An evaluation made by the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General regarding loans made to poultry farmers and growers concluded most do not meet regulatory and SBA requirements for eligibility.

Poultry Farms Are Not Small Businesses?

In reaching this conclusion, the Office of Inspector General stated in its evaluation (PDF), large chicken companies or integrators exercised comprehensive control of such magnitude over growers as to make them affiliative under SBA regulations.

The control was so pervasive, the report states it overcame virtually all of the grower’s ability to operate their businesses independent of the established integrator mandates. The SBA has also concluded as a result close to $1.8 billion in loans made from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2016 may be ineligible.

As part of its recommendations, the Office of Inspector General has suggested improvement in the SBA’s oversight of the 7(a) Loan Program, which was responsible for doling out the funds. This includes reviewing the loans cited in the evaluation, as well as the current arrangement between integrators and growers to determine their affiliations.

What is an SBA 7(a) Loan?

The SBA 7(a) Loan Guarantee program is designed help small businesses with qualification challenges in their traditional loan applications get funding. The program essentially encourages lenders to make loans to this segment by guarantying the loan against default.

The key point to remember here is, 7(a) was designed for small businesses and an organization has to be defined as such by the SBA to qualify.

So What is a Small Business?

According to the SBA and its small business size standards, there are a lot of exceptions as to what is technically classified as a small business. The two widely used standards suggest a small business must have 500 employees or less in the case of most manufacturing and mining industries and $7.5 million in average annual receipts for many nonmanufacturing industries.  But the number for both employees and annual receipts can go as high as 1,500 and $38.5 million respectively.

The Takeaway

If you are seeking a loan from the SBA and its 7(a) program, make sure you are not affiliated with a corporation that has overwhelming control of your small business.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Government Says Most Poultry Farms Are NOT Small Businesses, Can’t Get SBA Loans” was first published on Small Business Trends

Creativity is like a muscle. It must be stretched, challenged, and occasionally pushed past its comfort zone.

Now it’s time to stretch your creative muscles again.

Ways to Boost Creativity

Here are nine ways you can dramatically improve your creativity.

1. Learn Through Collaboration

Curiosity will lead you to creativity.

Andrew Ng, formerly of Google and now of Baidu, is one who doesn’t believe innovation is due to unpredictable flashes of genius. Rather, he said you can become more creative and innovative systematically.

“In my own life, I found that whenever I wasn’t sure what to do next, I would go and learn a lot, read a lot, talk to experts. I don’t know how the human brain works but it’s almost magical: when you read enough or talk to enough experts, when you have enough inputs, new ideas start appearing.”

Indeed, collaborating with and learning from others may be just what you need to give your creativity a boost.

2. Do Something You Love

Stuck for ideas? Not sure what to do? Your life needs some balance to ensure your creativity doesn’t suffer.

In a letter to his son, Albert Einstein provided a great bit of fatherly insight when addressing his son’s interest in playing the piano that is applicable to losing yourself in the creative process: do something that pleases you.

“That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes,” Einstein wrote. “I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal.”

Love and creativity are intertwined. A hobby, such as playing an instrument, running, or collecting memorabilia, can help you relax and fight stress while giving your creativity a boost.

3. Find Inspiration From Other Industries

Your next idea won’t come from copying what a competitor has already done. So look for innovation in different industries and niches.

Research what businesses are dominating. Why?

What businesses are you most loyal to? Why?

How can you transfer what worked for businesses outside your industry to your own market? Maybe you can improve on these ideas.

Taking inspiration from other industries is a great way to boost your own creativity.

4. Unplug (Or Just Do Nothing)

As Alan Cohen once wrote, “There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.”

Sometimes your best ideas will come when you’re not wracking your brain trying to come up with the next great idea.

It could be while you’re sleeping. A good night of rest will help you be more productive and creative.

It could be while your mind wanders in the shower that you get a great idea.

Maybe your next innovative idea will come while you’re driving, exercising, hiking, shopping, sitting on an airplane, or watching the sunset.

If your creativity is lacking, unplug. Relax. And let your brain do its magic.

5. Walk

The average person sits between 7 and 15 hours every day.

Crazy, right?

That’s terrible for your health and your mood, which means it can be terrible for your creativity.

Stanford research has indicated that walking improves creative thinking. In a follow-up study, HBR found that people who take part in walking meetings are more creative and engaged.

Priceline Group CEO Darren Huston, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Western Union Co. CEO Hikmet Ersek, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and scores of other business leaders and entrepreneurs regularly have walking meetings.

