10 Best Accounting Software for Handyman Business in 2026, Compared
Compare the 10 best accounting software for handyman business on price, invoicing, job costing and free plans, with every price checked November 7, 2026.
Shamim Mia, Founder, SerpAstraLast verified November 7, 202614 min readWe compare pricing pages, documentation and public reviews. We never accept payment for rankings.
Key takeaways
- QuickBooks Online is the best fit for most handyman businesses at $38/month; FreshBooks follows at $23/month for invoicing-led work, and Xero at $27/month with unlimited users.
- Wave, Zoho Books and ZipBooks all offer genuinely free plans — Wave with no revenue cap, Zoho Books while annual revenue stays under $50,000, and ZipBooks with one bank connection.
- The limit that decides your real price is the client or invoice cap: FreshBooks Lite stops at 5 billable clients and Xero Early at 20 invoices a month.
- True job costing is the handyman feature that matters most: QuickBooks Online puts projects in Plus at $140/month, Xero in Established at $97/month, and Sage 50 in Premium at $182.50/month.
On this page
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online | Handyman businesses that want the accounting software most US accountants already know, with room to grow into payroll and job costing | $38/mo | Yes (Free plan) |
| FreshBooks | Handymen who bill by the hour or by the job and want time tracking to flow straight onto the invoice | $23/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| Xero | Handyman businesses where several people touch the books and per-seat pricing would get expensive | $27/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| Zoho Books | Handymen who want a genuinely free ledger now and the cheapest paid upgrade when revenue passes $50,000 | $15/mo (annual) | Yes (free plan) |
| Wave | Solo handymen who want real double-entry accounting free, with no invoice or revenue caps | Free; Pro $19/mo | Yes (free) |
| Patriot Accounting | US handymen who want plain, cheap accounting with payroll from the same company | $20/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| ZipBooks | New handyman businesses that want a free ledger with time tracking one cheap step up | Free; Smarter $15/mo | Yes (free) |
| FreeAgent | Solo handymen who want one simple price, time tracking and no per-user fees | $27/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| Kashoo | Owners who want one flat price, unlimited users and every feature included, with nothing to upgrade into | $30/mo | No (14-day trial) |
| Sage 50 | Established handyman firms that want desktop depth, inventory and job costing in one system | $132.17/mo | No (30-day trial) |
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Request a listingThe best accounting software for handyman business
QuickBooks Online
Best for: Handyman businesses that want the accounting software most US accountants already know, with room to grow into payroll and job costing
QuickBooks Online is the default choice for a reason: it is the accounting software most accountants already know, so finding help is easy, and it covers the whole job — invoicing, bills, bank feeds and reporting — in one subscription. Simple Start costs $38 a month, and the price climbs with headcount: Essentials is $85 for three users, Plus is $140 for five, and Advanced is $340 for 25.
For a handyman, the plan that matters is Plus: it adds project tracking, so income and costs can be followed job by job instead of in one pile. Simple Start has no project tracking and no inventory, and payroll is a separate add-on on every plan. Buy QuickBooks Online when you want the standard choice your accountant already knows; buy Xero or Zoho Books when per-seat pricing is the deal-breaker.
What we like
- The software most US accountants already use, so finding help and switching accountants is easy
- Full double-entry accounting with invoicing, bills, bank feeds and reporting on every paid plan
- Intuit Intelligence AI features are included on Simple Start, not held for the top tier
- More than 800 integrations cover payroll, payments, inventory and field-service tools
Watch out for
- Price rises most years — Essentials, Plus and Advanced all went up again for renewals from August 1, 2026
- Project tracking, the handyman feature that matters most, waits for Plus at $140/month
- Hard user caps force upgrades: a second user means Essentials at $85/month, and payroll is a paid add-on
FreshBooks
Best for: Handymen who bill by the hour or by the job and want time tracking to flow straight onto the invoice
FreshBooks is built for service businesses that bill for time: invoicing, estimates, expenses and time tracking sit at the front, and the accounting sits behind them. Lite costs $23 a month and covers 5 billable clients; Plus costs $43 for 50 clients and adds double-entry reports, bank reconciliation and free accountant access; Premium costs $70 and removes the client cap entirely.
The client cap is the thing that decides your bill. A handyman with a dozen regular customers outgrows Lite on day one, so the real starting price is usually Plus at $43. There is no inventory tracking and no free plan, only a 30-day trial. Pick FreshBooks when invoicing and time billing are the job; pick QuickBooks Online or Xero when you sell materials or need deeper accounting.
