September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Finance › Planning and analysis › Financial reporting › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Financial reporting and dashboards for small business buyers

Asked as “financial reporting software”, and as “finance dashboard tool”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 40 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
38%
Contested · Zoho Books 20%
38QuickBooks Online20Zoho Books15Fathom28others

38% 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 Online38%9%35endorsed leader
02Zoho Books20%0%17accepted challenger
03Fathom15%0%19accepted challenger
04Wave15%21%14accepted challenger
05Xero Analytics2%3%29accepted challenger
06Databox2%5%20accepted challenger
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Tableau0%62%13criticized challenger
10Microsoft Power BI0%27%22criticized challenger
07Looker Studio Lab in the set0%5%22accepted challenger
08Klipfolio0%0%11accepted challenger
09Zoho Analytics0%0%10accepted 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.

Looker Studio is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

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
M10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01QuickBooks Online38%
02Zoho Books20%
03Fathom15%
04Wave15%
05Xero Analytics2%
06Databox2%
07Looker Studio0%
08Klipfolio0%
09Zoho Analytics0%
10Microsoft Power BI0%
11Tableau0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and Kimi K2 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.
Tableau
62%
8 of 13 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Enterprise BI tools that are usually overkill ... Tableau, Power BI, Looker, and similar platforms ... they're overkill for most small businesses” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
Microsoft Power BI
27%
6 of 22 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Examples: Tableau Server, PowerBI Premium-only setups, full-service Qlik environments” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Improvado
100%
5 of 5 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 4 hard negative
“Tools Requiring SQL or Data Engineering Skills Examples: Advanced ETL platforms (Improvado, Adverity, Matillion)” Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt
Microsoft Excel
83%
5 of 6 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Why avoid? Fine for ad-hoc analysis, but dangerous as primary tools due to errors” Grok 4.20, 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

62 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. 814 links across 268 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

19 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Cubesoftware19 answers · 19 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Capterra18 answers · 19 citations · 12 models
vendor site · US Tech Automations18 answers · 19 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Worldmetrics17 answers · 25 citations · 8 models
15 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Ramp15 answers · 17 citations · 10 models
15 answers · 16 citations · 8 models
vendor site · Improvado12 answers · 12 citations · 9 models
11 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
vendor site · Maxio11 answers · 12 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Productive9 answers · 10 citations · 7 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 “best financial reporting software”, “financial reporting software”, “reporting tools”. 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 daysBest Google position
QuickBooks quickbooks.ninja
QuickBooks Online 38%
38%6921,000,00054,681253 company
Zoho zoho.com
Zoho Books 20%
20%36727,1002681,216,894 company$51,031119
Fathom fathomhq.com15%19090,5006,65774,88138
Wave waveapps.com15%363368,000253,218708,86239
Xero xero.com
Xero Analytics 2%
2%5590,5004,6101,200,289 company$5001192
Databox databox.com2%1103,6006860,8614
Maxio maxio.com2%1512,4004932,891$51859
Clockwork clockwork.ai2%2427,1007,1784634
Xanaro2%
Looker Studio lookerstudio.google.com0%7240,5004525,456

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 24 sites; 3 of them are among the sites the models cited here (productive.io, ramp.com, thecfoclub.com). The first result for “best financial reporting software” is thecfoclub.com.

