While accounting is definitely not the most enthralling subject, every small business owner has to grapple with it. But the good news is that there are now a host of web services, also called cloud-based accounting software, that help make this task much easier and faster.

Gone are the days of having to purchase expensive packaged software, troubleshoot technical issues and keep up to date. Contrastingly, many cloud-based accounting software options allow for free trials, and then services can be purchased for low monthly fees. These online accounting applications vary widely so that you can choose the right tool to fit your business. For example, options exist for multi-currency support, collaboration features, reporting tools and the ability to connect with other business apps online.

New mobile devices and scanner technology make it easy to capture and digitize invoices and store them in the cloud. To be of any use, the next important step is to integrate that content into business processes and web-based workflows. We recently introduced the Prizm Capture invoice processing solution to our list of cloud-based services to eliminate the manual entry of invoices into online accounting software. Prizm Capture further processes digitized information with optical character recognition (OCR) and posts invoice data to QuickBooks - all with the click of a button.

And of course, if you are not a QuickBooks user, there are numerous other cloud-based accounting services for the small business. For instance, independent law firms advocate for Freshbooks' simple timekeeping for managing billable hours. Here are five of the top systems on the marketplace today, in no specific order. (Starting prices indicated)

1. Quickbooks - http://quickbooks.intuit.com - $12.95 per month
2. Xero - http://www.xero.com - $19 per month
3. Freshbooks - http://www.freshbooks.com/ - $19.95 per month
4. OutRight - http://www.outright.com/- $9.99 per month
5. Wave - https://www.waveapps.com/ - Free

No matter which cloud-based accounting software you select, it will make your daily bookkeeping tasks easier, and enable you to scale with your growing company.

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