Most of us do not have control over our financial life, which is most often due to a lack of organisation of our home expenses, payments, and preparation of budgets.

Lack of organisation of personal financial information in one place can make it challenging for us to get a better idea of our spending habits, personal savings, management of the day to day aspects of life, and accomplishing long term financial goals.

Whether it’s keeping a track of a monthly grocery budget or saving funds for your child’s education, all of this is quite challenging to achieve without having a proper home accounting software.

A home accounting software can help you get rid of all of these challenges and allow you to manage your finances effectively. So, in order to make your life simple, you can run your home or your business out of your home at anytime and from anywhere with reliable accounting software for home use.

What is Home Accounting Software?

Accounting software for home use enables you to manage your personal finances effectively by tracking your income, expenses and budgeting for future occasions.

Home accounting software also keeps a track of your bank accounts and identifies where you are spending your money. It uses a simple double-entry bookkeeping system which allows you to record any payment or receipt with regards to any income, expenditure, asset, or liability.

You can also access to your receipts, cheques and online banking as online accounting software for home use is connected to your phone, tablet, and computer.

With home accounting software, you can:

• connect your bank accounts
• get a snapshot of your bank account balances
• create income and expense categories to know what comes in and goes out
• reconcile your accounting statements with bank statements
• create a chart of accounts for assets, liabilities, and investments to know your net worth
• prepare a budget in order to track future spending and compare your actual spendings with the budgeted spendings

Features of Home Accounting Software

Simple accounting software for home use allows you to run your home just the way you run your business. It also helps you to run your business out of your home without investing in a home accountant to manage your accounts.

Home accounting software has the following features:

Income and Expense Tracking

Home accounting software integrates all your bank accounts thus allowing you to keep a track of where your money is going. Once you've integrated your credit cards, bank accounts, Paypal, and other payment methods, you can securely import your transactions which will get automatically sorted into various income and expense categories. You can even snap photos of your receipts and the software will automatically match them with your existing expenses.

Receipt Capture and Organisation

Gone are the days when you had to deal with a stack of home expense receipts against utility, grocery, and other day to day expenditures. With a simple home accounting software, there is no need for you to maintain a record of physical receipts and vouchers as you can snap photos and add your receipts on the go.

You can even upload your receipts and match them to existing expenses or create new expense categories. You can also classify your receipts into various tax categories so that you do not have to undergo stress while filing tax returns.

Create Invoices and Accept Payments

If you are using a home accounting software to run a business out of your home, you can create professional-looking invoices within minutes and get paid faster. Furthermore, you can also accept bank and credit card transfers in the invoice itself. Also, you can track the status of your invoice, send payment reminders, and match your payments to invoices automatically with accounting software for home use. Besides this, you can even customise your invoices with your company logo and can send them via any device.

Get Ready for Tax

A home accounting software helps you to avoid the stress that you have to undergo during the tax period. This is because you can easily organise your income and expenses into various categories and subcategories, and estimate the amount of tax that is due each quarter. You can even set automatic reminders of quarterly tax due dates to avoid any kind of penalties.

Pay Your Employees

A home accounting software also helps you to track employee time, billable hours by your clients and incorporates this information into your invoices automatically. You can either add the employee hours yourself or give access to employees so that they can complete their timesheets on their own. Having a process like this in place helps make paying your employees easy.

Team Collaboration

Home accounting software allows you to provide important members of your team with access to sensitive financial data. This means that you can give permissions for sales transactions, expense reports, deposits, and more, to specific individuals within your team. The software also enables you to assign work to specific team members, so you can increase the productivity of your team.

Prepare Budgets

An important part of managing your household's finances is preparing a budget, which will include an estimation of your home expenses, such as groceries, utilities, rent, and taxes.

If you are running a business out of your home, you can also prepare budgets for your business with home accounting software. Doing this will help you convert estimates into invoices to help streamline your business.

Create Reports

If you are working from home or are self-employed, you can create basic financial reports, like profit and loss, expenses, and balances, with home accounting software. These customised reports give you important insights into your business so you can make better business decisions.

All About Quickbooks Home Accounting Software

Whether it’s managing your home finances or running a business out of your home, QuickBooks gives you the tools you need to organise all your expenses, payments, and other transactions, all in one place.

