BEST LAPTOP FOR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS

It’s no news that accounting has evolved over the years. The way bookkeeping and data entry were done some years back are nowhere compared to how it is today. With the power of high-performance laptops, much complex accounting can be done in quick time.

Yes, I can understand how difficult it could be to choose an accounting laptop. In this article, you will get to know the best laptop for accounting professionals. At the end of the article, you get to see my favorite pick and why I consider it the best. So, sit back and enjoy the ride.

10 BEST LAPTOP FOR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS IN 2021

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1. NEW APPLE MACBOOK PRO 16″ – BEST LAPTOP FOR ACCOUNTANTS

This laptop was designed to go past the limits.  I can tell you this from first-hand experience. In fact, according to Apple, it’s the best laptop they have ever made. Mind-blowing right?

Starting with the display, it has a 16inches retina display. It can give off a maximum of 500 nits, and with the P3 wide color gamut, images and videos are more immersive.

The keyboard issues with older MacBooks have been completely addressed in this newer product. The new Magic keyboard works with a scissors mechanism and 1mm travel for a comfortable, quiet, and responsive typing experience.

The new MacBook Pro has the latest 2.3GHz Intel Core i9 Processor with 8-cores. Now, this is pretty impressive for a laptop. The new Macbook Pro is really the king of performance. This high processing power gives you the luxury of doing anything possible on a PC without any lagging. In my regard, it’s the best laptop for accountants.

All this processing power is also compensated for with a more advanced cooling system. Better fan-blades, as well as more heat-dispersing fins, are installed to achieve this.

You get a 16GB RAM which makes multitasking very smooth. With large storage of 1TB, you have more space to store large videos, software, and important accounting documents.

As regards the battery, it has a 100WH lithium-polymer battery. This battery is more than enough to power the large display and processor. Ultimately, you would get up to 11hrs of battery life on this thing.

It has Thunderbolt 3 ports for fast data transfer and quick charging. It has six stereo speakers that give it very rich acoustics.

Pros

• Long battery life
• Excellent keyboard
• Wide and vibrant Display
• Powerful Processor
• Great acoustics

Cons

• Very expensive

2. ASUS ZENBOOK 14 ULTRA-SLIM 14″ – BEST LAPTOP FOR BUSINESS QUICKBOOKS 2021

There’s a lot to say about this laptop but let me start by talking about the weight. It is very portable and is also very light weighted. I mean, it weighs 2lbs and is just about 0.6inch thick. Now, you can imagine how compact and light it feels.

One thing ASUS can boast for in this laptop is the interactive 5.65inches touchscreen trackpad. You can dial numbers on the trackpad and also write down on it. This would come in handy for an accountant looking to do more work fast.

This laptop has a wide 14inches screen, 1920 X 1080 screen resolution, and a Nano-Edge Bezel Display. This gives you the rich and immersive display you need in a laptop. The overall design is sleek. With raised keyboards, the typing experience on this thing is pretty sweet.

It runs on Windows 10 Pro and makes use of the latest-generation Intel Core i7 as its processor. And with a 16GB RAM, this laptop runs high-end accounting software perfectly. It’s one of the best laptop for business QuickBooks in 2021. As a bonus, the 16GB would make gaming lag-free.

You get a 512GB SSD storage which may be good or bad for some people depending on your needs. The battery life, 67Wh is largely considered to be not so great. Depending on the task running, you get averagely 8 to 10 hours of battery life. However, it has a USB-C charger for quick charging.

It has a great cooling system. It barely heats up even during high battery consuming task.

So, let’s have a brief of the pros and cons shall we.

Pros

• Innovative Touchscreen Trackpad
• Great Overall Design
• It barely heats up
• Powerful Processor
• Portable 

Cons

• The battery is no so great

3. DELL NEW XPS 13 9300 13.4″ – BEST LAPTOP FOR BOOKKEEPING BUSINESS

The DELL XPS 13 is the latest laptop from Dell. This 13.4-inch touchscreen display laptop has gained the love of many because of its design. It is masterly constructed with aluminum and a palm rest made out of carbon film. The display is truly outstanding.

It has Dolby Vision Content that can produce 40 times brighter highlights. This is guaranteed to give you images and videos of high quality. Still, on display, the screen is made of Gorilla Glass 6. As such, it is very tough, durable, elegant, and highly resistant to damage. It is also integrated with EyeSafe Technology to prevent eye damage.

For the processing power, the DELL XPS 13 3900 features tenth generation Intel Core i7-1065G7. Backed up by 16GB of RAM, this laptop was very efficient while multitasking. It is the kind of laptop you can count on to perform all your accounting tasks smoothly.