What we like
- The easiest invoicing in this list: clean invoices, estimates, recurring billing and payment reminders
- Time tracking and expense tracking built in, so billable hours flow straight onto invoices
- Estimates convert to invoices in one step, which suits quote-first handyman jobs
- Rated the easiest tool here to set up, with support reviewers praise most
Watch out for
- Lite covers only 5 billable clients — a handyman with more than 5 regular customers needs Plus at $43/month
- Every extra team member costs $11/month on top of the plan price
- No inventory tracking, and bank reconciliation and double-entry reports start on Plus, not Lite
Xero
Best for: Handyman businesses where several people touch the books and per-seat pricing would get expensive
Xero's pitch is simple: one flat price per plan and as many users as you like. Early costs $27 a month and covers quotes, 20 invoices and 5 bills a month, with bank reconciliation and receipt capture included. Growing costs $59 a month, removes the invoice and bill caps, and adds automated reconciliation and dashboards; Established costs $97 and adds multi-currency, projects and expense claims.
The limits to watch are the ones on Early: a handyman sending an invoice a day outgrows 20 invoices a month quickly, so the real starting price is often Growing at $59. There is no annual billing option, so there is no discount for paying yearly, and US payroll runs through Gusto at $36 a month plus $6 per person. Choose Xero when several people touch the books and you refuse to pay per seat.
What we like
- Unlimited users on every plan, including Early at $27/month — no per-seat fees at any tier
- Bank reconciliation and Hubdoc receipt capture included from the entry plan
- More than 1,000 app integrations, the widest marketplace in this list
- Single flat price per plan with no annual-billing maze — the monthly price is the price
Watch out for
- Early caps at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month — a busy handyman needs Growing at $59/month
- Project tracking, for following profit job by job, waits for Established at $97/month
- No native US payroll; payroll comes through Gusto at $36/month plus $6 per person paid
Zoho Books
Best for: Handymen who want a genuinely free ledger now and the cheapest paid upgrade when revenue passes $50,000
Zoho Books is the value pick in this list because the free plan is a real ledger, not a demo: full double-entry accounting, invoicing and bank reconciliation at $0 while annual revenue stays under $50,000. Standard costs $20 a month for 3 users and 5,000 invoices a year, and Professional costs $50 and adds multi-currency, inventory and project billing.
The catches are the ceilings. The free plan stops at 1,000 invoices a year, extra users cost $3 a month each, and there is no payroll module on any Zoho Books plan — payroll is a separate Zoho product. Accountants also recommend it less often than QuickBooks Online or Xero. Choose Zoho Books when the budget matters most and you already live in the Zoho ecosystem, or when the free plan covers your first year.
What we like
- A real free plan: full double-entry accounting, invoicing and bank reconciliation at $0 while revenue stays under $50,000 a year
- Cheapest paid step up here — Standard is $20/month for 3 users and 5,000 invoices a year
- Client portal and payment reminders included, so customers can pay from the invoice itself
- Deep Zoho ecosystem: CRM, Inventory, Expense and Payroll connect without third-party tools
Watch out for
- Free plan stops at 1,000 invoices a year and only while annual revenue stays under $50,000
- Mileage tracking and inventory wait for higher plans, and there is no payroll module on any plan
- Accountants recommend it less often than QuickBooks Online or Xero, so finding outside help takes more effort
Wave
Best for: Solo handymen who want real double-entry accounting free, with no invoice or revenue caps
Wave is the only tool here whose free plan has no revenue cap and no invoice cap: Starter costs $0 and includes unlimited estimates, invoices, bills and bookkeeping records, with real double-entry accounting underneath. Pro costs $19 a month, or $190 a year, and adds automatic bank imports, receipt scanning, multi-user access and payment reminders.
The free plan's weakness is manual work. Starter has no automatic bank feed, so every transaction is typed in or uploaded by hand, and that gets old fast past fifty transactions a month. There is no inventory tracking and no job costing at any price, and Wave serves the US and Canada only. Start on Wave when the business is small and the budget is $0; upgrade to Pro the month manual entry starts costing you evenings.
