The Top 11 Accounting Billing Software to Consider for Your Firm
Author: Financial Cents
In this article
If revenue is the lifeblood of a business, then maintaining a healthy cash flow should be guarded jealously.
Accounting billing software facilitates cash flow management by tracking billable work, generating accurate invoices, and sending reminders to ensure faster payments and return on the resources invested in clients’ work.
These eleven (11) accounting billing software solutions are helping firm owners automate their billing processes to improve cash flow and profitability.
What is Billing Software for Accountants?
Accounting billing software solutions help accounting firms request and process payments for their work by turning their billable hours (and expenses) into invoices.
These tools enable accounting firms to create invoices, track (and receive) payments, and generate data that gives you visibility into your billing and payment processes.
Features of a Good Accounting Billing Software
a. Automated Invoicing and Reminders
Billing software generates and sends invoices based on the time spent (and expenses incurred) on a client’s project.
A good billing solution also follows up with clients to make due payments at predetermined periods. This helps clients to send payments faster.
b. Time Tracking
You should be able to see how much time your team is spending on a client’s project regardless of your billing methods.
Your billing tool uses this feature to justify your rates (especially with hourly billing) and know which client is taking up your time to optimize your rates for maximum profit.
c. Recurring Billing Capabilities
The recurring billing feature makes it easier to request client payments on an ongoing basis, which can help firms prevent late payments.
It sends invoices to clients at a set date every week or month using the time tracked for the client’s work. This also saves you the time and error of creating the invoice from scratch each time.
d. Customizable Invoices
This feature allows you to use your branded assets, like logo and color scheme, in your invoices to standardize all client touch points.
Without this feature, your clients will receive a generic invoice that might not relate their experiences to your brand.
e. Multiple Payment Options
Client convenience is critical for any business. Giving your clients multiple payment options makes it easier for them to pay for your services.
Your potential billing software should accept ACH and credit card payments. The more options you provide your clients, the higher their chances of completing payments immediately.
f. Reporting
This feature gives you data to make smart billing decisions. Data like payment trends, day sales outstanding, and the effectiveness of your collections empower you to adjust your billing process to encourage timely payments.
g. Integrations with Accounting and Financial Tools
Most billing software addresses a single challenge—billing. When you rely on feature-specific solutions, your administrative work and the number of tools your team has to subscribe to, learn, and use daily will multiply.
Using the fewest possible applications for your firm streamlines your operations and improves the accuracy of your billing information.
With integration, your applications sync information together, which saves time and prevents data entry errors.
h. Client Portal Access
Access to the portal, where your clients are already collaborating with your team, provides a single source of truth for your clients.
When you give them one place to make payments, access their past payments, and share files and information, your clients will be more responsive overall.
The 11 Best Billing Software Solutions for Accounting Firms
1. Financial Cents
Financial Cents is an all-in-one practice management software for accounting firm owners. Its billing, workflow, and client management features consolidate everything accounting, bookkeeping, and tax firms need to stay organized, efficient, and profitable in one place.
Its Billing Features Include:
- One-off & Recurring Invoices: Financial Cents enables you to create (and send) invoices for one-off projects and automate recurring invoices to clients as and when due.
- Multiple Payment Options (ACH & Credit Card): your clients can pay you via bank transfers (ACH) or credit cards.
- Saved Payment Methods: Financial Cents stores your client’s payment information for faster recurring payments.
- Automatic Payments: you can automatically charge your client’s account using their stored payment information, eliminating the need to request payment afresh.
- Automated Client Reminders: use automated reminders to auto-nudge clients until they make full payment.
- Refunds: this allows you to process client refunds inside Financial Cents.
- Permissions: enables you to prevent your team members from accessing your billing solution.
- Sync Invoices and Payments with QBO: your invoice workflow syncs with your financial records in QBO to prevent duplicate information.
Other Financial Cents Billing Feature to Look Out For
- Financial Cents Proposal and Engagement Letters (COMING SOON)
The Financial Cents Proposal feature works with the billing feature to manage the entire proposal process from creation to sending and payments, giving you more visibility into your client engagements.
The proposal dashboard shows all your active proposals with the clients they are for, the amount they are worth, the date they were sent, the date they were last opened, and the stage they are in (accepted, draft, awaiting acceptance, etc.).
The Proposal and ELs feature will enable your client to review and sign proposals and add their payment information for timely payment processing.
Mobile Access: your clients will be able to access the proposal feature on their mobile devices, enabling them to review and sign your proposals anytime, anywhere.
- Invoicing Off Billable Time (WIP Report): Turn your billable time, fixed fee projects, and billable expenses into invoices.
