8 Best Online Bookkeeping Services in 2022 (Free and Paid)

Outsourcing your bookkeeping to a virtual bookkeeping service can assist you with ensuring that your books are accurate and also save you time. Many also offer add-on services, such as payroll and tax filing, which can streamline your work. Whether you’re looking for a full-service virtual accounting firm or a basic online bookkeeping service with free software, there’s likely a provider that will suit your needs.

We have compiled a list of the eight best virtual bookkeeping services for small businesses in 2022:

• QuickBooks Live: Best overall online bookkeeping service
• Bookkeeper.com: Best virtual full-service accounting firm
• Bench: Best for companies behind on their bookkeeping
• Bookkeeper360: Best for companies that prefer Xero bookkeeping software
• Merritt Bookkeeping: Best for small businesses on a budget
• Pilot: Best for startup companies
• Botkeeper: Best for accounting firms to outsource bookkeeping
• Sunrise: Best free software with assisted bookkeeping available

QuickBooks Live: Overall Best Online Bookkeeping Service

QuickBooks Live is an online bookkeeping service that’s offered directly by QuickBooks Online, which we ranked as the best overall small business accounting software. It matches you with a dedicated bookkeeper who’ll work with you virtually to ensure that your books are accurate. The company’s 100% Accurate Books Guarantee provides additional assurance. You can opt to be trained on day-to-day bookkeeping tasks, which is ideal for novice QuickBooks users.

Your bookkeeper will assist you with setting up your chart of accounts, connect your banks, and create a plan to clean up any existing data. But while your financial statements are sent to you on a monthly basis, your bookkeeper won’t pay bills, send invoices, manage inventory, or provide financial advice.

QuickBooks Live Features

QuickBooks Live has a variety of features that can help you with your bookkeeping. Your dedicated bookkeeper will assist with setting up your account and update your books in real-time, ensuring that your financial data is always up-to-date.

• Dedicated bookkeeper: Upon enrollment, you’ll be assigned to a dedicated bookkeeper—a QuickBooks Pro Advisor with an average of 15 years of experience.
• Real-time access: Your dedicated bookkeeper will directly access your QuickBooks Online account, which will ensure that your books stay up-to-date and allow you to view the data in real-time.
• Customized set-up: You can customize your set-up based on your needs, which your bookkeeper will assist with. This includes your chart of accounts, customer and vendor lists, and connecting your bank and credit card accounts.
• Payroll add-on: QuickBooks offers full-service payroll for an additional fee that integrates with its software.

Our Expert Opinion

QuickBooks Live can easily be added to your existing QuickBooks Online subscription by clicking Live Bookkeeping in the left menu bar of your dashboard. For businesses with employees, the payroll add-on makes it even easier. QuickBooks Live may be a good fit for businesses that can handle their own A/R, A/P, bill payment, and invoicing, since those services aren’t available.

For more information, please see our complete review of QuickBooks Live.

Bookkeeper.com: Best Virtual Bookkeeping Service for Businesses That Want a Full-service Accounting Firm

Bookkeeper.com is online and cloud-based, with a wide range of add-on services available, including bill pay, tax return preparation prep, and payroll. Business, financial planning, and tax advice are also available at no additional charge. Bookkeeper.com offers more services to QuickBooks Online users than QuickBooks Live and, upon enrollment, you’re assigned your own dedicated bookkeeper and account manager. While it lacks its own mobile app, you can use QuickBooks Online’s app to access your books. It’s ideal for businesses that are looking to outsource their bookkeeping with a full-service accounting firm.

Bookkeeper.com Features

Aside from being a full-service virtual bookkeeping firm, Bookkeeper.com has many other features that set it apart from other services. These include the following:

• Dedicated bookkeeper and account manager: Your dedicated bookkeeper is a certified QuickBooks Pro Advisor, and you’ll also be assigned to an account manager who will assist with onboarding activities and serve as your point of contact for any issues that may come up.
• Monthly financial statements: Each month, your bookkeeper will provide a balance sheet, profit and loss (P&L) statement, statement of cash flows, and general ledger (GL) report.
• Free advice: Included in your monthly fee is a variety of free business advice, including general business consulting, software training, tax planning, and strategic planning.
• Software setup: Your accounting software setup is included in the monthly fee.
• Payroll and tax preparation add-ons: For an additional fee, you can opt for payroll or tax preparation services. Bookkeeper.com’s team of certified public accountants (CPAs) and enrolled agents (EAs) will also assist with strategizing and planning, to help maximize your profit.