What we like
- The only genuinely free full ledger here: unlimited invoices, bills and bookkeeping records at $0 with no revenue cap
- Pro is a single $19/month upgrade that adds automatic bank imports, receipt scanning and unlimited users
- Payments and payroll are pay-as-you-go add-ons, so a business that only invoices pays nothing at all
- Simple enough for an owner with no accounting background to run the books alone
Watch out for
- Automatic bank imports, receipt scanning and extra users all need Pro at $19/month — Starter means manual entry
- No inventory tracking and no job costing at any price
- US and Canada only, and support on the free plan is limited to help articles and community answers
Patriot Accounting
Best for: US handymen who want plain, cheap accounting with payroll from the same company
Patriot Accounting keeps things plain: two plans, flat prices, no caps to trip over. Basic costs $20 a month and covers unlimited customers, invoices, vendors and bills, with automatic bank imports and 1099 creation included. Premium costs $30 and adds unlimited users with permissions, recurring invoices, reminders, estimates and receipt capture.
The limits are scope, not price. Basic covers one user, so a handyman with a helper needs Premium; there is no inventory tracking and no job costing, and the integration list is far shorter than QuickBooks Online or Xero. Payroll is a separate product from the same company, which suits US businesses that want accounting and pay in one login. Pick Patriot when you want the cheapest honest ledger from a US company and your needs are straightforward.
What we like
- Flat $20/month for unlimited customers, invoices, vendors and bills — no caps to trip over
- Automatic bank imports and 1099 creation included on the entry plan, handy for paying subcontractors
- Payroll from the same US company (Basic Payroll $17/month plus $4 per worker) keeps accounting and pay in one login
- US-based support with a reputation for answering the phone, at a price well under the big suites
Watch out for
- Basic covers one user — a handyman with a helper needs Premium at $30/month for unlimited users with permissions
- No inventory tracking and no job costing, and fewer third-party integrations than QuickBooks Online or Xero
- Reports and customization are plainer than the bigger suites, and there is no free plan
ZipBooks
Best for: New handyman businesses that want a free ledger with time tracking one cheap step up
ZipBooks is the quiet budget pick in this list: the free Starter plan covers unlimited invoices, customers and vendors, with Square or PayPal payments and basic reports. Smarter costs $15 a month and adds recurring invoices with auto-billing, payment reminders, several bank accounts and time tracking for up to 5 team members; Sophisticated costs $35 and adds bank reconciliation and fuller reports.
The trade-offs are real. Starter connects only one bank account, full reconciliation waits for Sophisticated, and there is no mobile app — the app was discontinued, so on-the-job work means a phone browser. There is also no payroll module. Pick ZipBooks when the business is new, the budget is $0, and time tracking at $15 a month is the only paid feature you need.
What we like
- Free Starter plan with unlimited invoices, customers and vendors — a real $0 starting point
- Smarter at $15/month adds time tracking, so hours on a job can be billed to the customer
- Recurring invoices and auto-billing on Smarter suit handymen with regular maintenance customers
- Simple, plain interface that an owner with no accounting background can learn fast
Watch out for
- Starter connects only one bank account, and full bank reconciliation waits for Sophisticated at $35/month
- No mobile app — the discontinued app means working from a phone browser on the job
- Smallest feature set here, with no payroll module and no inventory tracking
FreeAgent
Best for: Solo handymen who want one simple price, time tracking and no per-user fees
FreeAgent sells one plan: $27 a month, or $270 a year, with every feature and unlimited users included. There are no tiers to compare and no upgrade to be pushed into — invoicing, expenses, time tracking, mileage, bank feeds and project tracking all come in the single price, and new customers pay half price for the first 6 months.
The simplicity has edges. There is no free plan beyond the 30-day trial, no US payroll product, and no 1099 handling stated for US customers — a handyman who pays subcontractors should check that before buying. The product was also built for UK self-assessment first, so some tax features feel UK-flavoured. Pick FreeAgent when you want a single flat price and a simple ledger; pick Xero or QuickBooks Online when the business needs US payroll or a deep integration marketplace.
What we like
- One plan at $27/month with every feature included — no tiers, no upgrade decisions
- Time tracking and expense capture built in, with mileage tracking for driving between jobs
- Unlimited users and no caps stated on invoices, bills or clients
- Mobile app for invoicing and expense capture from the job site
Watch out for
- No free plan — only a 30-day trial, and the 50% introductory discount ends after 6 months
- No US payroll product and no 1099 handling stated for US customers
- Built for UK self-assessment first, so some tax features are UK-flavoured rather than US-flavoured
Kashoo
Best for: Owners who want one flat price, unlimited users and every feature included, with nothing to upgrade into
Kashoo sells one plan and nothing else: $30 a month, or $324 a year, with every feature and unlimited users included. There are no tiers to compare and no upgrade to be pushed into — invoicing, expenses, bank feeds, project cost tracking and reporting all come in the single price, and the software is built to be run by an owner with no accounting background.