- Ability to Pass CC Fees on to Clients: making your clients cover the cost of credit card processing.
- AR Report: insights into your unpaid invoices to improve your receivable collections.
- Ability to Lock Time Entries Once Invoiced: this will help you prevent your employees from editing time entries after billing the client.
- Lock Deliverables Behind a Paywall: compel your clients to process your invoice by restricting access to deliverables.
More Client-Facing Features to Streamline Your Practice Management and Client Engagement
Client Portal
The Financial Cents client portal is a single place to interact with your clients. It allows clients to send you files, access their invoices, and communicate with you.
The portal is divided into:
- Client Tasks & Requests: the hub for your files and information requests. Your clients can securely share files with you here. Together with auto-reminders, this feature keeps your request on your client’s mind, helping to get their responses faster.
- Billing: clients can view, pay, and manage their billing information on demand here.
- Client Chat: discuss billing, document, and project needs with clients (and your team) here. This feature also allows you to organize these conversations into topics to improve accessibility.
- Folder Sharing: a group of similar client documents organized together.
- ReCats: clarify uncategorized QuickBooks transactions with clients and automatically update them (with notes and documents) in QBO from your Financial Cents account
Financial Cents’ client portal is customizable. You can add your logo, colors, and URL to make client experience consistent across the board.
Workflow Management and Automation
Empower your team to meet client deliverables with features like:
- Dashboard: a firm-wide view of all client projects.
- Recurring Work: repetitive projects automatically created for their future dates
- Tag: automatically track the status of client projects in your dashboard with labels that describe their progression through the stages.
Client Management (CRM)
Organize your client information in one place to access them for work.
Client Emails
Financial Cents’ integration with Gmail and Outlook enables you to pull all client emails into a dedicated folder in Financial Cents, saving you the constant back and forth between your workflow and email solutions.
ReCats
Instead of exporting uncategorized transactions into spreadsheets and chasing clients to clarify them, this feature enables you to pull such transactions from QBO into Financial Cents.
Automatically follow up with clients to review the transactions, and provide relevant clarifications so that you can resolve these transactions in QBO from your Financial Cents account.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
Financial Cents billing feature is included in the all-in-one plans
- Solo Plan: $9/month (billed annually)
- Team Plan: $39/month per user (billed annually)
- Scale Plan: $59/month per user (billed annually)
Free Trial
A 14-day free trial is available.
Rating
Financial Cents has 4.8 (out of 5) stars on Capterra and G2.
Manage invoices where you’re managing projects, client relationships and employee workload. Start your Free Trial to see how well it suits your firm.
2. Freshbooks
FreshBooks is a small business accounting software with billing features that enable firm owners to automate tasks, free up their time, and get paid faster.
Its Billing Features Include:
- Multiple Payment Methods: FreshBooks accepts ACH and credit card payments.
- Automation: automatically charge a client’s credit card and follow up with them for due invoices.
- Requests and Deposits: receive part of your money in advance by requesting clients to deposit a portion of the total amount.
- Billable vs Non-Billable Time: track billable and non-billable hours to bill for what you deserve.
- Retainers: FreshBooks retainers help you establish a fixed, recurring inflow of cash and make it easier to forecast your firm’s income.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
FreshBooks’ plans are:
- Lite: $148.20 per year
- Plus: $257.40 per year
- Premium: $460 per year
- Select: Custom pricing
Free Trial
A 30-day free trial is available
Rating
FreshBooks has 4.5 (out of 5) stars on Capterra and G2
3. QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online streamlines your billing process with a Pay Now button. Its other billing features enable you to send invoices and monitor when they are viewed to increase your chances of getting paid on time.
Its Billing Features Include
- Invoice Customization: QBO’s invoices are easily customizable with logos and colors.
- Add Billable Hours: QBO gives you the option to turn billable hours into invoices automatically.
- Invoice Tracking: get real-time updates on your invoices when clients view or make payments.
- Progress Invoices: estimate the total cost of a project and send estimates based on stages, milestones, or percentage completion.
- Multiple Payment Methods: QBO accepts ACH and credit card payments.
- Recurring Customer Billing: automatically bill your recurring clients at set times of the week or month.
- Automatic Follow-Up on Unpaid Invoices: send custom reminders to your clients to help them pay you on time.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
QBO’s plans are:
- Simple Start: $17.50 per month
- Essentials: $32.50 per month
- Plus: $49.5o per month
- Advanced: $117.50 per month
Free Trial
A 30-day free trial is available
Rating
QBO has
4. ClickTime
ClickTime enables you to track every minute of work to separate billable hours from non-billable and bill your clients according to our billing method.
