· 7 min read · AIStatements editorial
Drake Accounting Software Price: Drake Accounting Pricing, Editions and Cost Per Client
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Drake Accounting costs $795 a year for the Professional edition and $395 a year for the Forms edition, read from Drake's own sales page on 27 September 2026. The 2027 Professional edition carries an early price of $695 through 30 November. Both editions include unlimited clients, unlimited payrolls, unlimited installs per site and unlimited e-filing, so the price does not grow with the size of your client list.
That makes Drake Accounting the cheapest complete write-up and payroll suite with a published price in the US market. Below is what each edition includes, what it works out to per client, how it compares with QuickBooks Online Accountant and the other write-up products, and the one cost the license does not cover: the hours your staff spend turning the ledger into a statement pack the client actually reads.
Drake Accounting pricing by edition
| Edition | Price | What it includes | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drake Accounting Professional (2027) | $795 a year, $695 early price through 30 November | Bookkeeping and general ledger, live and after-the-fact payroll with batch entry, accounts payable with check printing, accounts receivable, bank reconciliation, GAAP financial statements, plus everything in Forms | Firms doing monthly write-up and client payroll |
| Drake Accounting Forms (2027) | $395 a year | Direct entry of W-2, 1099, 1098 and 94x forms, state forms for all 50 states, unlimited print and e-file with no per-form charge | Tax offices that only file payroll and information returns |
Drake also sells Drake Accounting bundled with Drake Tax, and bundle pricing is quoted by its sales team rather than listed on the product page. If you already buy Drake Tax, ask for the bundle figure before paying the standalone price, because the two products are designed to be used together: Drake Accounting exports client data straight into Drake Tax.
What the Professional edition gets you, and what it does not
The Professional edition is a full double-entry system built for a firm keeping many clients' books. Drake's knowledge base lists multi-location live and after-the-fact payroll, AP with check printing, AR, a complete bookkeeping system and "financial statements in compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practices." Direct deposit runs through NACHA files or Kotapay, and data can be converted in from QuickBooks and Sage 50.
The limits are worth knowing before you pay. Drake Accounting is Windows desktop software. The product page lists Windows 11 and Windows Server 2016 to 2025, and it can be networked on a shared server, but there is no browser version on the page, so your clients cannot log in and your remote staff need a hosted or VPN setup. The statements it prints are reports of the ledger: balance sheets, income statements and a trial balance, with a customizable chart of accounts. There is no written analysis, and the monthly pack still goes through Word or Excel before it leaves the office.
How much does Drake Accounting cost per client?
Because the license covers unlimited clients, the per-client cost falls fast. These are simple divisions of the $795 list price, before the early discount.
| Write-up clients | Annual cost per client | Monthly cost per client |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | $79.50 | $6.63 |
| 25 | $31.80 | $2.65 |
| 50 | $15.90 | $1.33 |
Few products in this category come close. Dillner's Full Contact Accounting publishes a $1,400 setup fee plus $265 a month for its Write Up module, so about $4,800 in the first year. Thomson Reuters prices Accounting CS by quote only (see our Accounting CS pricing breakdown), and Intuit sells EasyACCT as an annual license on its ProConnect site. The full side-by-side is on write up software for accountants.
Drake Accounting vs QuickBooks for client write-up
This is the comparison most firms are actually making. QuickBooks Online Accountant is free to the firm, but each client pays for its own QuickBooks Online subscription, and the books live in the client's file. That is the right setup when the client wants to see its books, send invoices or connect apps.
Drake Accounting fits the opposite client: one who never logs in, hands over bank statements and a check register once a month, and wants payroll, quarterly 941s and year-end W-2s done for them. The firm owns the data, pays once for every client, and posts into Drake Tax at year end. For a tax-season practice with thirty small write-up clients, the math is hard to argue with.
The weak spot of both is the same. Neither produces a finished monthly report with a cash flow statement and commentary. QuickBooks gives you its standard reports, Drake gives you its ledger reports, and the partner still assembles the client pack by hand.
The cost the license does not show: the client statement pack
Write-up clients are usually on a fixed monthly fee, and the hidden margin leak is rarely the posting. It is everything after the close: pulling the balance sheet and income statement into Excel, building a cash flow statement from balance sheet changes, adding prior-year comparisons, and writing the three paragraphs the owner actually reads. At two hours a client, a 25-client practice spends 50 staff hours a month on it.
That is the part AIStatements is built for. Export the trial balance or general ledger from Drake Accounting as a CSV, upload it, and it builds a tied profit and loss statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows, checks that net income flows to retained earnings and cash ties, writes the plain-English analysis, and exports a PDF and an Excel workbook in about a minute. The same works from QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online and Xero, so one tool covers the whole client list whatever ledger each client sits on. The trial balance route is described on trial balance to financial statements.
Pricing is on the pricing page: Starter is $39 a month billed yearly for one company, Growth $99 for five, and Firm $289 a month billed yearly for up to 25 client companies, with reviewer sign-off before a pack can be exported and the PDF under your firm's name. Keep Drake Accounting for payroll and forms, where it is cheap and good, and move the deliverable.
One more practical note for after-the-fact work. When a client brings PDF bank statements instead of a feed, someone keys every line before reconciliation can start, and that is often the slowest step of the whole month. A tool that will convert PDF bank statements into Excel or CSV turns that into a review job instead of a typing job.
Questions firms ask before buying Drake Accounting
Is Drake Accounting included with Drake Tax?
No. Drake Accounting is a separate annual license: $795 for Professional and $395 for Forms, read on 27 September 2026. Drake does sell it bundled with Drake Tax, and bundle pricing comes from its sales team, so a Drake Tax customer should ask for the bundle figure before buying standalone.
Does Drake Accounting have a cloud version?
Not on its current product page. Drake Accounting is listed as Windows desktop software for Windows 11 and Windows Server 2016 to 2025, and it can be networked on a shared server. Firms that need remote access typically run it on a hosted server. Drake Tax, by contrast, does have an online edition.
Can Drake Accounting prepare financial statements?
Yes. The Professional edition prints balance sheets, income statements and a trial balance from its ledger, and Drake describes them as GAAP-compliant. It does not write analysis or commentary, and many firms still finish the client pack in Excel. The Forms edition has no bookkeeping and produces no statements.
Does Drake Accounting charge per client or per e-file?
No. Both editions include unlimited clients, payrolls and installs per site, with unlimited e-filing of 94x, W-2 and 1099 forms and no per-form charge. The only thing that scales is the annual license itself, which is why the per-client cost drops so fast on a large list.
What is the cheapest Drake Accounting option?
The Forms edition at $395 a year, if all you need is W-2, 1099, 1098 and 94x preparation and e-filing. If you do any bookkeeping, payroll processing or financial statements for clients, you need Professional at $795, or $695 if you buy the 2027 edition before 30 November.