The simplicity has edges. There is no inventory tracking, no time tracking and no job costing, the integration list is the shortest here, and US payroll is not offered — payroll integration serves Canada only. Pick Kashoo when you want a single flat price and a simple ledger; pick Xero or QuickBooks Online when the business needs inventory, payroll or a deep integration marketplace.
What we like
- One plan at $30/month with every feature and unlimited users included — no tiers, no upgrade decisions
- Simple double-entry ledger with invoicing, expenses, bank feeds and project cost tracking
- Automatic transaction categorization that learns from how you code expenses
- Annual billing drops the price to $324 a year, about $27 a month
Watch out for
- No inventory tracking, no time tracking and no job costing for following profit per job
- No US payroll — payroll integration serves Canada only
- Smallest integration list here, with no Shopify or WooCommerce connection
Sage 50
Best for: Established handyman firms that want desktop depth, inventory and job costing in one system
Sage 50 is the desktop veteran in this list: Pro costs $132.17 a month for one user, with a minimum one-year commitment, and covers invoicing, income and expenses, payments and inventory, with automated bank reconciliation. Premium costs $182.50 a month for 1 to 5 users and adds job costing, advanced budgeting and audit trails; Quantum costs $271.17 for larger teams.
The price is the story. At $132.17 a month, Pro costs more than three times QuickBooks Online Simple Start, and the job costing a handyman firm actually wants waits for Premium at $182.50. There is also no Mac version, and Pro covers one user only. Pick Sage 50 when the firm is established, keeps inventory on the shelf, and wants desktop depth; pick a cloud tool when the books need to travel to the job site.
What we like
- Full desktop accounting with invoicing, inventory management and automated bank reconciliation on Pro
- Premium adds job costing, advanced budgeting and audit trails for firms that track profit per job
- 40 years of history behind the product, with a large network of accountants who know it
- Cloud-connected version gives browser access alongside the desktop software
Watch out for
- Job costing waits for Premium at $182.50/month — Pro has no per-job profit tracking
- Pro covers one user only, and every plan needs a minimum one-year commitment
- Desktop-first software with no Mac version, and by far the highest starting price here
The best accounting software for handyman business owners does one job well: it records every dollar in and out, reconciles the bank, and produces the reports a tax return needs, without making the owner learn accounting. A handyman's books are different from a shop's: most jobs are quoted first, materials are bought per job, and the van is a rolling office. We ranked the ten tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a US handyman doing their own books — starting with the full-featured options and ending with the desktop veteran, and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 7, 2026.
How to choose the best accounting software for handyman business
- Count your clients first. FreshBooks Lite stops at 5 billable clients, so a handyman with a dozen regular customers needs Plus at $43/month. Xero Early stops at 20 invoices a month. The cap you hit first is your real starting price.
- Count your users. QuickBooks Online charges by user tier — one user on Simple Start, three on Essentials — while Xero, Wave Pro, Kashoo and FreeAgent include unlimited users at the entry price.
- Ask about job costing. Tracking profit per job is the handyman feature that matters most, and it is not on the entry plan of any tool here: QuickBooks Online Plus is $140/month, Xero Established is $97/month, and Sage 50 Premium is $182.50/month.
- Check the bank feed and the phone app. Daily automatic bank imports save hours of manual entry; Wave Starter is the only tool here that makes you type transactions in by hand unless you pay for Pro. ZipBooks has no mobile app at all, so invoicing from the job site means a phone browser.
- Think about who else touches the books. If your accountant already lives in QuickBooks Online, picking anything else means paying them to learn a new system — ask before you buy.
Accounting is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the business also needs to be found online, our guide to local SEO services covers how handymen win nearby searches. And before you publish new pages for the services you sell, run your titles through the free SERP snippet preview tool — it shows exactly how the title and description will look in Google.
Whatever you shortlist, try it with real data before you pay. The free plans and trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine month — your invoices, your bank feed, your customers — and that month tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that the bank feed reconciles without daily fixing, and that your accountant can get in for free. Every tool here gives your accountant access at no extra charge, so there is no reason to buy before they have looked at it.
