For a US consultant, the useful shortlist starts with how you bill and who reviews your books. Consider Wave or Zoho Books for simple invoices, FreshBooks or Zoho for hourly projects and retainers, and Xero for team or multi-currency work. If your accountant works in QuickBooks, choose the edition that gives them access. HoneyBook is a separate choice for contracts and client administration alongside an accounting system.
A recurring invoice, a time budget and a project profit report answer different questions. Paying for one does not mean you get all three. The comparison below separates those capabilities so you can choose the plan that matches your work.
Compare the plans on the same basis
Sources checked October 1–2, 2026. These are US offers in USD at regular monthly billing rates, excluding introductory promotions and annual-billing discounts. The amounts cover the named subscription; taxes, payment processing, payroll, extra users and other add-ons may increase the total. Vendor links document the offers and features; the scenario recommendations are editorial judgments, not hands-on product ratings.
| Product and suitable work | Regular US cost and billing basis | Time/project billing | Books and handoff | Material limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreshBooks: hourly work and retainers | Lite $23, Plus $43, Premium $70 per month | Time tracking across plans; retainers from Plus; profitability from Premium | Bank reconciliation, accounting reports, receipt scanning and accountant access from Plus | Billable clients: 5/50/unlimited respectively; team members $11/month each |
| QuickBooks: solo records or accountant collaboration | Lite $20/month; Online Simple Start $38, Essentials $85, Plus $140/month | Online Essentials adds employee time to invoices; Plus adds project profitability | Lite has one user and no accountant access; Online Simple Start has one user plus access for two accountants | Lite's project profitability and automatic estimated-tax calculation were not verified; assisted tax filing costs extra |
| Xero: team and international projects | Early $27, Growing $59, Established $97 per organization/month | Established includes multiple currencies and project time/cost tracking | Bank reconciliation and reports; unlimited general users | Early allows 20 invoices and five bills/month; Projects/Expenses usage allowances need confirmation |
| Zoho Books: simple invoices through project work | Free $0, Standard $20, Professional $50 per organization/month | Billable timesheets, retainers, project profitability and multi-currency start at Professional | Free includes one user and one accountant; Standard adds bank feeds and includes three users; Professional includes five | Free requires annual revenue no higher than $50,000 and allows 1,000 invoices/year; Professional allows 10,000/year |
| Wave: simple invoicing and bookkeeping | Starter $0; Pro $19/month per business | Native time-to-invoice and project profitability were not verified | Starter supports manual bookkeeping; Pro adds automatic bank imports, receipt scanning and collaborator roles | Receipt scanning costs $8/month separately or is included with Pro; bank support varies by institution |
| HoneyBook: proposals, contracts and client workflow | Starter $36, Essentials $59/month | Client invoices and project workflow; accounting project costing was not verified | Essentials adds bookkeeper access and a supported QuickBooks Online integration | Budget for a separate ledger; Essentials includes up to two team members |
The table compares selected plans, not every edition each vendor sells. FreshBooks Select requires a quote. An unverified capability is a question to resolve in a demo, not proof that the product lacks it. Check the linked plan and checkout terms before purchasing, including renewal price and the treatment of another business or organization.
Choose for the work you actually do
A solo practice sending a few fixed-fee invoices
Wave Starter and Zoho Books Free are candidates when you can maintain the records yourself and do not need built-in project costing. Zoho's Free eligibility and invoice ceiling matter even if your client count is small. Wave's Starter price does not include receipt scanning: its separate Receipts subscription and Pro plan are paid options. Zoho plan limits and Wave subscription fees establish those boundaries.
Decide whether automatic bank imports are worth a paid subscription for your transaction volume. They can reduce entry work, but you still need to review categories and reconcile the records to bank statements. A timer is optional when your billing does not depend on hours.
Hourly projects and recurring retainers
FreshBooks Plus and Zoho Books Professional are the relevant starting points for this comparison. FreshBooks supports adding billable time entries to invoices; its retainer workflow tracks time against an upfront budget and can bill excess hours separately. Project profitability requires Premium. Zoho's Professional tier combines billable timesheets, retainers and project profitability; Standard's lower price does not include that combination. FreshBooks features, Zoho features. If neither fits your engagements, our ranked FreshBooks alternatives and Zoho Books alternatives compare the other options on the same basis.
For a fixed-fee engagement, recorded hours can help you understand the cost of delivery without appearing on the client invoice. For a retainer, define what the fee covers and how overruns are approved. Those choices determine which billing features are useful.
Team members or clients using different currencies
Compare Xero Established with Zoho Books Professional against your actual currencies and access needs. Xero includes unlimited general users; that does not establish unlimited usage of Projects, Expenses or other services. Confirm the included allowances and any additional charges. Zoho Professional includes five users and multi-currency transactions. Xero US plans, Xero user access, Zoho US plans.