Our Expert Opinion

Bookkeeper.com is a great option for companies looking for the services typically provided by traditional accounting firms. Your bank and credit card accounts will be reconciled and closed on a monthly basis and you’ll receive monthly financial reports. You’ll also have access to bill pay and payroll services. Bookkeeper.com will assist with filing your tax returns, which includes individual and business returns as well as gift and estate returns. Your monthly fee also includes various types of advice including strategic planning.

Read our expert review of Bookkeeper.com for more information.

Bench: Best Online Bookkeeping Service for Businesses Behind on Their Bookkeeping

Bench is an online bookkeeping service that handles your bookkeeping on a monthly basis. It’s a great solution for businesses that have fallen more than two years behind in their bookkeeping because of the catch-up services available. Its plans are very affordable and include the preparation of annual tax returns. Freelancers and startups who often work remotely will appreciate the iOS mobile app that provides financial reporting functionality and real-time cash flow updates. Upon enrollment, you’ll have access to a team of in-house bookkeepers, and you can book a monthly check-in or tax season review call with them at no additional charge.

Bench Features

Bench provides both catch-up bookkeeping and tax assistance as part of its add-on solutions. Here are a few other attractive features:

• Dedicated bookkeeper: All Bench bookkeepers are in-house employees, not contractors. Your dedicated bookkeeper will handle all aspects of your account and serve as your point of contact.
• Financial statements: You’ll be sent financial statements on a monthly basis, including your balance sheet and income statement.
• Catch-up bookkeeping: For an additional fee, you can enroll in BenchRetro, which is a special program for businesses that are more than two years behind in their bookkeeping.
• Tax assistance: If you select Bench’s Premium plan, your federal and state business tax returns, as well as individual returns for sole proprietors, are included.
• Payroll integration: Bench integrates with Gusto to help you manage your payroll. A leading payroll provider, Gusto will handle your payroll tax filing, manage employee information and benefits, and generate W-2s.

Our Expert Opinion

Bench is an easy-to-use and powerful solution that’s ideal for freelancers, startups, and small businesses. Its dedicated bookkeepers and valuable add-ons like payroll and tax assistance make this a great option for businesses with relatively simple financials who are looking for unlimited support at an affordable price. BenchRetro, its catch-up bookkeeping services, is the reason why we selected Bench as the best online bookkeeping service for businesses behind on their bookkeeping.

For more information, please see our complete review of Bench.

Bookkeeper360: Best Online Bookkeeping Service for Xero Users

Bookkeeper360 offers both accounting and cloud-based bookkeeping services as well as business advisory services. Because it’s a Xero Platinum Partner, it’s ideal for small businesses that use Xero bookkeeping software and that are looking for more than just a bookkeeping service. The Bookkeeper360 mobile app integrates with your Xero account to provide business insights, and there are also payroll, human resources (HR), taxes, back office, and chief financial officer (CFO) advisory services available.

Bookkeeper360 Features

Bookkeeper360 offers a wide variety of features, which are designed to simplify the lives of small business owners. These include the following:

• Mobile app for Xero users: Bookkeeper360’s mobile app connects to your Xero account and provides valuable information, including scorecards and metrics.
• CFO advisory: Available for an additional fee, a dedicated accountant will work with you to analyze your financials and determine a strategy to manage and grow your businesses. Prices start at $1,000 per quarter for this service.
• Payroll and HR solutions: Full-service payroll is integrated fully with your bookkeeping, starting at $45 per month. It also integrates with other providers like Gusto and ADP. The HRS360 app is included in the payroll service fee. It provides assistance with federal and state compliance, employee onboarding forms, and job descriptions.
• Accrual basis accounting: Accrual-based accounting is available with Bookkeeper360, which includes complex accounting like deferred revenue, inventory, and accrued expenses.

Our Expert Opinion

Bookkeeper360 excels at helping businesses to view and analyze financial data, track goals, and streamline bookkeeping tasks. Its add-on services, such as CFO advisory and payroll and HR, make it ideal for startups and growth-stage businesses. Also, because it’s a Xero Platinum Partner, it’s a great solution for businesses that are already using Xero software.

Our accounting expert has also provided a more detailed review of Bookkeeper360.

Merritt Bookkeeping: Best Online Bookkeeping Service for Small Businesses on a Budget

Merritt Bookkeeping is a cost-effective remote bookkeeping solution that’s available at a flat rate with no restrictions on the number of transactions or the frequency of service. It works with businesses that use QuickBooks and, although it doesn’t offer many of the advanced tools that other online bookkeeping services provide, it’s easy to use with a quick set-up process. If you’re behind on your books, catch-up bookkeeping is also available.

Merritt Bookkeeping’s 100% money-back guarantee is also an attractive feature. You can use its monthly financial reports to assist with filing taxes, and Merritt also provides a simplified issuance and electronic filing of 1099s for your contractors at an additional fee.

