Most founders know modern finance is lightyears beyond tedious spreadsheets, but what's the best accounting tech for startups?
Managing the financial side of your business can be overwhelming. Fortunately, innovative accounting technologies can make life easier in today's fast-paced digital world.
At Founder's, we work with the following tech to support our services. From streamlining invoicing processes to automating expense tracking, these tools offer a range of solutions to help you stay on top of your finances and focus on what matters – growing your business.
Our Favorite Accounting Tech for Startups
Well-managed finances are crucial to running a successful company. However, it's also a function many founders put off for later.
Fortunately, modern technologies can make startup accounting a breeze. We encourage you to consider this list of essential accounting technologies for startups.
Sage Intacct
Sage Intacct is a robust cloud-based financial management tool that allows you to customize reports and dashboards to get a real-time snapshot of your financial health.
One of its key features is the ability to automate financial processes, freeing up your team's time to focus on higher-level tasks. Plus, Sage Intacct offers advanced functionality for multi-entity and global consolidations, making it a powerful tool for growing businesses.
Quickbooks
QuickBooks' valuable features make financial management a breeze for small businesses.
A standout feature is the automatic categorization of expenses, which saves entrepreneurs time and minimizes data entry errors. The software uses that data to generate business performance reports, making it easy to track financial progress and make informed decisions.
Xero
Xero, another cloud-based accounting software, offers a range of features to streamline business finances.
Its customizable templates for invoices, quotes, and other financial documents can reflect your brand and style. At the same time, automatic bank feeds allow you to conveniently import bank statements and transactions into Xero for quick reconciliation.
Xero even offers multi-currency support, enabling easy management of sales, purchases, and invoices in multiple currencies.
Bill.com
Bill.com is a powerful tool for simplifying accounting and payment processes.
One of its most handy features is the ability to automate the entire accounts payable workflow. You can set up rules to approve and pay bills automatically, saving time and reducing errors.
Another great feature is the ability to store vendor information and payee details, making it easy to track all your business contacts in one place.
Melio
Melio is an online payment platform that offers the ability to pay suppliers with a bank transfer or a credit card, even if the supplier doesn't accept credit card payments – handy for small businesses with limited bank credit lines.
Melio also offers:
- Payment scheduling to help with cash flow management and ensure on-time bill payment
- Digital invoicing to save time and reduce paper waste
- User-friendly dashboards for payment and transaction tracking
Expensify
Expensify is a powerful expense management tool. One feature that stands out is the ability to scan and convert receipts into expense entries. Another key feature is the ability to create and submit expense reports with just a few clicks, saving time and streamlining the reimbursement process.
Additionally, Expensify offers robust integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks.
Brex
Brex, an AI-powered expense management tool and corporate card provider, has recently exploded in popularity due to its unique features.
Brex offers cardholders a convenient and user-friendly mobile app for easy transaction and activity management. Their automated receipt capture and matching system simplifies the expense reporting process.
However, one of Brex's most notable features is its credit system. Unlike traditional credit cards, Brex offers a company-wide credit limit determined based on the business's financial health rather than the individual's credit score. This feature allows for more flexibility and higher credit limits, which is especially beneficial for startups and other fast-growing businesses.
Stripe
This popular payment processing platform offers online businesses a wide range of features. One of its best features is its ability to securely store customer payment information so returning customers can easily make purchases without re-entering their payment information.
Stripe also offers customizable checkout pages, allowing businesses to create a seamless customer checkout experience. Of course, Stripe's multiple currencies and payment methods make it easy for companies to receive payments from customers worldwide.
Gusto
Payroll can be complex, but Gusto's features make the process simple. One standout feature is their ability to automatically calculate and file all federal, state, and local payroll taxes. Gusto also allows employees online access to pay stubs and tax documents.
Further, a convenient employee self-onboarding tool allows new hires to enter their information quickly and select their benefits.
Rippling
Rippling is an all-in-one HR, finance, and IT management platform that simplifies life for startups and small businesses. Rippling's modern, user-friendly interface automates new employee onboarding and setting up accounts for various software tools.
The platform also offers robust reporting and analytics, which can help businesses reduce time-consuming admin work and make data-driven decisions to optimize operations.
Justworks
Justworks is an all-in-one HR platform that simplifies growing a business. Not only does it offer payroll processing and benefits administration, but it also provides HR support and compliance assistance.
Justworks seamlessly integrates with other software tools already in use, and its user-friendly interface makes it easy for administrators AND employees to navigate and complete tasks efficiently.
Carta
Carta is a cloud-based software platform that helps companies issue and manage equity and ownership data, streamlining the process for stock options and other equity-based compensation.
Additionally, Carta offers cap table management, enabling companies to keep track of their ownership structure and equity dilution.
Another helpful feature of Carta is its investor reporting tool, which allows companies to regularly prepare and distribute detailed reports to investors.
Jirav
Jirav is an excellent comprehensive business intelligence tool to consider. One of its top features is the ability to create dynamic, real-time financial reports that are easy to understand and give you an accurate view of your business's performance.
Further, Jirav's customizable dashboards let you see the information that matters most to you: cash flow, revenue, or expenses. And if you need to share your reports with others, Jirav's collaboration tools make it easy to work with your team.
Hubdoc
Hubdoc is a powerful tool for streamlining bookkeeping and document management. One of its key features is its ability to automate the collection of financial documents by linking to your bank and credit card accounts to pull in invoices, receipts, and other financial documents.
Hubdoc's OCR technology can read and extract data from documents like receipts and invoices, making it easy to categorize and reconcile expenses. Hubdoc can even integrate with accounting software like Quickbooks and Xero to keep all your financial data in one place.
Leverage Accounting Tech for Startups in 2024
Accounting is the backbone of any successful startup, and choosing the right accounting technology can make all the difference. Each platform above offers unique features to streamline financial management and save time and resources.
The experts at Founders CPA use these tools, from integrations with popular banks to automated expense tracking and payroll management, to help startups thrive in a competitive market.
Contact us today to leverage accounting tech for your startup and take advantage of the chance to improve your financial processes in 2024.
