With the arrival of COVID and the recent looting incidents, running a small business in South Africa may be challenging and stressful. The last option a small business owner wants to do is pay an accountant to prepare their financial statements because they have limited resources. A solid free accounting program is the first step in the right direction.
Using free accounting software, you may effortlessly prepare your business books on a computer or a mobile device. Paying for accounts compilation may be too expensive for a small business owner with limited resources.
Free accounting software is available in South Africa for small enterprises. Using this software, you may create payrolls, invoices, trial balances and financial statements.
Accounting software has the advantage of storing all of your data in a central location, so you can access it whenever you need it. In just a few short seconds, you’ll have access to all of your information. As a result of automation, you may be able to get your financial information from a bank or other lender in minutes.
So, let us get to know the top free accounting software for small business in South Africa at moment.
Top 10 Free Accounting Software For Small Business In South Africa
1. FNB instant free accounting software
The first free accounting software for small business in South Africa at moment is FNB instant free accounting software. This bookkeeping software is offered without charge to FNB business customers. When it comes to managing your business’s finances on a daily basis, there is no better free software than FNB rapid accounting.
All of your clients and creditors can be stored in the software, which is linked to your business account. When you send money to a third party, you can keep track of it right away. As a result, you can complete monthly debit orders for your employees’ pay as well as make automatic data captures to the accounts where they are held.
To save money, you can also use the software to calculate your state and local sales tax (or VAT). Using this software, you’ll be able to pay all of your SARS bills, including PAYE, the Skills Development Levy, and the UIF for both your employees and yourself.
2. WAVE accounting Software
This is a Canadian-based corporation that provides services in financial and small business software all around the world, including in the United States. WAVE is the greatest free accounting software in the world, according to my opinion.
Using the software is a breeze for anyone who is interested in learning how to. The software can be simply adapted to South Africa’s tax regime. To ensure the accuracy of your financial statements, WAVE relies on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Invoicing, payroll, and accounting entries to the financial accounts will all be taken care of by this program. As part of their value-added services, WAVE will charge you for making online payments.
3. GnuCash Free Accounting Software
Open-source accounting software GnuCash is freely available to anyone who needs it. GnuCash is accessible on Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X platforms. In addition, GnuCash features built-in IFRS and GAAP functionalities that allow it to be tailored to South African accounting practices. When it comes to the quality of the output that this program provides, there is more to gain than just financial gain from employing it. Additional advantages include
- Stock/Bond/Mutual Fund Accounts
- Double-Entry Accounting
- Reports, Graphs
- Scheduled Transactions
- QIF/OFX/HBCI Import, Transaction Matching
- Small-Business Accounting
- Financial Calculations
GnuCash is a multicurrency free accounting software that is linked to your business bank account and provides flexibility.
4. xTuple PostBooks
For those who don’t want to pay for an accounting program, xTuple offers PostBooks. So, if you work for a manufacturing company, PostBooks is the perfect option for you.
Aside from managing your accounting entries, PostBooks lets you also handle inventory and debtors – two of the most important aspects of your business’ success. To ensure that your production process runs well, you’ll also be able to keep track of purchases and work-in-progress inventories.
In addition to the standard capabilities, XTuple PostBooks offers value-added services like customer relationship management and sales management.
5. ZipBooks
The sole free option available from ZipBooks is one of the company’s three accounting software options. Using ZipBooks for a small business that doesn’t require a lot of complicated accounting may be a good option.
Simple to use, ZipBooks lets you link your business bank account and PayPal account directly to the software for seamless bookkeeping. Since ZipBooks is a free service, you will have to make your own reconciliations because the plan doesn’t cover such things. ZipBooks allows you to manage unlimited customers and invoice limitless amounts for free.
6. Akaunting
Speaking of free, Akaunting offers completely free accounting software that doesn’t require any kind of subscription. You can keep track of everything using Akaunting.
You’ll be able to monitor your company’s cash flow and see how liquid your business is at any given time.
Keeping track of paid and unpaid bills will allow you to follow up on any outstanding debts.
In order to keep track of all your spending, you will be able to see exactly where your money is going and whether or not you need to make any cuts.
It is possible to keep track of your customers and see how much money they owe you. Using this information, you can make better borrowing decisions in the future.
There are various businesses that can benefit from using Akaunting. Akaunting does not allow you to join bank accounts belonging to a business.
7. Money Manager EX
An open source accounting program, Money Manager EX, can be downloaded and used for free. The software is incredibly user-friendly, especially for those who will be using it frequently.
In order to keep track of your finances, you can use the software. To get started, you can import a CSV file from your bank.
8. TurboCash
Financial reporting is the focus of TurboCash. SMBs will benefit from this accounting program’s features, as will medium-sized businesses. As a result of this program, you will be able to manage several businesses and reconcile all of their accounts at any time.
With one program, you may handle various VAT, creditors and debtors as well as bank, inventory, sales, and other essential accounts.
9. SlickPie
On the front page of SlickPie, users may see their revenue graphs, expenditure graphs, and bank account activity. However, this accounting software is not completely free, but it is quite user-friendly and comes with other services that can be purchased for an additional charge.
SlickPie’s payment processing system can be used to accept payments at checkout if your business is online. In addition to SlickPie’s many free services, the company charges for a number of these extra features. This means that if you truly need anything that SlickPie doesn’t offer, you’ll have to cough up the cash.
10. Palladium Accounting
Palladium provides multi-currency accounting software that utilizes the most modern accounting processing technologies available. A smaller amount of time will be required to become familiar with how the software works because of its ease of use and navigation.
On top of that, you can save your data on the cloud with no additional expenses. Start-up businesses with limited resources can benefit from this alternative.
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Conclusion
Accounting software selection can be challenging, especially if you’re looking for something free. It’s important to know your business before purchasing accounting software so that you can get the best software for your company.
Small businesses don’t need to spend money on accounting software when one is readily available for free. In most cases, free accounting software is easy to use and doesn’t require an accountant to enter data.
Use any of the top 10 free accounting software for small businesses in South Africa if your business is still in its infancy and does not have many complex accounting operations.