Merritt Bookkeeping Features

Merritt Bookkeeping has several useful features that are great for businesses on a tight budget. These include the following:

• Intuitive user interface: Merritt Bookkeeping has an easy-to-access client portal that enables you to view reports and how your transactions are categorized. If there are any corrections, you can indicate this through the custom interface.
• Monthly financial reports: Each month you’ll be sent your P&L statement and balance sheet, or you can access them via your client portal.
• 1099 filing: Merritt will assist with filing 1099 forms for your contractors for an additional fee of $75 for the report preparation and $8 per form.
• 90-day money-back guarantee: Although there isn’t a free trial available, you can test it out for three months at no risk. If you’re not satisfied within that time period, you’ll receive a full refund.

Our Expert Opinion

Merritt Bookkeeping is an affordable online bookkeeping service for cash-based businesses that use QuickBooks as their accounting platform. Its basic, no-frills package includes monthly financial statements and annual 1099 filing for your contractors. The flat-fee pricing ensures that there are no surprises with billing, and the money-back guarantee allows you to test drive the software for 90 days at no additional risk.

For more details, read our expert review of Merritt Bookkeeping.

Pilot: Best Online Bookkeeping Service for Startups

Pilot is a financial services firm that provides bookkeeping, tax, and CFO advisory services for startups and small businesses. Because its services are built around the needs of startup companies backed by venture capitalists, we selected it as the best online bookkeeping service for startups. As your business grows and potentially takes on funding, the accrual-based and advanced bookkeeping services that it offers will be especially useful. You’ll be matched with a dedicated bookkeeper when you enroll in the service, and they’ll walk you through how to integrate your existing processes and software with QuickBooks.

Pilot Features

Pilot not only offers accrual-based accounting but also support for multiple entities. Its other features are described below:

• Dedicated bookkeeper: Your dedicated bookkeeper will assist you with setting up your account and serve as your point of contact in the event of any issues. They’ll work with you to learn your business.
• Monthly financial reports: Basic financial reports, such as P&L statements, balance sheets, and statement of cash flows, are sent on a monthly basis. The Plus plan offers more customized reports as well. The monthly statements include your burn rate so that you know exactly where you and your investors stand.
• Accrual-based accounting: Included with all plans, accrual basis accounting is used for all businesses. Most larger companies use accrual-based accounting as required by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and it’s preferred by banks and investors.
• A/R and A/P: With the Plus plan, Pilot will create and send invoices to your customers. You can also set up bill pay for your vendors.
• Tax management: Pilot Tax is available as a separate package and includes federal-, state-, and city-level income tax preparation and 1099 filing. Unlimited email support is also included with this package.

Our Expert Opinion

Pilot offers not only bookkeeping services but also comprehensive support for rapidly-growing businesses. Companies that are looking for CFO and/or tax services will benefit from Pilot CFO and Pilot Tax, two add-on services. Pilot tailors its offerings to ecommerce and professional service firms as well as providing support for multiple entities. Its industry-specific reports include burn reports for startups and inventory management for ecommerce companies and are available with the Select or Plus plan.

For more information, please see our complete review of Pilot.

Botkeeper: Best Online Bookkeeping Service to Assist Accounting Firms

Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, Botkeeper automates the majority of bookkeeping processes and is meant to replace manual labor at bookkeeping firms. It can best be thought of like a virtual robotic bookkeeper that supports your accounting practice. The service is only compatible with QuickBooks and Xero and can accommodate multiple-entity accounting. With both a platform and client entity fee, the price is on the steep side and must be paid annually. However, because it helps to offload daily bookkeeping tasks like data entry, reconciliations, and classifications, it allows you to focus on higher-level client advisory services.

Botkeeper Features

Botkeeper has many features that distinguish it from other bookkeeping services. This includes the following:

• Automated bookkeeping: Humans apply critical thinking to help train the machine to categorize expenses, enter transactions, pay bills, invoice clients, and reconcile accounts. Botkeeper’s team of specialists counter-checks the data, ensuring tax compliance and accurate bookkeeping
• Dashboard: Your interactive dashboard provides direct access to your key performance indicators, data visualizations, and trending analytics.
• ScanBot: A mobile app that integrates with Botkeeper, ScanBot can extract financial data directly from a photo of a receipt, invoice, or sales contract using your mobile phone and sync it directly with your client’s books. This reduces the number of steps needed to record transactions.
• Integration: Banks, credit cards, and payroll providers are integrated to extract transactions automatically.
• Multiple-entity accounting: Botkeeper allows you to cover supplementary entities that form part of an entire organization like subsidiaries alongside the parent company.