While walking during work won’t solve our national sitting crisis, it’s a step in the right direction.

6. Set the Right Mood

A lack of ideas or being unable to solve a problem can be extremely frustrating.

Unless you value complete silence, music can be the thing to give your mood, and your creativity, a boost.

Steve Jobs used music to change his moods and keep himself creative.

It could work for you, too.

7. Use the Six Thinking Hats Technique

Sometimes you just need to start over. Forget everything and begin anew with a blank slate – break it down using six different colored “thinking hats”.

Using this process could help you look at things in a different way. It gives you the option to look at things in a “just the facts” manner (white hat); where things could go wrong (black hat); and possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas (green hat), for example.

By looking at a problem from several unique perspectives may be just what you need to find a solution.

8. Ask For Advice or Feedback

Sometimes you’re too close to a problem to figure out a creative solution all by yourself.

Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness. Ask for help and advice from friends, peers, and people from your personal network that you trust and respect. Every person has a unique skill set, experience, and knowledge.

A fresh outside perspective, or three, or five, may be just what you need.

Even if you don’t use their advice, it may spark some new, creative thinking that will get you where you need to go.

9. Pick a Terrible Idea

Step away from whatever idea you’re stuck on for a few minutes.

What’s the most useless idea you can imagine? Make a list of the worst ideas you can think up.

Now the real challenge to stretch your creativity: what are the best features of these terrible idea

Perhaps looking at these terrible ideas will spark something creative that you can transfer over to your excellent idea.

Bonus Ideas to Stimulate Your Creativity

Check out this infographic for some more ways to get your creative juices flowing.

Credit: Shout

Republished by permission. Original here.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Watch Out! These 9 Tips May Boost Your Creativity as an Entrepreneur” was first published on Small Business Trends

Normally at this time of year, individuals and small business owners are solely focused on their 2017 taxes. But with the passage of the sweeping tax overhaul, this is no ordinary year. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act takes affect starting with your 2018 return and beyond, but the changes are so significant, it’s important to understand the bill and how it will impact your small business.

Tax Planning for 2018

For small businesses, the two biggest changes are the lowering of the tax rate for C Corporations and the 20 percent tax deduction for pass-through entities. Here’s a high level look at both.

20% Deduction for Pass-through Income

The law creates a brand new tax deduction for owners of pass-through entities like sole proprietors, members of LLCs, partners in partnerships and shareholders in S Corporations. For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026, these individuals can generally deduct 20% of their qualified business income (QBI) from a pass-through entity. Sounds good, right? And it is — but there are a few details to know:

• Haven’t heard of QBI before? You’ll become familiar with it now. QBI is the net amount of income, gain, deduction, and loss with respect to the trade or business. It does not include investment-related income/loss (i.e. capital gain/loss, dividend income or interest income).
• Service business limitations: The law places limitations on virtually every occupation that provides a personal service (the two notable exceptions are engineering and architecture). If your pass-through business is a service business, like consulting or a medical practice, there are limitations. If your taxable income exceeds a threshold of $157,500 for single filers and $315,000 for joint filers, the deduction is reduced; if income exceeds $207,500 for single files and $415,000 for joint filers, there’s no deduction. So, if your income level is below these thresholds, there are no worries. But if you’re in a highly-paid field, you may not qualify for the deduction. The details and applications are still murky, so keep an eye out for further guidance from the IRS (and talk to your tax advisor!).
• W2 wage limitation: When your taxable income is greater than the thresholds above, your 20 percent deduction is limited to the W-2 limitation. This is the greater of 50 percent of your allocable share of the company’s W-2 wages, or 25 percent of your share of the firms W-2 wages, plus 2.5 percent of your share of the company’s unadjusted basis of all qualified property.

In short, this new pass-through deduction can be a really nice tax break for those individuals who qualify. If you are not sure how it applies to your business, don’t worry — you’re probably not alone. But, it’s a good time to talk to a tax law professional or tax advisor. And lastly, unlike the corporate tax cut (which is permanent), the pass-through deduction is set to phase out in 2025 (unless Congress extends it).

Corporation Tax Rate Cuts

One of the other big tenets of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the major reduction in the C Corporation tax rate… it was slashed from 35 percent to 21 percent. If you’re structured as a pass-through entity right now, you might be wondering if you’d be better off structured as a C Corp to take advantage of that 21% rate.

