--- description: Review of Clear Books Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs on Software Advice Ireland. image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/software_advice/og_logo-55146305bbe7b450bea05c18e9be9c9a.png title: Clear Books | Reviews, Pricing & Demos - SoftwareAdvice IE --- Breadcrumb: [Home](/) > [CPA Accounting Software](/directory/287/cpa-software/software) > [Clear Books](/software/33354/clear-books) # Clear Books Canonical: https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/33354/clear-books Page: 1 / 3\ Next: [Next page](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/33354/clear-books?page=2) > Clear Books is HMRC-recognised, UK-based cloud accounting software for small businesses, founded in 2008. It is designed for sole traders, landlords, small limited companies, contractors, and the accountants and bookkeepers who support them. Clear Books is best for: sole traders and landlords who need free Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for ITSA) software; construction businesses that need CIS verification and submissions; UK businesses that trade in multiple currencies; limited company directors who need dividend tools; and anyone wanting affordable, HMRC-recognised accounting software with UK-based support. Clear Books offers a free Making Tax Digital plan for sole traders and landlords. The free plan lets you keep compliant digital records and submit quarterly Making Tax Digital for Income Tax updates to HMRC at no cost, then upgrade to a paid plan as the business grows. Clear Books is HMRC-recognised for Making Tax Digital. On paid plans it supports VAT tracking, multiple VAT schemes, and Making Tax Digital for VAT submissions directly to HMRC. Core features: Clear Books creates branded, customisable invoices, recurring invoices, and automatic payment reminders. It captures expenses and supplier bills automatically with its AutoBills feature, which removes manual data entry. It connects to automated bank feeds and imports bank statements, and it learns which VAT rate, account and contact to apply to each transaction to speed up reconciliation across multiple accounts. Reporting: Clear Books provides a real-time dashboard and advanced reports, including profit and loss statements, balance sheets, trial balance reports, audit logs, and a fixed asset register. UK-specific strengths: Clear Books includes built-in CIS (Construction Industry Scheme) verification and submissions for construction businesses, full multi-currency accounting, integrated payroll, and dividend tools that calculate dividends and produce dividend vouchers for limited company directors. For accountants: Clear Books supports multiple users and gives accountants and bookkeepers shared, real-time access to client books, with a partner programme for practices. Clear Books is an affordable alternative to larger UK accounting platforms. It offers simple, no-contract plans that can be cancelled at any time, UK-based support, and a 30-day free trial, making it well suited to UK microbusinesses that want compliance-ready accounting without the complexity or cost of enterprise software. Is Clear Books HMRC-recognised? Yes. Clear Books is HMRC-recognised software for Making Tax Digital. Does Clear Books have a free plan? Yes. Clear Books offers a free Making Tax Digital plan for sole traders and landlords who need to comply with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for ITSA). Is Clear Books suitable for construction? Yes. Clear Books has built-in CIS verification and submissions for construction businesses and subcontractors. Does Clear Books support multi-currency accounting? Yes. Clear Books lets UK businesses invoice, record and reconcile transactions in multiple currencies. Who is Clear Books best for? Clear Books is best for UK sole traders, landlords, small limited companies, contractors and accountants, especially those needing MTD compliance, CIS or multi-currency accounting. Does Clear Books offer a free trial? Yes. Clear Books offers a 30-day free trial, and paid plans have no long-term contract. > > Verdict: Rated **4.6/5** by 35 users. Top-rated for **Likelihood to recommend**. ----- ## Quick Stats & Ratings | Metric | Rating | Detail | | **Overall** | **4.6/5** | 35 Reviews | | Ease of Use | 4.6/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Customer Support | 4.3/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Value for Money | 4.2/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Features | 4.6/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Recommendation percentage | 90% | (9/10 Likelihood to recommend) | ## About the vendor - **Company**: Clear Books - **Location**: London, UK - **Founded**: 2009 ## Commercial Context - **Starting