Since QuickBooks keeps track of everything, all in one place, you can budget your day to day spending. You can also pay people in time, update your finances automatically, balance your chequebooks and budgets, and get prepared for tax period with Quickbooks.

Since QuickBooks accounting software is cloud-based, your financial data gets safely hosted on the cloud so that you can access it anytime, anywhere, and across any device.

QuickBooks offers the following features to make managing your home finances easy:

Track Expenses

You can track your expenses by connecting your QuickBooks account to your bank accounts and credit cards. You can also create custom rules to categorise your expenses and generate reports so you can get a better understanding of your spendings.

Capture Receipts

You can snap photos of receipts with the QuickBooks mobile app and match your receipt information to an existing transaction.

Be Tax Ready

Since Quickbooks automatically categorises and organises expenses in one place, you can easily track them year round. This means, you don't have to worry about missing out on tax deductions and or undergoing excess stress when filing your taxes.

Generate Professional Invoices

When using QuickBooks, you don't have to worry about generating invoices when running a business from your home. QuickBooks helps you create professional invoices, tailored for your brand, helps you set up recurring invoices for regular customers, and automatically adds billable hours to the invoices both for clients and employees. QuickBooks will also automatically matches your payments to your invoices in order to balance your books of accounts.

Accepting Payments

QuickBooks allows you to accept credit cards, debit cards, and bank transfers so that you can quickly and easily take multiple types of payments. It also helps you keep track of your bank balance and know when payments hit your account so that you can make payments on the go.

Manage Your Bills

With QuickBooks accounting software, you can organise and manage your bills all in one place. Since the bills or receipts are saved in the cloud, you can easily access any and all receipts or invoices. You can also schedule your bills in advance and track the due dates of your bills in order to make payments in time directly with QuickBooks.

Pay Your Bills

There are a number of ways that you can settle your bills with Quickbooks, and can even pay multiple suppliers all at once with whatever their preferred method of payment is. Since your business bank account is connected to QuickBooks, the bills that you pay via cheque or direct deposit will get automatically recorded in QuickBooks. You can even make partial payments against the bills by simply filling in the amount that you want to pay, and Quickbooks will automatically keep track of the outstanding amount yet to be paid.

Track Mileage

In order to capitalise on any potential tax deductions, QuickBooks home accounting software gives you the functionality to tracking mileage automatically via GPS so you can claim a deduction for mileage. You can easily categorise individual trips as either business or personal, and get a breakdown of distance travelled in mileage reports which can be easily shared.

Easy Collaboration

QuickBooks allows you, as a small business owner, to provide access to employees and partners, like sales reps and office managers. By providing custom access to QuickBooks, it helps you share insights with business partners and investors and can even collaborate with accountants by sending them an invitation to log into QuickBooks.

Track Time

As a small business owner, being able to track the time your employees have spent on specific jobs is an important aspect of running your business. By giving them access to your QuickBooks account, your employees can fill in their timesheets and mark billable hours, which helps when preparing accurate timesheets and enhances payroll.

What is the Purpose of Accounting Software?

Cloud-based accounting software helps you maintain your books of accounts, from anywhere at anytime, from any device. Since cloud-based accounting software can connect to your bank account, it helps you keep track of what comes in and out of your business.

It also automates your day-to-day tasks such as managing receipts, creating and sending invoices, data entry, and bank reconciliation.

A cloud-based accounting software provides insights into where your business stands as transactions are updated on a regular basis and allows you to collaborate with your employees, partners, accountants, and other stakeholders by giving partial or complete access. Most importantly, the risk of errors is reduced drastically as the information is updated in your QuickBooks account automatically.

Accounting software helps to:

• automate day to day tasks, like creating and sending invoices, data entry, bank reconciliation, or receipt management
• provide world-class data security as your financial data gets saved in the cloud
• give access to multiple users for easy collaboration
• generate and access financial reports at the click of a button
• give an overview of the financial position of your business as and when income and expenses get updated
• improve the accuracy of data by categorising income and expenses
• saves time and cost as you bank accounts are connected with the online accounting software, which fetches your accounting transactions automatically
• lend mobility as you and run your home and manage the business on the go

Is Prerequisite Accounting Knowledge Required to Use Accounting Software?

