted in the cloud, it adds a layer of security so that a computer crash doesn’t erase important documents, and you can access the software anywhere you have an internet connection.

Expensify

There are a lot of little business expenses that can be easily overlooked, until your finances are suddenly in the red, and you have trouble understanding why. These little business expenses can be simple things such as traveling, dining with clients, or maybe even a little R&R, all of which add up.

With Expensify, you can quickly and easily scan receipts and cash expenses onto your mobile device, and then import all of the information to your accounting software of choice for approval and reimbursement.

Xero

If most of your business is conducted while traveling, and you don’t regularly sit down at a computer to create invoices or create purchase orders, Xero offers a solution for you. All of those actions and more can be performed from your mobile device, and can connect to your bank account so financial performance reports are sent directly to you.

OneUp

An all-in-one solution for accounting, invoicing, inventory tracking, and CRM, OneUp is highly useful for small businesses that need these features rolled into one comprehensive software. OneUp can also synchronize with your bank account and categorize bank entries, as well as validate suggested entries, which means your accounting will be done fast and thorough.

FreeAgent

If you’re an independent contractor or freelancer that spends a lot of time creating estimates and invoices, FreeAgent is a perfectly viable tool to help you. The software will help you to monitor your finances and keep track of receipts and invoices paid and payable, so nothing slips through the cracks. It can also connect to your bank and provide useful insights into your net performance and business profit.