Choosing the right accounting software is crucial to run a successful business. It helps you keep track of your financials and budgets, generating reports at any time and from anywhere. If you want your school to be able to track its finances accurately, check out these top 7 best accounting software for schools in 2022.
Whether you’re just getting started or running an established school, there are a variety many different types of accounting software available. The best solution for your needs will depend on your unique operating environment, school size, and organizational needs.
Let us help you find the right solution for your school with this list of the best accounting software for schools in 2022.
We have researched and compared 15 accounting software and selected seven that can be best fit your school. We considered key features to price point, user reviews, ease of use, and more while choosing the best accounting software.
What Is The Best Accounting Software for Schools?
Rediker
Why We Choose Rediker
Whether you’re a small K-12 school or a large university, Rediker offers a robust and reliable solution to manage your school’s accounting needs. It provides complete reporting capabilities to generate real-time insights about your school’s financial health. The user-friendly dashboard allows you to enter data easily and create custom reports quickly.
Rediker is a school management and accounting software that integrates with schools, families, and communities.
Rediker is overall school management software to manage school administrative tasks, manage student information, streamline student billing, manage the admission process, and many more.
Rediker’s pluggable architecture allows you to choose the components you need, like a data management or accounting system.
You can customize your plan to fit your organization’s needs and manage your data with a simple user interface.
Key Features
- It has an integrated student information system to manage administrative tasks.
- It allows you to streamline student billing, which includes tuition & payments, batch entry, and receipts.
- It enables parents to pay invoices online through credit cards or bank transfers.
- It integrates with AdminPlus to automatically enter student information into the system.
- You can get access to a dashboard to track income and expenses.
- It helps you create a promising budget based on current and previous data.
- It allows you to create reports for collections, invoices, payments, and credits.
- It helps you in accounting receivables and payables, such as receiving payments online, categorizing accounts, processing purchase orders, and many more.
Pricing
Rediker offers custom pricing plans. The pricing plans aren’t displayed on their website.
But you can always contact them and see the product demo. Once you like the product, you can go for the paid plans, which they give you according to the features and customization you need.
What I Like/Dislike
Like
- One thing I like much about Rediker is it is designed only for schools. It addresses all the features that schools might need to manage their accounting.
- It provides in-depth online training courses and workshops on effectively utilizing Rediker software solutions for managing your school.
- Rediker integrates many tools, like AdminPlus, FINACS, etc., to expand your accounting needs.
Dislike
- Rediker is relatively small accounting software, and as such, there aren’t a lot of reviews out there yet.
- Some users need help with its outdated interface. However, from what I’ve seen, the software is good.
Try Rediker
FreshBooks
Why we choose FreshBooks
FreshBooks accounting software is the perfect choice for your school, providing many valuable features for managing finances efficiently. With FreshBooks, you can easily track expenses, create invoices and reports, and keep your school’s financial records organized and secure. The software interface is simple and user-friendly. Hence, you don’t have to be an expert in accounting to take advantage of its features.
FreshBooks is an accounting software program suitable for small businesses and schools. FreshBooks allows you easily create invoices, track expenses, and create budgets.
You can also create a calendar to remind you when to bill students or pay vendors. Most importantly, it automates the accounting process, which saves time and money.
Over 30 million small business owners and accountants preferred FreshBooks for accounting purposes. That’s why it has above 4.5-star ratings across Capterra, Getapp, and many other rating sites.
Key Features
- Allows to create invoices, track expenses, track time, send receipts, and book payments from one dashboard.
- Comes with several pre-configured reports for more accessible data analysis.
- You can connect the software to your bank account or credit card and invoice clients.
- It allows you to hire staff and track their payroll.
- It has several integrations, such as DocuSend, SurePayroll, Dropbox, and more, that allow you to connect to various other platforms.
- You can also schedule reports, send push notifications, and monitor usage from any browser.
- You can set up online payments in a single click with options like FreshBooks Payments, Stripe, and PayPal.
- The software is secure and has several security features, such as two-factor authentication, password protection, and email notifications for password changes.
Pricing Of FreshBooks Accounting Software
FreshBooks offers four pricing plans.
FreshBooks Lite: It comes at $7.50 for a month. It includes essential features such as tracking unlimited expenses, tracking sales tax & reports, sending unlimited invoices to up to 5 clients, and many more.