Its billing features include:
- Time Entry Completion Dashboards: allows you to see your employee timesheet for accurate billing.
- Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours: separates billable hours from non-billable to understand your staff’s profitability.
- Change Order Tracking: monitor changes in the scope of work and adjust your billing for adequate compensation.
- Automatic Reminders: ClickTime’s automatic reminders notify your staff to track their time completely.
- Automated Invoices: ClickTime creates complete invoices with your billing rate, especially hourly rates.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
ClickTime’s plans are:
- Starter: $12/month per user
- Team: $15/month per user
- Premier: $27/month per user
- Enterprise: Custom
Free Trial
A 14-day free trial is available.
Rating
ClickTime has 4.6 (out of 5) stars on Capterra and G2.
5. TimeCamp
TimeCamp was created to track computer users’ activities, but its features extend to billing, team collaboration, and project profitability analysis.
Its features include:
- Automatic Billing: TimeCamp uses your predefined rates to automatically create and send bills.
- Access to Billing Information: your clients can access their billing information and reports to break down your work hours and help you maintain a transparent billing process.
- Hourly Rates: if or when you need to charge by the hour, the hourly billing system helps you define your rates to receive adequate compensation for your services.
- Reports: TimeCamp’s 20+ reports detail your team’s use of time to give you insights into your productive resources.
- Shared Reports: send time and billing reports to clients to help them understand the value of your work.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
TimeCamp’s plans are:
- Starter: $1.49 per user (billed annually).
- Premium: $2.99
- Ultimate: $3.99 per user billed annually
- Enterprise: $11.99 per user billed annually
Free Trial
A 14-day free trial is available.
Rating
TimeCamp has 4.7 (out of 5) stars on Capterra and G2
6. Clockify
Clockify is an all-in-one time and billing software that tracks employee work hours, generates invoices, and analyzes client profitability.
Its billing features include
- Discount & Tax: Clockify adds discounts and taxes to your invoices.
- Download PDF Invoices: this helps to download and send invoices to clients in PDF format.
- Invoice Status: the ability to mark invoices as sent, unsent, or void.
- Invoice Tracking: see which invoice has been paid, what is outstanding and what is past due.
- Invoice Export: Clockify allows you to export invoices in CSV or Excel spreadsheet.
- Invoice Customization: customize your Clockify invoice by adding your firm’s logo and brand assets before sending it to clients.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
Clockify’s plans are:
- Standard: $5.49/month per seat/ (billed annually)
- Pro: $7.99/month per seat (billed annually)
- Enterprise: $11.99/month per seat (billed annually)
Free Trial
A 7-day free trial is available.
Rating
Clockify has:
7. BigTime
BigTime helps service-based businesses manage projects and improve cash flow by simplifying time and billing.
Its billing features include:
- Automated Invoice Generation: generate invoices for the time you have tracked according to your billing model.
- Work in Progress (WIP): track unbilled and uncompleted client projects and bill clients for time spent.
- Branded Invoice: use your branded assets to customize your invoice for a more personal client experience.
- AR Dashboard: displays insights from your accounts receivable data in a central dashboard.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
BigTime’s plans are:
- Essentials $20/month per user
- Advanced $35/month per user
- Premier: $45/month per user
- Advanced plus: custom pricing
Free Trial
A 14-day free trial is available
Rating
Bigtime has
8. Xero
Xero’s invoicing software enables you to automate much of the accounting invoicing value chain so that you can cut down admin work/time.
Its billing features include:
- Invoice Templates: create templates for your invoices to reduce the admin time of future invoices.
- Multiple Payment Methods: receive payments with a credit card, direct debit, Stripe, and GoCardless.
- Payment Reminders: Xero can chase clients on your behalf with automated reminders, freeing you up to focus on your firm.
- Invoice Customization: add your firm’s logo to your invoices to improve client trust.
- Recurring Payments: you can set your regular billing/payments to recur automatically.
- Invoice Tracking: Xero shows you when your client has viewed your invoice.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
Xero’s plans are:
- Starter: $2.90 per month
- Standard: $4.60 per month
- Premium: $6.20 per month
Free Trial
A 30-day free trial is available
Rating
Xero has:
9. Harvest
Harvest tracks time and automatically turns timesheets into invoices for clients to pay you/make payments more quickly and conveniently.
Its billing features include:
- Invoices from Timesheets: time spent on client projects and tasks is automatically turned into a bill for the client.
- Accept Online Payments: Harvest accepts payments from PayPal and Stripe.
- Email Invoice: you can send an invoice directly to your client’s email account for quicker action.