But keep in mind that double taxation is still a factor. Simply put, double taxation occurs when income earned by the corporation is taxed at the business level; then, when the corporation distributes income to shareholders, the shareholders are taxed on that dividend. For owners who also expect to take some profit out as distributions, this can mean you’re essentially being taxed twice (first at the corporate level, then at the individual level).

If you are looking to re-invest profits back into the business, then a C Corporation might be the optimal business structure – this has always been the conventional guidance but it’s even more true now with the tax rate at 21 percent. If you are looking to take a bulk of the profits out of the business and put them in your own pocket, a pass-through entity is still most likely better (but you may want to speak with a tax advisor).

The bottom line is this is a good time to think about the tax changes and your business structure. Keep an eye out for when the IRS releases additional guidance. If needed, speak with a tax advisor about your specific situation. And lastly, one of the key reasons to form an LLC or Corporation has always been the ability to minimize the personal liability of business owners from things that happen in the business. This still holds true. The most important reason to form a business entity isn’t necessarily to save a bit on taxes; instead it’s to protect your personal assets for years to come.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Cracking the Code on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: How It Will Impact Your Business” was first published on Small Business Trends

Kradle announces a new software package designed to help small and medium-sized businesses in any industry manage their operations.

The company touts its product as a self-managed software allowing businesses to achieve their competitive potential. Kradle gives small businesses resource planning software capabilities at an inexpensive price, at a low learning curve and with fast implementation.

As small businesses increase their digital presence with eCommerce, social media and 24/7 global availability, effectively managing their operations is getting more complicated. What Kradle aims to do is provide enterprise resource planning tool sets so small companies can obtain the same insights as large enterprises to compete and succeed.

The CEO of Kradle, Michael Haddon, said the software levels the playing field for small to medium-sized businesses. In a press release, he adds, “They now have access to tools which allow them to become more efficient, productive, and profitable.” This includes eliminating repetitive, manual tasks to focus on added value activities for the business.

The Kradle Software Platform

Kradle has been designed so users can build and manage data models unique to their specific needs and industry with tailored workflows. Once they have a system in place, they can analyze operational performance to gain the business insight needed to be more productive and grow.

With Kradle, you are not restricted to the number of workflow templates and pre-configured layouts which limit your flexibility and growth potential. You are in charge of the configurations you put in place with unlimited variations.  And all of the data you generate is stored and maintained in the company’s secure database hosted within Microsoft Azure cloud.

The Kradle modules include a database builder and manager, a business process manager, and business analytics. With these modules, you can build your own model, expose weaknesses and exploit strengths, as well as building, allocating, and managing custom tasks.

Pricing

Kradle starts its free 30-day trial without hidden fees or credit card numbers. If you want to move to the pay services, there are three tiers which are priced based on annual billing. Silver is for small businesses and it will run you $49 per month per user. Gold is for medium or growing businesses at $79 per month per user, and Platinum will address large and complex businesses for $119 per month per user.

Image: Kradle

This article, “Kradle Launches Small Business Management Software” was first published on Small Business Trends

Etsy (NASDAQ: ETSY) has been one of the most popular online platforms for handmade and vintage sellers for more than a decade. With nearly 2 million business owners and hobbyists selling their wares, the company is constantly evolving and releasing new tools to support the ecommerce community.

How to Be Successful on Etsy

Small Business Trends recently spoke with Kruti Patel Goyal, who is the General Manager of Seller Services for Etsy about what sellers can do to grow their businesses on the platform and some of the new features that can help them do just that.

Read the Seller Guidelines Carefully

If you’re just getting started on Etsy, the first step that Patel Goyal recommends is doing some reading. Etsy has always offered guides like its Seller Handbook to help business owners make the most of the platform. And those materials are updated constantly so you’ll always have the most recent information.

Patel Goyal said in an email to Small Business Trends, “Etsy’s Seller Handbook is also an essential resource for sellers just getting started. For instance, our Ultimate Guides to product photography and marketing cover everything you need to know to present your products professionally and get the word out about your new business.”

Schedule Special Promotions

As with any type of ecommerce business, a special sale or discount code can help you incentivize new purchases. And Etsy offers a feature that lets you choose which type of promotion to offer so you can schedule it for your shop.

Patel Goyal explains, “Special offers can help sellers capture the attention of shoppers and create a loyal following. With Etsy’s tools, sellers can schedule and run “percentage off” or “free shipping” sales that encourage shoppers to add more to their carts.”

Automatically Share Updates on Social Media

From there, you can set your shop to automatically send out updates about promotions to your social media channels. This lets you save time while still getting the word out about your special offers.