As an accountant, storage is a very important feature in a PC. Well, it has 512GB SSD of storage. This is usually enough for most people. However, a more experienced accountant might require larger storage to store more files.

The keyboard is also a notable improvement. The XPS 13 has a keyboard that runs edge-to-edge that is less cramped. It has a 4.4 x 2.6inch touchpad that makes use of Precision Drivers to give you a more accurate finger response.

Now about the battery. Depending on the task, you can get a maximum of 18 hours, 49 minutes on Full HD while running simple programs like Microsoft Excel or Word. Not to forget, it runs on Windows 10 Pro operating system.

Pros

• Elegant Display
• Long Battery life
• Highly Responsive Touchpad
• Excellent Design

Cons

• Storage is not so large
• Very expensive

4. ACER PREDATOR HELIOS 300 LAPTOP 15.6″ – BEST COMPUTER FOR ACCOUNTING FIRM

This is a powerful gaming laptop that has proven to be more than useful for accountants. Because it’s a gaming PC, it has all the high specs that would make it suitable for accounting purposes. Processing power, storage, battery life are all specs on the high-end. Let’s get into more details, shall we?

Starting with the design, this laptop is quite bulky. It weighs about 5.3 pounds and measures about 0.9-inches in thickness. Obviously, from those numbers, you can see that it’s a heavy laptop. It has a 15.6-inches widescreen and doesn’t feature a touchscreen display.

The refresh rate on this PC is very impressive. It has a 240Hz refresh rate. Again, it’s a gaming PC and this feature would be most appreciated by gamers. However, as an accountant, the 1920 x 1080 pixel’s resolution should give you an immersive viewing experience with your bookkeeping software.

One feature I find very amusing with the Acer predator is its keyboard. It is quiet and very quick to respond. The keyboard light on this thing is incredible. With this laptop, you can customize the keyboard to give off different shades of red, green, and blue in 4 different zones. As such, the keyboard light looks aesthetic in the dark.

It has the eight generation Intel Core i7-8750H as its processor as well as 16GB of RAM. These are great specs that brings the CPU speed to 4.1GHz. With this, all your software with work without any lagging. What’s more, they would run very fast.

The laptop comes from the manufactures with 256GB of storage. This is clearly very small. However, you can decide to upgrade the storage to as much as 2TB. Lastly, with 48Wh battery life, you should be getting averagely 7 hours run-time on this PC.

Pros

• Great keyboard
• Powerful Processor
• High refresh rate

Cons

• It is heavy
• Low Storage
• Poor battery

5. APPLE MACBOOK AIR 13″ – BEST LAPTOP FOR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS 2021

This a lightweight laptop with an overall sleek design. It’s the more affordable MacBook you can buy if your budget doesn’t fit the more expensive ones like the Pro version.

It has a 13.3 inches wide Retina Display with 2560 x 1600 resolution. With this display, you get a very immersive viewing experience. It has true tone technology which automatically adjusts your display based on the lighting condition. Now, this is a feature you don’t get to see on many PCs.

At the “heart” of the laptop is an Intel Core i3 as its processor. Yes, I know that might be a bit underwhelming, but alongside 8GB RAM, this processor is far from being bad. Regular tasks are carried out effortlessly. However, if you plan on high-end multitasking software, I will recommend a PC with higher processing power.  

It has 256GB of storage, which might be perfect for you if you are looking to store low-sized files on it. Because it’s a MacBook, it features the macOS, which is a great operating system with a nice User interface.

The battery life on a laptop with such a lightweight is pretty remarkable. On average, the battery is about 12 hours. You can use it while on the go without having to worry about charging. And with the latest Thunderbolt 3 port, you get a laptop that charges very fast.

The MacBook Air also gives you a sense of security with its fingerprint sensor. By setting up the fingerprint sensor, you can unlock this laptop with just your fingerprint.

Pros

• Fingerprint sensor
• Excellent Battery
• Awesome Display
• Fast Charging
• Sleek Design

Cons

• Low Storage

6. ACER ASPIRE E 15 15.6″ – BEST LAPTOPS FOR ACCOUNTING MAJORS

The Aspire E series are laptops from Acer that always has something new to offer in newer versions.  The E 15 didn’t disappoint in this regard. The sleek design, as well as the appealing specs and features, makes you feel you are getting the best value for your money.  It’s the ideal budget laptop that is suitable for accounting students and professionals.

It has a 15.6 inches wide display with 1920 x 1080 resolution. Because of its poor color contrast, the color accuracy is not as great as other more expensive laptops. It’s not the best display quality, yet it’s a good one for its price.

