The Best Home Accounting and Personal Finance Software 2024

• Transaction Management – You can use FreshBooks to manage every transaction without losing track of expenses. This makes it easy to track your spending and gain better insight into your spending habits.
• Tax Time Reporting – You can be confident with your tax management with FreshBooks. It automatically calculates and deducts tax on your behalf while complying with tax laws and regulations. Being prepared for tax season minimizes the risk of errors, and helps you make informed financial decisions throughout the year.
• Mileage Tracking – FreshBooks allows you to record travel times from the mobile app to claim tax deductions. By accurately documenting your mileage, you can maximize your deductions, lower your taxable income, and ensure you’re fully leveraging available tax benefits.

FreshBooks has three plans that advance in features as the price increases. Here’s a look at its fixed monthly and annual rates:

The Plus plan suits people needing access to advanced finance reporting tools. Its features include invoice automation and reporting tools.

The pricing plans are generally flexible, with opportunities to save costs. FreshBooks lets you add advanced payments for $20 per month instead of including it in the price.

There is no free plan, but it offers discounts for first-time users.

• Bank Reconciliation – Once you integrate your bank accounts into the app, Zoho Books ensures adequate monitoring of your finances. This means that all your accounts and transactions are visible in one place, giving you an overview of income and expenses.
• Deposits and Withdrawal Tracking – Zoho Books’ interactive dashboards help you quickly see expenses incurred, current balance, and interest accrued. This makes it easier to understand spending habits.
• Bills Organization – For any transaction you make outside the app, you can quickly scan or take a photo of your bills and upload them to the app. Ensuring all expenses, both within and outside the app, are captured helps you maintain comprehensive finance management and stay organized with your personal accounting.

With its range of plans, Zoho Books caters to different personal needs. Individuals and families can benefit most from the free and standard plans with their impressive feature sets.

Zoho’s free plan is sufficient to handle most personal finance needs, but it’s only suitable if you make less than $50,000 in revenue per year. Although this is a high threshold, it shouldn’t cause an issue for most people looking for personal finance apps.

Those earning more revenue can choose from its paid plans to access more features. Its Standard plan offers more automation, bulk updates, and customization options, making it a suitable home accounting tool.

• Multi-Currency Payments – Xero helps you convert and record transactions in your account according to the latest exchange rate. This makes it easier to manage your budget, track expenses across different currencies, and maintain a clear picture of your personal finances regardless of where your money is coming from or going.
• Bank Account Reconciliation – Automatically reconcile bulk transactions and review AI suggestions. This saves you time and reduces errors, making it effortless to keep your personal accounts accurate and up-to-date. You can then focus on managing your finances rather than manually tracking every transaction.
• Foreign Reporting – Generate foreign financial reports to understand your business performance comprehensively. This allows you to gain a clear understanding of your personal finances across different countries, helping you make informed decisions and effectively manage your wealth on a global scale.

There’s a choice of three monthly plans on Xero with optional add-ons. Unlike many alternatives, you can’t commit to an annual plan for a discount.

Xero is increasing their prices as of October 27, 2024. The prices below reflect that change.

While Xero’s Early plan offers many features that individuals may need to manage their finances, its Established plan unlocks its full features. With Xero’s highest plan, you can access multiple currencies, bulk transaction reconciliation, advanced analytics, and expense tracking.

Xero’s pricing offers good value for money, especially for individuals who need help with their W-9 and 1099 Management.

• Finance Tracking – You can keep track of everything, such as finances and expenses, tax time, and budget, in one place with QuickBooks. You can also run reports on income and expenses to see whether you are making enough money.
• Expense Categorization – QuickBooks offers categorization that helps you separate personal and professional expenses so you don’t confuse them. This is especially valuable for entrepreneurs or side business owners, as it makes it easier to manage business expenses, ensuring that you can easily track deductions, maintain clear records for tax purposes, and keep your personal finances separate.
• Tax Guidance – With a QuickBooks subscription, you can get one-on-one support from one of QuickBooks certified accountants. Personalized guidance helps you navigate complex tax situations, giving you peace of mind and can even save you money during tax season.

QuickBooks offers three price plans based on different users’ needs. All of them have monthly or annual fixed rates.

The QuickBooks Simple Start plan is suitable for individuals who do not need multiple currency features. It also includes features to manage taxes, automate bookkeeping, expenses and income, and reports.

In addition to being competitively priced, QuickBooks offers discounts and limited-time offers. With an annual commitment, you can receive up to 50% off plans for the first 3 months—one of the most generous markdowns we’ve seen. It also offers a 30-day free trial for its monthly plans.

• Expert Guidance – TurboTax provides a team of qualified and experienced accountants to review your day-to-day spending. This expert insight helps you optimize your budgeting, identify potential savings, and make smarter financial decisions, ensuring your personal finances are always on the right track.
• AI Assistant – If you prefer filing taxes independently, TurboTax AI assistant guides you through tax filing and answers questions. AI accounting support allows you to navigate the tax process while maintaining full control over your personal finances.
• Audit Risk Meter – Analyze your account to look for common audit triggers to avoid scrutiny from the IRS. By proactively identifying and addressing potential red flags, you can minimize the risk of an audit, ensuring a smoother tax filing experience and greater peace of mind for your home accounting.

TurboTax has three plans with a fixed price. You can also receive tax filing support for a one-off sum every year.

TurboTax’s Assisted plan is a good option for home accounting, especially for individuals who want to ensure tax filing accuracy and compliance. This option provides you with on-demand support from tax experts and final review.

