A QuickBooks alternative that keeps the books on your computer

If you need bank transactions that arrive by themselves, a VAT return sent to HMRC from the software, payroll, or an accountant who signs in to your books, keep QuickBooks: Books does none of those. If you keep the books for a sole trade, a rental or a small company yourself, from the statement files your bank lets you download, and would rather the figures stayed on your computer, Books does the double entry, the invoices, the nine VAT boxes and the year end in a browser tab, as part of OBSCURA Pro.

What QuickBooks is

QuickBooks Online is Intuit’s cloud accounting service, sold as a monthly subscription in several plans. On its UK pages Intuit describes it as recognised by HMRC for Making Tax Digital, with the VAT return checked and submitted to HMRC from inside the software, bank feeds that bring transactions in from a connected account, and payroll as an optional extra that is also HMRC recognised.

The books are kept on Intuit’s servers. That is what lets an owner, a bookkeeper and an accountant work in the same books from different places, and it is why so many accountants already know it. Nothing on this page argues that it is a poor product.

Side by side

QuickBooks as Intuit describes it on its UK pages, checked on 6 October 2026, and Books as it is. Intuit’s prices change and the first months are often sold at a discount, so none are given here; its pricing page is the place to check.

What Books does

• Double entry, to the penny. An invoice, a bill or a bank line becomes a journal that balances, and is never typed twice: change the invoice and the ledger changes with it. Amounts are held as whole pence, so the trial balance agrees to the last penny.
• Bank statements by file. A CSV from any bank has its columns mapped once and remembered; OFX, QFX, QIF, CAMT.053 and MT940 are read as they are. A line already in the books is left out, rules such as “contains AMAZON: office costs at 20%” explain the regular lines, and reconciliation ticks lines off against the statement until the difference is nothing.
• Sales and purchases. Quotes that become invoices, VAT invoices and credit notes as PDFs, payments matched to one invoice or several, customer statements and aged debtors; bills with the receipt kept beside them, and aged creditors.
• VAT. The nine boxes for any quarter or month, on the standard or flat rate scheme, on invoices or on cash, with the reverse charge for services from abroad and for construction, and Northern Ireland’s boxes. Each box opens on the lines behind it.
• Reports and the year end. Profit and loss, balance sheet, trial balance, cash flow, general ledger and VAT detail for any dates, against the period before, as PDF or CSV. The year is closed into retained earnings or the capital account, the books are locked to a date, and the accountant’s pack is one PDF.
• Several businesses. A sole trade, a partnership, a limited company or a rental, each with its own financial year, VAT scheme and chart of accounts, for no more than one Pro plan.

Books’ own page shows it at work on its demo company, an invented two-person design studio with eighteen months of books.

When QuickBooks is the better choice

• You want the VAT return sent from the software. Books has no server, and submitting to HMRC needs HMRC’s interface and a sign-in step run on one. Books gives you the nine boxes; sending them is a second step through bridging software, or on HMRC’s website where you are allowed to use it.
• You want bank feeds. A live connection to a bank needs a regulated company in between, which would see your transactions. With Books you download a statement file and import it.
• You run payroll. Books has no payroll and no stock. Wages go in as the payroll software’s figures.
• Your accountant works in your books. With Books there is no shared login. The accountant gets the pack, the CSVs or the file, and changes come back as a file.
• You need another country’s tax. Books’ chart, VAT and tax boxes are the UK’s. Invoices, bills and bank accounts can be in other currencies, with the gains and losses on exchange, but there is no other sales tax.
• You use add-ons. Books connects to nothing outside the browser. Its CSVs open in any spreadsheet, and in Sheets.

Moving the books across

1. Pick a date to start from, ideally the first day of a financial year or of a VAT quarter, so that no return is split between two programs.
2. In QuickBooks, run a trial balance at the day before, and keep the list of unpaid invoices and bills.
3. In Books, start a company of the right kind. Its chart starts from a UK default for that kind of business; rename or add accounts to match the ones you had.
4. Enter the trial balance as the opening balances, under Journals. The unpaid invoices and bills can be entered as documents, so that their payments match when they arrive.
5. Download a statement file for each bank account from the start date, from your bank, and import it.
6. Keep the old books, or an export of them, for as long as the records have to be kept.

What it costs

Books on its own is US$2 a month or US$19 a year; all of OBSCURA Pro is US$5 a month or US$48 a year. Each comes with 7 days free first. The price does not change with the number of businesses or invoices. Pro also covers Practice, PDF Studio and the site’s other paid applications. There is no free version of Books with features held back: without Pro, its page shows what it does and asks for a plan.

See it before you pay. Books’ page shows it at work and says, before you subscribe, what it does not do.