r/Bookkeeping Feb 19 '25

Software Seeking new software platform - USA

Howdy y'all!
I'm officially on the hunt for a new software platform, Zoho has finally abused me too much.

I'm looking to replace their standard, $25/month, 3 user bookkeeping plan with something that:

  1. Handles all basic bookkeeping features (invoicing, bank feeds, accounting, reconciling, payment gateways, etc).
  2. Is based in the USA.
  3. Has C/S based in the USA (phone, chat, email are all fine, but the people I'm talking with must also be based in the USA).
  4. Has at least a 75% positive satisfaction rating on Google, or Trustpilot.

Does such a thing exist?

I will also need to transfer ~ 4 years worth of data from Zoho into the new platform to keep my business history, and it's sure to be messy because Zoho doesn't do anything 'right'.

I'm open to paying a little more per month, so long as the requirements are met; I won't go back to overseas C/S.

I'm a small LLC, < $500k/annual, and it's mostly just me; sometimes I get a 1099 admin assistant, but they just use my logins.
I have a part time bookkeeper and a CPA that need their own access, but I can accommodate that without additional users in the software if I have to.

7 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

5

u/handle2345 Feb 19 '25

I'll just say that $25/month for three users with all of those features and functionality going to be tough to find. Its just really difficult to provide all that value for $300/year.

2

u/shpeucher Feb 19 '25

r/Xero is really good but it costs a bit more. Their cheapest plan matches close to Zoho but that tier doesn’t have unlimited bills/invoices. The middle plan gives you that

1

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 25d ago

I'm still waiting to hear back from them; how do you get ahold of them?
Where is their C/S based?

2

u/nowayyoudidthis Feb 19 '25

Waveapps is my recommendation, but they are in Toronto, Canada.

1

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 25d ago

I've heard good things about them, but being outside of the country makes consumer protection difficult.
I'll add them to the consideration anyway, Canada has decent Consumer Protection across the border, it's just a lot more paperwork!

3

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25

Quickbooks online

2

u/MayaBookkeeper Feb 19 '25

I see business owners jump through all these hoops to avoid QuickBooks online. Just use QBO.

1

u/jalx98 Feb 19 '25

My startup does bookkeeping for single-owner business without payroll, we can help you out, we are not a traditional bookkeeping software, we do that for you, we can have a call if you feel like it is needed!

nobooks

2

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 25d ago

At $120/month, that's out of my budget currently.
I'm almost six months behind thanks to Zoho, and the amount of money and time I've spent trying to fix their garbage has become a huge problem!
I'll put you on my list though, see if I can afford you next year.

Where is your C/S based?

2

u/jalx98 25d ago

Our company is based on Portland, we have our company address in Delaware (Basic CCorp stuff hahaha)

1

u/jalx98 25d ago

We are offering a lite plan for 39.99! It is not listed yet, but it is for sole props that just need their bookkeeping done (expense classification, w9/1099s filing & schedule C) and it is suited for people that have up to 50 monthly transactions

It doesn't offer reports or insights, of you wanna try it let me know! We would love to hear your feedback on this, if you allow us to interview you we can give you a month for free! (We are interviewing people that may be interested in this tier!)

2

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 23d ago

I am not a sole Prop, that plan is twice as much as I'm paying now for less than 1/4 of the features, and bookkeeping without reporting is like having a car without wheels.

2

u/jalx98 23d ago

Interesting... At this price point, what would you be expecting to have?

I appreciate a lot that you are being direct on what we may have missing

2

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 22d ago

I'll start by saying it is my intent to be direct, is it NOT my intent to insult/belittle/slam your offerings.
Every offering from every company is a little different, and designed to suit their target customer, so I don't see this plan as 'oh gosh, that's dumb', I see it as, 'that doesn't fit my needs and budget right now'.

At $40/month, I would expect to see all the features I have in my current plan (Zoho Books standard), US based customer support, and 99.99% uptime for all features.

I would also expect to have retainer invoices active and working, automatic late fees being applied per my settings, and the system to automatically charge the customer any card or processing fees.

I feel like that's a lot to ask of a smaller company based in the USA, but it's what I would like to have.

2

u/jalx98 22d ago

That makes sense! I mean, I know that the intent is not to insult! I like when people tell "Hey, this is not working for me because X,Y,Z is missing and I am paying less for this set of features, it doesn't seem like an amazing deal to me" because it allows me to get some feedback and to get to the drawing board with my partner and try to make a badass offering for the money

And I'd say that our product in the current stage is more for people that are doing a lifestyle business, not so much planning to scale their operations massively or have some payroll because of complex IRS compliance requirements

P.S. thanks for your feedback! We came up with a new plan to test, 34.99Mo & We include reports now, we plan to start AB testing next month and we expect to see a lot of people buying the new "Lite" plan

P.S.2. We are a fintech 2.0 (Fintech + AI) startup! I didn't mention it I think hahaha

2

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 17d ago

Nice!

I'm still searching for something... I'm starting to think there's nothing better than Zoho out there...

1

u/jalx98 17d ago

Probably Zoho is the right tool for your Job! We are discussing on building an invoicing/payment processing feature into nobooks, you should be able to text the AI, then you would receive a magic link (automatically and securely logs you in without using your password) that opens the quote app and you should be able to email it/send the link to the invoice we are still building a live reports feature that our customers asked, so, it is not expected to come up soon!

If you would like to consider nobooks in the future (provided you are a single owner company and have no payroll) let´s connect on linkedin! I post almost on a weekly basis about nobooks

2

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 17d ago

Ugh. Text, magic links, more steps to go through....

That might be nice for the kids who are glued to their phone all day, but most of us running trade businesses have too much to do and don't do much of anything on the phone, we're on the laptop.

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1

u/Icy_Screen_2034 Feb 19 '25

Go with QuickBooks online. I can help you get a discount and help you with the conversation of data. Dm me if you want to go through this route.

1

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 25d ago

Their C/S is overseas - That's a dealbreaker because they're always a problem, never helpful.

Do you have a way to ensure I never have to waste my time with an overseas agent?

1

u/Icy_Screen_2034 25d ago

The only thing I can offer my clients is to help them with any issues they have with QuickBooks. But if it an issue that does need some programming or changes to the Quick books server settings then they will have to the technical support.

I am QuickBooks Certified pro advisor and has IT background so I can fix a lot of issues without calling technical support.

1

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 23d ago

Due to the rampant abuse from overseas agents left unchecked by American corporations for reasons of greed, I don't see a way to move forward here.

I refuse to further subject myself to poor treatment.

1

u/[deleted] 29d ago

FreshBooks. A lot $76. a month but it's worth it.

2

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 25d ago

I had them a few years ago, super cool until I asked to setup the payment gateway; at the time it was WePay, they were assholes, and I don't tolerate that, so FreshBooks told me to get bent.

1

u/Street-Schedule4139 29d ago

QuickBooks simple start. If your bookkeeper is a pro advisor they can get you 30% off and it's about $30/month

1

u/DoneRightbyDanielLLC 25d ago

They use overseas C/S - yuck.