Enter your business details to see what each option would cost you. Prices are live from our database and shown in pounds sterling.
A small business with staff asks more of its accounting software than a one-person business does. It has to pay people through PAYE and report to HMRC each payday, file VAT returns under Making Tax Digital, give more than one person a login, and keep up as invoice numbers grow. This guide is for that business: a limited company, a partnership, or a sole trader with employees, usually VAT registered and often working with an accountant. For the wider UK market, including tools for businesses without staff, our roundup of accounting software for UK small businesses covers the field.
If you work alone with no staff, our guide to accounting software for sole traders is the better fit, because it covers Self Assessment and MTD for Income Tax in depth, which this guide touches only in passing.
How we chose. A business with staff pays for accounting software in ways a one-person business never sees, so we started from headcount. Across the 10 accounting tools in our UK data, priced by the engine behind our accounting software comparison, we weighed five questions: how payroll is sold, how many people can log in, VAT filing under Making Tax Digital, which plan limit a growing business meets first, and whether building firms get CIS support. The table above opens at 30 invoices a month, three employees, one user and VAT registered; change any of them and it re-prices. A provider paying us a commission does not move it into, or up, this list.
What small business accounting and bookkeeping software has to do once you employ staff
Once a UK small business employs people, its accounting or bookkeeping software has four jobs on top of keeping the books: running payroll or sitting alongside it, filing VAT returns under Making Tax Digital, giving several people the right access, and handling more invoices without forcing an expensive upgrade. A tool that suited the owner alone can fall short on any of these, and switching later means moving a year of records.
The rest of this guide takes those jobs in turn. Each one changes the cost differently. Headcount moves the payroll charge, users can move you up a plan, and invoice volume can do the same, which is why the table above asks for all three rather than showing a single headline price.
Payroll in small business bookkeeping software: included, bundled or an add-on
For a small business with employees, the clearest difference between accounting tools is how payroll is sold. Some include it in the subscription, some bundle an allowance of employees and charge per head beyond it, some sell it as an add-on, and some have none, which leaves you paying for a separate payroll product. Here is every accounting provider we list, in its own wording:
| Provider | Payroll included | Payroll cost |
|---|
| ANNA Money | Add-on | £20/mo + £5/extra emp |
| Crunch | No | N/A |
| FreeAgent | Yes (included) | Included |
| FreshBooks | No | N/A |
| Pandle | No | N/A |
| QuickBooks Online | Yes (add-on) | £5/mo + £1.50/emp |
| QuickFile | No | N/A |
| Sage | Yes (bundled) | Bundled + £1.85/emp/mo |
| Xero | Yes | £1.50/emp/mo (£1 Ultimate) |
| Zoho Books | No | N/A |
Where a provider has no payroll, the table above shows its accounting cost alone and marks it as up to 0 employees, so that figure leaves out whatever you pay for payroll elsewhere.
The duties are the same whichever software runs the pay. GOV.UK guidance, as it stands in October 2026, says you register as an employer before the first payday and no more than two months before you start paying people. On or before every payday your payroll software sends HMRC a Full Payment Submission. And from the day your first employee starts, you must provide a workplace pension and enrol staff aged between 22 and State Pension age who earn at least £10,000 a year.
HMRC also offers free Basic PAYE Tools to businesses with fewer than 10 employees. It works out tax and National Insurance and reports to HMRC, but it is a separate program, so wages still have to reach your books by hand. If payroll is the bigger decision for you, our guide to payroll software for small business prices dedicated payroll products from one employee to 25.
How many users does a small business need in its accounting software?
