7 Finest SaaS Accounting Software program Options: In-Depth Information

Estimated learn time: 13 minutes, 14 seconds

SaaS accounting software program can assist you automate:

• Recurring invoicing.
• Fee processing.
• Remitting taxes. 
• Fee reconciliation.
• Fee reminders.
• Subscription administration.
• Reporting.
• Expense monitoring.
• Payroll.
• And extra …

Nonetheless, it’s virtually unattainable to seek out one accounting software program resolution that satisfies all of your wants as a SaaS firm. Even software program that advertises SaaS-specific options isn’t a whole resolution. 

For instance, many accounting software program supply a technique to gather funds, nevertheless, it’s sometimes just for United States funds, not worldwide funds. If you wish to gather worldwide funds, you’ll doubtless want an extra fee resolution that focuses on international fee processing. 

That’s why most SaaS corporations find yourself layering a number of level options on prime of generic accounting software program to construct the answer they want.

On this information, we examine seven accounting software program choices by masking what each can and might’t do. Particularly, we begin with an in-depth look into the options our platform, FastSpring, supplies and the way we tackle transaction and gross sales tax legal responsibility for you. 

Desk of Contents

FastSpring is an end-to-end fee resolution for corporations promoting digital merchandise and software-as-a-service. We provide help to collect and remit oblique tax (e.g., gross sales tax, VAT, GST), stability month-to-month transactions, ship recurring invoices and gather funds, and rather more. To see how we can assist you rapidly develop globally, join a free account or request a demo right this moment. 

FastSpring: Gross sales Tax, Transaction Reconciliation, Fee Processing, and Extra for Software program Corporations

FastSpring supplies options for:

• Gathering and remitting U.S. gross sales tax and worldwide VAT and GST.
• International fee processing.
• Sending invoices and fee reminders.
• Reconciling transactions with achievement.
• Reporting.
• Way more …

However FastSpring does extra than simply present software program for just a few facets of accounting — we’re Service provider of Report (MoR) for SaaS corporations. 

As your MoR, we deal with all of those duties for you. Plus, we tackle transaction legal responsibility and the duty of calculating, gathering, and remitting gross sales tax, VAT, and GST.

Within the following sections, we dig deeper into how FastSpring helps SaaS corporations develop globally whereas simplifying accounting duties. 

Observe: You will have extra accounting software program for payroll, revenue tax, inner stability sheets, and many others. FastSpring simply integrates with different options (e.g., QuickBooks) through extensions, webhooks, and an API. 

“One of many key components [for switching to FastSpring] was the truth that FastSpring was easing our administrative burden concerning international tax and VAT administration, and the variety of invoices that we would have liked to register.” 
– Ovi Negrean, Co-founder and Chief Government Officer

Absolutely Managed Gross sales Tax, VAT, and GST

SaaS corporations didn’t at all times must pay gross sales tax, VAT, and GST, nevertheless, that’s not the case. An increasing number of international locations are passing legal guidelines that require non-resident SaaS corporations to assemble and remit some type of oblique tax. In case you don’t, you might face heavy fines and/or be banned from transacting in that jurisdiction. 

Most accounting software program will provide help to add gross sales tax (assuming you’ve configured the choices and settings appropriately) to invoices and generate studies for remitting gross sales tax. Nonetheless, accounting software program is usually insufficient for:

• Calculating and amassing VAT or GST. If you wish to transact exterior of the U.S., you’ll be fully by yourself to calculate and remit VAT, GST, and different types of oblique tax. (As we focus on on this article on SaaS tax software program, even most tax software program is insufficient for amassing worldwide oblique tax.)
• Including gross sales tax to purchases in your web site. Some accounting software program will supply a fee portal the place clients can settle invoices. Nonetheless, that is solely separate from any checkout you will have in your web site, which implies you’ll want completely different software program for amassing oblique tax in your web site (which implies additional price and further work).

Plus, you’re in the end held chargeable for all tax legal responsibility. Sustaining tax compliance is commonly extra difficult than merely amassing and remitting the correct quantity (and kind) of oblique tax on the proper occasions. 

For instance:

• International locations resembling Serbia, the UK, Taiwan, and others require digital invoicing (from resident and non-resident corporations alike), which might price corporations $2k-$5k per 12 months. Observe: E-invoicing mandates are growing at an alarming fee — the EU is rolling out common digital invoicing necessities by 2028.
• International locations resembling India, Indonesia, Japan, and others require your account to be “pre-funded” which means you need to predict the quantity of tax you’ll owe and maintain that cash in your account till it’s time to remit the funds (typically as much as three months upfront).
• International locations resembling Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Serbia, and others require native illustration. This implies somebody with a bodily presence (often a lawyer or accountant) in that nation must be chargeable for your tax legal responsibility, which might price wherever from $5k to $15k per 12 months.
• International locations resembling Taiwan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam, and others require you to file an revenue or income tax return when you begin amassing oblique tax, which might add as much as $5-$10k per 12 months. 

That’s why most SaaS corporations find yourself hiring full-time tax accountants and specialists to deal with oblique tax. 