FreshBooks Plus: It costs $15 a month, including all features of the lite plan. Plus, you can send unlimited invoices to 50 clients, set up recurring billings, run business health reports, do mobile mileage tracking, and many more.
FreshBooks Premium: It costs you $27.50 monthly and includes all features in the plus plan. In addition, you can manage unlimited clients, customize email signatures, track bills and payments with accounts payable, and much more.
FreshBooks Custom Plan: Provide extra features such as accessing lower credit card transaction rates, getting help to migrate from other software, and so on. It has custom pricing, which is charged according to the extra features you need.
All these plans come with 30 days free trial along with a 10% discount if you pay annually.
What I Like/Dislike About FreshBooks
Like
- One thing I like most about FreshBooks is its flexibility, so you can customize it to meet your school needs.
- There is no learning curve or technical knowledge required to start tracking your expenses and getting a report at the end of each month.
- You can set up your invoice in less than 30 seconds. The reports let you know when you’re behind on your staff or student invoices, and you can get automatic reminders when you’ve missed a due date.
Dislike
- The FreshBooks app is limited in the number of users at a time, making it a poor choice for large businesses.
- FreshBooks also has a limitation on how many billing cycles it can track per year.
You can get started for free for 30 days and get an extra 50% off for the first four months on any plan.
Try FreshBooks
Edsembli
Why We Choose Edsembli
Edsembli’s school management software is the perfect solution for any school looking to increase efficiency and improve performance. With Edsembli, you can easily manage student, faculty, and staff records; assign tasks and schedules; and track attendance and grades. You can monitor academic progress, identify areas of improvement, and quickly access data from any device. Edsembli prioritizes user experience, offering a secure web-based platform with intuitive design and simple navigation.
Edsembli school management software is a comprehensive and user-friendly solution to manage your school’s activities. It streamlines school operations, reduces costs, and simplifies data management.
With Edsembli, you can get real-time insights into how your school is doing, which can improve overall decision-making.
Its intuitive user interface and wide range of features make it easy to use while providing you with the necessary tools to help your school run smoothly.
And with excellent customer support, you can rest assured that any issues you may face will be quickly addressed.
Key Features
- Allows you to manage students records.
- Offer student, parent and teacher portals for better collaboration.
- Automate payroll for employees.
- Manage attendees of students.
- Allows digital document upload.
- Employee’s expense tracking and management.
- Allows creating and tracking detailed reports.
- Automate and optimize purchasing workflows.
Pricing
Like Rediker, pricing is not revealed on their website. However, you can contact them to get pricing details. Pricing may vary depending on the features and customization you need.
What I Like\Dislike
Like
- Offer in-depth accounting plus school management features.
- 24/7 customer support.
Dislike
- The pricing is not transparent.
QuickBooks Online (QBO)
Why We Choose QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online helps schools keep track of expenses and income, generate invoices, and gain real-time insights into financial performance. QuickBooks Online is an affordable software solution. With no additional fees, it is the best choice for financially-constrained schools. Overall, the combination of convenience, affordability, and security makes QuickBooks Online an excellent choice for schools.
QuickBooks Online is the most popular and trusted online accounting software that allows you to view track, and set up your accounting process (such as cash flow, expenses, budgets, and payroll) quickly.
This allows you to spend less time on paperwork and more time running your business. The software is easy to use, so you don’t have to be an accountant to set up your accounting.
Key Features
- Allows you to manage student fees, such as creating and scheduling payments.
- Helps to manage staff payroll like staff salary, deductions, and many more.
- You can do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division calculations and track your bank loans and investments with one button click.
- It has many reports like Profit & Loss reports, Balance sheet reports, and many more that you can use to analyze your school finances.
- Allows you to create customized invoices for your staff and students.
- Manage taxation and all the expenses of the school.
- It has a mobile app that brings flexibility and comfort in managing school accounting.
Pricing
QuickBooks Online comes with three different pricing plans.
QuickBooks Simple Start: It costs you $8 for a month. It has basic features such as tracking income, expenses & vat, sending custom invoices, and more. You and your accountant can only access it.
QuickBooks Essentials: Comes with $13 per month; it includes all the features of previous plans. It also provides additional features, such as managing students, multi-currency, etc., for three users and your accountant.
QuickBooks Plus: It costs $18 per month. It includes additional features such as recurring transactions, managing budgets, and most things to grow your school.
