1-800Accountant Reviews

Online accounting isn’t easy and sometimes it can be overwhelming. With so many menus full of complicated features, it can be challenging for beginners. That’s something that 1-800Accountant avoids by offering a simple yet functional tool that helps small businesses tackle online accounting head-on. Based in New York and established in 1999, 1-800Accountant offers a user-friendly dashboard that is stripped down to the basics, making accounting painless. You can also use the software to do your personal taxes, and the company even guarantees that you’ll get every dollar you’re entitled to. If that wasn’t enough, 1-800Accountant also offers a human touch by providing you with dedicated experts that not only help you along the way but who actually feel like they’re part of your team. With prices starting at $100 a month, 1-800Accountant isn’t the cheapest software on the market, but is it worth the extra cost?

Accounting Features

The first thing you’ll notice about 1-800Accountant is its simplistic dashboard. But that’s not a bad thing – you want your accounting software to be utilitarian rather than full of unnecessary bells and whistles. Everything you need is just a few clicks away and easy to access from the main menu. From the dashboard you can find your financial team and this is what really makes 1-800Accountant stand out. Depending on your subscription, you’ll be able to instant message or schedule an appointment with your dedicated tax advisor, tax accountant, tax analyst, bookkeeping specialist, payroll specialist, or retirement specialist. For small businesses this is ideal, as it saves on the costs of hiring specialists yourself.

The menu has everything you need in easy reach including transactions, banking, invoices, and reports. Like most features of 1-800Accountant, everything is basic and designed for maximum efficiency. However, sometimes this can be detrimental. For example, it’s not possible to set up a recurring invoice as everything has to be done individually.

Surprisingly, one thing that 1-800Accountant really delves deep into is travel expenses. Through the Mileage Tracker menu, you can add trips that employees have taken. This includes setting up the vehicles used (great if you have company cars), locations visited, and reasons for traveling such as commuting, conferences, or site visits.

Invoicing

The invoicing section has all the essential features you need, with the exception of the recurring invoices as we already mentioned. The first thing you need to do is fill out the Products/Services category with the relevant information. This doesn’t work like an inventory page, which means it’s not possible to limit products according to stock level.

The Invoices List section shows you all of your previous invoices, which you can send by email or download as a PDF file. The list can be filtered by paid, unpaid, and overdue invoices making it easier to find a particular one, but a search bar would be a big help in the future. Finally, from the Invoice Dashboard, you’ll see a helpful overview of your invoices with a cash flow chart for extra visualization.

Taxes

Perhaps the most established feature of 1-800Accountant is how it deals with taxes – both business and personal. All you need to do is input your tax information and your dedicated tax accountant will get to work on preparing your return for you. From the tax portal, you can apply for personal and business tax extensions, which will also be filed on your behalf. The Tax Projections section gives you a helpful breakdown of all your taxable income and potential credits so you can know exactly what to expect. Finally, there’s the helpful Tax Suggestions area, where you’ll find all the suggestions that your personal tax advisor has left for you.

Mobile

1-800Accountant allows you to do your accounting on the go with its Android and iOS apps. The good news is that the apps are essentially just mobile-friendly versions of the dashboard. So you can do everything you would do normally without being tied to your desk. Although this is a missed opportunity as well, since the software doesn’t take advantage of your device’s technology like other companies that let you use your phone’s camera to scan receipts.

It’s worth noting that you don’t need to use the mobile app if you don’t want to as the website is optimized for mobile browsers, so you’ll have no problem navigating the menus on any of your devices.

Integrations and Extra Services

Although 1-800Accountant doesn’t offer much in the way of software integrations, there are some noteworthy extra services it provides. If you’re just getting started, 1-800Accountant will give you a certified public accountant to help you set up your business and have it optimized to avoid fines, penalties and ensure it is totally IRS-compliant. You can also use one of 1-800Accountant’s dedicated bookkeepers to take care of all your business’s records and keep your financial affairs in order.

Of course, if you don’t pay your employees on time, they won’t be happy. That’s why 1-800Accountant provides payroll processing for you. Your payroll solution will be tailored to your needs after a consultation with a payroll specialist, ensuring you get exactly what you need for your business.

Pricing

When it comes to the cost, it naturally depends on what you want to get out of the software, but 1-800Accountant isn’t the cheapest option on the market. This is because as well as paying for the software, you’re also paying for the expert advice you’re being given from your team of specialists. Prices for 1-800Accountant start at $100 a month billed annually for the Starter tier, which includes year-round advice and a dedicated accountant.

As the size of your business grows, you’re going to need more support, so 1-800Accountant offers more pricing plans for your expanding company. There’s the Growth package, which is similar to the basic Starter tier but with much more in-depth tax preparation. The next step is the Executive plan for $320 per month, which includes bookkeeping and priority support. For bigger businesses, there’s also the Enterprise option tailored to each customer’s needs.

Payments for 1-800Accountant are made with any of the major credit cards and you can cancel at any time by email. If you do change your mind within the first 30 days of signing up, then any initial costs of service are up to 90% refundable.

Customer Service

With 1-800Accountant, your financial team is your primary point of contact and they’ll be able to help you with the software as well as the nitty-gritty of accounting. But if you do want to get in touch with customer support then you can do so by phone, email, or social media with 1-800Accountant reachable on Facebook and Twitter.

Unfortunately, the 1-800Accountant website doesn’t have a lot of documentation to guide you through the software. There are some video tutorials throughout the dashboard, although they’re few and far between. The website hosts a large FAQ section, but instead of telling you how to work the software it focuses on more general accounting questions. There’s definitely room for improvement in this regard. Indeed, you may sometimes find a link to a ‘Learning Center’ that unhelpfully redirects you to the homepage instead so we can only assume that this has gone AWOL. Having said that, we do recommend checking out the 1-800Accountant blog, which is frequently updated with all the latest accounting news.

Bottom Line

1-800Accountant isn’t for everyone. For small businesses that not only need accounting software but also experts in the field it’s an ideal solution. Why spend money on hiring accountants and tax specialists if you’re given a team of them with your software? But while the software is user-friendly and allows even the most novice user to navigate it seamlessly, it lacks some quality-of-life features. For example, it’s not possible to set up recurring invoices. On top of that, the price may be an issue for some – quite high when compared to its rivals – but that can be justified by the access to your new financial team. Indeed, another way that 1-800Accountant essentially pays for itself is with its in-depth and helpful tax preparation. That means the company’s tax specialists will ensure you get the maximum return and save more money in the long run.

Visit 1-800AccountantFree Dedicated Accountant