Price**: £16.00 - **Pricing model**: Flat Rate (Free version available) (Free Trial) - **Pricing Details**: Start for free with Clear Books' free Making Tax Digital plan, built for UK sole traders and landlords who need to comply with Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for ITSA). Keep compliant digital records and submit your quarterly updates to HMRC at no cost, with UK-based support. As your business grows, paid plans add more of the full toolkit , for example invoicing, VAT, CIS, multi-currency, payroll and reporting, with options to suit small businesses, limited companies and accountants. Every plan is HMRC-recognised and Making Tax Digital ready, and you can try any paid plan free for 30 days. Pricing stays flexible with no long-term contracts, so you can upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time with no additional or exit costs. Paid plans start from £5 per month. - **Target Audience**: Self Employed, 2–10, 11–50, 51–200 - **Deployment & Platforms**: Cloud, SaaS, Web-based, Android (Mobile), iPhone (Mobile), iPad (Mobile) - **Supported Languages**: English - **Available Countries**: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, United States ## Features - API - Accounting - Accounting Integration - Accounts Payable - Accounts Receivable - Activity Dashboard - Activity Tracking - Approval Process Control - Audit Management - Audit Trail - Bank Reconciliation - Batch Processing - Billing & Invoicing - Budget Tracking - Budgeting/Forecasting - Cash Flow Management - Chart of Accounts - Contact Database - Credit Card Processing - Currency Conversion ## Integrations (10 total) - Capsule - ChannelGrabber - Commusoft - Dext - FreshBooks - Gmail - GoCardless - Google Workspace - PayPal - Stripe ## Support Options - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - Chat ## Category - [CPA Accounting Software](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/directory/287/cpa-software/software) ## Related Categories - [CPA Accounting Software](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/directory/287/cpa-software/software) - [Farm Accounting Software](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/directory/289/agriculture-software/software) - [Accounting Software for Small Business](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/directory/506/small-business/software) - [Billing and Invoicing Software](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/directory/263/billing-invoicing-software/software) - [Fixed Asset Accounting Software](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/directory/269/fixed-asset-accounting-software/software) ## Alternatives 1. [QuickBooks Online](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/393202/quickbooks-online) — 4.3/5 (8543 reviews) 2. [QuickBooks Enterprise](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/49801/qb-enterprise) — 4.5/5 (20688 reviews) 3. [Xero](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/2976/xero) — 4.4/5 (3330 reviews) 4. [NetSuite](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/25483/netsuite-wholesale-distribution-edition) — 4.2/5 (2077 reviews) 5. [Sage Intacct](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/1710/sage-intacct) — 4.3/5 (717 reviews) ## Reviews ### "Best cloud accounting software on the market. A champion for British businesses." — 5.0/5 > **Nick** | *11 December 2014* > > I trialled a range of different cloud accounting products before choosing Clearbooks. The software is intuitive and has a clean interface. In addition, Clearbooks is tailored for the British market which means that the company's product roadmap prioritises changes within the local tax regime. Also, in the few times I have needed to, it has been is super easy to get through to the customer support team and have my queries dealt with efficiently and in a timely manner. ----- ### "Clear Books has been a vital tool in managing my day to day finances for my business." — 5.0/5 > **John** | *13 September 2017* | Information Technology & Services | Recommendation rating: 10.0/10 > > **Pros**: The Clear Books system is very easy to navigate and with the integration of your data into a one-stop dashboard which is customisable to your needs, you get a very in-depth overview on how your business finances look at a glance. This is a vital tool for me as I don't need to keep running regular reports to see how my finances are, I check the dashboard and it has already done the hard work for me. From the dashboard, I can easily find how much profit, expenditure, income and outstanding invoices come to. From there, I can work out what is bringing the finances down and what is building the finances up. > > **Cons**: In regards to the overall system, I do not have