Accounting software for handyman business pricing: what you will actually pay
Take a solo handyman who sends about 20 invoices a month to a dozen regular customers. On list prices, the subscription costs $0 a month on Wave Starter, ZipBooks Starter or Zoho Books Free, $15 on ZipBooks Smarter, $20 on Zoho Books Standard or Patriot Accounting Basic, $27 on Xero Early or FreeAgent, $30 on Kashoo, $38 on QuickBooks Online Simple Start and $132.17 on Sage 50 Pro. Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real: FreshBooks Lite at $23 covers only 5 billable clients, so a dozen customers means Plus at $43 a month, and Xero Early caps at 20 invoices a month, so a 21st invoice means Growing at $59 a month.
Over a year, that is $0 on the three free plans, $180 on ZipBooks Smarter or Zoho Books Standard billed annually, $190 on Wave Pro billed annually, $240 on Patriot Basic, $270 on FreeAgent billed annually, $324 on Xero Early or Kashoo billed annually, $456 on QuickBooks Online Simple Start, $464.40 on FreshBooks Plus billed annually, $708 on Xero Growing, and $1,586.04 on Sage 50 Pro. The same one-person business and the same 20 invoices cost $0 a year at the free end and $1,586.04 at the dear end — a gap that comes entirely from caps, billing choices and desktop depth, not from features.
Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the introductory discounts — 50% off for three months on QuickBooks Online and Patriot Accounting, 80% off for three months on Xero, 50% off for six months on FreeAgent — end, so budget on the list price. Second, payroll: $17–$40 a month plus $4–$6 per person paid, depending on the provider. Third, card processing on the invoices you send, which is charged per transaction rather than per month. If you run a finance firm rather than a handyman business, the visibility tools differ too — see our guide to the best SEO platform for finance.
Annual billing cuts the bill on most tools here: Zoho Books Standard drops from $240 to $180 a year, Wave Pro from $228 to $190, Kashoo from $360 to $324, FreeAgent from $324 to $270, and FreshBooks takes 10% off. Xero publishes no annual price, so the monthly figure is the whole story. One more cost to check before you commit: a second business is a second subscription on every tool in this list. Wave Pro is priced per business, Xero phased out its multi-organization discount in October 2026, and Kashoo charges per company — so an owner with two businesses pays double whatever the chart shows.
Know the difference: accounting software vs field-service software
The confusion in this category is between a ledger and a job board. Accounting software records transactions and produces reports; field-service software such as Jobber or Housecall Pro schedules jobs, dispatches crews, tracks quotes and sends reminders. A handyman often needs both, and the two connect: QuickBooks Online and Xero both integrate with field-service tools, so a job scheduled in one place can be invoiced from the other.
There is a second, quieter confusion: invoicing tools are not accounting software. An invoicing tool sends bills and tracks payments; it does not keep a double-entry ledger, produce a balance sheet, or give your accountant a tax-ready set of books. All ten tools in this list are full double-entry ledgers, including the free ones, which is what the phrase "accounting software" means here. If a tool only invoices, it belongs in a different list.
A third distinction worth knowing is job costing versus project tracking. Job costing ties materials, labour and mileage to a single job and shows whether that job made money; project tracking is the same idea under a different name. Either way, it is the feature that separates a handyman ledger from a generic one, and in this list it starts at $97 a month on Xero Established, $140 on QuickBooks Online Plus and $182.50 on Sage 50 Premium. If every job is quoted at a fixed price, buy the plan that includes it — guessing at job profit is how handymen lose money quietly.
Quick comparison: tool type by need
| Buyer | Best pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Solo handyman on a $0 budget | Wave | Free Starter plan, unlimited invoices, Pro is $19/month when you want bank feeds |
| Handyman who bills by the hour | FreshBooks | Time tracking flows onto invoices, Lite is $23/month for 5 clients |
| Most handyman businesses | QuickBooks Online | The standard choice accountants know, from $38/month |
| Handyman with a helper or bookkeeper | Xero | Unlimited users on every plan, Early is $27/month |
| Best value with a free plan | Zoho Books | Free under $50,000 revenue, Standard is $20/month |
| Established firm that needs job costing | Sage 50 | Desktop depth with job costing from Premium, Pro is $132.17/month |
Mistakes to avoid
- Budgeting on the promo price. The 50% and 80% introductory discounts in this list last three to six months. The list price is what you pay in month seven, so compare tools on that number.
