Top 5 Agency Accounting Tools Your Business Needs Today

You’re a web dev shop. Your freelancing business is about to hit it big. It’s time to start thinking about yourself as an agency. Whether you’re an agency of one or have vendors and/or employees, the first step in starting a business is behaving like you have a business.

Wait. What? Agency accounting tools?

Yep. You need to be serious about accounting. But why?

If Your Agency Doesn’t Have Standard Accounting Records, You Don’t Have a Business!

You find out real quick when you try to sell your business, that prospective buyers want to see the books. And they’re not talking about your Harry Potter collection either. They want to see your financial records. 

They’ll ask for customer data, too, of course. But they’ll want to look at a 5 year P&L as well. 

Not selling but want a business loan? You’ll need to open your books to the bank to get a loan.

“Additionally, if you end up needing to hire an accounting service for your business, having a centralized software will ensure the accountant has all the historical data they need to manage your books, payroll and taxes.”

US Chamber of Commerce

Essentially, if your agency doesn’t have standard accounting records, you don’t have a business. 

Freaked out? Don’t be. You can move from Excel and your Personal PayPal, Venmo, or CashApp accounts quick.

Why Do I Need Fancy Accounting Tools?

If you have a business bank account, you should integrate it with a modern accounting app. Almost every SaaS accounting tool offers syncing with your bank and reconciliation. Sound like a chore? Do your reconciliation on Friday mornings, then take the afternoons off! Psychological pairing for the win. But seriously.

“Why?” should be the first question anyone asks when they go to choose a tool. It could be a hammer, shovel, or part of your agency’s tech stack. Why do you need a hammer? What are you going to build with it? When are you going the building/ Where are you doing the building? How are you doing the building. 

What should your accounting tool do? Who will need access to your account? Will you do the bookkeeping yourself or outsource it to a service? Do you want to record receipts on the go? Whoosh. There are standard functions a modern and cloud-based accounting tool will do for you. And, frankly, double-entry accounting by hand is for the birds.

With a modern accounting tool, you can easily:

• Write Quotes & Proposals
• Convert Quotes into Invoices
• Accept Credit Card Payments as well as Electronic Checks
• Set Up Recurring Invoicing (reseller clients and care plans)
• Receive & Log Payments (Accounts Receivable)
• Enter & Pay Bills (Accounts Payable)
• Prepare, Track, and Proces Payroll, W2s, and/or 1099s
• Record and Report Sales/Use Tax
• Create GL Codes and make Adjusting Journal Entries (AJE)

Your CPA Will Want: 

• Profit & Loss Statements (P&L)
• Adjusting Journal Entries (AJE)
• General Ledger Balance Sheets

What are the Best Agency Accounting Tools?

There are so many accounting tools available now it gets hard to decide. From enterprise to proprietary systems to industry-specific tools and basic accounting, the abundance of choices is overwhelming.

In their, “2023 Top 3 Accounting Software Report,” Business-Software.com ranks Quickbooks best for Small Business with Xero as a runner up. FreshBooks is ranked #1 for their customer support. Let’s focus on the top 5 agency accounting tools for web dev shops.

Top 5 Accounting Tools in 2023

1. QuickBooks Online – Starts at $15/mo
2. FreshBooks – Starts at $8.50/mo
3. Xero – Starts at $6.50/mo 
4. Gusto  – Starts at $40/mo
5. Zoho Invoicing – Starts at $0/mo

Accounting Tool 1 – QuickBooks Online

If you’re looking for the most popular agency accounting tool, then QuickBooks Online is the way to go. It has all of the integrations you’d expect for a modern accounting software including a mobile app. We love it! High revenue businesses like yours benefit from high-performing accounting systems.

Accounting Tool 2 – FreshBooks

FreshBooks is a great alternative to QuickBooks Online. If you’ve used Quicken in the past (it feels like 2010 was a lifetime ago), then FreshBooks is pretty straightforward. You don’t have to really mess around with GL codes either. So, if accounting isn’t your thing, but you still want invoicing with online payments, job tracking, and such, FreshBooks is fantastic. 

Accounting Tool 3 – Xero

Xero is one of the agency accounting tools recommended by Stripe Atlas. Since it has tons of extensions and hooks, you’re sure to love the integration possibility. For example, you can create a Zap that when a customer books an appointment with you on Calendly, it creates a contact in Xero. Outbound Zaps work in Xero, too. If you manually create contacts in Xero, too, any new contact can be zapped into your Mailchimp list. 

Accounting Tool 4 – Gusto

Because no one likes doing manual payroll, most accounting platforms offer payroll. However, they fall short when it comes to other HR functions. Gusto is a highly-recommended HR solution for agencies like yours. No need to hire an HR person or talk to an agency when accrued vacation, sick time, standard payroll, and benefits (health and financial) can be managed right in Gusto.

Accounting Tool 5 – Zoho Invoicing

If you loved Zoho as a CRM, you’ll love it for invoicing, too. One of the great things about the invoicing option is that it’s free. It’s a good way to set yourself free from Excel invoicing. (Sorry, not sorry.) But seriously. Once you get into the habit of using an accounting tool you’ll kick yourself for not doing it sooner.

Agency Accounting Tools And The Future of Hosting FTW

Choose your accounting tool wisely. You want one that will grow with you. We can help you migrate websites, but switching your accounting system is a headache no one wants to deal with. (Been there, done that.)

Streamline your workflow with agency accounting tools and a fast web hosting platform that’s easy on your budget. The only question is when you’d like to migrate your portfolio of sites to Rocket.net