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11 Best Invoicing Software In Canada 2024: Streamline Payments

Financial JournalistChristopher Liew, CFA
Christopher Liew is a CFA Charterholder and has held several roles in the finance industry.He’s worked as an investment wholesaler at Sentry and CI Financial, a financial advisor at RBC, and an energy trader at Enmax.He is Alberta-based while he’s in Canada, but spends much of his time working and living in other countries.Christopher speaks English and studied accounting and finance at the University of Alberta.He is one of the founders of Wealth Awesome where he has written articles and created videos for our subscriber base of over 20,000 Canadian investors.

Expertises: finance, investment, stocks, retirement, canada
Best Invoicing Software In Canada
 

Do you want to create a smoother billing and invoicing system for both your suppliers and customers?

If so, then you’re in the right place.

50% of Canadians use eCommerce platforms more often today than they did pre-pandemic, according to Payments Canada. This means that many who would not have previously considered online payments are now open to doing so.

Today, I’ll share some of Canada’s best invoicing software solutions. Whether you operate a small eCommerce store, run a service-based business, or work in B2B sales, you’ll find a solution that fits your needs below.

How Invoicing Software Can Streamline Your Business Accounting

As a small business owner, you’ve undoubtedly discovered that time is money. The more time you can save by automating menial tasks like billing and invoicing, the more time you have to devote to managing and growing your business.

One of the best ways to streamline your business is to create an automation solution for billing and invoicing your clients.

Sure, setting up your online accounting software may take an initial investment of time. Once it’s set up, though, you can dramatically cut down time spent manually sending out invoices, depositing paper cheques, and entering credit card numbers into your card processing system.

Automated billing and invoicing software can also help you improve customer relationships, as these programs make it easier for your customers to pay you.

Invoicing software often comes standard with other useful accounting functionality, such as:

  • Ability to track expenses
  • Revenue reporting
  • Receipt scanning feature
  • Support for recurring payments and subscription billing
  • Customer management features
  • Project management features
  • … and more!

Best Billing And Invoicing Software In Canada: Listed

The programs mentioned below will help speed up your billing and invoicing processes with built-in payment processing, professional billing features, and accounting tools.

1. FreshBooks

FreshBooks Accounting Software

FreshBooks is a Toronto-based fintech company that’s perfect for small and growing businesses. With FreshBooks, business owners can easily create professional invoices, track time and expenses, and manage their finances.

While the program can be used for a variety of business models, it’s best suited to home service professionals, such as:

  • General contractors
  • Landscaping
  • Pest control
  • Maintenance and repairs
  • etc.

FreshBooks allows business owners to create and send professional invoices in just a few clicks, and each invoice can be fully customized to account for a wide variety of services and add-ons.

FreshBooks supports recurring invoices, which saves time and ensures prompt payment. Additionally, FreshBooks integrates with several payment gateways, making it easy and safe for clients to pay invoices online.

FreshBooks also offers time and expense tracking features, which is really helpful regarding project management involving multiple employees.

Users can also view real-time insights into a business’s financial health, allowing business owners to monitor their cash flow and generate reports.

Best of all – FreshBooks is affordable. While it doesn’t offer quite as many features as larger, more expensive programs like Quickbooks, you get a lot of helpful tools for a low monthly fee.

Key Perks:

  • Easily send invoices (one-time or recurring billing)
  • Track expenses and receipts
  • Time tracking feature for managing projects
  • Accept payments online and view outstanding balances
  • Affordable monthly fee

2. QuickBooks

Intuit QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks online is one of North America’s best accounting software programs and one of the most widely-used platforms by business professionals. It’s a full-fledged accounting software program that features built-in billing and invoicing functionality.

You can easily add clients to your records, generate custom invoices (or use pre-made templates), email them to your customers, and accept online payments. You can also send payment reminders if invoices aren’t paid on time.

Like its competitors, QuickBooks allows users to create recurring invoices, making it great for service-based businesses or B2B businesses that charge weekly or monthly.

QuickBooks also comes packed with helpful tools, such as:

  • Mobile receipt scanning
  • Automated expense tracking and categorization
  • Revenue reporting
  • Mileage tracking (for driving)
  • eCommerce solutions

If you use TurboTax tax software to file your small business taxes, you’ll especially like QuickBooks. Intuit owns both programs, so you can automatically import your revenue data, expenses, and more from QuickBooks into TurboTax. This, in turn, allows you to maximize your tax credits and deductions.

