September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Accounting and close › AI accounting assistants › Small business · September 2026 Edition

AI accounting assistants for small business buyers

Asked as “AI bookkeeping tool”, and as “AI agent for accounting tasks”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 48 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
40%
Contested · Wave 12%
40QuickBooks Online12Wave10Xero38others

40% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01QuickBooks Online40%11%54endorsed leader
02Wave12%7%15accepted challenger
03Xero10%6%47accepted challenger
04Zoho Books6%0%23accepted challenger
05Pilot6%8%12accepted challenger
06Digits4%19%16accepted challenger
07FreshBooks2%0%20accepted challenger
08BILL2%10%10accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Botkeeper0%50%10criticized challenger
10Vic.ai0%27%11criticized challenger
09Zeni0%15%13accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01QuickBooks Online40%
02Wave12%
03Xero10%
04Zoho Books6%
05Pilot6%
06Digits4%
07FreshBooks2%
08BILL2%
09Zeni0%
10Vic.ai0%
11Botkeeper0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
ChatGPT
100%
9 of 9 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 8 hard negative
“Do Not Use: Generative AI Chatbots as Bookkeeping Tools ... tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude ... should never serve as your accounting software” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Claude
100%
7 of 7 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or other general-purpose LLMs used directly for tax compliance - Why avoid:” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Gemini
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini ... are not accounting systems and should not be used as the ledger.” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
QuickBooks Online
11%
6 of 54 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Built-in AI in QuickBooks and Xero can be problematic because: Trained on "average of millions of businesses," not your specific chart of accounts” Kimi K2, negative prompt

What they cite

Twelve of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited and eight the search results they consulted.

Sites the answers cite

66 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 900 links across 285 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

42 answers · 45 citations · 11 models
28 answers · 29 citations · 10 models
vendor site · DualEntry22 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
18 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
17 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
16 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
15 answers · 15 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Ramp14 answers · 15 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Xero13 answers · 22 citations · 6 models
13 answers · 17 citations · 6 models
13 answers · 13 citations · 10 models
12 answers · 12 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “ai accounting tools”, “ai bookkeeping tool”, “best ai bookkeeping tool”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 days
QuickBooks quickbooks.ninja
QuickBooks Online 40%
40%6921,000,00054,681253 company
Wave waveapps.com12%363368,000253,218708,86239
Xero xero.com10%72990,5004,6101,200,289$500119
Zoho zoho.com
Zoho Books 6%
6%36727,1002681,216,894 company$51,031119
Pilot pilot.com6%24450,000277,700166,189$1,32390
Lunos AI lunos.ai6%41621
Digits digits.com4%7040,500465,78149,7880
FreshBooks freshbooks.com2%30440,500389305,801$221113
BILL bill.com2%3742,740,0001,063,0011,783,039$199,231119
Puzzle puzzle.io2%43368,000269,4976,484$23130