- Buying on the free plan, then finding the bank feed costs extra. Wave Starter is free, but automatic bank imports need Pro at $19 a month. If you process more than fifty transactions a month, count Pro in the price from day one.
- Ignoring the cap that bites first. A tool can be cheap and still be the wrong buy: Xero Early at $27 is no bargain once you pass 20 invoices a month, and FreshBooks Lite at $23 is no bargain once you pass 5 clients.
- Paying for job costing before you quote fixed-price jobs. Project tracking costs $97–$182.50 a month in this list. If every job is time-and-materials, the entry plan is enough — add the upgrade the month fixed-price quoting starts.
- Forgetting the second business. If you run two businesses, you pay for two subscriptions. Price the second set of books before you commit to a tool for the first.
How we chose
We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 7, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, including the annual-billing figure where the page lists one. The vendor pages would not load directly from our network that day, so prices were verified against fresh search-index copies of each vendor's own pricing page, crawled within the last day, and cross-checked against independent October and November 2026 reads. Ratings come from G2 pages crawled within the last week for QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, Xero, Zoho Books and Wave. Patriot Accounting, ZipBooks, FreeAgent and Sage 50 carry no rating here because no current G2 figure could be verified for them, and we would rather show no rating than a stale or estimated one. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.
What to do next
Start with the free plan or trial of your top pick and run one real month of invoices through it. Check that the bank feed reconciles and the reports match what your accountant expects before you commit to a year. If the books are sorted but new customers are not finding you, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to SEO companies for small business. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.
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Get a free audit→Sources we checked (14)
- QuickBooks Online pricing — quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Xero pricing — xero.com/us/pricing-plans (checked November 7, 2026)
- FreshBooks pricing — freshbooks.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Zoho Books pricing — zoho.com/us/books/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Wave pricing — waveapps.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Patriot Accounting pricing — patriotsoftware.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Kashoo pricing — kashoo.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- ZipBooks pricing — zipbooks.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- FreeAgent pricing — freeagent.com/us/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- Sage 50 pricing — sage.com/en-us/products/sage-50/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
- QuickBooks Online G2 reviews — g2.com/products/quickbooks-online/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- Xero G2 reviews — g2.com/products/xero/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
- FreshBooks vs Zoho Books G2 comparison — g2.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-zoho-books (checked November 7, 2026)
- Wave vs Xero G2 comparison — g2.com/compare/wave-vs-xero (checked November 7, 2026)
Shamim
Founder of SerpAstra
A full-stack SEO and digital marketer who spends most days on Local SEO for dental practices, AI search visibility and lead generation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best accounting software for handyman business?
QuickBooks Online is the best fit for most handyman businesses: the widest accountant support, full double-entry accounting and room to grow, from $38/month. FreshBooks is the better pick when invoicing and time billing lead, and Wave is the best free option.
How much does accounting software for a handyman business cost?
Entry prices run from $0 to $132.17 a month. Wave, Zoho Books and ZipBooks all have free plans, and the first paid plans cost $15–$38 a month. A solo handyman typically pays $0–$456 a year for the subscription alone, before payroll and card processing fees.
Is there really free accounting software for a handyman business?
Yes, with limits. Wave Starter is free with unlimited invoices and no revenue cap, but bank feeds need the $19/month Pro plan. Zoho Books is free while annual revenue stays under $50,000, and ZipBooks Starter is free with one bank connection. All three are real ledgers, not trials.
Do I need job costing software as a handyman?
You need it once you quote fixed-price jobs. Job costing ties materials, labour and mileage to each job, so you learn which jobs make money and which lose it. QuickBooks Online Plus at $140/month, Xero Established at $97/month and Sage 50 Premium at $182.50/month include it; the cheaper plans in this list do not.
What is the difference between accounting software and field-service software?
Accounting software keeps the ledger: invoices, bank feeds, bills and tax-ready reports. Field-service software such as Jobber or Housecall Pro schedules jobs, dispatches crews and tracks quotes. A handyman often needs both, and the two connect — QuickBooks Online and Xero both integrate with field-service tools.
Can I run my handyman business accounting from my phone?
Mostly yes. QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, Zoho Books, Wave and FreeAgent all have mobile apps for invoicing and expense capture from the job site. ZipBooks has no mobile app since its app was discontinued, so it means working from a phone browser instead.
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