FastSpring simplifies the complete course of and makes it very easy so as to add all types of oblique tax to invoices (and gather it at checkout) by dealing with it for you.

With over 20 years of expertise submitting 1,200+ tax returns annually in 100+ jurisdictions, our workforce ensures the correct quantity (and kind) of oblique tax is collected (we even deal with tax-exempt transactions within the U.S. and 0% reverse fees when relevant). 

Then, our workforce remits these taxes for you and ensures all the required procedures are in place to remain compliant. We have now long-standing relationships with tax specialists globally to remain present on regulation adjustments, enforcement updates (generally particular industries are focused), and traits they’re seeing with different software program corporations.

If a rustic or state approaches you about tax compliance, our workforce will typically give you copy-and-paste responses. 

Quote Administration and Recurring Invoicing

With most accounting software program, you possibly can simply handle B2B subscriptions in your web site, however not B2C transactions — which is why many corporations find yourself with two completely different options. Which means double the price and double the work. 

With FastSpring, you possibly can handle B2B and B2C transactions from one platform.

FastSpring supplies a number of choices for establishing completely different subscription fashions resembling: 

• Mounted, per seat, metered, tiered, and bundled billing.
• Prorated billing to accommodate upgrades and downgrades mid-cycle.
• Computerized or guide renewal.
• Upsells, cross-sells, one-time charges, reductions, and items.
• And rather more …

Then, you may make these merchandise out there in your web site:

Alternatively, you possibly can add the merchandise to quotes and invoices utilizing FastSpring’s Digital Invoicing instrument. With Digital Invoicing, your workforce can create and handle quotes and invoices (e.g., add reductions and tags, set the expiration date, go away notes for the shopper, observe the acquisition course of). 

You can even supply a self-serve portal the place clients can generate their very own quotes or invoices based mostly on gadgets of their cart. 

Worldwide Fee Processing

Most accounting software program will supply easy fee processing for transactions within the U.S., nevertheless, most solely help just a few fee sorts (e.g., Mastercard, Visa, ACH) and hardly any of them present fee processing for worldwide fee strategies or currencies. To simply accept worldwide funds, you’d must combine with and handle extra fee processors. 

FastSpring makes it very easy to just accept tons of most well-liked fee strategies all over the world (through checkout or bill) by:

• Managing a number of fee gateways for you. Every fee gateway has particular international locations, fee strategies, and currencies that they help. For instance, a fee processor might help Amazon Pay in america however they gained’t course of funds from Brazil. With FastSpring, you’ll mechanically have entry to a number of fee gateways specializing in worldwide transactions (and transactions in america).
• Offering forex conversions at checkout and on invoices. You’ll be able to set the worth for every product in every forex or let FastSpring make the conversions for you. You can even let your clients select their most well-liked forex (and language) or let FastSpring select the suitable one based mostly on their location. 

“Having many fee strategies which are at all times related to every completely different area all over the world has helped us obtain important development worldwide.”

– Ovi Negrean, Co-founder and Chief Government Officer

To pay an bill, clients merely click on on the ‘Pay Now’ button on the backside of the bill (as proven under). 

This may take clients to both a popup checkout or an online storefront hosted by FastSpring, relying on what you select. Both one could be very customizable by way of the appear and feel of the checkout. 

Observe: You should utilize this similar checkout in your web site, and also you’ll have the choice to embed the checkout in your webpage, when you favor. Plus, you should utilize FastSpring’s Retailer Builder Library to customise the customer journey main as much as checkout (e.g., cross-sells, upsells).

Lastly, you possibly can configure FastSpring to ship out fee reminders two, 5, seven, fourteen, and twenty-one days after a fee methodology fails. In our expertise, sending out a number of fee reminders is one of the best ways to make sure ongoing fee.  

Simplified Transaction and Achievement Reconciliation

Most accounting software program will provide help to automate the method of constructing certain the funds you obtain match the orders being crammed. Despite the fact that it’s automated, it may be an enormous process to confirm that the automation labored appropriately and to repair any imbalances. 

Plus, worldwide transactions make it extra difficult as a result of you will have funds coming in by way of completely different gateways (and subsequently completely different software program suppliers) and into a number of service provider accounts. 

As MoR, FastSpring simplifies transaction reconciliation by dealing with it for you. We take the entire transactions together with your purchasers and bundle them into one or two lump sum funds which we ship to you a couple of times monthly. 

As an alternative of spending hours balancing tons of or 1000’s of transactions every month, you spend only a few minutes balancing one or two transactions from FastSpring. 

You continue to have full management over your product (i.e., the way it’s bundled, the pricing mannequin, how a lot is bought, the place you wish to promote it, achievement, and many others.).

Detailed Reporting for SaaS KPIs

FastSpring provides a built-in reporting function that can assist you discover the data you have to create frequent accounting studies (e.g., breakeven report or stability sheet). Most studies might be discovered within the Income Overview dashboard or the Subscription Overview dashboard, however you may also create and save customized studies. 

In case you don’t see the precise report you want, you possibly can attain out to our workforce and we’ll provide help to discover (or construct) the required studies.