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 22 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (dualentry.com, fitsmallbusiness.com, intuit.com). The first result for “ai accounting tools” is finlens.app.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
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ModelDirect“What is the best AI bookkeeping tool for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which AI agent for accounting tasks would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top AI accounting tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI bookkeeping tool for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating an AI bookkeeping tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which AI accounting tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5QuickBooks Online
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Xero
Lunos AIChanged
Four alternativesBILL, Pilot, QuickBooks Online, Xero
QuickBooks Online
Two alternativesXero, Zoho Books
against: Ramp Accounting Agent
Wave
Three alternativesQuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho Books
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT
GPT-5.4 miniQuickBooks Online
Two alternativesBotkeeper, Xero
QuickBooks OnlineHeld
Three alternativesBILL, Vic.ai, Xero
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Four alternativesBILL, Botkeeper, Dext, Sage Intacct
Xero
One alternativeQuickBooks Online
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashPuzzle
Four alternativesBooke AI, Truewind, Xero, Zeni
Alguna, Lunos AIChanged
Four alternativesDocyt, Puzzle, QuickBooks Online, Xero
Puzzle
Six alternativesBooke AI, Inkle, QuickBooks Online, Truewind, Xero, Zeni
Kick
Three alternativesLuca, Wave, Zoho Books
against: Pilot, Zeni
no first choiceagainst: Botkeeper, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, QuickBooks Online, Vic.ai, Xero
Perplexity SonarQuickBooks Online
Two alternativesDigits, Xero
QuickBooks OnlineHeld
Three alternativesDocyt, Lunos AI, Pilot
QuickBooks Online
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Xero, Zoho Books
against: Wave
QuickBooks Online, Wave
Two alternativesXero, Zoho Books
no first choiceagainst: Botkeeper, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Grok 4.20QuickBooks Online
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Xero, Zoho Books
QuickBooks OnlineHeld
Three alternativesBILL, Mesha, Xero
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Zoho Books
Wave
Two alternativesXero, Zoho Books
against: QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Two alternativesBotkeeper, Indy
against: Botkeeper, Digits
Mistral SmallQuickBooks Online
Three alternativesAutoEntry, FreshBooks, HubDoc
PilotChanged
Two alternativesFloQast, FreshBooks
QuickBooks Online
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Xero, Zoho Books
against: FloQast, Sage Intacct
Wave
One alternativeDigits
no first choiceagainst: Bench
DeepSeek V4 FlashQuickBooks Online
Three alternativesBILL, HubDoc, Xero
against: Zeni
BILL, QuickBooks OnlineChanged
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Pilot, Wave, Zeni
against: Vic.ai
FreshBooks, Xero
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Ramp Accounting Agent
against: ChatGPT, Claude, Numeric, Vic.ai
Zoho Books
Three alternativesDigits, Wave, Xero
against: QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online, Xero
Six alternativesBench, Bookkeeper360, Digits, Docyt, Pilot, Zeni
against: Botkeeper, HubDoc
against: Booke AI, Botkeeper, ChatGPT, Claude, Finaloop, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot
Llama 4 MaverickFreshBooks, QuickBooks Online
Two alternativesAutoEntry, HubDoc
no first choiceChangedQuickBooks Online
Three alternativesSage Intacct, Xero, Zeni
Digits
Seven alternativesAutoEntry, Bookeeping.ai, FreshBooks, HubDoc, QuickBooks Online, Wave, Zoho Books
Growthy
Two alternativesDigits, QuickBooks Online
nothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashQuickBooks Online
Four alternativesFintual, HubDoc, Pilot, Xero
PilotChanged
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Ramp Accounting Agent
QuickBooks Online
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Xero, Zoho Books
Wave
One alternativeQuickBooks Online
no first choice
Five alternativesDext, Docyt, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zeni
against: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Kimi K2QuickBooks Online, Xero
One alternativeFreshBooks
Digits, QuickBooks OnlineChanged
Two alternativesHelloBooks.ai, Xero
Digits, QuickBooks Online
Five alternativesBooke AI, Melio, Ramp Accounting Agent, Xero, Zeni
against: BILL
Wave
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Zoho Books
against: Digits, QuickBooks Online
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Meta AI, QuickBooks Online, Sage Copilot, Xero
GLM 4.7 FlashXQuickBooks Online
Six alternativesDext, Docyt, Pilot, Vic.ai, Xero, Zoho Books
Lunos AIChanged
One alternativeAccountsReceivable.ai
QuickBooks Online
Six alternativesDigits, FreshBooks, Sage Intacct, Xero, Zeni, Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Three alternativesFreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Wave
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
MiniMax M2.5QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books
Three alternativesDigits, FreshBooks, Xero
Pilot, Ramp Accounting AgentChanged
Two alternativesDext, HelloBooks.ai
QuickBooks Online, Xero
One alternativeFreshBooks
Xero
Three alternativesFreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books
against: Digits
no first choiceagainst: ChatGPT, QuickBooks Online, Xero
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:16yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 17:59yes35 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:26yes1720 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:43yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 19:14yes3016 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:29yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:36yes812 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:11yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:09no033 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:54yes1032 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:35yes1970 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:01yes624 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:25yes1710 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:00no04 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:49yes1221 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:15yes204 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:29yes3518 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:17yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:28yes1825 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:24yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:38yes523 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:31yes919 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:32yes2065 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:23yes740 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:37yes1510 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:55yes39 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:20yes1451 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:02yes208 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:09yes3819 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:08yes57 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:17yes1718 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:01yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:02yes516 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:19yes1536 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:34yes1944 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:58yes1021 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:09yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:57yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:00yes1921 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:36yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 18:18yes3016 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:28yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:13yes1915 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:33yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:50yes527 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:02yes923 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:54yes518 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:52yes546 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 17:53no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:30no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:07yes820 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:16yes209 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:18yes159 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:55no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:50yes1015 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:59yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:22yes524 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:17yes1520 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:39yes1578 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:27no09 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:32yes1810 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:07yes59 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:53yes2671 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:22yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-17 20:16yes4018 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:39yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:22yes2838 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:41yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:55yes843 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:38yes2452 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:30yes2763 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:53yes1734 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Bill.com read as BILL
Booke read as Booke AI
HelloBooks read as HelloBooks.ai
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Online
Ramp read as Ramp Accounting Agent
Sage read as Sage Intacct
Wave Accounting read as Wave
Unresolved, counted raw
Fintual
Luca
Zoffer (The AI Accountant)
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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