What I Like/Dislike
Like
- The software is mobile-friendly and can be used from almost any device and location.
- QuickBooks has various reports and options to customize the software to meet your needs and preferences.
- Beginners without experience can easily manage to account as it provides video tutorials, webinars, and forums to support them with accounting.
Dislike
- It lacks personalized customer support. Overall, customer support is okay and would have been better.
- Some users are complaining about the file size problem and limitations on several users.
Get 50% off for the first three months along with 30 days free trial.
Try QuickBooks
Sage Intacct
Why We Choose Sage Intacct
The software is designed specifically for companies in the education industry, allowing you to access the correct information quickly and easily. Sage Intacct’s automated processes and reporting tools eliminate the need for manual data entry, allowing you to focus on more critical activities. In addition, Sage Intacct provides advanced security features to help protect your school’s financial data.
Sage Intacct is a popular accounting and financial management software program best suited for any business. With this accounting software program, you can create, manage, and track your school finances.
Famous brands and companies like Grubhub, Workiva, Halstatt, etc., trust Sage Intacct. It has an excellent rating of 8.6 out of 10 on Trustpilot.
You can try Sage Intacct for 30 Days for free and test whether it is best for your school or not.
Key Features
- Streamline the account payable and receivable process for automatic payment process.
- It has a proven cash management system to manage the cash flow of your school.
- It has a time tracking feature to ensure accurate working hours reporting.
- Manage student and staff billing to save most of your time.
- Allows you to customize dashboards according to your school’s needs.
- Provide real-time financial reporting to track your school’s performance.
- Other notable features include project accounting, time management, payroll, staffing & recruiting, etc.
Pricing
Sage Intacct has not mentioned its pricing plans on its website.
But you can always contact a licensed Intacct provider to find a price that works for your budget.
It is important to note that Intacct’s pricing depends on your company’s size and the number of users.
What I Like\Dislike
Like
- What I like most about Sage Intacct is that It provides customizable screens, allowing you to tailor the software to your school’s needs.
- It has robust reports and tools, making it easy for you to stay informed about your operations.
- It has an extremely easy and straightforward dashboard. I mean, you can set up your accounting process in a few clicks.
Dislike
- I wish it had enough training and support programs to demonstrate all its functions that can save you time and effort.
- Sometimes, it shows errors while importing and exporting data.
Try Sage Intacct
Zoho Books
Why We Choose Zoho Books
Features such as automated invoicing and payments, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting make this accounting solution an invaluable tool for any school. Additionally, the software comes with mobile apps that allow you to track and manage school finances from anywhere. Lastly, Zoho Books offers excellent customer service. The team is always available to answer questions or provide assistance with any issues you may have.
Zoho Books is one of the best cloud accounting software for bookkeeping, payroll, and invoicing. It is a web-based software that can be accessed from anywhere worldwide and set up within minutes.
Zoho Books offers integration with apps such as PayPal, G-Suite, Forte, Uber, and many more to customize and expand your accounting needs.
With Zoho Books, you can pretty much manage the accounting of your school at an affordable cost with its simple and easy dashboard.
Key Features
- Allows you to create and schedule more than 50 reports, such as profit/loss statements, tax reports, and many more.
- Manage all student and staff details from one place.
- Create invoices of income and expenses quickly.
- Track and remind payments of accounts payable and receivable.
- It enables you to connect your bank with software to reconcile transactions.
- It allows you to set up recurring bills and payments, automate repetitive tasks and streamline online payments via Stripe and PayPal.
Pricing
Zoho Books offers six pricing plans.
Zoho Books Free: It offers 14 days free trial. This plan includes all essential features such as reporting, invoicing, expense & mileage tracking, automatic payments, and many more. It allows one user and one accountant with 1000 manageable invoices per annum.
Zoho Books Standard: It costs you $10 a month with all the features included in the free plan. Plus, it allows you to invite up to 3 users and manage 5000 invoices per annum. It also has additional features such as bulk updates, recurring expenses, billing, etc.
Zoho Books Professional: It costs $20 a month and comes with additional features such as recurring journals, currency adjustments, vendor credits, etc. It allows you to invite up to 5 users and provide voice support.
Zoho Books Premium: Price jumps to $30 with additional features such as custom domains, budgeting, workflows (up to 200), etc., for up to 10 users.
