We are a group of intelligent bookkeepers at Countick who work with startups and small businesses. We have helped a lot of new businesses with their bookkeeping needs. Through these conversations, we’ve learned which tools work best for startups needing help with their back-office tools. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the best tools for customer relationship management, payroll, and accounting.
Keep in mind that every new business is different. A great tool for one startup might not be the right fit for another. Still, these tools have worked very well. Learning more about the right tools for your business is a good idea.
the best-recommended accounting tools for new startups:
QuickBooks Online
Price: Prices for freelancers start at $18 per month and go up to $38 per month.
Rating: 4.0/5.
When it comes to accounting software, we recommend QuickBooks Online the most. Our clients use QuickBooks because it has a wide range of accounting tools for businesses of all sizes. It’s standard in the industry and works well with many other tools. Note that our bookkeepers are happy to help you if you have questions about using QuickBooks.
The finest payroll tool for startups is
Gusto
Price: Free for one month. Paid plans start at $6 per person per month for a base of $40 per month.
Rating: 4.3/5.
We like Gusto because it is made for small businesses and new businesses. Gusto can help with payroll, human resources, and health insurance. It also works well with QuickBooks Online. With just a few clicks, you can also give our bookkeepers instant access to your Gusto account.
The best well-known billing tool for new businesses is
Bill.com
Price: After a one-month free trial, the price starts at $45 per user.
Rating: 4.4/5.
Bill.com makes paying bills and sending invoices easier. It updates your accounting software automatically when your business gets paid. This ensures that your bank account and internal records are the same. You can also set up automatic reminders for customers who never pay when you want them to. Their mobile app makes it easy to approve invoices or payments, even on the road.
The best accurate tool for startups to keep track of expenses is
Expensify
Price: After a free trial, it starts at $5 per month.
Rating: 4.3/5.
Keeping track of costs is hard, but Expensify makes it easy. This software for startups gives you access to automatic approval workflows, next-day reimbursements for your team members, and “one-click” receipt scanning. If you need to keep track of your mileage, their SmartScan will do it automatically. You won’t have to read your odometer by hand.
Expensify works well with other tools on this list, like QuickBooks, Gusto, and Bill.com. This is true of all great startup tools.
explore more: annual budgeting guide for startups
The best payment processor for new companies is
Stripe
Price: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful credit card charge OR a custom plan.
Rating: 4.4/5.
Stripe is a giant in the world of payment processing, which means it can offer some of the best services and integrations. Most people will be happy with their standard prices, but you can also put together your features and get a quote based on that.
They are a reliable processing source, and the billions of transactions that go through them help them provide business insights and AI for monitoring fraud. Stripe is very useful for people who sell things online. It integrates AI in accounting and finance for additional security and accuracy.
The Best corporate card platform for new startups:
Brex
Price: After the first five users, it costs $12 per person per month.
Rating: 4.8/5.
There are no fees for foreign transactions or annual fees, and the card is made for new businesses. Brex brags that its spending limits are ten to twenty times higher than other corporate cards for startups. Signing up for the card also does not affect the credit score of the founders of a new business.
Like many other credit cards, it protects you from fraud and can be used anywhere in the world. Brex lets you text your receipts to link them to your spending records automatically. It also works with several accounting programs, such as QuickBooks Online, Xero, NetSuite, and Expensify. You can also check accounting services for startups packages at Countick. It has many affordable options that suits your business model.
Make sure your business account is set up and has money before you sign up for the card. If any assistance is needed for Brex installation, Countick startup business consultant can guide you in no time.
The best supportive corporate bank account for new businesses
Silicon Valley Bank
Price: The first three years are free (using the StartUp feature set).
Rating: 4/5
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is the bank we most often suggest to our startup clients because it was made with startups in mind. It has a fee structure that is easy on the wallet and comes with less common perks like sweep accounts (these accounts allow you to set a desired threshold and then automatically invest anything over that amount).