Any report might be seen in your dashboard or downloaded as a CSV, PNG, or XLSX file. You can even combine our Analytics and Reporting function with third-party software program to tug in or ship out information. 

Easy Flat-Price Pricing

All facets of FastSpring can be found for one flat-rate value based mostly on the quantity of transactions you progress by way of our platform. And, there aren’t any upfront fees — you’ll solely be charged when a transaction takes place. 

“We had been centered on not solely discovering an ecommerce platform that labored but additionally on constructing a relationship and partnership, which I consider is essential. You don’t wish to purchase one thing after which be alone. You want partnership. In the long run, we picked FastSpring as a result of they confirmed us they wished to be a real associate.” 

– Frederic Linfjärd, Digital Business Supervisor at Seize One

FastSpring is extra than simply software program for some facets of accounting — we’re your Service provider of Report. To see how we can assist you rapidly develop globally, join a free account or request a demo right this moment. 

Construct Your Personal SaaS Accounting Resolution

Along with FastSpring, you’ll want software program to handle issues like payroll and revenue tax. Subsequent, we’ll cowl six extra choices that present options for these areas.

6 Different Accounting Software program

1. Maxio (Previously SaaSOptics)

SaaSOptics is without doubt one of the most well-known instruments for monitoring SaaS metrics (e.g., month-to-month recurring income), SaaS income recognition, and SaaS expense monitoring. They not too long ago merged with Chargify (a subscription administration platform) to kind Maxio.

Whereas Maxio has lots to supply SaaS corporations, they don’t tackle transaction or oblique tax legal responsibility for you. Plus, you’ll want extra software program for issues like accepting most well-liked fee strategies all over the world. (They do work with Avatax that can assist you gather gross sales tax and VAT, however the performance is restricted). 

Maxio provides options for: 

• Recurring billing.
• Income administration.
• Expense amortization.
• Integrating with fee gateways.
• Analytics, reporting, and forecasting.

2. Oracle NetSuite

Oracle NetSuite is a enterprise administration suite that gives options for accounting, B2B and B2C ecommerce, ERP, CRM, and rather more. They serve many various industries together with software program corporations. In addition they help all sizes of companies from SaaS startups to enterprises. 

Observe: NetSuite supplies single-seat entry to streamline communication between your organization and your CPA.

NetSuite consists of options for: 

• Monetary reporting.
• Income recognition.
• Automated normal ledger spreadsheets.
• Tax reporting.
• Income administration.
• Undertaking planning and budgeting.

3. QuickBooks

QuickBooks by Intuit is a well-liked accounting resolution for small to midsize companies and startups. They provide an on-premise and a cloud-based model (known as Quickbooks On-line). 

QuickBooks wasn’t particularly designed for SaaS corporations. As an alternative, QuickBooks recommends SaaS corporations combine with SaaSOptics to get the metrics and functionalities they want.

QuickBooks provides:

• Payroll administration instruments.
• Accounts receivable and payable instruments.
• Time monitoring instruments.
• Instruments for maximizing tax deductions.
• Digital bookkeepers that may provide help to with easy accounting duties.
• Fee processing on-line or in particular person for some debit and bank cards, ACH, Apple Pay, PayPal and Venmo.
• Actual-time enterprise studies (e.g., revenue and loss statements, money circulate statements)

4. FreshBooks

FreshBooks provides accounting instruments to freelancers and firms with a number of staff or contractors. They serve a number of industries together with know-how, building, accounting and extra. They cost you based mostly on what number of billing purchasers you may have that month beginning with 5 billing purchasers as much as limitless purchasers. 

Freshbooks provides: 

• Fee processing for MasterCard, Visa, Apple Pay, Uncover and ACH.
• Undertaking estimations and administration.
• Mileage and time monitoring.
• Payroll.
• Bookkeeping.
• Invoicing.
• Reporting.

5. Stripe

Stripe is a fee processor that may be built-in together with your accounting software program options that can assist you settle for and handle funds. Though their platform focuses on getting buyer funds into your checking account, they do supply just a few accounting-related providers resembling income recognition. 

Stripe serves many various industries, together with SaaS, at many various levels of development, together with early-stage startups. Nonetheless, on this article on Stripe options, we focus on why Stripe will not be your best option for SaaS corporations. Briefly, corporations that select Stripe as their fee platform typically find yourself with a big software program stack to handle. 

Stripe supplies options for: 

• Your web site checkout.
• Gathering gross sales tax at checkout.
• Fraud and threat administration.
• Recurring invoicing and subscriptions.
• Knowledge warehouse administration. 
• In-person funds.

6. Xero

Xero is an accounting system for small companies, accountants, and bookkeepers. Xero is one other software program that doesn’t immediately serve SaaS companies, and as a substitute provides an integration with SaaSOptics. 

Xero’s options embrace:

• Accounts payable and money circulate automation.
• Spend administration and reimbursements.
• A number of checking account integrations.
• On-line invoicing and funds.
• Payroll.
• Undertaking administration.

FastSpring handles worldwide oblique tax, fee processing, digital invoicing, subscription administration, dunning, and rather more for you. Join a free account or request a demo right this moment.