Zoho Books Elite: It costs $100 a month. It includes additional robust features such as cash flow forecasting reports and advanced inventory control.
Zoho Books Ultimate: It costs $200 per month. It includes additional features like analyzing financial metrics in real-time, customized reports & dashboards, and more.
What I Like/Dislike
Like
- Its straightforward drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to create invoices, purchase orders, and track expenses.
- It offers a free plan with which you can see a product demo.
Dislike
- One of the critical things I dislike about Zoho Books is it only allows a maximum of 15 users.
Try Zoho Books For Free
Xero
Why We Choose Xero
Along with other features, Xero allows you to easily collaborate with other staff members and review financial data from one central platform. It’s secure, cost-effective, user-friendly, and provides the tools you need to manage finances efficiently. Plus, Xero’s 24/7 customer service helps when you need it.
Xero is an Online accounting software emphasizing “small business productivity.” In other words, this is an app designed for accounting professionals and small-to-medium-sized businesses like schools, contractors, etc.
It’s easy to use, flexible, secure and integrates well with other platforms. You can get signed up and set up in minutes with little hassle. This software is compatible with mobile and web platforms, making it easy to access your accounts anywhere and anytime.
And Xero’s cloud-based security technology makes it easy to access and maintain your school’s finances online.
Key Features
- It allows you to track and pay your school bills. This means it manages accounts payable, giving you the remainder of the payment.
- Its integration with the payroll app helps to track the payroll of staff.
- You can create, track and send online invoices from a desktop or mobile app.
- Provide in-depth analytics of your cash flow and check your school’s health.
- It has a robust account dashboard to track student billing, expenses, bank balances, and many more.
- Provide online file storage to keep student records, invoices, and other essential documents.
- Gives you accurate real-time reporting to track your school’s finances.
- Other notable features include bank connection, bank reconciliation, online payments, fixed assets management, taxation, and more.
Pricing
Xero offers three pricing plans.
Xero Starter: It costs you $22 per month. It comes with basic features such as sending up to 20 invoices, capturing bills & receipts, reconciling bank transactions, and more. This plan is the best fit for new and small schools.
Xero Standard: It costs $35 per month. It includes additional features such as entering unlimited bills, no limitation on invoicing, and more.
Xero Premium: It costs $47 per month. It includes additional features such as using multiple currencies, tracking projects, and more.
Xero comes with a 30-day free trial which gives you the flexibility to test this software.
What I Like About Xero
Like
- All the plans allow unlimited users, which are the most important plus point.
- It enables automated billing and allows you to capture receipts.
Dislike
- It is expensive compared to other software.
- It has limitations on bills and invoices on starter plans.
Try Xero
Our Top Picks
Here’s the summary of our top picks:
- Rediker is the best overall accounting software for schools.
- Freshbooks is best for invoicing.
- Edsembli is best for school management features.
- Quickbooks is the best cheap accounting software.
- Sage Intacct is best for advanced features and expandability.
- Zoho Books is best for a user-friendly dashboard and ease of use.
- Xero is best for better accessibility.
What is an Accounting Software?
Accounting software is computer software designed to help businesses and organizations manage their finances. Accounting software tracks your financial activities, like cash flow and expenses, so you can monitor your financial health.
How to choose the Best Accounting Software for Schools?
The first thing you’ll want to do is assess your current needs with the help of an accountant. The accountant will be able to help you prioritize your needs and determine which features you’ll need to get the job done.
Next, you’ll want to research various accounting software programs to find one that fits your needs. There are many accounting software programs to choose from, so you’ll want to find one that best fits your needs and budget.
You can look for certain features and compare them to your current situation.
For example, you can look for a program that allows you to track student progress and break down your finances into different categories.
Why Do Schools Need Accounting Software?
Schools need accounting software because to track and report on students’ performance. By using accounting software, schools can easily monitor inflows and outflows of money, create financial reports, and prepare for audits. It can also help schools stay organized and save time, allowing them to focus on other important tasks.
Whether this is for a department or the entire institution, accounting software makes it simple to track and audit expenses.
Conclusion
Choosing the right accounting software for your school is an essential decision. There are many factors to consider when selecting the best accounting software for your school that can help you track finances, generate reports, and other important tasks.
We have highlighted the top eight accounting software for schools in 2023, so you can decide what is best for you.
Take the time to evaluate your school’s needs and select a product that will help your school run more efficiently and effectively.
