So you are a small business that started out using excel to keep track of your sales and your expenses. After adding the 50th sheet to your excel document you are beginning to realize that you need to step up to a real bookkeeping software program as your business grows. You probably go to Best Buy and find Quickbooks accounting software. You may be astonished at how expensive it is for your fledgling business, but assume that you have no other choice.

Dot Accountants will point you to 5 Free options for your business to do your bookkeeping online.

1. Free Accounting - At freeaccountingsoftware.net you will find what is advertised as an intuitive, easy to use, robust, multi-user, inventory business management system and accounting software solution. This may be the most used free accounting software. They boast 250,000 downloads and even free 24/7 customer service. A great way to get started with your transition to accounting software.

2. EZAcct - At bizacct.com you will find 3 different levels of free bookkeeping support including:

Free Integrate
Free Bookkeeping Edition
Free Invoice / Operation Edition

Please note that these free versions are limited to one company and one user only, but for most sole proprietors just getting started this is a great step up from Excel.

3. Lazy8 - At lazy8.nu you will find a free, open source double entry accounting program. If you do not have experience with bookkeeping you may want to stay away from this, as it may not be as user friendly; however, since it is open source you can make your own changes to the software as you grow or need more functionality.

4. Dynacom - At accountingsolutions.dynacom.com you will room to grow. One reason small business owners do not typically use free accounting software is because it does not easily scale as your grow or allow you to transition to a new bookkeeping program. This FREE Start up Edition provides business-basics accounting software functions for sales, purchasing, payroll, bank, and general ledger functionality. As you grow you can purchase their premier version without the hassle of transitioning to new software.

5. TurboCash - At sourceforge.net/projects/turbocash you will find another open source accounting software program. You will get TurboCASH Accounting, entry level Accounting package for single users, small networks and distributed networks. Some users are running multiple businesses on Turbocash and are quite happy.

Whatever you as a small business owner decide to do, remember that transitioning to new accounting software can be a major headache so if you are growing so fast that you will need Quickbooks in the next year, I suggest that you just purchase the software now. You can actually try it for free and then start the online basic version for $10 per month after the free trial. Do your research and then choose carefully, you will not regret taking some time to think about this decision.

Accounting Article by hAdam Hoeksema

dot Accountants