Looking for accounting software for retail? Read on.

5 Best Accounting Platforms for Retail Businesses

The best accounting software for retail is QuickBooks, offering integration with the widest range of ecommerce and POS platforms out of all the accounting programs we’ve tested.

In our evaluation, QuickBooks demonstrated the strongest core accounting performance, featuring automated reconciliation, customizable analytics dashboards, and cash flow projections.

However, depending on your business priorities, there are other options out there. Small businesses on a budget might want to think about FreeAgent, for instance, which offers a great single-tier plan.

But it’s a crowded market, so we’re summing up five of the best accounting software for retail options and how they can help retail businesses keep tabs on their finances.

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Best Accounting Software for Retail

While there are many accounting software platforms out there, these are the platforms we consider to be the best accounting software for retail accounting.

Our top three contenders are QuickBooks, Xero and Zoho Books, all of which are great accounting software options in general, but definitely shine in a retail context, as their inventory management, robust ecommerce integrations, and competitive pricing make them an enticing prospect for any retail-heavy business.

1. QuickBooks – Best overall
2. Xero – Best for brick-and-mortar stores
3. Zoho Books – Best for core accounting
4. FreeAgent – Best for pricing
5. FreshBooks – Best for accounting beginners

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		Starting price	Free trial	Key features
BEST OVERALL	BEST FOR BRICK AND MORTAR STORES	BEST FOR CORE ACCOUNTING	BEST PRICING	BEST FOR ACCOUNTING NOVICES
QuickBooks	Xero	Zoho Books	FreeAgent	FreshBooks
$20/month $10/month for first 3 months	$27/month $5.40/month for the first 3 months	Free	$27/month Currently discounted to $13.50/month for first 6 months	$23/month $4.60/month for the first 4 months
30 days	30 days	14 days	30 days	30 days
Extensive analytics template customization Automatic alerts for mismatched balances Built in cash flow projection tools	Over 1,000 third party integrations Useful client portal for self-service needs Robust fixed asset tracking functionality	Extensive data import/export features Time tracking tools with billable hours conversion Highly effective transaction documentation	Simple, low cost pricing options for businesses Built-in tax forecasting tools Helpful cash flow alerts for surpluses/shortfalls	Intuitive, easy to use interface Time-tracking features with invoice compatibility 24/7 customer support options

1. QuickBooks: Best overall

• Price from: $20 per month (currently discounted to $10 per month for the first three months)
• Free trial: 30 days
• Company overview: Developed by Intuit, QuickBooks provides cloud accounting, inventory management, and multi-channel sales reporting for small-to-medium retail businesses.

QuickBooks leads overall for retail businesses by combining comprehensive inventory management, automatic balance alerts, and native integration with major ecommerce and POS systems.

QuickBooks

An advanced platform that provides financial insights and customization options

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In Short

• Pros

  • Extensive analytics template customization
  • Automatic alerts for mismatched balances
  • Built-in cash flow projection tools

• Cons

  • Steep learning curve for advanced functionality
  • Limited customer support resources for self-help
  • No time tracking features

Pricing

• Solopreneur: $20/month
• Simple Start: $38/month
• Essentials: $85/month
• Plus: $140/month
• Advanced: $340/month
• 50% off for first 3 months on all plans

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What’s more, QuickBooks offers some great POS and ecommerce integrations, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and more, making it easy to connect your sales channels with your accounting software and keep your financial data up to date.

Owing to its array of customizable analytics tools, QuickBooks is a strong option for businesses that need in-depth financial insights. Users can get cash flow projections and build reporting templates from scratch, which is a useful way of displaying your information in a way that makes sense for your business.

QuickBooks Online offers a library of integrations, so users can connect with useful third-party tools, including some great retail options. Source: Tech.co testing

How much does QuickBooks cost?

QuickBooks has five tiers, which start at $20 per month for its Solopreneur plan. Its other tiers include:

• Simple Start: $38 per month
• Essentials: $85 per month
• Plus: $140 per month
• Advanced: $340 per month

There’s also currently a promotional offer, so new customers can get 50% off all plans for the first three months.

The Solopreneur tier ($20/month) is designed for freelancers, offering essentials like income and expense tracking, invoicing, receipt uploads, reports, tax estimates, and mileage tracking. The Simple Start plan ($38/month) adds sales tax tracking, contractor management and estimates, while Essentials ($85/month) increases access to three users and adds features like time tracking, recurring billing, and multi-currency expenses.

For growing businesses, the Plus plan ($140/month) supports five users and includes financial planning and inventory tracking, making it a strong option for retailers. At the top end, the Advanced plan ($340/month) adds enterprise-focused features like workflow automation, training, and support for up to 25 users.

My experience with QuickBooks

In terms of usability, I found QuickBooks to be well-laid out, with logical site-mapping and some intuitive workflows.

