White label bookkeeping software adds a layer of professionalism and credibility to accounting firms. White label accounting solutions look like they belong to your brand. You can customise the software, and accompanying client portals, with your own branding elements.
However, they often come with behind-the-scenes services, such as technical support, that enable you to offer clients a more comprehensive accounting service. Some accounting software and services can also completely take over critical tasks, saving you lots of time.
White label software is a must-have for increasing brand awareness, as well as boosting efficiency, productivity, and time-management.
Key Takeaways from this Post
White label bookkeeping solutions enable you to add an extra layer of credibility and professionalism to your accounting firm. You can customise them with your firm's branding elements while letting the software company take over the technical support side.
Some white label solutions offer a basic bookkeeping service while others offer an end-to-end accounting service for complex needs. Consider your objectives and budget when deciding which solution to go for.
Link My Books is a perfect solution for eCommerce accountants looking to save considerable time on their bookkeeping tasks. Put your bookkeeping on auto-pilot and save 6 hours per month on every client.
Join me as I go through the top 6 white label bookkeeping softwares and services in 2024.
What Most Accountants get Wrong With White Label Bookkeeping
Link My Books has worked with thousands of CPAs over the years and these are the common white label bookkeeping problems we hear about:
Not Researching the Level of Support
Being able to offload client technical support to third party software companies takes a lot of stress off your firm. However, if you don't choose a software with a good level of support, your business (along with your clients and their customers) will ultimately suffer for it.
A good white label solution will have a top-notch IT team to handle such matters. They will resolve issues quickly and with minimum fuss. As a brand adopting white label accounting software, you're relying on the professionalism of other companies. But, it is your company that will be held accountable for failures in technical support.
Therefore, you must ensure you thoroughly research the level of technical support that white label accounting software providers offer. Read customer reviews, knowledge bases, and FAQs about the company. Additionally, reach out to companies for clarification of their policies and procedures to ensure you have a solid understanding of what to expect.
Not Getting Value for Money
There's a world of difference between something that's cheap and something that provides value for money. Something that's value for money is worth the cost. It offers a strong ROI, and is reliable and feature-rich. If you choose a white label accounting solution based on price alone, you might find yourself frustrated and disappointed.
For example, a white label accounting software might be very affordable. But, if the level of support is bad, you could be battling against high churn rates. This will likely make it bad value. Instead, weigh up the costs with the benefits. Consider the revenue the white label accounting solution will help generate compared to its cost.
Limited Features, Integrations, and Capabilities
White label accounting software needs to streamline processes within your firm. Choosing software with limited features, integrations, and capabilities will limit your business in multiple ways:
- Firstly, it will restrict scalability and business growth. Your firm will be bound by restraints until you migrate to a more flexible solution down the line.
- Secondly, as far as possible, you want all your software and processes to sync up. You don't want you, or your clients, to have to manually transfer data from one platform to another.
- Thirdly, you won't be able to offer your clients the most comprehensive service possible if your white label accounting solution does not facilitate certain services.
To assess what you need from your software, clarify your goals. Then, make a list of the features and capabilities that'll help you meet them. If a software doesn't have a specific feature built-in, check its list of third party applications.
Not Being Human
Your white label accounting software will likely have automation features for your clients to use. Couple that with the outsourcing of technical support, and you'll likely find there's less need to interact with your clients.
However, your clients want and need to build a relationship with you, as their accountant. After all, they're entrusting you with some of the most vital components of their business.
Many CPAs neglect the human side of their operations when they adopt a white label solution. Don't be them. Reach out to clients periodically to offer your support from a non-technical perspective. Send out regular email newsletters and discover if there's anything you can do to increase client satisfaction.
5 Reasons Why Your Practice Needs a White Label Software
Free up Your Time
Using a white label accounting software, particularly one with automated capabilities, frees up your time. Clients can access their own portal to complete tasks, like uploading documents. And, you can make requests and communicate through the platform, to name just a few possibilities. Obviously, the specifics will depend on the software.
However, the basic premise of white label accounting and bookkeeping software is that it's designed to save you time. Whether that's through boosting efficiency, offloading tasks, or streamlining your processes and accounting tasks, is down to the software itself.
