How Much Does QuickBooks Cost for UK Businesses?

QuickBooks is a small business-friendly accounting software. Its pricing starts at just £10 per month (just £1 per month for the first six months) for its Sole Trader accounting plan and goes up to £115 per month for the Advanced plan for established businesses.

QuickBooks occupies a middle ground when it comes to pricing. Its £10 starting price is actually cheaper than most competitors, but the £115 Advanced plan drives up QuickBooks’s overall price since most competitor pricing maxes out at £50 per month.

That said, QuickBooks is a worthy expense for businesses that want access to QuickBooks’s excellent financial planning and reporting tools, and use its payroll add-on to simplify their admin.

We’ll go over how much each QuickBooks plan costs, what’s included in it, and what type of business it’s for. We’ll also break down how much add-on products cost, and help you decide whether QuickBooks is worth it for your business.

QuickBooks Pricing Plans

QuickBooks has five pricing tiers. Its Sole Trader and Simple Start plans are suitable for sole traders and micro businesses, while the Essentials to Advanced plans are suitable for small to medium businesses.

Sole Trader: £10/month

• Who’s it for? Registered sole traders or single property landlords not registered for VAT.
• What’s it for? Submitting self-assessments and managing income and expenses.

QuickBooks Sole trader plan is currently available for just £1 per month for your first six months. After that, it costs £10 per month.

As the name suggests, this plan at the self-employed who work alone, rather than as part of a business, hence the one-user limit. With the Sole Trader plan, you’ll be able to:

• Prepare your self-assessment tax return
• Estimate your income tax
• Log expenses (you can connect with your bank)
• Send quotes and invoices
• Create cash flow projections, and improve your cash flow
• Access reports on profits/loss, expenses etc.
• Set growth targets

All in all, QuickBooks’ Sole Trader offers a decent set of features for a relatively low price. However, it doesn’t feature any tools for managing VAT, so VAT-registered businesses will need to upgrade to at least the £16 Simple Start plan.

Simple Start: £16/month

• Who’s it for? Sole traders or micro businesses that are VAT-registered.
• What’s it for? Managing income, expenses, and VAT tax on a small scale.

The QuickBooks Simple Start plan costs £8 per month for your first six months, then £16 per month.

The main difference between this plan and the Sole Trader plan is that it has tools for managing VAT. These include:

• VAT submissions to HMRC
• VAT error checker
• VAT deadline reminders

Users also get access to a free onboarding session and can opt-in for QuickBooks’ payroll software add-on, both features not available on the Sole Trader plan.

For more multi-currency selling, more advanced expenses management, and the ability to track employee hours, you’ll need to upgrade to the Essentials plan

Essentials: £33/month

• Who’s it for? Small businesses with increasing sales and expenses that work with suppliers and have a growing number of employees.
• What’s it for? Managing income, expenses, VAT tax, and employee hours on a moderate scale.

The Essentials plan costs £16.50 for your first 6 months, then £33 per month.

The main difference between this plan and Simple Start is that you get access to more advanced bill management, and employee work hours tracking. Here’s a summary:

• Three account users (up from one)
• “Bill” management or advanced expenses management: set up recurring expenses, see upcoming bills, pay multiple suppliers at once, and import bills from suppliers
• Trade in 145+ currencies and get automatic exchange rates
• Track employee work hours and turn them into invoices

The added features of the Essentials plan make it suitable for small businesses that are coming into their own, and developing a growing portfolio of trading partners, both locally and abroad.

Plus: £47/month

• Who’s it for? Growing small businesses that manage their own stock.
• What’s it for? Managing stock, income, expenses, VAT tax, and employee hours on a growing scale.

The Plus plan costs £23.50 for the first six months, then £47 per month.

