Are you a freelancer, self-employed professional, or the owner of your own trade business? Accounting for tradies can be a tough task, with so many different costs and payments to track making it an overwhelming endeavour. Most of the time, spreadsheets won’t cut it and having a personal accountant can be too expensive.
Fortunately, there's good news: accounting software has become a more popular and innovative field, with a variety of options able to simplify your business options. Whether you're invoicing clients, tracking expenses, or preparing for tax season, the right tools can change accounting from being a chore into a seamless part of your day-to-day business.
The importance of accounting software
With all of the different aspects involved in running a business, including scheduling jobs, finding new clients and coordinating staff members, bookkeeping for tradies can often be just too difficult a hassle. That’s where accounting software can be a massive boost, streamlining your income and expense tracking, and giving you a quick overview of your financial position.
With accounting software, business owners are able to create financial reports quickly, directly from their payment and revenue data. This not only saves time but reduces the risk of errors. Accurate data also helps businesses make informed decisions about growth and opportunities to improve. Every business has financial goals they want to hit — accounting software is the time- and admin-saving tool you need to make them a reality.
Benefits of accounting software for tradies
Working in trade often keeps you on-the-go and with less time for admin and daily management tasks. In that world, anything that can save you time and energy without compromising on quality is a worthwhile investment, and accounting software offers all of that. Some of the most specific benefits of accounting software include:
- Reduced admin: Using a software that automatically tracks your financial data saves you time by ensuring you don’t have to track everything manually. That time can be better spent servicing clients and finding new work, or even just shutting off for the day.
- Quicker payments: Being able to generate quick and easy invoices for clients helps you stay on top of your jobs and receive compensation for your work more efficiently.
- Track profitability: Constant access to your financial data helps you closely examine your overall financial health, and how profitable you are with your current prices and fees.
- Streamline tax time: All of your finances in one place makes it simple to manage tax time. Instead of trying to collate information from different sources, accounting software keeps it all in one central location.
Our recommendations
Finding the right software for your unique business needs can take some time and trialling. In our experience, these are some of the best apps for tradies looking to improve their accounting.
Xero
Founded in 2006, Xero is one of the leading cloud accounting softwares in the world, providing real-time cash flow information and customisable reports. In Xero, tradies can connect their bank accounts to the software for automatic updates on their transactions, and businesses are able to create tailored online invoices for their clients.
One of Xero’s best features is their automatic reminders, which business owners can create to stay on top of their recurring payments and day-to-day financial tasks. By seamlessly integrating with more than 1,000 third-party apps, including Mira, Xero offers a smooth and efficient experience that makes accounting for tradies a breeze.
QuickBooks
One of the best tradie business software investments out there, helping businesses save hours and hours of admin time every month. Built for small, independent businesses in 1992, QuickBooks is accounting software tradies can use to easily track the GST they pay and charge, send customised invoices automatically, and auto-track expenses instead of manually entering them. QuickBooks has made it efficient for users to swiftly move their data from a competitor accounting application to their platform as well.
QuickBooks also offers robust reporting capabilities, helping you manage every aspect of your financial situation with ease. Adding in time tracking and inventory management makes it a clear leader for tradies, who are always dealing with keeping track of these areas. With 6.5 million customers worldwide in 2023, QuickBooks is definitely one to check out.
MYOB
An acronym for ‘mind your own business’, MYOB is a cloud-based accounting software focused on simplifying sales, recording expenses and making payday easy to navigate. As a user, you can see order fulfilment by tracking your business sales against current stock levels and see spending insights in over 150 currencies.
For tradies who charge hourly, MYOB offers a specialised ‘bill by time’ feature tailored just for that purpose. Additionally, while the platform is compatible with many of the applications commonly used by business owners, it also provides various add-ons to enhance the capabilities of your accounting software.
Seamless accounting software integration
These accounting softwares are all powerful and useful in their own right, but their true value emerges when they are integrated with Mira, our all-in-one business management software. Combine easy job scheduling and client management with quick access to your financial information, all in one convenient location. If that wasn’t enough, Mira can also automatically integrate with payment apps like Square and Stripe, making sure you can easily reconcile payments and manage your revenue.
Ready to take it to the next level? Start a free trial of Mira today to find out exactly how we can help you maximise your trade business.