For instance, you can issue payment reminders directly from within the overdue section, and it’s easy to convert estimates into invoices. It might sound straightforward, but this is not unanimous across the accounting space. Xero, for example, has a lot to recommend it in terms of functionality, but really falls short in terms of the user experience.

I also appreciated the lengths that QuickBooks goes to lighten the load on the user. Pre-populated fields and previews can be viewed to streamline common tasks, while automation is built right into its bookkeeping functionality. The dashboard, meanwhile, is bright, engaging, and uncluttered, giving users a quick at-a-glance rundown of all their pertinent accounting information.

The QuickBooks dashboard, in all its glory. Source: Tech.co testing

2. Xero: Best for brick-and-mortar stores

• Price from: $27 per month (currently discounted to $5.40 for the first three months)
• Free trial: 30 days
• Company overview: A cloud-based accounting platform founded in New Zealand with over 5 million customers globally across 180 countries.

Xero is the top choice for brick-and-mortar stores, offering a robust feature set and core accounting functions available on all of its plans. It has also advanced billing features, making it particularly well-suited to larger businesses with high turnover.

Xero

In Short

• Pros

  • Over 1,000 third-party integrations available
  • Useful client portal for clients to access financial information
  • Robust fixed asset tracking functionality with depreciation values

• Cons

  • Steep learning curve for advanced features like workflows
  • Outdated, poorly designed interface with difficult navigation
  • Must give one-month notice before cancellation

Pricing

• Early: $27/month
• Growing: $59/month
• Established: $97/month
• 90% off all plans for the first 6 months with Tech.co deal

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Impressively, Xero offers over 1,000 third-party integrations, making it a dream proposition for growing businesses that are likely to need to scale up their operations at short notice. This includes a number of different CRM integrations, which will be perfect for larger retail businesses with repeat customers.

In terms of ecommerce and POS programs, however, Xero can’t compete with QuickBooks, which offers a greater selection of apps that will delight retail store owners. Still, it has an intuitive invoice builder, easy-to-use time tracking, and payment processing available on all plans, making it a strong choice for those who want simplicity and essential accounting features over extensive retail integrations.

When I tried Xero, I found creating invoices with the platform really straightforward. Source: Tech.co user testing

How much does Xero cost?

Xero’s pricing starts at $27 per month for its Early plan, which gives you online invoice payments, bank transaction reconciliation, a 30-day cash flow forecast, and more.

Meanwhile, its Growing plan costs $59 per month and offers everything in Early, plus automated bill entry and bill tracking, customizable performance dashboards, tailored financial health scorecards, and a 60-day cash flow forecast.

Finally, the Established plan is $97 per month – providing more advanced features like KPI and ratio analysis, multi-currency capabilities, project time/cost tracking, employee expenses and mileage claims, and international online bill payments.

The company is also currently running a promotional offer, so new customers can get 80% off any plan for the first three months.

My experience with Xero

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the experience of using Xero. I spent some time testing the platform and found myself getting highly frustrated at some of its more convoluted workflows.

I wanted to test out importing bills into Xero. But when I sat down to experiment, I found myself running into an infuriating technical issue. I tried to upload my bill multiple times, only to be rejected every time. To make matters worse, it wasn’t clear to me why my attempts had been unsuccessful.

The whole thing just looks very archaic as well. When compared with the likes of QuickBooks and Zoho Books, which both place a big emphasis on the “enjoyment factor,” Xero is miles off.

While the Xero reporting dashboard lays out all your key business information, it isn’t much to look at. Source: Tech.co testing

3. Zoho Books: Best for core accounting

• Price from: $15 per month (free plan also available)
• Free trial: 14 days
• Company overview: A cloud-based accounting solution, standing out as a feature-rich alternative to platforms like QuickBooks and Xero.

Zoho Books is the best platform for core accounting features. It nails all the basics, including recurring invoices, multi-currency transactions, automatic tax calculations, and account syncing with no limit on bank accounts.

Zoho Books

In Short

• Pros

  • Extensive data import/export features built in
  • Time tracking tools with billable hours conversion for invoicing
  • Highly effective transaction documentation

• Cons

  • No customer support outside business hours (no weekends)
  • Limited third-party integrations outside of Zoho
  • Shorter free trial than most other accounting platforms

Pricing

• Free: $0/month
• Standard: $15/month
• Professional: $40/month
• Premium: $60/month
• Elite: $120/month
• Ultimate: $240/month

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While its inventory feature is restricted to the Professional tier ($40 per month) – unlike QuickBooks, it compensates for this by providing a wide range of features to justify the investment, such as advanced inventory management, purchase orders, sales orders, multi-currency transactions, and price lists.

It also has some neat reporting features, including cash flow statements and balance sheets, as well as the ability to set up automatic alerts for surpluses and shortfalls. This is great for long-term budget planning and will be appreciated by businesses that plan as far ahead as possible.

