Best accounting software for consultants and agencies: what to look for in 2026
Time, retainers, project profit and trust money: what a consultancy, agency or small law practice needs from its books, and how FreshBooks, Harvest, Clio, QuickBooks and others compare.
7 min read · October 24, 2026
We make AcboBooks, one of the products discussed here.
Selling time instead of stock
A consultancy, design agency, architect or small law practice has no inventory. What it sells is hours, and the money problems come from hours: time worked but never billed, fixed-fee projects that quietly ran over, retainers taken in advance and spent before the work was done, and clients who pay in 60 days instead of 30.
So the books need to connect three things: the time people log, the invoices that bill it, and the cash that arrives. Law firms add a fourth that is not optional: client money held in trust must be kept apart from the firm's own.
What to look for
| Need | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Time tracking | Hours by person, client and service, billable or not, turned into invoice lines without retyping. |
| Expenses passed on | Travel and out-of-pocket costs marked billable and added to the client's next invoice. |
| Retainers and deposits | Money received in advance held as a liability and applied to invoices as work is billed. |
| Prepaid work | An annual fee recognised over the months it covers, not all in the month it arrived. |
| Project profit | Income and cost by client or project; fixed-fee work billed in stages. |
| Collections | Ageing, statements, recurring invoices for monthly retainers, and a card payment link. |
| Trust (law firms) | A separate trust account, a ledger per client, no overdrawing a client, and a three-way reconciliation. |
See customer deposits and retainers for how advance payments should be recorded, and how to collect overdue invoices for the ageing side.
The main options
Prices are list prices as of October 2026.
- FreshBooks is built for service businesses that invoice from anywhere: Lite $23, Plus $43, Premium $70 a month, plus $11 a month for each extra team member. Lite has no double-entry reports and allows five billable clients.
- Harvest is a time-tracking and invoicing tool, not a general ledger: free for one seat and two projects, Teams $11 a seat a month ($9 billed yearly). Most firms send its invoices to QuickBooks or Xero.
- QuickBooks Online starts at $38 a month, with projects on Plus ($140). It is what most bookkeepers know, and time-tracking tools such as Harvest connect to it.
- Xero puts projects on Established ($97 a month); Growing is $59.
- Clio and similar practice-management systems run a law firm's matters, calendar, documents, time and trust, per user per month. Clio's published prices vary between sources, so check its own site. Many firms still keep a separate general ledger for the operating side.
Where AcboBooks fits
AcboBooks is a Windows desktop program for small firms in the US and Canada, bought once for $399.99.
- Time Tracking by employee, customer:job and service item, with a clock in and out, and invoices created from unbilled time.
- Billable expenses added to invoices, progress invoicing for fixed-fee projects, and recurring invoices for monthly retainers.
- Customer Deposits held as a liability and applied to invoices, and Revenue Recognition schedules for prepaid annual fees.
- Trust Accounting (IOLTA): client balances in a separate trust account, no disbursing more than a client holds, and a three-way check that client balances equal the trust bank balance.
- P&L by class for practice areas or offices, sales reps and commissions, statements with ageing, finance charges, payroll, and a Stripe payment link on invoices.
What it does not do: there is no phone timer, so time is entered on the PC; it is not a practice-management system, with no matters calendar or document management; and your bar's own trust record-keeping rules still apply, so confirm them with your bar or accountant. It runs on Windows only and imports bank statement files rather than connecting live. The company file stays on your computer, encrypted with your password. See the professional services page.
How to decide
- Work out where time is logged. If everyone tracks from a phone, you need a mobile timer, either in the accounting program or in a tool like Harvest.
- Count the people. Per-user pricing is the cost driver for a growing firm: five people on a per-seat plan is five fees, every month.
- Law firms: start with trust. Pick the system that keeps the trust ledger right first and fit the rest around it.
- Bill a real week. Log a week of time in the 15-day trial, bill it, apply a retainer and see if the client balances look right. Compare FreshBooks and QuickBooks Online, and see pricing.
QuickBooks® is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. AcboBooks is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of the companies named.
Time, retainers and trust accounting, bought once
Log hours by client, bill them onto invoices, hold retainers as deposits and, for law firms, keep a trust ledger per client, for $399.99 once.
This article is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules and dates change; check the official source or ask your accountant before acting.
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