How do you determine the best accounting and payroll software for an early startup business?

Work backwards from what your accountant and bookkeeper recommend and are very familiar with. They are core to your team and need to equally be experts in your accounting systems and be able to efficiently collaborate when required.

Hi Vaibha,

You can check out our two sister sites TopTenReviews and Businessnewsdaily that have both reviewed payroll software. They have buying guides, reviews, and side by side comparisons. Both of our sister sites agree on Intuit for the best payroll service for Small Business.

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7509-best-payroll-services.html
http://www.toptenreviews.com/business/accounting/best-online-payroll-services/

For Very Small Business they recommend OnPay. You can check out the review here.
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7479-best-payroll-service-micro-business.html

Hope that helps.

Vahibhav,

Like alot of people, when I did my bookkeeping company, I spent the money on QB and payroll.

As for free try XERO it's another accounting software, not sure what their setup is. I don't thing there is a "free" software and payroll, Don't get me wrong I'm sure it's out there but just don't know.

There are many accounting and payroll software in market. If you want to confuse to select best software for your business. I recommend to SoftwareSuggest. It is best business software discovery platform. They listed top software for accounting and payroll.
https://www.softwaresuggest.com/us/payroll-software
https://www.softwaresuggest.com/us/accounting-software

We almost always recommend QuickBooks to our clients, but there are several options to choose from. In my experience, the real question is what is the best accounting solution for your particular startup? The answer comes down to a few questions:

What stage is your startup in terms of revenue and transaction complexity?
Do you have external investors?
What kind of reporting and other functionality do you need?
Do you have a grasp of basic accounting concepts?
Do you prefer a cloud-based or desktop option?

The answers to these, and of course your constraints in terms of how much you can afford to spend on a solution as well as how much ongoing support you’d like will help you narrow the options. Here’s a quick overview of the leading accounting software tools.

Check out Wesuggestsoftware.com, for best software reviews, Most of the companies choosing best accounting and payroll software based on customer reviews.

Check out best accounting and payroll software reviews here. http://www.wesuggestsoftware.com/listing-category/accounting-software/