Here is a list of 9 best open source accounting software that we have come across. All these open source accounting software are a great tool for small and medium business to manage accounting. All these free accounting software come with lots of features, and you are sure to find one that meets all your accounting needs.

GnuCash

GnuCash is free accounting software that maintains your book-keeping for personal and small business. The app is available for free of cost and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. This free accounting software is designed for users for ease if use yet its powerful and very handy. Track your accounts and balances hassle free, just like you use your register and other books.

To operate this open source accounting software is very simple and quick to use. It allows you to maintain all the possible accounts, which is maintained by your business concern. This free accounting software offers complete set of tools and functions to track your account balances when you have instant or urgent query. It maintains your accounts in double entry system and does all the relevant financial calculations to lessen your burden.

Features of GnuCash Open Source Accounting Software:

• Double-Entry Accounting
• keep up stock/bond/Mutual Fund Accounts
• Customers, Vendors, Jobs,
• Invoices, A/P, A/R
• QIF/OFX/HBCI Import, Transaction Matching
• Retrieve and print all the important business reports and graphs from the freeware
• Schedule your transactions like those which are recurring in nature
• Financial Calculations for interest, penalty, tax, etc

Read more about GnuCash, or download free here.

Grisbi

Grisbi is another free financial accounting software running under GNU/Linux and Windows OS. The application is known for its ease of use, aims at providing you most comprehensive tool for accounting basic use, and takes very less time for simple set up.

This free accounting software can manage multiple accounts at a time along with different currencies and different users. You maintain all the accounts along with finance to third-party account using this open source accounting software. The free accounting software was designed with keeping in mind to provide tool for budgetary lines, financial years, and other information that makes it quite adapted for firms and business associations (except those that require double entry accounting).

The open source accounting software lets you customize your reports and preview them before mailing or printing. The report layout is comprehensive and detailed with all possible info along with professional presentation. Get all the income expenditure and revenue and other business related reports from this freeware. The main screen of this free accounting software will show you all the financial details and your position in your bank or cash in summary for quick view and decision.

Read more about Grisbi, or download free here.

Lazy8Ledger

Lazy8Ledger is free open source program that is available for free of cost. The app is a free account software that simplifies your accounting problems and you can us the app for your small business and personal work. You can create and manage any type of bookkeeping activity and break out the entries and transactions to any number of accounts.

There are numerous standard reports that are the basis of accounting needs and then there are tools to make your own reports. You can customize your reports as per the standards prevailing in your industry. However, the open source accounting software design includes the well accepted report formats which you can use directly that will save your time and you need not format your own report layout.

The open source accounting software is designed with all important advanced tools that you require for effective book-keeping. However, the app should be used by the users who have sound knowledge of the book keeping and take care of the entries made by them. This free accounting software is so simple that home users or small business enterprises can use it. Reports can be seen in a print preview window and all reports may be saved in PDF, Excel, HTML, CSV, or text format.

Read more about Lazy8Ledger, or download free here.

LedgerSMB

LedgerSMB is free open source application for financial accounting. The program is designed to give you set of tools for better book keeping and accounts maintenance. The accounts are vital part of any business and the app is developed to help you keep tracks of your incomes and expenditures. Using this free accounting software, you will be able to track AR, AP, and GL maintenance as well as inventory control easily without any support of external support.

LedgerSMB works well on any UNIX-type platform, including Linux, *BSD, and Apple’s OS X, and also is tested on Windows as well. The open source accounting software can be used by small to midsize businesses. The application is known for this high-quality ERP system and accounting capabilities that makes accounting easy for all.

Some of the key benefits of using this freeware accounting software are:

• Enhanced security for your vital accounts
• Better Windows support
• Number of reports concerning the types you may use
• An Open Development Model
• Better data integrity controls for the protection and processing of your financial details

The application also provides you reconciliation reports and statements which you can use with banks and other institution for many purposes. You can view the summary details of the accounts you are reconciling and take quick financial decisions using this freeware.

Read more about LedgerSMB, or download free here.

FrontAccounting

FrontAccounting is web-based free accounting software and free ERP software designed specially for all small and medium size business. The free accounting software is completely open for all, and any firm or business organization searching for free ERP package on web must try out the application. This open source accounting software is equipped with all the essential features and functions that will help you to keep your account up to date. You can handle your accounts maintenance easily with this freeware.