Offset IT Support
As an accountant, you're probably not an expert in IT. And that's OK. As mentioned earlier, with white label bookkeeping services, you don't need to involve yourself in the technical aspects of the software. This means you don't need to hire a technical support team, or learn the ins and outs of the software yourself.
This is not only good news for your clients, but also for you. If you have technical issues with the software you use, you can take advantage of the IT support too.
Save and Generate More Money
By saving time, your accounting firm will save money. This means you can concentrate on ways to generate more revenue and provide a positive client experience. You can provide thorough and reliable accounting services without worrying too much about how the time you spend on each client costs you.
With Link My Books, for example, accountants and bookkeepers only need to spend 10 minutes per month on eCommerce bookkeeping tasks for each client. This means they have the time to take on more clients, which will help them generate more revenue.
Equally, this allows CPAs to focus on tasks that require more expertise, like generating a monthly cash flow statement, and analysing and interpreting various financial reports.
Boost Brand Exposure
When you go white label, your branding elements are seen by your clients on a regular basis. This boosts brand exposure and can cement your brand into their memories. Furthermore, having your branding across an accounting software enhances your professional image.
Offer More Services
Using white label solutions for your bookkeeping and accounting enables you to offer more services to clients. The best accounting tools for accountants will enable you to fulfill your tasks with accuracy and efficiency, and even help you branch out into a new market or industry.
For example, with software that accurately calculates taxes from different countries, you could branch out and offer global accounting services. Equally, with the right software, you can very easily take on eCommerce clients that sell across different platforms.
Best White Label Bookkeeping Softwares
1. Link My Books: Best Software for Automating eCommerce Bookkeeping
Link My Books is not a typical white label solution but it does tick all the right boxes. We're a SaaS company and our software enables you to offset your eCommerce accounting tasks. It does this by putting your bookkeeping on autopilot. You connect your clients' eCommerce accounts to your QuickBooks or Xero account, and all the financial data is transferred automatically.
Features
- Automatic Data Transfers
- Integrations
- Benchmarking
- Tax and COGS Calculations
- High-Level Support
Automatic Data Transfers
Link My Books' automatic data transfers is one of the things that make it the best eCommerce accounting software on the market. It sits in between eCommerce platforms and accounting software, and transfers your data for easy categorisation.
Link My Books gathers and consolidates financial data, like sales, shipping, and fees, and sends clean summary invoices across to your accounting software automatically. This information helps accountants advise their clients on their financial operations.
Link My Books generates accurate profit and loss statements for eCommerce sellers. With these, you can provide actionable, data-based advice on important business decisions, such as increasing ad spend, inventory management, and scaling their business.
Integrations
Integrations are at the heart of Link My Books. It 'links' with QuickBooks and Xero, in addition to all the major payment processors and eCommerce platforms. This enables you to take on eCommerce clients, regardless of where online their business operates.
Link My Books integrates with the following eCommerce platforms:
- Amazon
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
- Square
- eBay
- Etsy
- TikTok Shop
- Walmart
You can connect multiple eCommerce platforms per client so that financial data is gathered, consolidated, and transferred across their entire eCommerce business.
Benchmarking
Link My Books Benchmarking is a powerful, new, first-of-its-kind feature that'll help your clients grow. It tells you precisely where their business stands compared to industry averages. Link My Books Benchmarking gives a percentile ranking across 5 different metrics. These are:
- Sales Growth Percentage
- Refund Ratio
- Fee Ratio
- Advertising Fee Ratio
- Refund Ratio Growth Trend
Link My Books Benchmarking also places businesses in a category for each eCommerce benchmarking metric; Top 25%, Upper 50%, Lower 50%, and Bottom 25%.
It carries out a cohort analysis so that businesses are compared to those that are similar. For example, taking into account business size and eCommerce platform. Anonymity is maintained for all businesses to ensure a level playing field, as well as optimum security.
Tax and COGS Calculations
Not only does Link My Books accurately calculate taxes and COGS on every single item your clients sell, but the Link My Books team ensures that the software is consistently up-to-date with tax laws and regulations. This means that when laws and regulations change, the software accurately reflects these changes.
Link My Books accounts for taxes wherever your clients sell, whether that's in Europe, North America, or Australia. It enables eCommerce businesses to expand without having to worry about keeping up with different tax rules applicable to different countries.