Our Expert Opinion

With its artificial intelligence and machine learning features combined with a team of skilled accountants, Botkeeper eliminates the need for most data entry and delivers books with most of your clients’ bookkeeping already completed. This will undoubtedly free up a lot of time for higher-level tasks. The big question is whether you have a large enough client base to justify the fixed annual platform fee.

Botkeeper is unique in that it aims to assist traditional bookkeeping firms, instead of replacing them. Learn more about it in our expert review.

Sunrise: Best Free Software With an Online Bookkeeping Option

Sunrise by Lendio is a free cloud-based accounting and bookkeeping software that allows you to create quotes and estimates, track expenses, and more. Its wide range of features include A/R and A/P as well as financial reporting and payroll integration with Gusto. Sunrise’s software is proprietary and is ideal for freelancers on a budget. Users seeking assisted bookkeeping can sign up for one of its paid plans, which provides account reconciliations and month-end close. You’re responsible for day-to-day bookkeeping tasks like invoicing and paying bills. You can also invite your independent accountant to access your Sunrise account.

Sunrise Features

Sunrise not only offers free bookkeeping software but when you sign up for the bookkeeping service, you’ll be able to save time with a personal bookkeeper. Here are a few other useful features:

• Dedicated bookkeeper: Your dedicated bookkeeper will match transactions to your bank statements and close your books at the end of each month. They’re also available to answer any questions and will send you monthly financial reports, including balance sheets and P&L statements.
• Tax assist: Your bookkeeper will also help you with tracking 1099 vendors and calculating depreciation, simplifying your tax season.
• Business insights: You’ll be provided with cash flow insights and alerts so that you’ll know where your capital is going and where you could cut expenses if necessary.
• Easy-to-use interface: The Sunrise dashboard lets you view essential accounting key performance indicators, including profit and loss, revenue, and expenses. The interface is both intuitive and uncluttered, making it easy to navigate.
• Mobile app: Sunrise’s mobile app is available for both Android and iOS users, and allows you to send and manage invoices, track receipts, and collect payments wherever you are.
• Accountant access: You can invite your accountant to access your books, ensuring that your financial data is updated in real-time.

Our Expert Opinion

Sunrise is an ideal solution for users that are looking for free and easy-to-use accounting software that has a powerful set of bookkeeping tools like A/R and A/P. Although it lacks more advanced features like time tracking and inventory tracking, it does offer a dedicated bookkeeper for a fee that’s based on the number of monthly transactions.

For more information about Sunrise’s free bookkeeping software, please see our complete review of Sunrise.

How We Evaluated Online Bookkeeping Services

There are many items to consider when determining which online bookkeeping service is the best fit for you. First, it’s important to identify the services that you would like performed:

• Bills: Tracking unpaid bills and issuing payments can often feel like a full-time responsibility. We evaluated whether these bookkeeping services can perform A/P functions for you or at the very least alert you to problems.
• Invoicing: While most online bookkeeping services will leave A/R tasks to you, it’s crucial to your cash flow to send timely invoices to customers. We placed additional value on services that can monitor your outstanding invoices and alert you to potential problems.
• Bank reconciliation: We looked at whether these services offer bank reconciliation as part of their offerings.
• Financial statements: The type and frequency of financial statements that are available were also a consideration. Ideally, they should be sent monthly, or quarterly at the very least.
• Payroll: We evaluated whether these bookkeeping services offer payroll, whether as a direct integration or through a third-party provider like Gusto.

There are a few other factors that you may want to keep in mind while evaluating your options:

• Dedicated bookkeeper: You should be able to access a dedicated bookkeeper for any questions or advice and one-on-one assistance.
• Software: We considered the type of software that each bookkeeping service uses, and whether it’s a popular software like QuickBooks or the company’s own proprietary software.
• Cost: Several price points were evaluated, including free and low-cost options. Because each pricing plan is dependent on many factors, we tried to look at the value provided in terms of the time and potential money that you’re saving by using the service.
• Add-on services: We looked at the types and number of add-on services available like payroll, tax filing, CFO advisory, and catch-up or clean-up bookkeeping.
• Ease-of-use: The service’s ease-of-use and the user interface are also important factors, and we noted which information can easily be accessed.
• Mobile app: Many of these bookkeeping services have their own mobile app or you can use the software’s mobile app like Sunrise. This can assist businesses on the go with staying connected 24/7.

Bottom Line

Bookkeeping is an important part of the success of a small business, but it requires a significant amount of time and energy. Working with an online bookkeeping service can help to take some of that work off your plate, eliminating headaches by assisting with such tasks as bank reconciliations and generating financial reports. Many firms also offer add-on services like payroll, tax filing, CFO advisory, and financial advice. Before making a decision, it’s best to think about which services are needed for your business and which you feel comfortable handling yourself.