In the first article of this series, I talked about reasons you may or may not want to choose Quickbooks to manage your business finances. It's not for everyone, but there are some reasons you might consider it. If Quickbooks Online isn’t for you, consider…

Freshbooks

Freshbooks is another common accounting software. You can use it to send and track invoices, receive payment, track your expenses, and look at basic reports. They've got great dashboards that shows you how the business is doing at a glance. (And if you’re interested, these both use single-entry bookkeeping.)

Quickbooks Self-Employed….different than Quickbooks Online

Quickbooks Self-Employed is different than Quickbooks Online. It’s the same company, but a different program. It is geared towards freelancers and contractors, meaning you have minimal transactions and don’t need very robust reporting capabilities.

It’s very limited, but a lot of photographers love the functionality of Quickbooks Self-Employed. It allows you to track mileage, separate business and personal expenses and even calculates your quarterly estimated income taxes.

When to use a Quickbooks alternative:

You're part-time or just starting out and need a simple, basic system to track your finances. This may be a more affordable option.
You'd like to move away from an excel spreadsheet but Quickbooks Online seems like overkill.
You don't plan on using a software to manage your business (such as Dubsado, Honeybook or 17hats). These programs don't integrate as of now.

Speaking of these programs, next we'll look at the best business management softwares for photographers. These include a bookkeeping portion, but also allow you to manage your clients and studio.