any particular dislikes but more of a difficulty understanding how to apply any refunds and credits within the system. When I issue refunds or have credits applied to any of my supplier accounts, this is often something I have to speak to my accountant about. My second point is around Quotes. These tend to remain on the system even after the invoice has been generated from them. It would be more efficient to have a check box to confirm completion of the quote rather than creating the invoice, then clearing down the quote. Not a big issue, but would save some time when you have a batch of quotes you've forgotten to clear down that could have been addressed at the time of invoice conversion. > > Before Clear Books, I used an alternative free version of a similar system. After growing to a certain size, I spoke with my accountant to move to something that could push the limits of a free product. Using Clear Books means that my accountant better understands my finances, and can advise accordingly. The key benefits to Clear Books are the Dashboard and the integration of Go Cardless for easy one-click invoice collection. My businesses never have to worry about BACS transfers or payments as I can collect any invoice using the pre-authorisation method for each invoice raised. Clear Books will also generate the necessary bills to make sure that any interest or fees paid are correctly categorized and settled. You can also keep an eye on who's transactions are currently being progressed and who's have been paid. Tie in the Go Cardless integration with reoccurring invoice templates and I have myself a feasible, cost effective means of Direct Debit without the expensive setup costs and benefit from the low-interest rate. ----- ### "GOOD ONE" — 3.0/5 > **TAHA** | *19 July 2018* > > **Pros**: AGAIN THIS ONE THE GOOD ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE FOR ALL THE PEOPLES WHO HAVE SMALL BUSSNIESS AND LIMITED BUSSINESS > > **Cons**: I DONT FIND BIG DRAW BACK IN THIS THE ONLY ONE I FIND IS THAT IT IS FOR A VERY LIMITED SEGMENT OF PEOPLES ----- ### "Great software backed up by a helpful team" — 5.0/5 > **Shaun** | *14 March 2023* | Accounting | Recommendation rating: 8.0/10 > > **Pros**: Clearbooks uses an easy to understand and use UI that is intuitive and easy to navigate even as a new user. The team are super helpful and take the time to understand your requirements and assist where they can > > **Cons**: It is a little at the higher price range but you get what you pay for > > Very positive, the software is great and the team that back it up add genuine value to you as a customer ----- ### "Honestly, I think that this is the best UK online accounting app on the market" — 5.0/5 > **Verified Reviewer** | *10 December 2014* | Internet > > **Pros**: \* Brilliant support \* UK based \* Responsive and reliable \* Does everything I need and more \* Good pace of new features and improvements > > **Cons**: \* A few feature niggles but these are in the improvements queue I believe \* It's not immediately obvious that you can try out demo data in your free trial - I had to be told about this by a support person > > Our company previously used Sage desktop for over 10 years. I am not an accountant and I never really got on with Sage but our book keeper is a big fan so we stuck with it, despite being aware of various cloud accounting applications. Over the past couple of years we have taken free trials of SageOne, Xero and Kashflow - all without success. These applications each have their good bits and bad bits but they were simply not a good fit for us. However, this year we have discovered Clear Books and I can honestly say that it has revolutionised our accounts. Our book keeper loves it and I love it too. It's so simple to use and it gives us all the data we need to run our business much more effectively than before. Perhaps the best thing about Clear Books though is the support team. From the experience I've had so far they seem to genuinely care about their users, they are knowledgable about their application and they always see an issue through to a solution. What more could you ask of support? They're also based in the same UK office as the developers which is a massive plus in my book. I can wholeheartedly recommend Clear Books. I don't take the time to write many reviews but I rate this application so highly that I felt compelled to write this one. ----- Page: 1 / 3\ Next: [Next page](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/33354/clear-books?page=2) ## Links - [View on SoftwareAdvice](https://www.softwareadvice.ie/software/33354/clear-books) ## This page is available in the following languages | Locale | URL | | en | | | en-AU | | | en-GB | | | en-IE | | | en-NZ | | ----- ## Structured Data