For some unfathomable reason I forgot to include Kashoo in my list of apps I swear by, so as recompense, it will be the first one I extol.

Quite simply, hands down it is the best accounting app I have ever used. Perfect for a small business, fast, uncluttered interface and packed with features.

Firstly, it has the best cross-platform functionality: a great iPad app and a superb web browser interface (and naturally, seamlessly synced data). I’m more of a laptop/desktop worker, preferring to use my iPad to consume not create, so a solid non-mobile app wins me over every time. Kashoo’s web interface is the slickest, most responsive interface I’ve ever used, miles ahead of stuff like Quicken and others I’ve played with.

Secondly, it’s a true accounting app (and not just a bank or cash register) that allows you to pass journal entries and similar accounting adjustments that the professionals need. For the lay person, it has a dead simple interface for entering expenses and incomes, which is all the lay person normally needs. For all its simplicity it has the muscle to handle more complex transactions, such as when you spend an amount that needs to be allocated to multiple expense heads.

Thirdly, on the browser version it is super keyboard friendly, which makes it a joy to use for keyboard types like yours truly.

Finally, it’s cloud-based so if you can overcome your (pointless) paranoia of having your accounting info sitting on a server in the big bad world outside your office, it’s freedom from backups and server crashes and all the attendant headaches.

There are lots of great touches, such as the ability to see balances side by side for two accounting years, flexible charts of accounts that allow you to create new accounts very easily, a great bill payments interface that allows part payments and easily completes the amount when you need to pay in full, an analysis of your receivables and payables that shows you what’s overdue, multi-currency accounting (very neat!), multi-company accounting, automatic accounting for sales/service tax and a dashboard on the work screen showing info that’s relevant to what you’re working on.

The iPad version has an option to upload scanned images of bills and receipts and attach them to transactions and when you view these transactions in the browser version, there’s a little paper clip icon that when clicked on shows you the scan — great for my accountant when he’s auditing my books. My only grouse is that I can’t similarly upload scans in the browser version — which is a pain as my primary means of scanning this stuff is my trusty Fujitsu ScanSnap (of which more anon).

I’ve given up on printing and preserving account books and vouchers for the last 3 years — a digital record is now legal and in addition to being the best accounting app around Kashoo also saves me a ton of physical space and filing headaches. But when my fuddy-duddy auditor wants a general ledger printout it’s easy as pie to send him a PDF that he can wear out his printer with.

Win-win.