Patel Goyal says, “Sellers can also share these offers across their social networks through our tools. Last year, we launched a new social media tool that makes it easy for sellers to share their listings, sales and promotions, and celebrate shop milestones across social media directly from within their Etsy Shop Manager and the Sell on Etsy app. We know Etsy sellers are busy and the Sell on Etsy app can help them stay on top of their businesses, from answering questions from buyers to paying bills on the go.”

Come Up with a Unique Photo Style

Photography is an essential part of any successful Etsy shop. The site’s seller guides and handbook offer some basic tips for brushing up on your photography skills. But you also have to come up with a specific and recognizable style that works for your specific product line. You might consider adding some props that show scale and fit with your branding. Or you could come up with a unique background that makes your images stand out without distracting from the actual product.

Optimize Your Shop for SEO

SEO is also a big part of growing an Etsy shop, since most shoppers use the search or browse functions on the site to find product options. The exact SEO guidelines might change periodically. But you can’t go wrong by sticking to the basic concepts of mentioning the most relevant keywords as early and as often as possible within your titles, description, tags, and images.

Join an Etsy Team

To continue learning and growing along with the Etsy community, Patel Goyal also recommends connecting with other sellers. The platform’s Teams feature gives you an easy and fun way to do just that.

Patel Goyal says, “There are so many ways to find support on Etsy, particularly for sellers who are just getting started. For example, Etsy Teams are self-organized groups of sellers who share tips, run local events, and organize grassroots campaigns. Joining an Etsy Team gives sellers instant access to a community of other entrepreneurs who’ve been in their shoes.”

Try Promoted Listings

For a quick sales boost, Etsy also offers paid advertising options where you can boost the visibility of a particular product or products. This can be a worthwhile exercise at least to see what type of sales increase it leads to and use it to supplement your other marketing efforts as you grow your shop.

Get into Google Shopping

Outside of Etsy, there are also some worthwhile marketing and advertising tools you can make use of. For instance, you can set your products to show up in Google Shopping searches. Then you can pay for Google ads to boost the visibility of those products when people enter relevant search terms into Google.

Sell Your Products at Local Craft Fairs and Events

Etsy sellers can also boost sales by expanding where they sell products. If you sell items at craft fairs or retail shops, you can even use a Square card reader to easily connect those in-person purchases to your shop.

Patel Goyal says, “We also know that many Etsy sellers want to connect with buyers in person, and build their brands on their own websites as they grow. We recently launched a partnership with Square so that Etsy shop owners have a solution for accepting payments wherever they’re selling.”

Launch Your Own Dedicated Website

Once you’ve grown your shop on Etsy, you might also consider adding your own website so you can personalize and control more of the shopping experience. In fact, Etsy also offers a tool for helping shop owners in this area.

Patel Goyal adds, “For sellers ready to launch their own website, we offer Pattern, our suite of website building tools. Sellers can choose from beautiful, customizable templates and sync their Etsy inventory so they can grow their brand while managing all their orders in the same place.”

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “10 Ways to Grow Your Small Business on Etsy” was first published on Small Business Trends

The Microsoft Pix camera app for your iPhone now has a business-friendly feature.

The app lets you scan the business card of a contact you’ve just met. It takes the information on that business card and then updates your Contact data for that person. The app also scours LinkedIn to find the new business contact’s profile so the two of you can connect.

The Microsoft Pix app is billed as an intelligent phone app for iPhones. Currently, the app is only available on the Apple App Store and can only be run on iOS devices.

A Look at the Microsoft Pix App

Here’s how it works:

You receive a new business card from one of your contacts. Rather than just filing it away in your back pocket or wallet, take out your iPhone and snap a photo of it.

The Pix app will recognize you’re shooting a business card and this is where some of the new business friendly functionalities begin to kick in. Just tap the button appearing when you point Pix at the card. The app will begin to build a contact profile for you using the name, address, phone numbers and URLs it sees printed there.  Or the Pix app will allow you to update one of your existing contact profiles using the new information.

The smart features built into Pix will even allow you to send an email, place a call or visit the website of the contact you’ve just met — right from within the app. You can also visit the contact’s LinkedIn profile, which Pix finds when you first scan the business card.

If you’re in a rush and don’t have time to work on the contact profile right away, Pix will save a photo of the card or cards you’ve shot and you can do all of this updating at a later time.