The open source accounting software is programmed to include all the general ledger accounts and book of accounts, which are vital aspect of any book-keeping. You can maintain accounts in several dimensions up to two levels. Dimensions can be used as:

• projects
• cost centers
• departments
• inventories (the general ledger can be selected over several years)
• or whatever you define them to be

Some of the modules available in this free ERP software are:

• Purchase Orders
• Accounts Payable
• Goods Receivable Notes
• Supplier Invoices/Credit Notes
• Payments
• Allocations
• Items and Inventory
• Customer Invoices/Credit Notes
• Deposits
• Allocations
• Stock
• Manufacturing
• Languages
• Currencies
• Several Companies
• Sales Orders
• Accounts Receivable
• Dimensions
• General Ledger with Budget

For the general ledger, you can maintain accounts for unlimited of accounts, account classes and groups. Make quick and easy entries with this app, view them, and edit them as per your preferences. Your business queries can be handled easily with this handy free accounting software. If you close a fiscal year, it closes the balances and brings forward retained earnings and similarly, deleting a fiscal year removes all transactions and converts into relevant open balances.

Download FrontAccounting here.

SQL-Ledger

SQL-Ledger free web based accounting software for all small-sized business enterprises. The application will keep your books with double entry accounting/ERP system, which is the most acceptable method of book keeping around the globe. The app is downloadable and requires quick installation. The app is very easy to handle and very simple to use. The easy to use interface will help you keep up with the accounts and maintain your books.

Your accounting data is stored in SQL database, which ensure its easy retrieval and better data integration. The SQL database is very easy to handle and requires very less operation to access to the financial figures. With the assembly feature, you can build manufactured goods from parts, services, labor units, and assemblies. When the assembly is sold all the accounts linked to the individual parts, services, labor units and assemblies are updated and stock levels adjusted accordingly. Thus, this free accounting software is designed with precise knowledge of the accounting methods that will definitely help when you have limited knowledge about the same.

You can also rely on this open source accounting software for maintaining foreign currency transactions, they are automatically converted, and exchange rate differences, gains and losses, if any, adjusted to the appropriate accounts confirming the accounting standards prevailing.

Read more about SQL-Ledger, or download free here.

TurboCash

TurboCash is another free accounting software. This open source accounting software is simple and yet powerful. The users having financial transaction that needs to be taken care of can use this open source program. The freeware is fully featured with the tools and techniques offering wise packages of accounting that suits all kind of users and business firms. TurboCASH freeware includes most functions a business requires to be maintain for complete set of book of accounts. Maintain proper books for  debtors, creditors, general ledger, full stock control, VAT accounting, invoicing, bank reconciliation, trial balance, balance sheet and income statements with this free accounting software.

This open source accounting software is loaded with features for full reporting and analysis. You can also maintain more than one company at a time suing this app and add more than one users for better capabilities and division of book-keeping task.

This free accounting software aims at making your accounting experience an easy one. However, you are required to be vigilant when you make entries in the application. Clerical err can be avoided with strict and constant vigilance. The application in the accounting field is gaining popularity just for the ease of use and simplicity that makes your accounting task easier.

Download TurboCash free here.

osFinancials

osFinancials is a free accounting software that allows you full accounting utility. It is licensed under the GNU/GPL license which authorize the program to be free and can be used any users and free to download. This free accounting software is reliable, easy to install and very easy to administer.

osFinancials is feature rich open source accounting software that allows you full accounting support. Accounts maintenance is one of the most vital aspects of the business, as you need to present your business finance position in number of instances to the outsiders whether financial institutions or government authorities. For this purpose, you must maintain the accounts and books of accounts with clarity and error free.

The freeware accounting software has tools that prepare invoices and documents so that you can use the format easily right to your customers and others. The invoice layout is detailed and quite effective. Along with invoices, customize the financial reports for your use. Control your inventory movement by keeping check in your stock account status and avoids unwanted losses.

One problem I face with osFinancials is that website itself is in Dutch, and lot of parts do not have translation. Even most of the forum posts are in Dutch.

Download osFinancials here.

PhreeBooks

PhreeBooks is an open-source accounting program. PhreeBooks is designed to provide an accounting solution that allows businesses to track inventories and plan resources. PhreeBooks’ full-featured, user-friendly interface makes it the perfect solution for both experts and those who are new to accounting.

PhreeBooks was created as a full featured ERP/accounting system designed to run in an internet environment. This free accounting software is based on the administrator interface of the well established ZenCart shopping cart application.

PhreeBooks free accounting software features include:

• Different customer and vendor account information
• Control inventory management and track your inventory status
• Maintain complete ledger with this freeware
• Prepares Bank account recon statements and also writes checks for you
• Import or export reports with this freeware
• Try out reporting features of the app along with form layouts and fill ups
• Expandable Shipping Manager
• User Level Security

The open source accounting software offers you wide variety of reports and forms layout, which you can choose for your report types. You can use the purchase order layout for recording your purchase orders and helps you keep complete record of the purchases. Also, update the vendor info in the application for records and database. You can enter and store completely set of info about the vendors regarding their contact info, mailing address and payment terms.

Download Phreebooks here.

All these open source accounting software provide good option to manage complete accounting in small and medium businesses. Before you decide which one to start using, I advise you to explore these free accounting software completely to ensure that the one you are downloading does meets all your needs. If there is some good accounting software that we missed in this list, do mention in comments.