Finding an affordable yet full-featured accounting software can be a real challenge for small businesses and nonprofits.
But Akaunting offers a fresh take on open source accounting with its free core plan packed withinvoicing, reporting, and more...
And in this review we'll explore Akaunting's key features, implementation guidance, pricing, and how it stacks up to alternatives like Wave, GnuCash, and ERPNext.
Introduction to Akaunting
Akaunting is an open-source accounting software designed for small businesses and freelancers. Launched in 2015 by a team of developers led by Cihan Erkan, Akaunting aimed to provide an easy-to-use yet powerful accounting solution for small teams without the high costs of paid software.
Overview of Akaunting
Akaunting offers a complete set of accounting features including invoicing, expense tracking, financial reports, bank account reconciliations, and more. As an open-source platform, Akaunting is free to download and use with the option to pay for additional support services. The software is web-based, allowing for access from any device through a modern web browser.
Founding of Akaunting
Akaunting was founded in 2015 by Cihan Erkan, a developer and entrepreneur based in London. After struggling to find affordable accounting software for his small business, Erkan set out to build an open-source alternative that could provide robust accounting capabilities without the typical high price tag. He assembled a small team of developers and launched Akaunting later that year.
Key Features
Some of the notable features in Akaunting include:
- Invoicing - Create professional invoices, track payments, and automate reminders
- Expense Tracking - Log business expenses and link receipts for better reporting
- Bank Account Reconciliations - Connect bank feeds to simplify reconciliation
- Financial Reports - Customizable profit and loss statements and balance sheets
- Multi-language Support - Available in over 15 languages
- Open API - Integrates with other business applications
With a simple yet powerful set of accounting tools, Akaunting aims to help small business owners and solopreneurs better understand and manage their finances.
Core Accounting Capabilities
Invoicing
Akaunting provides robust invoicing capabilities to help businesses get paid faster. You can create professional invoices with custom templates, automatic numbering, multiple currencies, and tax rates. Recurring invoices can be scheduled to automatically generate on a custom basis.
Online payments are supported to allow instant invoice settlement. Customers can easily view and pay invoices directly through the portal. Payment reminders and late fees help ensure invoices are paid on time.
Expense Tracking
Employees and managers can submit expense claims through the system with attachments. Approval workflows streamline processing with automatic notifications.
Expenses can be tracked against projects or departments for accurate reporting. Corporate credit card transactions can also be imported to consolidate all company spends.
Financial Reports
Akaunting generates real-time financial statements such as profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow reports, and more. Reports can be filtered by date range or customized with select accounts.
Dashboards provide quick insights into key metrics like profits, revenues, expenditures, account balances, and ratios. Scheduled reports can be automatically emailed to stakeholders.
Bank Account Reconciliations
Transactions from online bank feeds can be automatically matched against recorded transactions in Akaunting. Any discrepancies are clearly highlighted for easy reconciliation.
Unmatched transactions can be quickly reviewed and assigned to the appropriate accounts. This eliminates manual reconciliation efforts and ensures accounting records match the bank.
Case Studies of Akaunting Users
Online Coaching Business
Sarah runs an online business offering health and fitness coaching to clients around the world. As her business grew, managing client payments and tracking expenses became difficult with basic spreadsheets. Sarah switched to Akaunting to automate invoicing, accept online payments, and categorize transactions.
Since using Akaunting, Sarah has:
- Reduced time spent on bookkeeping by 5 hours per week
- Gained insights into her revenue streams with visual reports
- Saved money on accounting fees with the free software
By streamlining her finances in Akaunting, Sarah can devote more time to serving clients and expanding her virtual coaching services globally.
Ecommerce Store
James owns an online store selling handmade crafts and artwork. As orders increased, James struggled with accounting in spreadsheets and wanted an integrated solution to manage the business finances. He switched from QuickBooks to Akaunting for the following key reasons:
- Akaunting is free and open-source, saving significantly on software costs
- It fully manages orders, payments, inventory, expenses, and taxes in one cloud-based platform
- The mobile app allows James to view reports and invoices on-the-go
Since adopting Akaunting, James has reduced his bookkeeping costs by $200 per month. The time savings also allow him to list more products in his store and ship orders faster.
Nonprofit Organization
Help for All is a small nonprofit organization focused on hunger relief efforts in their local community. As a volunteer-run group with limited resources, they needed an affordable and easy-to-use solution to track donations and expenses. Help for All uses Akaunting to:
- Send customized thank you receipts to donors automatically
- Categorize expenses for food purchases, supplies, and overhead
- Provide financial transparency through generated reports
By managing their finances in Akaunting, Help for All can devote more of their budget directly to food assistance programs instead of administrative costs. The intuitive platform also allows volunteers to easily record transactions without accounting expertise.
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Implementation Guidance
Getting started with Akaunting can be quick and straightforward if you follow some key steps during initial setup and configuration. Here is practical guidance to make implementation smooth and effective.