An assistant entering receipts, a subcontractor submitting time and an accountant reviewing the ledger need different permissions. Make those roles part of your decision instead of treating a user count as the whole collaboration requirement.
Regular work with an accountant or bookkeeper
Ask which edition and access role your adviser needs. QuickBooks' current US solopreneur page displays Free, Lite and Simple Start offers; an older reference to “Solopreneur” does not identify the current plan's capabilities. Lite includes unlimited invoices, receipt and mileage capture, and management of three contractors, but no accountant access. Online Simple Start supplies accountant access; Essentials and Plus add the time-billing and project features shown above. Current solo offer, Online editions.
Accountant collaboration is also available in the other products at the tiers described in the table. Agree on the required reports, supporting documents and access before choosing. Your annual revenue alone does not tell you whether an upgrade is necessary.
Contracts and client administration alongside your books
HoneyBook is a candidate when proposals, contracts, invoices and a client portal are central to the engagement. Treat its client-finance view as one part of your accounting workflow. Its documented QuickBooks connection requires HoneyBook Essentials or Premium and QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, Plus or Advanced, purchased separately. It can transfer invoices, payments, refunds and fees to one connected QuickBooks account. That is a defined integration, not a promise that every historical record and attachment migrates. HoneyBook membership features, integration requirements.
Include both subscriptions and the work of matching payments in your decision. Confirm the exact edition: a QuickBooks logo on an integration page does not establish compatibility with Lite.
Trial checklist: take one engagement through the books
Use a representative engagement in a trial or guided demo. Record what requires a higher tier or a separate service.
- Bill your actual contract. Try a fixed-fee invoice or an hourly invoice built from time entries, an expense reimbursement and a retainer if you use one. Check partial payments, a credit or refund, and how unbilled work remains visible.
- Download usable records. Inspect sample exports for client and invoice identifiers, issue/due dates, currency, totals and outstanding amounts. Payment records should let you trace gross receipts, processing fees, refunds and net deposits. Save a receipt and retrieve it separately; a transaction export may omit attachments.
- Reconcile a payment. Match an invoice payment through the processor's payout to the bank statement, including a fee and refund. Check how transfers and credit-card payments are distinguished from new expenses.
- Test the accountant's role. Have your adviser confirm the reports, transaction detail and supporting documents they can actually access with the proposed plan. Test the export they would use if direct access is unavailable.
- Price a normal busy month. Count billable clients, invoices, currencies and each person's role. Include payment fees, payroll, extra seats, project features and any companion ledger, then compare the renewal total on the same billing cadence.
Where a Beancount ledger fits
Beancount can suit a consultant who wants an independent, editable text ledger and is comfortable mapping exports, maintaining accounts and reviewing imports. Fava supplies a web interface for that ledger. The technical setup and ongoing bookkeeping work belong in the cost comparison.
Keep the proposal, timekeeping and invoicing services your practice needs. Converting downloaded bank transactions does not recreate client portals, invoice history or receipt attachments, and it does not give the converter access to a vendor account. Payroll and tax filing require their own arrangements.
Migrate one reconciled period before switching
- Choose a cutoff and preserve the originals. Agree with your accountant whether to migrate history or start with opening balances. Back up the current ledger, chart of accounts, balance reports, unpaid invoices, bills and retainer records. Download bank statements, contracts, invoices and receipts separately where needed; verify that the saved files open.
- Try a small transaction export. For a Beancount trial, use the CSV converter on one bank account and one statement period, or the OFX/QIF converter for those bank formats. Check dates, amount signs, currency, account mappings and every reported error. A vendor's invoice CSV may need a different transformation; these tools are not full accounting-system migrations.
- Review duplicates and payment detail. Compare the trial output with existing entries and overlapping exports before adding it. Trace gross payments, processor fees and refunds to each net payout; do not add the bank deposit as revenue again if the payment is already recorded. Keep transfers and card repayments from duplicating expenses. The bank-import CLI guide explains a repeatable preview, duplicate-review and apply workflow for an existing ledger.
- Establish and reconcile balances. With your accountant, carry the agreed opening balances immediately before the imported period, including cash, cards, unpaid invoices/bills and unapplied retainers as applicable. Do not also import history that recreates those balances. Compare the ending balances with statements and the old books, and investigate differences rather than adding an unexplained balancing entry.
- Hand over in stages. Review the trial period with your adviser, then switch new work on the agreed date. Keep the old system available for history and open items until their treatment is verified. During the comparison, send each invoice and collect each payment from only the designated live system.