Key Perks:

  • Easily integrates with Intuit TurboTax to make filing tax returns easier
  • Full-fledged online accounting solution
  • Great customer support
  • Plenty of tutorials are available
  • Works with leading payment gateways
  • The mobile app allows you to track revenue, scan receipts, and track mileage
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3. NetSuite Cloud Accounting

NetSuite Cloud Accounting Logo
  • Check It Out: netsuite.com
  • Best For: Businesses looking for advanced accounting features

Developed by software giant Oracle, NetSuite’s cloud accounting software is one of the more advanced invoicing software programs on the market. It’s designed to meet all your accounting needs, whether big or small.

In addition to its built-in billing and invoicing functionality, NetSuite offers several different products, each designed for various business sizes and types. It’s not your average one-size-fits-all “cookie-cutter” program, making it a great fit for larger, more complex businesses looking for advanced tools, such as:

  • Payment management
  • Cash management
  • Accounts payable and accounts receivable
  • Real-time data reporting

Oracle NetSuite is the perfect solution for businesses seeking to streamline their accounts receivable and payable processes, speed up deal closings, and meet complex financial compliance obligations while leveraging a complete set of powerful business management tools.

Unlike QuickBooks (one of its major competitors), NetSuite does not require third-party apps for customization or limit how many users can log into the platform. This is great for businesses that have larger accounting and bookkeeping teams.

The one downside of all of these features is that NetSuite is one of the more expensive programs on the market. Subscriptions start at $99 per month and go up from there. Also, the platform can be difficult to learn your way around unless you have a background in accounting or IT.

In my opinion, NetSuite shines best when used by larger organizations with complex business models and more team members/employees.

Key Perks:

  • Customize tasks and create custom automation
  • Time tracking functionality
  • Manage billing and invoices in one place
  • Customized invoices
  • Advanced functionality for larger organizations
  • Inventory management functionality

4. Zoho Books

Zoho Books Logo
  • Check It Out: zoho.com
  • Best For: Small online businesses

Zoho Books has a very similar user interface to FreshBooks. It’s a simple, easy-to-use platform that doesn’t require as much tech wizardry as QuickBooks or NetSuite. Whether you want to simply invoice clients or you want the ability to manage projects, Zoho Invoice easily fits most small business needs.

In addition to standard invoicing features, Zoho Books also allows users to:

  • Collect advance payments
  • Set up digital signatures to prevent fraud
  • Easily handle refunds and return invoices

It has a very useful mobile app (for both Android and iOS) that makes it easy to send invoices and get paid on the go. Like FreshBooks, Zoho Books lets you track basic expenses, your business revenue and view customers who haven’t paid their invoices yet so that you can send them friendly reminders.

Zoho also features a handy tax tool that helps you calculate your small business and sales taxes so you know what to expect when it’s time to file with the CRA.

Zoho Books is one of the most affordable billing and invoicing software programs on the market. In fact, they even offer a free version to small business owners, with businesses earning less than $50,000 per year. The next step up from there is Zoho’s Standard plan, which costs just $10 per month.

Key Perks:

  • Free version available for businesses with less than $50k annual cash flow
  • Low-cost versions are available for those who need more
  • Easy-to-use platform
  • Send payment reminders and secure payments with virtual signatures
  • Great for small businesses

5. Balance B2B Invoicing

11 Best Invoicing Software In Canada [currentyear]: Streamline Payments 2
  • Check It Out: getbalance.com
  • Best For: B2B businesses (manufacturers, wholesalers, online marketplaces)

Backed by industry giants like Stripe and Brex, Balance is an online invoicing software catering to B2B rather than consumer businesses. For example, if you run a manufacturing plant, supply small businesses with materials, or wholesale clothing, this program is definitely worth looking into.

Balance allows users to manage their clients and supports wire transfers, cheque payments, card payments, and more. Balance also supports custom sales terms such as net-30, payment-on-delivery, and recurring billing, which are frequently used by B2B businesses.

