- Customizable Invoicing: Create professional, branded invoices with customizable templates, supporting multi-currency and instant bank payment options.
- Automated Bank Feeds: Automatically import bank statements for seamless transaction tracking and reconciliation.
- Auto Code AI: Categorize hundreds of bank transactions quickly using AI for efficient bookkeeping.
- Expense Tracking: Record and manage employee expenses, including mileage claims at HMRC or manual rates.
- MTD VAT Compliance: Prepare and submit VAT returns directly to HMRC, supporting flat rate and EU reverse charge schemes.
- Multi-Currency Support: Create invoices, bills, and bank accounts in various currencies with automated or custom exchange rates.
- Recurring Invoices and Bills: Automate repeat invoices and bills to save time and ensure timely payments.
- Comprehensive Reporting: Generate financial reports like profit and loss, balance sheets, and trial balances, exportable to CSV or PDF.
- Unlimited Users and Permissions: Add unlimited users with customizable access controls for secure collaboration.
- Mobile App: Manage contacts, invoices, bills, and payments on the go, with offline mode and QR code payment collection.
- Purchase Orders: Issue documents specifying products, quantities, and prices for streamlined supplier interactions.
- Payroll Add-On: Manage payroll for unlimited employees, available as an optional add on with a 30 day free trial.
- Integration Support: Connect with tools like PayPal, Stripe, GoCardless, and Dext for enhanced functionality.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Capture data from images to create invoices, bills, or expenses automatically.
- Fixed Asset Tracking: Monitor and calculate depreciation for equipment and vehicles.
- Time Tracking: Log hours worked and create invoices based on time spent on projects.
- CIS Reporting: Prepare and file Construction Industry Scheme returns online for construction businesses.
- Audit Log: Track user actions for transparency and accountability in financial operations.
- Secure Cloud Access: Access data anytime, anywhere with 256-bit SSL encryption and daily backups.
- Self-Assessment Income Tax: View and manage income tax returns for sole traders and landlords.
- Batch Data Entry: Enter multiple invoices or bills quickly via a grid input screen for efficiency.
- Customer Statements: Provide clients with secure, permanent links to view paid and unpaid invoices.
- Cash Insights: Offer traffic-light insights on business cash health for eligible businesses.
- Dividend Vouchers: Generate paperwork for dividend payments to streamline shareholder distributions.
- Project Invoicing: Create invoices for specific company divisions or projects for better cost allocation.
- Free Support: Access UK-based phone, email, and community support from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Clear Books
ClearBooks simplifies accounting tasks like invoicing, expense tracking, and financial reporting for small businesses.
Updated July 27, 2026
Clear Books Overview
ClearBooks is a user-friendly, cloud-based accounting software designed for small businesses and freelancers. It simplifies financial tasks like invoicing, expense tracking, and payroll management with an intuitive interface. Offering robust tax compliance, multi-currency support, and automated features like recurring invoices, it streamlines bookkeeping.
Comprehensive reporting tools provide insights for better decision-making, while secure cloud access ensures flexibility and data safety, making it ideal for efficient financial management.
Key Features
Pricing
| Plan Name | Price (Monthly)* | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Small | £16/mo (£8/mo for first 3 months) | Core accounting: bank feed with automated matching, invoicing and quotes, full reporting suite, recurring invoices and bills, stock items, dividends tool, unlimited users. For limited companies, sole traders, partnerships and charities. |
| Medium | £34/mo (£17/mo for first 3 months) | Everything in Small, plus MTD VAT submissions, purchase orders and approvals, CIS reporting and submissions (construction), unlimited budgets with comparison reporting. |
| Large | £44/mo (£22/mo for first 3 months) | Everything in Medium, plus project accounting and project reporting, multi currency, employee expense claims and approvals, fixed assets. |
| Sole Trader and Landlord MTD plans | Free to £15/mo | Separate MTD Income Tax plans: free self service tiers for sole traders and landlords, £5/mo plans that add bank feeds and receipt scanning, and a £15/mo Sole Trader + VAT plan. |
*All prices exclude VAT. The half price first 3 months applies to new subscriptions bought within 30 days of registration.
