Top 7 Open Source Accounting & Bookkeeping Software For Small Business in 2024

When you own a small business, cutting costs wherever possible can be a necessity, when it comes to keeping your company afloat. Part of that means finding free computer programs to help your business operate at maximum effectiveness. This is where something like open source accounting software can really help you. Software to help you manage your finances is often extremely expensive, and often overpriced. You could end up paying into the hundreds, or thousands for programs that really aren’t worth that massive expense. But in most cases, you can find open source accounting software that will do the same thing, at little to no cost from you.

The main thing, will be considering exactly what you need from your open source accounting software, before searching. This will enable you to determine the factors that are most important to you, so that you can eliminate programs that won’t get the job done, and focus on ones that will. One of the most important things will be security. You want to read reviews to ensure nobody has had any security troubles using the program. The problem with open source accounting software is that it’s developed by people you’ve probably never heard of. That doesn’t always inspire the most trust, so ensure that the program is safe before installing and using.

Another thing to consider, is what the program does exactly. In most cases you’ll want your open source accounting software to be able to track payroll, debts, profits, and practically anything else involving your money. This allows you to keep a comprehensive record book of all your business transactions, so that you have the necessary information come tax time. Not having the necessary information available can make doing your taxes properly, difficult to impossible. But what’s more, it could lead to you being audited from not keeping your information correctly, and that’s something no small business needs.

Finally, you’ll want to choose only reputable open source Accounting & Bookkeeping Software, because they will feature more community support. When it comes to freeware, or open source programs, there isn’t usually a dedicated support team to help you with all of your problems. In this case, you’ll want a program with a large user community. This way there should be forums available for you to find all the information you need, should you encounter a problem. Otherwise you could end up with open source accounting software that just doesn’t get the job done, and that is much too difficult to use.

So what are the benefits of open source accounting software (of course these can apply to lots of open source software):

There are no software license costs either initial or annual
You are not locked into to any company paying expensive ongoing licenses with often no way of getting your data out when required
Generally, there are no restrictions on how you use the software (e.g. where you install the software, how many times you install it and how many users you have using it)
Choice – many open source business packages including accounts software offer web based solutions and allow users to have hosted versions but unlike proprietary competitors you can also have a local install, have the software hosted locally or by a hosting partner of your choice.
Open source software is more secure, OK this debate will run and run but when it comes to bugs all software has bugs it is just that Open Source software is more honest about it, indeed the community of users are encouraged to find bugs and even to fix it. Open source code being open allows many eyeballs to look at it so it has the potential to have many people making recommendations and submitting fixes
For whatever reason hackers tend to go after proprietary software
Open source software is very customisable – the code is open and anyone with the skills can customise it or it integrate with other software.
No fear of illegal sofware licenses and prosecution.

AKAUNTING

Online, open source and free accounting software built with modern technologies. Track your income and expenses with ease.

Free Accounting
Online Accounting
Open Source Accounting
Customer Management
Easy Invoicing
Deposits & Transfers
Vendor Management
Billable Expenses
Various Payments
Tax Rates
Bank Accounts
Multi-Currency
Multi-Company
Powerful Reporting
Client Portal
Recur Everything
Customer Summary
And More.

GNUCASH

GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Double-Entry Accounting
Stock/Bond/Mutual Fund Accounts
Small-Business Accounting
Reports, Graphs
QIF/OFX/HBCI Import, Transaction Matching
Scheduled Transactions
Financial Calculations

ERPNEXT

ERPNext’s open source accounting software simplifies the entire accounting process. Bookkeeping, invoicing & reconciliations – all available free and open source.

Real-Time View Of Your Accounting Books
Chart Of Accounts
Journals And Payments
Billing And Pricing
Multi-Currency Accounting
Auto-Invoicing
Banking
On-The-Fly Customizations
Multilingual Open Source Accounting Software

LEDGERSMB

The LedgerSMB project aims to prevent small and mid-size businesses from getting locked-in by their accounting software vendor by providing free and open source accounting software.