Financial and accounting software is a necessity when trying to run your own business, there are plenty of cloud-based accounting tools that make this task less tedious, and the sooner you implement a good accounting software solution the better.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you're searching for accounting or bookkeeping software:

Identify your needs

Calculate your budget

Research for features that meet your needs

Main aspects to consider:

API security.

Backup system data

Additional costs

Customer support

There are many programs that can help you with accounting, these are some of the most prestigious.

FreshBooks:  https://www.freshbooks.com/ 

online bookkeeping and accounting program particularly well-suited for sole proprietors, contractors, and consultants. FreshBooks also has a Teams version if you do add employees or contractors down the road. FreshBooks currently offers different price plans.

QuickBooks: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/ 

Intuit’s cloud-based accounting software solution, includes typical features like invoicing, billing, and receipt scanning—and even its cheapest plan includes more comprehensive tracking than many competitors

Zoho Books https://www.zoho.com/ 

A good option for smaller businesses as well as sole proprietors, Zoho offers complete accounting capability in an easy-to-use package.

Xero: https://www.xero.com/us/ 

For a small monthly fee, you can send custom invoices, reconcile bank transactions to balance the books, capture receipts for easier record-keeping, and track inventory. Xero’s plans all include unlimited users.

Sage Business Cloud Accounting: https://www.sage.com/en-gb/sage-business-cloud/accounting/ 

For a fixed monthly amount, you get modules to manage quotes, invoices, handle and submit VAT online, smart bank feeds and reconciliation, cash flow forecasting, some detailed reports, multiple currency support, project tracking and more, all available from your desktop or via a mobile app.

Sage also has a more basic offering called Accounting Start, this cheaper option, could be enough for start-ups as well as small businesses.

TurboCASH: https://www.turbocash.net/   Includes free option

Designed for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), it's probably a bit much for freelancers or sole traders, but if you need something a bit more useful than a cash book TurboCASH can handle VAT, debtors and creditors, purchase orders, multiple companies and multiple users

Kashoo:https://kashoo.com/ 

The benefit of using Kashoo is that it makes it easy for new business owners to enter financial transactions. Another benefit is that while you’re given the option to connect your financial institutions, Kashoo works just as well if you choose not to.

Kashoo offers a monthly payment plan and a yearly option, and supports an unlimited number of users.

Wave: https://www.waveapps.com/  Includes free option

Most of its services are free, including invoice- and transaction-management. And all of your information syncs with Wave’s software, so your bookkeeping is always up to date.

ZipBooks: https://zipbooks.com/  Includes free option

With Zipbooks, you get invoicing and billing features such as auto-billing and payment reminders to decrease your admin work. In addition, you can utilize their competitive intelligence to make data-driven decisions about your finances

A business management software is an application or set of programs that help companies and entrepreneurs to support, improve and automate their processes. Such software helps minimize errors, complete daily tasks, report on activities, and increase overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Business management tools have come a long way and are constantly making things better for anyone involved in some sort of business.

Modern startups run on digital tools. From communicating with customers, collaborating internally or protecting their assets, entrepreneurs should know that there’s a digital platform or service for everything.This gives new startups and entrepreneurs a chance to gain an instant advantage over the competition and to find further opportunities for integration, growth and success down the road.

There are different types of business software used for different purposes. Below are some commonly used software in businesses.

ProofHub  https://www.proofhub.com

usiness management software and platform that combines all the features (project and task management, Gantt charts, reports, time tracking...)

StudioCloud http://studiocloud.com/ Includes free option

StudioCloud's all-in-one solution: Client Management, Scheduling Invoicing, Bookkeeping, Project & Task Management, Marketing Campaigns & Tags Online Booking, Automation, Create Forms, eSignatures

Wrike https://www.wrike.com/ Includes free option

This cloud-based tool gives a full and transparent look at where each important project is in its lifecycle and allows everyone to trace its progress from inception to completion

Hubspot CRM https://www.hubspot.com/ Includes free option

HubSpot offers a completely free version of its CRM software that is rather popular among small businesses. The software includes all of the basic features provided by CRM software, allowing you keep track of your company’s activities, including contacts and company profiles, assigning & tracking deals, and managing all of that data in a detailed dashboard.