Image: Microsoft

This article, “Microsoft iOS Camera App Turns Business Cards into Contacts” was first published on Small Business Trends

While most companies are preparing their taxes for 2017, owners need to also now understand how small business taxes are changing in 2018. While many of the details of the “Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017” still need to be interpreted, here is where to start:

Changes in Small Business Taxes In 2018

1. Owners May Get Lower Taxes

Most small businesses are structured as a “pass-through” entities like “S” and “LLC” corporations. That means, like in the past, any income generated from these companies will be taxed at the owner’s individual tax rates. The new small business tax law promotes pass-through corporations since these rates will be lower than ones for individual income tax payers. Owners of these types of companies will now be able to deduct 20 percent off their earnings before paying taxes on it. Please note that under the new tax law, companies that provide “professional services” may not qualify for the entire pass-through deduction.

2. Beware of the Limits

The law includes limits on who can take the deduction, but they may not begin until $157,500 in taxable income for singles and $315,000 for couples. Most “non-business” pass-through owners in the U.S. make less than that and would qualify for the full 20 percent deduction.

3. Check Restructuring to a “C” Corporation

Under the new tax law, these types of corporations now will have the lowest tax rate at 21 percent.  Many small business owners are now considering converting to a “C” legal structure to take advantage of the lower rate. This is an easy process in most states and can be done in less than a week. But, depending on the company’s profit, there may be a double taxation element at the corporate and personal level, so consult with an accountant before doing anything.

4. The Individual Tax Rate

For those making between $200,000 and about $425,000, taxes may actually go up from 35 percent to 37 percent, so some small business owners could face an increase. As Forbes states, the math is very complicated and now includes a calculation called “qualified business income (QBI)”.

5. Personal Assets

The value of an owner’s home may go down especially in states with higher state income and property taxes as a result of the new limit to tax deductibility on these fees. Moody projects real estate prices to fall 5 percent to 10 percent especially in the geographies where the new tax law makes it less advantageous to own a home. This is important since a home is typically the small business owner’s largest asset and may hurt their ability to borrow capital for their company. While mass migrations of customers to lower taxed states is not expected, this may be another way local retail businesses may be hurt yet again in 2018.

Of course, talk to your tax advisor before following any of this advice since I am a business owner, not an accountant! They are quickly becoming the most popular people at any gathering!

Republished by permission. Original here.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Don’t Waste Time! 5 Facts about Small Business Taxes You Need to Know Now” was first published on Small Business Trends

The new release of QuickBooks Accountant Apps Program from Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) gives accountants a platform for making top-rated apps available for their customers.

QuickBooks Accountant Apps Program

Accountants can now provision, purchase and manage apps recommended by accounting professionals and fully compatible with the QuickBooks suite of products. According to Intuit, the goal of this program is to make accountants more effective by allowing them to recommend curated solutions for their clients.

In many instances, these clients are small businesses doing their own accounting using applications such as QuickBooks. But these clients also need other apps and finding the right ones can be an exhaustive process.

In a press release, Rich Preece, leader of Intuit’s Accountant Segment, Small Business and Self Employed Group,  explained how the program simplifies app selection, connection and management directly within QuickBooks Online Accountant.

“But more importantly, this new program helps accounting professionals be more of a trusted advisor to their small business clients because they are able to recommend and easily implement apps that help their clients be more successful,” Preece added.

The Program

The apps in the program are selected to meet the needs of accounting professionals around the world, so they will vary by region and country. The first apps available in the program are Circulus, Expensify, Float, Method: CRM, Excel Transaction Importer, ServiceM8, SOS Inventory and Tsheets by QuickBooks.  These apps will all be accessible in QuickBooks Online Accountant from the Apps Tab.

When accountants are ready to make a purchase on behalf of their clients, they will get preferred pricing. Intuit says accountants will receive one bill for all the apps they provided throughout the month with an itemized report.

Benefit to Accountants

Many CPA firms are small operations working with minimum staff or none at all. And for these firms, managing clients and figuring out which app they are using or make recommendations takes a lot of time and effort. The QuickBooks Accountant Apps Program makes these two data sets available quickly and easily all within a Quickbooks.

Quickbooks users in the US, UK, Canada and Australia can expect the program to roll out sometime in March.

Image: Intuit

This article, “QuickBooks Accountant Apps Provision Small Businesses and their Financial Advisors” was first published on Small Business Trends

With more than 800 million users worldwide, Instagram is one of the most popular social networking sites. It is also a leading platform for small business promotion.