Signup and Onboarding
Signing up for Akaunting is simple and only takes a few minutes. Just provide your name, email address, and create a password on their website to create your free account. No credit card is required.
Once signed in, walk through the step-by-step onboarding wizard to configure core settings like your business name, currency, date format, and more. This ensures Akaunting is customized to your preferences from the start.
Take time to explore the built-in demo company and sample data during onboarding. This allows you to test drive Akaunting's features and familiarize yourself with the interface before adding your own information.
Data Migration
If you are switching from another accounting system, Akaunting supports easy import of customer, vendor, and historical financial data through CSV files. This enables you to seamlessly transfer information without starting from scratch.
Follow their documentation to ensure CSV files are formatted properly before importing. Review the migrated data for accuracy once available in your Akaunting account. Use Akaunting's tools to reconcile opening balances and make adjustments to ensure completeness.
Integrations
Connecting Akaunting to other business applications can streamline workflows. Akaunting offers 300+ integrations with tools like Stripe, PayPal, Slack, MailChimp, and more through Zapier.
Browse available apps to identify integrations that match your tech stack and business needs. Use Zapier's templates and setup guides to quickly link Akaunting with other platforms.
Test integration functionality when configured and debug any issues that arise. Reach out to Akaunting or Zapier support if you have trouble setting up a desired integration.
With the right planning and preparation, implementing Akaunting does not have to be complex or challenging. Follow these tips to get your account running smoothly.
Pricing Options
Free Core Plan
The Akaunting free core plan provides access to the open-source accounting software with basic features for small businesses and startups. This includes:
- Unlimited invoices and expenses
- Bank account and credit card management
- Basic financial reports
- Multi-language support
- Mobile app access
- Up to 5 user accounts
As open-source software, Akaunting's free core plan enables small teams to access solid accounting tools without any subscription fees. The free version covers essential financial workflows for most small business needs.
Paid Premium Plan
For larger businesses that need advanced functionality, Akaunting offers a paid premium plan with additional features and support.
The paid plan is priced at $39 per month or $399 per year, which unlocks:
- Unlimited user accounts
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Double entry accounting
- Purchase orders
- Quotes and estimates
- Time tracking and invoices
- Priority email support
Upgrading to the premium plan brings extra accounting tools and integration capabilities tailored for growing companies or those with more complex needs. The annual subscription provides the best value.
Alternatives to Akaunting
Akaunting is a capable open source accounting software, but businesses have other options to consider as well. Here are a few top alternatives to evaluate.
Wave Accounting
Wave Accounting is a free cloud-based accounting solution ideal for small businesses and solopreneurs. It provides many of the same core accounting capabilities as Akaunting, including invoicing, expense tracking, financial reporting, and bank connectivity.
Unlike Akaunting, Wave is completely free for basic use with unlimited transactions and users. However, it charges additional fees for payroll, payment processing, and advanced reporting. So Akaunting still wins on overall long term TCO for growing businesses.
GnuCash
For a full-featured desktop accounting software comparable to QuickBooks, GnuCash is a great open source option to consider. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
GnuCash provides double-entry accounting, invoicing, bill payment, expense tracking, financial reporting, and other small business financial management capabilities. It also integrates with banks and supports multi-currency transactions.
The downside is that GnuCash lacks any web or mobile access. So Akaunting provides better flexibility for remote teams and working on the go.
ERPNext
As an open source ERP system, ERPNext goes far beyond accounting to also provide CRM, inventory management, manufacturing, HR, and customization capabilities needed to run an entire business.
So for larger companies needing an integrated business management platform, ERPNext is comparable to proprietary ERPs like SAP or Oracle. It provides a more powerful all-in-one solution than Akaunting's accounting focus.
However, the greater scope comes at the cost of higher complexity in implementation and use. So Akaunting remains a simpler option for basic accounting needs.
Conclusion and Summary
Akaunting provides a fresh take on open source accounting software that is well-suited for most small businesses. With an easy-to-use interface, robust feature set, and free price tag, it eliminates many barriers small companies face when implementing an accounting platform.
Essential Takeaways
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Akaunting delivers full-featured accounting capabilities like invoicing, expense tracking, financial reporting, and more with an intuitive, user-friendly design.
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As an open source platform, Akaunting is available at no cost, making it accessible for small businesses on tight budgets.
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The software is regularly updated by its active developer community, ensuring it continues meeting modern business accounting needs as they evolve.
Final Recommendation
For small businesses seeking an affordable accounting solution to simplify financial operations, Akaunting is absolutely worth considering. Its no-cost access and continuous enhancements provide tremendous ongoing value that can be difficult to achieve with paid platforms. Unless advanced capabilities like payroll, POS integrations, or revenue recognition are required from the outset, Akaunting has all the essentials covered to effectively manage finances. The software deserves strong recommendation as a primary accounting platform for most main street small businesses.