Zoho Books made it easy to get insightful data through its reports system. Source: Tech.co testing

How much does Zoho Books cost?

Zoho Books costs $0 per month for its free plan. For its paid plans, they are as follows:

• Standard: $15 per month, billed annually (or $20/month if billed monthly)
• Professional: $40 per month, billed annually (or $50/month if billed monthly)
• Premium: $60 per month, billed annually (or $70/month if billed monthly)
• Elite: $120 per month, billed annually ($150/month if billed monthly)
• Ultimate: $240 per month, billed annually ($275/month if billed monthly)

The last two plans are geared towards larger enterprises.

As the only provider in this list to offer a free plan, Zoho Books certainly deserves recognition. However, it’s only really suitable for solopreneurs or micro businesses, so unless you run a small, boutique store, you’ll want to upgrade.

My experience with Zoho Books

I was full of praise for Zoho Books’ user experience. In fact, it received the highest rating for “usability” out of all the platforms tested (4.4/5). This is because of its “intuitive design and modern interface,” according to our researchers.

I particularly liked its well-signposted sidebar and dropdown menus, which make it a easy to navigate through the platform. What’s more, the dashboard, which is tailored towards small businesses, offers key at-a-glance overviews of cash flow and payments.

The home dashboard from Zoho Books provided us with lots of valuable data to keep us informed. Source: Tech.co testing

4. FreeAgent: Best for pricing

• Price from: $27 per month (currently discounted to $13.50 per month for the first six months)
• Free trial: 30 days
• Company overview: A UK-based accounting platform designed to simplify business admin and tax compliance without the need for complex financial expertise.

FreeAgent is a good choice for pricing, offering sales tax reporting and multi-currency invoicing for just $27 per month. It also comes with unlimited users at no extra cost.

FreeAgent

In Short

• Pros

  • Simple, low cost pricing options for businesses
  • Built-in tax forecasting tools for future financial planning
  • Helpful cash flow alerts for surpluses and shortfalls

• Cons

  • Overly complex and unhelpful support options
  • Difficult to navigate for basic feature usage
  • Distracting call-to-action buttons everywhere

Pricing

• Billed monthly: $27/month
• Billed annually: $270/year
• 30-day free trial

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FreeAgent’s core features include the ability to set up custom, multi-state US sales tax and calculate appropriate sales taxes on invoices automatically. It also integrates with payment providers like Stripe, PayPal and GoCardless, so customers can pay directly online via credit card.

Additionally, its Smart Capture Unlimited add-on offers a tool that can automatically extract important information (such as the date and amount) from receipts saved in your FreeAgent account. This tool is available for just an extra $6 per month, so it’s a modest addition to your monthly outgoings if you want to use the tool.

The FreeAgent dashboard provided us with a snapshot of your business’s financial situation. Source: Tech.co testing

How much does FreeAgent cost?

FreeAgent costs just $27 per month if billed monthly, or $135 per year if billed annually.

FreeAgent’s transparent pricing is what earns its place on the list. It’s also currently running a promotional offer, so new customers can get 50% off plans for the first six months – putting the price down to $13.50 per month.

My experience with FreeAgent

FreeAgent lacks some retail-centric reports and has no form of official EPOS integration – despite sitting within the same price range as brands that do. It’s hard to argue in favor of FreeAgent when better options exist.

However, it does have some really good features. During the course of my research, I was impressed with FreeAgent’s “beginner-friendly” layout and interface, which made it easy to perform some tasks for the first time.

Added to this, I found its easy-to-customize invoice templates, tax reminders, and end-of-year reports to be neat features that could potentially streamline your business’s everyday operations.

FreeAgent’s invoicing tool includes a built-in timeline feature, which was easy to use and contributed to an overall shallow learning curve for the team. Similarly, the time tracking feature was clearly laid out and made it simple to record new timeslips. This functionality is particularly valuable for businesses that work on a billable basis, as you can accurately keep track of what your employees are owed.

FreeAgent offers time tracking features that I found easy to use directly in the platform. Source: Tech.co testing

5. FreshBooks: Best for Accounting Beginners

• Price from: $23 per month
• Free trial: 30 days
• Company overview: An accounting and invoicing software that prioritizes client-facing workflows like estimating, time tracking, project profitability, and rapid billing.

FreshBooks is ideal for complete beginners in accounting because it avoids jargon and focuses on day-to-day business actions rather than complex financial administration. For example, terms like “debits”, “credits” or “chart of accounts” are replaced with intuitive actions like “Send an Invoice”, “Log Expense” and “Start Timer”.

