5 Best Accounting Software In South Africa For Small And Medium Businesses (2024 list)
Accounting software is a specialized application used to analyze and automate financial data and tasks. Using this computer software, users can record day-to-day financial transactions in one place. Apart from that, an advanced accounting application can accurately annual audit budget fast. There are several; types of this software depending on the functionality and productivity.
Types of accounting software
- General accounting software: It is used to track income and expenses, and report accounts payable and receivable. Some popular general accounting software are QuickBooks and Xero.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software: This type of accounting software is usually used by large organizations to manage finance and operations efficiently. Erp software includes SAP and NetSuite.
- Payroll and inventory management software: It manages payroll processing and reduces errors while calculating wages and deductions. Additionally, this software records the number of orders and deliveries a business makes.
- Invoicing software: Small and medium businesses use this software to file VAT and GST returns. Moreover, it streamlines cash flow management. If you find it difficult to calculate VAT due to the enormous amount of data, you can use a South African VAT calculator to comply with South African tax regulations.
- Cloud-based accounting software: The cloud-based accounting software is gaining massive popularity. You can store a large chunk of data and access them anytime from any device. SAGE and QuickBooks are some of the widely used cloud accounting software.
Best accounting software in South Africa: Top 5 you need to know
Quickbooks Online
Quick Books is a widely used accounting software. It was developed by Intuit in 1992. Small and medium-sized Enterprises mostly use this cloud-based online software.
- Key features
- Users can access QuickBooks without extensive knowledge of accounting due to its simple user-friendly interface.
- It is easy to create professional invoices and accept domestic and international payments through the software.
- Developers have published a mobile application of this software. Now users can upload receipts using the mobile app version. You can also track daily expenses sitting on a couch.
- QuickBooks has simplified the taxation process by making the bank reconciliation procedure easy. It offers Precision while recording a large amount of financial data.
- This cloud-based application is suitable for payroll and inventory management. Users can easily monitor employee payments using the software. Before including parallel entries, you can calculate PAYE to ensure compliance with the tax system.
| PROS | CONS |
| Comprehensive features | Internet dependency |
| Task automation | Limited customization |
| Robust reporting tool | Transaction limits on the lower plan |
| 24/7 customer support | |
| scalability |
- Subscription Price: Quickbook offers a monthly trial for new users and after that, it charges R15 per month.
SAGE Accounting
Sage cloud accounting, previously known as Sage Pastel, is a cloud-based accounting solution for small to medium businesses. Its powerful features have made it the top-picked software for handling tax management.
- Key features
- Sage is a comprehensive tool that has made financial reporting easy. You can effortlessly generate profit and loss statements, cash flow reports, and sales forecasts.
- This software provides a library of customizable templates to create invoices with just a few clicks.
- Sage supports multiple currency transactions. Various payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal have been integrated with this software to collect and convert international payments.
- Its dashboard offers an intuitive user-friendly interface for business owners to monitor daily performance.
- Companies willing to manage VAT submissions can use this tool. It works according to the South African tax regulation.
| PROS | CONS |
| Strong reputation in South Africa. | The subscription price is a little bit costly for small businesses. |
| It offers various useful features for numerous Industries like retail construction agriculture. |
- Subscription Price: Sage accounting software offers two types of packages (starter and advanced). The basic package starts from R 185 per month.
Xero
Xero is another well-known cloud-based accounting solution It is a New Zealand-based company. Most small businesses operating in South Africa have integrated this software with their businesses.
- Key features
- Xero facilitates teamwork and collaboration. Business owners and accountants can analyze financial data on the same dashboard in real time
- The cloud-based solution works as an exceptional customer relationship management system.
- This software helps users scan receipts and important documents to collect key data. This process is called Hubdoc. You will get this feature in all the Xero plans.
| PROS | CONS |
| First cloud-based accessibility | Subscription costs are relatively high |
| Automatic Bank feeds | Technical glitches during peak time |
| Hubdoc and other third-party app integration | |
| Payroll and inventory management |
- Subscription Price: Xero offers three packages: starter, standard, and premium. The starter package costs $29/month whereas the standard and premium packages cost $46/month and $69/month respectively.
Zoho books
Zoho application developed Zoho Books to streamline business operations. Small businesses and startups prefer this software as it provides robust features at an affordable price. Moreover, Zoho Books has launched a free version for a new enterprise having an annual turnover of less than R1 million.
- Key features
- You can easily create professional invoices and send them directly to the clients using Zoho Books.
- If you submit authentic bank statements in the software, it will automatically fetch your bank transactions and arrange them in entries. This process is called bank reconciliation,
- Like SAGE, this software is also very effective in making financial statements.
| PROS | CONS |
| Intuitive interface | Subscription price is a bit high |
| Task automation | Technical lagging |
| Simple navigation | |
| Teamwork and collaboration |
- Subscription Price: The basic package starts from r82.50 per month. However, it provides new users with a 14-day trial for free.
MARG ERP 9+
Marg ERP is a top-notch accounting software designed for GST and VAT filling and billing. It simplifies financial accounting budgeting. It has been a trusted software for SMEs since 1992.
- Key features
- If you own a transport business, this software will be the best option for you to generate E-way bills
- For a large-scale production company, Marg ERP is suitable for managing Orders and deliveries seamlessly
- Users can easily create fund flow statements to record overall liquidity and financial health.
| PROS | CONS |
| Mostly used in the pharmaceutical sector. | The interface is complex for beginners. |
| Integrate multiple e-commerce websites with it | It needs training to use the features. |
| Free trial for new users. |
- Subscription Price: MARG ERP provides three subscription packages: Basic, gold, and silver. The Basic edition costs ZAR 162, the silver edition costs ZAR 228 and the gold edition costs ZAR 454 per month.
Final Words
In conclusion, a business must utilize various aspects of accounting software to perform day-to-day tasks such as data entry, invoice generation, and financial data processing. While managing an enormous amount of data, manual calculation often leads to errors. To reduce the margin of error, this software is a must-have for every business. As an owner, you need to consider some basic points mentioned above to select the best accounting software for your business.