- Payment Reminders: you can also auto-nudge your clients in Harvest to make payments within a time frame.
- Invoice Reports: Harvest’s time and billing reports give insight into your firm, helping you see where adjustments are needed for a better AR process.
- Track Open Invoice: Harvest shows which clients have made payments and those with outstanding payments.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
Harvest’s plans are:
- Free
- Pro: $11per seat/month
- Premium: $14per seat/month
Free Trial
A 30-day free trial is available
Rating
Harvest has:
10. Zoho Invoice
Zoho Invoice allows you to create professional invoices from estimates, track time, send the invoice, and collect payment from your clients.
Its billing features include
- Quotes: define service and payment terms that can be automatically converted to invoices.
- Time Tracking: accurate time tracking that results in accurate client billing. Zoho Invoice shows you how much each client owes based on the time tracked for their work.
- Expenses: Zoho Invoice allows businesses to turn expenses into invoices.
- Payment Reminders: Zoho auto-nudges clients to help you collect payments on time.
- Reports: a dashboard that gives insights into your accounts receivable collections such as AR aging.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
Free
Free Trial
Yes
Rating
Zoho Invoice has 4.7 (out of 5) stars on Capterra and G2
11. Ignition
Ignition is a billing and proposal app that reduces the stress of getting paid with set-and-forget features that free up time for core business operations.
These features include:
- Automated Billing: Ignition automatically creates your invoice in your accounting software (QBO and Xero), collects payment, and marks the invoice paid, reducing your team’s admin time.
- Multiple Payment Methods: Ignition accepts payments with/from ACH, Apple Pay, Credit Card, and Google Pay with the option to pass on credit card processing fees to your clients.
- Payment Link: gives clients more/greater flexibility with invoice review and payment.
- Central Billing Hub: one place to view all billing information so that nothing is forgotten that might delay payments.
- Instant Billing for Scope Changes: ability to bill for out-of-scope work to prevent revenue leakages in your firm.
- Flexible Billing Options: Ignition offers hourly and recurring billing options.
Pros
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Cons
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Pricing
- Core: $99/month (billed annually)
- Pro: $199 /month (billed annually)
- Pro+: $399 /month (billed annually)
Free Trial
A 14-day free trial is available
Rating
Ignition has:
Criteria for Selecting a Billing Software for Accountants
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Ease of Use
Your billing software has to be easy to implement and navigate on a day-to-day basis. Otherwise, the simplest of tasks will become a waste of your precious time.
Every software solution will claim to be the simplest. One way to learn more is by registering for a demo. A demo will help you see how to use it for your firm’s billing workflow.
Better still, register for a free trial and see (for yourself) how it works. There’s still a difference between someone showing you how an application works and using it to complete tasks.
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Budget
If the software solution is easy to use, can you afford it on an ongoing basis? With the right research, you can get a suitable solution for an amount that suits your budget.
In choosing a solution, find out the specific billing features available at each price point. Asking other accounting firms using the tool is a great way to get honest ideas about the cost of using the product.
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Your Billing Needs
It’s safe to assume you understand why you need billing software, but if not, your community of accounting firm owners will be helpful.
Asking other accountants how they are using their billing software will show you ways to maximize your potential solution in more ways than you think possible.
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Automation and Payment Processing
If your billing solution can’t automatically create and send invoices, you’ll have to abandon client work to attend to invoicing tasks each week or month.
This also poses a significant risk to the accuracy of the billing information, which can lead to late payment–if not bad debt.
Other opportunities for automation include invoice tracking and payment processing. With payment processing, your billing software charges your clients automatically when due and shares the paid invoice with the client.
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Integration
There are many frustrations of using disparate systems to manage your firm. When your tech stack is not integrated, you will have to enter billing data by yourself, which requires substantial manual labor and increases operational costs.
Instead of going through the time and energy-consuming manual processes, choose a software solution that communicates and shares data with other mission-critical apps in your firm.
Help Clients Pay You Faster with Financial Cents’ Automated Billing Feature
Effective billing gives you more control over your revenue, but like every other accounting task, most accounting firms use disparate solutions for billing and other practice management needs—-like file sharing, client collaboration, and workflow.
This leads to too many apps in a firm, most of which require separate subscriptions, training, and usage.
With Financial Cents, your employees have one tool to collaborate with clients, and bill clients and a host of other features in the practice management value chain, such as:
- Time Tracking
- Workflow Management and Automation
- Client Management (CRM)
- Client Requests and Auto-Reminders
- Team Capacity Management
- Email Integration for Client Communication
- ReCats
You can use all of these features for free today to see how they suit your firm’s processes.
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