The best part is that users can receive immediate merchant payout, limiting the time spent waiting for money to hit your business bank account.

Key Perks:

  • Manage B2B clients
  • Immediate payouts from merchants
  • Supports net-30, PoD, and recurring payments

6. Recurly Subscription Billing

11 Best Invoicing Software In Canada [currentyear]: Streamline Payments 3
  • Check It Out: recurly.com
  • Best For: Subscription-based businesses

Do you operate a subscription-based business that relies on invoicing your customers monthly and annually? If so, then Recurly could be a game-changing accounting tool for you.

Recurly is a subscription management and recurring billing platform. With Recurly, businesses can easily manage and scale their subscriptions with pricing, promotions, and revenue optimization tools.

Recurly’s pricing and plans feature lets businesses offer flexible payment options regardless of their service.

Recurly’s promotions feature, for example, allows businesses to create and manage coupon codes, discounts, and special offers. This drives customer acquisition and retention by encouraging them to take action when it matters most.

One of the interesting features is the “gift subscription” feature that allows customers to purchase subscriptions for others, the same as they would purchase a gift card.

The platform features an intuitive user interface with flexible integrations, which makes managing subscriptions across different channels and platforms easy.

Recurly currently supports over 140 global currencies, allowing users to easily accept payments worldwide and expand their services to new regions.

Key Perks:

  • Designed for subscription businesses
  • Create intuitive coupons and pop-ups that encourage customers to take action
  • Supports most major global currencies
  • Gift subscription feature allows customers to purchase subscriptions for others

7. Wave Invoicing

11 Best Invoicing Software In Canada [currentyear]: Streamline Payments 4

If you’re looking for free and easy invoicing, it doesn’t get much simpler than Wave. Like its other accounting software programs, Wave Invoicing is 100% free to use. Users can easily generate invoices and send them out to customers and clients.

At this point, you’re likely wondering, “What’s the catch?

While the invoicing feature is free, you’ll have to pay extra if you want to use Wave’s online billing feature. If your clients pay by cash, cheque, or Interac e-Transfer, then you’re good to go. However, you’ll have to pay a bit extra if you want to accept online invoice payments.

Still, free is free, so it’s hard to complain.

I’d say that Wave is best for very small start-ups. The free platform is great for those who’ve recently started a weekend side hustle or who are just trying to dip their toes into entrepreneurship.

However, Wave isn’t a good solution for long-term scalability due to its lack of features and customer support. As your business grows, you’ll likely need to upgrade to a more comprehensive program like QuickBooks, FreshBooks, or NetSuite.

Key Perks:

  • Free invoicing software
  • Mobile app available for on-the-go invoicing
  • Integrates with Wave’s other account tools
  • Supports recurring payments

8. PayPal Business Platform

paypal logo
  • Check It Out: paypal.com
  • Best For: eCommerce businesses and online freelancers

PayPal has been around for a long time and is one of the most trusted platforms in the world. It’s used throughout North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia, which makes it a good invoicing program for international freelancers and small businesses that sell internationally.

In recent years, PayPal has also made efforts to cater to smaller, more local businesses. Today, PayPal offers point-of-sale systems, inventory management, and more.

Whether you sell online, sell in-person, or need to email an invoice to a client, PayPal Business can get the job done.

It’s also 100% free to use, which is a big perk for small businesses. With its online payment processing, it makes most of its money on the backend, so it doesn’t need to charge the same upfront fees as standard accounting programs.

All of that being said, PayPal Business doesn’t offer as many advanced accounting tools as other billing and invoicing software I’ve mentioned here.

Also, since PayPal is a payment processor, you won’t have the flexibility to work with other payment processors. If PayPal ever drops you (which they’ve been known to do), you’ll be left hanging without a way to bill your customers.

Key Perks:

  • 100% free to use
  • Great for eCommerce stores and online freelancers
  • Low payment processing fees
  • Supports online and physical store models
  • Operates globally

9. Sage Cloud Accounting

Sage Business Cloud Accounting
  • Check It Out: sage.com
  • Best For: Small to mid-sized businesses

Sage Cloud Accounting is a versatile cloud-based accounting software designed for small to medium-sized businesses. That being said, Sage also offers enterprise solutions for larger, more complex businesses.