Drip https://www.drip.com/ Includes free option

Drip makes it easy to build automation workflows and email campaigns.

Choice of building your email with a visual builder or text builder.

Drip also offers list segmentation, conversion tracking, content customization, purchase intent marketing, and much more.

Tags, events, and custom fields you can learn and track everything you need about your customers’ stories.

Salesforce https://www.salesforce.com/ Includes free option

SalesForce is one of the biggest and most widely used CRM software on the market. For small business, SalesForce offers a basic edition called Essentials. This package provides the user with an advanced contact manager that includes email integration and follow-up reminders. It also includes a lot of options for integration and customisation.

If you are looking for storage and document sharing, these platforms will interest you.

Box https://www.box.com/ Includes free option

Box was one of the first-ever cloud-based media storage service and file-sharing sites. Box allows its users to centralize all their data. It also offers easy collaboration on documents shared

DropBox https://www.dropbox.com/ Includes free option

DropBox offers a lot more than secure file storage. Dropbox, as a file-sharing website, has established its identity as a state-of-the-art workspace where teams, content, and tools come together to collaborate.

New entrepreneurs, and start-ups, look for easier ways to run their businesses smoothly without wasting much time.  Another primary concern is to keep the startup costs as low as possible.

There are many startup and entrepreneurship tools and resources available that not only help in minimizing the startup costs, but they also assist in saving precious time of savvy businessmen.

These platforms can help you in some essential tasks for your star-up:

Squad Help  https://www.squadhelp.com/

Squadhelp helps you come up with a great name for your business by combining the power of crowdsourcing with sophisticated technology and Agency-level validation services.

Designhill https://www.designhill.com/

Designhill is a leading platform for small and medium businesses that need a variety of graphic design solutions. This site has many hundreds of skilled graphic designers from across the globe.

Mindmeister https://www.mindmeister.com/  Includes free option

On line mind mapping tool that lets you capture, develop and share ideas visually. More than 13 million people already use the award-winning mind map editor for brainstorming, note-taking, project planning and tons of other creative tasks

These platforms will contribute to the promotion of your business initiative:

MeetEdgar https://meetedgar.com/

Edgar is one of the great tools for sharing your business content on social media. 

MeetEdgar takes your social media stress and turns it into social media success with features designed to remove the time-intensive parts of managing the content on all of your networks. MeetEdgar automates content for your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn accounts.

Meetup https://www.meetup.com/  Includes free option

Meetup is the site that you can use to find networking events as well as gatherings in your niche. If you are looking for advice on how to start an online business, you can use this tool to connect with and meet people in the related niche.

Online communication tools were popular, especially in the business world, due to the crisis caused by the Covid-19 and mobility restrictions, they have become the star application for domestic use and an essential tool for companies, due to the impossibility of holding face-to-face meetings.

Press Kite https://presskite.com/   Includes free option

Press kite allows you to create a press kit for your startup. It’s so convenient that now you don’t have any excuse to not have a press kit ready to send a journalist whenever need be. Your startup can now enjoy the press coverage it needs so that even the masses can see you.

Zoom https://zoom.us/ Includes free option

Zoom is one of the leaders in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems.

Some tools to monitor and promote your brand in social networks

Buffer https://buffer.com/

Easily keep track of what's being said about your brand on Twitter by adding your website/blog, business name and other relevant hashtags. Easily track interesting keywords to search for tweets and Twitter bios. Discover new content to share and find new people to follow.

Canva https://www.canva.com/  Includes free option

Canva is another great help for businesses that need design solutions. They can share your graphic design ideas on social media. The tool gives you many templates, fonts, styles, and background images to create designs

BuzzSumo https://buzzsumo.com/

Buzzsumo is a tool for finding what kind of content to share as well as analyzing how well content works on social media. You can use Buzzsumo to examine your competitors content and the overall content in your industries niche