QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online is the ledger most US accountants already know, and Intuit now layers its AI agents and automated bookkeeping on top of that familiar base. Bank feeds are matched and categorised using patterns it learns from how you post, invoices and bills live in the same file, and reports from a simple profit and loss up to project profitability and budgets are available without exporting anything. For a solo founder the real advantage is compatibility: if you later hire a bookkeeper, a tax preparer or a part-time controller, the odds are high they already work in QuickBooks, so you are not migrating at the worst possible moment. The trade-off is that it still behaves like accounting software you operate, rather than a service that operates for you. You choose a tier largely by user count and features — a second person who needs to post, inventory, or class tracking each pushes you up a plan — and payroll is a separate subscription on top. Prices also rose for the upper tiers in 2026, so the plan you need may cost more than the headline entry price suggests. It is the safest, most portable choice, not the most hands-off one.

Four published monthly tiers plus a free entry plan; new customers choose 50% off for 3 months or a 30-day trial, not both. Payroll is extra.