Synder

Synder has been specifically designed and engineered to appeal to the small business owner who’s looking to manage finances that little bit better. The San Francisco-based CloudBusiness company created the Synder app in order to help automate a fair chunk of finance management duties, while at the same time providing fast and accurate bookkeeping aimed at keeping your business in great shape. Granted, it's not currently a standalone application and relies on other supporting software packages in order to work effectively as you'll see below. But Synder is evolving all the time.

• Want to try Synder? Check out the website here

In essence, Synder takes away a lot of the hassle associated with accounting tasks, most notably by helping with the instant import of online payments into your accounting software. However, Synder can also help out with numerous other business finance tasks, including creating and sending invoices as well as providing in-depth overviews of sales and other business-critical data. In short, it’s a power-packed business management tool. It's also a supplement rather than a replacement for other bookkeeping and accounting packages.

Synder has developed three different packages to suit all pockets (Image credit: Synder)

Pricing

With Synder being a young and dynamic proposition it’s only natural that they’ve come up with a pricing structure that’s nicely tailored to meet the needs of businesses. You can pick from monthly or yearly packages, with the Small edition kicking things off. It features a free trial, costs $19.99 per month and is ideally suited to self-employed folks or small businesses with one employee. 

You get up to 100 transactions per month plus the ability to connect to one accounting company, such as QuickBooks or Xero while the same goes for payment platforms. Small lets you hook up with one of those, such as Stripe, PayPal and so on. The most popular package is next, with Medium costing $39.99 per month and is aimed at small businesses with up to ten employees. For that amount you get up to 1000 transactions per month, unlimited accounting hook ups and the same for payment platforms. 

There is also scope in this package for additional transactions while extra users can be added for $19.99 per month. Businesses with greater financial management needs can plump for the Large package, with costs $199.99 per month. This, says Synder, is ideal for small businesses with up to 50 employees.

Synder requires you to work through some initial steps to set it up (Image credit: Synder)

Features

If you’re running a small business then being able to remain efficient will be paramount to your success. Synder therefore proves highly useful as it lets you receive credit card payments online and dynamically record transactions from popular payment processors such as Stripe and also e-commerce platforms. 

So, for example, if you make use of something like Shopify it’s easy to create a seamless transition to your accounting software such as QuickBooks or Xero. In fact, Synder can be used to integrate all of the popular payment processors with many of the best accounting packages, and synchronizes your resulting data with the minimum of effort. 

If you use PayPal, Stripe, Square, eBay, Shopify or Amazon they can all be connected to your accounts with minimal configuration. Adding to the benefit of Synder is the way it allows you to send invoices and receive credit card payments.

The Synder feature set makes it really practical for streamlining your workflow (Image credit: Synder)

Performance

You can expect plenty of zesty performance from Synder as it seems to have been put together by a very enthusiastic team. However, the design has also been robustly engineered to ensure that your data remains safe and secure, with roll back and duplicate detector functions built in. These, say the company, will help to protect your transactions and ensure a good level of security. 

Synder is also frequently praised for its accuracy when it comes to reconciliation, meaning that like for like checks and comparisons for accounting periods are completely accurate. And, when it comes to syncing your financial data, Synder gets the job done without messing around, which is just what you need if you’re running a small business where time and money is often tight

If you get stuck during setup it's easy to get some assistance from support staff (Image credit: Synder)

Ease of use

You’ll need to spend some quality time getting to know the ropes with Synder, especially during the initial setup stages. You may also require some help from the support staff in order to get things running just right. However, Synder’s slick interface and easily accessed power tools prove to be generally straightforward once you’ve got used to what the various features and functions do. 

Once you’ve signed up you’ll need to pick your way through 12 steps in all, which cover everything from connecting your accounting system and payment platform through to sales settings, product settings plus tax and fee settings too. Once you’ve worked through all of the steps you should be ready to go. The Synder dashboard is refreshingly minimalistic, with core menu options sitting down the left-hand side of your screen. We like it.

You'll also need to have an account with either QuickBooks or Xero to get started (Image credit: Synder)

Support

The Synder support experience sounds like a dream come true if you’re more normally used to waiting in queues to speak to someone, or regularly spend time sitting around waiting for replies to emails. Synder promises instant help for every customer, via live chat, phone, email and there’s also the benefit of screen sharing where needed.

Synder has a full suite of support options available to its customers (Image credit: Synder)

Synder also has a very lively blog area too, with a plethora of articles related to both the app and also key areas of related business interest if you’re a signed up user of the system.

Final verdict

Synder delivers a great vibe with its refreshing and dynamic approach to finance management. It seems more than capable of smoothing out bumps in the accounting road, especially when it comes to integrating your payment processing with your bookkeeping duties. 

As always, time is money, and the way that Synder can shave hours off monthly accounting chores seems like a great justification for using one of its packages. Add on the way that Synder has made its pricing structure realistically lean, especially for businesses that are doubtless struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic and you’ve got the makings of a great package that looks set to get even better as it grows.

If you've got a smaller business then it's worth looking at similar options such as Sage Business Cloud Accounting, QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, Freeagent, GoSimpleTax, TaxCalc, Nomisma, ABC Self-Assessment or Crunch.

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