A small business usually needs more logins than it expects: the owner, whoever raises invoices or pays bills, and the accountant. UK accounting providers count these differently. Some put no limit on users, some include one or three and move you up a plan for more, and Zoho Books charges for each user above those its plan includes. Each of our five picks lets you invite your accountant free of charge.
| Provider | Users included | Accountant access |
|---|
| Xero | Unlimited | Yes (free) |
| Sage | 1 (Start) | Yes (free) |
| FreeAgent | Unlimited | Yes (free) |
| QuickBooks Online | 1 (Simple Start) | Yes (free) |
| Zoho Books | 3 (Standard) | Yes (free) |
Set the Users box in the calculator to the number of people in your business who need their own login, not counting your accountant. Sage moves you up its plans as that number rises; Xero and FreeAgent stay on the same plan. A login for a bookkeeper who only enters bills is still a user, so count them.
VAT and Making Tax Digital for small business accounting software
A VAT-registered small business must keep its VAT records digitally and file VAT returns from software that works with Making Tax Digital for VAT. HMRC signs new VAT-registered businesses up automatically, and since 1 April 2022 the rules have covered businesses below the VAT threshold too. Each of our five picks files VAT returns to HMRC from the plan our table prices for a VAT-registered business.
You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, the threshold in October 2026, or if you expect it to within the next 30 days. You can also register voluntarily below that line, and the same MTD rules then apply.
The rule that catches small businesses out is the digital link. HMRC's VAT Notice 700/22 says that once a figure is in your digital records, moving it between programs, from a spreadsheet into the software that files the return for example, must happen digitally, not by retyping it. Keeping sales, costs and the return in one accounting product avoids the problem entirely.
The calculator's VAT registered switch is on for this guide. Turn it off and the table can also offer a plan sold only to businesses that are not VAT registered. Xero has one, but it has no payroll and caps invoices each month, so the table picks it only for a business with no staff and few invoices.
Which plan limits does a growing small business reach first?
For a growing small business, the first limit is usually invoices, users or stock rather than a missing feature. Entry plans cap one or more of these, and the cost table moves you to the next plan when your figures cross a cap. Here is where each pick draws its lines; a plan name in brackets means the feature starts on that plan.
| Provider | Invoicing | Stock tracking | Multi-currency |
|---|
| Xero | 20/mo (Ignite) | Limited | Yes (Comprehensive) |
| Sage | Yes (unlimited) | Yes (Plus) | Yes (Plus) |
| FreeAgent | Yes | No | Limited |
| QuickBooks Online | Yes (unlimited) | Yes (Plus) | Yes (Essentials) |
| Zoho Books | Yes (annual caps) | Yes (Professional) | Yes (Professional) |
Xero's invoice cap is why the table, opening at 30 invoices a month, prices it on £39/mo (Grow) rather than its entry plan. Zoho Books caps invoices per year rather than per month, and the table divides that cap by twelve. If you sell physical stock, read the stock column before the price column: a plan that cannot track stock sends you to a separate inventory product.
Prices are each vendor's published monthly figure, normally before VAT; we do not add or remove VAT. Plans and pricing checked October 2026.
CIS for a small business that pays subcontractors
A small firm that pays subcontractors for building work must register as a contractor under the Construction Industry Scheme and, as GOV.UK put it in October 2026, file a monthly return. Software ranges from filing that return to keeping records only; Sage adds CIS on £43/mo (Standard). Our builders guide compares CIS support for every provider we list.
Which small business accounting software fits your business?
Pick by the job that matters most to you, not by the price column alone:
- Several people need their own login, and payroll should sit in the same place: Xero.
- You have a few staff and want books and payroll on one bill, with UK phone support: Sage.
- You bank with NatWest, RBS or Ulster Bank, or use Mettle: FreeAgent, which then costs nothing and includes payroll.
- You are a sole trader taking on your first employees and file your own Self Assessment: QuickBooks Online.
- Your accountant or a payroll bureau already runs payroll: Zoho Books, adding the bureau's fee when you compare.
- You pay subcontractors: our builders guide compares which products file the monthly CIS return.
Then set the table to your own invoice count, headcount and users, because those three numbers decide which plan each provider puts you on.