Does the small business market really need websites that only help users create and send invoices and receive payments? Yes, for many reasons, including the fact that many sole proprietors and microbusinesses only use a small percentage of what Xero and QuickBooks Online offer. And as you know, there are a LOT of sole proprietors and microbusinesses.

The last year has been fairly uneventful as far as online small business accounting websites are concerned. There have been no introductions of promising new all-encompassing applications, nor has any company whose name you'd recognize dropped out of the race. The major players continue their march toward integration with related web-based services. Mobile apps keep getting better, and everyone tweaks and fixes and updates existing features.

For the small or mid-sized business owner, today's crop of accounting solutions is an embarrassment of riches. Your clients can dip their toes into cloud-based accounting by using an online solution for one or two functions. They can integrate an online add-on with their desktop accounting software. They can forge ahead and implement a 100-percent-in-the-cloud solution, like QuickBooks Online or Intacct, or sign up for a hosted environment.