Zipbooks
Out of our top six picks, ZipBooks is the only accounting software that has built-in business intelligence to provide you with a business health and invoice quality score and suggestions on how you can improve your invoices. In addition, it uses machine learning to auto-categorize transactions and make recommendations based on best practice, industry trends, and analysis.
ZipBooks has four pricing tiers between $0 and $125 per month. The Starter tier is 100% free but is limited in the features it includes. All plans include accounts receivable management and the ability to accept online payments. The paid plans include time tracking, project tracking, and recurring invoicing plus other great features like bank reconciliations, and one plan even includes your very own dedicated bookkeeper.
|
|
Starter |
Smarter |
Sophisticated |
Services |
|
Monthly Pricing |
$0 |
$15 |
$35 |
Starts at $125 |
|
Number of Users Included |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
|
|
Accounts Receivable |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Accept Online Payments |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Time Tracker |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Project Tracking |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Recurring Invoices |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
|
Bank Reconciliations |
✔ |
✔ |
||
|
Smart Tagging Transactions by location, project |
✔ |
✔ |
||
|
Advanced Reporting |
✔ |
✔ |
||
|
Dedicated ZipBooks In-house Bookkeeper |
✔ |
|||
|
Business Intelligence |
Basic |
Advanced |
Advanced |
The pricing plans for ZipBooks are:
ZipBooks Starter plan is 100% free and comes with a limited number of features compared to the other three ZipBooks plans. The Starter plan allows you to invoice customers and keep track of open accounts receivable balances. You can also accept online payments from customers by signing up for ZipBooks Payments (additional fees will apply).
Similar to QuickBooks Simple Start, we do not recommend ZipBooks Starter for freelancers. There are three primary reasons for this: first, you cannot keep track of the hours worked by your team; second, there is no way to keep track of projects; and finally, you can’t give additional users access to your data. Check out our best free accounting software guide to find a free accounting software that is ideal for freelancers.
ZipBooks Smarter is the next plan up from the Starter plan, at $15 per month ($180 per year). Unlike the Starter plan, you get access to a lot more features. You can give an unlimited number of users access to your data, you can keep track of hours worked for all team members, and you can track projects. It also includes unlimited recurring invoicing and basic business intelligence features.
ZipBooks Smarter is ideal for freelancers who have a team of people who need to access the system to log hours worked on projects. In addition, you need the ability to run reports by project and stay on top of all income and expenses to ensure that you stay on budget.
ZipBooks Sophisticated is the third pricing plan; it runs $35 per month ($420 per year) like QuickBooks Essentials. This plan includes all of the features that the previous plans include plus advanced business intelligence, smart tagging transactions by location or project, the ability to upload documents securely, and generation of bank reconciliations.
ZipBooks Sophisticated is ideal for a freelance business that has multiple locations, departments, or segments that they need to track and provide detailed reporting for individually. In addition, if you have multiple bank and credit card accounts connected to ZipBooks, the advanced business intelligence will automatically categorize transactions based on similar transactions previously recorded, which will save you the time of having to do it manually.
ZipBooks Services is the top-tier pricing plan that starts at $125 per month ($1,500 per year). ZipBooks Services includes all of the features that the Sophisticated plan has, plus you get a dedicated in-house ZipBooks bookkeeper who will take care of your books for you. This is something that is not offered by any of the competitors that we have discussed.
ZipBooks Services is ideal for a fast-growing freelance business that needs the expertise of an experienced bookkeeper who can take care of the books so that the owner can focus on other aspects of the business.
Unfortunately, none of the ZipBooks plans includes the ability to manage accounts payable. Staying on top of your outstanding vendor bills is important so that you are aware of the money that you owe to your vendor suppliers. This will help you when it comes to managing your cash flow as well as assist you with maintaining good credit history by paying your bills on time. Choose QuickBooks Online Essentials or Plus instead so you can manage unpaid bills.
Positive user reviews centered around the number of features included in the Starter plan, free of charge. Many small businesses appreciate the fact that they can keep track of their income and expenses even if they can’t afford to purchase an accounting software. Unlike QuickBooks, ZipBooks does not offer live customer support, and the response time to emails is slow. To read all customer reviews, visit our ZipBooks user reviews page.
The best way to determine if ZipBooks is right for your freelance business is to sign up for a free trial. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial of the Smarter or Sophisticated plan to check out all of the great features we have discussed. At the end of the trial, if you decide to stick with ZipBooks, you will need to sign up for a paid subscription plan.