The main difference between the Plus plan and the Essentials plan is that the Plus plan allows businesses to keep track of their personal inventory, and use budgeting tools. Here’s a more detailed summary:

• Track stock/inventory levels and their cost, get sales data and manage vendors
• Track the cost of labour, payroll and expenses for projects and see profitability
• Set budgets and get income and expenses predictions
• Classify data by department (or other segment), and location (e.g region)

Advanced: £115/month

• Who’s it for? Small to medium businesses with large client portfolios
• What’s it for? Managing stock, income, expenses, VAT tax, and employee hours, and financial planning

The Advanced plan is QuickBooks’s most expensive plan. It costs £46 per month for the first six months, then £115 per month. Since most accounting providers don’t go past the £60 per month mark, QuickBooks’s Advanced plan can be considered a pricey option.

The main difference between this plan and the ones that come before it is that it gives you access to far more advanced reporting and analytics tools, and lets you set up user permissions and automation. Here’s a full summary:

• Create custom reports with custom dashboards, charts, and tags, to get insights into spending and performance
• Integrate with Excel to create custom spreadsheets with accounting data
• Create custom user permissions
• Automate tasks like invoice and reminder sends, or payment notifications
• Create batch invoices

The extra features on the Advanced plan are designed for small businesses verging on medium, that are dealing with a large client portfolio and are focused on growth.

QuickBooks Payroll Add-on

QuickBooks offers a payroll software add-on, available on all its accounting plans, except Sole Trader. There are two payroll software plans, the £5 per month Core Payroll plan and the £10 per month Advanced Payroll plan.

Here’s a quick breakdown of both plans:

The average cost of payroll software is £16 to £32 per month for a small business, so QuickBooks’ payroll software offering is very affordable. Its Advanced Payroll plan is particularly great value for money. For the price of a basic payroll software package, it offers features usually reserved for more expensive plans, such as benefits management and the option to work with multiple pension providers.

Does QuickBooks Have Hidden Fees?

QuickBooks does not have any hidden fees. It doesn’t charge any set-up fees or fees for ending software plans early.

However, it does offer a few add-on products that could increase your overall monthly costs. These aren’t exactly hidden fees since they’re advertised quite plainly on QuickBooks’ website.

One example is QuickBooks Time, which costs £6-£8 per user per month, plus a £16-£30 per month base fee. It’s an advanced time tracking software for time and attendance tracking and projects.

Does QuickBooks Offer Discounts?

QuickBooks offers discounted pricing for the first six months for businesses that pay month to month. However, it offers even bigger discounts for businesses that pay for a year upfront. Here’s how much you can save per plan:

• Sole Trader: £9/month when paying annually compared to £10 when paying monthly. Plus, the first year costs just £10.80.
• Simple Start: £14.33/month when paying annually, compared to £16 when paying monthly. Plus, the first year costs just £17.20.
• Essentials: £29.66/month when paying annually, compared to £33 when paying monthly. Plus, the first year costs just £35.60.
• Plus: £42.25/month when paying annually, compared to £47 when paying monthly. Plus, the first year costs just £50.70.
• Advanced: £103.50/month when paying annually, compared to £115 when paying monthly. Plus, the first year costs just £310.50.

QuickBooks doesn’t currently offer any other discounts for types of businesses like non-profits. However, it runs regular deals, so it’s worth checking its website for the latest offer.

QuickBooks Alternatives

Here’s a quick overview of QuickBooks alternatives:

ZohoBooks has a free plan, and paid plans that range from £10 to £165 per month. While ZohoBooks’ top plan is one of the most expensive on the market, its mid-tier plans are actually priced similarly to QuickBooks’, costing £20 to £25, compared to £16 to £33. Overall, ZohoBooks was also easier to use than QuickBooks in our testing, making it a better option for small business owner-managers with limited accounting experience.

In third place, after QuickBooks was Xero. It’s a little cheaper overall than QuickBooks, costing £16 to £59 per month. That said, if you don’t count QuickBooks’ cheapest and most expensive plans, Xero and QuickBooks have almost identical pricing, with three plans at £16, £33, and £47 per month respectively.

Xero is a great alternative for businesses looking for powerful financial planning tools and reporting since Xero allows for a very high level of detail when creating quotes and expenses.

If you’d like to find out more about each QuickBooks alternative, head over to our full review.