There are a many aspects of your business' finances that don't require prior accounting knowledge or the experience of an accountant. If you want to manage your home finances or run a business out of your home, then using online accounting software will help you carry out the day to day tasks easily and effectively.

By spending a small amount every month, cloud-based accounting software gives you smarter tools so you manage simple tasks like:

• recording and tracking expenses
• creating and sending invoices
• generating basic financial statements or reports
• reconciling transactions with bank statements
• managing and organising bills
• tracking time
• managing your contacts

When performing these day-to-day tasks, QuickBooks is user-friendly and intuitive, which helps you take control of your finances, even if you don't have any financial or accounting knowledge.

However, there are some tasks that require the expertise of an accountant, especially when you are running a small business.

For example, deciding on your business structure and preparing a business plan can be quite challenging without the advice of an accounting professional. Even submitting tax returns to statutory authorities requires precision as well as expertise in providing accurate data, which is where an accountant is better suited to do the job.

What Factors Should be Considered Before Choosing Accounting Software?

Good accounting software for home use must offer features that help with automating the entire accounting process, providing data security, generating accurate financial reports, and offering customer support when needed.

Before you invest in a home accounting software, you'll need to consider the following:

• mobility
• price
• seamless collaboration
• ease of use
• import or export of data
• high-end data security
• round the clock customer support
• regular software updates
• automation

What are the Benefits of Accounting Software?

More businesses are now using cloud accounting software to manage their finances. This is because cloud technology has transformed the way businesses manage their finances.

A business' financial information is saved to the cloud and is encrypted, meaning only people who have access to the accounting software can view this information.

Cloud accounting software offers a range of tools that help when automating the accounting process and undertaking day-to-day tasks, like generating invoices, managing bills, and preparing budgets.

So, if you haven’t upgraded to a cloud accounting software, then the following benefits of a cloud accounting software would certainly help you in giving a direction.

Brings Automation

A cloud accounting software integrates your bank accounts and updates income or expenses automatically as transactions take place. It sorts income and expenses into categories and can create new categories for any expenses that have not been recorded previously.

You can even generate invoices and send them directly to your customers to get paid faster. With cloud accounting software, reconciling your income or expense statement with a bank statement is easy as all you need to do is match book entries with bank transactions.

Data Security

Cloud accounting software provides world-class data security, because unlike the traditional accounting system, your financial data gets stored in the cloud and is backed up regularly. Because of this, it means you don't have to worry about your data being hacked.

Mobility

Cloud based accounting software allows you to work at anytime, from anywhere, with any device, so long as you're able to connect to the internet and log into your account. This means, whether through an app or a web browser, you can access and maintain your data on the go.

Cost-Effective

Since online accounting utilises cloud, you do not have to worry about investing in IT infrastructure. Traditional accounting systems demand a huge investment in IT infrastructure and maintenance, but with cloud accounting, you can access your financial information in the office, at home or on the go.

For this, you only need to pay a small amount, as either a monthly or yearly fee. While the traditional accounting software, for the most part, only requires you to invest one time the cost is often huge, especially with the limitations that come from not being able to access it from anywhere.

Easy Collaboration

Cloud based accounting software also allows for easy collaborate with fellow accountants, employees, and stakeholders. This is achieved by giving limited access to each party, depending on the task they'll be undertaking.

For example, your employees can access timesheets to update the hours they've worked. Similarly, your accountant can have access to system so that the data is recorded with accuracy and so financial reports, like income statements and balance sheets, are prepared regularly.

With cloud accounting software, your colleagues, management team and your advisers all have access to the same numbers and reports instantly from anywhere at any time.

Consistent Software Updates

Cloud accounting software is consistently updated by in-house developers to ensure any changes in accounting rules or taxation laws are accounted for. This means you don't have to worry about financial statements, tax reports, invoices, or other business forms and documents not being up to date with the latest changes.

Third-Party Integrations

You can get more done with cloud accounting software as it offers third-party integrations to provide other functionalities, like payroll and inventory management. Aside from helping you to carry out day to day tasks, such as generating invoices, managing bills, and completing books of accounts, these programs help you to carry out other important tasks for your business.

