Best Black Friday Financial Tools for Entrepreneurs (2024)

Why Entrepreneurs Need to Master Their Finances

Running your own business means wearing a lot of hats, and one of the most important — yet often neglected — is managing your money. Beyond updating client websites or shipping products, you need to understand bookkeeping, payroll, and personal finance. These aren't optional skills; they're foundational to building a sustainable business.

The good news? None of it is as complicated as it sounds. Eventually you can hire a bookkeeper or a CPA, but when you're small, spending thousands on professional financial help is money better spent elsewhere. Black Friday is the perfect time to invest in tools and resources that will actually generate a return — not just another gadget collecting dust.

This roundup covers two must-read books and four pieces of software that, together, create a complete financial system for entrepreneurs at every stage.

Two Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read About Money

Before diving into software, it's worth building the right mental framework around money. Two books stand out above the rest for entrepreneurs.

**I Will Teach You To Be Rich** by Ramit Sethi tackles personal finance head-on. It's not about penny-pinching or extreme frugality — it's about building what Ramit calls a "conscious spending plan." The idea is simple: every dollar that comes in should already have a job. You decide in advance what goes to bills, savings, investments, and guilt-free spending. This eliminates the anxiety of money just sitting in your account with no direction.

**Profit First** by Mike Michalowicz applies a similar philosophy to your business finances. The core concept is to pay yourself first — take your profit off the top before allocating money to expenses. It fights the natural tendency to spend every dollar available, the same way students use every minute of a deadline. The book can be a bit long-winded with stories, but the underlying system is genuinely transformative. You can grab the hardcover on Amazon for around $10 during Black Friday.

Quicken Simplifi: Personal Budgeting Done Right

If you've read Ramit Sethi's book, Quicken Simplifi is the tool that brings his conscious spending plan to life. It's a personal finance dashboard — not a full bookkeeping suite — that connects to all of your bank accounts and gives you a clear visual picture of where your money is going.

The Black Friday deal brings Simplifi down to just $1.98 per month billed annually, which works out to roughly $25 for the year. Keep in mind it renews at full price (around $75/year), but at that introductory rate, there's very little risk in trying it out. There's also a 30-day money-back guarantee.

What makes Simplifi stand out is its spending plan feature. You set up your income, allocate money to bills and savings goals, and then track everything against that plan. It works beautifully on both desktop and the iOS app. You can itemize individual savings goals — emergency fund, vacation, new equipment — and set monthly contribution targets. Simplifi won't move money for you (you'll still need to set up automated transfers at your bank), but it keeps the plan visible and measurable.

This matters especially for entrepreneurs, where income can swing wildly month to month. Having a clear plan helps you weather the lean months without panic. After four years of daily use, Simplifi remains the go-to budgeting tool — and the starting point for getting your personal finances in order before tackling business finances.

Relay Financial: The Profit First Banking System

Once your personal finances are sorted, it's time to structure your business accounts. Relay Financial is the banking platform that makes implementing the Profit First system painless. Unlike traditional banks where opening multiple accounts is a hassle, Relay lets you create separate accounts for different roles — profit, owner's pay, taxes, operating expenses — all under one roof.

Relay isn't part of the Black Friday deals because it's a free bank. There's no cost to sign up or maintain your accounts. But it's worth mentioning here because it's the connective tissue between the Profit First philosophy and the bookkeeping software you'll layer on top. If you're curious about the details, there's a dedicated deep-dive video on the channel covering exactly how to set it up.

Xero vs. FreshBooks: Choosing the Right Bookkeeping Tool

Every business needs a bookkeeping tool, and the two best options for small businesses and freelancers are Xero and FreshBooks. They serve different use cases, though, so the right choice depends on your business model.

**Xero** is the better fit if you're running an e-commerce business, managing inventory, or dealing with a high volume of individual line items. Their Black Friday deal is hard to beat: 95% off for the first three months, which brings the starter plan down to just $0.75 per month. After that, it's $15/month for the base plan. If you need inventory tracking, you'll want the Growing plan at $47/month plus the inventory add-on.

**FreshBooks** is ideal for freelancers, consultants, and small agencies — especially if you bill by the hour or send recurring invoices. The invoicing experience is polished, and the interface feels less like "doing accounting" and more like running your business. Their deal is 80% off for four months, putting the recommended plan at roughly $7/month (about $25 total for those four months). After the promotional period, expect to pay around $33/month.

Both platforms have been around for years and are well-proven. If you're currently stuck on QuickBooks and have ever found yourself frustrated with it, now is the cheapest time to test-drive an alternative. You can migrate your books to the new platform before the new year starts, giving you a clean slate for January.

Gusto: Payroll That Actually Works

Payroll is one of those things that feels intimidating until you find the right tool. Gusto handles everything — paying employees, paying contractors, and even paying yourself as an employee of your own company. That last point is especially relevant if you've structured your business as an LLC with an S-corp election, which can save you significantly on self-employment taxes.

Gusto's pricing breaks down into three tiers. The Simple plan runs $40/month plus $6 per person, which is plenty for most small businesses. The Plus plan is $60/month plus $9 per person (discounted from $80), and Premium is $135/month plus $16.50 per person. There's a referral link available that knocks $100 off after you run your first payroll, regardless of which plan you choose.

What really sets Gusto apart is the customer service. Any time an issue comes up — a tax filing question, a compliance notification — Gusto surfaces it on your dashboard and their support team handles it quickly. After switching from running payroll through QuickBooks, the difference in reliability and ease of use is night and day. It's one of those rare SaaS products where the support experience alone justifies the price.

Building Your Financial Stack

Putting it all together, here's the full financial stack for entrepreneurs: start with the two books to build the right habits and systems, then layer on the software to automate and track everything. Quicken Simplifi handles your personal budgeting. Relay Financial gives you the account structure for Profit First. Xero or FreshBooks manages your business bookkeeping. And Gusto takes care of payroll.

None of these tools are expensive — especially at Black Friday pricing — and each one solves a specific problem that, left unaddressed, will cost you far more in the long run. The key insight is that personal finance and business finance are deeply connected. If your personal spending is chaotic, your business finances will follow. Get the foundation right, and everything else becomes much easier to manage.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.