If you’re budget-conscious and want to save money, TurboTax can estimate the annual fees for tax support before you commit. They also look for ways to help you save money via tax advantages to maximize your investment in their platform.

• Automatic Transaction Categorization – Link your bank account to Wave, and it will automatically organize your expenses. This streamlines your budgeting process and financial tracking, saving you time and reducing errors by ensuring your expenses are accurately categorized without manual input.
• Flexible User Permissions – Add users to your account and decide whether they’re viewers, editors, or admin—all from the free plan. By customizing user roles, you can easily share access with family members or financial advisors while maintaining control over who can view or edit your financial information, ensuring a secure and collaborative approach to managing your personal finances.
• Unlimited Receipts and Expense Tracking – With Wave’s mobile receipt app, you can quickly scan unlimited receipts and bulk-imports up to 10 receipts at a time. Managing and organizing your receipts becomes effortless, helping you keep track of all your expenses with ease and ensuring that nothing is overlooked when it comes to budgeting or tax deductions. 

There are only two plans on Wave Accounting. However, it has three optional add-ons, giving you more flexibility over the total price.

Wave’s Starter plan is feature-rich and suitable for individuals looking for a free app to manage their cash flow. The Starter plan features include unlimited invoicing, bookkeeping, bills, on-the-go invoicing via the Wave app, and cash flow management.

The receipt capture tool is included in the Pro Plan and can be added to the free plan for $8 per month or $72 per year. Its expert bookkeeping service is available for $149. However, the expert service isn’t needed when it comes to accounting for home use.

• Detailed Finance Report – Monitor your income and revenue with an intuitive reporting dashboard. Based on your finance data, it can forecast your revenue so you can plan out your financial future.
• Integrations – Bonsai integrates seamlessly with other applications you may need, such as Calendly, Zapier, and more. Connecting with these tools enhances your workflow, making it easier to manage appointments, automate tasks, and keep all your personal accounting and home finance needs organized in one place.
• Estimates – With tax estimates, you can see how much you can expect to pay for your quarterly tax estimates. Understanding your tax obligations in advance helps you budget more effectively, avoid surprises, and plan your finances with greater confidence throughout the year.

Bonsai has three plans with a fixed monthly or annual rate. As standard, you get a discount for an annual commitment, but you also get two months free.

Bonsai’s Professional plan is popular because it has advanced features that support workflow automation, unlimited event scheduling, and branding. However, for home accounting use, the Starter plan is a good place to start, as it gives you the basics to manage your personal accounting.

Many of the expense management features are in the optional Bonsai Tax add-on. You can use this feature or invite additional users for $10 more monthly.

• Deferred Payments – Pay over time and set different vendor schedules without affecting your credit score. Managing your cash flow becomes more flexible and stress-free, allowing you to handle larger expenses or spread out payments while maintaining a healthy credit profile.
• Security – Benefit from best-class encryption for all your transfers. Get peace of mind knowing that your financial data is protected against unauthorized access, ensuring your personal and home accounting information remains secure and confidential.
• Utility Bills Management – You can leverage Melio to pay for utilities such as phone, wifi, water, gas, and electric bills — all in the same place. You can also automate your bill payment to avoid late payments that attract fines.

Melio has three plans, including a free forever plan. For October, you can get 15% off their monthly plan and 25% off their annual plan. See the discounted prices below.

Melio’s Go Plan is well-suited for personal finance and home bookkeeping. It’s limited to one user and allows you to manage bill payments, same-day bank transfers, and set up recurring payments.

If you’re a freelancer or a small business owner, the Core plan introduces W-9 and 1099 management and batch scheduling for multiple bills. However, each user comes at an additional cost of $8 per month, billed annually, or $10 per month.

• Savings Calculator – Calculate estimates for various savings such as retirement, college funds, and debt. Effortlessly plan and track your financial goals, allowing you to make informed decisions about your savings strategies and stay on target for future financial milestones.
• Lifetime Planner – Create a roadmap for your retirement fund to learn about possible changes. Developing a comprehensive plan helps you anticipate future financial needs and adjust your savings strategy accordingly, ensuring a more secure and well-prepared retirement.
• Investment Performance Analytics – Assess your financial health and see the possible impact of debts and investments. Gaining insights into your investment performance allows you to make informed decisions and better manage debts, ultimately improving your overall financial stability.

Although Quicken indicates there are three plans, there are actually four tiers. There is no annual package with a discount, but the monthly costs are low, making it an affordable budget software for personal use.

Quicken Simplifi is a good option for managing home accounting and personal finances and has a standalone personal finance app. If you have just started your own business, the Business and Personal plan is solid as it provides features to categorize and separate each function. You also have access to custom tools for rentals.

Quicken has no free forever plan, but its pricing is fair enough for personal and solo business usage.

• User-friendly Interface – Kashoo provides users with a simple and easy-to-navigate interface, allowing users with different levels of accounting knowledge to manage their finances efficiently.
• Expense Chargeback – Monitor and manage your expenses easily. It also automatically adds expense claims to your invoices. This means you can quickly reconcile your spending, streamline your billing process, and maintain accurate financial records.
• Automatic Transaction Categorization – Link Kashoo to your bank accounts to let it categorize all your income and expenses. By simplifying your financial tracking, you can easily monitor your spending patterns and stay organized without manual data entry.

Kashoo offers two price plans. You must commit to an annual plan because Kashoo doesn’t have monthly rates. The prices are reasonably competitive, though, as you get an expert accountant to support you.

Kashoo includes all its features in its plans, so there are no optional add-ons.