You'll begin your Link My Books journey using the Guided Tax Wizard. This is a quick and easy process whereby you provide information about the business that might impact tax obligations. For example, what country they sell in. Once this is set up, Link My Books automatically applies the correct tax rate to each sale.
High-Level Support
At Link My Books, we pride ourselves on our high level of support we offer our customers, whether they're eCommerce businesses, bookkeepers, or accountants. Not only is it very simple to use and set up but every customer also gets a free onboarding session.
Beyond that, we have loads of resources to help you learn the ropes, including regular blog posts, podcasts, and an info-packed help centre. Our support team is top-notch too. It's made up of accounting and eCommerce experts who know their stuff.
2. Booxkeeping: Best Scalable Bookkeeping Solution for Small-Medium Sized Businesses
Booxkeeping is an outsourced bookkeeping solution for small businesses and medium-sized ones. It also provides a white labeled service for CPAs and accounting firms wanting to outsource their bookkeeping tasks. Booxkeeping enables you to offer your clients bookkeeping services without the overheads and resources that are typically needed to do so.
Features
- Fully branded: Booxkeeping is 100% white labeled. You can customise the solution with your firm's logo, colour scheme, and other branding elements. The bookkeeping services will reflect your brand and what you have to offer clients.
- Relationship management: Booxkeeping aims to keep your clients happy by providing each firm with a dedicated relationship manager. This manager will ensure customer satisfaction, with a professional and expert service.
- Scalable: One of the main benefits of booxkeeping is it helps accounting firms to scale. By offsetting time-consuming bookkeeping tasks, you take on more clients without needing to hire more internal staff.
3. Scrubbed: Best Comprehensive Solution for Larger Businesses
Scrubbed provides both white label accounting and bookkeeping services for CPAs and businesses. Whether you want support with external audits, tax preparation and compliance, or general bookkeeping, Scrubbed employs the experts that can help you meet your business development goals.
Features
- Auditing solutions: Scrubbed can complete both external audits and SOX internal audits. These are suitable for small businesses and large corporations, and everything in between. The team of experts provides valuable insights to help you and your clients better manage finances.
- Transactions advisory services: Scrubbed provides transactions advisory services which involves deep analyses and investigations of historical data. This service ensures that projections are accurate and reflect true business performance.
- Bookkeeping and accounting services: This is a comprehensive, outsourced service that will save you time and money as a CPA firm. You can work with industry experts to offer clients support within specific niches. These experts can take over routine accounting tasks, and bring their knowledge and experience to your team.
4. Remote Books Online: Best For Small Business Bookkeeping
Remote Books Online is designed for small business owners and dubs itself "your new virtual employee". The white label bookkeeping solution takes over tedious tasks like data entry and tracking financial transactions. This enables your accounting team to focus on more critical aspects of accounting, such as business process planning, budgeting, and inventory management.
Features
- QuickBooks and Xero bookkeeping: The Remote Books Online team works within your QuickBooks or Xero accounting software. Your dedicated Bookkeeper will complete tasks like importing bank statements and categorising transactions. They'll also prepare financial statements for your clients. All bookkeepers are highly qualified and certified in their use of accounting software.
- Tax preparation: Remote Books Online will prepare and organise your clients' financial statements ready to submit their tax returns. This includes all the necessary data from the financial year that's rolled into one convenient package.
- Backdating books: If your clients are behind with their bookkeeping, Remote Books Online can bring them up to date. The company promises to have your clients ready to file their taxes in under one week. This is a really useful service if you're pushed for time, particularly at the end of the financial year.
5. PABS: Best for U.S-Based Accounting Services
PABS (Pacific Accounting & Business Services) utilises a robust IT infrastructure that incorporates accounting, project management, and PoS solutions. It also has a strong network and security infrastructure. The company offers solutions for both basic bookkeeping and enhanced accounting tasks. Additionally, PABS's white label services can be tailored to your firm's needs.
Features
- End-to-end accounting: PABS can give you an end-to-end accounting solution that includes aspects like accounts payables and receivables, financial planning, and tax write-ups. This service allows CPAs to hand over complete control of managing accounts to PABS.
- Payroll processing: If you're tasked with processing your clients' payroll, why not outsource this service to PABS? If you're not already offering this service to clients, you can do so without adding to your firm's workload.