The bigger your business, the more options you have for automating payments, getting tools for mobile apps, and stopping fraud. You can talk to our experts if you want to know more about which banks are best for new businesses at countick.com
The best CRM tool for startups is
Salesforce
Price: Prices start at $25 per month for up to 10 users.
Rating: 4.2/5.
Salesforce CRM has powerful built-in tools that help any startup keep track of prospects, clients, and customers organized and efficiently. It may not be easy, but you can change much about it.
Salesforce’s enterprise social network and collaboration tool, Chatter, is one of its most popular features. It makes it easy for employees to talk to each other and share files, knowledge, and data through one dashboard.
Chatter helps keep essential assets and information in one place where everyone using the service can access them.
The Best tool for startups collaboration is
Google Workspace
Price: Plans start at $6/user/month.
Rating: 4.5/5.
Google Workspace, which used to be called GSuite, is hard not to like. Google has the easiest way for people to work together on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Employees can do their work from anywhere with an internet connection, and the feature automatically saves their work is a lifesaver. If you use it, you’ll get all the good things about Gmail, but everyone in your company will have a professional email address.
Also, the toolkit works well for growing companies and can be used with almost every other productivity or collaboration tool. Your employees won’t have to spend as much time on simple tasks like emailing different versions of the same document back and forth. Instead, they can coordinate, edit, and make resources for your business without problems.
The Best costs nothing Analytics Tool for Startups is
Google Analytics
Price: Call for prices for Enterprise.
Rating: 4.6/5.
Millions of websites and startups use Google Analytics (GA). It has a powerful dashboard and reporting interface that keeps track of many data points and gives you a better idea of how many people visit your website. It’s one of the few free tools that every growing business should have.
This information can help your new business improve its website and give you new ideas about how people found you so that you can give your users a better experience.
GA also works well with Google Ads, so you can use it to improve your paid advertising campaigns and find new keywords that could bring you more traffic and business.
The best and easiest tool for new blog building is
WordPress
Price: nothing.
Rating: 4.3/5.
WordPress is free software that lets you start from scratch when building your blog or even your whole website. You won’t have to pay anything to use WordPress, but you might have to pay for accessories from small businesses that are part of the WordPress ecosystem. There are a lot of templates and plugins out there, so if you’re not tech-savvy and prefer to do everything yourself, you’ll have to pay for them and for someone to set them up for you.
Most of the tools you use for your website, from analytics to optimization, will work well with WordPress.
The best expert marketing tool for new startups.
Marketo
Price: For pricing, give them a call.
Rating: 4.1/5.
Marketo has a set of tools that are meant to help automate marketing. It lets you manage and improve mobile ads, digital campaigns, customer data and insights, and email marketing campaigns from one dashboard. Even though the platform doesn’t come with graphic design tools, an add-on gives you millions of images and templates for landing pages, sales funnels, ads, and more.
Marketo helps you get the most out of your digital marketing campaigns and gives you a powerful interface for reporting to determine which marketing strategy is giving you the best return on investment (ROI).
explore more: accounting for startups and small businesses: a quick crash course
The best tool for startups to communicate is
Slack
Price: Standard accounts can use it for free. Paid plans begin at $7.25 per user per month.
Rating: 4.5/5.
Slack is one of the most well-known ways to talk to people. It’s a good way for any team to talk to each other, but sales teams increasingly use it to handle deals with specific clients. Slack is also one of the best sales tools for startups. You can also choose from many tools to connect it to Salesforce and other CRMs. Using Slack channels to plan sales activities is a great way to help the whole team win.
Which tools for a new startup are right for you?
It can take effort to figure out what tools your startup needs. But if you look at your startup’s needs and problems in a planned way, you’ll be able to choose the right tool for the job. The above list will help you do that job better.
Disclosure
We do business with a lot of the service providers listed above. Our main goal is to help companies set up great systems that work well for them. We wouldn’t recommend the above tools if we didn’t think these providers were good; still selecting the best for your startup is up to you.
