Crunch provide both online accounting services and software for businesses such as limited companies, freelancers, contractors and sole traders.

 

What other alternatives are there to Crunch?

Crunch’s software option does offer some useful features and has a clean user-friendly interface, but if you’re looking for a wider array of bookkeeping tools in your accounting software, you might consider some of the options below. In this article we’ll focus on QuickBooks, Pandle, and Zoho Books.

 

QuickBooks as an alternative to Crunch

QuickBooks is market-leading accounting software – primarily for small to medium sized businesses. It offers tools for invoicing, expenses, bank feeds, reporting and cash flow management.

In comparison to Crunch there are several key features QuickBooks has that Crunch is missing:

  • Accounts payable supplier bills and payment scheduling: This lets you manage your outgoing bills, track what you owe, schedule supplier payments and stay on top of payables. Crunch currently doesn’t have an integrated feature for automated payment scheduling to suppliers directly from the platform.
  • Third-party integrations & ecosystem: QB connects with tons of payment processors and e-commerce tools, which is especially helpful if you run a bigger or more complex business with detailed workflows.
  • More comprehensive financial reporting: You get Profit & Loss, balance sheets, cash flow insights, and even have the option to create custom reports which is great if you work with international clients or manage several branches or income streams
  • Create and manage projects: You can set up and manage projects to track your spending accurately (although this feature is only available for Plus and Advanced customers)

There are 4 payment plans available. Starting at £16 per month for the ‘Simple Start’, and increasing to £123 per month for the ‘Advanced’ plan.

Read our full review of QuickBooks here.

 

Comparing Crunch and Pandle

If you’re looking for simple-to-use, inexpensive software, which packs a heavyweight punch then Pandle is one to look at. It offers lots of the same features available with other providers but at a very cost-effective price.

Key features available in Pandle which are missing from Crunch include:

  • Inventory and stock management: Pandle users can create listings for products and services they buy and sell, and use these to populate documents for faster entry. Importantly, tracked items will update in real time whenever you add or edit a document, and you’ll be alerted if stock is insufficient.
  • Multi-company support under one login: If you run more than one business (or you’re an accountant or bookkeeper with multiple clients) you can manage everything under a single login, and just toggle between accounts as needed.
  • Built-in mileage tracker: Pandle has a built-in automated mileage tracker which you can access via the mobile app. You can use it to track journeys as they happen, or add the details in later, and convert your trip into a claimable expense in your bookkeeping. Crunch have a similar feature as an integration with the Tripcatcher app.
  • Collaborate with unlimited users: Add an unlimited number of users to your account, and set user permissions so you can decide what your team can see, edit, or view. Crunch software is limited to a maximum of 10 users per organisation
  • Multiple projects feature: You can create as many separate projects as you like in Pandle. Perfect if you have multiple clients or projects and want to track the profitability of a very particular area, or manage client budgets separately.

Pandle has two plans, a free version and Pandle Pro which is £5 per month plus VAT.

Read our full review of Pandle

 

Considering Zoho Books versus Crunch

Zoho Books is cloud-based accounting software primarily designed for small businesses to manage their finances. Via their web and mobile app, customers can automate workflows, remain tax compliant, and access detailed financial reports. This service is best for small businesses who also use other Zoho services for their integrations.

Key features Zoho Books have that Crunch is missing:

  • Inventory & stock-level management: Like Pandle, Zoho Books supports inventory tracking. In Zoho Books you can manage items or products, define SKUs, track stock levels, set reorder alerts, and handle purchase orders
  • More extensive reporting & analytics: You get detailed reports on everything from cash flow and Profit & Loss to inventory and expenses, giving you far more control over spending and supplier relationships than simple bookkeeping can!
  • Project accounting: Similar to QuickBooks and Pandle, you can manage projects, log time sheets, and track project-related costs.
  • Flexibility and automation: Zoho Books have bank feeds, auto-categorisation, recurring bills and invoices, workflow automation, and document storage that help small businesses streamline their bookkeeping – reducing manual data entry

There are 6 plans available on Zoho Books, starting from a free version, all the way up ‘Ultimate’ which is £199 per month. It’s important to look at the plans in detail, because if, for example, you need multi-currency transactions for each customer, the cheapest plan which includes this is Premium at £30 per month.

Read our full review of Zoho Books

Still looking for more options? See all our accounting software reviews.