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.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best financial reporting software for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which finance dashboard tool would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top reporting tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best financial reporting software for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a financial reporting software. What should we look at?”Negative“Which reporting tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5QuickBooks Online
Three alternativesFreshBooks, Maxio, Xero Analytics
DataboxChanged
One alternativeDomo
Zoho Analytics
Six alternativesLooker Studio, Monday.com, QuickBooks Online, Smartsheet, Wrike, Zoho Projects
QuickBooks Online, Zoho Books
Three alternativesQuicken Business & Personal, Wave, Xero Analytics
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniQuickBooks Online
One alternativeXero Analytics
against: Oracle NetSuite
Xero AnalyticsChanged
One alternativeFreshBooks
Looker Studio
Three alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Wave
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashClockwork
Six alternativesChartMogul, Fathom, LiveFlow, QuickBooks Online, Syft Analytics, Xero Analytics
FathomChanged
Four alternativesBaremetrics, ChartMogul, Jirav, Syft Analytics
Looker Studio
Two alternativesDatabox, Metabase
against: Geckoboard, Microsoft Power BI
Wave, Zoho Books
Four alternativesFathom, Quicken Business & Personal, Syft Analytics, Xero Analytics
no first choice
Seven alternativesCube, Fathom, Jirav, Mosaic, Pry, Runway, Syft Analytics
against: Anaplan, Workday Adaptive Planning
against: Looker, Metabase, Microsoft Excel, Oracle Analytics, Qlik Sense, SAP Analytics Cloud, Salesforce CRM Analytics, Sisense, Tableau
Perplexity SonarQuickBooks Online
Three alternativesFathom, FreshBooks, Xero Analytics
FathomChanged
Three alternativesDatabox, LivePlan, Microsoft Power BI
Databox, Looker Studio
Two alternativesMicrosoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
against: Tableau
Zoho Books
Two alternativesWave, Xero Analytics
against: QuickBooks Online
no first choiceagainst: Cube, Databox, Improvado, Looker Studio, Mosaic, SAP Crystal Reports
Grok 4.20QuickBooks Online
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Xero Analytics
against: Wave
QuickBooks OnlineHeld
Two alternativesXero Analytics, Zoho Books
Looker Studio
Four alternativesDatabox, Klipfolio, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Wave
Four alternativesOdoo, QuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics, Zoho Books
no first choice
Seven alternativesCausal, Cube, Datarails, Fathom, Spotlight Reporting, Syft Analytics, Vena
against: Oracle, Workday
against: Adverity, Domo, Funnel, Google Sheets, Improvado, Looker, Microsoft Excel, Slack, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
Mistral SmallQuickBooks Online
Two alternativesMaxio, Xero Analytics
FathomChanged
Three alternativesGeckoboard, Klipfolio, Zoho Analytics
Databox, Looker Studio
Four alternativesMicrosoft Power BI, Monday.com, Tableau, Zoho Analytics
against: Domo
QuickBooks Online
One alternativeZoho Books
no first choiceagainst: Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Slack
DeepSeek V4 FlashQuickBooks Online
Two alternativesXero Analytics, Zoho Books
against: Sage Intacct
FathomChanged
Four alternativesFairview, Finmark, Spotlight Reporting, Syft Analytics
Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Five alternativesDatabox, Google Analytics, LivePlan, Looker Studio, Tableau
Wave
Three alternativesAkaunting, Patriot Software, Zoho Books
against: GnuCash, QuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics
no first choiceagainst: full Workday/Oracleagainst: Adverity, Funnel, Google Sheets, Improvado, Looker, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Slack, Tableau
Llama 4 MaverickMaxioFathomChanged
Six alternativesFineBI, Geckoboard, Klipfolio, Looker Studio, Plecto, Zoho Analytics
Databox
Two alternativesDomo, Looker Studio
Zoho Books
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics
no first choiceagainst: Spreadsheets
Qwen 3.7 FlashQuickBooks Online
Four alternativesFreshBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Xero Analytics
XanaroChanged
Four alternativesBILL, LiveFlow, Microsoft Power BI, QuickBooks Online
Looker Studio
Five alternativesAirtable, Databox, Geckoboard, Microsoft Power BI, Notion
Wave, Zoho Books
Two alternativesQuickBooks Online, Xero Analytics
no first choiceagainst: Planful, Venaagainst: Adverity, Excel/Google Sheets, Improvado, Matillion, Microsoft Power BI, Qlik Sense, Tableau
Kimi K2QuickBooks Online
Two alternativesFreshBooks, Xero Analytics
against: Sage Intacct, Wave
FathomChanged
Two alternativesClockwork, LivePlan
Databox
Five alternativesKlipfolio, Looker Studio, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Zoho Books
Two alternativesWave, Xero Analytics
no first choice
Six alternativesCube, Datarails, QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, Vena, Xero Analytics
against: Excel/Google Sheets, Looker, Microsoft Power BI, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, QuickBooks Online, SAP S/4HANA, Tableau, UKG / SAP SuccessFactors, Workday
GLM 4.7 FlashXQuickBooks Online
Five alternativesChargebee, Fathom, Maxio, Syft Analytics, Xero Analytics
QuickBooks OnlineHeld
Four alternativesFathom, Plecto, Spotlight Reporting, Xero Analytics
Geckoboard
Five alternativesClickUp, Databox, Klipfolio, Smartsheet, Zoho Analytics
Zoho Books
Seven alternativesAkaunting, FreshBooks, GnuCash, Patriot Software, QuickBooks Online, Wave, Xero Analytics
no first choiceagainst: Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacctagainst: Domo, Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
MiniMax M2.5QuickBooks Online
Three alternativesFathom, Maxio, Xero Analytics
against: Wave
QuickBooks OnlineHeld
Two alternativesXero Analytics, Zoho Books
Databox, Looker Studio
Two alternativesLivePlan, Microsoft Power BI
against: Domo
Wave, Zoho Books
One alternativeQuickBooks Online
no first choiceagainst: Domo, Improvado, Microsoft Power BI, SAP Crystal Reports, Tableau
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 19:08yes188 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:52yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:56yes1349 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:04yes195 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 19:18yes1518 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:14yes55 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:33yes1936 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:56yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:02yes1046 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:53yes1527 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:13yes2540 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:49yes1236 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:56yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:36yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:19yes2056 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:34yes205 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 18:24yes4018 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:04yes54 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-17 19:58yes2433 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:16yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:45no031 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:44yes1525 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:05yes3083 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:39no07 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:08yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:06yes57 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:02yes623 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:53yes208 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 19:37yes2615 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:57yes55 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:11yes915 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:14yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:03no031 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:59yes1448 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:14yes2442 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:07yes820 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:13yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:52yes24 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:12yes1730 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:31yes195 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 19:05yes159 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:40yes53 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:14yes1012 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:39yes54 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:55yes515 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:51yes1019 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:06yes929 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:10yes1031 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:56no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:48no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:41no015 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:26yes208 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 19:26yes1310 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:41no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:00no013 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:29yes54 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:05no054 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:48yes1327 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:01yes1768 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:29yes514 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:47yes1611 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:50no03 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:33yes623 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:16yes206 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 19:13yes3418 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:48yes57 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:20yes1923 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:06yes54 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:54yes1031 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:18yes1547 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:18yes26113 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:53yes721 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
Excel read as Microsoft Excel
Google Looker Studio read as Looker Studio
NetSuite read as Oracle NetSuite
Oracle ERP read as Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
PowerBI read as Microsoft Power BI
PowerBI Premium read as Microsoft Power BI
Qlik read as Qlik Sense
QuickBooks read as QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online Simple Start read as QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Solopreneur read as QuickBooks Online
Syft read as Syft Analytics
Vena Solutions read as Vena
Wave Accounting read as Wave
Xero read as Xero Analytics
Xero (Early Starter) read as Xero Analytics
Xero Starter read as Xero Analytics
Unresolved, counted raw
Anomaly AI
DashboardFox
Glew
Grow.com
Layer
Polar Analytics
Signara
Twilio Segment
UKG / SAP SuccessFactors
Vivify
Xanaro
full Workday/Oracle
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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