Accounting and invoicing software

What does accounting and invoicing software do?

It keeps your books and gets you paid. Two halves, one product. The accounting side pulls in bank and card transactions, matches them to invoices, bills and receipts, and turns them into a profit and loss statement and balance sheet your accountant can file taxes from. The invoicing side sends estimates, invoices and reminders and takes card or bank payments.

Every product here does both, but each leans one way. FreshBooks and Wave start from invoicing. QuickBooks Online, Xero and Zoho Books start from the ledger.

Which accounting software fits your business?

The default for a US small business with an outside accountant is QuickBooks Online. It has the deepest US bookkeeping toolkit, and most accountants already use it. If you’ve already got an accountant, ask which software they use before you buy anything. Switch when one of these applies:

• If several people need logins, choose Xero. It charges no per-user fees. Growing costs $59 a month; QuickBooks Plus costs $140.
• If revenue is under $50,000 a year, Zoho Books is free for one user plus your accountant.
• If you bill a handful of clients for your time, FreshBooks has the strongest invoicing and time tracking. Lite costs $1 a month for the first year, then $23. It covers only 5 billable clients.
• If you need invoices and nothing else yet, Wave Starter is free with unlimited invoices. Don’t use it outside the US and Canada, the only markets it serves.
• If you want to host the books yourself, Akaunting’s core is free, but double-entry and bank feeds are paid apps and setup needs PHP skills.

Software	Intro price	Regular price	Limit that forces an upgrade
QuickBooks Online Simple Start	$19/mo for 3 months	$38/mo	1 user
Xero Early	$5.40/mo for 3 months	$27/mo	20 invoices and 5 bills a month
Zoho Books Free	None	$0	Revenue under $50,000; 1 user + 1 accountant
FreshBooks Lite	$1/mo for 12 months	$23/mo	5 billable clients
Wave Starter	None	$0	Automatic bank import needs Pro ($19/mo)

When don’t you need paid accounting software?

When your books are small and simple. The IRS says you may choose “any recordkeeping system suited to your business that clearly shows your income and expenses”. A freelancer with a dozen transactions a month can run on Wave Starter, Zoho Books Free or a careful spreadsheet with a separate business bank account. Skip the paid plan until you need bank feeds, bills or a second user. In practice, revisit the choice before your first tax season, when an accountant will want clean categories.

What catches most buyers out?

Most people miss the month-four price.

1. The discount ends. QuickBooks gives 50% off for three months and Xero 80%. QuickBooks Essentials then costs $85 a month. That price rose on August 1, 2026. Xero raised its US prices on October 1, 2026. When you compare, use month four. Never month one.
2. Caps force upgrades. QuickBooks limits users to 1, 3, 5 or 25 by plan, Xero Early stops at 20 invoices a month, and FreshBooks charges $11 a month for each extra team member.
3. Leaving is harder than joining. Don’t forget the records rule. The IRS asks you to keep most tax records for 3 years, 4 years for employment tax and 7 for a bad-debt deduction. If you cancel QuickBooks Online, you get read-only access for one year, per Intuit’s help article. Export your reports before you switch.

How should you read our accounting & invoicing software reviews?

Each score is a research score from official pricing, fee pages and help-center documentation. We don’t keep test companies in these products. When you compare two tools, read the per-criterion lines. QuickBooks scores 9.8 for accountant fit but 6.8 for price. Zoho Books flips that: 9.2 for price, 7.2 for accountant fit. Your situation decides which line matters, so don’t bother with the total until you know which risk you’re buying against.

These pages compare software. They are not tax advice. Ask a CPA or enrolled agent about your chart of accounts, sales tax or entity tax questions. The QuickBooks Online review covers the top pick in depth, and payroll lives next door in payroll and HR, with Gusto ranked first. Both sit in our business and finance section.