FreshBooks

Try FreshBooks

In Short

• Pros

  • Intuitive, easy-to-use interface for beginners
  • Time tracking features with invoice compatibility
  • 24/7 customer support options for platform help
  • Automated reminders are included on all plans

• Cons

  • Limited functionality in mobile app
  • No forecasting or budgeting features for future analysis
  • Few custom reporting options
  • Lower-tier plans restrict the number of active clients you can bill

Pricing

• Lite: $23/month
• Plus: $43/month
• Premium: $70/month
• 90% off all plans for the first 3 months

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Try FreshBooks

FreshBooks is also designed around service-based retail businesses – such as salons and equipment repair shops – offering hybrid invoices that let businesses invoice custom labor rates, hourly billable work, flat service fees, and physical retail add-ons (like hair care products, car parts, or print materials) on the same invoice.

But as businesses don’t always need to send formal invoices, FreshBooks also allows you to generate permanent checkout links or QR codes for standard fixed-price services or packaged goods. These links can be embedded on your website, booking page, or social media so clients can pay instantly via credit/debit card and Apple Pay/Google Wallet.

FreshBooks makes managing invoices straightforward. Source: Tech.co user testing

How much does FreshBooks cost?

FreshBooks costs from $23 per month under its Lite plan. This gives you a generous amount of features, including five billable clients, a client account portal, unlimited estimates and invoices, scheduled late fees, deposit acceptance, buy now, pay later (BNPL) with Afterpay and Affirm, and more.

However, if your client base is growing quickly, you can upgrade to the Plus tier for $43 per month, which comes with 50 clients. It also comes with extra features including client retainers, bank reconciliation, and automatic expense receipt data capture.

For unlimited clients, the Premium plan costs $70 per month, and also offers customized email templates and signatures, project profitability and accounts payable. Alternatively, you can get your own custom plan by talking to a FreshBooks consultant.

FreshBooks is also offering a promotion in which you can get the Lite plan for just $4.60/month for the first four months (80% off). The Plus and Premium plans are also discounted to 80% for the first three months – taking the cost down to just $8.60 per month and $14 per month, respectively.

My experience with FreshBooks

FreshBooks’ biggest letdown is its lack of integration with any EPOS systems. This would give it additional appeal to brick-and-mortar stores, as opposed to leaning heavily toward ecommerce businesses.

What’s more, FreshBooks isn’t the best solution for businesses that need forecasting and budgeting tools, as well as custom reporting. In other words, it likely won’t be suitable for larger retail businesses that operate across more than one store.

I also observed some frustrating technical hitches with the platform’s currency settings. Even when they had updated the default currency under “Settings,” it would often revert back to a different currency on quotes and invoices. In fact, this proved a serious blocker when trying to carry out tests.

Retail Accounting Features to Look For

Most accounting software platforms come packed with various useful features, but what should you look out for when choosing accounting software for a retail business?

Here are some particularly handy features that are worth considering in accounting software for retail:

• Inventory management: Helps you keep track of the exact amount of product you have left to sell, letting you avoid unfortunate surprises.
• Receipt scanning: Allows you to scan and catalog any receipts as either income or expenditure. This can save a lot of time, as you won’t have to manually log these numbers.
• Time tracking: If you have several employees, time tracking can help you keep track of how many hours they work, which helps with hourly pay.
• Project profitability tracking: A useful tool that reviews records of product profits and tells you if it’s time to cut a certain project loose.
• Custom reports: Reports are useful if you ever want to show a high-level overview of your business to outsiders, like investors.
• Multi-currency payments: Maybe not crucial for everyone, but if you run an international business, the ability to receive payments in various currencies can be pivotal.

Many of these functions are also key to businesses outside retail: Check out our guide to the best accounting software for restaurants to learn more.

Can you use free accounting software for retail?

While free accounting software is certainly appealing due to the lack of financial investment, it can really only take you so far. The strict limits imposed by free software (or free tiers) might be too tight for a business with even slightly ambitious goals.

Methodology: How We Test

Written By

Duncan Lambden Senior Writer

Duncan (BA in English Textual Studies and Game Design) is an Australian-born senior writer for Tech.Co. His articles focus on website builders, and business software that allows small businesses to improve their efficiency or reach, with an emphasis on digital marketing or accounting.

He has written for Website Builder Expert and MarTech Series, and has been featured in Forbes. In his free time, Duncan loves to deconstruct video games, which means that his loved ones are keenly concerned about the amount of time he spends looking at screens.

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Reviewed By

Emily Clark Taking Payments Editor

As the Taking Payments Editor, Emily specialises in content around POS, merchant accounts, and accounting – helping SMEs understand the tools and services they need to take payments confidently and grow their businesses. She also holds an MSc in Digital Marketing and Analytics, giving her the knowledge and skills to create a diverse range of creative and technical content. With a genuine passion for helping small businesses grow, Emily is all about making complex topics accessible and creating content that can help make a difference.

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