One thing I found interesting was the weight of this laptop. Most times, 15iches screen laptops are usually bulky. But with the E 15, careful attention was paid to make it as light as possible. In all, you get 5.27lbs of weight which I believe is still okay for a 15incher.

The size of the E 15 gives it enough room for keyboard spacing. So, you get more keyboard travel with the wide spacing. Asides the travel, the keyboard feels very solid and is also quite responsive. The 4.1 x 3 touchpad also responds sharply to simple and basic gestures. Other than that, there are no special features with the trackpad.

This PC has an amazing lineup of performance specs. With Intel Core i3 and 6GB RAM, you get an averagely good performance laptop. It does simple tasks well without a drag. But for more processing power-intensive tasks, it is impossible not to notice the lag.

However, I guess Acer tried to make up for that by giving 1TB of storage.  And with 13hours of battery life, you need not carry your charger around once it is fully charged.

Pros

• Excellent Battery
• Large Storage Capacity
• Great keyboard spacing

Cons

• Bland Display
• Average Performance
• It’s a bit heavy

7. HP PAVILION GAMING LAPTOP 15.6″ – BEST LAPTOP FOR FINANCE

This is another gaming with specs that make it worthy of this best laptop for accounting professionals list. Yet another gaming laptop that comes in handy for running all your high requirements accounting software.

It has the typical aesthetic design of a gaming laptop. It has a 15.6 inches wide FHD display with 1920 X 1080 resolution. It has a 362-nits bright screen which is really not enough to give you the ultimate brightness. But with a 60Hz refresh rate, you get a decent screen response.

It has a green backlit keyboard, with a quick and quiet response. Its hinges are centrally placed, and the overall design is a matte-black metallic outside and inside finish. It has a weight of 4.84 pounds which is pretty decent for a laptop of its size.

It has the all processing power needed for most accounting tasks. The combination of the Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM makes this laptop suitable for running all your basic tasks. It runs high-end programs decently too but with few and negligible lags.

HP also boasts about the large storage they put in this thing. Its 1TB storage space gives you the room to store many files and large software. Averagely, you get a maximum of 7.5 hours battery life which for me is a bit underwhelming.

Pros

• Large Storage
• Good Performance
• Great Design

Cons

• Poor Battery life
• Heavy

8. 2020 LENOVO THINKPAD E15 15.6″ – BEST LAPTOP FOR BUSINESS QUICKBOOKS

This is another great accounting laptop that yet again stood tall among its competitors. It’s impossible not to be impressed by the improved features on this laptop.

Lenovo did a good job of reducing the weight of this product. Its lid is made of aluminum while the rest of the body is metal, Bringing the weight to about 1.90kg. Even though some people think otherwise, I consider this a very good weight for a laptop.

Lenovo is known for making keyboards with great travel. Gladly, they didn’t disappoint. One this model, we get a keyboard with quieter feedback and much better travel. Now, let’s talk about the display.

This is a 15.6 inches display laptop with a maximum resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The overall general color representation is great, so you can expect videos to be rendered in good quality.

Although there are better displays on other laptops, the Lenovo ThinkPad didn’t fail at all in my regards. By running on Windows 10 Pro, you get a smooth experience with the user-interface.

It makes us of Intel tenth generation Core i5-10210UI as its processor. And with 16GB RAM, it is fit to handle a lot of tasks. All your accounting software will work without any lagging. Although while running too many high software, a lag can be experienced. Which I can say is normal for its processor.

The battery is not so great. It is integrated with 45WH, bringing the battery life to about 8 hours while running regular programs on max brightness. This could be okay for you, depending on your needs.

Pros

• Powerful processor
• Great Keyboard
• Low Storage space
• It is more lightweight than older models

Cons

• Battery life is not great

9. MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO – BEST LAPTOP FOR ACCOUNTING STUDENT

This is a very portable and high-performance device from Microsoft. In this incredibly lightweight laptop, you get all the advanced features you can expect from other laptops with the same specs.

It’s a 12.3inches touchscreen display with a surface pen input resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels. With these specs, this device is great for studying, taking notes, drawing, and any other thing you want to do on a notebook. That is why I think it’s a very good device for accounting students.

It has a detachable keyboard, so you can use it in both laptop and tablet modes. It has a very flexible stand that gives you the advantage of placing the laptop in different angles.

The whole device has this luxurious look that will make it stand out among other laptops. The mouse accessory for one is very light and slim, and the arc shape is designed to match your hands perfectly for a smoother experience.