Cloud-Based Home Accounting Software

Cloud technology has revolutionised our day to day lives, both professionally and personally. Whether by uploading pictures on social media, paying bills via online banking, making fund transfers, or using smartphones to send and receive emails on the go, cloud technology has enhanced the way we work and live.

When it comes to business, various cloud-based tools have been developed to launch businesses, organise teams, and serve customers. All of which has become accessible through various devices, such as smartphones, laptops, or tablets.

Project management, file storage, video conferencing, online accounting, and social channels are some of the areas where cloud technology has dynamically changed the way in which we work.

When it comes to managing your home finances, or your small business, cloud-based home accounting software is an effective tool. Whether you're managing bills, tracking expenses, generating invoices, scanning receipts, accepting payments, or collaborating with team members, a cloud-based home accounting software makes all of this possible in one place.

Unlike your traditional home accounting system, where you had to manually update the data in spreadsheets, collect and organise receipts and maintain a calendar to track payment due dates, a cloud-based home accounting software removes all these challenges and helps you to work and manage your home.

With a cloud-based home accounting software, you can:

• Organise and track your expenses
• Pay bills on time
• Connect your bank accounts and categorise expenses as and when the transactions take place
• Prepare budgets and set goals so that you avoid the risk of overspending
• Reconcile your books with bank statements
• Prepare for tax period as income and expense reports get updated automatically
• Accept payments
• Snap a photo of receipts and organise them all in one place
• Collaborate with accountants, managers, and employees to carry out various tasks by assigning roles and giving limited access

When is the Best Time to Switch to Cloud Accounting Software?

As a small business owner, you'll be performing a range of activities, including bookkeeping and accounting, all by yourself. If you are spending a good part of your time on bookkeeping and accounting, you may have to compromise on performing core business activities, including managing productivity, generating leads and building clients.

So, if your business is facing the following challenges with regards to bookkeeping, then its time that you switch to a cloud accounting software:

• There is minimal to no automation, as you are still manually preparing invoices and entering data, using a physical copy of expense receipts, and spending a good time reconciling books
• You are bound to your desk and cannot manage your books of accounts on the go
• You cannot connect your bank accounts with your accounting software
• You are manually preparing invoices and processing payroll
• Spending too much time on secondary tasks in place of core business activities

FAQs

What is the Best Home Accounting Software?

QuickBooks Online is the best home accounting software as it helps you to run your home just like you’d run your business or run a business out of your home in the most effective way.

What is the Best and Easiest Software for Home & Business Accounting for Dummies?

QuickBooks is the best and easiest software for home and business accounting for dummies as it is user friendly, intuitive, and does not require specialised training or accounting knowledge to operate.

What was the Name of Intuit’s Accounting Software for Home Use?

The name of Intuit’s Accounting Software for home use is QuickBooks Home Accounting and Personal Finance Software that helps you run your home as well as your business out of your home in an easy and effective way.

What Accounting Software Should I Use for Home?

QuickBooks Home Accounting and Personal Finance software is among the top home accounting software options as it is user-friendly, cost-effective, helps you track expenses, manage bills, prepare budgets, scan receipts all in one place.

What is the Best Installed Combination of Home and Business Accounting Software?

QuickBooks Online is the best-installed combination of home and business accounting software as it offers a host of functionalities that help you run your home, manage your personal finances, and run the business out of your home all in one place.

What Accounting Software Do I Need for my Home?

You need a home accounting and personal finance software like QuickBooks for your home that helps you manage your bills, scan receipts, accept payments, track expenses, and prepare budgets so that you can plan for your short-term and long-term savings.

What is the best Home Accounting or Budget Software?

QuickBooks is the best Home Accounting or Budget Software as it not only helps you manage your day-to-day tasks like recording bills, tracking expenses, snapping receipts, or paying bills on time but also prepares budgets and set goals.

What Home Accounting Software Syncs With a Phone?

QuickBooks connects with your phone via a mobile app that allows you to run your home on-the-go as you can perform all day-to-day tasks like recording receipts, paying bills, accepting payments, tracking expenses anytime, anywhere, and through any device.