But what makes Instagram popular among small business owners?

Reasons to Use Instagram for Business

Digital company NoHatDigital has compiled a list of the top 10 reasons small businesses should adopt Instagram. Here are some of them.

Put a Face to Your Brand

Instagram is a visual platform to help you form a more personal connection with customers. You can share pictures and videos of your team and happy customers to engage your audience.

A visual feed can reflect your brand’s uniqueness and differentiate your business.

Boost Your Sales

You can use Instagram to update your followers about sales and special promotions. For example, you may run a promotional ad campaign to create awareness and drive more traffic to your website.

If you are launching a new product or service, use Instagram to provide a sneak peek into your latest offerings.

Tell Interesting Stories

Instagram is the perfect place to be creative when marketing your brand. Instagram Stories, in particular, is designed to boost audience engagement.

You can use Instagram Stories to offer discounts and run flash sale. You can also run contests to keep your customers interested.

Build Connections with Like-Minded People

Social media is all about networking. And Instagram is a great place to find like-minded people who share similar interests. You can expand your social network and collaborate with a brand or influencer to reach more people.

Stay Up to Date with Consumer Trends

Another reason why you should be on Instagram is because it can help you make the most of new trends. You can use it to promote causes or simply generate interest by posting holiday-specific content.

Check out the infographic below for more reasons to join Instagram.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “10 Reasons to Use Instagram to Promote Your Small Business (INFOGRAPHIC)” was first published on Small Business Trends

With a million and one things to do each day, accounting doesn’t always take priority on small business owners to do lists. Taking advantage of accounting software can help small businesses manage invoices and payrolls with greater ease and efficiency. And without any costs to fork out, accounting software is even better when it’s free!

Free Accounting Software for Small Business

Take a look at the following ten best free accounting software options for small businesses.

ZipBooks

ZipBooks provides powerful and simple-to-use accounting software designed to help small businesses move to the next level. ZipBooks’ free starter option includes unlimited invoicing, unlimited vendors and customers, unlimited bookkeeping, the ability to connect and manage one bank account, and a business health and invoice quality score.

xTuple PostBoks

xTuple PostBooks is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which means that in addition to accounting, small businesses can track sales, integrate inventory and take advantage of a customer management system. The free license program does not provide any specialized support.

SlickPie

SlickPie provide basic expense management for start-ups and small businesses. This easy-to-use expense management software provides everything a small business will need for slick and timely accounting, including straightforward invoicing and detailed reports to help keep their business finances healthy.

Wave

Wave provides completely free accounting that allows small businesses to track expenses, send invoices, get paid and balance their books. Businesses can send professional invoices and track the status of invoices and payments, so they know when to expect money in their bank account. Businesses can also accept credit cards and get paid faster with Wave.

Inv24

Inv24 is a free inventory management and invoicing software, which enables small businesses to automatically organize and invoice their customers. With Inv24, business owners can download PDF versions of invoices or send them by email.

Brightbook

Brightbook is a free online accounting system, designed to help time-strapped and cash-strapped small businesses with no accounting experience run their business easier. Businesses can send professional-looking invoices in any currency, track bills and find out who owes them money in an instant with the easy-to-use Brightbook system.

TurboCash

TurboCash 4 provides free accounting software that is recommended for people earning less than $10 an hour. TurboCash 5 is recommended for small businesses, with cash book, general ledger, stock, debtors, creditors and invoicing features. TurboCash 5 is now available as a Cloud Service. Unlike TurboCash which is free, TurboCash 5 costs $60 a year.

Inveezy

Inveezy is a free invoicing tool for small businesses. Users can customize their invoices with their own logos and use the service to send repeated invoices. Businesses can get paid with PayPal or credit cards with the Inveezy system. Businesses also have the option to send an invoice as a quote as opposed to an actual bill.

GnuCash

GnuCash provides a simple approach to bookkeeping and accounting for small businesses. This free accounting software is available for Android, Linux, Windows, OS X, FreeBSDm GNU and OpenBSD. The software manages invoices, accounts payable and receivable, as well as employee expenses and some payroll features.

CloudBooks

CloudBooks provides businesses with an effective invoicing tool designed to create efficient and timely billing. The CloudBooks’ Free Forever is a free tool for a single client. Businesses can take advantage of CloudBooks’ dedicated team, which can provide an integrated assistance and priority support to meet the needs of their business.

Photo via Shutterstock

This article, “Best 10 Free Accounting Software Packages for Small Business” was first published on Small Business Trends