7 Best Online Bookkeeping Services for Small Businesses

Merritt Bookkeeping automates some of the most time-consuming bookkeeping tasks — for instance, reconciling accounts, balancing books, and updating financial reports — so you can focus on running your business. It also business bookkeeping services starts at $190 a month, which is less than nearly every other provider on our list. Pilot is a financial services firm that provides bookkeeping, tax, and CFO advisory services for startups and small businesses.

Compare SpecsThe Best Accounting Software for Small Businesses in 2024

You can also book a call with your bookkeeper (or send them a message) whenever you’d like. There’s no extra fee or hourly charges for support—we’re always happy to nerd out about bookkeeping and your financial statements. After you sign up to Bench, a dedicated member of our team will assist you in connecting all your financial accounts securely to our platform.

Ask happy clients for reviews and referrals

• Talk to businesses in your area to see what they are currently paying for bookkeeping services.
• If you have multiple needs, such as help with payroll and taxes, in addition to your day-to-day accounting, this could be a good fit.
• Credits must always balance debits to ensure your books are balanced, indicating accuracy in financial recording.
• Add-ons for job costing and project-based accounting may be especially useful for project-based businesses.

Single-entry accounting records all of your transactions once, either as an expense or as income. This method is straightforward and suitable for smaller businesses that don’t have significant inventory or equipment involved in their finances. It doesn’t track the value of your business’s assets and liabilities as well as double-entry accounting does, though. With Bench, you get a team of real, expert bookkeepers in addition to software. You’ll always have the human support you need, and a mobile friendly platform to access your up-to-date financials.

Bookkeeper360: Best overall bookkeeping service

The best online bookkeeping service should offer a wide range of bookkeeping solutions, including catch-up bookkeeping, invoicing, bill pay, bank reconciliation, payroll, and tax filing. As your business grows and potentially takes on funding, the accrual-based and advanced bookkeeping services that it offers will be especially useful. You’ll be matched with a dedicated bookkeeper when you enroll in the service, and they’ll walk you through how to integrate your existing processes and software with QuickBooks. Wave Advisors didn’t score well in terms of customer service, as it took a hit for not providing a phone number to call and not offering unlimited meetings. It also lacks a mobile app, and its bookkeeping services are limited, with the inability to pay bills or invoice customers. While Wave Advisors does provide payroll coaching, it doesn’t offer any customized services.

If you have multiple needs, such as help with payroll and taxes, in addition to your day-to-day accounting, this could be a good fit. Online bookkeeping services are a hybrid of bookkeeping software and professional accounting. You get the benefit of the assistance of a pro bookkeeper with the flexibility of managing what you want to manage. Bookkeeping is the process of tracking income and expenses in your business. It lets you know how you’re doing with cash flow and how your business is doing overall. Staying on top of your bookkeeping is important so that you don’t have unexpected realizations about account balances and expenses.

• When you have a Small Business Plus plan or higher, you get unlimited online support.
• There are several key rules of bookkeeping to keep in mind, but one of the most important is regarding debits and credits.
• While any of the bookkeeping services in this guide will help new businesses, Pilot focuses on new businesses with aspirations of becoming medium to large companies.
• Generally speaking, the more you need from an accounting service, the longer it takes to set one up and the higher the monthly payment.
• Thankfully, online bookkeeping services have lowered the financial barrier to getting bookkeeping and tax-related help.
• The rate goes down to $70 per month for months that are almost complete.

Use an online bookkeeping service

Our platform allows you to automate data inputs from most major providers to avoid common mistakes. We partner with merchants like Gusto, Stripe, Shopify, and Square—so your finances are always accurate. Our team of pros is familiar with New York tax rules and will customize their approach to your business’ unique needs. In the end, your virtual bookkeeper should be a partner that can help grow your business affordably. Keep that in mind as you search for the right virtual bookkeeper for your small business. See our overall favorites, or choose a specific type of software to find the best options for you.

Beaird Harris Recognized Among Nation’s Top 500 CPA Firms by Inside Public Accounting

• IgniteSpot Accounting boasts a more personalized approach to outsourced accounting services.
• Wave’s core accounting features are free, and they’re good enough for many small businesses.
• Bookkeeping services can also help small business owners save more through tax preparation and tax filing.
• In other words, debit is all incoming money, while credit is all outgoing money.

Is the bookkeeping service compatible with your accounting method?

Add Catch Up or Specialized bookkeeping to any Bench plan