It features Intel Core i7 as its processor and 16GB of RAM. So, you can multitask on this device without any sweat. It has an 8GB RAM version, but as you can expect, that doesn’t perform as good as the 16GB. That doesn’t mean it’s bad though. It works well too. 

Moving on to the storage. The standard version comes with 1TB of storage. This is more than enough to contain as many accounting files as you want. There are lower versions with 512, 256, 128GB of storage. All of which costs lesser than the standard version.

It has one lithium polymer battery that gives you a maximum of 10hours when running simple tasks like typing. As an upgrade, it makes use of USB-C port for fast charging.

Pros

• Great Performance
• Very portable
• Could be used a laptop and tablet
• USB-C fast charging port

Cons

• Battery life is on the downside

10. HUAWEI MATEBOOK X PRO – BEST LAPTOP FOR ACCOUNTING STUDENTS

This is a very portable and high-performance device from Microsoft. In this incredibly lightweight laptop, you get all the advanced features you can expect from other laptops with the same specs.

It’s a 12.3inches touchscreen display with a surface pen input resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels. With these specs, this device is great for studying, taking notes, drawing, and any other thing you want to do on a notebook. That is why I think it’s a very good device for accounting students.

It has a detachable keyboard, so you can use it in both laptop and tablet modes. It has a very flexible stand that gives you the advantage of placing the laptop in different angles.

The whole device has this luxurious look that will make it stand out among other laptops. The mouse accessory for one is very light and slim, and the arc shape is designed to match your hands perfectly for a smoother experience.

It features Intel Core i7 as its processor and 16GB of RAM. So, you can multitask on this device without any sweat. It has an 8GB RAM version, but as you can expect, that doesn’t perform as good as the 16GB. That doesn’t mean it’s bad though. It works well too. 

Moving on to the storage. The standard version comes with 1TB of storage. This is more than enough to contain as many accounting files as you want. There are lower versions with 512, 256, 128GB of storage. All of which costs lesser than the standard version.

Pros

• Good performance 
• Great Battery life
• Touchscreen
• Compact

Cons

• Unusual Aspect Ratio

HOW TO CHOOSE BEST LAPTOP FOR ACCOUNTING STUDENTS IN 2021 – ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE

All the products listed above have their peculiarities. It is important that you get a general overview of the different products before making your decision on which one to buy. So, here are some important buying guides you need to know.

1. DISPLAY

The laptops come in several inches of display. 13 and 15inches display are the most common. However, if you need a laptop that will give you a broader view of your spreadsheets, a 15 inches display PC is highly recommended. For example, the Lenovo ThinkPad 15.

For accounting students, a smaller screen might be preferable. Because with a smaller screen, the PC can be used as a notebook and can be very useful for studying. The Microsoft surface book Pro, for example, is a great device for studying and note-taking. A touchscreen laptop that supports a stylus pen would make notetaking easier.

If you are really into getting a vivid display from your laptop, then you need to look for a PC with a high resolution. Most of the laptops listed have a 1920 X 1080 pixels display which is decent enough to give you an immersive viewing experience. But for more clarity in your display, a laptop like Dell XP 13 has the specs that can give you 40 times brighter highlights.

2. BATTERY

Battery is a big deal when it comes to laptops these days. As an accountant, you might find yourself in places where charging would be difficult. So, you need a PC that can run for as long as you need it.

Personally, I usually recommend buying a laptop with 10hours of battery life. With this, you can go through with all the days’ work without having to worry about charging. And you can work all night too smoothing without charging.

Fortunately, there are many laptops that can run for 10hours straight. In fact, laptops like the MacBook Pro, Acer Aspire E 15 can work for as long as 12-14hours. So with this, you can go more hours doing your work.

Although it is important to note that the programs you are running have a major effect on the battery life. If you are playing high-end games, you should expect that the battery life would decrease drastically. However, with simple task programs like Microsoft Word or Excel, you can expect a battery that would live up to its numbers.

3. PROCESSOR

The processing power of a PC says a lot about how it would work under multitasking. If you are looking to perform numerous high-end tasks at once on your PC, then this is a spec you need to pay close attention to.

Most PCs run on Intel Core i5 which is quite suitable for most software. Although with Core i5, you might still experience some lags when running some software. So, to avoid this, you might want to opt for a laptop with a Core i7 processor. Still, the King of processing power on this best laptop for accounting professionals list is the New Apple MacBook Pro.

It uses the latest Intel Core i9 as its processor. Therefore, you are sure that the PC would work nicely without experiencing any lag. But, if you don’t intend to use your PC for complex tasks, then you can go for a laptop with Core i3 processor. One of such is the MacBook Air.