The user interface is very similar to QuickBooks and provides detailed revenue reports, outstanding accounts, and expense tracking, so you can track your small business progress and make sure that your clients pay you on time.

Sage offers online payment processing through its partner, Stripe, and allows business owners to customize invoices with their logos and create custom fields.

The most appealing features of Sage are its low monthly subscription fee and its 24/7 customer support. It’s a fairly easy platform to learn and isn’t overly complicated. However, if you need help, you can speak with a representative in a few minutes.

Key Perks:

  • Low monthly fee
  • 24/7 customer support
  • Accept online payments through Stripe
  • Track revenue and expenses

10. Xero

Xero Accounting Software
  • Check It Out: xero.com
  • Best For: small business owners looking for a comprehensive accounting solution

Xero is an easy-to-use cloud-based accounting program that allows users to easily send invoices and receive payments, track key business metrics, manage payroll, reconcile bank accounts, and more.

Xero also offers project management tools to help you keep track of individual clients and projects you’re working on.

It features built-in tax tools to help you automatically calculate applicable GST/HST taxes and also supports payments for over 160 different currencies, making it a great tool for local and international businesses alike.

Xero is relatively affordable, and plans start at $9 per month. There’s also a free trial period you can take advantage of if you want to give the program a spin before you commit.

Key Perks:

  • Payroll management
  • Invoice clients and get paid online
  • Built-in tax calculation tools
  • Affordable monthly plans
  • Free trial period
  • Accept 160 global currencies

11. Square Invoices

Square Invoices

Most people know Square for its point-of-sale systems that are widely used by retail stores and small restaurants throughout North America. However, Square also offers an invoicing platform that makes it easy to bill clients and customers for individual services or large orders.

Square offers a free-to-use version for those who just need to send individual invoices. However, if you want to send recurring invoices, convert estimates to invoices, and create custom invoices, you’ll need to sign up for Square Plus at $30 per month.

I’d be more inclined to recommend full-fledged billing and invoicing software for this amount. For example, Xero, FreshBooks, and Sage all offer comprehensive programs (with built-in invoicing support) for a similar price point.

Square only offers limited accounting tools and doesn’t display as wide of a range of business metrics as more dedicated accounting programs.

However, the free version is worth looking into if you operate a professional or freelance service and want to easily accept online payments.

Key Perks:

  • Accept payments online through Square for free
  • Get paid immediately and transfer funds to your bank account instantly
  • Look at sales and revenue reports

Determining The Best Invoicing Software For Your Need

Now that you’ve had a chance to take a look at the best invoicing software let’s go over some key considerations to keep in mind when determining the best program for your needs.

Invoicing Software Cost

If you’re just starting and have a small operation, you may want to avoid accounting software with a high monthly cost. While the costlier programs often come with helpful accounting tools, these often go unnoticed or unused by users.

In many cases, small business owners would be better served by going with a simpler, more affordable invoicing program with an easy-to-use interface.

That being said, growing businesses shouldn’t sell themselves short, either. If business is steady, and you can afford the higher monthly cost, comprehensive programs like QuickBooks or NetSuite are likely a better option than Square or Wave’s free invoicing platforms.

Ease Of Use

If you’re tech-savvy and don’t mind scrolling through spreadsheets, and creating custom forms, then you’ll feel right at home working with NetSuite or QuickBooks. However, if this doesn’t sound like you, then you may enjoy a program with a simpler interface, such as Sage, Xero, FreshBooks, or Zoho Books.

While these simpler programs don’t offer as much room for customization, their simple user interface can make billing and invoicing clients quicker and easier, saving you more time.

Your Invoicing Process

How you invoice your clients and customers is also important. For example, if you have a subscription-based eCommerce brand, Recurly is a great program. However, if you do B2B sales, then Balance would better fit your needs.

Conclusion – What’s The Best Invoicing Software In Canada?

If you’re looking for the best overall invoicing software in Canada, I’d recommend using QuickBooks. Not only is there ample customer support, but it comes with a full suite of accounting tools that will make it easier to manage your business as a whole.

Need help managing your small business government filings, contracts, and other paperwork? Ownr is an excellent program that I’ve been using to streamline and organize my own business. Keep on reading to see my full review of Ownr!

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