We’ve analyzed and rated the best online bookkeeping services to help you make the best decision when choosing the right one. Take routine bookkeeping off your never-ending to-do list with the help of a certified professional. A QuickBooks Live bookkeeper can help ensure that your business’s books close every month, and you’re primed for tax season. Our expert CPAs and QuickBooks ProAdvisors average 15 years of experience working with small businesses across various industries.

Unfortunately, if flexibility is what you’re looking for, Merritt Bookkeeping may not be for you since you can only import data from QuickBooks Online. If you’re looking for something very cheap and simple and your business is in its very early stages, the affordability of Merritt Bookkeeping makes it a good choice. Bookkeeping is an unavoidable part of having a business because the IRS has certain rules around financial recordkeeping.

Business stage

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to efficient bookkeeping, but there are universal standards. The following four bookkeeping practices can help you stay on top of your business finances. In these documents, transactions are recorded as a single entry rather than two separate entries. Let us walk you through everything you need to know about the basics of bookkeeping. We will help you transfer any existing payroll information to QuickBooks. For a full breakdown of the most common bookkeeping mistakes, read our article on the subject.

This way, you can determine business-related expenses related to labor costs. Also, it allows you to determine the cost of hiring more full-time employees, bookkeeping and payroll part-time workers, consultants or freelance contractors. These features make payroll tools a step up from running payroll manually with a spreadsheet.

Best for Small Businesses

Even with these tools, you may not have the expertise you need to handle the responsibilities of a bookkeeper. Double-entry bookkeeping is the practice of recording transactions in at least two accounts, as a debit or credit. When following this method of bookkeeping, the amounts of debits recorded must match the amounts of credits recorded.

• Featuring easy system navigation, OnPay offers industry-specific features for restaurants and other businesses that need to account for employee tips.
• Now one bookkeeper can manage the bookkeeping for several businesses in fewer than eight hours a day.
• Top payroll services for small businesses include OnPay, Gusto and ADP RUN.
• A pay grid is used to quickly enter payroll data, and you have the option to pay your employees by direct deposit, pay card, or check.
• We use product data, first-person testing, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content so we can guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

Set up and track employee paid time off and manage paid, unpaid, sick, and vacation time. Find help articles, video tutorials, and connect with other businesses in our online community. Now that business is expanding, get tools to simplify new demands and set everyone up for success. Find everything you need from employee benefits to hiring and management tools. Attract skilled applicants, retain your best employees, and help them grow with you. The most common mistakes are mixing personal and business finances, leaving taxes to the last minute, missing out on deductions, and not retaining records for long enough.