- Tax preparation: PABS are tax experts and offer preparation services that reflect this. They help with a wide range of U.S-based taxes including corporation tax, non-profit tax, and partnership tax. They blend their expertise with cutting-edge software for a smooth, fast, and reliable solution.
6. Flexi: Best for Creating Automated Accounting Workflows
Flexi is a white label accounting solution that meets the complex accounting needs of enterprises. With the option to go for either cloud or on-premise, its white label software emphasises both performance and flexibility. As your business grows, you can enjoy additional functionality as the scalable solution grows with you.
Features
- Accounts payable and receivable: Flexi's software can help with processing electronic invoices, processing payments, and automatic bank account reconciliation. It also helps with tax and compliance. In regards to accounts receivable, you can take advantage of features like customer management and receipt processing.
- Workflows: Flexi enables CPAs to streamline their processes with automation, and create efficient workflows that maximise productivity. You can quickly and easily create workflows using simple drag-and-drop tools. And, Flexi offers loads of automation possibilities, both simple and complex.
- Financial reporting: Flexi has some robust financial reporting tools that enable you to view and generate reports in real time. You can design your reports with ease, and also automate their distribution. Reports can be accessed through a browser, making them easily accessible for those on-the-go with an internet connection.
What's the Difference Between White Label and Private Label?
The difference between white label and private label is that private label is a product or software that is solely for one business to sell. White label, on the other hand, is when a business puts their own branding on a generic product that is sold to multiple businesses.
In other words, a private label software (or product) would be developed specifically for your business. Or, only your business has the right to use it. Today, we've been talking about white labeled software. This means the software itself can be used by any number of CPAs. But, you can customise it to reflect your brand.
How to Choose the Best White Label Bookkeeping Tool for you
White label accounting software and bookkeeping solutions can be a big help for accounting firms. But, how do you choose the right one for you? Let's go through a few considerations:
Cost
The pricing models of white label software for bookkeepers and CPAs can be complex. Very often, they're tailored to each business. This is particularly true for those solutions designed for larger companies. Now obviously, the cost will play a significant role in deciding which accounting solution to opt for. However, it should not be the only factor.
If the bookkeeping or accounting solution does not give you a price on its website, don't hesitate to reach out to request a quote. You can then accurately weigh up your options, along with the cost and benefits of each.
Features
Decide what you want from the solution or software. Do you want a simple bookkeeping solution or a fully integrated solution with all the frills? Do you want automated accounting softwares that takes over menial tasks? Or, would you rather the tasks be completed and/or overseen manually by a certified bookkeeper?
The best way to determine this is to write down your goals, along with the purpose of the software. Perhaps you simply want to free up some time or maybe you want to offer clients an additional service. Regardless, your goals will point you in the right direction.
User Friendly
Your white label bookkeeping or accounting solution should be user friendly for you and your clients. A lot of white label solutions have resources to help you. And, they will have teams to get you up and running.
However, you still need to be aware of how its difficulty might affect you, your clients, and your staff. After all, constantly running into software problems is not a good look for your firm.
Read reviews about each solution, and also try out some demos. Link My Books has excellent reviews on both Xero and QuickBooks. Our customers speak highly of our software's ease-of-use and its simple setup process.
Business Size and Industry
As you've seen in today's list, some solutions are suitable for small businesses, while others are suitable for large ones. And some are ideal for businesses of all sizes. You also want to consider the industry the solution is designed for, if applicable.
Link My Books, for example, is perfect for eCommerce accountants and those wanting to branch out into the eCommerce sector. Other providers might be more focused on traditional accounting than automated accounting.
Automate Your eCommerce Accounting (in Minutes)
Incorporating white label bookkeeping into accounting processes makes sense for a lot of firms. It can save you both time and money, as well as assist with essential aspects like tax compliance, accurate reporting, and bank account reconciliation. However, to get the most out of such a solution, you need to do your research to ensure it has the right tools for the job and is also user friendly.
Link My Books lets you automate your eCommerce accounting. With a quick and easy setup process, you can be up and running in minutes. If you're not already offering eCommerce accounting solutions, Link My Books is a low-cost, simple way of breaking into the industry.
You can grab a two-week free trial today to see how it can enhance your business; no commitment, no strings, and no credit card necessary.