Pricing source: https://www.clearbooks.co.uk/pricing/
Pros
| Competitor | Pros of Clear Books |
|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | Clear Books’ Small plan is £16.00 a month excluding VAT, with 50% off for the first three months on new subscriptions bought within 30 days of registration, and annual or two yearly billing takes another 10% or 20% off. It also runs free, HMRC recognised MTD Income Tax plans: Sole Trader Free and Property Free both cover quarterly updates and year end tax return filing with no transaction limits. Everything is built around UK compliance rather than adapted to it. |
| Xero | The whole Clear Books ladder stops at £44.00 a month for Large, which includes project accounting, multi currency, employee expense claims and approvals, and a fixed assets module. Xero UK starts at £16 for Ignite and climbs to £37 Grow, £50 Comprehensive and £65 Ultimate for its full feature set. Both are Making Tax Digital products, but the Clear Books top tier costs less than Xero’s middle one. |
| FreeAgent | FreeAgent sells one plan per business type, £33 a month plus VAT for a limited company or £19 for a sole trader, so the feature set arrives as a fixed package. Clear Books has three business tiers at £16, £34 and £44 plus the £5 a month MTD Income Tax plans for sole traders and landlords, so a business pays for CIS reporting or project accounting only when it needs them. Upgrading and downgrading is done from the subscription screen. |
| Sage Intacct / Sage Accounting | Sage’s UK accounting plans run £20 Start, £43 Standard and £59 Plus plus VAT. Clear Books’ £16 Small plan already includes bank feeds with automated matching, invoicing and quotes, the full reporting suite, recurring invoices and bills, a dividends tool, user permissions, and integrations and API access. The 30 day trial has no feature restrictions, and an onboarding specialist demo comes with it. |
| Zoho Books | Zoho Books UK prices per organisation, £12 a month Standard through to £199 Ultimate, and charges £2.50 per month for every extra user. The £34.00 Medium Clear Books plan is aimed squarely at UK obligations instead: MTD VAT submissions, purchase orders with approvals, and CIS reporting and submissions for construction, plus unlimited budgets. Clear Books is also registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (reg. no. 843585) for its bank feed and payment features. |
Cons
| Competitor | Cons of Clear Books |
|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | MTD VAT submissions only appear on the £34.00 Medium plan, not on £16.00 Small, so a VAT registered limited company cannot stay at the entry price; only the separate £15 Sole Trader + VAT plan covers VAT lower down. QuickBooks sells a £10 a month Sole Trader plan and £16 Simple Start below that, then scales to £38 Essentials, £56 Plus and £123 Advanced with payroll, deeper inventory and a much larger app marketplace. Clear Books does not try to compete on ecosystem size. |
| Xero | The 50% discount lasts three months and only applies if the subscription is bought within 30 days of registration, after which Small returns to £16.00 and Large to £44.00 a month. Multi currency, project accounting, fixed assets and employee expense claims all sit behind that £44.00 Large tier. Xero’s app marketplace and mobile experience remain wider whatever tier you pick. |
| FreeAgent | FreeAgent is free for as long as the customer keeps a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business account, or holds a Mettle account with at least one transaction a month, and Clear Books has no equivalent bank route. FreeAgent also files Self Assessment and runs payroll inside its standard plan, while Clear Books sells payroll as a separate add on with a 30 day trial. Auto Bills for receipt capture and Instant Bank Payments are optional extras too. |
| Sage Intacct / Sage Accounting | Clear Books stops at £44.00 a month, and with it stops multi entity consolidation, forecasting and the ERP style reporting Sage sells further up its range. Sage Intacct is aimed at finance teams that need consolidations and dimensional reporting; Clear Books is aimed at a single UK company’s books. Larger organisations with several trading entities will outgrow it. |
| Zoho Books | Zoho Books offers a free UK plan and paid tiers that add inventory control, workflow automation and add ons such as document autoscans at £6.50 per 50 scans. Clear Books’ free plans cover only MTD Income Tax record keeping for sole traders and landlords, and its automation is thinner, with Auto Bills charged as an extra. Third party integrations are a shorter list than Zoho’s own app family. |
Reviews
- Trustpilot Review: One new business owner praised the “very thorough and informative” one‑to‑one demo and valued having a dedicated point of contact for future queries, while others highlighted the user‑friendly interface and “extremely quick response times” from support. In contrast, one investor reported no replies to emails and consistently late or absent dividend payments. Clear Books earns strong marks for helpful staff like Martin and Jamie, yet at least one reviewer described a poor investor experience.
- Software Advice Review: The platform earns praise for its ease of use and “myriad of useful tools,” with reviewers calling out the great search function, excellent reporting capabilities, and a dashboard that centralizes key information.
- jibble.io Review: Several users criticized the interface as difficult to use and requested features like customizable document templates and an auto-save option. One reviewer noted that large businesses struggle with “storing and traversing large banking transactions” due to limited storage memory. At the same time, Clear Books delivers tools such as auto-enrolment, end-to-end CIS support, a bank-import tool for automated reconciliation, and detailed tax reports, though the reviewer wanted more web API integrations to reduce repetitive tasks.
- Capterra Review: Clear Books appeals to small and medium-sized businesses that want a simple and affordable way to manage finances, with feedback emphasizing straightforward functionality suited to everyday accounting needs.