4. STORAGE

As an accountant, storage is a very important asset to your work. Laptops are beginning to have more storage these days. Newer PCs now have as much as 2TB of storage.

Ultimately, the laptop storage you decide to go for depends on your needs. Most accountants are interested in storing documents, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. Therefore, 512SSD storage should be enough to contain all that. 

But obviously, 512 isn’t the highest storage. You can opt for 1TB storage space if you are looking to download large-sized apps and movies on your laptop.

There are also laptops with 256GB as well as 128GB of storage. I usually don’t recommend these laptops to people who have a lot of large files to store. Nonetheless, if you don’t have much to store, you can buy a laptop with 256GB or 128GB storage.

5. SIZE

Size really matters to accounting professionals. Most people want a very compact laptop they can easily carry around without any stress. A laptop that weighs more than 3 pounds is considered a “no-no” for some professionals.

Students most especially need a notebook-sized laptop that would fit into their backpack perfectly. That is why the Microsoft Surface Pro is such an excellent choice for students.

Thus, a laptop that weighs anything less than 3 pounds should be good for you if you need a light-weighted laptop. Consequently, compact laptops have their downside.

Most compact laptops’ screens are a few inches smaller. They mostly come with a 13inches screen, which might not be good enough for those that love big screens like me. But I guess you must be willing to trade off the screen if you really need a compact laptop.

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BRANDS DESCRIPTION

1. ASUS

This Taiwan based company was founded in 1989 and has since then been of the biggest manufacturers of phones, laptops, projects, and other devices. In 2017, they were ranked the fifth largest PC vendor in the world.

2. DELL

Is an American multinational technology company. The company was founded in 1984, and a year later, they produced their first computer. 

3. ACER

This is another Taiwan based company that specializes in advanced electronics. They produce laptops, desktops, tablets, storage devices, servers as well as other PC accessories.

4. APPLE

Is an American multinational company with its headquarters in California. After its founding in 1976, the company has risen to become one of the most valuable companies in the world today with yearly revenue of $260.174billion.

5. HP

Hewlett-Packard or HP is an American company that has long been in the business of developing personal computers and other accessories like printers. They are also one of the leading tech companies involved in the latest 3D printing technology.

6. LENOVO

This multinational company is based in Hong-Kong and is the largest PC vendor in the world with a market share of 24.1%. They also manufacture smartphones, smart televisions, servers, and other electronic devices.

7. MICROSOFT

Is an American information technology company that specializes in developing computer software like the Windows Operating System. The company also joined the hardware market by manufacturing PCs, tablets, and the well-known Xbox game console.

8. HUAWEI

Is a Chinese company that manufactures and sells smartphones, laptops, and other consumer electronics. In 2012, it became the largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment in the world.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)

1. Can Every laptop run QuickBooks Software?

Well, so far your laptop is using 2GB of RAM (at least), then you should be good to go with the QuickBooks software. But if it’s the premium version, you would need a processor with CPU speed of 2.0GHz (at least).

2. How to choose the best laptop for Accounting students?

The most important software for an accounting student is QuickBooks Software. So, a laptop that has the specs to run the software smoothly should be good for an accounting student.

3.What are the factors to consider when buying a laptop?

First, you should have a budget. Once you have a budget, you should go for a laptop within your budget range that has the best processor and battery life. Those are the two key ingredients to having a great laptop experience.

4. Do you need security on your laptop?

It is expected that you would have important information stored on your laptop. So, it is very vital that your laptop has a standard security system. Laptops with fingerprints sensor are a great choice for optimum security.

5. What is the good processor for a laptop?

The Intel Core i5 is quite a good processor. It would run all your accounting software without lagging and is also very good for multitasking. However, the i7 would do a better job.

6. Should I get an i5 or 17?

As an accountant, core i5 should be okay to run all your software. The core i7 is mostly used by gamers who are interested in playing games with high requirements. However, if you really want the best processing power in your PC, then you can go for the i7.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Our list of the best laptop for accounting professionals. Personally, my favourite laptop on the list is the New Apple MacBook Pro. I mean, it has everything. From the processing power to the display and battery life, it has all the features that would make you enjoy a PC.

But due to the high price, I would probably consider the Acer Aspire E 15. Most people make the mistake of buying a laptop because it is highly-priced. However, not every expensive laptop really worth its price. Before you buy, you should check the specs and see that it matches your needs.

For the Acer Aspire E 15, it has a fair price and it still gets the job done smoothly. You can click the link to buy now.